"Great plan!" Zerobi exclaimed as she removed the last of the eye-gunk from her body.
"Yeah, grea…" Lucario snickered in unison before suddenly opening his mouth wide in protest, "Wait, you're not being sarcastic?"
"Charge up and kill him!" Zerobi enticed before walking past Lucario towards Groudon, bumping him with her shoulder "C'mon Lucario, she won't be able to move."
"What!? Hey!" Lucario yelled as Zerobi made a dash for it. Hesitantly looking back at Celebi one last time, he followed suit and ran towards Groudon. Not wanting to waste any time, the small legendary began the process of destroying her own mind.
Special attacks are a difficult concept to explain. What decides how strong the blast of an ethereal concept like Psybeam is? When you train the physical body, all the muscle cells break down from exertion and are slowly replaced by stronger ones, considerably more adapt to the process of physical workout. This method works in much the same way, intentionally breaking down the mind of the user in order to recreate its power twofold. The term "Nasty Plot" was coined as the user appears to be in deep mental hibernation, and the unrestrained carnage that normally follows.
No doubt it is one of the most powerful moves in existence. Normally only attained by Dark-types, Celebi had discovered her aptitude for it handed down from her father. Genetics don't actually work that way, but if you inherit something from your father it's typically a move. Visions of two Weavile and two Celebi briefly pass through her mind as her power doubles and she breaks it all down again.
"Holy crap!" Lucario shouts, sensing a spike in power from behind, "Celebi's getting really damn strong!"
"It's not done yet! Give it two minutes, that's how long it took when I first taught her!" Zerobi shouted back as their voices finally drew the attention of the ever-immobile Groudon. He seemed rather unaffected by anything that had happened thus far.
"Wait a minute, you can do that too!?" Lucario yelled out in surprise, "Why the hell have you never used it!?"
"Because my special attack sucks," Zerobi admitted as she suddenly stopped, feeling she was in the perfect range for a projectile attack.
Unimaginable power courses through Celebi's body. Squashing the likes of Pikablu or Lucas with her will alone would be an easy matter. But neither even made up a fraction of the size of this beast. She would have to go even further, become the greatest force earth has ever known. Visions of the insides of a Pokéball briefly pass through her mind as her power quadruples and she breaks it all down again.
"Not the eye, it's pointless!" Zerobi told Lucario as she covered her claws in large blocks of icicles.
"Then where else?" Lucario asked and let his mitochondria condense in his right palm. Zerobi looked up, unable to determine any particular weak spot in Groudon's armor, unless you counted the thick scales giving way to cracks of even thicker scales.
"Fine, the eye," she muttered and threw up both icicles towards her former prison, Lucario firing an aura sphere in tandem. Both projectiles seemed to puncture the giant's eye, but nether seemed to have any effect and the holes immediately began closing up. However, much to their surprise Groudon started blinking rapidly, his eyelids tough enough to stop a rampaging horde of Tauros.
"Hell yeah, he felt it!" Lucario exclaimed with pride, knowing that even a fraction of his aura sphere would be enough to put pain in anyone. He did a small victory dance, though not on purpose - The ground was violently shaking as Groudon finally moved, turning around to properly face them.
"O-Oh c-crap, h-he f-felt i-it!" Zerobi shouted loudly as she tried to move away, but they had been caught in the middle of an earthquake. She dug down her clawed feet as the ground twisted her ankles back and forth and threatened to knock her on her ass any moment, the tremors making her bones chatter. Lucario already resigned himself to his fate and fell forward, grasping onto the unstable soil with his arms. The shaking died down and he looked up to see Groudon's neck form a straight line towards where they were standing, opening his mouth as a surge of power amassed all around him.
"… Huh?" was all he could muster up as suddenly a massive vine burst out of the ground right under Groudon, latching onto his neck. It hastily coiled itself around the giant's mouth and forced it shut. Another vine sprung up from beneath, and then another, wrapping themselves around his limbs and forcing his huge body to the ground.
Feeling more and more like a bug looking up at a tree, Lucario could not tear his eyes away from the scene even as he felt six Celebi approaching from behind. Zerobi looked back at her sister, whose radiation of power had now entered the visual spectrum. There was a clear aura of darkness seeping out of her as she flew past the other two, high in the air and closer to Groudon. Slowly the first vine she had conjured up grew even further, twisting itself around the giant's throat.
"Wh…" Lucario stammered as he finally looked up and saw what almost looked like Darkrai for a second, "Does Nasty Plot make you evil?"
"No Dark-type moves do, that's just ignorant!" Zerobi snapped back while pulling her feet out of the dirt, "Well, it… Can have some unintended effects. Sometimes the parts that control your empathy are a little slower to regenerate…"
They shared a look of concern and then almost lost their footing as Groudon began struggling against his bindings. A sinister smile crept across Celebi's expression as she clutched her hands, the vine bearing down its full force on the vulnerable throat.
"Get him, sis!" Zerobi shouted in support and was promptly ignored as Celebi wondered why she was holding back. Effortlessly she ordered all the other vines to start squeezing their target as well, hoping to break a bone or two. Just to see if they would snap before his neck. The normally implacable Groudon roared in pain with his mouth trapped shut, waving his body back and forth so hard that it was creating strong winds.
"Hold your breath!" Lucario exclaimed and closed his eyes as a cloud of dirt came their way. Zerobi obliged, but something else was starting to bother her. Needless to say, she had cut many windpipes in her day. The labored attempts at breathing of her victims as they turned pale, gradually slowing down as sweet red nectar ran down their front was a memory that would never leave her, and for all the wrong reasons. Her excellent vision and hearing showed her that despite the cloud of dust that was almost upon them, Groudon was not doing any of these things, barely even breathing at all. Barely even breathing… At all…
"SIS! HE'S NOT BREATHING!" Zerobi suddenly screamed out as loudly as she could, hoping to attract her sister's attention this time. The small legendary kept her sight on the bound creature before her.
"Good," Celebi calmly responded.
"NO, I MEAN," Zerobi struggled as she covered her face and was suddenly engulfed by the winds of dust, "HE DOESN'T BREATHE! AT ALL!"
Celebi contemplated this statement for a second as she extended a small feeler from the greater vine and slipped it in between the cracks of the scales around where she assumed the epiglottis was located.
There was no activity. No oxygen moving in or out. She was choking out a creature that had given up breathing a long time ago. Putting more force into the squeezing, even the immense power of her skyscraper-sized vine was nowhere near able to crush Groudon's esophagus, and now she was starting to doubt that it would even make a difference.
"This is-" she whispered to herself before suddenly sensing activity from her feelers and started shouting, "GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"
A white light shone from the gaps of Groudon's mouth, and Celebi hastily repurposed her vine from choking to pulling the monster's head back. Not one moment later a diagonal pillar of pure, raw destruction shot out of Groudon's mouth, instantly evaporating all the greenery keeping it shut. Lucario and Zerobi threw themselves to the ground as Celebi struggled to keep the monster's head in place, Groudon constantly trying to force down this beam of death upon them. Her efforts were losing out, and she could already feel her being evaporate as the Hyper Beam drew closer.
"NGGAH!" Celebi spat and added a blast of Psychic into the mix, knocking Groudon square in the jaw with an intangible uppercut. In her normal state it would not have done much, but with her newfound power it was enough to send Groudon's head even further upwards, cutting the beam short as a loud explosion sounded high above them.
Lucario opened his eyes and uncovered his ears, realizing he had been screaming at some point as half a ton of sand covered the insides of his mouth. His tasting buds already ruined due to years of eating disgusting berries, he barely even noticed it.
"That fucking bastard is going to vaporize the entire continent!" Lucario yelled with ferocity before coughing, "Where are the legendaries!?"
"Sis! I'm going to use the other forbidden technique!" Celebi suddenly shouted from high above, "The loud one! You know what to do!"
Feeling unprepared as usual, Lucario looked over at Zerobi for explanations. Hear head was leaning back and she looked a little surprised for a moment, before smiling and turning towards him with a sultry expression.
"Zerobi?" Lucario asked hesitantly as she made her way towards him.
"Lucario, do us both a favor and don't resist," she said bluntly, keeping up her brisk pace and not stopping at all. Their bodies collided as she forced herself upon Lucario, making him fall down to the ground with a yelp. Instantly trying to get up and demand an explanation, he found himself restrained as Zerobi straddled his midsection, her sinister smile growing wider by the second.
"Here!? Now!?" Lucario exclaimed in equal parts shock and terror. Was Celebi about to use some sort of orgy-inducing move to stop Groudon? Zerobi answered by leaning into him, and placing her forehead against his. The coldness of her yellow gem sent shivers down his spine.
"You're too much of a Fighting-type, hold still unless you want your brains blown out," Zerobi said quietly, "I won't use my claws, but this is still going to hurt… A lot?"
Knowing she didn't have much time to prepare, she started replacing the cold energy in her gem with dark energy. Largely unfamiliar with special attacks, all Weavile are Dark-types and eventually learn the use of Dark Pulse. She found it a bit hilarious that the only real use she was going to find for it was to help someone in this odd situation, Lucario seemingly confused yet still remaining steadfast.
The art of telepathy is something familiar to most psychics, but its use is generally frowned upon as an invasion of privacy. Trying to read someone's mind might seem like a boon, but with approximately a thousand thoughts passing through someone's head a minute it's more likely to give the user a headache. The only potential use would be to speak directly inside someone else's mind, but unless you were mute it was basically a more elaborate and creepy way of simply talking.
This was especially forbidden amongst legendaries, as sending out a telepathic signal means that just about any receptive brain close enough could pick it up. And you never know who might be listening. Knowing she would most likely catch hell for this, Celebi ignored her fears and felt that with or without her doing this, due to Groudon's emergence the world would never be the same either way.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Maria looks up at the sky. Had that really just happened? Feeling a bit sheepish, she pulls out her phone to take a picture of the giant hole in the clouds. She wasn't the only one, the citizens of Lavender that weren't screaming were all snapping pictures to show the rest of the world evidence of what had just taken place. The fairly outdated snap-app is still loading as a voice that wasn't her own sounds inside her head…
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"… countless casualties. We urge everyone to remain calm and await further…" the breaking news report went on as Johan pushes through the crowd to get a better view of the cruise liner's television set. The entire bay had halted, surely spoiling today's shipment of Vermillion's Finest Fish, but it wouldn't matter. Oh lord, he thinks, please be safe. Then another voice springs up in his mind…
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Turns out this wasn't going to be such a slow day after all.
"Sir, permission to relocate to Saffron-" the Scizor yells as he bursts into the office, and is immediately cut off.
"Granted! Just go!" the stern-looking Croagunk hastily replies before turning back to me, "And no!"
"Sir, they need all the help they can-" I try to defend my position as the Haunter floats in through the ceiling.
"Why even ask!? Granted!" the Croagunk pre-empted her question as the Haunter slowly drifts back into the roof, and then he shoots another glare at me, "You're slow AND poisonous! What kind of rescue effort is that!?"
"If Smugleaf were here-" I start and the Croagunk suddenly stands up.
"This close, THIS close to kicking you both out after Zerobi turned up again," he says with genuine anger flaring, "If you want to make yourself useful, there's a stack of… Paper…"
He slows down and gets an odd expression, bobbing his eyes back and forth in paranoia. Wait, so I'm not the only one hearing that sweet voice?
"What in tarnation-"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"People and Pokémon of Kanto, I am contacting you using telepathy," Celebi spoke with her mouth, redirecting the words into her head where it channels across the globe, "Yes, you are hearing my voice, and as is everyone else."
Even Lucario could hear it, though he was preoccupied with two other conundrums at the moment. The first was surprisingly pleasant as he found himself wrestling Zerobi's minty tongue in a passionate kiss, her body entwined with his on the ground. The second was wholly unpleasant as Zerobi was firing endless streams of Dark Pulses directly into his brain. The kissing part was, of course, entirely optional for this plan to work, but Zerobi needed a way to keep his head restrained and using her claws seemed like a poor idea. A poorer idea than this, anyway.
"The terrible Groudon has emerged west of Saffron City. His destructive capabilities cannot be understated," Celebi continued, her voice ringing through the heads of both people and Pokémon in Kanto, "If you are currently near any of the cities of Celadon, Vermillion, Saffron or Cerulean, please evacuate to another city. The rest of you, please help any refugees, and inform any Dark-type Pokémon of this message as they cannot hear me."
Indeed, despite being right next to this immensely powerful signal Zerobi didn't hear anything her ears didn't pick up and could focus solely on her task at hand. It wasn't quite as romantic as she had envisioned though, what with Lucario constantly screaming into her mouth. It was for the best, telepathy is amplified within those weak to psychic and at this range it might have untold effects on a Fighting-type like Lucario, so endlessly Dark Pulsing his face was their best chance at nullifying the effects. If Lucario eventually stopped screaming she'd call it a success.
"There is no need to be afraid. I…" Celebi hesitated for a moment before shaking her head and gathering up all her courage, "… Am the legendary Celebi. And the other legendaries are on their way right now to dispose of this blight upon our beautiful earth. We care about you all, more than you could ever know, so rest assured that we will protect you from any more harm caused by these mindless beasts who would dare to destroy the precious life of this planet!"
She immediately lost her breath and ceased the announcement. Her heart was pounding louder in her ears than her own voice had just sounded, and the adrenaline was clearly not leaving any time soon.
It was done. She had revealed herself to the world. The great taboo of a legendary, thrown to the wind. What happens now? Even if Lugia forced her into fifty years of penance it wouldn't matter, as long as they heard this and sped up to kill Groudon.
For a moment she had forgotten about the crisis at hand. Looking down, she brought even more vines into existence and used them to pull Groudon into the ground. The feral beast fought his restraints, not realizing he could just dig in order to escape. His mind was gone. Lucario and Zerobi seemed fine though somewhat exhausted, but the overwhelming feelings of power pushed away any sense of concern.
The effects of the Nasty Plot had made themselves known. Her blood was pumping. Her body was shaking. If she could not choke him to death, she would have to end this in a lot less cleaner manner. Muzzling him with greenery once more, Celebi descends towards his head and stopped right in front of the tip of his nose.
"How could a tiny, insignificant sapling restrain you… Is that what you are wondering?" she asked with a commanding voice, "What am I? A heroic Valkyrie? The wrath of nature? An ancient legendary here to pass judgment?"
Groudon growled with the sound of a thunderstorm as he tried to open his mouth and swallow her whole, but the vines were too strong. If he tried to use Hyper Beam again, she would just reinforce the muzzle so that his entire head exploded.
"Sorry. I'm just Celebi," she continued as her voice grew a little meeker, feeling the insecurities of her old self come to light, "The people you were expecting are dead, because I am a useless friend and an even worse daughter. All I could do was adopt their burden. Fulfill their duty."
"What is she doing…?" Zerobi muttered as she looked up.
"Don't know, but one thing's for sure…" Lucario said as he lay collapsed on the ground with arms outstretched, "When this battle is over, there's going to be a shitton of oxygen in the air."
Celebi hesitantly flew a bit closer, placing her hand on the tip of the giant's nose. It was neither cold nor warm, and hard as a rock. Slowly his struggles began to fade as he went cross-eyed, taking in the small legendary.
"I can tell that you are just a victim in all this. Perhaps Mew would have showed you mercy as she did Mewtwo," she said mournfully, "But I cannot take the risk. Too long have I been dormant and the Pokémon of this world deserve someone who looks after them. Just thought it would have to be someone stronger and smarter than I."
There was quiet. Celebi pulled back her hand and backed off.
"But… As Primal Groudon… Squirms in my grip… Who could deny… That I'm finally good enough…?" she whispered to herself as she once more reactivated her telepathic ability and shouted with all her might, "I AM CELEBI, GUARDIAN OF THIS PLANET!"
There was an explosion of colors as Lucario felt his mind go 'pop' for moment, but swiftly recovered. Zerobi looked at him in shock and charged up a Dark Pulse as he gave off a goofy grin.
"Hey… Your sister's pretty awesome," Lucario spoke with a dopey yet amazed tone to his voice.
"You… Weren't just lobotomized, were you?" Zerobi asked with a hint of concern.
"… Don't be ridiculous," Lucario replied with a downtrodden expression before standing up and regaining his cheerful tone, "Yo Celebi! Don't know if I ever told you this, but you're pretty awesome!"
There was no response.
In fact, there was no recipient.
"Celebi?" Lucario repeated as he squinted, not seeing the familiar green sprout nor her newfound dark presence anywhere.
"Hey! Sis!" Zerobi followed and looked up, left, right, even down when she realized her search wasn't producing any results. Not the results she had intended at least – Their shouting had attracted the attention of Groudon whose large eye fixated on Lucario.
"HE SEES ME!" Lucario screamed and could not stop, "AND HE PROBABLY HEARS ME TOO!"
Shaking himself free of the limp vines, Groudon wasted no time in flexing his muscles. Seeing his mountain-sized front leg lift high into the air, Lucario choked on his own spit while Zerobi felt like her heart had stopped.
"HEY! Lucario, grab sis and let's get out of here!" she yelled in panic while getting to her feet.
"I-I can't see her!" Lucario responded with terror as he began scrambling away, his sense of balance feeling about as banged up as the rest of his head.
"Then sense her, stupid!" Zerobi kept going as she picked up Lucario by her shoulder, "I'll get her!"
A thousand explosions sounded as Groudon's front leg began raking across the ground, rending the earth in its path towards them.
"HURRY!" Zerobi shouted as she ran at full speed away from the approaching catastrophe, sifting Lucario onto her back.
"I CAN'T SENSE HER EITHER!" Lucario screamed, "SHE'S GONE, DAMN IT!"
A part of Zerobi's brain suddenly shut down as all she could think of was how to avoid their oncoming doom. Despite the unfathomable range, this was no projectile; she only had to get away from the reach of Groudon's claws. Realizing that she was running in a straight line away from the rending, she quickly weaved off to the side while carrying Lucario on her back. If they had escaped Suicune like this, it shouldn't be a problem.
The next few moments was one of noise and rock. Debris rained down as apparently the entire world behind them went kaboom, Lucario working as a makeshift body-armor and absorbing most of the damage. But all things must come to an end, and only when the chaos settled down did that part of her brain reactivate.
"G-Gone…?" she stammered as she let Lucario fall from her back and collapsed to her knees.
"Not like that! Think positive, maybe she just left us here to die!" Lucario grumbled as he stood up and tested his regained sense of balance - Pain was extremely sobering.
"Sis! Celebi!" Zerobi shouted out in the hopes that her sister would somehow hear her, "Whatever you're doing, don't! We're seriously about to- AAHHH!"
She looked back and Groudon was coming for them. Not with a beam, not with a claw, but his whole body in a monumental dash. His expression was no longer unfazed and uncaring, but ferocious and angry. There were no words to exchange, Lucario ran as quickly as possible to the left while Zerobi ran to the right, neither of them realizing their mistake until it was too late.
"Oh sh-" Lucario gasped as he glanced back and realized Groudon was heading straight for Zerobi. Apparently he recognized her more easily, what with her having been inside his eyeball. There was a scream plastered across her face as Groudon swerved towards her and leaped into the air, Lucario stopped and shouted something incomprehensible while reaching out his hand and-
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Tremor. Dust. Stone. The shockwave hit Lucario like an atomic bomb, throwing him away spinning senselessly like a leaf caught in a storm. There was no graceful landing, his right leg was the first to make contact as he rolled along the grass and a strong pain shot up through his ankle.
His brain was rattled and began shutting down, but before it could he bit himself hard on the lower lip in an attempt to stay awake through the pain. This didn't work and he found himself slipping away anyway, losing consciousness for but a few moments. The critical condition of his body didn't keep him out of it for long though, as he could faintly make out the booming footsteps of something drawing near. He sat up and tried to stand, but found his progress halted by his aching ribs and damaged foot.
"Nghhh!" Lucario grunted as he tried to stand once more, thinking he had broken his leg despite really just twisting his ankle. It was difficult to investigate the finer details of pain when a 100ft tall monster was staring you down. The enormous beast walked slowly towards him, blocking out the sunlight with both eyes fixated right on him.
"… Help…?" Lucario whimpered as he knew this was it. He was alone and helpless and could not sense anyone, everyone was already dead and now he would follow.
There was a ringing noise in his ears. Not the kind you get after taking a blow to the side of your face, but almost like a… Bell? Lucario's ears perked up as he forced himself to look away from the red monster and located the source of this noise.
A boy was riding towards them on a bicycle. He was wearing a striped t-shirt, a pair of sunglasses, a black handbag and sported a stylish cap on his head. 16, maybe 17 years old, he rode straight towards Groudon's foot who had stopped and was now examining this new arrival with curiosity. With not one ounce of hesitation, the boy suddenly dismounted from the bike, put his hand down the bag and extracted a red and white object.
"Pokéball…" he spoke with clarity before letting the object fly from his hand in a confident throw, "GO!"