Part 4 : Fighting for a Dream
Chapter 16 : The First Day
Two days later, the sun rose, shining fiercely over the main stadium of the Indigo Plateau, a stadium dominated by the high tower of the Kanto government right beside it. One of the gate of the stadium stood wide open, ready to welcome the many trainers who would, in the next few days, compete for the ultimate prizes – the title of pokemon master, and recognition as the greatest pokemon trainer of both Johto and Kanto. First to enter were the gym leaders, split in four group, representing the various divisions that would take part in the contest. The Eastern Kanto division came first, under the applause of the crowd and with the comment of the announcer accompanying each arrival.
"For the Fuchsia gym, the gym leader Koga Kisaragi and his sister Aiya!" the voice rang through the stadium as the two Ninja stepped in, in their usual ninja outfits.
"For the Saffron gym, the gym leader Sabrina Psyke!" The man announced next. There was a certain silence as the two psychics stepped in the arena, both of them seeming not to care to what was going on around them.
"For the Vermilion gym, the gym leader, Lieutenant Jonathan Surge!" the announcement rang as two men with yellow, spiky hair entered the arena, both of them walking in an obviously military way, one of them much younger than the other.
"For the Celadon gym, the gym leader Erika Springfield!" the man announced, and another roar of applause came from the crowd as the famous – and beautiful – gym leader entered.
Ash smiled, not really caring as the rest of the gym leaders took their place, only watching when the announcer called out " Misty Waterflower", of course watching his girlfriend making her entrance in the stadium. Surprisingly, her sisters had elected not to register, standing out of the contest, and letting their youngest sister fight, arguing that with her Lapras, Starmie, Seadra, Golduck and Dragonair - as well as Ash's Blastoise - she definitely had the most powerful team of them all. He also watched, somewhat surprised, when the gym leader of Pewter was announced, as he certainly had not expected Brock to have gone back to his old job, yet he was the one who stepped in the arena. For a brief moment, Ash wondered if that meant Suzie would take part in the main tournament, but really did not bother to find out about it. If she did, she would definitely make for an interesting opponent, being one of the few, lucky beings who had been granted the title of pokemon master.
Soon, it was the turn of the trainers to enter the stadium, first the enormous mass of trainers that had managed to obtain all eight badges of one of the league or the other, then the much smaller group of the trainers who had obtained all sixteen badges - only nine of them, many of which Ash knew personally, including Richie and Gary.
Once all the trainers were gathered in orderly rows on the main field of the stadium, a man and a woman appeared, holding the flame of Moltres together. The man, Ash definitely knew, as he was his father, Lance. His long dark cloak flew in the wind, and his spiky dark hair gave him a slightly roguish appearance. The woman beside him had pale blonde hair, almost white, and was clothed in dark black, tight clothes.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Please welcome the League Champions and Chiefs of State of Johto and Kanto - Karen Strife and Lance Blackthorn!" the announcer yelled, as a deafening roar of applause rang through the stadium.
The two chief of states, followed by a pair of bodyguards behind, made their way up the main spire of the stadium, lighting the great flame that would remain for the entire pokemon games as a symbol of the courage of the trainers who would fight there.
They then turned toward the now silent assembly of trainers, and spoke.
"Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming." Karen said first, her cold eyes surveying the stadium.
"As most of you realize, this is quite an historical event." Lance added. "For the first time, the two leagues of Johto and Kanto have set aside their old rivalry to work together." He added.
"Without further talk, I declare the first inter-league games open!" Karen added, taking some scissors form her pocket and cutting the ribbons that had been wrapped in a symbolic way at the feet of the stairs after they had climbed them.
The cheering echoed for a long while throughout the stadium as the two of them waited patiently for the sound to die down. Once it did, Lance spoke again.
"Now, I am going to talk to all the trainers here to fight for the title of pokemon master, or of the best gym leader there is." He said. "I just want to remind you that being the best gym leader is nothing. You already have all proven that you are astoundingly skilled trainers, otherwise you would not have been chosen for the jobs you occupies now." The assembled gym leaders all nodded. "During your career, you all have learned that skill is far more important than brute strenght, and you all have learned that cheating would never make you better. I ask you all to remember that for this tournament. Play by the rules, as I know you do when you fight in your gyms." Lance looked at them.
"And for the trainers, remember, being a pokemon master in title means nothing either. The true pokemon master might be a master in soul, but never get the name. He's the one who's bond with his pokemon is so strong that they would never hesitate to give his life for him, the one whose pokemon would do anything for him, He is also the one who would do anything for pokemon, even give his own life. If there's someone among you like that, even if he looses, he will be more of a pokemon master than anyone else here, including me. He's also the one who choose his pokemon because of his bond with them, not because of strange concepts of strenght and weakness. Strong pokemon, weak pokemon, that is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites. Those who do that are closer to being pokemon master than those who win by simply selecting their pokemon based on strength alone, or worse, cheat to win." She ended her speech, looking at them all. "Remember that when you fight." She added, and without another word, the two of them stepped off. Ash barely even watched, eager to fight his first battle in the competition.
____________________________
Unfortunately for him, the qualifiers to determine who would be the lucky seven trainers who would make it to the finales among those who had not collected all sixteen badges had to happen first. Hence, his first two weeks in Indigo were spent mostly taking time with Misty, who was free as well, since the competitions of the gym leader tournament would start at the same time as the first round of the main tournament. Elayne was the only one of them who fought during that time, easily making her way to the new tournament. Ash often went to watch the battles, especially when a particularly promising trainers was on the field. Strangely enough, many trainers used teams built around a single type of pokemon. Elayne was one of those trainers, using a team built around grass pokemon, and a number of other promising trainers did the same.
Still, he spent most of his time with Misty, watching as the late autumn over Indigo slowly turned in early winter, as the first snowflakes fell, draping the world in a pristine white cloak. Their own cloaks came in handy as the weather changed, allowing them to ignore the falling snow, as they seemed to be made of a material that shrugged off cold and snow, not even becoming wet in the process.
Two weeks after the opening ceremony, the qualifiers of the main tournament finally concluded, and it was time for the real contest to begin. Ash and his friends waited eagerly in the main stadium as the elite four readied the tables that would announce the match-ups for the upcoming contests.
"The first rounds match up in the Gym Leader tournament!" Lance announced, and the loud crowd suddenly was silent, as the information begin to appear on the screen. "For the Kanto league, Brock Slate against Misty Waterflower, Giovanni Scarpa against Blaine Higgins, Jonathan Surge against Sabrina Psyke, and Erica Springfield against Koga Kisaragi!" Lance added, listing the match-ups that were listed
"And for the Johto league, Falkner Eisenstein against Jasmine Smith, Whitney Crescent against Morty Chandler, Claire Leonhart against Chuck Tyson and Pryce Amundsen against Bugsy Heifer" She finished the announcement.
A tall, muscular man, then rose, carrying the display with the match-ups for the first round of the real tournament, the pokemon master tournament. Ash knew him, and had met him once - he was Bruno, the fighting - and rock - master of the Elite Four.
"And now, for the trainer tournament..." Lance announced. "Elayne Loreana against Kamon Yetsukai, AJ Phillips against Ash Ketchum, Will Arkonen against Janine Kisaragi, Gary Oak against Richie Cotter, Suzie Williams against Hiro Tadeshi, Kyle Stery against Ashton Maxwell, Shingo Musashi against Martin Cole, and Otoshi Kinomoto against Tanya Ketchum!" He stopped, his announcement over. Ash smiled, as it was finally time for him and AJ to have a rematch, after a long time waiting.
Ash's first round would not take place until the next day, while Misty, Elayne and Gary would all fight in the afternoon. As much as he wanted to see Gary's battle, Ash really simply could not miss Misty's match, especially seeing as her opponent would be Brock. Soon, he was sitting in the lower seats of the stadium were the two would face each other.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this first match of the Inter-League gym challenge, between Brock Slate of Pewter and Misty Waterflower of Cerulean!" the announcer yelled. The light all around the indoor stadium suddenly were lit, revealing the field, and the two raised stand, decorated one with a boulder badge and the other with a cascade badge, were the trainers would stand during their fight. Misty was already atop one, and Brock at the top of the other.
_____________________________
Misty felt a few drops of sweat rolling down from her forehead as she concentrated, ready for the two on two match she was about to fight. Reaching for her bag, she withdrew a pokeball to start the fight.
"The two trainers will both send out their selected pokemon at once!" The announcer yelled, and for an irrational moment, Misty wished he would just shut up and let them fight. With a swift motion, she threw the pokeball.
"Misty call Syldra!" she announced, as her dragonair materialized on the battlefield.
"Steelix! I choose you!" Brock answered, calling out his great steel serpent.
The two long pokemon faced each other, purple eyes glaring in stony ones, steely and azure bodies facing each other as the two pokemon seemed to be judging the strength of their opponents.
"Steelix! Iron tail!" Brock yelled, watching his pokemon getting ready to strike.
"Syldra! Counter it with agility!" Misty retaliated.
The great steel pokemon swung his tail toward dragonair, but the speed the creature gained, and her superior agility allowed her to escape the attempted attacks with ease, never even letting the tail come close to hitting her. Brock watched the attacking pokemon, helpless to offer anything that would let his pokemon win, while Misty watched with a grin, certain that she had victory well within her grasp.
"Syldra! Fire Blast!" She suddenly yelled out the order, her eyes locked on the battlefield.
"Steelix! Dig to get yourself safe underground!" Brock countered, and, before the roaring wave managed to strike the great worm, he was down underground, safe from attacks, and ready to attack from behind.
"Syldra, use your surf to fill that hole" Misty suddenly ordered, and waves of water fell in the hole, filling it to the brim with pure water. There was a roar of panic from underground, and Steelix burst out at an astounding speed, completely missing any attempt at attacking Syldra in the process. The little dragon, however, did not miss, and took advantage of the occasion - a worm looking the other way, still panicked from the water it had just narrowly escaped was just too easy of a target. This time, the flames engulfed the pokemon, who fell to the ground, badly wounded. Before Steelix could recover, a second roaring wave of flame struck out, and the pokemon eyes closed, as a red beam enveloped him, returning him to his pokeball.
"Excellent move from Waterflower! She used her attack to prevent the opponent tactic from suceeding, giving herself an easy target for victory!" The announcer continued to yell, though Misty was doing her best not to hear what he was saying. She kept her eyes locked on Brock as he selected another pokeball to throw out on the battlefield.
"All right then. CROBAT! I choose you!" He yelled, as the strange bat pokemon appeared, and Misty stared at it for a moment, wondering what kind of pokemon it was exactly, realizing soon that it was probably an evolution of Zubat, and thus poison and flying for types.
"In that case, Syldra, returns. Starmie! I choose you!" she ordered, and her star-shaped pokemon appearedon the battlefield, her jewel glittering in the sun.
"Oh, that's what you want to do." Brock said. "Crobat! Toxic!" He ordered, and his pokemon readied for the strike.
"Starmie! Attack with a thunderbolt!" Misty countered, and the pokemon acknowledged the order by wiggling one of her arms.
Crobat glared at Starmie, and spat out a cloud of poisonous gas toward the star-shaped pokemon. However, Starmie's core started glowing, and soon a fierce bolt of thunder fell from above, striking directly the crobat. Starmie tried desperately to avoid the toxic cloud, but simply did not have the time to do so, falling to the ground in no time at all, the poison slowly sapping her strength. On the other hand, the lightning bolt immediately struck the Crobat, who fell to the ground, defeated.
"Crobat can't fight!" The announcer yelled. "Victory goes to Gym Leader Misty Waterflower of Cerulean!"
The entire crowd applauded, and Misty soon fell arms locking around her shoulders from behind, and turned to see Ash smiling at her.
"Great job there Misty. You're great." He smiled, and held her tighter. She turned and wrapped her own arms just as tightly around him.
"Thanks my love." She replied, smiling as the crowd continued to applaud.
Chapter 17 : Father and Daughter
"It's down to the last pokemon for both Gary Oak and Richie Cotter. Cotter will surely use his prized Pikachu, as always, but what will Oak use?" the voice of the announcer droned on, but Gary ignored it, concentrating on selecting his next pokemon. Arcanine and Nidoqueen had already both given a good fight, and he had to select which of his pokemon would move in next.
"Alright. Nidoking! I choose you!" He suddenly ordered, calling out his great dinosaur-like beast, the creature appearing on the battlefield, standing ready to fight.
Without any need for order, Nidoking stomped on the ground. Caught aback by the sudden attack, the Pikachu fell to the ground, falling in the many small crevices that were opened by the earthquake. It managed to climb back up, but a second shock wave ran through the earth, sending the electric pokemon to the ground. The creature climbed back up again, but the Nidoking relentlessly stomped on the ground, and more shock waves struck out, sending the pokemon back down every time it rose.
"Sparky! Surf attack!" Richie desperately ordered. He had fought well, Gary had to give him that, but in a match between equals, the fact that he had had to send out his pokemon first had been the deciding factor, allowing Gary to take the advantage early on. And his last choice of pokemon had been easy to predict, allowing Gary to counter it easily. As the pokemon launched a roaring wave of water toward his Nidoking, a last shock wave caused the ground to ripple, and the battle was over as Pikachu fell down.
"Trainer green, Gary Oak of Pallet town, is victorious!" The announcer yelled, But for once Gary felt no joy in victory, as there was no pride to take in a defeat that had been - he knew it - a pure question of luck. He smiled sadly at Richie, who had lowered his head, apparently not taking too well being defeated.
_________________________
A few hours after his victory, Ash was with his friend, celebrating, though there was a certain dark side to the events, and something that Ash felt somehow guilty about celebrating - Gary's victory. Of course Gary was his friend, but so was Richie, and celebrating Gary's victory over Richie seemed like the kind of things he shouldn't be doing, but he just couldn't help it, he felt happy for his best friend.
Elayne had also won her early battles, defeating Kamon with ease, her Ivysaur claiming victory against both his Quagsire and Ampharos, and Damian's Umbreon, which she had borrowed, sealing the battle by defeating Xatu, while Ash himself had won with surprising ease, Charizard claiming all three of AJ's pokemon before they had the time to do any real damage.
More surprising were the other results of the first round, Janine Kisaragi overcoming an astounding type weakness to win with her poison-centered team against Will Arkonen's psychic team, though admittedly, her only non-poison pokemon, a Scizor, had played a large part in that victory. Even more surprising was the fact that Suzie had lost her first round match, defeated by a young new trainer from New Bark, Hiro Tadeshi. Her Dragonair had lost to a Feraligatr using repeated ice punch, her Bellossom in turn taken out by the flamethrower of a Typhlosion, and her Vaporeon loosing to the draining attacks of a Meganium..
Tanya had won her first match, defeating Otoshi Kinomoto, whom Ash remembered having met during his travels through the Indigo League years before, as a young man who had had his badges stolen by Team Rocket. Shingo Musashi, who was reputed as a great master of pokemon techniques, had defeated Martin Cole, a young man who was famous for having already defeated some league, the Elemental League, as far as Ash could remember the name. However, what everyone agreed was the most surprising victory of the round was Ashton Maxwell's defeat, despite his strong, powerful pokemon at the hands of the mysterious Kyle Stery. No one knew much about him, except that he used pokemon no one had expected to see, and managed to do major damage with them, despite what everyone thought possible.
"Hey, the next round matches are up!" Damian suddenly said, from the computer at which he had been spending his time most of the evening despite the partying the others were doing.
"Oh? What are they?" Misty and Ash both replied at once, followed shortly after by Elayne and Gary.
"Gym leader tournament..." Damian slowly said. "Claire against Bugsy, Falkner against Morty, Lieutenant Surge against Erika and Misty against...oh Gawd, that's not going to be easy - you're going up against daddy, Mist." Damian smiled at his sister, as she cringed. Ash put a comforting hand over her shoulders.
"Don't worry Misty. I'm sure you'll do fine." He told her, and she nodded, even though they both knew Giovanni would be far from an easy battle for Misty, being, as he was, acknowledged as the best gym leader of Kanto.
"Yeah, you'll sure show him just as you showed Brock. You do have the type advantage, after all." Gary nodded, and Misty gave him a smile, while she moved closer to Ash, who in turn wrapped his arms tighter around her.
"And the main tournament?" Gary asked Damian.
"You're up against Janine, Koga's daughter. Ash and Elayne are going to be up against each others next round." Damian informed them "And sorry Misty but I think for once we won't be cheering for the same side." He grinned at the young woman, who grinned back, while still holding Ash tightly. Ash, of course, had absolutely nothing against the idea of letting her do so, and in fact brought her even closer, holding her as tightly as he could without hurting her.
They continued having fun all together for a while, then went to their beds to get some rest, as they all knew tomorrow would be a major day for them all, as they would all fight hard fights.
_______________________
Early the next morning, Misty entered the stadium for her second round battle, feeling very nervous, as her father was a very skilled gym leader. She would not have an easy fight, that was something she knew, even with the type advantage she had. On the other side of the stadium, standing on the raised column that was adorned with a representation of the Earth Badge, her father was waiting. She climbed up the column that was adorned with a huge representation of her own cascade badge. The stadium was already filled to the brim with supporters of either side, and she could easily see Ash, Damian, Elayne, Suzie and Brock sitting in the front row, all cheering her.
The announcer spoke, though being focused as she was on the battle, Misty did not really notice, talking one of her pokeball and getting ready to throw it. Well, getting one of the pokeball she carried would have been more appropriate as the pokeball she held in her hand was none other than Ash's Blastoise's - Rafael, according to Ash, a name which had made Misty smile.
"Nidoking...I choose you." he said as a huge purple beast appeared.
"I choose Rafael!" she answered, calling out the enormous turtle, who looked at her and gave her a grin. Misty grinned back, watching as the pokemon stared at each other. Nidoking was a strong pokemon, but then, so was Blastoise. That would be a very interesting match.
"Nidoking...try poison sting attack." Giovanni said, his voice controlled, showing no traces of stress or excitement.
"Blastoise, counter it with Withdraw, then try your hydro pump attack!" Misty ordered back.
Nidoking spat out a swarm of little poisonous stings that flew at extreme speed toward Rafael, only to rebound harmlessly off his shell as he hide inside it, protecting himself from harm. The two enormous cannon appeared out of their appropriate holes in the shell, and two roaring blasts of water headed toward the nidoking, who dodged one and got struck by the other. The beast reared, but stood firm, apparently not that affected by the water.
"Nidoking! Try for a fissure!" Giovanni ordered, and Misty tried not to panic, knowing that if the attack connected, Blastoise would be out of the fight.
"Rafael! Try to get him with Blizzard first!" Misty yelled, hoping that the Nidoking would be frozen, or something similar, saving her from having to loose the pokemon.
The hurled crystals of ice struck around the nidoking, who narrowly avoided being frozen as he struck the ground repeatedly. Suddenly, a vast crack opened in the ground, striking forward like a darting spear toward Blastoise. Without any orders from Misty, the great pokemon reacted, stopping his use of blizzard against the nidoking, instead directing it in filling the area under him with ice. As Misty wondered what he was up to, Rafael continued to extend the strange structure of ice to either side of his. As the fissure reached him, Misty understood. The crack stood wide open, but with a great ice bridge arching over it, Rafael standing on top of it. Sliding, he made his way to the safe side, having countered the deadly ground attack.
Soon, before the crack could close as they usually did, he was filling it to the brim with water through a powerful rain dance attack, giving himself a safe haven were he would be utterly immune to attack such as Earthquake and Fissue. In fact, it was a place that would possibly turn these attacks against the Nidoking, if he tried to use them, as they were likely to create huge tidal waves that would not bother Blastoise but would bother the Nidoking very much. Soon, the pokemon was in the water. Once he was there, it was only a matter before he could launch a powerful wave that submerged the ground pokemon, and soon he was coming out of his pool again, having achieved victory by turning the tactics of his opponent back at him.
"All right then." Giovanni seemed to shrug off the loss, though the apparition of the pool put him at a serious disadvantage. "Persian! I choose you!" He ordered, calling out the pokemon that he had obviously been training over the last year to replace his old persian, killed when Butch and Cassidy had taken over Team Rocket.
"What do you want, boss?" The pokemon replied in a very human language. Though the old accent of Meowth wasn't there anymore, there was no doubt in Misty's mind that this was none other than the Meowth she has met so many time.
"I need someone who isn't a ground type to deal with her pokemon." Giovanni answered, and Meowth - Persian, that is - turned toward her, his eyes instanly filling with shock as he winced.
"Not one of the twerps boss...please, ANYTHING but that..." he protested.
"No will do. Why don't you show her some of the new tricks I've taught you?" Giovanni asked calmly. "Thunderbolt."
"Yes boss! I've been wanting to do that for a loooooooong time." He grinned, a slightly vicious grin, as his fur crackled with electricity.
"Blastoise! Withdraw in your shell!" Misty countered, hoping that the pokemon would be able to survive the attack so, but it was too late. Tired by the unending fighting of the battle against the Nidoking, Blastoise went down quickly.
Against a pokemon that knew thunderbolt, Misty could only see one possible choice for her next pokemon - a dragon, as they were resistant to electric attack, not to mention that Syldra would still be able to make an effective use of the water that had resulted from Rafael's brilliant tactic.
"Misty calls Syldra!" She said, and the long dragon appeared, floating above the water, her long angelic white wings shining.
The two pokemon stared at each other for a while, waiting to make the first move, both of them ready to strike but apparently unwilling to do so. Syldra's horn glittered like a thousand pearls, and Persian's eyes shone with the will to fight and win.
"Persian! Fury Swipes!" Persian ordered himself, like he had done more than once back when he had been a Meowth.
"No." Giovanni replied before the cat pokemon could use the attack.
"But boss..." The pokemon started to protest.
"I said no. Use your bubblebeam attack instead."
"Syldra, Fire blast attack." Misty answered, knowing that there was a chance the two attack would cancel each other, the fire heating the water to the point where it would turn to steam, and thus preventing it from reaching Syldra. She knew, from her experience with water pokemon, that bubble attacks were extremely effective at knocking back a pokemon and slowing it down.
The two attack met, roaring wave of flame and stream of bubble, and as Misty had planned, they canceled each other easily. As the flames died, the stream of bubble had vanished.
"All right then. Try your thunderbolt anyway, even though it's not going to do that much." Giovanni ordered, apparently disgusted by the turn of events. Yet, as the thunderbolt struck, Syldra writhed in pain, surrounded by crackling energy, as if the attack was doing much more damage that one would have expected.
"Again!" Giovanni ordered, seeing that his strategy was working.
"Syldra! Escape it with your agility!" Misty ordered suddenly. The pokemon threw himself in a corkscrew maneuver, narrowly dodging the next blast that would probably have taken her out.
"All right. Now move to the other side of persian!" She ordered, hoping that her father would not guess at her plan.
"Persian, keep at it with your thunderbolts!" Giovanni countered. His face was now covered in sweat, as he was drawn in the intensity of the battle.
Misty watched, waiting for the exact moment to strike, the one moment at which the pokemon would be positioned just right. And then it came.
"Syldra! Full strength body slam! Now!" She yelled, and the dragon pokemon threw herself in an extremely rapid attack, throwing the surprised opponent back, far away from where he had been - and right in the lake that had resulted from the fissure and rain dance from earlier.
"Persian! Stop your thuderbolt!" Giovanni yelled, realizing the peril he had been put it. Unfortunately, the order came too late, and the next bolt of thunder was lost in the water, and sent back in the body of the cat pokemon, who barely had time to utter a single "Oh damn, not THAT again..." before the energy struck him, causing him to screech in pain as power ran through his body. Yet, even the damage from the thunderbolt seemed to be not enough, as the pokemon crawled out of the lake, wounded but still willing to fight.
"Syldra, finish him. Fire blast, now." She ordered. Before the pokemon could move, a roaring wave of flame surrounded him, and he screeched again in pain, finally falling to the ground, defeated, his eyes closed, uttering a final comment, barely audible but that sounded suspiciously like "Looks like I'm blasting off. Again." A few second alter, Syldra, weakened by the thunderbolt that had struck her and by the power she had just spent in her attacks, followed him, but Persian had been first to faint, and Misty felt exhilaration running through her entire body as she realized that against all hope, she had defeated her father.
"That was AWESOME!" Ash yelled as he ran toward her, catching her in a tight hug, which she answered easily. "You were just wonderful there!"
"Thanks Ash - but Rafael did most of it. You sure you don't want him back?" She grinned impishly.
"Great job Misty. You really fought hard to get that one, and you deserved it." Damian congratulated her, soon followed by a grinning Elayne. Even though they had been in Team Rocket for a long time, the two of them
"She was like a bit lucky, but she, like, fought very well, I'll give her that. You, like, were sensational, sister. I'm like proud of you - we like all are." Misty grinned as she recognized the voice of one of her sister, and turned to face her.
"Thanks Lily. Does that mean I'm a sensational sister and not the family runt now?" she grinned again.
"Well...your, like, our sister and your, like, sensational. So that makes you, like, a sensational sister, I guess." Her sister grinned
"I'm proud of you too...You really surprised me." She immediately recognized the man's voice, and turned to face the dark-haired man who had spoken. He wore a red suit, as he usually did, with a yellow turtleneck under it.
"Thank you dad." She said, feeling something shift deep within her as she said so. For long, she had avoided calling him like that, refusing to admit that he, Giovanni, who had until recently been the leader of Team Rocket, was also her father. But now, it was breached, as those three simple words had been her own admittance that she was his daughter, that there was no denying it.
_______________________________
A few hours later, she was in the stadium again, this time cheering for Ash as he faced Elayne in battle. So far, the match had not gone well for the young woman. She had expected him to start off with either Fenrir or Deathwing, and had sent out Vaporeon, which she had borrowed from Damian, only to be caught off guard by the powerful attacks of Raiken, who had used his mastery of electrical energy to easily win the battle.
Her next attempt had been somewhat luckier, her Tangela managing to do some major damage, knocking off the electric mouse, though Raiken's thunderbolt had not been useless, damaging the Tangela, softening her for whichever pokemon Ash sent out next. That one had been Celes, who had used her wing attacks to defeat the grass pokemon without taking much damage, and now Elayne was out of pokemon that would really help her win.
"Exeggutor! I choose you!" she said, calling out the pokemon, whom she had swapped for her weepinbell just before the tournament, and Misty had to admit it was about the only choice she had. The psychic side of Exeggutor might just turn out to be enough for her to defeat the flying pokemon.
"Exeggutor! Sleep powder, then psychic!" She ordered, but as the pokemon readied himself for attack, Ash's Pidgeot swept down from above, both of her wings striking the tree-shaped pokemon. Although the attack obviously wounded its target, it was not enough, and the creature stood still, letting loose a stream of powder in the air that caused the flying pokemon to fall to the ground, an easy prey for the waves of psychic energy that the tree-like creature emitted. Soon, Celes was defeated, even though Misty knew very well that Elayne had already lost. From the look in her eyes, Elayne knew that, too, as she knew that Ash had the perfect counter for Exeggutor.
"Fenrir, I choose you." He ordered, calling out his dark wolf. There was no need for order, as the waves of psychic energy from Exeggutor bounced off harmlessly, never even coming close to harming the dark pokemon. The grass attack did no better, as they were all beaten up by the dark flames that the creature summoned to defend himself. Fenrir advanced slowly toward the Exeggutor, and, just as he seemed about to launch a wave of fire at the creature, a red beam enveloped the sentient palm tree, as it was recalled in a pokeball.
"I concede." Elayne whispered, and it was obvious for anyone looking at her, or hearing her that she was trying very hard to choke back tears. Within a second, Damain was there, his arms tightly wrapped around her, and Misty watched her sadly, noticing that Ash was doing the same.
"You aren't happy about winning?" She asked him.
"Why would I be...that must be the cheapest victory I ever won. She got the worst possible match-up to start with, and from there, it just went downward...that was not a real battle, nothing hard or anything like that. Not to mention that she's a friend, and lost to a tiny, very tiny oversight of her. I was not even using Raiken because I thought she'd use Vaporeon, just because I almost always start with him." He sighed again. "I know what you mean. I felt a bit the same way after I beat Brock...it was too easy, because of a bad match up."
Chapter 18 : In an Heartbeat
Yet another day had dawned over Indigo Plateau, and yet another battle was being fought in one of the stadiums of the city. Misty glared at the woman she was facing, knowing she would have a definite advantage for this battle.
"Syldra! Twister!" She ordererd, her dragonair circling her opponent, waiting for the best opportunity to strike.
"Dragonair! Counter it with a Twister of your own!" Claire's voice countered, and Misty watched eagerly, wanting very much to defeat her opponent in this one battle, after what she had done to them back in Blackthorn.
The two forceful whirlwind-like attacks, called upon by the two pokemon that could command weather, met in the middle of the stadium, crashing in each other. The whole stadium trembled as the two attack met and an explosion struck the battlefield. An enormous twister appeared, as if the two previous ones had combined to create a new one.
Both dragon pokemon stopped fighting, concentrating on the monster that had appeared, their eyes glowing as they sought to control it. The twister stood still, though it sometime would go slightly one way, soon after to make its way toward the other pokemon
Suddenly, the twister died, and the two pokemon who had been vying to control it fell to the ground, their energy drained by the test of will they had just gone through. With a sigh, Misty recalled Syldra, as Claire recalled her first dragonair.
"Dragonair! Go!" She yelled, sending out another one.
"Lapras! I choose you! Use your Ice Beam quick!" She ordered, looking at the pokemon.
Lapras came out of the pokeball half a second before Dragonair. The second the dragon was out, he was encased in a block of ice, without his trainer even having time to give an order. Taken aback by the turn of events, Claire recalled her pokemon, giving Misty another victory, an easy one.
______________________________
The days had passed quickly, and while Misty had made it to the final, Ash, by his sad victory over Elayne, and Gary, by defeating the Hiro person and his team of Meganium, Feraligatr and Typhlosion with Arcanine, Girafarig and Gyarados. The third round matches were up, and while Gary would go up against they mysterious trainer Kyle Stery, who had once again won through his surprising tactics - according to what they heard, anyway - Ash would be coming up in a battle against none other than his cousin, Tanya. Misty, as for herself, would be coming up in her first really bad match of the tournament - against Erica, and her grass pokemon.
To make things worst, Syldra, whom she had been planning to use in that fight, refused flat out to do so, claiming that due to some higher power she was unable to do so, not allowed. Misty tried to convince her, of course, but her answer was simple :
"It is not my destiny. If I take part in that battle, things will be set wrong, and it will take a long time to put an end to the problems such a mistake would cause" she said simply, speaking directly in Misty's mind, shaking her head.
"Well, Aysen will fight for Ash won't he?" she tried to counter.
"His destiny and mine are different." The pokemon shrugged, before telling her again that she would not fight in the battle.
She let the subject drop, not really wanting to make things worse between her pokemon and herself. Syldra would have been a good bet - she wasn't a water type, and therefore was not weak to grass attacks, and she knew fire blast. She finally settled on the team she would use the evening before the battle, selecting Lapras, because of his Ice half, seeking to take advantage of the weakness of grass pokemon to ice attacks, and Starmie, trying to use the pokemon's psychic side against the fact that most grass pokemon were also partially poison types.
____________________________
She rose early the next morning, and was in the stadium half an hour before the time of her battle which was to be the first of the day. Thus, the stadium was empty, and she could wait, thinking about her strategy further. Sitting down near the platform that would soon hold her, she waited for the tournament to begin, praying that the weather would favor her, or that something else would, turning the tides in her favor. Ash soon joined her, as his semi-final fight would only take place the next day, unlike Gary's, which would take place that very day.
"I'm sure you'll do fine Misty." He told her softly "Erica's not that good." He added, while Misty smiled weakly. "Hey, you beat Giovanni. Why wouldn't you beat Erica?" He asked her. She tried to cheer up, to convince herself he was telling the truth, but simply could not.
All too soon, the spectators entered the stadium and she took her place on the raised platform, to wait for Erica, who quickly appeared, climbing on the opposite platforms. The stadium was filled win an enormous crowd, and fell stress creeping through her bones once again as she steeled herself for the battle. She drew out Lapras' pokeball, ready to fight, as Erica drew out one of her own pokeball, just as ready to fight. As the referee lowered his flags, the two pokeballs were thrown with force in the middle of the field, revealing the sea monster and his opponent, a small ball of vines.
"Tangela! I choose you!" Erika said.
"Misty calls Lapras!" Misty answered, realizing now how lucky a choice she had made, as Tangela was one of those few grass types that were not poison as well, thus making them resistant to the strategy she would have employed with Starmie.
"Lapras, use Ice Beam!" she ordered, hoping that she would manage to strike first as she had against Claire. If she could remove Tangela without damage to Lapras, she would have gained an advantage that might just be enough to buy her the victory she was after.
"Tangela! Solar Beam!" Erika ordered at the same time, and Misty felt her hear beating faster, as she waited, knowing that now, all it took was for Lapras to aim well, and she would have victory within her grasp..
The sun was shining, but not brightly enough. Tangela gathered the sunlight, but before she could turn it in a bright spear of light aimed at Lapras, a beam of ice struck her, encasing her in solid crystal, with a single shining point of light in the middle, like a magic stone of legend, burning with an inner fire.
"In that case, Gloom, go." Erica said, calmly. Misty had expected that, of course, as she remembered from their previous visit to Erica's gym that Gloom was her favorite pokemon.
"Lapras, ice beam again." She ordered. Victory, despite everything, was within her grasp, she could feel it, she knew she could reach it.
"Gloom, use your petal dance to avoid that attack." Erica countered. The plant pokemon started dancing around, and as much as Lapras tried, he could not aim his shot with enough accuracy to hit the pokemon. Misty swore.
"Gloom, poison powder." The next order came quickly from Erica, and Gloom let loose a wave of poisonous spores toward Lapras. The ice pokemon was too slow to dodge, and within moments was coughing as the poison slowly sapped his strength.
"Lapras, try to use your ice beam again!" Misty ordered, knowing that it was really the only attack Lapras had that could potentially win her the game.
"Gloom, continue avoiding it with your petal dance." Erica's counter was still the same, and as the two pokemon fought, still as effective. At one point, Lapras did manage to hit the Gloom, wounding it, but it appeared to be far from enough, as Gloom stood still, ready to continue fighting.
All too soon, the poison proved to be too much for Lapras, who fell to the ground, finally defeated. Misty recalled her great pokemon, glaring at Erika, knowing she would have to fight well to win the next battle.
"Starmie! I choose you!" She yelled, calling out her star-shaped psychic pokemon.
"Gloom, use your stun spore." Erica ordered, still calm.
"Starmie, thunder wave!" Misty retaliated, trying to paralyze the opposition just as the opposition tried to paralyze her pokemon.
The two attacks were equally effective, Gloom and Starmie falling to the ground, barely able to move, twitching as they fought to rise and attack to win. Misty watched, her hands gripping the railing of the raised platform as she kept her eyes locked on the two pokemon. Starmie had to rise first, she had to, else they had lost, and Gloom would win with ease. Finally, her pokemon seemed to gather enough willpower, and to shake off the paralysis long enough for a psychic blast to appear, aimed at Gloom.
The grass pokemon tried to dodge, but in its paralyzed state, could not. However, it did manage to first a powerful drain attack, and, as the two attack struck, both pokemon fell to the ground - at once. The action happened so fast, there was no way for Misty to tell which pokemon had fallen first - as far as she could see, they had both fallen at once.
There was an hushed silence in the crowd, and she could feel the disbelief of the many onlookers. After all the fierce battling in the tournament, the final looked like it would end with a draw, as if there was no way to determine which of the two trainer was the best. They had both lost one of their pokemon before that, hence there was no way to help there either, and since they had only been allowed to take two pokemon with them on the platform, they could not fight a second battle to determine the winner.
"Well, looks like the referee have decided to talk about the situation and try to decide who won or if it really was a draw..." The announcer's voice said, filled with the same disbelief that everyone felt all around the stadium.
As soon as the platform was lowered, she walked off, eager to take a walk away from the stadium, to think about something other than the battle that had just ended. Ash accompanied her, despite the fact that Gary's match was about to begin, knowing they would soon be back and that he would at least see the end of it.
____________________________
Gary stepped on the terrain, feeling ready for mostly anything. Even though the opposing trainer had made his name known by using strange tactics during the rest of the competition, he was sure he could take him on, and win easily. The pokeball that hung from his belt were all ready to be thrown, all six of them, even though he would only get to use three during the battle.
Umbreon would be first to go, that he had already decided. After that, of course, it would depend on what the opponent sent out. After all, there was no point in trying to plan everything ahead if he had no idea of the strategy of his opponent.
"Umbreon, I choose you!" He yelled as soon as the referee signaled for them to send out their starting pokemon.
"Growlithe, you go!" The man, wearing cloak and hood, threw a pokeball of his own, revealing a cute growlithe puppy that was inside. "Show that pokemon how much of a sweetheart you can be." The man ordered, and the Growlithe raced toward umbreon, cutely licking her on the face, looking at her with big, sad eyes.
Umbreon looked at the pokemon, completely confused by the strange behavior, and Gary looked around, bewildered by the attack, and trying to get an idea what was happening. Suddenly, he realized that this was what everyone had meant, or at least part of it, when talking about unusual tactic.
"All right. Umbreon...bite him!" He ordered, forcing himself to do so despite the way the creature looked, so weak and helpless. He knew it was only a strategy, of course, but even knowing that did not make ordering Growlithe to actually attack any easier. If the creature managed to keep Umbreon locked in thinking he didn't deserve attack, Gary's pokemon would certainly fall to the mental beating she was taking, fighting herself.
Umbreon seemed to struggle as she tried to bite the opponent, her teeth glistening in the light of the great panels hanging from the roof of the stadium. There seemed to be a force within her resisting the will to attack, yet she fought on, determined to break through that force and actually win.
"Growlithe, keep at it. You're weakening her." The mysterious trainer ordered.
"Umbreon, keep at it. One strike will be enough!" Gary yelled, knowing he could not afford to let tactics like that defeat him.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Umbreon leaped, closing her jaws over the neck of the Growlithe, and Gary breathed a sigh of relief as the pokemon fell to the ground. Despite the unusual tactics of his opponent, he had managed to win, and now it was time to face the next pokemon.
"Blissey! I choose you!" The man yelled, calling out his next pokemon. The strange pokemon, obviously an evolution of Chansey, appeared.
"Blissey, try to use Mimize, then use softboiled to recover from any damage that umbreon gets in." The man ordered, using a much more standard tactic than his previous one.
"Umbreon, confuse ray, then toxic." Gary countered. Hopefully, the opponent would be too confused to use any of the attack she had been ordered to perform, and the toxic attack would get in and sap her strength before she could make it through.
A blinding flash of light surrounded Umbreon, soon turning in a beam that enveloped both her and her opponent, and the Blissey looked around, as though she had no idea where she was, who she was, or what she was doing. Trying to remember, she tripped, falling on the ground, as a cloud of toxic dust appeared in the air, created by Umbreon, and slowly floated toward the defenseless pokemon, hitting her.
"All right umbreon. Keep up the pressure with more Confuse Ray." Gary ordered, as the little pokemon continued striking out with blinding rays of light that were meant to devastate all memories the opponent had of what she was meant to do, who she was meant to fight. The pokemon continued to stumble around helplessly as her powers were nullified by her inability to remember how to use them, and as the poison slowly sapped her strength. Soon, she fell to the ground, defeated by the gas that ran through her blood, and Gary breathed another sigh of relief. Two down, one to go.
"Very well. Blissey, come back." The trainer ordered, calling back one pokemon and sending out a third. A huge shape, somehow familiar in forms though not in size, materialized in the middle of the battlefield, nearly high enough to reach the top of the platform, long enough to cover nearly half the fighting ground, half again as large. But even despite its size, the pokemon was still as useless as any other of the specie - as any other Magikarp.
"You expect to win with THAT?" Gary asked in stunned amazement.
"Yes." The man replied, and for a fleeting moment Gary wondered if he was perhaps facing a madman. "Magikarp, use your splash attack. Forward." The man ordered, and Gary watched amused as the pokemon made his way slowly forward, jumping stupidly on the ground, sending small shock waves through the earth with each jump.
The Magikarp continued coming forward, as Umbreon watched, the massive shadow of the pokemon coming closer. It was only then that Gary realized the peril he was in. Of course, most Magikarp were able to do nothing with their splash attack, but if that one succeeded in using splash to catch up to Umbreon and fall on top of her, it would do some massive damage due to weight alone. The shadow of the fish pokemon completely kept the sun away from Umbreon, as the creature was about to fall on top of him.
"Umbreon! Move out!" He yelled suddenly, watching as his dark pokemon tried to run away, only to be caught under a fin as the fish fell again on the ground. Stuck there, the dark pokemon tried desperately to get out, but was trapped as the Magikarp refused to move.
"Umbreon, return." Gary ordered, taking his pokeball and throwing it to the ground, wondering what pokemon to send out next. He finally decided on Girafarig, coming up with a plan that he hoped would be enough to overcome the heavy problem he was faced with.
"Girafarig! I choose you!" He ordered, calling out the psychic pokemon.
"Magikarp, trample it." The opposing trainer ordered, the order that Gary had expected, of course.
"Girafarig, use your psychic powers to keep that Magikarp from crashing on you!" he countered.
The wave of psychic powers enfolded the Magikarp, keeping it floating above the Girafarig, who stood his ground valiently. To Gary, it was obvious that the psychic pokemon would not be able to keep at it that long, but since he wasn't planning for any such thing to happen.
"Try to push that pokemon higher if you can!" He ordered, and Girafarig nodded, pushing upward with his psychic powers, exhausting himself in the process. Gary watched his pokemon carefully, waiting for the exact moment were the Girafarig would be unable to fight. As soon as he saw that his pokemon was too weak to keep the enemy floating high above, he picked up the pokeball, and aimed the red beam.
"Girafarig, release and return!" He ordered, recalling his pokemon as soon as he released the field of energy holding the enormous magikarp flying. The great pokemon crashed as Gary called out his last pokemon.
"GYARADOS! I choose you!" He yelled, calling out the enormous sea dragon, Magikarp's evolved form. "Use your hyper beam while it's down!" The great beast nodded once after hearing the order, and a stunning beam of pure light struck out, hitting the Magikarp, causing a single plaintive "karp" to come out of its mouth of the great fish. As the stunning light, like a new sun, faded away, they could all see that the Magikarp was on the ground unmoving.
There was a moment of silence in the whole stadium, as everyone waited for the announcement of Gary's victory, as everyone waited to see if the fish would stay down. After that moment lasted for a while, the voice of the announcer rang.
"Trainer red, Gary Oak of Pallet, is victorious!" the man yelled, and Gary sighed in relief again. "And, regarding today's previous match, the referees have come to a decision. Trainer Green, Erika Springfield, was victorious. It was demonstrated that her pokemon fainted slightly after that of Misty Waterflower."
Gary turned to watch Misty, who had returned to take a seat in the stadium. She was definitely depressed, from the way her head was lowered, and Ash had her arms around her comfortingly. Gary smiled sadly. Personally, he had no doubts the final would end the same way for him, finishing second to Ash after a fierce duel. But at least, he was sure that there would be no false hope, as Misty has been brought to face by the fact that the two pokemon had fainted within an heartbeat of each other. He looked at them once again before leaving the stadium, trying to ready himself as much as he could to his upcoming defeat.
Chapter 19 : A Final Duel
"There are two pokemon down on each side, and the two cousin still faces each other, ready to call out their final pokemon." The announcer yelled, even though Ash was trying to ignore the sounds around him, to focus on the match. Tanya was no easy opponent, she had proven it already, and now they were both down to their last pokemon. For a brief moment, he wondered how it was that the announcer had gotten a hold of the fact that they were cousin, then pushed the thought aside, focusing on choosing the next pokemon.
"Fenrir! I choose you!" He yelled, calling out the dark pokemon again.
"San! I choose you!" His cousin replied, her own houndoom appearing in the middle of the field.
The two great wolves stared at each other, their fangs and horns glistening in the light. Tanya's was a little shorter, and had slightly less curved horn, but otherwise there were no major differences. They stood, ready to strike, golden eyes staring in golden eyes.
"San, use your crunch attack." Tanya ordered, trying to keep her voice cool. Her silver hair were falling loosely on her shoulders, and she wore her tight black shirt and pants, and her long black coat, with her spiked collar still in place. Her eyes were as ice whenever she looked at Ash, who tried to shrug off her deadly look.
"Counterattack with your flamethrower Fenrir. Create a ring of fire around you." Ash gave his own order, watching his pokemon executing the maneuver perfectly, creating a whirlwind of flame around himself that forced the attacking houndoom to back down, even though as a fire type she would be able to take the heat, at least for a time. Even with protection, there was no use taking needless damage when you were down to your last pokemon.
"All right Ash. You want to play this way, we'll play this way." Tanya growled. "San, use your mud slap attack to extinguish the fire." She ordered. Her pokemon started digging in the soil of the arena, covering the wall of flame around Fenrir in dirt.
"Fenrir, use Sunny Day to make yourself stronger!" He ordered. Fenrir howled, and the sun blaze pierced through the windows of the arena, a powerful glare that banished all shadow, and strengthened the fire burning as a result of Fenrir's earlier maneuver. Tanya swore.
"Flamethrower!" They both yelled at once, and the two great spears of fire flew toward each pokemon.
"Dodge it!" The shout came from both trainers at once, again, and the two pokemon tried the same move, both of them failing as the well aimed spears of burning energy struck true. Even though they were resistant, the attack, empowered by the fiery sun that shone through the window, seemed to do masses of damage, and Ash watched the two pokemon warily for a sign of fainting from either one.
Within an heartbeat of each others, the two pokemon fell to the ground, their energies drained by the battle. However, unlike what had happened in Misty's battle, Ash - and everyone - had clearly seen Fenrir hanging on a little longer, for perhaps that heartbeat that had defeated Misty.
Ash breated a sigh of relief, knowing that there was only one battle left ahead. And then, he remembered who the battle would be against, and sighed again, but this time an unhappy sigh. He would not enjoy having to face and defeat his friend, a battle that might ruin their friendship and renew their rivalry, though he did not think it would.
______________________
"The Succubus report that task force 5 is fully deployed, and ready to strike." Eric Nelson's voice was the only think May Oak could hear as he reported on the current situation. "We are almost done loading the troops and supplies aboard the transports of task force 6." He continued reporting, giving her detailed information about the status of each warship.
"When will our warships be ready to sail?" She asked, her eyes intent on the tactical map that depicted the whole of Kanto and was on the table of her main command room in the Aircraft Carrier Bloodsword.
"Bloodsword and Dominator are ready to sail, general." He reported. "Obliterator and Annihilator will be ready within a few hours. Executor is lagging a bit behind." The report came, as May rose to look through the window of the command room.
"What of the destroyers?" She asked, her voice stern, surveying the fleet assembled in the underground base of the Crimson Lotus.
"All destroyers, frigates and submarines are ready to sail as you see fit, general." The man who was her second in command - and much more besides - reported. "The transports will be ready within the hours, as well. The loading is nearly finished." He continued, and May nodded, not even having to doubt the words as those of an eager underling. She knew he was telling the truth, she could feel the truth of his words through her mind. Just as she could feel the eagerness to fight of most of the warriors and sailors of the Lotus army and navy. Her mind flew literally all around the underground base, finding source of discontent, and having them dealt with in the best way she could devise.
"Are the troops fully ready?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer. She did not like letting the full extent of the powers she had gained known, not yet to any extent. She preferred to rely on an efficient command staff, so that if her power were unusable for a reason or another, she could always rely on the staff - and if the staff went down, she had her powers ready to take care of things.
"They are." Eric acknowledged.
"Very well. What is your opinion of the campaign plan?" She then asked him, waiting to see his reaction.
"You're asking an underling his opinion on your plan?" There was the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes as he replied.
"We're...friends, too." She replied. "I'm asking you as that." She told him.
"Friends?" There was, again, this faint touch of amusement in his eyes. She blushed, her cheeks taking a slightly pink tone.
"Well, ok. We're more than that." She admitted, as he moved closer to her. They both knew no one could look through the window, and that the door was locked. As his hands rested on her shoulders, May felt a great part of the stress that came from leading thousands of men in war leaving her.
_______________________________
The stadium where the final of the league competition was to be fought had its roof still open, for a reason or another. The weather outside was sunny, the sky cloudless all the way to the horizon for thousands of kilometers, and was rather warmth, at least for December. The two platforms stood at opposite end of the field, and the spectators had already filled the seats all throughout the stadium.
Nearly the whole population of Pallet town was there, of course, seeing as Ash and Gary both had grown up there, and would now be facing each other in the finals. As he walked toward his platform, Ash looked at the pokeball he had just obtained, removing Celes from his team to get it. Celes had been a valuable complement to his line-up, but he simply needed to round up his type a little bit more, to handle fire and ground type. Hence, he had asked Misty to take care of Celes, and had taken Rafael for the six on six battle.
The referee came to the middle of the field, a green and red coin in hand, ready to toss it. Ash, being the green trainer for the match, would be the one to go first if the coin fell on the green side, while Gary, who had just arrived, would go first should it fall on the red side. A simple toss, and the coin flew in the air, whirling so fast it was impossible to see which color was on top and which was on bottom. Landing on the ground, the coin fell on its edge, condemning them to send their two pokemon at once.
"Alright. Umbreon! I choose you!" Gary yelled, calling out his pokemon, as Ash made his own choice, letting Pikachu step in the arena.
"Raiken, you go!" He ordered.
The electric mouse and the dark cat stared at each other, their eyes, blood-red and jet-black meeting, as electricity crackled on Pikachu's cheeks, and the shadows around Umbreon seemed to be darker than the darkest midnight.
"Faint attack!" Gary ordered, his eyes locked on the two pokemon.
"Counter it with thunder wave to paralyze her!" Ash's order came half a second later, as he watched the two pokemon fighting, the shadow swirling around Umbreon to hide her, and the crackling energy gathering around Pikachu for the strike.
A fierce wave of small electric bolt struck out of Pikachu's tail, aimed at the Umbreon, but as it struck, it found only shadow, while the Umbreon was nowhere to be seen. Watching around, Ash didn't notice anything that could even remotely be seen as a clue to the presence of the dark pokemon.
"Continue with thunder wave! Try to cover the whole field with it!" He ordered, watching pikachu, whirling around, continuing to send small bolts of electricity everywhere. As the bolts flew everywhere on the battlefield, Ash stopped a small, slightly darker area in the stadium, that was about the size of an umbreon.
"Pikachu! There, about fifteen feet to your right! Thunderbolt that!" He yelled, and Pikachu whirled, unleashing a fierce bolt of energy that struck the patch of shadow. As the shadow dissolved, it revealed a wounded umbreon standing, still ready to fight.
"Thunderbolt again!" Ash added.
"Umbreon, agility to dodge, then toxic and confuse ray, in order." The counter came, Gary hoping to be able to rely on the same strategy that he had already against the Blissey the day before.
A fierce bolt of thunder struck from above, aimed at the Umbreon, who barely managed to dodge in time, jumping to the left. Three more bolts came down, well aimed, in rapid succession, barely leaving the dark pokemon with the time to dodge. Yet, she managed to do so, avoiding the attacks one after the other, as she seemed to ready herself for the toxic attack.
"Raiken, that's not working!" Ash yelled, as he desperately tried to come up with a tactic.
"I know what I'm doing. Just let me take care of it, ok?" Raiken replied, his voice calling on the trust his friend had so often put in him.
"All right. Do what you think is best." Ash nodded, watching the fight with his eyes locked on Raiken, as the electric pokemon called down another bolt of thunder, one that Ash felt was slightly off the target. And then he understood, as he watched the umbreon moving to the left, as usual, to dodge it, in the usual evasion pattern - only to move right in the path of the incoming bolt, screaming as it struck him. Yet, the bolt wasn't enough just yet, as the creature managed to walk out of it, and finally fire its toxic attack. Pikachu screamed as the poison entered his body, delivering a final strike to the Umbreon before Ash ordered him to come back, just as his opponent was recalled. Ash tried to find a way to get Raiken healed quickly, but could find none, other than recalling the pokemon. He looked at the weary, weak pokemon who finally nodded, knowing that otherwise would be either extremely dangerous for his life, or else the end of Ash's dream.
"Nidoking! I choose you!" Gary yelled, calling out his pokemon, just as Ash called Pikachu back in a pokeball for the first time in a long, long while.
"Rafael, you go!" Ash grinned at Gary who seemed to swear as the Blastoise arrived on the field. He had not warned his friend about the pokemon swapping he had done for this battle, and now he definitely knew he had done well to keep that a secret.
Ash stared at his friend, who apparently was trying to come up with a victorious strategy, knowing what had happened to Giovanni's Nidoking against Rafael.
"All right. Rafael, use blizzard to trap that Nidoking." Ash first ordered, as Gary still tried to come up with a counter - and suddenly seemed to remember something, grinning. Ash shuddered, knowing that whatever it was, Gary had probably just created a plan that would be a pain to go around.
"Nidoking, just be careful not to be hit by too many ice shards." He ordered calmly.
"I'm gonna kick you hard." The Nidoking threatened Rafael.
Rafael, of course, had a few ideas of his own, and instead of starting out with a blizzard directly around the Nidoking, instead seemed to call it more sparsely but over a greater area, covering soon the whole field in ice, except for a short idea around him. Ash watched, bewildered, wondering what his pokemon was up to.
"Just you watch Ash, just you watch." The pokemon explained as Ash looked at him questioningly. "Rain dance 'd be a real bad idea, I'm sure that Nidoking 'now thunder or something. So I'll do something else."
Gary looked suspiciously at what was happening, and Ash could see his friend worrying, wondering that Ash's pokemon was up to.
"Nidoking, thunder, now!" Gary finally apparently could not take waiting anymore, and ordered his pokemon to attack. Apparently, the trainer had realized that he was not going to have much success with his tactic of waiting for the rain dance to strike with a thunder.
The Nidoking reared, as if it was readying himself for a charge, crackling energy dancing around his horn as he called the wrath of the sky. Rafael, however, had other ideas, as he seemed to ready to withdraw within his shell. First, however, he took a few step on the only patch of non-iced land there was, around him, reaching the edge after a few step, throwing himself to the ground and withdrawing in his shell just as the thunder struck the area where he had been a moment earlier.
The shell, of course, slide with ease over the icy surface, heading at an astounding speed toward the Nidoking, and as Rafael did so, Ash seemed to hear a shout from the depths of his shell.
"BOWLING TIME!"
"What?" The Nidoking seemed to say.
The Nidoking was completely unprepared for the less than regular tactics of the Blastoise, as the creature charged on the ice, sliding at an awesome speed toward the Nidoking, obviously intending to take the pokemon as a pin while he acted as a bowling ball.
The tactic was utterly successful, and soon Blastoise was coming out of his shell, watching the Nidoking sprawled on the back as he unleashed his Blizzard attack on the defenseless target, trapping him in a thick coating of ice.
"Nidoking is unable to fight! This round goes to Blastoise!" the referee yelled, as Gary recalled his pokemon.
"All right then Ash. I'll fight water with water. Gyarados! I choose you!" He yelled, calling out his great pseudo-dragon pokemon. The wyrm appeared over the battlefield, ready to fight.
"Gyarados, hyper beam, now!" Gary yelled.
"Yes boss." The gyarados answered obediently.
"Right, right. I'll deal with it." Rafael said, obviously not caring much about the situation, redirecting his blizzard, this them toward himself as he withdrew in his shell.
By the time the spear of light lanced forth from Gyarados's mouth, Blastoise had managed to cover himself in a thick layer of Ice, while Ash watched, puzzled, what he was up to. The beam struck the ice, slowly grinding it away, but then Ash watched in surprise as the sparkling ice reflected part of the beam as if it was a mirror, causing it to strike back toward Gyarados.
Soon, however, the ice coat was broken, and as Ash waited, hoping that Rafael would manage to get up and fight again, he knew deep inside that the pokmeon had expended his strenght to damage the second opponent - and had done so very well. Gyarados was left wincing in pain as he struggled to keep moving high enough to avoid crashing.
"Rafael, come back. Deathwing! I choose you!" He yelled, calling out the great dragon.
The dragon apperared, challenging the other dragon, gauging him, ready to strike.
"That one needs his butt kicked, doesn't he?" He said in his usual tone, and Ash nodded, watching his pokemon's eyes opening in glee. Deathwing simply charged, narrowly avoiding the surf attack that Gyarados tried to use on order from Gary, and simply hit the other dragon on the head, repeatedly, with his fist. The tactic, while primal, seemed to be rather effective as the Gyarados was soon on the ground, defeated. Of course, Rafael had done most of the damage, but Deathwing had still done a good job ending the fight.
"Alright. That one went fast, but let's see about this one." Gary said, throwing yet another pokeball, calling out his Girafarig. The strange two-headed pokemon appeared on the battlefield, ready to strike. The charizard glared at the new opponent, his eyes locked on him.
"You." He said. "Need a serious kicking where it hurts."
"Yeah, like you could do that, punk." The Girafarig replied, as psychic energy flowed out of him, toward Deathwing. Somehow, however, the charizard managed to shake off the attack, letting the attempt at twisting his mind flow away without any effect, then sending waves of flame toward the opponent, who could not react in time. Badly burned by the attack, the Girafarig finally managed to step out of the glowing orb of flame that had surrounded him, only to be seized by Deathwing's two powerful arms, and brought high in the sky, then thrown back to the ground violently, causing the floor of the stadium to shake, though only a little. The pokemon did not rise again after the attack, and was soon recalled. Gary was down to two pokemon, while Ash had three left who had not even been out yet, and Deathwing still ready to fight.
"Nidoqueen! Go! Hit him with thunderbolt until he's out!" Gary yelled, calling out his pokemon. The Nidoqueen seemed to glow, as she called forth the lances of energy that struck out of the sky, hitting the Charizard repeatedly, wounding him badly while he was unable to strike back. It all happened so fast, Ash had no time to give an order, and soon had no choices but to recall the pokemon.
"All right. Aysen, you go!" He ordered, calling out his pokemon, hoping that he would be able to do some damage with him.
"Yes, master." The pokemon answered, somewhat bitterly.
"Nidoqueen, hit him with your ice beam! Don't give him a chance to attack!" Gary ordered. Things had definitely gotten more vicious, and now Gary was definitely not going to give him a single chance if he could avoid it.
It happened again. As soon as his pokemon was out, the Nidoqueen formed a glowing orb of ice in hand, sending forth a crystal beam that struck the Dragonair, badly wounding him. Before Ash even had the chance to order a second attack, another beam struck out, this time not only wounding the pokemon, but in fact freezing him in place. With a weary sigh, he recalled the pokemon.
"All right. Esper, you go." He ordered, calling out his Kadabra. "Psychic the second you're there."
"Try to use ice beam nidoqueen!" Gary countered, obviously hoping to freeze the psychic pokemon in place before his own pokemon could be defeated.
It was, however, too late. The second she hit the field, Esper released a psychic blast, knocking Nidoqueen back and badly wounding her.
"All right. Then, use Fissure!" Gary ordered, watching as his pokemon repeatedly stamped the ground with a foot, causing suddenly a deep crack to appear, heading straight for the kadabra, catching her as she unleashed a second blast of psychic energy. Ash recalled his pokemon, as Gary recalled his Nidoqueen, finally taken down by the psychic powers of Kadabra. They were both down to their last pokemon.
Chapter 20 : Test of Friendship
"Arcanine! Go! Kick his houndoom out of it!" Gary called out his pokemon, watching the great fierce beast appearing.
"Fenrir! Go! Attack with whatever you got!" Ash yelled at the same time, causing the dark hound to appear, his sleek shape ready to strike. Ready to strike, that is, until he saw who he would be up against.
There was a strange moment of the two pokemon staring at each other, and Ash wondered what was happening, staring at the two pokemon. Neither of them were fighting, despite having receinved their orders - basically, carte blanche to strike as they saw fit. Fenrir turned his head slightly, as if fighting with himself, unable to attack the pokmeon.
"Please Ash, do not force me to do this." Fenrir told him.
"Why?" Ash asked, surprised by the reluctance of his pokemon to fight.
"I...I do not know." The pokemon seemed to be fighting with himself still.
"Fenrir, what's wrong?" Ash asked, feeling as if the world was crumbling under his feet.
"If you order me to strike at her, I will...but while I will still remain your pokemon, and loyal to you...I am afraid if you did such a thing, our friendship would be at an end." The worlds were calm, as the pokemon stared at Ash, who stared back, barely noticing from the corner of his eyes that Arcanine looked at her trainer the same way.
On the one hand, I'll fulfill my dream. On the other, I'll loose the trust and the friendship of one of my pokemon. I don't know which is really worth it. The thought raced through Ash's brain, as he desperately sought a way around the problem, around the fact that there would be an heavy price to pay, no matter the choice.
The pokeball weighed heavily in his hand, as he knew that within his palm, he held the power to end his dream, and save a friendship that meant a lot to him.
He looked at Gary, who seemed to be trying to understand why his Arcanine refused to fight, and realized that if he ordered Houndoom to fight, and won, he would kill a friendship that meant a lot to him, badly damage a second such, but would fulfill his dream. On the other, he could save both friendships, with a single move, a single, easy thing. But by doing so, he would also end his dream, an hard step to take. He looked at Fenrir, at the Arcanine, at Gary. The Arcanine seemed to be trying to tell Gary something, but for some reason, Ash could not make out what it was.
Looking one last time at his friend, he found that the young man had his eyes locked on Ash now, no longer on either of the pokemon, as if he was wondering what Ash was about to do. Slowly, reluctantly, fighting with himself at every step, he raised his right hand, the one that held the pokeball. A lone tear ran down his cheek, knowing that once again, he would have lost because one of his pokemon simply...had not wanted to fight, even though this time at least, it had been his choice to loose. As he took one last look at Gary's face, at the shock there as he realized what Ash was doing. He then lowered his head, unable to watch around him any longer.
"Fenrir, return." Ash ordered, recalling the great dark hound, a bright beam of red light struck out, to envelop the Houndoom.
"Arcanine, return!" Gary's voice echoed from the other side, at the exact same time and Ash's could hardly believe what he was hearing.
The referee came, and called them both to the middle of the field, as Ash walked slowly there. As they arrived there, they were joined by two more persons, two whom Ash certainly had not expected to see meddling here, Karen Strife and his own father, Lance.
"Why have you recalled your pokemon?" the referee asked, his face stern.
"If I may, let me explain." Karen said suddenly, and the referee looked at her.
"Of course miss Strife." He answered shortly.
"From what I understood, both of their pokemon were telling them that they would attack if ordered, but did not want to do so, and that doing so would damage the friendship they have for their trainers." She explained. "I guess the two trainers decided to recall their pokemon because they valued that friendship more than winning here." She continued.
"That does not change a thing to the fact that we can hardly decide on a winner." The referee objected.
"Let Ash win. He was the first to have the courage to make that choice. I didn't elect to recall Arcanine until I saw he was going to recall Fenrir." Gary answered.
"No. I recalled my pokemon first. The win's yours Gary." Ash replied, though the words were hard to come by.
"Stop fighting." Karen told them, suddenly. "Neither of you can be the winner, that wouldn't be fair to the other. So, you're going to be the co-champions. Simple as that." She decided, and Lance nodded.
"And both pokemon masters?" The referee seemed to object.
"That goes without saying." Karen replied seriously. "My speech at the beginning of the competition wasn't just a thing to say. They've shown by recalling their pokemon that they value the feelings of their pokemon more than winning, that makes them much closer to the idea of pokemon master than a victory."
"But..." The referee started to object.
"She's right." Lance spoke. "They both deserve it, and they'll both get it."
The referee glared at the two of them, obviously unhappy about the decision, but then nodded, as Ash felt lost completely, not understanding what was happening all of a sudden. How did Karen know what had happened? And why would they be rewarded for not winning?
_________________________________
Not even an hour had gone by, and already the rewards were being handed to the winners, small bronze medals for Tanya and the mysterious Kyle Stery, larger, golden medals for both Ash and Gary. Erica, Misty, Clair and Chuck had already received their prizes, and were sitting with the member of the Elite Four, as Lance handed the final medal to Ash, who couldn't deny that he had won, at least in the eyes of the leaders of the league. The announcement had created quite a stir in the stadium, and Ash could not help but feel guilty about it.
Karen joined Lance, still in her tight black clothes. In her hands, she held two small velvet box, like the kind normally used to store jewelry, and as Ash realized what was in each box, he felt his heart beating faster, knowing at last that his dream had come true. She handed one to Lance, who in turn handed it to Ash, as Karen herself handed the second one to Gary.
"Congratulation Ash, congratulation Gary. You both fought well, and you both showed that you cared about your pokemon." She told them.
"And you deserve the title of pokemon master, both of you." Lance nodded, their voice echoing in the whole stadium.
"Thank you." Gary said, not really looking at them.
"Thank you." Ash added, then , in a whispering tone, to Lance only. "Thank you, dad."
For a brief moment, Lance's eyes filled with shock as he watched his son, doubtlessly wondering how he had found out about it. He soon seemed to recover from it, as he and Karen went to make a final, closure speech, ending the tournament. Ash did not listen to it, looking at the golden ring, with a pokeball-shaped sapphire resting on it, throwing a glance at Gary and his ring, ornamented with a pokeball-shaped ruby.
Looking at it closer, he noticed the letters p and m engrave don the stone, on either side of what would be the button on a real pokeball. Pokemon master. The one title he had dreamed to achieve as long as he could remember, and the one title he had finally achieved.
"Congratulation Ash. That was a good fight." Gary told him in a low tone.
"You fought well, too. That Nidoqueen of yours was really powerful." He complimented his friend.
"And your Charizard was good, too. Same for that Blastoise - but that was a sneaky trick trading back for him without warning me." Gary grinned.
"Hey, attacking Aysen the very second he came out of his pokeball was fair, maybe?" Ash grinned back.
"No, but all's fair in love and war." Gary was still grinning.
"Exactly." Ash's grin was just as present still.
"And...that was something brave you did, recalling your pokemon. Was she right? Karen, I mean?" He asked him.
"Yeah, basically. Fenrir told me if I ordered him to attack, our friendship would be over. I could have ordered him, but..."
"I guess I see...I wouldn't have forced Umbreon or any of my other pokemon to fight a battle they really didn't want to fight."
"Yeah. And then I thought that if I ordered him to attack and I won...then that would be two friendship lost. I decided it wasn't worth it."
"I figured that was part of it too." Gary nodded. "Sort of part of why I didn't just take the win when you called Fenrir back. I figured it just didn't work winning like that against a friend."
______________________
The water off the coast near the entrance of the Rock tunnel was agitated, a winter storm brewing, though not yet there. The landing support ship Succubus was getting ready for war Its deck was loaded with combat helicopters and vertical take-off and landing planes. Two powerfully armed frigates, the Nemesis and Succubus, stood ready to strike on either side, their powerful weapons fully operational. The banner of the Crimson Lotus floated in the wind, as Captain Zachary Aban waited for the order to strike.
"Sir, we have a communication from the headquarters!" One of his men suddenly yelled, turning toward him. The man was a cadet, one of their most recent recruit, that he was assigned to such an important duty was proof enough of his skill, but he still had much to learn.
"Please don't yell ensign." He told the young man calmly.
"Yes sir." The young man nodded. "Anyway...the communication says that we should celebrate Winternight tomorrow." The crewman was definitely confused.
"At last." Zachary Aban smiled. "Get the crew ready, we strike tomorrow."
______________________
They had all gathered inside what they had been told was one of the best restaurants of the indigo plateau to eat and celebrate. Gary, of course, was there, along with Brock and Suzie, Misty and Ash and Damian and Elayne, while Tanya and Danea had said they would join them soon. Entering the restaurant, Ash had noticed a somehow familiar figure at a table, wearing a long hooded cloak, meeting another person in the same clothes, but he hadn't really bothered to find out who they were.
"So, mister pokemon master, what would you like to eat?" Misty asked him teasingly, sitting right next to him, her arm tightly wrapped around his shoulders.
"I don't know...I'll just see what they offers...." He replied, looking at the many choices in the menu as Tanya and Danea joined them. Danea congratulated Ash warmly, smiling, but the only kind of congratulation Ash had gotten from Tanya was a gruff "congrats" delivered between clenched teeth, along with an icy look.
They soon ordered their food, and received it a while after. As they feasted, all of them eating as much as they could of the excellent food, enjoying a fancy meal like they rarely had the time or resources to eat, always traveling as they were.
As they were eating, Ash heard a voice he knew speaking besides him, a man in a long dark cloak he had not noticed coming in standing right besides him.
"So, you found out." Lance said matter-of-factly.
"Yes." Ash replied simply. There was no anger in his voice, there was none to feel. Even though he'd have liked to have father at his side while growing up, he had to admit that he would have found it hard living with the knowledge of all that his father had done, living with the pressure of being the son of a chief of state.
"And....do you hate me?" Lance asked, obviously not so sure about his own motive.
"No. You had good reason to leave me behind...you did it for me, not out of selfishness, so I guess it works out." Ash replied, knowing every word was the pure truth, as strange as it would probably seems to another who had grown up fatherless - Brock, for one, though there were huge differences between the two of them still.
"How do...how do you know about it?" Lance seemed slightly surprised, yet trying to control his surprise, as if he didn't want to make it too obvious to Ash that he was surprised.
"Ever heard of the dragon shrine?" Ash answered, looking at his father.
"Oh, I should have guessed." Lance moved his hand to his face, almost as if he was trying to hide behind them.
"Why would you have guessed?" Ash answered, puzzled by his father's behavior. "It's not like you had any way to know about..." he suddenly interrupted himself, as some pieces of the puzzle fell in place. "Wait a minute. Claire said someone ORDERED her to make sure we went there...That was you, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was me. You had to go there, there just wasn't a choice about it." Lance looked at his son. "I know you're probably thinking I was mad sending you in a dangerous place like that, but I had no choices."
"Why?" Ash retaliated, trying to keep anger from rising in him. The others were apparently oblivious to their discussion, except Danea, who had her eyes glowing as if she was preventing the others from even noticing Ash and Lance talking.
"A friend of mine...can perceive the future, to a certain extant." He explained, choosing his words carefully. "She told me you had to go there."
"Yeah, well, I'd like to meet that friend..." he left it hanging, as the two cloaked figures he had noticed earlier rose, joining them. Somehow, they were aware of what was happening, unlike everyone else. One of them lowered the hood of her cloak, revealing an old, wrinkled face surrounded by gray hair.
"Then, meet me." She smiled at him, revealing a few missing teeth, and causing even more wrinkles to appear on her face. "I am Agatha. Of the Elite Four." She added, almost lazily, as if it was a detail. Ash looked at her, not sure to believe his father wild claim.
"Stop it Ash." The second one said. "Maybe you won't trust her because you don't know her but hopefully you'll trust ME." The somehow familiar hooded figure lowered the hood of his cloak, revealing a familiar face, framed by dark hair held in place by a red headband.
"Tracey?" Ash asked, stunned amazement replacing every other feeling in him.
"Yes, it's me. To make a long story short, Agatha found me a year ago, took me as her apprentice, yes, she can see the future, so can I. Is that enough for you?" the young man did not add anything.
"I...I guess it is..." He said, still surprised by the turn of events.
"Good, young one." Agatha said. "Now, we need to go before your aunt tire. Keeping all your friend away from our little chat is draining her quickly."
With that, the two of them left, soon followed by Lance, who, as he left, turned toward Danea, smiling at her.
"Thanks for the help, little sister." He told her. As he left, Ash had the strange feeling that someone was looking at him, but the only thing he could see was his distorted reflection in the window of the restaurant.
________________________
No, decidedly, it had not been a good idea to join the Cerulean militia, lieutenant Stephan Ardakos decided as he sat alone in the radar control room of the Rock Tunnel outpost, waiting for something, anything to happen, as long as it broke the monotony of being on guard duty for a day without end.
Or course, there was the old saying of soldiers, that things being calm was a good thing, as exciting things were usually the one where you had the most chances of being killed. And, as military wisdom went, being killed would lead to a lot more time bored than just having to stand guard with nothing happening for hours to no end.
Of course, as the thought crossed his mind, leaving a smile on his lips, something unexpected happened, as a multitude of dots appeared to the north-west, moving quickly, either airplanes or helicopters judging from their height and speed - and heading straight for him. His first attempt at counting revealed more than twenty such dots, and he was sure he had missed some. He had wanted excitement, he would be served - it seemed now that someone had elected Rock Tunnel has the entrance door of an invasion force.
He rushed for the radio, hoping to be able to call the Cerulean Headquarters in time, to warn them of the situation, but he was too late, as he found as soon as he tried to power it up that a powerful jamming covered all frequencies he could use for the call. It was definitely an invasion, and a well-planned one.
With some reluctance, he picked up his rifle, running for the rocky area near the entrance, hoping to be able to get a few good shots at the attackers before they did too much damage. Of course, he could run away, and old soldiers wisdom seemed to say he should - after all, better be a coward for a few minutes than dead forever - but he just couldn't. He had wanted excitement, he had been served, now he would eat as much of the plate as he could.
________________________
The last of the helicopters took off, returning to the Succubus, their operations complete. The first airlifted squadron had taken some losses in the battle for Rock tunnel, all of them to a single man, who had fought alone, defending the entrance of the tunnel with a rifle and a very heavy dose of courage and strenght, killing ten men before he could be brought down. It had been a shame, really, to have to kill him, Zachary Aban reflected as he surveyed the arrival of the Succubus, unloading two armored squadrons on the shore. Had there been a way to capture him alive, he could have been converted and turned in a warrior who would be able to do a lot for the Crimson Lotus.
But at least they had succeeded in their mission, taking the entrance of the tunnel before anyone could notice, thanks mostly to the help of a frigate off the coast blocking off all communications with advanced electronic warfare equipment. The local pokemon center, which many of his men took to be an abomination in the eyes of God, had been burned down, no traces of it left. There had been no one, pokemon or human inside, as if it had been abandoned a while ago, closed down for reasons he could not fathom.
Yet, even though the losses of his side were heavier, and even though he had failed to capture anyone to attempt to convert, Zachary Aban felt pride swelling within himself. They had succeeded, the first strike had been delivered.
War had begun, even though none knew it.
"Signal our success to General Oak."
