AN: Hey sorry for the lack of any chapters last week, i have been busy writing this story and planning how the ending should be. This chapter took a while to write, so i'm sure it will take a while to read, haha. Please enjoy the story and thanks for reading.
Chapter 16 – Two Hours
Opelucid City
"Wake up, you are wasting too much time. Any longer and you will lose your friends just like you did six years ago." A voice echoed all around us just as we came to. We had passed through Route 08 without any problem; no soldiers, wild Pokemon or thieves… well apart from a rookie trainer demanding a battle, and thus chose Brent to battle with him only using two Pokemon, and that ended faster than the trainer demanding a battle with the trainer coming out as the winner and Brent the loser. Either by letting him win out of exhaustion for almost a few hours of nonstop walking or Brent needed to train his Pokemon more.
Before entering the city, a long and wide open road hardly any people or cars passing through, all four of us were knocked out just like that without a warning, and next we were in an alley somewhere within the city with a drone flying above of, watching us.
Espeon stood up and prepared to use her Psychic to bring it down. "I'll get rid of this little pest!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Espeon." The same voice just as we came to was could be heard coming from the drone. We recognized the voice, he was one of five members of The Five; . "Lack of information may lead you and your friends to your doom."
" I presume? Heh, what kind of name is that? Is that some kind of nickname Shiny Latias gave to you?"
"A nickname I chose for myself you see. I am not happy, I am always sad, miserable how life has been for me. But don't fret, I do try to find ways to make me happy. From playing video games, to watching movies… even holding all of you as my new playthings." He chuckled. The drone then clicked and a little monitor appeared lowered down from the underside of the drone. sitting in a dark room with his helmet off. He had long blonde hair reaching down just past his shoulders, pale skin, and bloodshot blue eyes staring blankly at us.
"What is it you want?" Lisa asked as she stood up. "If you want to battle us then stop hiding behind a monitor and face us."
"I despise physical combat, it bores me." He scoffed. "Punching and kicking, grappling and pushing and throwing… objects found and used as weapons within the environment is interesting to watch, that last push for survival… it ends faster than you realize it. No, my game I intend to play are much better, last longer, and are most definitely more fun."
"We are not going to play any game of yours."
"Really? Then who is going to remove the bombs wrapped snuggly around your necks then?" We looked at one another and saw a black collar with a small box at the front with the numbers '120:00' wrapped around our necks, all except me.
"The hell did ya do to us?" Brent stood up and grabbed the drone and shook it. "The heck are these things wrapped around our necks? You son of a bitch! What did you do to us, ya slimy bastard!"
"This is a game I want to play. One I know Zack will play till the end." smiled into the camera. "Espeon, Lisa Rivers, and Brent Jackson are all wearing explosive collars that will detonate if you attempt to remove them in. So no Espeon and Zack, you cannot use moves from a Pokemon to do it. My collars have a special device located in each one that will detect if you use a move on it. It will give you a strike one first time around, second strike should it the device detect another move, but three strikes and you are out of the game… permanently."
"What is it do you want?" I growled.
"A searching game, one I have taken the time to prepare for just as soon as you and your friends enter the city. Now this game you see is timed. Look at the front of the collars, the small little box with the numbers." We looked at the numbers on the boxes attached to the collar. "One hundred and twenty minutes. Two hours to search this city for the codes to remove the collars."
"Seems simple enough. Searching for codes around the city for two hours. But that can't be all too it." Espeon glared at the man. "Knowing Team Annihilation Reborn, how cruel you bastards are, each location where a code is will require us to do something to earn it. Am I right?"
"Indeed. Each three locations within this city has a member of Team Annihilation Reborn waiting for you four to appear before him waiting to be challenged. He has strong Pokemon only Zack must fight and win in order to obtain the code." He smiled. "With the defeat all Pokemon the solider's have by you Zack and no one else, you will receive part of the code needed to save your friends. Upon defeating all three within the city, the code will be complete and the collars removed. You have two hours to locate and defeat the Pokemon and absorb all of their life energy."
"I'm not going to kill-"
"You have no choice on the matter Zack. You must play the game and win it unless you want your friends to explode right in front of you. And a loud noise from all three of you at once will most certainly attract the attention of the soldiers patrolling the city. So not only will you have to endure the sudden loss of your friends, but to escape the hundreds of soldiers with the best Pokemon at their sides all waiting to be killed and life energy absorbed by you, thus making you stronger for Shiny Latias will be difficult to ignore since your other ability to lose control over yourself at the sudden change in emotions. The sight of your friends all dead will make you lose it and kill all you see before you." Mr Sad popped his neck through the monitor as he sat up in his seat. "It'll be quite the massacre, and people across this region will think twice before asking you to do a job for them since you are the only active member of the Savior's within this region left. Where oh where will you get your income to purchase food and a place for the night? But I give you my word that upon the defeat of the final Pokemon I have tasked you to find and kill, the necklaces will be automatically removed upon completion of the code. Oh and I'll be listening in on your conversations with my drone following you four closely. We don't want anyone else getting involved… or else the citizens of this city including soldiers will be alerted to three bombs going off at the same time."
I looked at them, and they looked back at me. I didn't know what to do. Play this sick game and end the lives of controlled Pokemon to save my friends, or watch them die just like Sakura and Isaac all those years ago. This was obviously to make me stronger for Shiny Latias. Was it her plan or The Five's plan? What if he was lying to us? He was a member of Team Annihilation Reborn sent by Shiny Latias. After completing the codes, what is stopping him from pressing the detonation button and killing my friends? How can I trust him that he'll keep his word after we play along with his game? I didn't want my friends to die. I tried to think of something to get out of this, but there was nothing we could do. Seeing as we had no choice, we had to play along.
"Fine… we'll play your game."
"Excellent. For a minute there I was starting to think you wouldn't, and then everyone of your friends would've risked getting their first strike." He chuckled. "Oh right, before I tell you the clue of the first location to find the first code, I have to explain the extra challenges you four must do not wanting to risk earning yourselves a strike."
"And what are these challenges?" Lisa asked. "Things you placed around the city I suppose?"
"Not really, but they'll be things I see through the drones while following you. If I tell you to stop, you stop until I tell you to move. Should I tell you to fight; you of course fight whoever I want you to. I tell you to break windows of a building you pass; well I'm pretty sure you get the message." He laughed. "Things that'll make you four the laughing stock of the city or hated, who knows. I hope that amuses me."
"Well you can go fuck yourself." Espeon spat.
"Failure to do said action by whoever I ask will be granted a strike. Three strikes and you are out. Failure to do a task or refusal by Zack himself will result to everyone earning a strike. So let's start with you Espeon; I want you to scratch Zack across his face. Draw some blood. Do so and you'll be given a strike."
"No way, I'm not-"
He tutted. "You don't want to get a strike do you?"
Espeon walked up to me, glaring at the drone before she faced me. "Zackary, I-"
"Just do it." That was all I said seeing no point in arguing. With my friend's life on the line, I didn't want to risk it. Mr. Sad had the upper hand, so it was better to go along with it until the end, or find an opening and exploit it.
I kneeled down in front of Espeon and lowered my cloak so that it wasn't covering my mouth and allowed her to strike. "It'll be fine, it'll heal."
Espeon slowly nodded and shot the drone or Mr. Sad one last glare before she faced me and raised her paw up to my cheek and scratched me, drawing blood like he wanted. He chuckled loudly and started to clap. "Well done Espeon, you didn't earn yourself a strike thus keeping you tied with Lisa and Brent. The scratch wasn't as deep as I thought it would be, probably won't scar, but the scratch did draw out some blood. If it did then Espeon would've added another scar to be included on that scared up face of yours Zack." He chuckled before making the drone fly a little ways down the alley, leaving us briefly standing there looking back at the drone, anger rising inside us all before the collars began counting down.
It had gathered the attention of the many people we walked past on the streets of the city, a drone hovering just slightly behind us laughing and ordering us around. After leaving the alley of a library within the center of the city, we walked north towards the first code anxiously waiting for these other games he would play with us, and failure of a task would result on a strike if Espeon, Lisa or Brent failed, or all of them if I failed a task. We had been walking for some time since leaving the alley in silence, waiting for Mr. Sad to give one of us the first task.
"Alright you four, stop right here, it is time for the first task." We did as instructed. Time was counting down, time until the collars would explode unless we received the three codes, time we could not waste, and yet here we have Mr. Sad slowing us down. "Let's start off with Zack, a little warm up to get things started."
"What do you want?" I asked quickly, trying to hurry him up so we can get the codes quickly. The drone hovered to the side of us very close to the road.
"This street is quite busy, don't you four think so? Look at all of these people… going by their day, meeting with friends, people going to work, people going shopping, it would be ashamed if someone ruined their day." The drone then hovered up to my face slowly. "Scare them all off with you moves. Clear the street a minute or less and your friends will be strike free."
"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Brent scoffed, pointing with his finger in the direction of a police officer just down the street. "There's a cop at the end of the street. A disturbance would gain the attention of not only just that one officer, but backup would come very soon, even a lot more when the guy realizes a Pokemon is the one disturbing the peace."
"Well, the faster you finish this task then, the better chance you all have on escaping before backup do arrive. Oh and if the cop over there does catch you or anyone else, then the game ends with a loud explosion from all three collars."
Letting out a long sigh I walked a little bit away from the others so that I was standing in the middle of the street. I didn't start right away not wanting to injure children when they walked near or others standing close when I started. The first move I used was Razor Shell with both scalchops alerting the attention of several people coming to a full stop at the sight of me using a move. Without wasting time I slashed and stabbed very close to peoples legs intentionally missing each time. People began to panic, moving far back away from me but they were still on the street, I needed to do more to clear the street completely before time was up. Without wasting time I used more of my moves like Scald and Psychic to scare them off, making sure each move missed. Scald hit the ground a few feet away from people. The huge amount of steam from the many uses of the move seemed to scare off a lot more than Psychic did, not wanting to be burnt. They could take the pushing from the use of my Psychic, but it was slower. I then combined Psychic with my Razor Shell making it spin very fast in midair and threw it towards the crowd in one direction, and the other scalchop in the opposite.
After some time, I had finished my task on clearing the street. Mr. Sad chuckled and clapped as he made the drone fly above us looking up and down the street. "Congratulations Dewott boy, you have successfully cleared the street with sixteen seconds to spare. Now I suggest we flee before the cops show up. Don't want to get arrested now when we haven't got one code yet." I noticed people across the street were watching, phones out and recording the shocking random attack they had just seen. They probably thought I was a wild Pokemon attacking whoever was near, or one of the rumored Pokemon working for Team Annihilation Reborn controlled to attack anyone they saw. Silently, I turned towards the others and joined them, following Mr. Sad's drone as he could be heard laughing over the little speakers. The voices in my head began all demanding for blood, to kill, but I had to control myself, I had to stay calm until all of this was done.
Very close to the Opelucid gym standing alone beside a wall of a building was a Team Annihilation Reborn soldier with a Pokeball in one hand with his weapons holstered. Mr. Sad lead us to the solider and instructed us before we got too close for the soldier to notice us.
"That is the first target you must beat to get the first code. Zack must fight the soldier's Pokemon alone and defeat it alone without any assistance from either one of you." The drone flew up in the faces of Lisa, Brent, and Espeon. "You cannot heal him, give him any battle items, or interfere with the battle. Just stay there and hope and pray Zack comes out of the battle as the victor. Should Zack lose the battle, all of you will die. Failure to follow said rules will result in a strike. So fight well Zack, your friends lives are at stake. Lose this battle and you will have to watch your friends about to die. No time limit for this battle. Feel free to take as much time as you want. Kill the Pokemon. Absorb its life energy to make you stronger, or your friends will die. Do this three times to get the code so mourn later for the Pokemon you kill."
Without thinking I found myself walking towards the soldier, without refusal, without question, I just walked towards him. I didn't want to kill; I didn't want to kill anyone. I hated this ability, how it just drains the life out of a Pokemon I defeat in battle gaining their strength all for Shiny Latias and her world domination. I had seen no way to get out of this battle. Nothing I would say would convince Mr. Sad to stop this battle; he was making me battle them so I would absorb the life and strength of the Pokemon, using my friends as hostages. Play or they die were my choices… so reluctantly I chose play, hating myself for what I was about to do to Pokemon without any free will.
Upon sight of their target, the soldier immediately threw the Pokeball in between us and out came a Tepig without uttering a word. Rare to hear was the soldier speaking, giving orders to the Pokemon like any other trainer would with their Pokemon. "Wait until I give you command to being the battle."
"Fight well Zack. Just remember not to be defeated unless you want your friends to die. Let the game begin!" I heard Mr. Sad cheering behind m, ordering the soldier to begin with the battle. "Soldier, fight the Dewott. If any of this friends attempt to assist him in any way or move from their current position, you have permission to kill them."
"Tepig, use Take Down." The Tepig without uttering a word charged up the attack and bolted right at me at full speed. I tried to dodge the attack by jumping out of the way at the last second but I failed to dodge in time and was hit right in chest as I was sent flying back off my feet and hitting the ground. But the solider didn't stop at that and immediately ordered his Tepig to attack again with another move just as it was recovering from the recoil. "Use Ember!" The Tepig followed the soldier's command and used Ember at me. The move hit but it didn't do enough damage thanks to me being part water.
"An Ember? Don't you have any other Pokemon on you soldier? If you do, use one that is weak to water. You stupid solider!" Mr. Sad argued. The soldier remained silent and commanded the Tepig to use more moves, fire types mostly.
"Flame Charge, do it now!" The soldier gave out the order to the Tepig, flames engulfing is entire body. I held the Tepig in place with my Psychic before I got up and ran at it and attacked with a Razor Shell.
And that was about it, the Tepig was defeated and lay still on the cold concrete. Suddenly, a blue aura left the body of the Tepig and made its way over towards me as I absorbed it when it had touched my body.
"Congratulations on your first victory, Dewott boy. You being a water type against a fire type? Huge advantage over that one, well done, well done I say. One down two more to go. So you four, the first part of the code has been revealed on the box attached to your collars. So onto the next location." Mr. Sad cheered over the speakers, buzzing around us all in circles. Underneath the countdown on the box displayed a number '2' with two question marks next to it. We had our first part of the code, two more and we would be free if Mr. Sad keeps his word.
Espeon walked up to me and checked up on my injuries I received from that battle, but Mr. Sad's rule prevented anyone of us from being healed up. But thanks to my ability to absorb the life energy of a Pokemon I defeat in battle my injuries are healed up. I looked back at the lifeless Tepig on the ground still feeling terrible for what I did, I wished there was another way this could've gone without anyone dying. I had wished I didn't have to take more lives.
"Hey Sad dude; I've been meaning to ask ya this but how the heck do you know about us?" Brent asked. "You must have sources out there, how did ya manage to get info on us?"
"Let's just say we are well informed. And I know a lot. For example; Brent Jackson, a member of the Kanto region Savior branch. Lisa Rivers, a member of the Sinnoh region Savior branch. Both of you last month went awol all of a sudden, just left your regions to come here." I looked up at Brent and Lisa's reactions to see if they changed, but they didn't, they never showed any sign of change. How did Mr. Sad know about that? Were they keeping tabs on them?
"Do you really think we would just go awol out the blue like that?" Brent scoffed. "That our bosses don't know we are out here? They gave us the order to come here to help fight Zack in his battle with you miserable bastards!"
"I know a lot about you all. I know the story of Zack Raines and how he was once killed, murdered by Juro once when he was only four years old, accidentally brought back to life. Originally they gathered bodies to resurrect them as mindless controllable zombies to be used as new weapon for Team Annihilation, Zack was the only one to be resurrected normally with his mind intact, but memories of his former life gone. Juro decided to discard the boy and sent him off to be adopted by another family, the Amano family. He was bullied at school for being the quiet and shy little boy that he was, boring life until he met Latias, dreams of being a hero as a member of the Savior's, transformed into a Dewott, friends dying… need I go on?"
"No!" Espeon said as we began making our way down the next street. But Mr. Sad continued anyway, ext moving on to Espeon to talk about.
"Espeon, started off as a little Eevee taken in by a sick little girl named Eliza living with her parents in a mansion within the Kanto region. You and her were the best of friends and all was going well until one fateful night when a fire broke out within the mansion, you having already evolved into an Espeon attempted to save your dear trainer, but she died leaving you all alone in this world, oh boohoo, woe is me!" He said in a mocking tone, flying closer to Espeon who only stared straight ahead, trying to ignore the drone almost up in her face. Then shortly flew up to Lisa flying around her head as he spoke.
"Lisa Rivers, a girl who lived with her brother named James; the two of you were inseparable. But then that day came when you discovered on the TV midday that your brother was shot dead the whole world came crashing down. Not only did you lose a family member, but you also discovered James was a member of Team Annihilation. Fear overcame you believing everyone would hate you, resent you, want you dead for being associated with them; you fled before that could happen. Years passed and you became A Savior, a fresh new face, no one knew who this young woman was, a clean slate."
"And finally there is Brent Jackson, the muscle of the group." The drone flew in front of Brent's face, refusing to turn away from it. "He joined the Savior's with his friends all on the same day, became a team together, slowly reaching for the top, an unstoppable team known to others. Then on a mission starting off smoothly ended up being the worst day of your life; friends dying one by one by enemies firing their weapons at you all, until rescue came leaving you alone as the sole survivor and survivors guilt for many years. The bodies came home, even a girl in your group of friends you were almost in a relationship with. Seeing her cold lifeless face must've been-" Brent suddenly stood still and reached out and grabbed the drone with his hands.
"You have crossed the line you son of a bitch!" Brent angrily yelled, attracting the attention of a lot of people on the street, most walked away after a minute, but some stayed, curious at why he was yelling at a drone like that.
"Bent, don't do this. He's already in control; he has his finger hovering over the switch just waiting to press it." Espeon walked up to Brent in her attempt to calm him down. Brent breathed in slowly and let the drone go. And as soon as he did, a small beep could be heard coming from the small box at the front of Brent's collar. Underneath the timer still counting down, a red circle was now there, Brent had received his first strike.
"She is right about that, me being in control, with my finger just over the button to kill you all. But I won't do that. I'll play this game till the end. With all three codes to deactivate the collars, you will be free. With three strikes you will die. Because you went out of line, you're up for another task. Because you did well to get the code, I was going to give you a break, but no! I am going to have you all do several tasks one after the other until you all learn to behave!" The drone flew up and scanned around. "Hmm… now what shall we have you do, Brent? Run across the road and back at a green light within thirty seconds? Have you beaten by your friends for a minute?" Mr. Sad gasped and began to chuckle. "I believe I have found out what to do. An easy task if you are brave enough." We turned to look in the direction the drone was facing. It was through a back alley behind a store where several men wearing baggy clothing and jackets where surrounding another spray painting the wall. "Your task is simple Mr. Jackson; be punched by one of those thugs or all of them and you won't get a strike. Thirty seconds to accomplish the task; starting now."
"Bent?" Espeon tried to stop Brent as he silently walked to and down the alley making his way over to the small gang. He told them something we couldn't hear from where we were, but whatever he said to them angered them. One of the members had punched Brent in his stomach hard, and then he collapsed to the ground whilst clutching his stomach, allowing the others to attack him, throwing punches and kicks before running off down the alley.
We ran over to Brent, he seemed alright, but as Mr. Sad could be heard laughing as the drone flew closer to him, I saw Brent clench both fists tightly, glaring at him.
Walking to the next section of the city where the second code was out of the three needed to disarm the bomb collars, Mr. Sad gave us tasks every minute one after the other unless one if not all of us would get a strike. We were walking across the road, and then all of a sudden Mr. Sad gave us another task.
"New task you four; stop for one minute or you will all get a strike. None of you move your feet, I'm watching you all carefully, so don't try to move!" All of us stopped in the middle of the road, watching people pass us to get across the road, the red light any second now would turn to green for the cars to move again. But with us still on the road, the cars obviously wouldn't move to run us over, it may spark arguments and shouting from the drivers for us to get out of the way.
With the green light on, cars, trucks and busses from both sides honked their horns for us to move, but with Mr. Sad watching us from above we couldn't or we would be given a strike. "Hey, move it you stupid kids!" A truck driver yelled from his truck at us.
"Uh, h-hey! We're in the middle of something here, so uh do ya mind?" Brent yelled back.
"Yeah, you're in the middle of the road, so get off of it, I got places to be today! Move it!" He honked his horn again and again. His arguing seemed to spark more drivers in their cars yelling at us, swearing at us and threatening to move us out of the way. Some of the drivers got out of their cars to yell.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sad with his drone hovering above laughed at the scene with delight. "Don't use your moves if they come over to you Espeon and Zack. You can however push them away if they get too close wanting to push you out of the way, as long as you don't move your feet you won't get a strike."
"Hey, move it, I need to get to work! I'm going to be late!" A woman shouted at us before we found ourselves surrounded by angry drivers and people trying to force us to move out of the way. I had been counting down to when we could move again, we had only needed to stay there for a minute without moving our feet off the ground or from the original position. We were doing well with fifty seconds passed and with ten seconds more to go before we could move again, strike free and ready to move on towards the final code. Then to our surprise, one member from the angry crowd had placed her hands on Lisa and pushed her in her place, followed by Brent being pushed by another man, and then Espeon a few seconds after them. Brent had two strikes already, Lisa had her first strike now and so did Espeon, if someone were to push me out of the way or pick me up, Mr. Sad would give the others a strike, Brent would be given his third strike and he would be killed.
Then thankfully, Mr. Sad sighed after a light chuckle told me "Times up. Congratulations, Dewott boy, you have saved Brent from receiving his third-" Then without warning a random member from the angry crowd picked me up and threw me back onto the sidewalk where the others were. The crowd dispersed, most getting off the road to return to the sidewalk and the rest returned back to their vehicles. Mr. Sad controlled the drone to lower beside us and began to tut. "Three failed while the fourth remained in the game. Three received a strike and thus given one each. It would've been two strikes if the Dewott boy was taken out of the game as well, but as luck would have it he remained in the game that just barely got through."
The drone hovered up and flew off down the next street with us following behind, still doing a task for us, easy tasks mostly, embarrassing ones and cruel; flipping over tables at cafes, breaking windows, popping balloons of children, stealing food some vendors, every task he asked us to complete to keep Mr. Sad from pushing the button to detonate the collar we had to do.
In the southeast corner of the city, very close to the city gate was another solo soldier waiting for us to begin the battle. Same rules applied, no help from the others, no medical items to be used, battle items or interference whatsoever. A battle to the death, either the other Pokemon would die or three of my friends standing behind me would be the ones to die leaving me once again alone on this mission, and I didn't want that to happen.
"There is the soldier, Dewott boy. Win this and the second code will be given, one step closer on freeing your friends of the collars and thus being safe once more." Mr. Sad said as he flew the drone above us all.
"You better keep your word they will be free after I get the last one."
"Of course they will be free, but to do that you must defeat the final opponent for the code to be granted to them. So get a move on, Dewott boy. Time is running short for your friends."
I walked forward towards the soldier, reaching into his satchel for his Pokeball after noticing my approach. But unlike the first battle, this soldier had two Pokeball's instead of one, and then I heard Mr. Sad behind me. "As the game continues, the difficulty increases for each round. The first round was an easy one for you. This round is the normal difficulty faced with two Pokemon of different types, stronger and faster than that Tepig you killed. Oh that poor young Tepig whose life was cut short… what life could it have lead? Would it have grown to help its trainer become champion of the region? Performed in countless contests perhaps? Maybe even started a family… oh the poor thing. It's life taken so soon in this world by you."
I growled quietly, trying to ignore him as I was about to start the battle. The last thing I wanted to do was to let the voices take control and force me to kill anything nearby. Maybe that's what he wanted me to do. A lot I had encountered working alongside Shiny Latias were curious as to what I was like when the voices forced me to go berserk and kill anything nearby.
The soldier released two Pokemon; an Unfezant, and a Krokorok, and just like the Tepig they never said anything. More Pokemon controlled by Team Annihilation Reborn.
"Unfezant use a Quick Attack. Krokorok use Dig and defeat this Dewott!" The Unfezant attacked first with Quick Attack followed by Krokorok using Dig burying itself underground. Unfezant's attack I was able to dodge, but the move I wasn't able to dodge was Dig used by the Krokorok inflicting a good amount of damage to me. "Air Cutter Unfezant, don't go easy on the Dewott!" The soldier ordered the Pokemon to attack, and just like Krokorok's attack I was hit by it, struck across my chest as I was sent flying back.
"Zack!" I heard my friends call out to me as I lie on my back after that last attack. Both attacks left me feeling numb for a little while before the pain could be felt in many places on my body.
"Ooh, that looked like it really hurt, Dewott boy! More attacks like that especially from moves you are weak to will result in a quick defeat! Finish him soldier, my finger has been hovering over this button for a while now wanting to blow all three up leaving behind nothing but charred remains!"
The two Pokemon were ordered to use the same moves against me. I had gotten up fast and stood ready, refusing to simply give in. I protected myself from their attacks using Protect, and using Scald on whichever Pokemon was the closest, finding my vision going blurry randomly. The attack hit the Pokemon, but I didn't stop at that. I ran at the two of them and used Razor Shell with everything I had. The attack hit the both of them, and then I attacked again, the move hit them, inflicting damage, and then I struck again and again and again. This didn't last long. After several more strikes the two Pokemon fell over defeated in battle… and killed because of my ability.
Tired of the many used of the same move over and over again, I fell back on the ground exhausted, almost at the verge of being knocked out, that is until I felt the life energy of the defeated Pokemon being absorbed into me regaining some strength back.
A shadow cast over me, opening my eye to see Lisa kneeling beside me opening up her back ready to apply a potion to my wounds. But before she could open the bottle up, the buzzing drone quickly approached her and shouted.
"Stop it right there, Lisa! I informed you and the others what will happen if either one of you heal him, you will be out of the game."
"But he's hurt badly. He won't he be able to last much longer!" She argued back, hoping Mr. Sad would allow just this once for her to heal me up. Not to our surprise he refused it, saying we should suck it up and continue until the end. The second code was given to us '5'
With the drone watching Lisa carefully, she returned the potion back inside her bag, before helping me up.
And so with my injuries slowly healing up because of my ability feeling a little bit better, I just sighed and told them. "It's fine… I have been through worse. The faster we get this over with the faster I can heal my injuries. Let's go."
I didn't say much for a while, my mind going over that last battle a few times. Usually in battles like that I would put up more of a fight, defended myself, evaded and planned out my next move a lot more than that instead of just stand around and be slow with everything. "Human enemies don't die when I defeat them in battle, it's only Pokemon. I know I have to fight them to save my friends from the explosive collars, I just wish there was some other way..." The more I killed the closer I had gotten on freeing my friends, and the more I killed the more I felt myself becoming scared at what I was becoming, what I was training to become; a monster living only to serve Team Annihilation Reborn as its puppet.
Onto the third and final part of the code didn't prove to be a simple walk, instead it involved more tasks to be a nuisance within the city; damaging cars, breaking windows with whatever we could find. Mr. Sad every time things turned for the worse for us, say like if the police showed up he was guide us somewhere to hide for a while before going back onto the streets for another task of destroying parts of the city again.
We were walking down a street very close to the third and final part of the game, Lisa and Brent walking on ahead with the drone flying above them, and Espeon and I walking beside the other, me anxious on what the next task would be, and Espeon walking with her head looking back at the road.
"Hmm… is that what I think it is?" Said quietly as she looked back at the road.
"What seems to be the hold up, Espeon?" Mr. Sad asked as he made the drone fly over to Espeon, finding her glancing back at the road.
"Oh nothing. I was just wondering if we can have a short rest." Espeon held up her paw and tapped the collar with it. "We have an hour left until the bomb goes off, right? And we are almost there. Do you mind if we take a short rest? Five minutes would be best."
"Well, I don't see any problem with it, just as long as you get up when five minutes is up, otherwise I'll give all of you another task again. And I see a building across the street with windows just asking to be smashed."
"Yeah, that's fine. We'll get up." Espeon shrugged and watched as the drone flew a little bit farther up. "Hey Zackary," I turned to Espeon, finding her sitting on top of a bench beside the bus stop. "I'm going to close my eyes for a little while if you know what I mean. Don't allow the others to touch me, just call out and I'll open my eyes again." It took a moment for me to realize what she was going to do, and I nodded and said I would. "Thanks Zackary." She closed her eyes and entered the Dark Place state. I didn't know why she was entering the Dark Place now. She wouldn't be able to get much training done in such a small time. Then I thought 'Perhaps she is looking through her memories for something.'
While Espeon was doing that, I walked over to Lisa and Brent sitting on the bench next to Espeon, but not too close to disturb her. "Hey guys, how you doing?"
"I'm feeling anxious. I keep hearing strange clicking noises inside these boxes randomly…" Lisa sighed, nervously looking up at the drone watching them attached to the bus sign. "How are you holding up Zack? Are you injured much? That last attack you received looked pretty bad."
"No, I'm alright. Thanks for my ability for that by restoring my injuries by absorbing the life energy of the Pokemon I defeat…" I sighed sadly. "I feel terrible for killing them… but I know if I don't fight he'll kill all of you." I sat between the two on the bench, feeling stressed out by the whole situation.
"It was kill or be killed…" Brent muttered. "But once this is over, no more innocent lives will be trapped by Shiny Latias control ability. We just gotta keep going. This fight will end one day."
"I hope you're right."
The five minute rest seemed to go by fast, as if destiny wanted me to hurry up and fight the controlled Pokemon, kill them and absorb their life energy thus making me stronger all for Shiny Latias to control. I almost asked Mr. Sad if we could wait a little bit longer. But I already knew what the answer would be. He would probably angry again, or happy to deny us more rest and give us another task one after the other before arriving at the last destination.
Before getting up off the bench, I saw Espeon jump off looking somewhat happy about something and kept her head facing forward with a slight grin.
"Hey Zackary, that was a nice much needed rest. Glad I was able to get all of that."
"So did you get what you wanted from resting?" I asked, knowing she wouldn't tell me, not while Mr. Sad flying above us listening in.
"Yeah, I believe I have. I'll tell you about it when I get the chance."
The final soldier was waiting for us standing very close outside the Opelucid City gym, again like the last two was alone, and I'm guessing he'll have stronger Pokemon on him, perhaps more than two. I glanced down at my body to see my wounds still bleeding and bruised in some places. If it weren't for my ability absorbing the life energy out of Pokemon I defeat, I'd be barely standing up.
Without a word I just walked towards the soldier and prepared myself for the final battle. "Just one more win and this will be over… I hope. Because of this bastard is lying… I'll kill him, I tear his head-" I had stopped myself, hearing the voices again within my head.
"This is the final battle, the last battle needed to obtain the last code needed to disarm the collar bombs and thus freeing said friends of an explosive death." Mr. Sad chuckled. "Defeat the soldier's Pokemon and you will be granted the final code."
"You better keep your word!" Brent grunted.
"Do not worry Mr. Jackson. I always play my games fairly. Like I said at the beginning of the game, should Zack fall in battle, the game ends with you three dead. And should Zack succeed in all three battles and obtain all three codes, the collars will be disarmed and you three will be free. Okay soldier, prepare yourself." Mr. Sad called out to the soldier making the drone fly above us to get a better look at the battlefield. "Hmm… seems fine. Don't want anyone getting in the way of the battle."
The soldier immediately threw out not one, not two, but three Pokeball's that were attached on his belt. The soldier sent out a Klang, a Bisharp and a Gigalith out from their Pokeball's, again not saying a word as the stood there preparing for battle.
Mr. Sad's drone flew in close to me and reminded me. "With this victory you shall be granted the third and final code needed to free your friends. Fail and the bombs will detonate. So try not to fail. And with that out of the way; Battle begin!" He announced loudly before the drone flew back up above us.
The soldier quickly issued his Pokemon their first command. "Bisharp use Metal Claw. Klang use Thunder Shock to slow 'em down. Gigalith, await further orders."
The Bisharp moved in close at me and slashed with its metallic hands, I was able to dodge the first set of them but not able to evade the Klang's Thunder Shock. Shocked, I felt the electricity surge throughout my entire body for a moment, unsure if I was struck with paralyze. Not feeling any effects from the attack, I continued to dodge Bisharp's Metal Claw, but then felt my entire body freeze up when trying to move. Thunder Shock had paralyzed me, and thus allowed Bisharp to finish using Metal Claw and slashed me with it doing some damage.
"Klang, use Thunder Shock on Gigalith. Gigalith, if you are paralyzed use Facade, that'll do a lot of damage on the Dewott. " The soldier ordered his Klang to attack Gigalith. If I remembered correctly, Facade's attack power is doubled if the user of the move is poisoned, paralyzed, or burned. And with my energy this low, I won't be able to withstand the attack multiple times.
I tried to move to dodge out of the way of the attack, but the paralyze prevented me from moving, all I could do was watch the incoming attack fired directly at me and sent me flying back, rolling as I hit the ground
"You can do this Zackary! Don't give up; I know you can do this!" I heard Espeon call out to me, and then the others cheered me on shortly before Mr. Sad flew down to them and yelled.
"You three stay quiet or else you will all get a strike. Do not cheer him on! You might as well be booing him for how terrible he is at this. It's almost as if he doesn't want to save you three. That he doesn't care!"
As much as I tried, I failed to let the voices within my head die down completely, allowing them to talk, to say things that would cause my anger to rise. Reaching for my scalchops, I used Razor Shell and ran at the Gigalith and attacked it first, planning to move onto the others after this one was defeated.
"Gigalith, use Sandstorm!" He ordered his Pokemon as it began roaring loudly, creating a huge sandstorm on the battle field, making it hard to see for everyone. With my eyes slightly open, just barely able to catch anything in this storm, I saw Gigalith standing there, and so I moved in and attacked the Pokemon with Razor Shell, a super effective move and one that defeated it in battle.
As the storm subsided, the soldier ordered his Klang to use Screech lowering my defense with a loud high pitch screeching piercing my ears, and ordered his Bisharp to use Sword Dance increasing its attack. With my defense down and still affected by paralyze, I couldn't relax just yet. Klang knew Electric type moves one of my weaknesses and if hit once or twice I'll be out and waking up later on to discover all three of my friends all dead. Bisharp was a Dark/Steel type Pokemon, only seeing one move that was a Steel type and not Dark. I thought about which Pokemon I should focus on before moving on to the last.
I ran at the two Pokemon as the soldier started to give the order for his Pokemon to attack. "Klang use Charge Beam! Bisharp, move in and use Metal Claw again." I used Protect successfully shielding myself from their attacks before moving on up again towards the Klang. I used Scald and Razor Shell before finishing it off, moving finally towards the Bisharp intent on finishing the battle.
The Bisharp charged at me with Metal Claw again, and I with Razor Shell. The Bisharp's attack clashed with mine, pushing each other off trying to slash at each other. The Bisharp was able to get through my blocks and slashed at my face and arms with the attack. I was able to attack the Bisharp at its stomach and head, or anywhere that was open to me, slashing and stabbing at it without looking. And then the Bisharp stopped attacking, falling back to the ground. And not too long after the Pokemon fell, I knelt down barely hanging on. The Bisharp's attacks that did hit me cut me up pretty bad.
The drone flew over to me and Mr. Sad cheered. "Congratulations, Dewott boy. You have successfully beaten the final challenger of today's game to free your friends from the collars." He chuckled, flying the drone towards the now deceased Pokemon.
"What about the collars?" I asked standing back up to face the drone. "You said they would be free!"
Mr. Sad began to tut. "I did, didn't I? Although I could drag this out and start up a second round. But then again I did give you my word that I would release your friends. I am a man of my word, and so your friends have been granted the third and final code to disarm the bombs."
The final code '7' was given to us. The full code appeared on the small box attached to the collar '257' and a small clicking noise was heard from all three collars before all three fell onto the ground.
As soon as the collars were removed from Lisa, Brent and Espeon, Espeon suddenly ran as fast as she could at a parked black truck at the side of the road and tore the door off with her Psychic before pulling out the driver revealed to be a soldier for Team Annihilation Reborn and the second to be another all of us recognized as Mr. Sad tightly holding onto his laptop.
Running as fast as we could, Espeon pinned the two beside the truck, using Confusion on the other soldier as he was trying to break free from her grip. Brent approached the soldier and punched him knocking him out cold.
"W-what the-? How did you know we were-" Mr. Sad has asked, but was cut off by Espeon chuckling.
"Do you remember when I asked for a rest before we arrived here? To everyone else I looked as though I was simply resting my eyes. In reality I entered the Dark Place, a state in which Psychic types only can access their own minds, training with their Psychic type moves to become stronger." She shook her head. "But another thing we Psychics can do while within this state is access our memories, to look back on recent to long ago memories, good memories, bad memories, boring memories, and of course memories we forget. I looked back on my memories before we entered the city to the moment we woke up behind that alley. I saw something, again after leaving the alley and into the street, before the first battle, following us at every street we were on, parked nearby from the moment the second battle had started and then until it ended, thus following us again."She looked up at the truck. "I thought it was odd how this same truck was everywhere we went, stopping when we did, moving when we did, yet always far back in the distance as if whoever was inside didn't want to be noticed." Espeon looked back at Mr. Sad. "But I noticed. I also noticed the driver was wearing the same helmet all Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers have. So you followed us closely in that truck so you could control that drone of yours."
"Shiny Latias mentioned you two had access to that Dark Place. But how could you have seen so much within five minutes?" Mr. Sad asked shaking his hands.
"While within the Dark Place time flows normally for beginners, but those with experience can access and do more. To me it felt as if I had been in that state longer than the five minutes you granted us. If you only gave us two minutes rest, I probably wouldn't have gotten the memories I needed to discover you had been tailing us."
Dropping the laptop, Mr. Sad hung his head in defeat. "Nice work Espeon. I'll let Devon know about this." Lisa glanced over her should to where the final battle had taken place to find the soldier had vanished. Just as Lisa was about to call for Devon to contact his men to take Mr. Sad away, with his other hand he attacked.
Suddenly, Mr. Sad grabbed a knife from his coat pocket and tried to stab Lisa with it, but luckily for us Brent was kneeling beside Mr. Sad and quickly reacted. Brent grabbed Mr. Sad's hand and twisted it, hearing a loud snap as he broke his hand dropping the knife. Mr. Sad screamed at the top of his lungs, using his other hand to try and break free from his grip. "Hmm… now what shall we do to you? Beat you up so bad you'll eat through a straw the rest of your miserable life? Or should we forgive this sorry lowlife?"
Espeon walked up beside Brent. "Forgive? Not by a long shot. We are not going to kill you that would be too kind. For forcing us into this sick game, making us wear these collars, breaking windows and annoying people is messed up, even worse when you attempt to stab Lisa! But we are going to mess you up first!"
"N-no… NOOOOO!" And then Mr. Sad was given the worst beat down of his life as all of us beat him to a pulp, well everyone but me and Lisa helping me by healing my wounds. It was for the best, I probably would've let the voices control me and kill him if I got involved, I was so close on doing so multiple times before he was apprehended and taken away by Devon's crew.
Devon informed us later that day about Mr. Sad, how he on a few occasions had run in with his team and trapped them in his game. He gave them similar tasks to the ones we were given to avoid getting a strike. Most of his men were given strikes for failing a task, most of them died attempting to win at his game. We had survived that day, deciding it would be best to stay within the city for some time to rest up after what had happened… or I suppose avoid the people in this city after all of the damages and disturbances we had done since arriving. It would take some time for Devon to help up fix the damages and clear our names.
To be continued…
Trivia:
Mr. Sad was originally set to appear multiple times within the story as a recurring enemy.