The army of trainers pored through gaps and into the labyrinthian tunnels of Eclipse Base. What most surprised them was how it seemed to be abandoned.
In the Sinnoh regiment, Cynthia was confused. "Where are all the grunts? Don't tell me they ran away when they heard us blasting in!" Pearl shrugged. "Lets go forward, see what clues we can find." Pearl rushed forward, much to the others protests.
As Pearl ran past a camera, a Eclipse grunt popped up infront of him, although holographic. Slots on the walls slip open, launching Poke Balls before the virtual trainer. A host of Pokémon popped out, and the virtual trainer started giving them commands.
The force easily defeated the Pokémon, but more trainers appeared. "This must be the automated defense system!" Candice yelled. "Right!" Platinum said. "We can't get rid of the virtual trainers, and the Pokémon are now much more effective since their being given orders. We're going to have to fight our way to the other areas!"
The same thing was happening to the other groups. More and more virtual trainers appeared around the facility, and the attack was now becoming a full out battle. After one area was cleared, another fight would take place, and the combined force moved far slower through the facility then preferred.
Once a small lab had been taken, Oak contacted Bill about his findings.
"Bill, you know all about how the transfer system was hijacked, right?" Bill agreed. "I think I've figured out why we haven't been able to figure out what Team Eclipses movements are." Bill paused. "Go on, I'm listening."
"Because we can't detect what is being sent through the system on their end, they have writing massages on Poke Balls that they send through. Its a perfect system, until now. We have some of the hacked consoles, so we should be able to track any remnants from now on." Bill thanked him, and held the line.
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Cypress watched the airship ready from his office observation lounge with a resigned interest. He would escape at some point, yes, but now before showing these children another lesson about who was really God.
The defense system was certainly slowing the groups down, although they would reach the hanger in ten minutes, his office in less time. But they would find nothing in the hanger.
The gunship, along with dozens of other lesser craft, flew into the sky as the entire side of the mountain opened up with a incredible noise. The gunship was already out of the hanger completely when the Unova force broke through the hanger walls, tossing enemy Pokémon aside. Despite their attacks, the ship held steady, the smaller craft staying behinds its bulk. The ship disappeared, and flew away.
Cypress smiled. Everything was going to plan. Now, the only thing that remained...
His office door was blown to the side, causing Cypress to turn to see who was attempt to capture him now. Standing in the smoke were several trainers, with Red at the lead.
Cypress smiled beatifically at the group. "Welcome to my humble abode! May I request to see Professor Oak?"
Cypress was interrupted by Red's Venusaur launched vines which tied the Eclipse Lord to the wall. Cypress spat, and dissolved the bonds with a wave of energy. "How rude. You will never learn..." Cypress summoned his blade, and launched himself out the window to the hanger floor.
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Bronze arrived back at the hovel that Tess was staying at just in time for breakfast. After ordering some pancakes, Bronze sat next to Tess, who was talking to a woman in a large purple dress.
The woman saw him and introduced herself. "Well, young master Bronze! I am Fantina, zhee Alluring Soulful Dancer! Tess here 'as many stories about 'ou!" Bronze shot a look at Tess and started eating his just-arrived pancakes. "Uh, Miss Fantina, where are you from? I recognize your accent as from Kalos."
Fantina laughed. "Oh, he es so charming, no? Dear boy, I am from Sinnoh, as a Gym Leader. Since you ar' a Pokedex Holder, 'ou should know about zhee thing that I should be doing about now!" Bronze was confused. "Tess, do you know what she means? I am sorry Fantina, I don't know what you should be doing, if anything."
Seeing Fantina's disappointed face, Tess told Bronze. "Well, apparently a lot of very strong trainers are raiding Team Eclipse's main base. Fantina decided not to join the fight."
"Correct, dear. I am here for zis year's League. I didn't not want to get quite to caught up in fights, hmm? The others should be strong enough to fight without me! As for 'ou two, I vill give 'ou this meal free of charge! I have very good memories of trainers with Pokedex's like yourself, Bronze."
Bronze realized that Team Eclipse may be defeated very soon. Even if he didn't have any part in its downfall, seeing that evil organization gone would simply be another good thing.
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Cypress ran faster than humanly possible across the gigantic room, dodging well-aimed attacks with a supernatural sense. Cypress broke past the Unova fighters, and threw himself through a solid metal door to the far lower levels of the facility.
The others followed him down the power sector, but Cypress was too quick for them. Escaping through a blast door, Cypress was running along catwalks far above the glimmering molten lava of the volcano, the main geothermal power source for the massive facility.
Cypress looked behind him, and saw that some people had made it through the open blast door, with many more following. Cypress stopped, focused his energy, and launched a invisible pulse of energy at the door controls. The door closed suddenly enough to prevent anyone else from coming through. A ray shield also activated, essentially making it pointless to breach the closed door.
Five people had made it through, Frontier Brain Spenser, Fronter Brain Lucy, Gym Leader Janine, and none other than Koga and Bruno.
Cypress howled with laughter. "Five! Five little boys and girls, against me? And I thought I was having a laugh at Anthien City! Perish to my fire!"
Cypress breathed a ball of purple fire out of his mouth, and everyone dodged out of the way, except Spenser. He raised his staff, and the demonic blast parted in two, leaving the old man completely unharmed.
Cypress hissed like a cornered animal, and slid just under a blast of poison from Lucy's Seviper. Judging this fight to be better left to tactics, Cypress threw a torrent of lava at Janine, causing Koga to scream in rage. The Gym Leader dodged the blast, but Cypress was already gone, with Bruno and Spenser hot on his tail.
Cypress jumped backwards, avoided Bruno's Hitmonlee's strikes. Cypress threw Bruno to the side with a burst of energy, into the lava below. Bruno gabbed onto a support post, but Cypress threw him away, Bruno only surviving by landing on a small repair platform. Cypress tried to blast hit again, but a small shuriken lodged into his arm, courtesy of Koga.
Enraged, Cypress threw his blade in an arc through the air, cutting the wing off Janines Crowbat. It fell, and the Gym Leader landed through a open door to a maintenance tunnel. Cypress caught his blade and threw it down again, but he was grazed by Spenser's staff as he did this, causing the sword the miss Janine and embed itself in the control panel, preventing the Gym Leader from escaping. Four.
Cypress repelled Lucys army of Shuckle away, al the while dodging Bruno's nunchuck strikes. Calling upon the power of his master, Cypress forced everyone away with a scream, allowing him to summon his blade again. Koga recovered and had his Muk hit Cypress with a Sludge Bomb, making the demon fall over the edge into the lava below.
Spenser used his Golbat to rash after Cypress, who had jumped in midair to a lower platform. Cypress knocked Spenser to the side, and threw Lucy and her Seviper to a another blast door, and sealed it. Three.
Cypress concentrated, and teleported away just as Bruno's Machamp took a shot at his head. Koga rushed at him, katana drawn, ready to finish the job at the Tin Tower. Cypress blocked his swings, and threw him against a railing, with cutting his Koffing in half. Spenser and Bruno pushed Cypress back to to a magma chute, while Cypress made dangerous, wide swings that cut through sensitive controls, sending alarms blaring.
Koga got up and joined the fight against Cypress. Whatever his abilities, the Eclipse Lord seemed to be losing. He was being hit just faster than he could heal, and the three experienced trainers had control over where he could turn the battlefield.
Cypress lost his temper and aimed a overly powerful strike at Bruno, who had his chest grazed, burned. Koga saw a opportunity, and stabbed the demon through the chest, twice. Spenser hit him around the head, breaking his neck.
Cypress fell to the ground, dead or near death. While Bruno sat nursing his cut, Koga remembered Cypress's words about going for the head. Not willing to take any chances this time, Koga lifted his sword, and let it fall at the neck.
The blade simply bounced off, smoking. Koga tried again, with the same result. Koga saw dark waves of energy traveling through the floor cracks, fusing like smoke to Cypress. "Stand back!" Spencer yelled. "Something is going to happen!"
Cypress was now completely enveloped by the energy. His shape stood up, and continued to writhe, tendrils moving under the smoke. In a absolutely horrible voice, the shape started to speak.
"Ahhhhhhh! Attempting to slay me with blades? I think not! How dare you assault my vessel, thinking you could slay me! I am coming to the front of his soul-" The voice changed to Cypress's for a moment. "Oh god! Its coming out of me! Don't let إبليس devour me! Save-" The voice reverted back to the demon's. "Vanish into nothing!"
The smoke cleared, and Cypress was standing, head down. Koga swung another strike at him, but with impossible speed the demon's hand reached up to catch the blade, leaving a cut. It raised it's head, and it's mouth was now full of razor-sharp fangs.
With a blast of smoke, Bruno was thrown against a wall, unconscious. The creature in the shape of Cypress bit Koga's hand, causing it to explode with more pain then such a wound ever could. As Koga saw Spenser furiously locked in combat with the Un-Cypress, he remembered the fact that the hand Cypress had reattached was now under the demons control. Regardless, he still couldn't move.
Spenser was getting a few hits in, but the Un-Cypress seemed to be totally impervious to pain. It summoned its flaming blade, and started to to engage in even combat.
Koga could do nothing but watch as the Un-Cypress found a single weak point in Spenser's defense, and stabbed him through the chest. The thing then threw Spenser into a lava pit far below.
The rage that came of his fellow fighters death snapped Koga out of his pain-filled trance, and roared as he charged the Un-Cypress. The demon threw him to the side, chomping its fangs, ready for another kill.
Then a enormous blast rocked the very complex to its core. The Un-Cypress was thrown through a hole in the mountain, while Koga fainted as a piece of debris hit him in the head. The explosion had been caused by Janines Foretress, since she had escaped the tunnel.
To her horror, Janine saw two figures falling through the air. The blast had also ripped into the upper layers, taking none other then Samuel Oak with it.
Janine then saw a Swanna fly from a upper layer, and catch both the Un-Cypress and Oak. Another blast of purple smoke came from the Un-Cypress, causing the Swanna to veer down, crashing into a cliff side. The two figures fell a short distance to a unfrozen stream below, and were carried down the mountain out of sight.
The Battle of Eclipse Base was over. And at a cost far too great.