Chapter 10: The Final Confrontation
The Beast Riders knew they had to conserve their strong Pokémon for the end. Instead of rushing into battle atop their Pokémon, they used their other Pokémon to deal with Travis' Charizard, an orange, European-style dragon about as tall as a large human adult; Machamp, a gray Pokémon boasting powerful muscles and four arms; and Scizor, a large, red mantis with a metal coat.
The Beast Riders each used one of their other Pokémon: Josh used Sudowoodo, Ace used Arcanine, and finally, Aravan used Flygon. Arcanine took to the offensive by launching a fire stream from its mouth. Scizor got out of the way quickly. Flygon started its assault with a powerful dragon's breath attack. It burned Machamp's upper-left arm, putting it out of commission for quite some time. However, setting up this attack opened it up to a slashing from Charizard's nail-like claws. Somehow, the claws missed. Flygon didn't even know it was being attacked. The enemy dragon slashed at it again, and would have hit Flygon if it weren't for a blinding tackle from Arcanine knocking it out of the way.
Sudowoodo was far less mobile than the other two allied Pokémon. Machamp got behind it and smashed the rock Pokémon with two of its arms. It was out of commission. Josh then was forced to use Manectric to replace his fallen Pokémon. It quickly fired an electric shot at Machamp, but the attack missed wide right. Charizard shot a flame line at the former attacker, but it too missed wide right.
Scizor, focusing on Flygon, generated a strange wind with its wings. This wind brushed by Flygon. It not only caused plenty of damage, but seemed to increase Scizor's strength.
Machamp attempted to Cross Chop the electric Pokémon with the three arms it could use. Manectric dodged out of the way and countered with a close range electrical attack. This injured Machamp badly, but also allowed Charizard to launch another flame burst at the attacker. This blasted the light Pokémon far backwards, but detracted its focus from an impending breath attack from Flygon. Charizard ended this domino effect by flying up out of the way. Arcanine managed to finish off Machamp's effort by charging into it at blinding speed.
"Hmmm..." Travis thought. "Indeed, their Pokémon are well-trained. Ah, well, this is just a stall for time anyway. Salamence, go!" With that, he sent out a short, but strong, blue dragon with red wings. It gave an intimidating glance at the opposing Pokémon, causing them to become the slightest bit fearful.
All three allied Pokémon were close to each other when Salamence took the offensive with a ramming attack. The attack just missed, allowing Manectric to bite at the dragon...just as Travis planned. A massive Flamethrower attack came flying out of Charizard's mouth, causing Manectric to collapse.
Running out of Pokémon, Josh sent out Pidgeot. It was clearly much weaker than Arcanine or Flygon, let alone Travis' Pokémon. Aravan came up with a plan. "Arcanine, jump out of the way!" Though Aravan wasn't its trainer, the huge dog leaped into the air. Flygon then unleashed a massive earthquake, causing the area around the dragon to shake violently. Most of the Pokémon there could fly, and thus were unaffected by the attack. Scizor, however, was the target of the attack. The Pokémon was at the mercy of the shaking ground, and received massive damage. While this was going on, Salamence flew high into the air, then made a slashing dive at Flygon. Though dragons are strong, they cannot bear each other's attacks. Flygon collapsed, and Aravan replaced it with the nearly eight-foot-tall water-type, Feraligatr.
The massive Pokémon fired a ferocious Hydro Pump attack at Charizard. It could not get out of the way this time, and fell. Predictably, Travis sent out an electric-type to deal with it. This one was Electabuzz, a yellow-and-black human-shaped Pokémon most often found near power plants. It tried to retailate with a lightning bolt, but Feraligatr got down on all fours and swiftly dodged the attack. Arcanine, using its nearly sure-fire Extremespeed tackle, hit Salamence hard again. This time, however, the dragon read the dog's movements and rammed it. This defeated Ace's Pokémon with one blow. Ace replaced it with Typhlosion.
Scizor generated another Silver Wind. Landing a blow to Feraligatr's weak spot, it crashed down to the ground. Now that Charizard was down, Aravan reasoned he could use his grass-type dinosaur, Tropius. Electabuzz fired another lightning bolt, this one at Pidgeot. It missed. Taking advantage of the lightning, Pidgeot used its ability to duplicate the move, but aimed it at Salamence instead. This one struck its target.
By this time, Silver Wind had grown very powerful. Scizor launched another one at Tropius. The grass-type let out a roar of pain, alerting Typhlosion to burn the attacker with fire. Being a metallic bug, heat was lethal to Scizor. It dropped to the ground as well. Electabuzz also got caught in the intense fireball, and dropped as well. This prompted the evil madman to release his final Pokémon, the rock-armored brute, Tyranitar. It could easily change the landscape of the entire island using but one of its hands. However, all of this came at the expense of agility and attack accuracy, which it would pay for dearly.
The Pokémon slashed at Tropius with its claws, but the attack missed. Salamence tried doing the same thing to Typhlosion, but that effort was for naught as well. Aravan's grass-type then tried a clever ruse to take out Tyranitar: firing a series of heat-seeking leaf blades, an attack called the Magical Leaf. The attack made some large chinks in Tyranitar's armor. Pidgeot duplicated Salamence's Dragon Claw attack with its talons, slamming the foe into the ground unconscious. Tyranitar tried slicing Tropius with its claws again, but to no avail. The dinosaur countered with another Magical Leaf. This time, it was enough to cause the heavily armored Pokémon to drop.
After Tyranitar had collapsed, the three Beast Riders recalled their other Pokémon, then rushed to the other end of the island, only to hear a cackling Travis.
"All your efforts have been for naught," he said. He then turned to the north and recited the translated text of the ancient tablet. "Great beast of the sea, rise up and listen to me! Though man and beast hath felled your tower, we can avenge you with almighty power! Destroy the descendants of those who destroyed your home, so you shall be honored as second to none!"
Josh knew what was going on. He knew that there was nothing that could prevent Lugia's awakening. "Damn it! Why us, why now!"
Raikou tried to calm Josh's anger. "There is nothing you can do to stop Lugia. That bird has held a big grudge against us and the Beast Riders of the past. We will have no choice. We must fight it, though I doubt we will be able to defeat it."
"Well, that's real encouraging, Raikou."
"Well, it's the truth..."
A few minutes later, the legendary, dragon-like bird arose from the water around the Whirl Island chain, just south of Olivine. It flew to the southwest, where the summoner was calling it from. By the time the bird arrived, the three Beast Riders drew their weapons and braced themselves for the worst.
Upon arrival, the three-story-tall bird knew what Travis' intentions were: to take over Johto and capture the legendary Pokémon. The two of them had a brief chat. Travis started by tossing an Ultra Ball at the bird, but it just shot the ball right back at Travis with its gargantuan wings. "Travis, you are a sick man. To think you could use me as a tool for your own selfish desires? Out of the many ones who have tried to use my power, even some that were the purest of heart could not measure up to my standards. Do you know what happens to people like you?"
Travis was still determined to take Lugia for himself, and threw another Ball.
"You can attempt to capture me a thousand times, and you will never succeed. I do not know how you discovered those words. Travis, it's time to say your prayers. May you die with all the evil you have brought into this world!" With that, the bird shot an orange blast from its mouth, but it wasn't a Hyper Beam. It was clearly much stronger than a Hyper Beam, even if one would consider that it came from the most powerful Pokémon of all. The beam was an Aeroblast, a special technique exclusive to Lugia. The beam shattered Travis' Ultra Ball. Before he even got a chance to react, the beam engulfed the evil leader, killing him almost instantaneously. The creature glanced around the island and noticed three human figures atop three large land Pokémon which were shortly identified as Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. The humans were the Beast Riders, and this got Lugia very angry. "I do not believe it! He brought those accursed Beast Riders here as well! Who did he think he was? He was just asking to hand over his life!"
"Lugia, we're not your enemies! We came here to save you!" Aravan yelled toward the large dragon-like bird. "Travis is the one who started all of this, not us!"
"Liar! You are the reason why I had to leave my cousin, the rainbow bird Pokémon, in the first place!"
"No! We have done nothing to your tower!"
Josh intervened. "Aravan, do not anger it. In a sense, Lugia's right. We didn't burn their tower down, but our ancestors did. So Lugia wants to get its revenge by taking it out on us. We have little choice but to fight." At that, the Beast Riders all drew their swords. Their Pokémon also looked ready to battle.
"I guess we can settle this the hard way, then. Very well. Die!"
"I will not allow you to kill them. At least not without you killing me first! How then, can you kill your own cousin?" Ho-oh had heard the voice of Lugia. Out of concern for the Beast Riders, the rainbow bird flew over to all four of them.
"Where did you come from!"
"If you want to kill them, you have to kill me first!"
"We can't hold back anymore!" Josh yelled. "Raikou!"
"Entei!"
"Suicune!"
"Let's go!" all three of them shouted together to boost their spirits before they did battle with the beast of the sea, Lugia. Once again taking a speedy offensive, Entei launched a powerful fireball at Lugia. The attack hit, but it didn't even phase the target at all.
"What the hell just happened here?" Ace asked. Raikou tried to strike Lugia with lightning, but instead of taking the attack, Lugia got out of the way. The bird retaliated with an Aeroblast directed at Raikou. The attack barely missed.
"Let me try something," Aravan volunteered. "Suicune, Hydro Pump!"
The blue beast shot a high-pressure spray of water toward Lugia. It simply hovered there taking the attack, and got out of it unharmed.
"Raikou, try it again!" Josh yelled. The Pokémon shot a lightning bolt at the drenched Lugia. This time, the huge foe was hurt from the attack. Then all of a sudden, Ho-oh fired a holy flame toward Lugia, which inflicted some damage on the bird.
"How dare you attack me, Ho-oh! Boy, are you going to suffer..." the bird muttered as it shot a Hydro Pump blast at Ho-oh. This blast made Suicune's attack look like it came from a Goldeen by comparison. The bird flew up out of the way, revealing Entei as the other target of attack. It made a quick leap to the right, testing Ace's ability as a Beast Rider. The Beast of Fire tried counterattacking with another fireball, only to show the same result as before. "Fire isn't working, Ace," Josh observed. "Just stay out of harm's way until I think of something. If Lugia dives at you, try hitting it with your sword and see what happens."
Suicune shot a chilly beam at Lugia. Though it tried to get out of the way, the Pokémon's left leg and tail got caught in the cold. This pattern of attacking with ice and lightning continued for several more attack vollies, after which Lugia started to get angry. "You guys have spunk, I'll give you that. Now die!" The bird roared, and a line of boulders rose from the island, each with a radius of approximately ten feet. Ho-oh managed to dodge this blow, but Entei and its rider did not see the attack coming. One of the boulders threw the two of them high into the air. This threw Ace off Entei's back, and the two of them came crashing down onto the ground, with the rider nearly lifeless. The Crimson Blade stuck into the ground, with the flaming blade pointing straight down.
"Ace! Noooooooo!" Aravan screamed. He then turned toward Lugia. "You're no guardian! You're no protector! You're evil!"
"Such interesting last words coming from you. Well, time to die, Aravan." With that, the bird launched another Aeroblast from close range. There was no escaping the attack...until a ray of hope emerged for Aravan. Entei raced to Suicune's rescue by darting between it and the attack. Though the huge lion was blasted back and fainted as a result, its sacrifice gave the Beast Riders a second chance.
Another series of volleys went back and forth between the two forces for another twenty minutes. By this time, the Beast Riders, Raikou, Suicune, and even Ho-oh were getting fatigued. "I don't...know how much longer...we can keep this up!" Josh said, panting. At this, Lugia fired another Aeroblast, this one at Ho-oh. This time, though, Ho-oh was too tired to dodge. The searing beam blasted through the rainbow bird, nearly cutting off its right wing. "It's now or never, guys!" Aravan yelled. Then, he commanded Suicune to revive Ace with its Cure Water. The trainer picked up the Crimson Blade he had dropped, and listened to Aravan's plan.
"There is only one thing we can do right now." At that, he pointed the Crystal Brand straight up into the air. "Touch your swords with mine and point straight for Lugia. If this doesn't defeat Lugia, nothing will, and we will...die." The thought of death struck fear into the hearts of all three of them.
"It's better than what we're doing now. Let's give it a try!" At that, Josh and Ace held up the Lightning Sword and the Crimson Blade high up into the air, touching Aravan's blade. The three of them started glowing and shooting massive elemental energy into a ball. As energy was drawn from the weapons, the ball got bigger and bigger until the Beast Riders launched it at Lugia. The weapon of mass destruction put Lugia in tremendous pain from the repeating cycle of intense electrical shock, flames, and icy cold.
"Damn you...Ho-oh! Damn you...Raikou...Entei...Suicune... Beast Riders... DAMN YOU ALL!" At that, the bird, completely out of energy, collapsed into the ocean. The Legacy Hunters had been defeated...forever. The endless cycle of war had finally been broken.
"I must congratulate you all on the tremendous effort you have put forth. Without the combined efforts of the legendary beasts, their riders, and myself, we could never have tamed the guardian of the sea. Let me give you three a lift back to Ecruteak City." At that, the rainbow walkway the Beast Riders used to get to Birth Island reappeared. The three beasts ran out on the path, headed back to the town. The three brave Beast Riders put their swords away, mounted Ho-oh, and soared off in the direction of Ecruteak City as the sun shined through the storm clouds created by Lugia. Sun-filled skies would dominate the area in a short time.
"It looks like our mission together has come to an end. But when we get back to our homeland, let's celebrate!" remarked Raikou.
"I may have a solemn duty to fulfill, but that doesn't stop me from having a little good fun every once in a while." Suicune added.