Pride of Your Soul
Chapter 32: Achromatic Empathy
AN: Man we're already half way through 2019. Time sure does fly fast. Anyways, new chapter, getting closer to the end.
EDIT: Made a few grammatical fixes.
TheDarkMaster4000: As always thanks for providing your insight and support. Glad you liked it! Also yeah, for once I didn't make any typos lol.
Tony Anderson: Thanks man!
FantasyLover88: After more than four years, we're finally reaching the end. Honestly I tried to make Marlon more integral to the plot since he does help you out in the actual games, and a good way is to make his contribution more dynamic. Glad you liked it!
Jeck: Thanks man! Glad you liked Bo's and Marlon's performance in the last chapter.
Uninspired Heap: Well hello there! Welcome aboard! Glad you liked my story, and I feel flattered by your compliments. But most of all, thank you for your constructive criticism.
1. This is something I have to admit, I have a bad habit of redundant or repeating vocabulary. I have been trying to amend this since CoYS, but I suppose old habits die hard, as they say.
2. That...is also a problem. At times, they would sound good in my head at first, going over them again later is usually when I realize that there's something off with certain segments or sentences. I do my best to catch and fix them if I notice them post edit. It's usually really helpful if readers would catch anything that sound wrong or off like you did, so that i know where it is and can fix it post edit. But that is no excuse, I need to be more careful about that kind of stuff. Spelling errors can, like you said, change the meaning of a sentence completely from its original intent.
3. This is something I'd like to feel proud of actually; this would be the one part I feel like I'm improving with. At first, I was struggling to make descriptions of events feel more fleshed out and not short. And you make a very good point in regards to build up and tension. Let's take the example you cited. While my intention for that was to simply set up who's fighting who and no significant meaning until after the battle starts, I most likely could have done more with that. It got the job done, but I could've made it do a better job, I suppose. I'm glad you didn't drop the story quickly though, haha.
Overall, I still consider myself a novice at the whole story-writing business. Compared to the many other stories that break the upper hundreds and even thousands in favorites/follows/reviews, PoYS, while it's starting to become my magnum opus at the rate it's going, pales in comparison to them. I'm still learning and trying to do better, so that one day I can write a story that's just as good as the upper echelon. Any criticism or advice is always appreciated, and quite honestly this was the first constructive criticism that I've gotten in a while, so it's rather refreshing to see someone point out the flaws in my madness. So once again, thank you for your review, and thank you for enjoying PoYS. I do hope you continue to enjoy the story, even though it's near its end, and future stories I plan to do afterwards.
Guest: Glad you liked my version of Marlon!
Marshal let out a sigh of relief as he finally made it out into the outside. It has been a grueling two weeks spent investigating the Twist Mountain. The wild Pokémon were stronger than he had anticipated, and even more violent towards intruders. While his Fighting-type Pokémon and he handled them with ease for the first few days, eventually he began to run out of supplies, while his faithful Pokémon started to show fatigue. Marshal found himself treading more and more careful through the mountain in order to preserve what ever-dwindling supplies he had left. Resting took place in abandoned catacombs or mining sites within the cave where the hostile Pokémon tended to not go to, but even then, he could not be too sure, so he took shifts with his Pokémon keeping an eye out for trouble. By the time he made it out of the mountain and into the center, Marshal was exhausted.
The man leaped from his position down to the bottom of the central mining site. Once bustling with life from the miners was now a ghost town. Marshal could only wonder what happened to force all the workers to evacuate the area and make Twist Mountain even more of a deathtrap than it usually was. As he ventured further, he suddenly hid behind some rocks, spotting several Team Plasma grunts near a cave entrance.
"Team Plasma...?" Marshal murmured to himself, before he laid low to see what they were doing.
"Everything's set," one of them reported. "Once Colress activates them, it should be game set from there."
"It's a good thing the mass-production Colress Machines work," another grunt said. "They made the wild Pokémon easy to control so that no one could interfere!"
"Man, I can't wait to see the face on these poor saps!" another one snickered. "They won't know what hit'em!"
'Activates them?' Marshal thought to himself. Just what were they planning here?
Before Marshal could get any more information, he suddenly sensed a creeping presence from behind and darted around to find a golbat lurking above him. Marshal immediately slammed a fist into the bat's head, knocking him out in an instant, but that alerted the several dozens of Team Plasma grunts of his presence.
"What the–!? Is that the Elite Four!?"
"What's he doing here!?"
Seeing as his cover was blown, Marshal sent out his ever trusty sawk and throh to combat the dozens of enemy Pokémon Team Plasma were sending out.
"Your tyranny ends here!" Marshal growled. "On my name of the Elite Four, you will all be stopped here!"
"Even if he's an Elite Four, he's outnumbered!" one of them said. "Take him out!"
They did have a point. Even if individually, Marshal was far superior, the sheer difference in numbers was no joke. Coupled with his exhaustion, and Marshal was not sure how long he would last.
"Then let's make this a little more fair then, shall we?"
A voice rang from above. The Team Plasma grunts looked up, before finding themselves being bombarded by a slew of Shadow Balls from above. As the aerial Pokémon were being shot down, a giant, green dinosaurian Pokémon with several spikes and holes landed in front of them with a loud thud, accompanied by its trainer, a man with black hair wearing a scarf and a black and red suit. From above was a jellicent, with its trainer riding on top of her; a woman with glasses, short and round purple hair and dark clothes.
"Grimsley, Shauntal!" Marshal gasped.
"There's more of them!?" a grunt gasped.
"Good grief, it took forever to track you down here," Grimsley replied. "Tyranitar, Stone Edge."
Tyranitar let out a feral roar, as several jagged rocks shot up from the earth and slammed against the land-based Pokémon that cowered in front of them. The swift Stone Edge finished off the remaining Pokémon, leaving Team Plasma with no Pokémon to defend themselves.
"And that's check and mate," Grimsley said. "Now then, you mind telling us what you all're planning out here?"
The grunts stepped back, before they all scattered in different directions, fleeing from the Elite Four out of fear.
"You aren't going to pursue them?" Marshal asked.
"We have our police forces stationed all over the place," Grimsley said. "There's nowhere for them to run."
"Very well," Marshal nodded, before glancing over to the now unguarded cave entrance. "Now...they were guarding that entrance over there."
"Well then clearly that's where we must investigate!" Shauntal said cheerfully.
"Right indeed," Grimsley nodded.
"Stay on guard," Marshal warned his two more jovial companions. "We have no idea what lurks down there."
Grimsley and Shauntal nodded as they headed into the cave with their Pokémon in tow. The cave was extremely spacious, pitch dark and colder than the rest of the mountain, giving off an eerie ambiance. Jellicent sent out a Will-o-Wisp to light up the room and give them some vision. The ball of fire traveled through the room, revealing the horrors that was hidden in the cave.
"What in the world!?" Marshal gasped, as everyone had rather shocked and horrified expression on their faces.
It was an army. A whole army of several dozens of identical, and foreign Pokémon. A whole battalion of mechanized monsters, with identical cannons on their beings.
"Is this what they were hiding here...?" Marshal asked. "Is this why they occupied Twist Mountain?"
"Seems like it..." Shauntal mumbled, unnerved by the metal monsters presented before her.
"Well in that case, shouldn't we do something then?" Grimsley asked.
Before Marshal could make a response, all their eyes suddenly glowed a bright red and lunged for them in unison.
Rood, backed by his team of fellow former Team Plasma members looked up to see the vile Plasma Frigate as it landed down into the Giant Chasm, right on top of a desolated part of the forest. From the ship, several drawbridges descended down upon the ship, allowing for the several current Team Plasma members to get off board onto the chasm. The Team Plasma members of old and new locked glares with each other, as Zinzolin made his presence out of the chasm.
"Rood..." Zinzolin said. "It's been a while..."
"Indeed, Zinzolin..." Rood glowered as Zinzolin walked up in front of him.
"So? What's the occasion?" Zinzolin asked. "I'd figured you'd be off wallowing in your own pity right about now."
"Cease this foolishness, Zinzolin!" Rood growled. "You know damn well why we're here!"
"Don't get in our way, traitor!" one of the new Team Plasma grunts barked. "You're no longer welcome after turning your back on Lord Ghetsis!"
"'Lord' Ghetsis is using you all!" one of the old Team Plasma grunts yelled back. "His real plan was to take over Unova!"
"Once his plans go through, he'll throw you all away like the expendable pawns he sees you all as!" another old Team Plasma grunt yelled.
"Yeah right! Like we'll believe a bunch of traitors!" another new Team Plasma grunt replied back.
And back and forth the arguments between the two sides of Team Plasma kept going, seeing no end to it all.
"It would seem that we're at an impasse," Zinzolin chuckled darkly. "Oh, these grunts will always follow a bigger power like a pack of sheep to the herder, blinded from the truth and stripped of their individualism, unable to think for themselves."
"That's only for you!" Rood sharply said. "We are not blind by Ghetsis' treachery! Zinzolin! You should know what Ghetsis is trying to do here!"
"And what of it?"
"And what of it!? He's going to destroy all of Unova!"
"Well then perhaps that's what I wish to see as well," Zinzolin replied coolly. "Have you ever thought of that?"
Rood gritted his teeth. He knew Zinzolin was one of Ghetsis' more candid followers, but what Zinzolin was implying was nothing short of sociopathic!
"And besides, how do you lot plan on stopping us?" Zinzolin asked. "In case you hadn't noticed, we outnumber you greatly."
Zinzolin was right about that. Zinzolin had more men than Rood had; at least three to four grunts for each one Rood had with him. In a head-on fight, Zinzolin's forces would surely prevail in the end through sheer numbers alone.
"...At times like these, those whose hearts weaken, those whose determinations falter, can accomplish nothing," Rood said. "To save our old allies, to protect Unova, we will fight!"
"Always with the poetics Rood, eh?" Zinzolin shook his head as he sent out his weavile. "Unfortunately, your artistic sense can only take you so far."
As the new Team Plasma approached the old Team Plasma, ready to beat them to the ground, streaks of lightning shot out from above and struck down onto a few, poor new Team Plasma grunts.
"What–?" Zinzolin blurted as he saw the poor souls who got electrocuted, before glancing back up and seeing the source. "Oh no..."
High above the skies, much to Zinzolin's dread, was Nate, who was riding on the legendary Landorus, with the legendary Thundurus having shot the lightning at them.
"Yo what's up?" Nate greeted.
"Nate Warren!" Rood gasped.
"I was wondering whether or not you died," Zinzolin muttered. "It looks like even the Shadow Triad can get careless."
"Yeah, yeah, and guess who's REALLY pissed off about that, by the way?" Nate asked them dangerously.
"You managed to obtain both Landorus and Thundurus?" Zinzolin asked, stepping back a bit. "I knew the Shadow Triad lost them in a previous encounter, but how did you track them down in such a short amount of time?"
"They have unsettled business apparently," Nate muttered, before referring to Landorus and Thundurus. "Okay you two! The dudes in black and that dude in purple is who you wanna fuck up. Everyone else is an ally."
"-What're you gonna do?-" Landorus asked.
Nate glanced over to the Plasma Frigate. "I'm gonna go do a jailbreak and settle some scores."
Landorus nodded before letting Nate jump off him and head to the Frigate. As some new Team Plasma grunts tried to stop him, Landorus shot his own Stone Edges at them, preventing them from stopping Nate.
"-You all have us to deal with now,-" Landorus growled. "-While we would rather deal with those Shadow Triad fools, you lot are guilty of the same crime as well.-"
"-So let's party!-" Thundurus roared as he let loose several strong Thunderbolts upon the new Team Plasma.
"-Good grief,-" Landorus sighed at his bloodthirsty brethren, before unleashing his own attacks.
Rood and his fellow companions simply watched in awe as Landorus and Thundurus laid waste to their former comrades in a merciless wave of attacks. They were snapped out of their stupor when some of the new Team Plasma grunts had their Pokémon attack them. The old Team Plasma grunts retaliated with their Pokémon, before joining the fray and officially starting their own personal war. Rood jumped back as Zinzolin's Weavile struck down upon him.
"Even with the Forces of Nature on your side," Zinzolin growled. "You are all still weak compared to us!"
"At that time, I believed we were on the side of justice. By serving my king, N, I was going to make a world without war," Rood responded as he sent out his swoobat to battle Zinzolin. "But I was conceited, and I couldn't see the unhappiness we were causing. That's why I can't let it happen again! If that means taking you down, then so be it!"
Nate rushed to the ship in a fast sprint, before quickly jumping on board the deck. He was greeted to two Team Plasma grunts, whom he disposed of with quick punches to the gut, before retracing his steps back to the electric gate that had gotten in their way just a few hours ago. According to the Shadow Triad, Rook reactivated it in an attempt to stop them from going after Nate and the group. While valiant and noble on Rook's part, it now posed the problem of stopping him from advancing into the ship once more, and now he had no Rook with the card key to work with.
"Great, now what?" Nate grumbled. He was tempted to go with his original idea of simply destroying the damn thing, but he was aware that Team Plasma would be crafty enough to install some sort of fail-safe against the more brutish infiltration methods. The last thing Nate needed was another roadblock at this point.
The boy studied the electric gates. They seemed to be looping an electrical current between each two dispensers that faced each other. The height they were placed at made sneaking under too difficult and risky to attempt. The room itself was too small for Nate to try and leap over. So the only plausible method would be going through. Nate kept staring at the electrical currents, before an idea popped into his mind. Nate took out a pokéball and sent out Vire.
"-You rang?-" Vire asked.
"I'm gonna need you to carry me through this," Nate ordered, pointing to the electric gate.
Vire glanced at the electric gate, before nodding in understanding. "-Gotcha. Get on my shoulder.-"
Nate complied and hopped on Vire's broad shoulders. The Electric-type made sure to have a firm grip on Nate, before walking through the electric gate. The currents hit Vire, but instead of hurting him, they were absorbed into the gorilla's body, preventing them from harming Nate, while strengthening Vire with each lasting second in contact with the electric gate. The duo reached the warp panel with ease, before stepping on it and allowing it to take them to the generator room Nate was at a few hours ago.
The boy hopped off Vire, before rushing over to the hole that peered down to the generator that housed Kyurem. To his shock, the giant glass case was empty; the dragon no longer present for that matter.
"He's not there?!" Nate muttered. "...They must've took him to his cave. Or at least're in the process of doing so."
"-We don't have much time then, right?-" Vire asked.
Nate peered down the hole and realized that the lower level underneath them was much wider than he had first thought. Almost like a lower level into the ship...
"No we do not," Nate said. "Vire, break through the floor."
Vire nodded, before spewing a Flamethrower down on the steel floor. After a few minutes, Vire was able to melt a big enough hole for him and Nate to fall through, which they did so. Now they found themselves on a completely new floor, right in front of the now-vacant giant glass container.
"HEY!" one of the Team Plasma grunts that was on the floor yelled. "What're you doing here?!"
At the sound of his cry, several other Team Plasma grunts gathered around Nate like a horde of roaches, swarming the boy and his partner with their own Pokémon and aggression against the intruder.
"I don't have time for you small fries," Nate growled. "Vire, Discharge!"
Vire grumbled, before letting loose a powerful discharge of electricity from the electricity stored earlier, blasting every Team Plasma grunt and their Pokémon with the violent voltage surge, making quick work of them all. While disposing of the hostile threats was easy, Nate would rather get going before reinforcements decided to show up. Nate looked around. Outside of the generator, there was yet another electric gate blocking him off, this time much larger than before. Beyond that, he could spot several giant pipes forming some kind of miniature maze, with several Team Plasma grunts starting to notice Nate.
"Well shit," Nate muttered. He wanted to explore the place and track down Yancy and the others, but it would seem his break-in alerted the rest of them and robbed him of what little time he had left.
"-What do we do now?-" Vire asked, glancing back. "-There's two warp panels to the sides.-"
Nate glanced behind him. He did spot the two warp panels off to the two corridors on each side of the generator; one at the end of the left corridor and one on the right corridor. There was no telling where either one would lead him, but he was left with little remaining options as the grunts got closer, now working on disabling the gate.
"Pray to Arceus I guess!" Nate scowled as he ran for the right warp panel.
Vire quickly followed Nate as they both rushed for the right warp panel to escape their current situation and pray to lady luck they would not stumble into a worse one. The warp panel teleported them from the current floor to another, unknown room. In front of him was a large steering wheel, which indicated that they were on the helm of the ship now.
"Well now."
Nate and Vire looked up. Up ahead was a large, glass window which showed them the outside, which confirmed that they were indeed in the helm. Several computers bordered the room, with a small staircase that led to a platform that appeared above them all. On said platform was a larger, more complicated looking computer, and in front of it, was none other than Colress.
"I was expecting you to arrive, but not this soon," Colress commented. "Welcome aboard, I suppose."
"Colress..." Nate muttered. Colress proceeded to push a button on the keyboard, which deactivated the warp panel behind him.
"Now you don't have to deal with that swarm of grunts," Colress said.
Instead, they got to deal with Colress. Nate was not sure which was better, but he supposed this was bound to happen.
"It has been a while," Colress said as he stepped down from his platform. "It was what, two, three months since out last encounter?"
"More or less," Nate muttered, already formulating several strategies to deal with Colress based on his last battle with him.
"Since then, you have been quite busy," Colress said. "Both you and Plasma. I was told you had been killed in a scandal incident at Undella, but we both know you're too stubborn to succumb to death like that. Unfortunately Plasma would find a use for that one way or another, regardless of whether or not you really did die."
"So they used that incident to trick Kyurem?" Nate asked.
"You have a special bond with Kyurem," Colress replied. "That was something Ghetsis noted when he first made contact with the dragon. Making it look like you were killed by a human was enough to convince Kyurem to join Plasma. To both avenge you and lay waste to the humans of Unova. What Kyurem doesn't know is that you are still alive."
So that confirmed that theory.
"Although you may have noticed by now, Kyurem is no longer in the generator," Colress went on. "Ghetsis most likely reclaimed it in its Plasma Ball, planning on bringing it to the cave to restore its power."
"That's right..." Nate muttered. "Those weird pokéballs..."
"Colress Machine Number. 494, the Plasma Ball," Colress explained. "Our very own pokéballs based off the Master Ball. They boast the same capture rate, and once captured, the Pokémon in question are subjected to the same mental waves that the Colress Machine gives off, subjugating them to our will. This is what made the Swords of Justice bend to our command. Otherwise, there would be no way they would cooperate with us voluntarily."
Nate kept his glower at Colress, who returned it with his usual, calm stare.
"I already know the gist of Ghetsis' plans," Nate said. "...But, what I still don't know is your motives. Why are you with Team Plasma in the first place? Are you like Zinzolin, who wishes to see the world burn? Or frozen, in this case? Are you going along with it just to satisfy some sick kink? To satisfy your 'research'?
"Back at the sewers, you said you were tricked into helping Ghetsis experiment on Hilbert years ago. That implies you would have never done so on your own free will. You expressed hatred against Ghetsis back at Route 4, like when you wished you could strangle the bastard. You should be a neutral party. Your mindset and ideals are far apart from what Ghetsis and Plasma wants. So why? Why are you working with the man you seem to hate in the first place? Have you stopped caring? To fulfill your thesis? The potential of Pokémon's powers? For that reason, you would side with someone like Ghetsis?"
Colress' eyes narrowed ever so slightly at Nate; something the boy caught instantly.
"Oh? That strike a nerve?" Nate asked. "...Then riddle me this.
"Would Roy Warren approve of what you're doing?"
Colress stayed silent. Nate kept waiting for a response, to confirm something about Colress that he needed to know.
"...You really have matured since the last time we met," Colress commented. "Really, Roy would be so proud of you."
"...So you do remember," Nate said. "...You reversed the brainwashing they put on you."
"Indeed," Colress confirmed. "It took two years, but now I finally have my own thoughts back to me."
"So when did you do it?"
"Recently, actually," Colress replied. "For two years, they were constantly watching me. Making sure I would not make any moves against them. Making sure that they could still control me. Beheeyem was aware of that, and needed an opening to use. A single moment, where all eyes are focused elsewhere; a single moment Beheeyem could take to reverse the mind wipe their elgyum put on me. That was when Ghetsis left to convince Kyurem to join his cause
"With him and the Shadow Triad away; their attentions focused on Kyurem; that was an opportune time for Beheeyem to isolate me from the rest of Plasma and restore my lost memories. By the time they came back, I was able to remove the instance from their security feed. Although, now that I revealed it to you, I suppose they would know. Or they could've already known. But that doesn't matter now."
"If you do remember, then all more the reason to just betray Plasma," Nate reasoned. "Your help would be invaluable against them."
"Indeed, nothing would satisfy me more than to strike back at Ghetsis for killing your father in cold blood," Colress sneered. "However..."
"...There's still another reason, isn't there?" Nate accurately guessed. "A reason that made you stick with them for so long in the first place."
"Correct, unfortunately," Colress admitted. "As such, while I would want nothing more than to let you at Ghetsis' throat with your knife, I must try and stop you. And I must follow his orders."
Colress walked back and pushed a button on the keyboard. Several screens popped up, before an alarm went off briefly.
"What did you do?" Nate demanded.
"Unleashed Ghetsis' back up plan, as instructed," Colress sighed. "Here, have a look."
Colress stepped aside, letting Nate see the giant screen. On it was a map of Unova, with several arrows originating from Twist Mountain headed for each mark that labeled a settlement.
"There is a reason why the first genesect was called 'MKI'," Colress said. "'Mark I', if you would. The genesect you fought is a prototype. One designed by me. From there, Ghetsis ordered me to create mass-production types, all developed from my knowledge, with all the flaws MKI had corrected. In short, a Genesect Battalion, if you would."
"He WHAT!?" Nate yelled. A battalion of genesects!? Not only that, but enhanced and improved from Geno!?
"Of course, the frigate was too small to house all the genesects," Colress went on. "So we occupied Twist Mountain by controlling the wild Pokémon and chasing everyone out of the mountain, giving Plasma all the room and resources they needed for me to create the battalion with no interruption."
"So that's why Twist Mountain was blocked off..." Nate muttered. "And you just released that onto Unova?! You have any idea what you just did!?"
"Of course," Colress muttered. "But I have to."
"Why!?" Nate demanded.
Colress gritted his teeth, refusing to say. Nate sighed; Ghetsis must have kept him silent by using whatever it was that compelled him to work for them in the first place.
"Alright then," Nate said. "How do I stop this shit?"
"To stop Ghetsis? By killing him of course," Colress flatly said. "He will never stop unless he's locked up in a prison not even the Shadow Triad can infiltrate, or just offing him once and for all. If you mean the battalion, you would have to input the override code onto the computer, giving the command to all genesects to cease their attacks."
"And that involves getting through you..." Nate said. "Doesn't it?"
"Like I said," Colress sighed. "I have to stop you for my own good."
"Keh!" Nate spat out. "Fine. I've been meaning to settle the score with you, anyways. Personally I want to save the others, but looks like you take priority right now."
"If it makes you feel any better, they should be safe, all things considered," Colress responded. "They simply wish to keep them locked up here so they can't interfere."
Vire growled as he got in front of Nate, while Colress sent out his metagross in response.
"You've grown quite the mile ever since we first met back in the sewers," Colress said. "No matter what hurdles are thrown at you, you've overcame them. You've matured as a person as well; our first interaction was you trying to kill me. Now you're trying to reason with me and convince me to side with you. Truly, Roy would be proud of you.
"Now then. Come at me, Nate Warren! If you truly are Roy's son, then you should be able to defeat me! Prove to me that you can stop Plasma!"
"Like I need you to tell me that, Colress!" Nate roared as Vire lunged at Metagross.
Weiss rushed down the hallway, exiting into the barracks, accompanied by the others. Any Team Plasma grunt that got in their way was quelled by a quick swipe of Bisharp's slash.
"So where is this place you want to go to?!" Bianca asked as her emboar swatted an in incoming golbat with a flaming fist.
"I've infiltrated this damn ship so many times, I have the entire layout memorized," Weiss replied. "Right!"
Weiss made a sharp right turn down another hallway, where the others followed after her. Down the hall, more grunts awaited her, guarding a warp panel with a slew of sevipers and zangeese.
"Night Slash!" Weiss growled.
"Teddi, Close Combat!" Yancy called out.
"-Out of my way!-" Bisharp snarled as he leapt forward.
"-GRAAAAAAUGH!-" Teddi roared as he rushed forward.
With a grand swipe of his blades, Bisharp slashed down all the sevipers that stood in their way. As he did so, he ducked, allowing Teddi to spring forward and brutally slam his claws into each zangoose that was unfortunate enough to get in his way. As the grunts got back, a ruckus alerted the group from behind, as they saw a slew of raticates and watchogs gunning for them. In response, Hugh and Cheren both sent out their serperiors.
"Leaf Blade!" they commanded in unison.
The two serpents lunged forward at the crowd of Normal-types, slashing each and every one of them effortlessly and expertly. The vermin fell to the ground, utterly defeated as the serperiors landed in front of their trainers.
"-Hmm, not bad. Not bad at all,-" Cheren's Serperior commented to Hugh's Serperior. Hugh's Serperior merely nodded in response.
The grunts in front of them swapped their felled sevipers and zangeese for a new set of weezings and muks, whom all proceeded to shoot a volley of Sludge Bombs at them. Bianca's Emboar rushed forward while Rosa sent out Ottavia.
"Fire Blast!"
"Hydro Pump!"
Emboar released a giant blast of intense flames, while Ottavia shot out a violent stream of water at the offending party. The combination of powerful attacks quickly overwhelmed the sevipers and zangeese, and blasting the Team Plasma grunts out of the way as well. Emboar and Ottavia glanced at each other, before winking at each other and bumping fists.
"Well that takes care of that," Weiss said before proceeding to the warp panel that was being heavily guarded.
"Th-their monsters...!" one of the grunts gagged as the group walked over their fallen bodies and into the warp panel.
The warp panel took them to a dimly lit room. Several barrels and boxes were placed all over the room.
"Looks like a storage room," Hugh commented as they walked around.
"Is this where what you're looking for is?" Rosa asked as she looked around, noting all the supplies that was placed in the room.
Weiss nodded as she walked deeper into the room, before finding a heavily locked door with a keypad to the side. Weiss glanced around, noticing the several cameras hanging from the ceiling. Weiss snorted, before gesturing to Bisharp. The marauder nodded, before easily slicing down and destroying all the locks on the door, before proceeding to kick down said door. As the duo walked in, they were greeted to a rather vast room that housed several magnemites and magnetons that swarmed Weiss. Weiss scoffed, before Bisharp lunged for the magnemites and magnetons, ruthlessly cutting each one down with a swift slice of his blade. While Bisharp viciously beat down all the hostile Steel-types, Weiss walked forward to the objective she was looking for; a small, glass box that stood in the middle of the room. Inside said box was a lone pokéball that looked like it has not been touched in years. Weiss smashed the glass box open, before retrieving the pokéball.
"You're free now," Weiss said gently to the pokéball. "It must've been tough for you. Being trapped in here for so long while your master was forced to work for people he loathed to protect you. But now you're free. And you'll be reunited with your master. I promise."
Clutching the ball, Weiss headed out the room. Bisharp, having finished off the remaining magnetons, quickly followed after his trainer. As they left the room, Weiss glanced to one of the cameras, before flipping the bird at it before returning to her comrades.
"So did you find it?" Bianca asked.
"Yep," Weiss nodded, glancing down to the pokéball in her hand.
"A pokéball...?" Rosa asked. "That's what they were hiding here?"
"So this is what'll convince Colress to defect Plasma?" Cheren asked.
"Yes, I'm sure of it," Weiss replied confidently.
This was the final key to free Colress from his own misery.
After retrieving the pokéball Weiss was looking for, she led the group back onto the deck and to the stern, where they could take the warp panel there to reach the generator floor.
"Eh? The generator? You mean the thing that had Kyurem in it?" Yancy asked.
"Yeah," Weiss nodded. "Odds are they're in the middle of transferring Kyurem into the cave. So we don't have much time."
"Do you know where Colress is?" Cheren asked.
"He should be in the helm," Weiss replied. "Which should be fairly close to where we'll be dropped off from the warp panel."
"Alright," Rosa nodded. "Let's do this!"
The group found the warp panel in the stern and stepped onto it, letting it teleport them to the generator floor. To their shock, however, the floor itself was a mess.
"What the hell!?" Weiss blurted, looking around to the source of commotion that garnered everyone's attention.
There was a large group of grunts huddled at the right corridor next to the now-empty generator, trying to reactivate a defunct warp panel.
"Damn it, why won't it work!?" a grunt yelled. "C'mon! You're a technician!"
"Don't yell at me!" said technician shot back. "It's shut off from the inside. Obviously Colress must've shut it off!"
Among the commotion, one of the grunts noticed Weiss' group as they approached them, alarming the others.
"Where did these guys come from!?"
"Wait, those're the prisoners! Who let them escape!?"
"I bet'cha it was that brat! He already made a mess as it is on the ship!"
"Wait, that brat?" Weiss asked, before growling at the grunts. "So you're telling me Nate Warren is already on the ship?"
"He suddenly showed up from above, before barging into the helm," a grunt responded, pointing to the giant hole on the ceiling. "Then the warp panel got shut off, so none of us can enter."
"Hey! Don't tell them that!" another grunt chastised him, smacking him from behind the head.
"He's at the helm?" Rosa asked. "Wait, does that mean he's with Colress!?"
"Considering Nate, he's definitely going to fight him," Hugh said.
"Oh no! We're not letting you lot in there too!" a grunt yelled as they all sent out their Pokémon. "You're all going down!"
"Damn it!" Weiss growled as she sent out Shiny Samurott, while the others followed in suit. "We don't have time to deal with you idiots!"
Vire grunted as he pushed himself against Metagross, refusing to let the mechanical spider crush him onto the floor.
"Flamethrower!" Nate yelled out.
Before Metagross could apply more force, Vire spewed a stream of fire at point-blank range, scorching Metagross and forcing it to back off.
"Earthquake!" Colress commanded.
"Magnet Rise!" Nate countered.
As Metagross lifted an arm, Vire punched the ground with a course of electricity. Metagross slammed its arm onto the ground, causing a massive earthquake to shake the helm, but Vire was propelled up into the air by the magnetism created by Vire's currents, letting him avoid the Earthquake.
"Hm, not bad," Colress commented. "Agility into Zen Headbutt."
"Discharge!"
Metagross looked up to spot Vire, before bulleting at Vire. Vire let loose a violent current at Metagross, but the spider seamlessly avoided the attack, before crashing into him and sending him into the ceiling.
"-Gh!-" Vire grunted as he felt the pain from colliding with the ceiling.
"Meteor Mash!"
"Ice Punch!"
Metagross kept its assault going, flying up to Vire with a steely arm. Vire quickly encased his own arm in ice, before meeting Metagross' Meteor Mash with his Ice Punch. The two fists collided rather harshly. While Vire felt excruciating pain from punching Metagross' spiked 'fist', Metagross eyed its own arm, realizing that Vire was freezing it at the second. Metagross ripped Vire off the ceiling hastily, before hurling him back onto the ground. The magnetism kept Vire from crashing into the ground and pushed him back on his feet, while Metagross floated down with a frozen arm.
"Metagross got frozen?" Colress asked himself.
"Flamethrower!" Nate yelled out.
Vire spewed another Flamethrower at Metagross, who lifted its frozen arm to defend itself. The intense flames blocked off both Metagross' and Colress' vision, blinding them off from Nate and Vire. Once the flames died down and Metagross could see its opponent, it was greeted to Bo's Flare Blitz out of nowhere.
"What!?" Colress gasped.
He could not issue a command fast enough, nor could Metagross properly defend itself as Bo crashed into it with an intense Flare Blitz and a valiant war cry. Metagross was promptly sent flying into the glass window, leaving a nasty crack in it before falling onto the ground.
"Tch, Zen Headbu–."
"Focus Blast!"
Before Metagross could recover, Bo created a large blue orb in his claws, before hurling it at it. The Focus Blast nailed Metagross in the face, finishing off the Steel-type pseudo legendary.
"You used your electivire's Flamethrower as a cover to swap to Emboar at the last second," Colress muttered. "Sneaky."
"Sorry, but I can't afford to lose at this stage," Nate growled as Bo got ready for his next opponent.
"Fufu...that's it," Colress said as he sent out Magnezone. "More! Bring out your Pokémon's power! Show me the very limits of your potential!"
"Flare Blitz!"
Bo roared as he charged into Magnezone in another strong Flare Blitz, poised to take it out as well as Metagross.
"Volt Switch!" Colress snapped his fingers.
Magnezone shot out several electric rings at Bo, who powered through and headed straight for Magnezone. Right before Bo could make contact, Magnezone was covered in electricity, before retreating back to its pokéball.
"-Wha–!?-" Bo blubbered as he landed back on the ground, as an electric current surged behind him and materialized as Beheeyem.
"Behind you!" Nate yelled out.
"Psychic!"
Before Bo could react, Beheeyem emitted a psychic energy, covering Bo with it and lifting him up with his psychokinesis. As Bo tried to fight back, Beheeyem ruthlessly slammed Bo onto the ground.
"-GAH!-" Bo gagged.
Beheeyem tossed Bo at Nate, who was forced to jump out of the way, leading Bo to crash into the wall. As the Fire-type slid off the wall, Beheeyem stared at the duo, seemingly analyzing his adversary. Bo got up, growling at Beheeyem while revealing a small, purple gourd-shaped berry in his possession.
"A payapa berry," Colress commented. "You had a means of letting emboar take one Psychic, eh?"
Clicking his tongue, Nate swapped Bo out for Brav, who immediately flew forward at Beheeyem. Seeing the Brave Bird coming, Colress immediately swapped Beheeyem out for a klinklang, letting the gear Pokémon take the Brave Bird with ease.
"Shift Gear!"
As Brav flew back, Klinklang separated the face gear and attached it to the gear on its back. It then spun the gears rapidly, increasing its power and speed. Klinklang then readjusted its face gear, before bulleting for Brav.
"Screech!"
As it got close to Brave, Klinklang let out an ear-splitting noise from grinding against its own gears, invading Brav's eardrums with the pain-inducing sound.
"-AGH!?-" Brav and Nate gagged as they both covered their eardrums.
"Now, Wild Charge!" Colress yelled out.
Klinklang surrounded itself with a surge of electricity, before ramming into Brav, who hastily defended himself.
"-Ggh!-" Brav grunted as he pushed Klinklang back in spite of the attack electrocuting him.
"Superpower!" Nate yelled.
"-Don't take me...-" Brav growled as he defiantly pushed Klinklang back with all his might. "-...So lightly!-"
Brav managed to push Klinklang back, before slamming one of his talons into the gear, punting him straight into a wall. Brav panted as he descended to the ground back to Nate.
"You alright, Old Man?" Nate asked.
"-I've seen...better days...-" Brav panted. The duo looked to see Klinklang ripping itself out of the wall, before revealing its own berry; a small auburn berry.
"Oh great, it has a chople berry," Nate muttered.
"You're not the only one familiar with type berries," Colress said. "Now, Wild Charge!"
"Superpower!" Nate yelled out.
Gritting his beak, Brav flew straight at the electrified Klinklang with his talons. Klinklang rammed itself into Brav once more, but also had a talon slammed straight into its face gear. Klinklang was shot straight into the floor, while Brav was slammed up into the air, before falling onto the floor as well. Nate quickly check Brav, before seeing that both Brav and Klinklang were knocked out.
"A double KO..." Nate muttered as he recalled Brav. "Rest up, Grampa..."
"I wonder how that Superpower had enough strength to knock out Klinklang," Colress said as he recalled said gear. "After one use, Superpower lowers the user's attack and defense. At a negative level, the second Superpower should not have been able to overpower Klinklang's Wild Charge."
"Your miscalculation there was assuming Brav was weaker than your klinklang," Nate muttered.
"...Of course...Defiant...!" Colress said in realization. "The Screech lowering Braviary's defense must have triggered it and sharply raised his attack. But how did he survive the first Wild Charge?"
"Wacan berry," Nate muttered as he sent out Vire.
"Of course," Colress commented as he sent out Magnezone. "You do love your type berries."
"Flamethrower!" Nate yelled, not bothering to respond to Colress' comment.
"Flash Cannon!"
Vire spewed out a Flamethrower at Magnezone, who shot a beam of light at it, resulting in a large explosion that obscured Vire's vision.
"-Damn it!-" Vire grunted as he looked around.
"Tri Attack!"
From the smoke, three different colored orbs shot out and blasted Vire. The Electric-type growled in pain as he was pushed back. Magnezone then shot out of the smoke, rushing for Vire.
"Tri Attack to finish him off!" Colress commanded.
"Flamethrower!" Nate called out.
Vire tried to retaliate with another Flamethrower, but yelped in pain as he found himself unable to use the attack.
"What!?" Nate gasped, glancing at Vire and seeing that he was paralyzed. "You gotta be kidding me!"
With Vire immobile for that one moment, Magnezone was able to nail him with another Tri Attack. After having been weakened from his earlier fight with Metagross, Vire could not take the Tri Attack, and fell to the ground in defeat. Cursing under his breath, Nate recalled Vire before sending out Luca.
"This routine again?" Colress sighed, recalling the last two times this matchup happened.
"Aura Sphere!"
Luca charged aura into her paws, before unleashing it at Magnezone in rapid succession. The saucer-like Pokémon was able to avoid it, before emitting a strong magnetic pulse. Luca found herself being pulled in towards Magnezone like a magnet.
"Aura Sphere!" Nate yelled once Luca was up close to Magnezone.
Luca charged another Aura Sphere once she was stuck against Magnezone, intending to blast it in its eye like back in Driftveil.
"Do you think I wouldn't learn from that?" Colress asked. "Mirror Coat!"
"Wha–Shit!" Nate swore.
Right before Luca fired the Aura Sphere, Magnezone's body was covered in a strange light, bouncing the Aura Sphere back at Luca at zero proximity.
"-AGH!-" Luca screamed in pain as the Aura Sphere exploded in her face.
"Now!" Colress yelled out. "Thunderbolt!"
With Luca now helpless, Magnezone released a Thunderbolt she had no hopes of escaping. Luca screamed in agony as Magnezone kept electrocuting her.
"Damn it!" Nate swore. "...We're not going down like this again! Luca, Bone Rush!"
Withstanding the pain to the best of her abilities, Luca gathered energy into her paw, before creating her staff, letting it shoot out from the paw and straight at Magnezone, letting it jab at the Steel-type's underside. Magnezone let out an inaudible screech as the force of creating the staff was able to slightly rip Luca off of Magnezone, which let her kick Magnezone where the staff struck, forcing it to let go of her. Luca landed back on the ground, Bone Rush staff now in her hand.
"Damn it!" Colress swore as Magnezone recovered from the Bone Rush.
"Hurl it!" Nate yelled out.
Luca nodded, before she aimed the staff at Magnezone and threw it at the Steel-type. Magnezone avoided the incoming staff, before looking down to see that Luca was no longer where she was.
"-What...?-" Magnezone asked in a monotonous tone as it looked around.
"!? Above you!" Colress yelled out.
Magnezone looked up to find Luca dropping down from above with another Bone Rush staff. Luca let out a roar as she spun around while falling, before slamming the staff into Magnezone's main eye. The saucer let out a screech as Luca slammed it into the ground. Magnezone crashed right in front of Colress as Luca landed back in front of Nate, before suddenly shooting another Aura Sphere at the downed Magnezone. With no plausible way to avoid it, Magnezone took the hit, before promptly fainting to it. Luca panted heavily as Colress swapped out Magnezone for Beheeyem, who floated above the jackal. While she was able to defeat Magnezone, the Mirror Coat and Thunderbolt took a toll on her.
"Extreme Speed!"
"Trick Room!"
Luca jumped after Beheeyem with her staff as Beheeyem lifted one of his arms and emitted a strange distortion, where a bizarre sensation filled the area, distorting the helm. Luca got behind Beheeyem and swung her staff, but at that point, Beheeyem was too fast and disappeared right before her eyes.
"-Shit!-" Luca swore as she landed back down. Unfortunately for her, that was where Beheeyem was.
"Thunderbolt."
Luca tried to swing her staff at Beheeyem, but Beheeyem quickly got in front of Luca and blasted her with a Thunderbolt, finishing her off. The jackal promptly fainted, unable to withstand any more punishment.
"I must say, this is getting quite exciting!" Colress admitted. "You constantly keep surprising me with new tactics and strategies!"
Nate leered at Colress, then at Beheeyem, then at the strange light that covered the helm. Trick Room reversed the speeds of Pokémon, making slow Pokémon fast, while making fast Pokémon slow. While this made Beheeyem a lightning fast cannon, the same could be said about Bo. Colress would most likely come to the same conclusion, which Nate could use to his advantage.
"Bo!" Nate called out as he sent out Bo once more.
"Emboar against Beheeyem?" Colress wondered. "...Must be planning to use the Trick Room as well."
Bo growled as he got ready to strike Beheeyem, letting out a breath of fire.
"Flamethrower!" Nate yelled out.
Bo let out a stream of fire form his mouth at Beheeyem, but the alien-like creature vanished and got in front of Bo, startling the Fire-type.
"Unfortunately, it would seem that Beheeyem is still faster," Colress commented. "Finish off Emboar. Psychic."
Beheeyem's eyes glowed as he aimed his psychic energy at Bo, ready to repeat the same process as before. To his shock, Bo showed no signs of being affected by the Psychic.
"What!? Colress gasped. "Why isn't Psychic working–!?"
He then saw Bo crushing a black jewel in his paws.
"Night Daze!" 'Bo' grinned as a crimson aura formed between his paws.
"...Zoroark!" Colress realized. "Beheeyem get back!"
Beheeyem realized it as well and darted back, but 'Bo' slammed the crimson aura into the ground, releasing a giant burst of dark energy that enveloped everything, including the retreating Beheeyem in its wake. The Psychic-type could not escape the Night Daze, and took the full brunt of the attack. In one hit, Beheeyem was sent flying into a computer, knocked out from the Night Daze.
"Damn it..." Colress swore. "A Dark Gem-enhanced Night Daze..."
"Alright that's four," Nate nodded. "Who else you got?"
"Unfortunately, I'm down to my last member," Colress announced, before grinning. "However...I wonder what your answer to it will be."
Colress revealed one last pokéball and tossed it into the air. A flash of light burst from the ball, before immediately charging at Bo, slamming its head into his gut. 'Bo' gagged, before his Illusions wore off, revealing Zoro. The last Pokémon, to Nate's shock, was a genesect.
"Son of a bitch!" Nate swore. Colress had just told him that he mass-produced the damn thing after creating Geno. It would not be farfetched to assume that he would keep one for himself. Nate was kicking himself for not even considering the possibility.
"Did you honestly think I wouldn't get myself a replacement?" Colress yelled. "I can still go on! Show me how you and your Pokémon will overcome my greatest creation yet!"
The strike was strong enough to knock out the frail Zoro before he could let loose his own Flamethrower. Gritting his teeth at the surprise newcomer, Nate swapped out Zoro for the real Bo, the only remaining member with a super-effective move against Genesect.
"Flare Blitz!" Nate yelled out.
Bo growled, before charging at Genesect as a giant fire ball once more. Colress merely grinned, alarming Nate.
"Techno Blast!"
Genesect aimed its cannon at Bo, before firing off a green laser at the pig. To Nate's shock, the laser not only stopped Bo, it extinguished the Flare Blitz and sent Bo flying back.
"-AAAAGH!-" Bo cried out in agonizing pain as he crashed to the ground.
"What!?" Nate yelled out. "Why did it extinguish...!?"
"Techno Blast is at base a Normal-type move," Colress explained. "However, by equipping one of my Cassette Drives, the type of Techno Blast will change."
Genesect leaned down, revealing a large, blue disk inserted into the back of the cannon.
"As it is currently equipped with the Aqua Cassette," Colress said. "Techno Blast is a Water-type move."
Growling at Colress, Nate sent out his last active member, Deo. The colt snarled at Genesect, who offered no response, opting to stare at Deo coldly.
"Hydro Pump!"
"Thunderbolt!"
Deo shot out a violent blast of water from his hooves at Genesect, who retaliated with a strong Thunderbolt. The two attacks clashed, but the Thunderbolt raced down the water and back to Deo. Seeing this, Deo immediately stopped the Hydro Pump to avoid the Thunderbolt from shocking him. Genesect proceeded to transform into its aerial form and rose up to the air.
"-Tch!-" Deo clicked his tongue, keeping his eyes on the flying target.
"Thunderbolt!"
From above, Genesect fired off countless Thunderbolts at Deo, who was forced to keep moving to avoid getting struck down. Nate glowered; at this rate Deo had no hopes of touching Genesect. It would only be a matter of time before Genesect would wear Deo down and deal the decisive blow.
"Icy Wind!" Nate yelled out.
Deo nodded, before proceeding to spin around on his back and release a frigid wind around the room. The winds managed to catch Genesect and halted its flight ever so slowly. Genesect reverted back to its previous form and landed on the ground, feeling itself go rigid from the Icy Wind.
"Lowering Genesect's speed, eh?" Colress asked. "No matter! It does not change our firepower!"
In response, Genesect fired off yet another Thunderbolt at Deo. Deo sprinted to the side, avoiding the bolt, before darting for his adversary.
"Secret Sword!"
Deo's sword shined brightly and grew into a valiant saber as he dashed for Genesect. The bug tried to shoot Deo down, but he was too quick, and slammed the blade against its chest. Deo slammed Genesect into a nearby computer, before proceeding to slam the Secret Sword against Genesect repeatedly. In retaliation, Genesect shot a silk thread from its claw at Deo, catching one of his hooves and pulled at it, causing Deo to trip.
"-Shi–!?-" Deo yelped as he fell onto the floor.
Deo tried to get up, but Genesect slammed its foot against Deo's head, before aiming its cannon at the downed Deo.
"With this," Colress said. "I call checkmate."
Electrical energy charged into Genesect as he aimed it at Deo. The colt tried to break free, but Genesect kept a firm weight on his head.
"Thunderbolt!" Colress yelled out.
Genesect released one final bolt of electricity at Deo, who cried out in pain. But then, all of a sudden, Deo's body disappeared into a cloud of smoke, with a small doll being in his place. Even Genesect was shocked as he stopped his Thunderbolt and stepped back, staring at the doll that had seemingly traded places with Deo.
"What!? Substitute!?" Colress gasped. "Where's–!?"
"NOW!" Nate screamed, glancing up.
Colress and Genesect both shot their heads up, spotting Deo descending down upon them with a Secret Sword.
"When did he–!?" Colress cried out. "Thunderbolt–!"
"-YOU'RE TOO SLOW!-" Deo snarled as he slammed the Secret Sword on Genesect's head before the mechanical monstrosity could fire off a Thunderbolt.
Genesect was shoved into the broken computer even further as it took the full force of Deo's Secret Sword, resulting in the unfortunate machine to be blasted into several broken pieces. Deo removed the sword from Genesect's body before examining the being in question. Not even it could withstand so many blows from Secret Sword; especially the last one; and did not so much as twitch. Its red eyes were now dulled, indicating that it was no longer capable of fighting.
"I lost..." Colress mouthed, staring at his defeated genesect, before shifting his gaze to Nate and Deo.
"Nice observation, Captain Obvious," Nate drawled, sarcasm oozing from his tone.
Colress simply stared at the duo for a good, long moment, before he began to chuckle. It then broke down into a rather loud guffaw, something that seemed out of character for Colress, at least to Nate.
"Oi, you alright?" Nate asked.
"This is without a doubt my total loss!" Colress laughed. "You truly are a strong trainer indeed! I haven't been excited about a battle in ages!"
"Uh...thanks..." Nate mumbled.
Colress pressed a button on his computer, where a healing machine appeared before them.
"Help yourself," Colress said, gesturing to the machine. "You're going to need it for Ghetsis."
"...Thanks..." Nate muttered, still somewhat on guard around the scientist but using the machine regardless. While he should be more on guard around Colress, Nate felt that Colress would not intentionally screw him over here.
"Tell me," Colress said as Nate healed his team. "You had a wacan berry and payapa berry prepared. You purposely had your zoroark disguise itself as Emboar to trick Beheeyem. You had Magnet Rise on your electivire to avoid Metagross' Earthquake. And you had Keldeo learn Substitute. How much of that was in preparation against me?"
"Honestly just the berries, really," Nate answered. "I was already experimenting with Vire and Magnet Rise to potentially let him be capable of aerial combat, and Substitute was there to give Deo a defensive option. The majority of my strategies against you was from past experiences."
"I see," Colress nodded. "...You really are their child."
"Their?" Nate asked. "...You mean Mom and Dad?"
"You resemble your father," Colress commented. "While your style of battle and sense of strategizing is just like your mother."
"Is that so..." Nate muttered as he saw that his team was fully healed.
"You overcame so many obstacles with your friends and Pokémon," Colress said. "Perhaps it is because of that...because you understand your Pokémon and form a strong bond with them, you are able to bring out the full potential of your Pokémon. If only I could do that, then perhaps I could stop Ghetsis..."
"Colress..." Nate muttered. After encountering the man so many times throughout his journey, now the boy felt like he finally understood the man. "Back at Route 4...I told Rosa and Hugh not to worry about you. That you were at best a neutral party. I suppose I wasn't too far off from that assumption. You...you're not that bad of a guy, Colress."
"Nate..." Colress said, genuinely surprised that the boy would say such a kind thing to him.
"So that's why I'm asking you," Nate urged the scientist. "Help us. You and I both despise Ghetsis. He's Dad's murderer. The murderer of your friend. We could definitely use your help now more than ever. Don't you want to get back at Ghetsis for killing Dad?"
"That's..." Colress mumbled, before he slowly glanced to the floor, a forlorn look gracing his face.
"What the hell does Ghetsis have that's making you stick up to him?" Nate asked. "Why can't you help us? No...Why are you so adamant on keeping quiet? You know damn well you would be springing at the chance at the shitty priest's neck, so what's stopping you?"
In spite of the touching moment and seemingly genuine connection the two shared, Colress still refused to answer Nate, frustrating the boy.
"Goddamn it man," Nate grumbled. "You aren't helping either of us. I can't help you if you refuse to–the hell?"
Nate now just noticed the commotion that was occurring on one of the security cameras on one of the monitors. Nate and Colress glanced over to it curiously, before seeing that apparently a group of grunts were being manhandled by his friends, all being led by Weiss.
"They got out!?" Nate gasped.
"Hilda?!" Colress gasped, instantly recognizing Weiss' true identity. "What's she doing here?!"
"...Looks like they're fighting over the warp panel...?" Nate asked, glancing behind him to the inactive warp panel.
"Right, I deactivated it," Colress said, before placing his team on the healing machine and pushing a button, reactivating the panel.
By the time the group outside noticed that the panel was working again, they had just finished off all the Team Plasma grunts, before rushing to the panel and into the helm.
"Father!" Weiss cried out, taking off her mask while running over to him.
"Father?" Nate asked incredulously as Hilda lunged at Colress with a large embrace.
"Who do you think raised her while she was with Plasma? Zinzolin?" Colress shot back with an equal amount of incredulousness.
"Well I guess you gotta point," Nate muttered, before the others rushed over to him.
"Nate!" Rosa, Hugh and Yancy exclaimed in relief.
"Glad to see you all in one piece," Nate replied. "You just missed the show."
"Wait...did you win against Colress?" Rosa asked.
"More or less," Colress replied, before turning his attention to Hilda as she pulled herself together. "What're you doing here?"
"I'm here to save you," Hilda declared. "To finally set you free from this damn organization."
"To set me free...?" Colress asked confusedly.
Nate arched a brow curiously as well. Could they have found whatever it was that was keeping Colress from pointing his blade at Ghetsis?
"We found something in the storage room," Rosa explained. "It was heavily guarded. If it wasn't Miss Hilda who broke in, then who's to say if we could've retrieved it?"
"I looked everywhere, y'know," Hilda said as she took out an old pokéball from her pocket; one that Colress immediately recognized. "Ever since you implied that Ghetsis was keeping something from you, I thought deep and hard on what it could have been. I looked everywhere in this ship; their base. Because I knew Ghetsis would have kept it in a place where a genius like you could not hope to reach. Not because you weren't smart enough, but because you knew if you tried, then it would all be for nothing."
Hilda placed the pokéball in Colress' shaking hands.
"While the Interpol doesn't trust me too much," Hilda admitted. "They still let me use their resources. And I was able to find a file about an up-and-coming Pokémon researcher accompanied by a familiar trainer. And that you had a partner Pokémon that I never saw. That's when I knew."
Hilda gently pushed the button on the ball, opening it up and releasing the Pokémon trapped inside. It was a floating wisp-like creature that resembled a lightning rod with lightning-shaped appendages. The wisp looked around, slowly opening its blue eyes, before spotting and staring at Colress.
"Ro...tom...?" Colress asked.
The small wisp stared at Colress for a long moment, before recognizing the man and letting out a huge grin, tears falling out of its eyes.
"Back when you were traveling Unova with Father–my first father," Hilda said. "You had a rotom with you. I never knew this until I looked it up last year. So obviously, Rotom must have been what Ghetsis had kept hostage to force you to work for him. It was only a matter of where he kept it and how to steal it."
"Was that why you infiltrated the ship?" Nate asked.
"I snuck on the ship several times, tracking down every nook and cranny that they could've kept Rotom," Hilda replied. "I finally found where they could have been keeping it."
"When we were still at the castle, the Shadow Triad stole Rotom from me when I tried to leave Plasma. Ghetsis kept Rotom guarded by them," Colress said. "There was no way I could retrieve Rotom from them. When it got moved to the storage room, they kept literal dozens of magnemites and magnetons as a means of making sure Rotom could not escape should it have somehow escaped the pokéball and electric-induced container. They had security measures on the door. If I so much as went near the damn thing, Ghetsis would know and have Rotom killed from within the room.
"Ten years. Ten years I spent being forced to work for Plasma; the man who killed my friend. Ten years doing their bidding to make sure Rotom would not be killed, unable to save him. But now..."
Rotom circled around Colress in joy. Tears began to form in Colress' eyes.
"He's finally free from their clutches," Colress said. "Rotom...oh how I missed you so dearly, old friend."
Rotom made a squeal of delight as it nuzzled against Colress' cheek. Everyone else in the room found it either surprising or endearing and heartwarming. The normally infallible Colress showing raw emotion like how he was right now was a sight they were not familiar with.
"Father..." Hilda mumbled, happy for her foster parent.
"...Heh..." Nate muttered. "You said you wished you could share bonds similar to me and my Pokémon...but what about this? You've been working under Team Plasma this whole time, fought against people like me and Hilbert, even made Genesect...all just to protect Rotom. Isn't that a strong bond? Can't you say your bond with Rotom was what made you this strong? If you had that kind of bond this whole time, then I think you already proved your own thesis."
Nate extended a hand to Colress, who stared at it with wide eyes.
"With this, you have no ties with Plasma anymore," Nate said. "In that case, you're now free to do whatever it is you wish. Go back to doing your research without a guilty conscience, go catch up with Rotom for lost time, or to get the hell out of here once and for all. But before that, I'm gonna ask you to point your pent-up frustration and grudge against that bastard. Before he does something even worse and screw all of Unova in the process.
"Let's go avenge Dad, Colress."
Nate's expression was no longer one of a burning, cynical hatred that Colress remembered it being when they first encountered back at Castelia. It was calm, understanding, but passionate and determined. Truly the boy had matured in the past six months.
Now, he truly resembled his father; Colress' late best friend.
Colress let out a chuckle at the boy. "You truly are a strange, yet interesting fellow."
"Keh! Look who's talking?" Nate snickered as Colress accepted Nate's hand and Nate lifted the man back up on his feet.
And thus, after ten grueling and shameful years, Colress was finally free to point his blade at the man he despised for so long.
"Alright then," Nate said. "As commemoration of you joining our side, how about you do SOMETHING ABOUT THAT ARMY OF GENESECTS THAT'S PILLAGING THE REGION RIGHT NOW?!"
Nate proceeded to frantically point to the map behind Colress, which now had mostly all the settlement markings highlighted in red.
"THE WHAT!?" Rosa yelled.
"Oh right," Colress muttered as he hurried over to the computer.
"I was aware that Ghetsis had something prepared to attack the region," Hilda said. "I'm gonna assume that's what he had prepared."
"Currently there are genesect units all over Unova under Ghetsis' command," Colress explained, alarming everyone sans Nate and Hilda. "However, I made an override command to force shut down the battalion in case it was deemed necessary. All I need to do is upload the command and..."
As Colress rapidly typed into his keyboard at a blistering pace, he pushed the enter button to activate the override command. Despite that, there seemed to be no changes on the Genesect map. After a brief moment of silence, Colress typed into the keyboard once more and inputted the command, but no changes were shown.
"Oh no..." Colress groaned.
"...Colress...?" Hugh asked as Colress tried it yet again.
"Father?" Hilda asked worriedly as Colress tried it one more time.
"Your command isn't working, is it?" Nate asked, more or less figuring out what was wrong.
"Odds are, Ghetsis saw this one coming and disabled my input," Colress groaned. "I would most likely have to upload the command on his console for it to work."
"Of course," Nate groaned. "Well, we were gonna go break his neck anyways...Alright! Off to see the shitty wizard! Where the hell's his office?"
"We went there before," Hilda pointed out to Nate. "Don't you remember?"
"It's quite literally next door," Colress replied. "It's on the warp panel on the other side of Kyurem's container."
"Ah," Nate mouthed. Had Nate chosen to go left instead of right, then he would have run into Ghetsis instead of Colress. That would have ended far worse than here. Now he was thanking Arceus for letting him win the proverbial coin toss earlier.
"Alright then," Colress said as he healed his team. "Let us go give the boss a grand old visit, shall we?"
After healing his team, Colress accompanied the group as they left the helm. As they headed to Ghetsis' office, they walked over the defeated group of grunts, who groaned in pain.
"You really did a number to them, huh," Colress commented to Hilda, who slightly blushed out of embarrassment.
Disregarding the group, they made their way to the other warp panel in the room. Colress and Nate were the first to step onto it, followed closely by the others. They were warped into a rather spacious, dimly lit room. In the room was a desk, with several screens behind it, lighting the room. Standing in front of the screen was a man with lime-green hair cloaked in a black and gray robe, holding a strange-looking cane with his left arm.
"I knew from the start that you would eventually betray me Colress," the man said to no one in particular, although it sounded like he was aware that they had entered his office. "All you needed was your damn Pokémon back, and you would easily turn against me. Of course, I would reroute control over the battalion to me so that you wouldn't meddle any further than you already had. Everything is according to my calculations, after all."
He slammed the end of his cane on the floorboard harshly, before turning around to face the unwanted visitors in his office. Adorned on his right eye was a strange, mechanical red and black monocle, while his face sported a very cold, calculating expression; one that would have looked naturally in place on Nate's own face. While to Rosa, Hugh and Yancy, the man was certainly new to them, everyone else, especially Hilda and Nate, knew who this man was, and could only respond with a harsh, hateful glare.
"Hmph, old and new faces alike," the man said calmly. "All detestable nonetheless."
"Is that...?" Rosa asked silently to Nate.
"...Ghetsis..." Nate growled.
To be continued
AN: And they finally reach Ghetsis. Colress now officially joined the party. While yes, this version of Colress is rather OOC compared to canon Colress, I feel that considering the backstory he has in my story, this is justifiable. While we have no idea what kind of background canon Colress has, this Colress (if you know what happened in CoYS) has a stronger grasp of human morals since he was acquainted with Nate and Hilbert's father long ago, and got to interact with others to widen his view of the world and his own ambitions. Also helps that in this one, he had a morality pet in Rotom that kept him from blatantly going against Plasma until he knew Rotom was safe.
With a better grasp of human understanding and being more empathetic than compared to canon Colress, this will inevitably lead to several discrepancies between the two. He acted more closer to canon Colress while being hypnotized due to having lost his memories of his past, and even then, there were times where his story personality would slip through the cracks.
Tl;dr: this Colress is more empathetic since (I'm going to assume) his background differs greatly from canon Colress. Hopefully that doesn't piss you off too much. Maybe I should do an extra chapter covering Colress' background after the story ends. Maybe.
Nate: Luca (Lucario) / Bo (Emboar) / Vire (Electivire) / Brav (Braviary) / Deo (Keldeo) / Zoro (Zoroark)
Rosa: Eve (?) / Ottavia (Samurott) / Nina (Arcanine) / Mandi (Mandibuzz) / Gustav (Amoonguss) / Geno (Genesect)
Hugh: Flygon / Serperior / Magmortar / Carracosta / Heracross / Tornadus-Therian
Yancy: Audi (Audino) / Teddi (Ursaring) / Snor (Snorlax) / Toge (Togekiss)
Guest:
Cheren: Serperior / Liepard / Unfezant / Gigalith / Jellicent / Haxorus
Bianca: Emboar / Stoutland / Musharna / Mienshao / Swanna / Chandelure
Weiss/Hilda: Samurott / Bisharp / Meloetta / Whimsicott / Latias / Regigigas
Colress: Magnezone / Metagross / Klinklang / Beheeyem / Genesect / Rotom.
Alright then! We're REALLY getting closer to the end now. I'll see you all next time with the confrontation of Ghetsis.