Chapter 43: Amphitrite Gym Battle
A week has passed as they haven't heard of the cults doing anything bad, much to their relief. Ash has finished training with his Pokemon, though not very perfect, but good enough to face the upcoming challenges.
Ash, Gladion, Nora, Emily, Taen, Zachary, and Alice walk towards the Amphitrite Gym, there, they see Calreath waiting for them in front of the swamp-like field.
"Ash, Nora. It's good to see you. How was your... er... training?"
"It goes really well. But we should know by challenging this gym." Nora says.
"I see. So are you ready for our battle? I'm anxious to get started! Ahem." Calreath sighs and says, "Greetings Challenger. My name is Calreath."
Alice whispers to Taen. "He already knows them, why bother introducing himself again?"
"Stupid Gym rules." Taen says.
"My Gym isn't just a Water-gym. I focus on Water in every possible way. The ocean, the lakes, the rivers. And yes, even the rain that fills them. Rain is one of the most important natural forces in the world. It keeps the world alive and healthy and keeps the water cycle going. But it's also one of the most destructive- and I'm about to show you why. Let's do it. How about we have a double battle, with you two versus me?"
"Are you sure? Uncle?" Ash asks. "Then it should be fine."
Then as the battle begins, Calreath sends out Politoed and Greninja. Ash sends out Typhlosion and Nora sends out Leavanny with the armor.
"I see you have the Armor made by Anastasia...but that is not going to stop me." He takes out the Key Stone and says, "Mega Evolve!"
Ash and Nora are surprised to see Politoed's mega evolution, which has a big cloud as its blanket and a crown on its head. "This is going to get tough..."
"I agree." Nora says.
Ash also mega evolves his Typhlosion, with training, its mega stone won't emit any energy. Politoed's Hydro Pump makes a lot of damage to both of the Pokemon, but Typhlosion uses Thunder, which also goes really well in the rain, it gives a lot of damage to Politoed. Greninja's swift moves also get trapped with Leavanny's Sticky Web attack. Then a Grass Whistle and the Zap Cannon defeats the Politoed. So the next Pokemon Calereath sends out is Heliolisk.
Heliolisk's Hyper Voice gives a lot of damage to Leavanny, causing it to faint. Nora sends out Flygon next and also mega evolves it. As for Greninja, it manages to break through the Sticky Web, but with Flygon's Earthquake hits him, it faints. Dragonite is the next Pokemon.
Dragonite uses Outrage, causing both Ash and Nora's Pokemon to be in serious damage. Flygon manages to hold on, but Typhlosion faints. Ash sends out Delta Pikachu as his next Pokemon. Delta Pikachu uses Draining Kiss on Dragonite, which causes it to faint in the end. So Calreath sends out Goodra as his fifth Pokemon.
Heliolisk manages to use Grass Knot to make Flygon fall, but Nora gives him the Hyper Voice, with the Amplifier, it raises attack, and then Heliolisk faints.
"Ash, Nora. Now, this guy wants to battle you." Calreath says as Manaphy comes to the field.
"Manaphy? Are you sure?" Ash asks.
"I want to battle papa." Manaphy nods.
And much to their surprise, Manaphy's Heart Swap causes Pikachu and Flygon to be confused, letting Goodra use Infestation and Muddy Water to finish them off.
Ash and Nora look at each other and nod, Nora sends out Celebi, while Ash sends out someone really interesting.
"Mew?" Calreath says. "If I remember correctly, it is Lillie's Chosen Pokemon, right?" Deep down, the Timeless knows that Lillie's actual chosen Pokemon is Giratina, not Mew, but Ash doesn't know about it.
Ash frowns a little and says, "Yes, Dawn takes me to her...ever since Lillie is possessed, Mew was in the cave alone training with her. I took her with me so that we could go save Lillie together.
"I see." Calreath says.
Mew transforms into Celebi so that there are two Celebis that Calreath has to face. Manaphy works really hard to try using Heart Swap and Water Pulse, but since both are now Celebi, it doesn't affect much them. In the end, both Pokemon have fainted.
"Manaphy and Goodra are unable to battle, Mew and Celebi win, which means the match goes to Ash Ketchum and Nora Ketchum!"
"We did it, brother." Nora cheers.
"Yeah." Ash says.
"Geez, when Diana told me that you beat her, I didn't know that you two are this good. But you really are fantastic. You'll be a great addition to our group. Here's your badge!"
Ash and Nora get the Rainstorm Badge, then Calreath says, "Now you have one more badge to get to get into the league and defeat Perfection Cult...but..."
"But since Dad is missing, we don't actually have an eighth Gym Leader to face." Nora frowns.
"Just where did Dad go?" Ash also frowns.
"We have no idea. But in the meantime though, I guess y-" Calreath says, but then they hear a sound. "Attention please! Your attention please! Broadcasting starting in two minutes."
"What?" Calreath is confused.
The group goes outside and sees Dawn rushing towards them.
"Dawn, what is going on here?" Gladion asks.
"It's the big TV on that tower! Someone's doing a broadcast!"
"What? That is illegal! We haven't used that TV in years." Calreath says.
And much to their shock, they see on the TV, Zachary's face is on the screen.
"Not him again!" Zachary groans.
"What? Zachary?" Dawn is confused.
"No, that is the Infernal Cult Leader, Zenith. He is also an expert in controlling people." Ash says.
Calereath says, "Zenith..." He can't believe all this time the Ketchum member that he was asked to take care of, becomes a Cult Leader just like that. He has mixed feelings and he doesn't know what to say about this.
"No wonder that people are acting weird here." Dawn says as they look around, all the people in the Amphitrite City except the Timeless are looking weird.
"Thank you. People of Amphitrite City. You may recognize me. I'm Zachary, your friendly neighborhood librarian. I'm also in charge of spearheading the vaccine movement. It's our goal to shut out this... heh... infernal Deoxys disease from all over. However, some people have resisted me time and time again."
Just then, Ash, Gladion, Nora, Damian, Diana, Calreath, Alice, and Emily's face are on the screen. "Not only are they unvaccinated, which is dangerous enough, but they've been trying to convince people to stay endangered! My friends, we cannot allow this to continue."
Just then, they hear Zenith giving a menacing laugh. "You hate them now! Battle them into submission. Make him pay and then bring them to me! Target them! Their friends as well! Do this any way you can! Oh and... why not. Keep fighting until all of Amphitrite is safe! Thank you for watching this emergency broadcast."
After the broadcast is done, Gladion can only yell, "Fuck..."
"Oh nonono..." Nora says as they see that the citizens are rushing towards them.
"We have to escape." Ash yells, using their Pokemon, they sweep through the citizens and rush into the Crystal Caves.
"Just great." Damian says. "Now that guy uses Zachary's face to control them..."
"But it just gives us an advantage, we can use Zachary's help to stop them." Taen says.
Zachary says, "But to do so, we must stop my brother first. Since the broadcast is going on wide, I can only free those who are near to me."
"I am so lost...what's going on here..." Nora says as they turn to her. "There's no way people will actually do that, right? How can Zenith possibly think this will work?"
"But people are fighting...it actually worked..." Ash says. "How could our brother do such a thing? I am also lost at this as well."
"Zenith might be influenced by something greater, which is why we must save him." Red says.
"Of course we need to save him! He is our family." Nora says, and it causes the others to get surprised. "Even after what he did, you still consider him as a family?" Emily asks with a look of surprise.
"Of course we are, Alice, Emily, aren't you feeling the same? What about Jaern? He is also your father as well!" Ash says.
Emily and Alice are conflicted, after what happened to the second Augur, they are not sure about it. Damian says, "I think I agree with Ash and Nora, considering my mother was the leader of the Abyssal Cult. I know what it feels, so I will want to help you guys save your brother Zenith."
"Count me in as well." Zachary says, "Even after what he has done to me, it doesn't change the fact that we are a family."
The others nod as Red says, "I am impressed by your ways of thinking, right now Zenith might be in their base located at Rose Crater. We can't hope to beat someone who could do something like that. No, we can't give up. If there's a chance to win, then we absolutely have to take it."
Damian says, "I guess we have to climb Mount Rose. That's the way to Deyraan Town. We're chosen by legends! Zenith doesn't stand a chance. Right?"
"Of course not." Gladion says, and then they start to form a plan, and eventually they decide to weak cloaks to hide from public sight as they want to make sure their Pokemon are ready to fight the whole Infernal Cult.
Once the group secretly disguises themselves, they head towards Mt. Rose's Base. But then they see some people are guards that are checking people who are going into the mountains.
"That security checkpoint was not here a week ago..." Damian says. "We used to be able to go up and down the mountain freely. It's...kind of suspicious that it's only here now that the Infernal Cult is playing their hand."
"You're right." Zachary says. "He has been using the vaccines- or whatever that actually is- work, but we don't want to play it risky."
"You are right." Ash says. "But what should we do?"
"What about we give you a hand?" Just then, they see a girl standing in front of them. Taen recognizes the girl as one of the Perfection Cult members and he says, "Yuki? Is that you?"
"Long time no see, Taen." Yuki says with a smile.
"Just great, Yuki the Elite 4. How did you find us?" Nora asks.
"We tracked you through your mega rings." Yuki says. As they are now surprised at the thought of their rings are hacked by Perfection Cult. "What? You thought they were gifts? You knew the old expression: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
"Fine, just what Reukra wants?" Emily asks.
"He has an important announcement to make, which also requires your help if you don't mind. And you do know where our base was." Yuki says. "I am sure that we can come to an arrangement."
After she leaves, Gladion asks, "Should we trust her?"
"We can't just... go somewhere, can we? There are always thirty things to do before we get there. We can't trust them. But... we should probably see what they want. I'll head over. It's not like we have to agree to what they offer." Nora says.
Well, things start to get ugly, and in the next chapter, we are going to start with the Infernal Cult battle. I hope you like this chapter.
