Chapter 41: St. Meloetta's Holy Church
The church ended up not being as far as we thought, and it was easy to spot from a mile away, due to the archaic stone foundation of the walls, the stained-glass windows featuring pictures of the legendary birds and the legendary dogs, and gargoyles with the head of Groudon spitting water surrounding all sides of the massive, castle-like building. It was fucking gorgeous in its aged beauty, but both Tropius and myself could feel some odd shift in the air as we approached the front of St. Meloetta's Holy Church, some noticeable change in the winds.
"Something's radiating a shit ton of psychic energy in there," I realized with the utmost certainty as I recognized that familiar odd feeling of a psychic pokemon being near that I experienced in my battle against Marvin Bloom's Jynx at No Man's Land, in particular whenever she used the move Psychic and some telekinetic force would appear. I chuckled to myself with relief. "That means we're dealing with a psychic type. Good thing I got Drapion at full health to deal with any of those."
As Tropius got closer to the front wall of the church and his speed slowed to a halt as he waited my command on how we should enter the church, shouts from below in the side parking lot grabbed our attention and we looked down to see the commotion.
"Tangrowth, oh no! Uh, P-Protect!" a very frazzled and shaken teenage trainer a few years younger than myself stammered out to his pokemon partner, a plump Tangrowth that normally should have been a healthy green grassy color but was currently battered with red and purple welts all over its body. The culprit to the boy's nerves was a flaming Heatmor that had smoke coming off of its shoulders and left ash in its trail as it moved. Heatmors pointed head kept using Fire Lash on Tangrowth, striking it with its own flaming head in strong whipping motions, spinning his neck around like a top.
The Heatmor was unaccompanied by a trainer so I assumed its owner was some Anonymous member that had just let one of their pokemon run off on its own to cause some extra chaos, and that it was doing. I was surprised that besides the two mons and the lone trainer the parking lot was desolate, with almost no cars. The almost eerie silence of the lot made me briefly consider something. It was at that moment I noticed the town siren had stopped wailing at some point, and I hadn't even realized it. Anonymous must have succeeded in shutting that off. Where the hell was everybody when the streets had been so crowded and full of life just hours ago? Either all dead or hiding in their homes, I guess.
"We gotta help him," I said to Tropius with no concern that I was willingly putting my grass type in the way of a fire type even with the stakes so high and my selection of pokemon to choose from on my belt narrowed closer and closer, with just two left. Tropius descended towards the parking lot and I was briefly reminded of the last time I had fought in an empty lot with my old Kabutops versus that annoying-kid-whose-name-I-can't-remembers Toxapex.
All three battlers paused, noticed, and looked up in perfect sync as Tropius and myself landed close enough to them to let them all know we were getting involved.
"Oh thank you, thank you!" the boy said, the throngs of hope showing in his eyes as he looked at me and Tropius. It felt good getting that look, made me feel in control of the situation. "Please, I'm an aspiring grass gym leader, I only have grass types! None of them are good enough to beat him! He's already killed my Gourgeist and my beautiful Bellossom! I'm not good enough to take him!"
I hopped off of Tropius just as I could sense Heatmor start to gather his bearings and return to lashing away at the weakened Tangrowth who had true fear in its eyes. Seeing the damage this Heatmor had caused upon this poor kid and his team as well as anyone that may have come into this thing's path before I did just made me see red.
I had Tropius throw a Leech Seed on the Heatmor as the fire type got off a single Fire Lash on Tropius' leafy left wing for a good chunk of damage, but Tropius powered through and began assaulting the Heatmor with Air Slash after Air Slash, the anger inside of me radiating outward through Tropus as he took it out on Heatmor by batting away at the air with both wings like a baseball pitcher chucking ball after ball, sending strong wind currents slicing away at Heatmor and each time landing right in its eyes, making him freeze up in pain as he flinched. All the while the Leech Seed wrapped around Heatmor's belly slowly absorbing his energy and transferring it over to Tropius. Even Tangrowth joined in by being able to get off a Leech Seed of its own and landing a Sleep Powder on Heatmor after the fourth or fifth flinch. Besides the one Fire Lash Heatmor got off, he did nothing and was taken down in a matter of three minutes.
"Thank you so much, oh my Arceus, you saved our lives! Take all my money, please, I wish I had more!" He began to reach into his back pocket for his wallet.
"No, stop, stop. Thank you, but that's really not, uh, necessary. Just get to safety before anymore of these Anonymous goons or their mons find you. But don't try to leave the city because there's some psychic force field thing around the borders keeping everyone locked in. I know that sounds crazy. But the source of it is supposed to be somewhere in this church, so I'm going to do my best to get it shut down but it's honestly not a guarantee. So just...get indoors and stay there until you know it's safe outside."
"Thanks again, man. You're a fuckin' hero! Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw something flying up to the top of the church earlier, up by the bell. Good luck!"
The boy recalled his Tangrowth that was shaking Tropius' paw in appreciation, then ran down the street toward Arceus-knows-what new dangers and I silently hoped he would make it home alright against the odds. Then I remembered what he said and looked at Tropius to see if he had the same thoughts in mind. We both craned our necks upward to the peak of the building where a stone statue of Meloetta rested right on top of an old silver church bell. I then boarded his back once more and the two of us ascended back into the sky as our new destination became that bell that seemed like the final destination of this whole bleak ordeal here on the Isle of Naporia.
The two of us reached the top of the church after a short glide upward that made me take notice how much Tropius had improved in controlling his speed, his steering, his takeoff, and his landings all night compared to how wobbly and off-balance he used to be. I had to appreciate for just a moment how much time and training I had really put into all five of my pokemon to make them as good as they currently were. At the moment, all I had left was Drapion and Tropius since I needed to save Lapras for the ride back through the ocean to Ilragorn's mainland once I got this psychic force field shut down.
"Okay, Tropius, be prepared for anything," I whispered to him as he approached the very old, cracked church bell dangling underneath the stone Meloetta statue that acted as the guardian of the church against evil pokemon spirits. It clearly didn't work. The statue was placed on top of the tallest spire which had open windows all around the sides allowing Tropius to easily fly directly into the church steeple containing the bell.
Immediately, that intense wave of psychic kinetic energy in the air slapped at my face, which was still caked with dried blood from busting my nose against the force field earlier. The source of energy was at last revealed to me as I witnessed not just a psychic pokemon in a spindly Gothitelle that was doing some slow, methodical dance underneath the bell, but also a rare sight in the bright red ultra beast Buzzwole, the bug/fighting type with biceps and shoulders that would make a Machamp feel insecure. I was immediately taken back to the only other time I'd encountered an ultra beast, fighting against a vicious Nihilego in the Icy Caverns against Snake, remembering how he had bragged that he was gifted the ultra beast by the leader of Team Anonymous. Putting two and two together, I hazarded a guess that was probably right that these two pokemon worked directly underneath Sir, the leader of the criminal syndicate.
"Holy shit," I commentated with a huge smile on my face. "A pokemon that's 4x weak to flying and a Gothitelle whose best move in its arsenal to hit Drapion would be a non-STAB Thunderbolt. Not bad, not bad." I was appreciating the rare stroke of good fortune that was clearly being gifted my way as I had such strong type advantage going up against Sir's two pokemon, and Sir wasn't even here to aid his members against me. I was feeling more and more confident by the second, even as Tropius landed several meters away from Sir's mons and I yanked Drapion out of his pokeball to join the fun.
Gothitelle remained dancing very gracefully, trancelike under the massive church bell but her eyes that had previously been closed were now open and transparent, darting from Drapion to Tropius to myself, but still dancing and not looking the least bit bothered by us interrupting her. It seemed like she was almost daring us to try to interrupt her dance. Buzzwole was clearly acting as her bodyguard as he took several lumbering steps towards the three of us, making sure to put himself between us and Gothitelle.
"Drapion, you focus on Gothitelle, get right up close and personal with her and Knock Off that dance routine, 'cause I'm pretty sure she's the cause of that bubble around the city that broke my nose. Tropius, Fly right up and then back down into Buzzwole, that oughta do some major damage."
Drapion used his superior speed to lunge around the slower, bulkier Buzzwole with ease and focused his sights toward the dancing Gothitelle, right arm raised and ready to be brought down on the physically frail psychic type in moments with a powerful, super-effective Knock Off. Tropius took to the air with one flap of the wings, flew straight up for a few moments until his head almost cracked against the ceiling of the steeple, then he descended back down with gravity on his side as he aimed a Fly directly on top of Buzzwole that would land in seconds-
Like something out of a science fiction movie, Gothitelle and Buzzwole both completely evaporated into thin air, and then within a blink of an eye, Buzzwole was now underneath the old church bell and getting struck in his massive chest by Drapion's Knock Off for measly damage, and Gothitelle materialized right underneath Tropius just as his Fly was going to land, but Gothitelle struck her hand out with rapid fire speed, and slowed Tropius to a dead halt using Psychic, then blew him back towards the ceiling with a powerful psychic shove, causing his back to slam into the ceiling before he used his wings to catch himself in mid-air before he slammed back down to the ground.
What the hell just happened?
I surfed through the pokedex contained in my back pocket that I rarely used anymore for a quick search on Gothitelle's moveset to figure out what she had just done. Energy Ball, Future Sight, Trick Room, Role Play (what the hell, I've never even heard of that move?), Ally Switch. Okay, so Gothitelle knew Psychic and Ally Switch to switch positions with her partner in order to force my Tropius to tussle with her and my Drapion to tussle with the Buzzwole. Maybe this wasn't going to be as simple as I first anticipated.
The Hawlucha that had been a member of Sir's party for a good 4 or 5 years now had been drifting along the edge of the psychic bubble, patiently waiting for the moment it would dissipate or crack in the slightest so that he could escape out of Naporia City and hone in on Evan Hunter who was currently out tainting Fuji Jungle with Rage Berries. Hawlucha had no other option but to complete his Master's final orders. Unbeknownst to Hawlucha, Gothitelle had currently engaged in battle with Tropius and even in that slight hiccup where the psychic bubble popped - Hawlucha noticed, and he tore through the sky that was now void of any psychic barrier blocking anyone from escaping.
Hawlucha found and located Evan in the jungle within a minute due to Hawlucha's uncanny speed tier, soaring through the skies faster than most pokemon could ever dream and smelling Evan's stench that Hawlucha had never cared for but had to respect due to his master's plans. But all that was down the drain now. Evan was currently eating chocolate bars while sitting on a fallen tree while his Mr. Mime was sitting cross-legged on the grassy floor at Evan's knees. There was no sign of any other pokemon and it was a small clearing that Evan and Mr. Mime seemed to be resting in. They noticed Hawlucha as he approached.
"Ah, Sir's Hawlucha. You come bearing interesting news?" Evan smiled widely and took the final bite of his chocolate bar before throwing the crumpled wrapper on the floor.
Hawlucha landed and started flapping his wings excitedly while squawking in his bird language at Mr. Mime, who was staring intently at the pokemon, catching every word the pokemon was throwing at him, then transferring them into Evan's brain using his high-level psychic powers.
Explosion! Explosion! The Champion and Master at the Colosseum! ALL DEAD! ALL DEAD! Only Gothitelle and Buzzwole at Church left! What do!? WHAT DO!? NO MASTER!
"Mr. Mime. Psychic." Evan's smile faded and Mr. Mime, without raising an arm, grabbed at the Hawlucha mentally, and caught him in his psychic snare, wrapping around Hawlucha, trapping the fighting/flying type in his invisible, painful grip. Hawlucha was flapping and squawking and kicking and punching extremely hard, and was managing to actually begin to escape the Psychic that was gripping him so tightly when out of the treeline coming from the dense area of the jungle, a new pokemon shot out.
Dodrio had fired out of the bushes like a torpedo and instantly began Drill Pecking at Hawlucha, slashing away at the pokemon just as he had managed to wrangle free from Mr. Mime's Psychic. But the sheer pressure of Dodrio's assault of three sharp beaks stabbing like knives into his shoulders and head as well as Mr. Mime lifting his arms and grabbing onto Hawlucha with a much firmer Psychic was too much. Hawlucha was dead in a minute.
"Sir's dead, huh? That means Team Anonymous is mine." A genuine smile appeared on Evan for the first time that morning.
Still under the church bell, Drapion was engaged in a fist fight with Buzzwole, Drapion using his sludge-covered fists to Poison Jab at the bulky behemoth of a bug/fighting type pokemon, but Buzzwole was Leech Lifeing half his health back using the stinger pointing out of his head while slugging Drain Punches back at the strongest member of my team, essentially getting all his health back while wearing away at Drapion.
Tropius was firing off Air Slashes while flying a safe distance away from Gothitelle, but the distance made it that much easier for the experienced psychic pokemon to fire off Psychics to slap the Air Slashes away long before they could get close and do any kind of damage to her. I had already tried getting Drapion to fight against the Gothitelle and Tropius to move toward Buzzwole, but for the second time Gothitelle simply used Ally Switch and transported themselves against the corresponding pokemon that Gothitelle wanted. It was so fucking frustrating. As physically tanky as that Buzzwole was because it was clearly outperforming my Drapion at the moment, all I had to do was fire off one Air Slash from Tropius on that Buzzwole, and it'd probably drop. One Knock Off from Drapion on Gothitelle and she'd probably drop. But this freaky voodoo pokemon had some nifty little tricks up her long black sleeves.
The realization that this was it started to settle in. Passimian had been knocked out after taking down a Krookodile, a Muk, and a Salazzle. I needed Lapras to get me and Eliza off this fucking island, and I doubted she was strong enough to beat Buzzwole or Gothitelle, let alone both of them. And my Gengar - fuck, my Gengar! I had somehow completely forgotten that his pokeball was empty and that he was still back in that Arceus-forsaken Naporia Pokemon Center way south in the city on Mulctuary Street where me and Eliza had first engaged with that duo using the Mega Pidgeot and Krook. Fuck, that was far. So all I had left was Tropius and Drapion, and they were both clearly struggling against Sir's high-leveled threats. But I'd beaten his Nihilego before in those freezing cold caverns, even against the odds, so I couldn't just give up and allow me and my mons to be slaughtered.
Then I realized what the problem was. It was the battleground. It was too small, too condensed - it naturally gave the advantage to Buzzwole to be in close quarters against my Drapion and same for Gothitelle against my Tropius. My pokemon needed to be able to move around, and this small room where someone would come to ring the church bell just wasn't cutting it.
"Tropius, come here!" I called out, and he obeyed, gliding toward me quickly while Gothitelle watched from the other side of the room with her bored, half-lidded eyes. I hopped aboard his back as he pulled up beside me, and whispered in his ear, "Fly us out the window, we need them outside if we're going to win."
Tropius took off instantly, with such speed that even Gothitelle's eyes widened as a blur of green and brown whiplashed from where I had been standing and was headed straight out one of the open windows surrounding the circular room. "Drapion, you too, outside!" I hollered over my shoulder, and I could hear the sounds of fists slapping against skin cease as Drapion stopped tussling in a losing battle and instead pursued after me and Tropius.
The fresh cool air of early morning enveloped around me as Tropius breezed high into the sky, circling around the statue of Meloetta at the highest point of the church. Drapion crawled out from one of the windows not long after, though due to a lack of wings Drapion had to contend with using his strong claws and the stingers on his tail to grapple around the outside of the church, steadily moving away from the top and heading downward, carefully lowering himself down a dome that had no firm surface to grab onto.
After just a few moments of hesitation and uncertainty on what to do, both the Gothitelle
and the Buzzwole were coming out of the open windows with a look in their eyes that told me they intended on finishing what I had started. Both of them were airborne, Gothitelle using her psychic powers to levitate herself while Buzzwole used the orange, translucent wings sticking out of his back to fly. Gothitelle zeroed in toward us while Buzzwole flew toward Drapion just as Drapion reached the bottom of the dome and was now along a ledge surrounding the tower he was descending. This ledge had gargoyles with Groudon heads spewing water out of their mouths along the corners, and Drapion was cradling onto one of them as Buzzwole approached.
"Tropius, send an Air Slash over at Buzzwole," I tried, but Gothitelle blew it away with a Psychic long before the slash through the wind could reach Buzzwole, who was so far away as he approached Drapion and getting further as the distance between us became greater and greater and I feared Drapion might have to figure out how to take out Buzzwole all on his own.
"Leech Seed Gothitelle, we need to start wearing her down, man!" I ordered.
Tropius shot out green vines from his wings to ensnare the psychic pokemon, but she lifted both of her arms to cast a rectangular sheet that looked like a plate glass window. The Leech Seed struck the sheet in front of Gothitelle, and ricocheted right back at Tropius, who as a grass type was unaffected by the vines and they simply slipped away. So Gothitelle also had Magic Coat in its movepool. This bitch just had something for everything.
"Tropius, go downward. Let's try something different." Tropius angled low and shot down toward the base of the church, heading toward the parking lot where we had saved that kid from the Heatmor just a short while ago. Gothitelle was trailing right behind us like a witch with no broomstick, floating through the air with her dead eyes transfixed on us, never more than a few feet behind Tropius. "Not the parking lot. Head toward the front doors of the church!" Tropius turned right and aimed toward the steps and guardrails leading up to the marble pillars that guarded the front door of the St. Meloetta's Holy Church, which were shut and locked due to the hour.
"Turn around and Air Slash her right in the eyes," I whispered in Tropius' left ear. Like clockwork he twisted in a complete 180 degree angle, flapped a wing right in Gothitelle's face, and fired out an Air Slash - which of course landed since she had been riding our ass. She finally shut her eyes in pain and shock from the surprising offensive turn Tropius had taken on her after it had looked like we were set to fly right through the front doors of the church. With one hand she covered at her eyes and face in reflex to guard against any more slashes to her sensitive eyes which were now bleeding, and with her other she struck out a blind Psychic at us, a powerful one that reverberated through the air with a powerful hum as it approached. "Turn! Turn! Dodge!" I cried. Tropius swerved a hard left and dodged, and the invisible Psychic from behind went whooshing right past us like an invisible cannonball being fired out, and her Psychic struck the cherrywood front doors of the church, breaking and splintering the door while sending it inward, caving in from the sheer power of her attack.
"Into the church, go!" I ordered, and Tropius seamlessly performed a smooth turn that had us flying right through the now broken front doors and into the entrance hall of the church while Gothitelle was finally removing her hands from her eyes, which were now bright red and furious instead of blue and dull like usual.
Back near the top of the St. Meloetta's, along the slim ledge protruding around the outer walls of the tallest tower, Drapion had his arms and tail wrapped around one of the Groudon gargoyles placed in the corner. Drapion was extremely high up in the air, and a fall from this height would likely kill him. The Buzzwole that had just flown over to continue his fight with Drapion had his fists up and was pumping them excitedly as he approached Drapion through the air, getting closer and closer to his prey.
Buzzwole threw off a Drain Punch at Drapion's head, who sidestepped it by contorting his upper body to the side at the last second, although it was a shaky dodge and Drapion had almost been forced to eat the punch right in his mouth. However, Drapion had been waiting for Buzzwole to come within close quarters, and in Drapion's claws he held a single Toxic Spike that he had spat out a short while earlier. He jabbed the Toxic Spike directly into Buzzwole's bicep, the poisonous tip stabbing directly into one of the bug type's massive tendons, instantly turning the veins in his arms purple as his blood soaked up the venom. Drapion even managed to slug Buzzwole's surprised face with a Poison Jab using his free hand right after jabbing him with the spike, causing Buzzwole to stumble in the air and fly backwards to take a breather. Buzzwole shuddered in pain as his body glowed the lovely shade of poisoned purple that meant the venom was slowly doing its damage.
Roaring in anger, Buzzwole used both his hands to summon a cluster of large, sharp, jagged crystals that hovered in the air in front of him. Drapion had to admit to himself that Buzzwole could throw off some powerful looking Stone Edges. Buzzwole released the barrage of Stone Edges at the gargoyle Drapion was clinging onto for dear life, but the threat of the incoming rocks at hyper speed was too much and Drapion let go of the gargoyle and let himself free fall through the air just in time to see the rocks crash into the gargoyle completely obliterating it. Drapion had hoped to grab onto a protrusion in the walls or a window ledge or something as he fell, but gravity and weight was pushing him down faster than he anticipated, much too fast. He couldn't focus on anything quick enough to grab onto before he was already 20 feet under it and falling faster.
If not for the stone statue of the legendary Kanto bird Zapdos that was carved into the walls of the church and jutted out in a pose as if Zapdos was getting ready to take flight with her massive wings outstretched to their limit, and if not for those wings being there to catch Drapion's fall before he went down another 400 feet to hit the pavement on the ground, Drapion probably would have died. Though he'd landed on his stomach and the wings were made of rock and it was an extremely painful, hard landing - he had survived. His heart was pumping in fear over how close he had been to not only losing, but also to being soundly put down with such ease. Drapion had never truly experienced this kind of terror before, and he was visibly shaken, but he knew he had to keep fighting to the very end for Adam's sake.
Tropius whizzed past the entrance chamber where there were dramatically painted statues scattered around the room, featuring a statue of a flaming Ho-oh with its feet and talons actually pressed onto a statue of a man in a toga with a pained expression (I assumed to be a sinner, it was pretty graphic but what do you expect from these old-school pokemon churches). There was even a statue of a beautiful Cresselia in the corner, though this one was painted and positioned much more serenely and graceful than the fiery, vengeful statue of Ho-oh attacking a man.
As fun as it would've been to examine all the statues and stories being told in the plate glass windows scattered around the church, time was of the essence. Tropius flew through the entrance chamber filled with statues and made his way into the atrium where rows and rows of wooden pews lead up to a gorgeous altar complete with candles, glass goblets, and confessional booths along the walls for people to lay out their sins to their priest in private.
The atrium had a domed ceiling that was at least 300 feet high and complete with a huge glass painting of Meloetta that reflected and glittered so brightly despite the darkness of the hour. The high ceiling gave Tropius plenty of room to maneuver around in the air, and he remained gliding in circles around the domed ceiling, keeping plenty of distance between us and Gothitelle as she came hovering into the room, levitating inches off the floor in that spooky way she did.
"Just keep Flying high up and let's wait for an opportunity," I assured Tropius as I clutched tightly with both arms around his long neck, feeling the bananas dangling under his chin rub against my white knuckles. My palms were sweaty and I was extremely nervous due to how much raw power both Gothitelle and Buzzwole possessed, but we had gotten out of seemingly unbeatable situations before.
Gothitelle, hovering in the middle of the aisle between the pews, shut her eyes and raised her arms directly above her head, pointing them skyward. From there, a powerful shift in the air occurred as Gothitelle unleashed her telekinetic Psychics to devastating effect. The wooden pews were wrenched out of the marble floor, the wood cracking and splintering as the pews began lifting into the air, and Gothitelle started using her mind to chuck entire pews through the air at Tropius like cavemen tossing javelins at a Mamoswine for food and warmth.
"Dodge them Tropius, fuck!" I had no orders to give except for Tropius to rely on his own natural flying instinct and dodge left, right, up, down, and around, veering in every direction and constantly shifting his wings around to dodge the pews flying through the air all around the domed ceiling before they came crashing back down into the marble floor, damaging and cracking the church's floor.
Gothitelle did not stop with mentally hurling the many pews in the air like juggling balls - she used her psychic powers to lift up the six confessional booths along the far wall by the altar, and sent all six booths flying at Tropius at 60 mph while the flying type was still dancing around the attacking pews 250 feet up in the air.
"Incoming, from below!" I shouted, the sight of dozens of pews shooting through the air like a hive of angry bees swarming around us, all of them attempting to smack Tropius out of the air making me realize how dire things were looking. I had to remain calm and in control and assist Tropius in any way I could if we were going to survive this. But the six ornate confession booths rising through the air at a rapidly increasing speed headed straight for Tropius and I looked like great cause for concern. "Go up, up, up!"
Tropius listened and he shot upward, being forced to take a hit in the side from one of the ends of a passing pew above him, the pew skating along his side and leaving a purple welt, but Tropius bit his tongue and powered through, continuing to fly upward until he reached the very top of the huge comed ceiling, with the huge glass stained glass window featuring Meloetta being right up against my and Tropius' back.
The pews and confession booths were eager to join Tropius' new height, and Gothitelle then rewired her Psychic so that everything that had previously just been slashing through the air now went flying straight up into the domed ceiling at an alarming speed. Gothitelle was trying to kill us by having Tropius speared by a cherrywood pew into the glass ceiling, as Tropius was making quick work of dodging the confession booths that had also shot up toward the ceiling.
CRAASSSHH.
The glass ceiling had begun to shatter as the pews and confession booths that Tropius was flying past ended up slamming right into the glass above us, instantly beginning a ripple effect along the glass as it began to shatter and descend into thousands of dangerous, tiny, sharp pieces.
The pews and booths were slamming all over the ceiling as Tropius managed to barely avoid them, with so many close calls that I was certain at a few points that our lives would end as some of the pews were flying upwards so fast, and Tropius was flying downward so fast - but Tropius' reflexes kicked in everytime and he managed to sidestep every single pew that nearly came tumbling into us.
But the glass ceiling had shattered and thousands, maybe millions or billions of glass shards were about to come crashing down onto Tropius and I as we got closer and closer to the marble floor of the church. And the shiny, dangerous pieces of broken glass and damaged pews and booths were all falling back down to earth to crush the both of us.
"Leaf Storm, catch the glass shards, everything, and send it all back at her! You need to harness the biggest Leaf Storm of your life, and NOW! LEAF STORM!"
The moment Tropius landed against the marble floor, right in front of the altar where during mass the members would come up and eat the bread and drink the wine, he raised both of his green, leafy wings as high up past his shoulders as they could go. Gothitelle remained hovering in the middle of the aisle, a good few meters away. She was watching Tropius intently, her eyes still red and manic.
From not just under Tropius' wings, but from under the marble floor of the church itself, which began to crack and tear apart to reveal a swarm of incredibly sharp, healthy green leaves and vines shooting out of the very earth far underneath the church itself. The stained glass windows all around the atrium with their ornate pictures and stories from ages ago all shattered as from outside, more leaves and vines and even thick branches came tumbling through the now open windows to rush to Tropius' aid. The leaves from under the church, from outside, and shooting out from Tropius himself all pooled together to form a massive net above us within seconds, successfully catching and holding the huge amount of debris that would have fallen on us and killed us both.
Tropius then shot the biggest Leaf Storm of his life right down the aisle, focusing all of it on Gothitelle, who raised both of her hands to attempt to catch in the incoming Leaf Storm complete with hundreds of pounds of broken glass and broken cherrywood mixed and mashed with the Leaf Storm. Though she tried to catch it with her mental powers, Tropius had managed to far surpass the power of her Psychic being able to stop that attack, and the sheer weight of the Leaf Storm and all the debris instantly crushed Gothitelle and ended her life instantly, though it was combined with the loud explosion that came with all that broken material slamming into the middle of the aisle, with some of the debris shooting out dangerously far, with one of the glass pieces still managing to fly out and stab Tropius in the toe, which made him cry out in pain and fall to his side in surprise, knocking me off of him and sending me hard into the marble floor.
"Ouch," I rubbed at where my shoulder had taken most of the fall. Then, I realized with joy that I could feel the pain, and that meant that we had survived the battle that had at times looked extremely dire. "I'm alive. We're alive. We fucking beat her, Tropius! You did it! You beat the most powerful bad guy on Ilragorn's pokemon single handedly! Oh my Arceus, I take back every negative thing I've ever said about you. I gotta admit, I never woulda thought it'd be you to take down the toughest mon I've faced. I thought for sure it'd be Gengar, or Drapion- " That jolted my memory, making me realize that my congratulations for Tropius would have to wait, because I'd almost completely forgotten that there was still a Buzzwole to contend with before something happened to -
Drapion's unconscious body came flying through one of the open windows that was a victim of Tropius's impressive Leaf Storm. He had taken quite a beating, and it looked like he had lost. At least he was still alive, I had to be thankful for that. I quickly recalled him to his pokeball while waiting for Buzzwole to come flying through the window next, unafraid since I had Tropius who even as wore out as he was, could certainly take down a bug/fighting mon due to his type advantage.
"Let's go, Buzzwole, I don't got all day!" I taunted, as I got to my feet and assisted Tropius with getting the shard of glass out of his right toe as tears welled up in his eyes.
So Buzzwole did come flying through the window after that - except that Buzzwole's body was completely limp and it had been thrown like a ragdoll more than flown in on his own accord. Buzzwole's body was slightly purple so I knew Drapion must have gotten it poisoned, but the physical damage done to Buzzwole's body seemed like too much for my Drapion to have caused. There were some serious dents in his biceps that I couldn't imagine Drapion's Poison Jab or Knock Off could have caused, a huge chunk of his left pec was missing, And that Buzzwole had some thick skin.
"What the fuck happened to you?" I wondered out loud as I limped closer to Buzzwole's body to survey any more damage. I had a limp now? Apparently my legs were so tired and sore that I could hardly walk at this point, too. Fuck. I was so low on pokemon and so low on energy and something outside had just killed Buzzwole like it was nothing.
"Hey, lil bro," a familiar voice rang from the window the mons had come from, and I looked up to see my brother, Evan, riding atop his trusty Dodrio that looked eternally pissed off. The two of them flew through the window and Dodrio landed several feet away from Tropius and myself instantly. And despite all the chaos and mayhem and horror going on outside, Evan seemed happier than he'd ever looked in his life. Chipper. Then I remembered those two Anonymous members, Ace and Britt, terrorizing people outside the pokemon center on Mulctuary Street. They had said I looked like someone called Evan. That can't just be a coincidence.
"Evan," I said in shock to see him here of all places. "You're - you - you work for Team Anonymous?"
"No," Evan winced at that, as if I'd insulted him harshly. "I'm in charge of it. Dodrio, take care of my brother and his Tropius."
Before I could realize what was happening, his Dodrio launched from where it had been perching on the floor into the air, and with one leg, kicked out at my chest in a strong Jump Kick that knocked the wind out of me and turned the world dark.