If you're skipping to the most recent chapter, head back to Chapter 61.
Anthony made a sharp right turn, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Colress was close behind. He'd already recalled Poseidon – the golisopod was fast at short distances, but couldn't keep up over longer distances. Hecate hovered near Colress, while Ares brought up the rear. Plasma grunts and hybrids had battered Ares the whole time, but he was durable. That was what they had trained for.
He skidded to a stop at the top of a set of stairs that descended into a huge room. Massive generators took up most of the space, with a huge battery of some sort in the center of the room with a cord connecting it to the ceiling. He stepped to one side to let Colress through, and looked at the door controls. It was a touchscreen with a card scanner attached.
Anthony stared blankly at it for a little bit before Colress reached over and scanned the card he had taken from the scientist lady. He tapped the screen, and an industrial metal door slammed shut.
"We have maybe… five minutes before they get a hybrid that can break through the door," Colress said as he levitated down the stairs. "Plenty of time."
"What exactly are we doing in here?" Anthony asked. "Like, I heard Finn say something about shutting down the electric dome, but how are we gonna do that? Do we just blow everything up, or…?"
"I certainly hope we don't have any explosions," Colress said as he looked around the room. He quickly levitated to another door and swiped the card across the scanner there, locking that door as well. He repeated the action with two more entrances. "We're going to shut down the defense system, not everything. That's the big battery in the center of the room, I believe."
"You don't know?"
"I was locked in a cell for the past… not quite a year, but it was close. Not fun. I'm very lucky I had a couple of friends to bring me things to do." Colress moved over to the center of the room, looking the battery up and down. "Hmm, Mono said that they were using Dua to charge it, so… ah. Look here. Cyril's managed to convert a pokémon electricity harvester to work at higher voltages."
"Why would you need to adapt it?" Anthony furrowed his brow.
"Because, if I remember properly, Mono told me they were charging it with Dua's new abilities." Colress tapped one finger against his chin for a moment. "She was fused with an electivire, which has been her companion for… fifteen years? He's primarily Dua's emotional support pokémon. But I digress." Colress shook his head. "The electrical output of an electivire is higher than most technology can handle, and as a hybrid it's even higher."
"How do you know so much about hybrids, anyways?" Anthony asked. "I thought you were in a cell?"
"I invented the Fuser," Colress said offhandedly. "Not of my choice, honestly. But it was my invention."
"You're responsible for this mess?!" Anthony accused.
Colress froze. After a moment of contemplation, he answered. "I supposed I am. I… never thought it would come to this. I just…"
"Just what?" Anthony crossed his arms. "Just worked for Team Plasma and thought it would be okay?"
"I just thought I could make a difference," Colress said quietly, with a hint of regret in his voice. He leaned over a console on the side of the battery. "All I wanted was to find the limits on what a pokémon could do and surpass them. I'm far from the only one. When Team Plasma was defeated for the second time, I thought it was over. I would have moved on to something else. But Ghetsis still held my debts over my head. So I came to Toreta with him. He had me dismantle the airship and sell the parts for funds." Colress shook his head. "I was done making weapons. So Ghetsis hired on Cyril. I wanted to make medicines, to make both humans and pokémon healthier. So I made the Sequencers, to use pokémon DNA to fix human problems, and Talos serum, to use human DNA to enlighten pokémon.
"I wanted to do something similar for Finnegan. I saw his scar and my first thought was that he must be in agony. When I found out that he was healthy – er, more so than one would expect of a honedge victim – I wanted to know how to reproduce it. To save others." Colress shook his head again. "All that came of that was more pain."
"So…"
"So yes, this is all my fault." Colress looked over at Anthony, a strained expression on his face. "I tried to branch out and wound up making another weapon that could threaten the fate of the world. All because I made poor financial decisions some ten years ago. And I wish I could go back and undo my choices, but I won't apologize for the advances that I have made. I've made some amazing things, and when all of this is over I dearly hope they'll be used for the right reasons."
The console beeped harshly, and Colress returned his attention to it.
"Restricted access?" Colress frowned. "How can it be restricted access? I have Cyril's card."
There was frantic typing as Colress used both his hand and telekinetic powers to rapidly manipulate the keyboard. Then another harsh beep.
"Of course there's a passcode." Colress groaned.
"Can't you do some psychic thing to get through it? Or hack it or something?" Anthony asked. He glanced over at the door they had come in through, flinching as something pounded on the door.
"Psionics are driven by emotion, and in case you hadn't guessed I am not exactly stable at the moment." Colress ran his hand through what was left of his hair. "Roswell had technopathic abilities, and I'm sure I could figure out how to use them if I had an hour and wasn't trapped in a psychic suppressing field for almost a year. And hacking is mostly just exploiting holes in code or brute-forcing weaknesses, two things I do not have time or skill to do."
"So we're screwed," Anthony said with a sigh. He glanced over at Hecate, who shrugged.
"No, just give me some-,"
Something heavy slammed against another door, and the metal barrier bowed inwards. Another heavy blow caused the metal door to collapse, revealing a hulking form made entirely out of black metal. It was vaguely humanoid, with hexagonal metal shapes on the ends of its massive arms. Its head was a single spherical shape, hovering in the middle of another hexagonal protrusion that stood perpendicular to its 'neck'. The sphere had a red light on the front, sweeping across the room before stopping on Colress and Anthony.
"…time." Colress swallowed, stepping back from the console. "I didn't think Cyril had completed the thing."
"What is it?" Anthony grabbed his baseball bat and grabbed a pokéball from his belt.
"A machine, but one based on a legendary pokémon," Colress said. "It uses magnetism and nanomachines to hold its shape. But… she couldn't have. It shouldn't even be anywhere near functional."
The metal behemoth started down the staircase, its form rippling and fluctuating as it moved. Only a few pieces kept the same rigid shape as it descended.
"Hecate, ruination!" Anthony commanded, pointing his baseball bat. The ghost flew into action, doing her triple-attack with wild cackling. Flames and dazzling lights spun towards the machine as Hecate conjured a spectral nail to impale herself with. The status condition combo was one of the best strategies Anthony had ever formulated, and-
The confuse ray had no effect, the burned metal sloughed harmlessly off, and the curse seemed to have no effect.
"Why didn't that work?" Anthony whispered.
"It's a mindless machine. Only doing what it was programmed to. No mind to confuse, no life to curse, and its body is malleable and reshapable. It was designed to be immune to anything a pokémon could do." Colress shook his head. "All you can do is slow it down."
"Okay then, let's go team!" Anthony released the rest of his pokémon one at a time. Poseidon, Hades, Janus, and Hermes appeared in flashes of light, and upon noticing the threat went to work in a combat pattern.
Poseidon went in first, slamming the robot with both claws as he blitzed across the room in an instant. Hermes followed up by swooping down and slicing a gash in its torso with aerial ace. Hades let loose an inferno of a flamethrower, the instant he let up Janus was firing a spray of prismatic colors in a psybeam attack. Hecate flew up and hurled a shadow ball at the mechanical creature's eye, and the ensuing cloud of dust and smoke obscured it as Ares unleashed a flurry of punches on the robot's body.
When the smoke cleared, the robot made a low droning sound and started moving.
A hexagonal fist slammed into Ares, sending him flying across the room to crumple against a wall. The robot slapped Hermes out of the air, then followed up by hammering the skarmory in the back. A heavy uppercut sent Poseidon reeling, and an overarm swing floored the golisopod.
In a second, Anthony's team was halved.
Anthony pointed at the heavy duty cords that connected the battery to the ceiling. It was actually two cords, wound around each other. He turned to Colress. "That's the power cord for the electrical dome, right?"
"Yes?" Colress seemed confused. "But I can't shut it down."
"No need. I'm gonna improvise." Anthony ran over to the battery and started climbing. He planted a foot in the center of the console and winced when it let out several warning sounds. "You're a hybrid, go fight the robot. Janus, use nasty plot."
"What?! If I fight it, I'm going to die. I'm no fighter. I'm a scientist!" Colress protested.
On the other side of the room, Janus closed their eyes and gathered power. Hades was deftly avoiding the robot for the moment, but that couldn't last.
"Alright science man, here's a hypothesis for you: what happens when you pit an empowered hybrid against a super robot?" Anthony pulled himself on top of the battery. "Janus, baton pass to Colress."
Janus pulled the energy into a red cylinder, held gently in their mouth. They whipped their head back, tossing the cylinder at the hybrid. Colress reached out and caught it with his right hand, a confused expression. That confusion turned to understanding quickly though. Colress took a deep breath, then lifted off the ground just as the robot tossed Hades into a wall.
"A hypothesis is not a question, Anthony. It is a falsifiable statement indicating the direction your research is going to take. What you propose is a research question." Colress extended his left hand towards the robot. "A hypothesis, then, would be as follows: If you pit a human/pokémon hybrid against a robot designed to emulate a legendary pokémon, then you will find that the human element surpasses cold steel!"
With his declaration, Colress released a coruscating wave of energy upon the robot. It began as a beam only an inch in diameter, before widening and enlarging in half-second intervals. The sheer force of the psychic power was shoving the robot backwards, sending flecks of black liquid metal scouring off of its frame to splatter on the wall behind. Confident that Colress could handle it now, Anthony turned his attention to the power cords.
There was a small gap between them, just barely large enough to fit the handle of his baseball bat. Anthony shoved the bat in as far as it could go, then grabbed the tip and the handle and twisted. The metal complained and he felt the bat give a little bit before the cords finally shifted further apart. With the space afforded, he dropped his bag and reached in. From it he pulled three repels, tucking them as securely as he could between the power cords. He pulled a pester ball from the bag and held it in his left hand. Then Anthony took his pocket knife from the bag and scooped the bag up, looping the strap over one shoulder. Then he stabbed the topmost repel, piercing the can.
As soon as he heard the hiss, Anthony grabbed his bag and jumped off of the battery. When he landed on his feet, he pressed the red button on the pester ball and tossed it at the cluster of repels. He knew from experience that the repel spray was extremely flammable, and the aerosol propellant was compressed enough to be mildly explosive.
When the pester ball collided with the power cords, it burst into flames, then fell onto the pile of repels. A moment later, and Anthony's ears were ringing.
The small explosion had sent pieces of aluminum everywhere. Not just from the cans, Anthony realized, but from his bat which he had foolishly left behind. But the results were appreciable. Two heavy power cords dangled from the ceiling, electricity sparking from the ends.
Anthony looked over to see that Colress had shoved the robot into the wall, stripping it of most of its mass in the process. What was left of the robot dragged itself along the wall towards the door it had entered from. After a moment, it managed to push itself just far enough that the force of Colress' attack did the rest, launching it down the hallway.
Only then did Colress stop, taking a deep breath and lowering his left arm. He put his hand to his head, blinking rapidly as he descended. "Oh. That… that was something. My head hurts."
"Hey, you did it!" Anthony cheered. "Nice!"
"Yes. I… may have underestimated myself." Colress looked down at his left hand, the nubs flashing. He looked up at the dangling cords, frowning. "Oh. Yes, that would have been a far simpler solution, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, well sometimes people just get stuck on what something is supposed to do and not what it can actually do." Anthony shrugged.
"Yes, I would do well to overcome functional fixedness," Colress said. He let out a short laugh. "Well. How about that. We've done it."
"So it's down to Finn, now?" Anthony asked.
"It would appear so."
The thudding on the door that they had entered through finally came to a stop, and both Anthony and Colress looked over. The door exploded outwards, and a dozen Plasma grunts rushed through. They were all armed with guns, and they trained them on Anthony and Colress. From the back of the group of grunts stepped a hybrid, his hands elongated into icy claws and a frill of crimson feathers sprouting up from his forehead. The hybrid scowled as he caught sight of Colress, and the scowl only deepened when he saw the destroyed power cable.
"Well, it looks like we finally caught up to you." The hybrid said. "The disgraced scientist and a wayward boy. Lord Ghetsis wants us to bring you in alive, Colress, so consider yourself lucky. But you, kiddo, are going to meet your maker."
"You won't kill me," Anthony said confidently. He lowered himself to the ground, crossing his legs.
"Says who?" The hybrid narrowed his eyes. The Plasma grunts spread out, ranging wide enough that Anthony couldn't keep an eye on all of them.
"We just killed your electrical dome. You know what that means, right?" Anthony gave a winning smile. Colress looked down at him like he was crazy, but Anthony continued. "There's going to be League members coming in here soon enough. Probably the champions, like Cynthia, or Lance… and if they find out you've killed a kid, whew, that's a lot worse of a sentence than just associating with terrorists."
The hybrid's expression cracked, flickering to uncertainty for a few moments before he sneered.
"Consider yourself lucky, kid." He looked to his men. "Tie these two up. And the girafarig. Maybe we can get some leverage out of this."
Anthony didn't let his expression change as they tied his wrists together. Colress seemed hesitant, but extended his own wrists. A psychic intrusion poked into Anthony's mind.
"Do… do you have a plan?" It was Colress' voice.
Anthony turned towards Colress as soon as the grunts moved back out of reach.
"Now, we wait for Finn."
He ignored Colress' expression, staring straight ahead. He ignored the Plasma grunts with guns. He even ignored the pounding of his heart in his chest.
All he could do was hope that Finn would be there soon.
O-O-O
The short hall between the antechamber and the throne room took the longest fifteen seconds of Finn's life to traverse. Dread boiled in his belly as he took each step, possibilities rushing through his head as he neared the throne room. Then he stepped through the threshold and his mind focused.
Sat atop a dais, upon a throne of black metal and velvet cushions, was Ghetsis. Clad in a heavy cloak covered in dark gray eye patterns that shifted and seemed to move, the leader of Team Plasma sneered down from his throne. He had the head of his staff in hand, the X-shaped mind control device directly below his hand. Ghetsis spoke as Finn entered the room, scowling as his gravelly voice echoed through the room.
"So, the child has made his way to my throne room," Ghetsis said.
"Well, you're definitely playing the role of evil overlord," Finn commented, looking around. The walls were adorned with tapestries and weapons of all kinds, from guns to swords. "You know, I always wondered why you went full-in on the theming. It has to be expensive. A lavish castle for the knights, a flying ship for the pirates, and now a dark fortress full of monsters."
"If you've come armed with only sharp words, you'll find yourself sorely under-armed," Ghetsis snarled. "My guards will tear you apart."
"You really don't know anything about the people working for you, do you?" Finn asked rhetorically. "You appointed two people who wanted nothing to do with your cause to the position of guarding you, and a third who only wanted a fight."
"I knew those fools would betray me. That's why they're not the only ones defending me." Ghetsis shook his head.
"See, I didn't think you did. You didn't name names, and you certainly would have since two of them delivered key information to the League." Ghetsis stiffened slightly at that, confirming Finn's accusation. "You're charismatic, I'll give you that. And you seem to have a bottomless well of funds to pay for nonsense like a flying ship or underground castles. But you don't seem to understand the people under you. If you did, you wouldn't have pushed them so far. I wager you'd still have Renard on your side if you hadn't asked him to hurt people, and Mono wouldn't have betrayed you if you hadn't driven him and Trinity apart."
"How would a child like you know what you're talking about?" Ghetsis' eyes narrowed.
"Because, unlike you, I needed to get to know people to get them to trust me. Consider it a handicap, but it's made me far more sensitive to what drives other people." Finn started walking forwards, Belle following at a fair distance. He could feel her hate for Ghetsis simmering, held back by her discipline and her deference to Finn. "See, people don't like me. I don't have a lot of charisma. But I understand them, and that helps a lot more."
"Take one step closer and you'll regret it!" Ghetsis threatened, straightening and rising to his feet.
"Oh yes, I'm sure you have something to stop me. Maybe one of your shadow triad, clinging to the roof. Or the hydreigon lurking behind your throne." Finn stopped regardless, throwing his right arm out to the side and unsheathing his blade. "Because you don't trust anyone else, do you? You didn't trust your guards to keep people out, you don't trust Cyril – only a madman would trust Cyril – and I doubt you trust your own pokémon either."
Ghetsis just growled under his breath, pointing his staff at Finn. "Get him!"
From the ceiling, three shapes dropped. They landed in a rough triangle around Finn, drawing knives from somewhere on them. They were human, though. Or at least, they looked human. Based on what he'd seen before, he doubted they were just normal human beings. Their auras were more rigid. Almost like his own had been, but to a far lesser degree. Likely a heavy affinity for darkness, like Uncle Daniel, but no supernatural abilities. They were nearly invisible to his aura sense, but nearly invisible was not the same as actually invisible.
Ghetsis, on the other hand, had an aura that was dark through and through. Devoid of connections.
From behind Ghetsis' throne, a massive shape lifted. The dragon snarled and roared as it rose into the air. Around its central neck was a metal collar, spikes and protrusions jutting both out from its body and into its skin. The hydreigon was almost twice as large as the average, far bigger than Iris' powerhouse of a pokémon. The hulking creature soared over Ghetsis, establishing its presence simply by flying into the center of the room.
Finn clicked the red button on the pester ball still in his hand. He whirled and tossed it to Belle, who caught it easily. She tapped the flaming ball to her chest, ensuring her ability activated, then rushed to intercept the dragon.
"Let's get on with it then," Finn said.
O-O-O
Belle collided with the hydreigon, sending the both of them crashing to the ground. She let loose a flurry of heavy blows, pounding its body with an unending barrage. Its thick fur dampened the blows, but type advantage should have given her the edge she needed.
She knew that the hydreigon was working for Ghetsis. Ghetsis, the leader of Team Plasma. The reason she had been locked in a cage for most of her life. The reason Finn had suffered. The reason so, so many people had been turned into hybrids.
Rage boiled over in her throat, coming out in the form of a furious scream. How dare he? How dare that man continue to torment her, and everything she cared about?
That rage bled into her attacks. She slammed the flaming ball in her fist into the hydreigon until it was thoroughly burned, and the ball went out. She tossed the crumpled piece of metal aside and slammed her head into the hydreigon's central cranium. As it reeled, she followed up with another flurry of punches to its torso. She slapped, chopped, and hammered on it, going until she felt the first tinges of exhaustion creep into her muscles.
Only then did she let up her attack, climbing off of the fallen hydreigon. She looked down at it, scowling. She hated it. Hated what it stood for, and who it helped. Hated everything to do with its master. And now it was laying on the ground, breathing heavily.
The collar around its neck crackled with electricity, and the hydreigon's body stiffened for a moment before it rolled over. It lifted into the air once more, its eyes wild and unfocused. It panted for a moment before it finally locked its eyes on her.
"Hurt… Hurt… Kill," The hydreigon panted. "Kill! Hurt! Hurts!"
It reared back, and from its central head unleashed a ray of rippling blue energy. The pulse hit Belle head-on, and she staggered backwards for a few moments as she frantically tried to reassess the situation. The collar had jolted the hydreigon into action, forcing it to get back up when it had been knocked down. And combined with Talos, it hit even harder than she did. To the point where it was seriously hurting to continue tanking this attack.
Talos…
The serum made a pokémon stronger, using human DNA. It made her stronger, faster, more durable, gave her moves she shouldn't be able to use, and most importantly made her smarter. It made her more human.
Talos made a pokemon more human.
Hydreigon were known for their brutality. For being uncaring in how they pursued prey. The common thought was that they felt only anger or exhaustion, and they routinely abandoned their offspring as soon as they hatched. It was even called the brutal pokémon. It took a good trainer to teach one to be anything other than a rage-fueled monster. Based on how he used a shock collar, Ghetsis was most certainly not a good trainer. The hydreigon would never learn anything other than cruelty under him.
But injecting a human element, the emotional depth that humans could experience could change… everything.
She didn't need to defeat the behemoth with strength, she needed to show it kindness.
Belle sprang forwards, through the dragon pulse, and reached out to grab the hydreigon's collar. Electricity pulsed through her body. It was still on. What kind of maniac would leave it on? She already knew the answer.
Despite the pain and the spasms in her muscles, Belle pulled the edges of the collar apart. The metal complained and groaned, and then snapped apart. The electrical current died immediately, and she let the bent scraps of metal fall to the ground.
The hydreigon collapsed to the ground, and Belle could hear its master shouting from across the room. She ignored it. She slowly climbed over to straddle the beast's back, leaning forward to wrap one arm around each neck and place the last on the side of its central head. She could feel her muscles beginning to lock up from the electricity, but she didn't stop. She gently applied pressure with each arm, and began to sing gently in its ear.
Over several seconds, the hydreigon's heavy breathing slowed. Then it closed its eyes, falling into unconsciousness as Belle derived its brains of blood flow.
Belle stood, taking several staggering steps away before she collapsed to her hands and knees. She couldn't make her body move any further. Too much over an extended period had worn her down. But at least she had managed to eliminate the biggest threat in the room.
O-O-O
Finn sized up his opponents for several seconds before he did anything else. They were trying to flank him, but they wouldn't attack until they were sure at least one would land a solid blow. They were glass cannons. They could strike him down in a single good blow – or at least they could if he was human – but they had no supernatural defenses. No way to survive the swing of a sword.
The shadows rushed him.
Finn was almost caught off guard when they moved in unison. Almost.
He lifted his shield and erected a king's shield around his whole body. Three daggers struck the spectral barrier and bounced off, and he felt their power leech away into the shield. He curled up his sashes, pulling energy into them to generate an attack. Then he sprang into action.
The one to his right was the most unfortunate. He lashed out with his sashes, hurling a pair of shadow balls at point blank range. When his target slipped between them, he hit with the third attack. A sacred sword to the side of the shadow's torso sent the ninja flying backwards, and Finn saw blood leak from the point of impact.
To his left he fired a flash cannon from his palm. It hit the shadow's knee, causing him to stagger. His face was put at the right level for Finn to slap him with his shield, and while the ninja was recovering from the blow to his head Finn grabbed his face and tossed him to the ground. There was an uncomfortable snap from the area of the shadow's chest.
When he turned towards the third and final shadow, he caught sight a clear ball of some sort flying towards his face. He tensed, and the ball stopped, floating inches away enshrouded with a faint blue glow. With his telekinesis, Finn threw the ball into the ninja's face. It exploded into a cloud of dust that got in the ninja's eyes and lungs. While the ninja sputtered and rubbed his eyes, Finn lashed out with a leg. His foot landed in the shadow's gut, forcing him to keel forwards. A swift kick to the chin sent the shadow to the land of sleep.
All three shadows were down in seconds.
Finn looked between them, then slowly walked over to the one he had hit with sacred sword. He winced as he saw the gash on the ninja's side. He reached into his pocket and extracted a roll of bandages. It was, in some ways, fortunate that the shadows wore crop tops that left their stomachs exposed. It made it easier to wrap bandages around his torso. Lifting his body with shadows helped make it take only seconds instead of minutes.
The dire wound lessened for now, Finn turned his attention back to Ghetsis. He ignored Belle's battle with the hydreigon for now. If it became his problem, then it became his problem, but he trusted Belle to do her best.
"Hydreigon! Hydreigon, kill the boy!" Ghetsis screamed. "Get up! Get up you useless creature!"
Finn looked over, and to his surprise he saw Belle holding the hydreigon's necks close and singing gently. After a moment, the dragon was unconscious.
"You useless, useless thing!" Ghetsis shouted. "Wake up! I raised you for this? Wake up!"
"Shut up already, Ghetsis." Finn walked towards the throne, stepping up onto the dais. "Let it sleep. I doubt it's gotten much chance to do so with you screaming into its ears."
"And what will you do, boy?" Ghetsis snarled, clutching his staff.
Now that Finn was closer, he could see that Ghetsis was old. Possibly older than Aelius or Lorenzo. He could only imagine that Ghetsis' rage would only be bad for his heart.
"I don't know." Finn shrugged. "I've got about nine lines of thought running through my head right now, and not all of them are agreeing."
"You'll capture me. You must. It's what you hero types do. I am unarmed, after all," Ghetsis said confidently, drawing himself up in a vain attempt at seeming regal. "You wouldn't hurt an unarmed man."
"See, let's start from the top, right? I figure I should let all of them have their say." Finn ignored Ghetsis. "Let's start with Belle. She's right there. You know, the one who defeated your unbeatable dragon? She thinks I should kill you. She hates you for what you've done. You already know why. Harvest agrees with her. You wouldn't know him. He was just… a side project, I'm sure.
"Rath and Crai are next. They're a pair of cynical clairvoyants, and they both know that if you survive you're going to continue causing problems. No precognition needed for that. Rath, of course, would want me to finish the kill on a vulnerable target. Nyx and Jitters think similarly. You're prey at this point, after all. And I have you caught."
Ghetsis swallowed, shuffling backwards until his legs came into contact with the throne. He was afraid, now.
"Bastion, now, he's a toxapex. And while he's changed quite a lot since he was a bloodthirsty killer, he still wouldn't want you to get away. You're far, far worse than he is, after all. You poison everything you so much as breathe on.
"Athena…" Finn looked down at his right arm, specifically his blade. He leveled it at Ghetsis, shimmering blue energy coating the edge. "Athena's part of me even more than ever, now. She's honorable, pragmatic, and, at her heart, altruistic. She wants to help as many people as possible. In order to do that, you would need to die."
"Y-you wouldn't," Ghetsis protested. "You wouldn't! Not a champion!"
"And then… there's me." Finn looked down at his blade again. After a moment, he dispersed the sacred sword and retracted his blade. "I really, really think you're going to continue to cause problems if you live. It's happened before. Twice. If you wind up in jail, I doubt you'll stay there. Those guys-," He tilted his head towards the unconscious shadow triad. "- seem like the sort who can't really be held in any kind of prison, and they'd just break you out again. As long as you live, you're going to be a blight on the world." Finn took a deep breath. "But you're right. I wouldn't. I couldn't kill someone. Not even you."
Finn reached into his pocket-
From within Ghetsis' cloak, there was movement. His right arm shot out, and a mechanism strapped to his forearm clicked and fired a whirring disk of metal. Finn flinched, pain flashing along his cheek.
"I knew you were a filthy liar, but faking disability? You really are the worst." Finn extracted his hand from his pocket, bringing with it a spike of black metal with a ring of red ridges around the otherwise flat head. Crimson runes along its length flashed and pulsed with power. The Terror Spike. The divine weapon of Darkrai. "I think I'm done talking to you."
He swung his arm, driving the spike through Ghetsis' cloak, the clothes beneath, and skin to embed it solidly in the shoulder of the most evil man in Toreta. Ghetsis screamed, eye rolling back into his head as veins stood out along his face and neck. The vortex symbol on the head of the spike flashed, spinning rapidly as it drew energy into itself. And then it vanished. Its purpose complete. Ghetsis slumped backwards into his throne, his head falling to one side as he fell into a comatose state. His staff slipped from his hand, and Finn caught it with his sashes.
Finn reached up with his left hand to touch the spot on his face that had been hit by the disk. There was a hint of blood on his fingers. Barely even a grazing shot. The only real injury he had suffered the whole day was because of a dinky contraption strapped to Ghetsis' arm, and it hadn't even done real damage.
He shook his head, looking at the staff. His sashes gripped it by the sides of the emblem, leaving the mind control device directly in front of his wrist. With nothing left to do, Finn shrugged. He unsheathed his blade.
The device didn't even make any noise, it just fell apart.
O-O-O
"Hello, your boss is currently unavailable, seeing as I just destroyed his only means of controlling his army. I see you have guns, and I don't really care. Put them down now and I won't make you regret your life choices."
There were a couple of clatters as guns hit the floor, and the leader of the group of grunts sneered. His claws flexed.
"What makes you think we'll believe you?" The weavile hybrid asked.
"Oh, you don't have to believe me. I don't think you'd be able to hurt me no matter what you do." Finn shrugged as he stepped down the stairs.
The weavile hybrid snarled, launching himself towards Finn with trails of black streaming from his claws. He got halfway before Finn shot him with a flash cannon, killing his momentum and causing him to skid across the ground the rest of the way. Finn put his foot on the hybrid's head.
"Anyone else?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
The rest of the guns hit the ground shortly after.
Anthony looked up at Finn and nudged Colress with his shoulder. "See, I told you we should wait for Finn!"
"It appears you were correct." Colress shook his head. "It's… been a long day."
"Yeah, it has." Finn let out a long sigh, walking over and cutting the ropes binding both Colress and Anthony. "Can you rig up the Fuser to reverse the hybrids now?"
"Yes, I can." Colress rubbed his wrist. "You took care of the mind control?"
"Of course. We can expect friends to show up any minute now."
O-O-O
Athena hammered Ada's head again, panting heavily. The electrical defense system had shut off just minutes before, which had given her a second wind, but it was starting to run out. Xollen was all she had left, now. The metagross was barely even able to keep going, but she needed it where it was. If she recalled it now, Heather would be freed, and she was still a major threat.
Daniel was in a similar state. His suit was tattered and stained with blood, sweat, and dirt. Maria had gone invisible a while ago, and Athena hadn't seen her come back yet.
Both Athena and Daniel had been backed up to the main line of fighters. It had been hard to do so while keeping Heather trapped, but they had pulled it off. Zane had joined them, his only remaining pokémon being Registeel. The golem could probably go on forever, no matter how long the battle went, but Zane looked exhausted. He was breathing heavily, and what Athena could see of his face had bags under his eyes.
Athena raised her hammer to strike again, only to stop and furrow her brow.
Ada wasn't attacking. The hybrid was clutching her head, staggering backwards. A look of confusion came over her face. And she growled for a few moments.
"…Athena?" Ada's voice was deeper, rougher than normal, but it was her.
Athena slowly lowered her hammer. "Ada? That you dear?"
"Yeah…" Ada swallowed, frowning. "Why… why does my head hurt so bad?"
"I… may have hit you with a hammer." Athena let out a heavy breath. "Several times."
"My chest…" Wheezed a voice from under Xollen. "Is in pain."
Xollen stepped aside, releasing Heather from its heavy grip. She rolled over, spitting up bile for a few moments before she swore under her breath.
"Feels… like I just got stepped on by a metagross…" Heather joked quietly, before wincing and spitting up a bit more bile and a hint of blood.
"Is it over?" Daniel asked, looking around. Hybrids across the battlefield were stopping, grabbing their heads, and relaxing from battle poses. "Did Finn do it?"
"Scanning…" Xollen's telepathic voice seeped slowly into their thoughts. After a moment it continued. "No signal detected. Telepathic control relinquished. All individuals noncombative."
"Finn did it." Zane breathed, looking towards the tower. "It's over. We won!" Zane put both hands in the air, repeating it louder. "We won!"
The cheers started slowly, but once they started, they spread across the League forces like wildfire. Trainers and pokémon celebrated their victory against attrition, celebrated the freedom of Plasma's former army. They had defeated impossible odds, holding out until a key piece could move into position.
They had won.