Chapter 42: Arcadia Arcade

In an abandoned arcade store right off the coast of Naporia Beach, Eliza was crouched in a fetal position next to a Voltorb-themed pinball machine, unable to shake the dark feeling that things weren't going well with Adam. She was of no use to him here, sitting in the dark by herself surrounding by arcade games just worrying about him. But she had no pokemon in her arsenal to defend herself or help protect Adam when he really needed it.

Staraptor got killed by that raging Cloyster in the caverns. Golem sacrificed himself to take out Lt. Riley's poison types. And I gave away Passimian to Adam - which I don't regret, they work so well as a team. But who do I have now? I don't even have a boyfriend in Marvin Bloom anymore, as much of a piece of shit as he was. I have no one.

But you do have someone, don't you?

Eliza was starting to have the beginnings of an epiphany, an ah-hah moment, when from outside she heard the distinct sound of raucous, bountiful laughter from far away slowly approaching. As the guffaws volume went up, she noticed that there were definitely two voices in the mix of giggles and shrieks. Mens voices. And along with their laughs came the sound of another new voice - like a foghorn blaring off in the middle of the street outside, followed up by what sounded like heavy property damage like glass shattering, buildings crumbling and falling, and dirt and dust clouding up into the air. What the fuck is going on out there, she wondered to herself, standing up as her heart started pumping faster. Eliza no longer felt bored and hopeless, now she felt wide-awake and terrified for her life.

"Hey, Exploud, Boomburst down Calwell Street, I wanna see the giant shoe on that clothing store go flying down 3rd Avenue!" one of the voices uttered in between bales of laughter. That blaring foghorn sound proceeded, as well as more sounds of destruction and buildings coming down.

"Alright, man, that was impressive! Now, Rapidash! High Horsepower that fire hydrant, let's cool things down for these poor people!" the second voice choked out between his own chuckles. Eliza then heard as well as felt the unmistakable sound of the earth shaking outside as Rapidash tore apart at the ground underneath a fire hydrant outside, followed by the sound of metal pipes ripping away and a chunk of the earth shifting as the sound of strong water pressure spitting out like a newly made fountain outside was heard.

Eliza was growing more and more uncomfortable with how close these two obvious Team Anonymous goons and their destructive pokemon were getting to the store she was in. She had been backing away from the middle of the store where she had started, which was where the Voltorb pinball machine was, and was now close to the item exchange, where behind the glass countertop there were cheaply made items with taglines like Roserade's Sticky Sludge Goo or Steel Hard Bronzor Keychain or Cryogonal Shaped Potato Chips - all for about 200 tickets each, which was a huge ripoff, but Eliza didn't care for any of that at the moment. Her sights were set on the door right under the EMPLOYEES ONLY sign beside the counter. She had been pretty sure she noticed a back door when her and Adam had first approached Arcadia Arcade.

"Okay, that was fucking awesome, man! I've never seen a building go down so fast! Your Explouds got a powerful throat, maybe he could teach my wife a thing or two! But watch how fast Rapidash can burn a building to the ground! Rapidash - Flare Blitz that shitty arcade store at the corner! Show this man here what a real pokemon can do, burn it to the ground!"

Realizing instantly that she would be the intended target if she stayed in the arcade another minute, Eliza rushed into action, zipping under the EMPLOYEES ONLY sign, rushing past a cluttered and messy break room with an old sofa in the middle of the room that she almost fell over, but in the very back corner of the break room, she saw it - a door with a glowing red EXIT sign. Eliza sprinted through the break room and out the back door, and she was racing through the back parking lot, under cover from the Anonymous agents or their mons noticing her with the arcade store blocking their view while Eliza heard the sounds of vicious fires spreading and whipping as Rapidash Flare Blitzed repeatedly into the front of Arcadia Arcade.

Please don't let them see me, please don't let them see me, please just let me get away from these freaks, I can't die yet!

The crackle of fire was spreading rapidly and loudly behind her, but Eliza didn't dare turn back. She just ran through the dark, empty parking lot, cursing the fact that the arcade was abandoned and that no cars were in the lot to give her cover. She was headed for the corner where she could turn sharply to the right and duck out of sight before the guffawing Anonymous creeps noticed her as they cheered on Rapidash's fiery pounding of the front of the arcade even though the whole front of the building had caught fire.

Eliza had turned the corner and escaped with enough stealth to be uncaught by the agents, but she was out in the open now, and she was a walking duck with no pokemon to protect her if she bumped into any more Anonymous agents on the sidewalk or street. She was on another abandoned street called Calpurnia Avenue, also littered with abandoned cars, some with their doors still open. Eliza looked upwards, past the chaos and dead bodies and lack of life on the ground and to the skies for a sign - and she noticed far at the end of Calpurnia - the familiar towers and spires of St. Meloetta's Holy Church, several blocks south. It was risky to run straight down the street for such a distance and expect to not get caught, but Eliza didn't have time to even consider any other options. She just blatantly ran, arms swinging wildly at her sides, breath rapid and unsteady, any inhibitions about using stealth or being quiet or slow out the window.

Somehow, it worked. Just as Eliza couldn't run anymore from the burn in her ribs and heart, she took a moment to pause and lean against the side of an ice cream shop just across the street from St. Meloetta's, which was a sight to behold in all its massive glory when one stood at its feet. Since it was still nighttime, and the ice cream shops lights were out, Eliza blended into the shadows of the cobblestone walls of the shop.

Still panting from being out of breath from running three city blocks down Calpurnia, Eliza noticed an interesting sight near the top of the church. She saw Drapion, definitely Adam's, perched along a ledge extremely high up in the air, and he was engaged in a battle with some other pokemon, this one flying in the air, circling Drapion. Eliza didn't recognize the pokemon at all, but she could tell Drapion was on the losing side of this tussle.

Where was Adam? Why isn't he helping Drapion? Why is he just letting him fight this monster alone?

Eliza watched as that helpless feeling began settling in again as she witnessed the flying pokemon unleash a powerful Stone Edge on Drapion that caused him to fall a long distance that made Eliza's heart drop, but Drapion caught onto the wing of a statue of Zapdos protruding out of the side of the church. It looked like a painful landing, but Drapion had lived. And the flying pokemon was glowing a purple hue which Eliza recognized as being poisoned.

Eliza watched this exchange, watched the muscular bug-looking pokemon slap Drapion around the outside of the church from one area to the next, slowly wearing him down but looking like every single punch severely hurt. Even as the Buzzwole was getting wore down with poison, it just wasn't enough, since the pokemon seemed to Leech Life or Drain Punch the health right back.

Then, out of the sky, a miracle. A flying clown descended from the heavens, which were very cloudy that night, his arms outstretched and his gloved hands open toward Drapion and the flying pokemon right when the monster had his huge bicep wrapped around Drapion in a headlock. Hovering just inches above them both, the Mr. Mime that had come out of nowhere unleashed a series of Dazzling Gleams upon both pokemon, showering them with pink fireworks of fairy energy and causing the flying pokemon to not only let go of Drapion, but go flying facedown into the courtyard with his body twitching. It was like the pokemon had just gotten sprayed with bug repellant. Drapion was still conscious, clinging with both hands along the bare walls of the church and using his sharp claws to jab into the stone and slowly scale down that way. Drapion had no intention of falling 200 feet into the courtyard like Buzzwole did.

Just as Eliza was beginning to gather her breath and the sharp pain in her side was starting to fade, a second arrival shot out from the sky, with a third arrival riding atop its back.

Since when did Adam get a Dodrio? Or a Mr. Mime? From the stories he's told me, he's only ever had that cute Togepi, Spearow, Emolga, Kabutops, and his current roster of Drapion, Tropius, Lapras, Passimian, and Gengar. I'm pretty sure he never stores them in the PC. I don't understand, how did he get-?

Eliza watched in horror and confusion as she saw Adam, while riding atop Dodrio, order it to Drill Peck Drapion. And Drill Peck it did. Then, just as she was about to scream in disgust at what a monster Adam was, she noticed that the clothes were too dark to be Adam's. And the hair was just a little longer than Adam's. But the face resembled him so much. She remained hiding in the shadows of the ice cream shop, grateful for such a wide distance between her and this bloodthirsty trainer that she knew had to be Evan Hunter. She recalled the distaste Adam had when sharing stories about his older brother, and the general lack of discussion told her that Adam would rather not think about him.

Eliza covered her mouth and silently cried as she was forced to endure see the unbeatable Drapion beaten soundly by Dodrio who had no troubles kicking and slashing their three heads hard enough to knock Drapion off the wall when he was about 100 feet above ground. The fall to the floor broke the right arm Drapion landed on, and it knocked him out.

"That my brother's Drapion?" Evan asked his Mr. Mime, who had focused on using Psychic on Buzzwole to rip apart its body parts, reminding Eliza of the way certain children ripped the wings off flies. Mr. Mime nodded fervently. Evan scoffed for a moment, genuinely surprised. "My brother's the one who caused Gothitelle to let up on the field? Hmm. Tussling with Sir." Evan was thinking out loud, casually stroking his chin while still riding the Dodrio that decided to land near Drapion's unconscious body in the front courtyard of the church. Eliza shirked as far back into the dark as she could, fearful of being seen since Evan and his mons were closer than ever.

"Well," Evan said casually. "Let's go greet my brother, sounds like he's in there dealing with Gothitelle. But let's make an entrance out of it. Mr. Mime, throw Buzzwole in there through a window. Then Dodrio can toss Drapion in there, too, give him a little scare."

Eliza watched as Evan's pokemon robotically obeyed, never a questioning glance or moment of doubt. They were truly obedient. Eliza wiped the tears out of her eyes but winced as Dodrio reeled one leg back, and kicked Drapion like a football, sending him hurling through one of the open windows into the front of the church. Evan and Dodrio soon joined him, leaving Mr. Mime alone on the courtyard.

It didn't take long. In less than a minute, Evan had knocked Adam out and had Dodrio escorting his unconscious body on its back while Evan walked alongside his frightening-looking, three-headed bird out the broken front doors which had been pummeled in from the looks of it. Evan had the decency to not kill Tropius or Drapion, who were both severely beaten by the aggressive Dodrio, but instead recalled them to their pokeballs, reattach them to Adam's belt, then removed Adam's belt and kept them tightly in his hands.

"Mr. Mime, call some of my underlings over here. Make sure they know it's urgent." Evan demanded, and Mr. Mime proceeded to shut his eyes in concentration as he sent out psychic signals out there so powerful that Eliza had the oncomings of a headache just from being so close to ground zero.

Not too long after, an Anonymous member riding aboard a comfy-looking Mega Altaria came flying from a street Eliza hadn't been down that night. It was a young man, maybe in his early twenties, though he had a Grumpig mask on his face for some kind of metaphorical reason, though neither Evan nor Eliza cared enough to dwell on it.

"Take this one back to the base," Evan pointed at Adam, still unconscious atop his Dodrio. "Keep him in the containment ward." Evan then lifted the hand up holding Adam's belt of four pokemon. "But this belt of pokemon has some solid contenders. They're all knocked out and of no harm. Throw them all in the Rejuvenation Unit, I have plans for them."

"Yes, Sir," the Grumpig mask responded.

"Speaking of Sir - we lost him in the line of duty, but he took Ava down with him, as well as the Naporia Colosseum. Which means as executive of his estate and next in command, I'm the new leader of Team Anonymous. And I'm actually not too fond of being called by my predecessor. From now on, you and all those under me will simply call me Evan. I don't need to feel important, I know I am. Now do as I say and spread the word."

"Yes, Evan."

Eliza's heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she watched the Anonymous member wearing a ridiculous mask of a Grumpig shift Adam from the Dodrio's back to the M-Altaria, and within moments was off in the air, around the corner of Calpurnia, and then around another corner and Adam and his belt of pokemon to defend him was out of sight. Evan took off shortly after, flying atop his Dodrio and recalling his Mr. Mime to his pokeball as he ventured off on some unknown task.

"Arceus all mighty," Eliza let out a breath of air after what felt like she had been holding her breath the entirety of the Anonymous member and Evan being so close to her and possibly spotting her. She had survived, but with all the anarchy going on around and with no pokemon or Adam to help her, how long did she really have before stumbling into the path of anymore Anonymous agents?

Out of the corner of her eye, Eliza spotted something small and radiant in the night poke out from behind one of the far off towers high up near the top of St. Meloetta's, and quickly glide down the stone walls and aged architecture until the little golden ball of light darted right into one of the open windows leading into the front entrance room of the church. Whatever it was, it had shimmied down the church with impressive speed and even better stealth, since whatever this thing was had apparently been spying on Evan during this whole fight, and for who knows how long before?

Trusting her instinct that this was a warm light that was to be followed, Eliza bit her lip and started crossing the street, finally leaving the safety of the shadows and approaching the front entrance of the church via the broken cherrywood front doors that were currently inside the church. It was a long walk that ached her feet and ankles and stomach from all the running around that day, but Eliza felt something like the stirrings of hope as she started walking up the marble pillars lining the front of St. Meloetta's.

As she walked inside with care to be extremely quiet, the first thing that caught her eyes was that the entire atrium of the church was in shambles. There apparently used to be a painting or mirror or something on the ceiling, because now there was just a few stray shards of broken glass etched around the corners, as all of the ceiling was now on the floors. All of the pews had been ripped up off the floors, apparently torn apart by giants into twigs, hurled and combined in some kind of twister mixing the confession booths, candles, bibles, and an assortment of other religious items all destroyed and tossed about on the floor so that the church was in ruins.

At the altar, or what used to be the altar, a small white-black-and-yellow rodent pokemon was sitting in a defeated pose, her head looking to the floor and letting out quiet tears.

"Emolga?" Eliza asked out loud, her voice coming across as loud in the silent church, echoing throughout the atrium. Emolga jumped at the sound of her name, so jumpy and tense that she was already hovering in mid-air, wings flapping and ready to go flying out a window. She was clearly in a major fight-or-flight kind of reaction, and her guard was really up. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm a friend, not foe."

Emolga remained flying in mid-air, eyes moving from Eliza to an open window a few meters to her right.

"Saw you crying. Was it because you knew the boy that just got taken away?" Eliza asked in the most motherly, soothing voice she could muster, hoping to get a reaction.

The odds are astronomical that this is the same Emolga Adam told me about that left him in the Gords Woods after first fighting Snake, right? But if this is that same Emolga -

"I think you were spying on Evan, right? His douche brother? That's how you ended up here?" Eliza wondered. Emolga didn't give any indication of a nod or a head shake, but she stopped looking at the window after that and her attention was fully focused on Eliza's mouth and eyes. "Evan's a bad guy. His brother - Adam - the boy he carried out on the Dodrio - you used to be on a team with him? A Spearow, maybe? A Togepi? A Skorupi? These names sound familiar?"

Emolga descended back down to earth and ceased her flying as she landed right in front of Eliza.

"I need your help. Adam needs your help. He'll die if we don't get to him soon, but I'm of no use to him alone. His evil brother took him away to their headquarters off in Arceus-knows-where with who knows how much time before...but even just us...we can't possibly do it alone."

Eliza's mind thought back to Adam's belt. The belt of four pokeballs on it that Evan handed his underling. Four pokeballs. But he had five pokemon.

Fuck, how did we forget Gengar at the pokemon center back on Mulctuary Street!?

In a way, this was a blessing in disguise since now Eliza not only had Emolga at her disposal, but if she could safely get back to the southside of Naporia City to where the center was and if she could revive Gengar, perhaps the two of them were enough.

"I know a pokemon that can help us. But I can't do it without you."

Eliza offered her right hand in a handshake, then upon realizing that Emolga's hand was the size of her finger, she used her pinky to shake hands with the now smiling, now determined Emolga.

EXTRA CONTENT :

As a bonus and to answer some questions, here's a bit of extra behind the scenes for my final thoughts on a sequel.

Alright, so I have thought long and hard and decided against the sequel, which would have been aptly titled Pokemon: Fall and featured the demise of Adam and the team he built up for all of Rise. The reason I go against it is because in Pokemon: Fall, Adam would become the antagonist as the events of the first were originally intended to turn him much darker but hence the way everything is coming together, I don't really feel the need for a sequel to conclude Adam's tale since I know Rise will wrap everything up in the best possible way.

However, for the sake of giving you guys just a smidge of what could have been, there is an alternate timeline where Adam ends up evil and takes over as the new leader of Team Anonymous which he rebuilds stronger than before and ends up overpowering the entire infrastructure of Ilragorn, one-upping where Sir (and possibly Evan?) failed.

The story's protagonist would shift to a female character from a differing island that has done very well in her pokemon career and wants to travel overseas to find a new island to train in. I would have called this character Jane and she would already have a full roster of six longtime members to her team under her belt while she flies around on her flying type Noivern. She ends up flying over Ilragorn which has now become a dictatorship ruled by Adam who has his lieutenants spread out over the four gyms of the island, each in charge of security of their own quadrant while Adam rules from Mt. Roland, in the middle of Exeter Forest.

While flying over the Gord Woods, Jane is attacked in mid-air and forced to engage in battle with an Anonymous member patrolling the sky on a Mega Charizard Y, culminating in a heated battle that ends up with Jane crashlanding on her dead Noivern right into Gord Lake, with four of her pokeballs having been knocked off her belt during the air battle with the experienced Anonymous member, all of them going flying in far off directions from Charizard Air Slashing them.

Jane is left shaken up and with only one pokemon of hers left (also we're told the weakest on her team) which is a Clefable, but Clef would slowly become one of the top tier threats of her team using so many of its moves (Calm Mind, Ice Beam, Tbolt, Thunder Wave, Softboiled, Belly Drum, Rain Dance, Power Up Punch, etc). Clefable really is a writers wet dream in terms of how much you can do with that mon in giving your battles versatility.

So Jane and Clefable's main drive is to wander around Ilragorn in search of the other four pokemon of her old team, all while catching and training up some Ilragorn-native pokemon as well. And since I didn't want to repeat any pokemon I already used in Rise if I didn't have to, for those that are curious, I saw Jane's eventual roster consisting of Starmie, Clefable, Mega Medicham, Archeops (who I'd have some comedic fun using his Defeatist ability in combat), Komala and a few others that would come to me naturally while writing the environments out cause I like to wing it with some of the team capturing elements as that makes it more fun to write.

And of course Jane would end up bumping heads with all four Lieutenants scattered at each gym in her quest to recover her pokemon that take an interest in the powerful new trainer on the scene. I know I wanted for the first pokemon she recovers to actually have bonded with an aspiring trainer that Jane ends up letting keep after seeing the trainer needs her mon much more than Jane did at that point. I also for sure see one of the Lieutenants getting their hands on one of Jane's 3 remaining pokeballs out of sheer bad luck and ends up infecting it with old Rage Berries, making it so that Jane has to eventually put down her own rage-fueled pokemon.

So in the end Jane recovers two of her original six mons, she still has Clefable, and she caught 3 or 4 powerful Ilragorn pokemon along her journey, but after taking out all his Lietenants, Adam finally takes enough of an interest to engage with Jane herself and it culminates in a huge 6v6 between Adam and Jane featuring all these mons you've bonded with the whole story going up against the OG squad of Tropius/Emolga/Passimian/Gengar/Drapion/Lapras, which would probably be some 3 chapter long, 25,000 word epic battle that the children would live for…

But the story is no longer needed. Perhaps in the future (though no time soon), if I ever wanted to do a What If? Scenario, but that's the only kinda plot I wanted to write about in terms of another pokemon story, and it only works if Adam turns evil. And whether Adam ends up taking down Evan, or whether Evan and Team Anonymous end up ruling over all of Ilragorn and killing Adam and Eliza - Adam ain't turning evil. And a lot of the build up and fun of writing Pokemon: Fall would be Jane re-exploring all these old locations Adam was at and sometimes feeling the effects (bumping into Zach the old normal gym leader who is now hiding underground Peltagrow City in Duggie's Ruins in fear for his life of the Anonymous agents and Adam). But all that only happens if you know she's gotta battle up against Adam at the end. It just doesn't have the same bang using Evan or some new villain. So for those of you who are ever wondering, there probably won't be a sequel, but I have at least given you an entertaining enough what-if scenario for those of you longtime fans who want to know where I was originally headed with all this.

Also, this story that I'm very proud of and see as a huge accomplishment and confidence-builder in my life took 3 in a half years to write. That's a lot of time to have a story to write settled in the back of your mind eery day, because this literally sits with me everyday. I'm not about to put another 2 years of my life into a story that I know just cannot be. At least not at this point in my life. But thank any of you for the interest, and I promise the pay off to Rise is more than enough to not need a Fall.