Ch.33
Fall
Pokemon is the property of its respective owners
Letting out wild, angry roars, the legions of pokemon surrounding Dmitri's group fell upon them like an harsh snow storm and surprisingly, it was Dmitri who got off the first hit for his side as he firmly grabbed a mightyena by the neck who was trying to ambush Sparkplug and angrily threw it into another group of pokemon who tried to overwhelm Maris through sheer numbers. The legion of pokemon were surprised that a mere human could do something like this to one of their kind and taking advantage of their distraction, Dmitri's group charged Alice's pokemon and with that the chaotic, bloody melee ensued.
"Everyone spread out; don't let them pin you down!" Dmitri shouted over the carnage causing Haxorus, who had just managed to throw off one pokemon that had him in crushing bearhug from behind, to grab Dmitri and flee into the forest along with Druddigon, Sparkplug, Floatzel, and Graveler causing Maris to want to follow them, but Delia held her back.
"He'll be fine, but we won't if we don't follow his lead!" Delia yelled at her as the dragon tamer's eyes became a furious shade of red and unleashed a wide spread stream of dark blue energy from her mouth that caused some agonizing cries of pain as the attack detonated sending all of the pokemon in the beam's path to be blown away like leaves in the wind as some of the pokemon who weren't fortunate enough to get away in time were turned into ash from the attack.
"This way!" Delia bellowed as Maris trembled at the brutal show of force the battle ace showed, but was quickly forced out of her thoughts when she felt Luka grab her by her wrist and drag her with them as Luka finally let her go when the group decided to catch their breathe.
"(Thanks Luka, I'm okay with pummeling someone, but killing…it's…it's not something I'm used to,)" Maris admitted to the jackal pokemon who empathetically put a paw on her shoulder and spoke to her warmly, but hurriedly as she felt Alice's pokemon converging on their position.
"(I'll never get used to it sis; since you still are uneasy about this just brutalize them like you did to the Team Plasma grunts back in Eterna,)" Luka suggested as she dragged a relatively still shell-shocked Maris with her deeper into the woods while the pokemon who survived Delia's attack slowly regained their bearings and sluggishly limped after their comrades in pursuit of their enemies.
Alice, however, had taken the brunt of the attack and was currently lying unconscious in a massive crater with the entire land stripped bare and as for herself her clothes, if they could still be called such after the attack, were completely torn to shreds with only the upper part of her shirt still remaining leaving her midriff completely exposed. What was once known as her pants now functioned as shorts as the rest had been completely burnt away from the knees down and what's more, she was now in as much worse shape as Dmitri was as a large, purple and black bruise already formed on her gut while her blood was dripping down onto the ground below from the various scrapes all over her body.
Alice soon regained consciousness and began pulling herself to her feet, but hissed viciously and gripped her stomach when attempting to get up caused unbearable, searing pain the likes of which made her feel like her a building was compressing onto her small form. A hand swirling with the same malicious purple aura soon extended itself to her causing Alice to growl embarrassingly, but nevertheless she grabbed it and felt herself being pulled to her feet and the moment she did she snatched her hand away from the being who helped her.
"I didn't need your help Infernape, but…I guess it's appreciated; if you still want your rematch, I suggest you find Luka and Maris before they're killed by your teammates," Alice deadpanned causing the fire ape to grin sadistically and rush off into the forest to find his prey while Alice tenderly touched her bruised midriff before calmly walking into the forest with a determined, barely focused gaze that threatened to break at the slightest provocation.
"Why did you leave me dear Catherine? We were so close…but when that stupid Lucario showed up everything changed; once your fake friends are gone we can begin our relationship anew."
With Delia
Delia screamed as she was tackled to the ground and pinned down by members of the eevee family as they proceeded to maul her with a Jolteon and Flareon harshly yanking at her arm in an attempt to pull it from its socket while an Umbreon and Glaceon were brutally tugging at her leg to try to rip away from her body. With a roar of determination, Delia pulled herself free and viciously slashed at her attackers which caused them all to howl in pain as they crumpled to the ground with long, deep cuts along their guts and seeing her attackers defeated, Delia popped her shoulder back into place with a small grunt and proceeded to aid her friends who were struggling against their foes.
Maris and Luka both gasped for air as a Machamp hoisted them both up by their necks and smirked maniacally as it banged Luka and Maris's heads together causing them to grunt softly and Maris even went as far to give her attacker an "are you serious?" look. Machamp, frowning that his attack didn't cause them as much pain as he intended, prepared to do it again, but Maris fired a powerful, magenta sphere of energy right at his face while Luka simultaneously fired a devastating dark blue orb towards his gut while the four armed pokemon could only freeze in shock for only a brief moment before the attacks collided with him a split second later.
His face snapped backwards from the force of Maris's attack as he felt like it had been hit by a rampaging Tauros slamming its head against a rival male while he simultaneously lurched forward because of Luka's attack the likes of which felt like an angry mother Ursaring had hit him with her most powerful hammer arm that she could muster in order to defend her cub. Maris and Luka didn't get a chance to catch their breath as a garchomp ferociously attacked them with wild swings of its claws that while powerful, were parried by the fighting types.
"(Luka, fucking explain right now! What the flip is this purple aura emanating off of Alice's pokemon and how is it making them so strong?)" Maris yelled at Luka as she ducked under a Garchomp's undisciplined cut at her head and simultaneously plunged her fist deep into the dragon type's gut causing it to grunt and take a step backward before coldly glaring at Maris, unnerving the martial arts pokemon, as the blow merely seemed to annoy it rather than hurt it.
"(There was an incident in the Orre Region where a terrorist team used a process to exponentially amplify a pokemon's strength…at the cost of their emotions. The pokemon who underwent this process turned into cold, unfeeling, weapons of war called shadow pokemon, but Alice…she's done something to the process. Machamp shouldn't have smirked or frowned at us,)" Luka answered as fired a sphere of her spiritual essence at the pseudo-legendary, but in his fury Garchomp plowed right through it and swung fiercely at the duo, but they both managed to either parry or dodge the blows.
Meanwhile
Hydreigon, Dragonite, and Kiera found themselves in another part of the forest cut off from the rest of their group as Kiera rammed and stomped onto her foes using her bulk while Dragonite and Hydreigon engaged in aerial combat with the ones who tried to target her from above.
"(She handles herself pretty well wouldn't you say? If Druddigon and I weren't already mated I might have considered pursuing a relationship with her,)" Dragonite hollered to his fellow dragon type while performing barrel rolls and flips to dodge incoming attacks before charging in and pummeling a group of golbats with his claws encased in burning fire while Hydreigon simply followed Kiera's lead and slammed his body into anything that wasn't his teammates.
Hydreigon, after blowing away an entire legion of Staraptors with powerful hyper beam, chirped at his companion wearily while ducking and scooting off to the side to dodge attacks fired at him while his response caused Dragonite to chuckle.
"(Oh come on, her bulk is just more of her to love,)" Dragonite retorted as he crossed his arms in an x to defend against a blinding streak of white light hurtling towards him and widened his eyes in shock briefly before going to a focused gaze as the being who had struck, a metallic avian, had managed to push him backwards some ways.
"(Whatever this purple aura is, it's making them stronger than they should be. I shouldn't have been pushed back from that attack; I hope the others are doing okay,)" Dragonite pondered concernedly before a roar that shook the heavens themselves resonated throughout the battlefield causing all of the combatants to pause and turn their heads in the direction of the roar.
All of the pokemon who had previously surrounded Dragonite and Hydreigon fearfully backed away as an orange, draconic being with a searing hot flame burning on the end of its tail slowly, but confidently flew over to them and immediately; Dragonite noticed Hydreigon frown and slowly float forward to meet the being halfway. Dragonite was about to follow, but a feral, gruff bark from behind caused him to wheel around defensively and found himself staring back at a Salamence that was glowering at him intently, but the once jolly dragon knew it was studying him. Kiera in the meantime, took advantage of her opponent's pause in battle and resumed crashing into them like a runaway train which took down a few before a demonic, dark purple blast of flames engulfed her before any of her allies could react while the bug type let out an inhuman shriek of pure agony as the devilish flames licked at all sides of her body.
"(KIERA!)" Dragonite boomed worriedly as a strong flap of his wings sent a mighty gust of wind that immediately blew out the dangerous flames mercilessly cooking his ally, but no sooner after that he was forcefully tackled from behind, yet falling back on his experiences from battle, he twisted to the side and watched as his foe unceremoniously crashed into the ground headfirst where he lay shaken.
Dragonite, taking this reprieve in action, flew over to Kiera to check up on her, but widened his eyes in shock when he saw the megapede pokemon struggle to her feet despite the immense pain she was in and nodded gratefully at Dragonite who smirked and settled himself into a fighting stance as his foe shook the cobwebs from his head and let out a thunderous roar at the duo, challenging them to fight.
Meanwhile
It was pure carnage on Dmitri's side of the battle as they soon found that they could run no longer and engaged their pursuers as Sparkplug jumped in front of her trainer and prepared to defend him, but found that despite being a well-mannered, shy boy, he somehow still managed to hold his own. He didn't have any practice in aura or chi nor did her possess the heart of the dragon, but he made up for it by striking the pokemon with the same unadulterated fury he nearly struck Alex with at the pokemon center. Sparkplug worked in tandem with him by immediately sending a powerful shock of lightning the instant Dmitri pummeled them and for a while this strategy worked, but eventually she noticed that her trainer was beginning to tire and his blows which at first shattered bones, now merely pushed his enemies back a few feet before they angrily resumed their assault.
As hard as the electric lioness tried, she simply couldn't fend off this many pokemon by herself without some assistance and soon she was harshly tackled to the ground where her unknown attacker attempted to bite her neck, but she defended herself by encasing her entire body in electricity which illuminated her attacker's skeleton and sent it flying off of her. Glaring fiercely at the being who tried to kill her, she crouched down in an aggressive stance just as her attacker got back up to its feet and assumed the same position she did and they both began circling each other, scanning for weaknesses.
"(Why continue to obey Alice, Houndoom? You know she'll eventually end up betraying you too as she did to me,)" Sparkplug pointed out causing Houndoom to howl defiantly and puff out a plume of black smog from his nostrils which only caused Sparkplug to narrow her eyes further.
"(It doesn't matter either way; I'll serve her until I've outlived my usefulness and then I'll gladly be disposed of. It's certainly more honorable than serving a soft-hearted weakling like you do,)" Houndoom retorted fiercely, but he was taken aback when his former ally snorted at his comeback and instantaneously, her tail became encased in dense, tough iron, showing her complete mastery of the move.
Houndoom was stumped; despite all the tough training Alice had put them all through, it still took a herculean effort to call upon the energy to perform iron tail and even when he could manage it his tail simply glowed white instead of turning into metal. Even then though, the energy was unstable and he could barely control it so seeing a former ally able to completely master it was infuriating, but horrifying thoughts suddenly wormed into his head. Had…had Alice's training been insufficient? Was this "Dmitri's" training somehow more effective than hers? No! He refused to believe it; there was just no way that there any pokemon stronger than the ones Alice herself trained!
"(Why do you care though? Was I not one of the ones who treated you harshly during our training sessions?)" Houndoom asked his former comrade, genuinely curious as to why she was attempting to convince him to shift his loyalty to her trainer, the enigma Dmitri.
"(I'll never forget what you did to me during our "training sessions", but you weren't all that bad; you were just scared of defying her,)" Sparkplug responded calmly, but she in no way relaxed her posture and was ready to do battle at a moment's notice.
"(You're willing to spare me after I mortally wounded you trainer and attempted to kill you?)" Houndoom stated confusedly and was met with a curt nod by the big cat causing him to cock his head to the side before letting a soft chuckle causing Sparkplug to raise a brow cautiously as the hellhound looked at her with sad smile.
"(Instead of the Shadow process where all emotions are eliminated, Alice's process enhances all the negative emotions which in turn unlocks all of a pokemon's potential, but as you may have guessed this often makes the victim mentally unstable; only those with a strong will can somewhat resist it's affects. Over time, the purple aura will turn a bright shade of crimson and as far as I know, the process will then become permanent,)" Houndoom explained and it's at this moment that the malevolent purple aura surrounding him turned into a blinding crimson causing the hellhound to laugh depressingly before looking at Sparkplug once more.
"(Take your friends to a safe distance; I'll take things from here,)" Houndoom told the big cat softly causing Sparkplug to shut her eyes and let out a quiet whimper before running to her teammates and relaying to them what she had been told causing all of them to break into a retreat.
Alice's pokemon, forgetting about their quarry, angrily rounded upon Houndoom with fierce, murderous glares, but the hellhound coolly looked back at them while discreetly charging negative energy throughout his body. With bestial, animalistic roars, they charged at the lone pokemon who let out one final smirk as cracks began appearing throughout his body, all of them leaking unstable, crimson energy.
"(Devil explosion,)" Houndoom whispered before throwing his head back and letting out a loud, ear splitting howl as light began spewing out of every crack and orifice in his body as all of the negative energy he accumulated burst out in a devastating explosion that swallowed up all of the pokemon that had been foolishly charging at him which disintegrated their bodies, completely destroying them, and even those who managed to defend were killed by the concussive force behind it which caved in their chests leaving them a mangled mess.
Meanwhile
Delia, despite her latent abilities, was on her last leg and she knew it. Lopunny, despite her best attempts, couldn't get to her trainer as a powerful Rhyperior kept impeding her path forcing her to try to knock it out, but to her dismay found that he attacks were brushed aside or shrugged off even with Kricketune's help. Maris and Luka as of the moment also made attempts to assist her, but were impeded by Garchomp who doggedly pursued either of the fighting types who tried to help the dragon tamer so as of now, Delia's only help was Catherine who valiantly fought alongside her, but both were looking worse for wear.
Delia had deep, agonizing cuts marring her body as well as various bruises running down her gut down to her leg, all of them a sickly blue. Quicker than either of the two girls could perceive, an arbok coiled around Delia, pinning her arms against her sides, and slowly began applying pressure causing the Unova native to scream bloody murder as she felt her entire body was being put through a car compacter all the while Arbok sadistically smiled and gently brushed her face with the end of its tail as if to comfort her. Delia's torment didn't end there as when the battle ace angrily brushed its tail off of her face, it chomped down on the crown of her skull, digging its fangs into her head allowing a river of blood to rush down all sides of her face.
"NO, LEAVE HER ALONE!" Catherine roared angrily as she grabbed the biggest rock she could find off of the ground and charged at the serpent who managed a mocking smirk despite having Delia's head in its maw, but its demeanor changed when Catherine grabbed its head and as hard as she could, slammed the rock directly into the serpent's eye.
Normally, any pokemon could have taken a blow from a rock as if they were being hit by a pillow unless there was a pokemon move specifically tailored to the stones, but since Catherine jabbed the rock straight into the gushy membrane of the eye, the effect was immediate. Arbok shrieked crazily and released its hold on the dragon tamer causing Catherine to catch her before she fell to the ground and helped her to a nearby tree while the purple serpent continued to flail around from the immense pain of one of its eyes now being completely destroyed.
Catherine, as gently as she could, began carrying her unconscious friend away from the battle, but in the blink of an eye found herself and Delia ensnared by burly, purple coils and found Arbok glaring at her with all the hate and malice it could.
"Hello, dear sister. I hope Arbok wasn't too rough with you," a forced, friendly voice called out from the shadows causing Catherine to growl, but made no move to attempt to free herself lest Delia in her near-death state receive more harm.
Luka, Maris, Lopunny, and Kricketune soon surrounded Alice, having finally defeated Rhyperior and Garchomp, and as tired as they were, prepared themselves for battle once more while Alice simply laughed at the display and folded her arms.
Before she could begin her dialogue however, a bright, crimson light could be seen in the distance causing Maris and Luka to both briefly bow their heads in respect before focusing their gazes on Alice and Arbok once more.
"At last, after so long I get to finally destroy the being who took Catherine away from me with her manipulative lies and her poisonous influence; Luka, you will no longer plague my little sister after this day and neither will her precious friends be there to infect her," Alice proclaimed intently as out of the shadows, came Infernape dragging Dmitri's unconscious body along the ground, but all faces wore a face of shock as Infernape looked like he had been through Hell as notably one of his eyes was completely swollen shut and one of his arms was twisted in the wrong direction.
Infernape then hit the ground with a thud where he lay motionless which shocked Alice further as she couldn't believe that her ace, her strongest pokemon, was injured so severely by this boy.
"It doesn't matter, Arbok still has Catherine and Delia held captive so one wrong move and he'll snap them like twigs!" Alice shouted to the pokemon surrounding her, but when she heard Catherine chuckle she angrily wheeled around and glowered at her little sister, but this only made Catherine laugh more when she saw that one of Alice's eyes was twitching.
"Alice, we both know that you care about me too much to risk doing something like that. If you kill Delia, then you kill me as well and all of your work to "reform" me will go to waste," Catherine continued causing Alice to clench her teeth tightly and furiously smacked Catherine with the back of her hand just as an idea… a sinister idea, that may just allow her to win.
"Fine then, Arbok finish off Delia, but leave Catherine alive!" Alice ordered her last remaining pokemon with a hint of desperation in her voice while Catherine glared daggers at her sister as she prepared herself for immense pain about to fill her being, but before the serpent could follow through on its trainer's orders a condensed beam of energy fired by both Luka and Maris crashed into its causing it to cry out and release its grip on the two girls.
Alice, before she could register the change in situations, was suddenly punched in the gut by Dmitri causing her eyes to bulge out of their sockets and for her to spit up some saliva, but to Dmitri's surprise she remained conscious, but just barely. Alice then suddenly couldn't bear the pain anymore and screamed as she doubled over and clenched her gut all while sucking in precious air, but Alice, as bullheaded as ever, tried to stand on her feet, but the pain was simply too much and fell down onto her knees once more.
Luka, seeing Alice subdued, rushed over to Delia and began healing her wounds while Maris ran to Dmitri and helped him sit down on the grass where she began healing his wounds, but to her dismay found that his arm that was charred black wasn't getting better. Catherine tenderly cradled her friend's head in her arms as tears streamed down her face and onto Delia's cheek and Luka, upon seeing this, extended her aura senses over to her girlfriend and tried to comfort her with a soothing voice.
"(Catherine, this isn't your fault,)" Luka assured her, but this only caused Catherine to sob harder in response which made Luka want to wipe the tears away from her eyes, but focused on healing the dragon tamer who groggily opened her eyes and looked up to see all of her friend staring down at her.
"Are you guys okay?" Delia worriedly questioned her friends and they all wore faces of shock as she looked in as much worst shape as Dmitri, but she still was concerned if they were hurt and before Lopunny could yell at her trainer, the remaining members of Delia and Dmitri's team joined them in the clearing with Sparkplug running over to Dmitri, but he smiled warmly at her and pointed at Delia.
"Maris is taking care of me right now so why don't you go help Delia?" Dmitri calmly, but firmly ordered her and it seemed for a moment that Sparkplug was going to disobey, but Dmitri's pleading look caused her to relent and snarl under her breathe before jogging over to Delia and help Luka heal her.
Kiera sat next to Dmitri and despite seeing how he looked at the start of the battle; it didn't make her feel any better to see him like this as she felt she somehow could have prevented it if only she was stronger somehow. If only she had gotten used to her new form much sooner, maybe she could have protected him and her friends from the strange pokemon the girl used and speaking of the girl, Kiera noted that Druddigon had pinned her arms behind her back while Hydreigon and Haxorus loomed over her, prepared to take action if she tried anything.
"(I'll be back Dmitri; I'm just going to check up on Delia,)" Maris told her boyfriend who worriedly looked over at his sister before nodding causing Maris to get up and jog over to where the dragon tamer was while Dmitri leaned against Kiera's massive form which caused the megapede to glance over at him intently before curling her entire body around his.
"You guys though you won? Heh heh, HA HA HA! I still have one more trump card left!" Alice maniacally roared with a triumphant grin on her face as her purple aura suddenly turned crimson and with that let out a furious shout the likes of which could match Hydreigon in intensity and suddenly an intense roar matched with Alice's causing all of the heroes to turn their heads in that direction.
One moment they saw a gigantic, bird like being in the sky from a distance, the next it was directly upon them as it slowly descended to the ground flapping its giant wing and all of the heroes were immediately floored by the strong wind that it caused, but noticeably Luka was trembling in shock, yet she steeled her resolve and got back to her feet.
Although some referred to it as Guardian of the Sea or Ryujin, it was more commonly known as…
"Lugia…" Luka breathed out just as the corrupted guardian let out another vicious roar and despite being exhausted, everyone of Dmitri's group got ready for battle against one of the most powerful legendaries in the world.