Chapter 43: Eliza's Last Stand
Although the journey back down south through Naporia City seemed long and treacherous, what with having to pass the Calwell Street that Exploud and Rapidash had decimated, the still-blazing Maxwell Street littered with flaming cars that had begun from a Muk overfrying an engine, and a host of other hazards. But through a combination of extreme caution and smart stealth, Eliza and Emolga had managed to safely travel on foot back to the familiar Mulctuary Street where Eliza had first realized that Naporia City was being invaded by Team Anonymous in the pokemon center in the middle of the street that was heavily damaged by Krookodile's Earthquakes and Mega Pidgeot's Hurricanes.
Being quick about getting inside the center so that they could get out of the position of feeling like open targets out in the middle of the ravaged street, Eliza was surprised to find the front doors had been broken down - someone or something had forced its way in. All the previous people that had been in the waiting room, unsure what to do when the town siren first went off and Adam and Eliza stepped out of the center, the Blissey and Chansey guarding the doors, the two crying kids and the distressed Nurse Joy who had been trying to soothe them - they were all gone, leaving the waiting room dark and empty and eerie in its wake as Eliza tried not to wonder about their fates.
"Pretty sure the more seriously injured mons were always brought somewhere in the back," Eliza said uncertainly to Emolga as she floated in the air beside her head, realizing that the only experience she had handling medical equipment or seeing the workings of what Nurse Joy did exactly was what she had glimpsed in passing while staying as a visitor at many a centers along her journey. Which wasn't much.
Sure enough, one of the rooms near the very back of the building had a label marked Extreme Rejuvenation Chamber on the side that Eliza had never seen or noticed at any other pokemon center. Perhaps Naporia City had even ritzier equipment and a better budget than even the heavily taxed, well-off Wintervale City's Pokemon Center?
"So, keep your eyes out for a pokeball with a Gengar in it, maybe? Or maybe they'll have him on a hospital bed or something?" Eliza wasn't sure as she made her way into the Rejuvenation Chamber with Emolga, who every time Eliza spotted gave her a great sense of relief. Even though Eliza hadn't bumped into any more Anonymous members on the run back to Mulctuary Street, she somehow doubted that she would've made the journey without Emolga by her side to give her confidence and drive.
The Rejuvenation Chamber was completely dark as the lights, the medical equipment, the huge heart rate monitors in the corner and the large boxes all around the room that resembled metal coffins all looked to be out of power, which was probably caused by the Mega Pidgeot Hurricaning the generator on top of the center.
"These must be some kind of tub that heals pokemon that have been seriously damaged beyond just needing a heal in the standard recharge station up front," Eliza said excitedly, her voice trembling, positive that Gengar had to be in one of them. Eliza moved to the closest steel coffin, and tried lifting the top off, but it wouldn't budge. She tried sliding the top off instead, tried pressing every button on the side and on the top to get the coffin probably holding a pokemon inside to open - but without the electricity running and the power on, the metal box seemed impossible to open. Emolga had been trying to open a different one with her tiny hands herself, and had encountered the same problem.
"Shit!" Eliza cursed in frustration, slamming a fist down on the cold metal slick top of the box. "Shit, shit shit! I know he's in one of these! I know it, Emolga! If we could just get him, we could help Adam, but we can't do it alone." Eliza's heart rate started to rush and she could feel her cheeks turn a bright beet red. She felt her knees turn to jelly as she slide down to the floor in defeat, hopelessness setting in again and the oncomings of an anxiety attack seemed to be happening as Eliza felt her face, neck, collarbone, and chest all turn bright red as the blood rushed all throughout her body and she started struggling to breathe.
Adam is in the hands of his psychotic, powerful brother all the way in Arceus-knows-where at their headquarters, completely surrounded by Arceus-knows-how-many of those Anonymous fucks and their dangerous mons. And I can't help him because I'm a horrible trainer who, like an idiot, let my Staraptor get killed fighting a Cloyster, my Golem had to sacrifice himself to save my sorry ass because I don't have the fight of a real trainer in me and couldn't even beat some poison types using a ground type. I don't have any pokemon but this tiny electric squirrel I was stupid enough to think could help me enough to save Adam just because she used to be on his team ages ago. Adam doesn't deserve a useless friend who can't help in any way like me. Why did I ever become a trainer? I just wanted to be a daycare lady taking care of a bunch of pokemon and helping them grow and get healthier and happier and live longer, not battle and get hardened and deal with all the blood and loss and death. I'm not strong enough for this. I'm useless.
Eliza was retreating into her head, becoming her own worst enemy as she laid curled in the fetal position against the unopenable metal rejuvenation chamber, feeling just as unhelpful as she did leaning up against the pinball machine at Arcadia Arcade.
"I failed him," Eliza said in a dead voice, tears welling up in her eyes as she began to accept that there was nothing she could do to help Adam and that she wasn't very likely to make it out alive of this damned city.
Emolga had been watching Eliza and realized within moments that she was likely to be more of a hindrance than a help in the long run for what Emolga knew she had to do. Eliza wasn't even paying attention to her surroundings anymore since her head was down in her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs, looking like an abused child.
Emolga closed her eyes and focused on excreting the perfect amount of energy she would need in order to give Eliza at least enough hope as to not completely shut down. After about a minute of mostly silence as Emolga charged her little furry body to the point she was soon completely fizzling and radiating electrical sparks all over, her body now glowing a sharp gold yellow and crackling and smoking. Emolga unleashed a powerful Thunder from her body that was restrained inside the Rejuvenation chamber, but her Thunder broke off into separate, powerful jolts of electricity that each rushed to strike a box until every single rejuvenation coffin in the room was being struck with powerful strokes of lightning shooting out of Emolga's miniscule frame.
Eliza reflexively shot forward, out of her fetal position as the metal coffin she had been leaning against during her panic attack became electrically charged as Emolga struck each and every one in the room with a small part of her Thunder. But the power with which Emolga was unleashing onto the coffins seemed to be enough, as one by one, the tops of each coffin would slowly open up, like something out of a 1940's mummy or zombie movie.
"Oh my fucking Arceus, Emolga! Oh my fucking Arceus, you're a genius!" Eliza's normal color was returning to her face and her heart was calming. She even clapped for the pokemon's benefit, hysterically cheering Emolga on.
Out of the the rejuvenation chambers, one by one, a different pokemon would climb out, each one wildly different from the next but all of them looking rather dazed and confused, as if they had just woken up from a coma. A four-legged, slim Persian was one of the first to lunge out of its coffin, and it immediately darted straight out of the room, probably scared at the sight of all these strangers in a dark, unfamiliar room. A Xatu came levitating straight out of the coffin Eliza had been against, and its eyes came to rest on hers.
Thank you for saving us. The Xatu spoke to her in her mind, using his psychic abilities to convey. Your Emolga is very special, very powerful. We owe you great debt. The Xatu looked away from Eliza, then scanned his head in a 360 degree motion, scanning all around the room but it looked as though he was looking with his eyes beyond the four walls of the emergency care unit they were in, searching for something outside the building. I do not sense my trainer's pulse out there. I sense I lost him. Great, great leader he was. Would you be my leader? You are great. You have saved me. You should be my new leader.
"Uh, well," Eliza stammered nervously, unsure if she should answer by talking or thinking. She noticed a stout, pink Miltank struggle to get herself out of a coffin while beside her, a dark blue-and-black electric type named Luxray poked its head out and watched Emolga perform her Thunder until every coffin was open, massively impressed by the amount of electricity the pokemon 1/10th its size could unleash. "I've never really been much of a trainer, as much as I like to think otherwise. I never even won a badge, I just never cared enough to really go for it."
But you have care in your heart for pokemon. I sense it. You are destined to care for pokemon - for me, for all of us. I see it in the future. I have gift of Future Sight.
Xatu's mental words shook Eliza to the core with that one. Was he serious or just talking out of his ass so he could get a new partner to battle with? Eliza had learned that some pokemon, like people, could be very manipulative.
Emolga finally ceased her Thunder attack on all the electrical coffins, as they had all been charged enough and turned back on and reopened, and all of the pokemon inside the used ones were slowly mustering up the energy to make their way out of the boxes.
Eliza and Emolga took in the amount of orphaned pokemon in the room now with no trainer- Xatu, Luxray, Miltank, a Simisage and a Simipour that looked to be brothers by the hand holding and excitedness to see each other, a Gourgeist that had decided to take a seat on the back of a fully grown Mudsdale, the heaviest pokemon in the room. And in the back, popping out of one of the last used rejuvenation chambers, there he was, in all his purple, spiky, shit-eating grin glory.
"Gengar!" Eliza cried out in joy, instantly forgetting about her conversation with Xatu, rushing over to the familiar face. Gengar, who was still waking up after his very long sleep, was equally pleased to see Eliza, though he wondered where Adam was. "Oh Gengar, I'm so glad we got you! But I'm so sorry we left you, the town got invaded and these Anonymous goons were attacking people right on the street outside, we didn't mean to leave you, but - the point is, it's a good thing we left you here to rejuvenate even longer because Adam got taken by Evan, and he's got all Adam's pokemon along with him. He took them to their base, I heard him order one of his Anonymous members to take Adam there using an Altaria and I saw him fly away, but I didn't have any pokemon to stop him and, honestly, I couldn't even if I wanted to. Evan was there the whole time, who thankfully, didn't noticed that he was being tailed by our friend Emolga here, who I believe used to be on Adam's team a ways back, maybe he mentioned her to you before? Anyway, I spotted her when Evan left and we joined up and, well, I couldn't have gotten you out of here without her, so give her some respect." Eliza rushed all of that out with basically one breath, but Gengar just nodded and took it all in, his eyes moving from Emolga to Eliza to the pack of random pokemon in the emergency are unit with them all.
Gengar floated over to where Emolga was levitating, both of them small pokemon with similar stature, face to face with each other. Gengar offered his hand for Emolga to shake, and she did. Although Emolga had never witnessed Gengar performing at a competitive level, Gengar radiated absolute confidence and ability in himself in a way that Emolga was certain Gengar could exceed even her power level.
"Okay, back to you," Eliza turned back to face Xatu, who remained hovering in the air, watching her intently. "What is it you see in the future for me exactly?"
You caring for us. All of us. Wait - no - most of us. The Emolga and Gengar have different paths. They are not to come with us.
"What are you talking about? What paths do Emolga and Gengar have?" Eliza asked the wise Xatu, beginning to trust what he was saying.
Those two are headed to No Man's Land to save their leader or else he is to be killed for not making the right decision. But you have a destiny to care for the rest of us, I see it in the stars.
Eliza was stuck, unsure what course to take. One one hand, Adam was her best friend and he needed her now more than ever. After all that he had done to help her all year, despite the fact she had started out as not exactly the nicest girl to him when he was starting out as a trainer, did that not deserve her blind, 100% support? But on the other hand, Eliza was starting to accept that she didn't have the fighting spirit and hunger to win that most, if not all, trainers seemed to require or internally already have. She had shut down and had almost gotten everyone killed against that Lt Riley guy due to her weak stomach for serious battling, and she had just had another panic attack because she couldn't open a rejuvenation chamber when she had an electric type that naturally could have jump started the machines if she had just calmed down and thought to use her head rather than her fragile heart.
"Gengar. Emolga." Eliza turned away from the psychic bird and looked to Adam's pokemon, who floated over all the sleepy-looking orphaned pokemon who were looking to Eliza to tell them what to do. "I'm not going with you. You two have to go to Adam on your own. I know me, I know myself, and I'd be more of a hindrance than a help to you guys. I'm sorry to say that, but...look, we don't have time for a pity party. This is my decision, and I'm going to tell you guys what to do because I'm actually fucking calm enough for the first time in my life to actually think one hundred percent rationally. I don't know the exact coordinates, but Team Anonymous' base is somewhere in No Man's Land. I know you've been there before, Gengar, use your memory and your instincts and your skills to find their headquarters, because you have to remember Adam is on borrowed time."
Gengar furrowed one eyebrow and pointed one jabbed finger Eliza's way inquiringly. He was asking just where Eliza was going to be during this.
"I've always wanted to be a daycare lady. The joys of playing and living and feeding and talking with pokemon, without any of the stress of seeing them brutally die, or kill to survive. It's all I want right now, and with all these guys-" Eliza motioned at all the newly rejuvenated pokemon around the room. "-it can happen. I hope you two can understand that."
Emolga nodded understandably, remembering her decision to leave Adam at Gord Lake so very long ago because she thought she couldn't deal with the pain of losing anymore friends again after that horrible attack in the night, although Gengar crossed both his arms over his chest, obviously displeased with Eliza's decision to not help her friend, his master.
"Whether you agree or not, Adam needs you two. I can't help him, I would get killed as soon as I take five steps into their headquarters. But you two are seriously two of the strongest mother fuckers I've ever seen. I mean, I know I've only seen you for about an hour, Emolga, but the control and the amount of power you put into that one Thunder, clearly you've kept your game up all this time - point is, if there's any pokes on this island that can save Adam and maybe have a chance against that sick fuck Evan - it's you two."
Both Emolga and Gengar blushed, and all the remaining pokes in the room cheered encouragingly at these two hero pokemon amongst them that had reached power levels far beyond what any of them would ever reach through Adam's training and a bit of a heavy dose of sheer talent in Emolga's case.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go save my friend! And be sure to have him come find me when he saves us all, I know he will!" Eliza shouted with a good-natured chuckle at the end to lighten the mood, although in her heart she knew the outlook was very likely grim as Emolga and Gengar shot out of the room like flying darts, the two of them making their way down the hallway, over the front counter, and out the broken down front doors in seconds.