Episode 31: A Simple Mind
{Author Notes}
You gotta love Nintendo. A Pokken Tournament game and the seventh Generation is coming up by the end of the year? It looks like a good year for Pokémon which means there is more craziness going to be added onto that which is Anto's Bizarre Adventure!
[Ferrum Region]
The man studied the new device in his hand that he would place around his ear. "How interesting. In this region, trainers can easily access Mega evolution without a Mega Stone or Key Stone. However, it's shown to be temporary unlike the original method which can last the entire battle or when the Pokémon is knocked out cold. There is also the fact that even non Mega Evolution Pokémon can have pseudo power up versions as well. … Hmm. I wonder… what would happen with a 'Synergy Burst', the term they coin that allows the Pokémon of the Ferrum Region to gain an amazing amount of power, for an already Mega Evolved Pokémon?"
"Extrapolating several theories… Hypothesis: Pokémon in question would receive a boost of power unheard of with potential to put Mega Legendaries to shame."
"A good hypothesis, Metagross."
At this moment, a shiny Magnezone reached toward the cloaked trainer/
"ZZt! Target spotted. Will reach spot of intervention in 46.37 seconds."
"Excellent. Now if what everyone else is sensing is true then this will be a much harder fought battle."
He jumped off his Shiny Metagross from the sky and dived into the forest path in front of him. He landed with a boom, making the wind fly and stopping right in front of another cloaked person but this time a pale female with blue eyes and silver hair.
The woman stepped back. "Who are you?"
"Someone who is here for a certain something in your possession. It would be of everyone's best interest if you hand it over right this instant." The other silver haired woman stepped back, realizing that there was only one thing in her possession worth stealing. However, she was wondering how on earth could this other man know about it?
The female stepped back before trying to run in the opposite second. However, the road behind her was attacked by two powerful slashes showing a Shiny Scizor and a Shiny Bisharp blocked her path.
"I am not giving you the stone!" The cloaked figure screamed.
"By force it is then. Gentlemen?" The male cloaked figure motioned two his two steel types.
The two Pokémon raised their blade like arms before they noticed a spike and power and were both hit by a sudden Hyper Beam.
"Massive Energy Spike detected." The man's Metagross and Magnezone spoke out at the same time as they turned their optics towards the Pokémon unleashing such a devastating move.
It was a familiar bipedal Pokémon whose power was said to have been copied and altered from the Pokémon Mew. In an instant, it appeared beside the woman, trying to protect her.
"Mewtwo. I'm not surprised." The male cloaked figure stepped forward. "But which Mewtwo are you? The one created by Blaire? Or the one by Dr. Fuji?"
The Psychic type stayed silent, but started gathering considerable energy.
"Hmm strange. No emotional reaction. I didn't know there was third Mewtwo…" The man took out his necklace, revealing around half a dozen megastones tied together. Three of them just lit up.
Mewtwo suddenly launched a Thunderbolt, however, Mega Scizor spun glide to the side before rushing with a flurry of Bullet Punches. Mewtwo grabbed the woman and jumped back, only to notice Bisharp already preparing a Night Slash attack to where he was about to go. The Legendary Pokémon quickly teleported away from the attack then he used his powers to place the mysterious woman down.
"Thank you, Mewtwo." She spoke to him
The psychic type legend nodded before turning towards the group of steel type Pokémon: Mega Scyther, Bisharp, Mega Metagross, and Magnezone. Curiously enough, most of those Pokémon were Shiny or in a different color scheme than most of their kind.
The male strange pointed a hand towards them before putting the Battle AR scouter on his ear. As the device near his head started to feed information to him, he placed a small silver device on it and suddenly its screen turned black with green numbers.
"What's he doing with that Battle AR?"
"Execute Lockdown Protocol."
Suddenly, all four of his Pokémon readied themselves against the Legendary Pokémon in front of them.
Despite being protected by one of the most powerful Pokémon in the world, the female figure felt something off. The 'package' she was carrying was giving off a strange energy.
Bisharp and Mega Scizor attacked Mewtwo. The Legendary did well to ward off the two steel types. However, the two attackers were no slouches themselves. Mewtwo changed tactics, making his fists be enflamed before launching a wide spread fire attack at the two. The flames were suddenly stopped and parted as Mega Metagross flew in with a full body Zen Headbutt, blasting through the flames and body checking Mewtwo into the ground before rising into the sky.
"Mewtwo!" The female cried out. Mewtwo was strong, but a one on four against strong opponents was becoming too much.
In a sudden burst of energy, Mewtwo glowed and transformed into Mega Mewtwo X. The Pokémon vanished with renewed speed and started attacking against his aggressors. He Fire Punched the Scizor before Drain Punching the Bisharp. Mewtwo X glanced to the corner of his eye and avoided a Meteor Mash from Mega Metagross from the sky. Mega Mewtwo rushed for Metagross, only to be blocked by a Protect move. However that did not stop the mega legendary from using its massive power and strength to carrier the Metagross while in his Protect barrier and throw him hard into the ground. The throw made the giant steel Pokémon drop the field letting the Mega kick it across the field with an impressive display of show. At this point, the Mega Scizor and Bisharp launched themselves back at the Pokémon.
As his two other steel types were fighting, the male cloaked figure commented out loud. "Ahh so that must be the Synergy Burst I heard Ferrum prides itself in being able to tap into. I admit, it's very impressive."
"You aren't from Ferrum?" The woman narrowed her eyes towards the attacker. That did make sense since unlike most of the world; the Ferrum Region didn't have that many people capable of normal Mega Evolution where they needed a Mega and Key Stone. There wasn't much of a need for them because of Synergy Energy and the fact there were no Mega or Key stones that could be found here.
"Perceptive, but even with the upgrade it's still checkmate. Magnezone, Zap Cannon." He snapped his fingers. The woman noticed that the Magnezone was way up high and launched a massive Zap Cannon towards Mega Mewtwo X. The Mega Dual type jumped away, but then noticed it was still following him. "Magnezone already used Lock On before Zap Cannon. This attack is going to hit."
In counter to that, Mega Mewtwo readied a large amount of psychic energy into his hand as he flew towards the sky.
The girl's eyes widened in panic. "Mewtwo, above you!"
The mega looked up, only to be punched by a heavy Meteor Mash from the Shiny Mega Metagross right into the Zap Cannon attack.
"Mewtwo!" She called out in shock, but then she stopped as once more, Mega Scyther and Bisharp raised their blades to her.
"Remember, you had your chance… Anne." The cloaked figure snapped his fingers.
SLASH!
[Elsewhere…]
"Alright! As you can see here!" Kryx was using one of her many alien Probes as a pointer to indicate what was on her 4D hologram of Sentinel. (She assured the peanut gallery that the extra dimension was taste—no one wanted to comment on the odd flavor their tongue was feeling as the hologram went on) She pointed towards the head of Sentinel's diagram where it zoomed into to show what looked to be DNA strands… or broken up ones.
"Sentinel's DNA structure is failing horrible due to incompetent and lousy ribo-nuclear splicing. Of which to the point that Sentinel's body will expire in about… less than a year."
White looked nervously around the group. It was sort of surreal being educated by an alien Pokémon (mad) scientist that was talking to them like school children. "So uhh… Kryx? Is there umm, any way to stop that?"
"Let me get into to that!" She said a little too excitedly before zooming out to Sentinel's brain… which looked kinda small for some reason. "Wait, no gimme a sec. This thing is glitching out on me whenever I add a new patch to it." Like a true scientist, Kryx simply whacked the machine showing the hologram several times while it still showed Sentinel's brain.
"So, is anyone going to point out—I mean ask why Sentinel's brain is that s—size? Yeah, size." Lily hesitantly asked. I mean, it was true someone's life (Questionable) was at stake, but then again it was looking more like said life (Questionable) was in the hands of a not so competent person, so it was kind of hard to take it seriously. Yes that was a very political way of saying it.
The one armed fighting type, Ohko, rubbed his chin as thoughtfully as he could possibly muster. "That brain looks kinda big to me…"
"Kryx, you might want to hurry it up." Lily decided to drop this topic now.
This time, the levitating psychic type used both of her limbs to project herself 'holding' her probe before using the pointy stick like object to whack the machine to show another image of Sentinel's DNA.
"I do have my own DNA Preservers, which I can recalibrate to slow down the deterioration process by forty five percent of its usual speed thus allowing an increase of allotted time before decomposition and disintegration!"
"Oh that makes sense." Everyone looked strangely at Ohko after he had said that.
"You… know what she said?" Espeon asked cautiously.
Ohko actually pointed over to Sentinel nearby the floating object. "Yeah. Just stab more of those pointing things in him."
Everyone turned and looked back to see Sentinel was covered with many Alien probes sticking out of his body. They were all flashing and beeping, almost giving the illusion that Sentinel was lit up like a Christmas tree.
"I am so glad I finally get to probe something!" The excited psychic type floated over to Sentinel before stabbing his back with the probe she was just so previously carrying.
The Delta Pokémon just sat down as he looked at all the pieces of alien metal protruding out from him. "You know, I recall the lab coats trying to puncture me before with these needles, but this feels really nice!"
"That because they're laced with dopamine sedatives!" She excitedly turned to the others and teleported two more probes nearby her. "Now who else want to feel their mind go numb as I stab you in places you didn't know you could be stabbed?"
"No." They all spoke out.
[Later on...]
Anto was sitting under a plot of land that stretched under the Driftveil Bridge he was looking at the many rocks that were being washed by water before he found a spot where he could sit down.
…
Sentinel was going to die.
He didn't want him to die. He didn't want to lose another— … 'another'? Another what? Something ached when he thought about death. He didn't know why, did someone he care for die before? Did he not get over it?
Anto angrily grabbed a flat stone, "THIS IS FRUSTRATING DANG IT!" he mentally screamed, scaring away some flying Swanna and Ducklets before throwing a stone as hard as he could.
As soon as he got out of that system, he sat back down, feeling more depressed than ever.
"… That was the strangest scream I had ever heard."
The amnesiac blinked before turning his head—and back up to his feet quickly. Somehow, without his notice, a giant hobo had snuck up to him without him noticing. This guy was huge, and Anto meant that this guy would put basketball players to shame. At this moment, a strange colored Floette with a red and black flower cooed and floated around the tall hobo.
"He's kinda weird, just like you AZ!"
The hobo scoffed kindly and looked over to the much tinier Pokémon beside him. "How am I weird? I'm not the one speaking without sound."
"You do remember your… circumstance, right?"
While he was watching the back and forth Anto couldn't help but feel curious about the man in front of him there was just something about the man that made his brain feel weird. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you two?"
"Hey, youngster, where are your manners? You're supposed to introduce yourself before your elders." The tall man scolded and narrowed his eyes.
"Well I'm not allowed to talk to strangers." Anto folded his arms and answered back. He wasn't in the mood for whatever weirdness was coming for him today. He wasn't having any of it this time.
The large man was about to say something until he caught his breath and noticed something. "Alright fine, let's try something different. … I heard your psychic scream. It's one of the strongest telepathy I've seen in a long time that didn't come from a Pokémon."
The mute looked away, keeping his arms folded. "So?"
"Mind telling an old man what exactly is 'frustrating'?" The man noted how the younger boy winced at the word. If the kid was going to be stubborn, it looked like he would have to play that card. "Kids these days throw a tantrum over the smallest things—"
"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Anto snapped back at the taller man with angry eyes and stepped towards him. "You have no idea what I've been through!"
"AZ?" The tiny fairy type looked towards her partner with confusion.
"You teenagers are all the same, thinking that you're on top of the world."
"How would you like it if you lost someone you care about then be forced to forget about them!" For a brief second, the wind itself—no… for the briefest moments, it almost looked as if Anto was using telekinesis.
That shut AZ up when he looked back. In all of his travels that was one of the most powerful telekinetic screams he ever heard. Anto eyes were watery from screaming that. "I-It's not fair. Why does everything bad happen to me?"
The large hobo sighed. "… Perhaps I was a little too cruel in trying to find out what you were feeling. I'm sorry."
"…" Anto looked down, feeling bad for screaming in the first place. He stood up ready to leave until the man spoke up again.
"AZ! Apologize!" The strange colored Floette demanded.
"She's right. What I did was uncalled for, but I wanted to know what exactly you were going through. Losing a love one is a horrible feeling… but what did you mean by forgetting them?"
Anto looked back at the man. As he calmed down a bit, it did seem weird for him to suddenly become so rude when he looked a little happier before he spoke. Maybe he was trying to tell him in his own way to move on with his life and thought he was being all angsty over something small. Either way, this AZ person—weird name but annoyingly familiar to Anto as well—seemed sincere this time.
"I have amnesia. I… someone I know is dying and I can't help but feel like before I woke up, I knew someone who died and… I don't think I got over it."
"That… sucks." Floette stared at how blunt her friend was being after he said that.
"Yeah whatever, my life does suck and I'm used to it by now." Anto sullenly complained and sat back down. He picked up a stone and threw it into the water even though he tried to make it skip.
AZ sighed and sat a little way beside Anto. "Life does not 'suck' as you kids these days put it."
Anto raised his brow and looked towards the strange man. "I know you're freakishly tall and all, but you don't look that old."
A small smirk appeared on the tall stranger's eyes this made Anto think he might be older than he looks. "I sure don't look that old do I? How about I tell you a story? About a foolish man who tried to get his friend back from death."
Anto placed a hand on his head as his mind started cranking, strange flashes of information was flowing into his head about a brown picture of a man, a Floette, and two figures like the Letter X and Y. "I… I think know this story. It's a Kalos Folklore isn't it? About a king who created a powerful machine that brought life to his friend but death to his enemies?"
"Oh you know?"
"Sometimes my memory resurfaces on weird cues. I think I know that story. … The man… he was a king wasn't he? And… and… his friend left him after he killed thousands then he was cursed to immortality."
The tall hobo's smile became somber and the Floette beside him looked fairly sad herself.
"That man's mistake is a lesson everyone should learn. Life and death have a precious balance. It's unfair, but it is necessary." The hobo named AZ finished.
"That sounds really sad though. He must have loved his Pokémon and he just let his hatred blind him."
AZ looked at the boy. "This is the first time I heard someone try to explain the actions of the king."
"What he did was wrong, yes, but not everyone can be strong in the face of adversity sadly. I just hope I don't make that same mistake."
The hobo looked at the boy before reaching out and ruffling his head. "I wouldn't worry about that. But the point of the story was that the king never truly realized what he had until it was gone. If you're friend is dying, then spend as much time with them as possible and say everything you need to tell them." The boy seemed less sure of himself, and for a second, AZ saw his younger brother in him—not his descendant—but his younger brother. For someone so young and immature, he always seemed smarter than he could ever be.
After his head was ruffled, Anto looked over to the man in shock. "Did you even wash your hands?" Anto felt like going back to the center to shower for hours.
Floette started giggling.
"I'll have you know that my hands are clean as a whistle." Anto did not believe him and started worrying about his head if it was infected.
Suddenly, out of the waters, three giant metal claws shot out and grabbed all three of them.
"Floette!" The giant hobo cried out before he was suddenly raised high above the water.
"AZ!" Floette cried out.
Anto struggled to break loose but the claws were keeping him contained… wait these weren't claws, they looked more like giant metal tentacles. What was that light coming from the river?
To the three's surprise, a giant and familiar Pokémon-like robot emerged from the water.
"A-A mecha Tentacruel? … AWW COME ON!" Anto mentally yelled.
A hatch on the center of the Tentacruel and an uncanny and very familiar tune played out while the sound of a metal platform was slowly ascending.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!"
"Here's our mission, so you better listen!"
Why did that sound so eerily familiar?
"To Infect the world with devastation!"
"To blight all people in every nation!"
Two voices called out, Anto noticed a green haired man and blonde woman coming out slowly by the rising platform.
"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"
"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"
As the platform slowly came up, more of the strange duo came up. The two of them were wearing black uniforms with white boots and gloves with a red R logo on their chest. He recognized that symbol—voices crammed into Anto's mind. A similar but different motto with different and similar people.
"Cassidy!"
"And Butch!"
"Team Rocket circling Earth all day and night!"
"Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!"
"(Raticate!) That's right!"
The platform finally stopped as the two people started posing dramatically while these two were accompanied by a simple Raticate.
Anto has this very strange sense of déjà vu and nostalgia, but he didn't know why. "Team Rocket? Katie and Butch?" Also there was something in the back of his mind that made him forget what the name of the girl was. He knew she said it, but for some reason he didn't hear it properly.
"It's Bu—huh wait what?" The green haired man started before he realized the kid just said his name right.
The blonde however…
"Hey you brat! It Cassi—"
"Look I don't care. Just let us go!" Anto screamed out. It took a few seconds before Butch and the blonde woman realized that the boy was using telepathy.
"Well aren't you an interesting kid after all." The Woman whose name escaped Anto smiled mischievously. "I'm starting to see why the higher ups are interested in you."
"Wait, what?" Team Rocket was after him? Why? He thought they were in Johto and Kanto.
"Hey you! Butch and Katherine!" AZ screamed "Let us go this instant!"
"It's Cassidy!" The blonde girl corrected.
"Am I in some weird parallel universe?" Butch asked around in utter shock since that was the second time someone got his name right.
"Listen you hobo this is between us and the kid. Though I have to admit, you are one freakishly tall person." Cassidy mused. "And that Floette of yours… it looks very rare!" She turned towards the struggling tiny Pokémon.
"Don't you hurt her!" AZ screamed as he struggled under his restraint.
"Foolish old man, we don't listen to anyone! We're Team Rocket!" Butch proudly exclaimed before throwing out a Poké Ball. As it opened up, a Hypno appeared with a creepy leer towards the Floette. His eyes glowed red.
"Floette! What are you monsters doing!?" AZ screamed as he tried to force open the restraints.
"Just recruiting a Pokémon to the glory of Team Rocket!" Cassidy and Butch laughed out loud.
However, Anto noticed something odd with the Hypno…
"Do you accept Arceus as your lord and Savior? Would you like to talk about his splendor and grace?" The Hypno spoke out as he swung the pendulum back and forth towards Floette.
"Yes… Arceus is the savior…" Floette droned on like a zombie before the tentacle let go of her and she floated hypnotically towards Team Rocket.
"Hey! Out of curiosity, is your Hypno a Jehovah Witness?"
Cassidy and Butch snapped out of their smiles as the odd thought came to them. "You know that does explain why he tried to give us those really big religious books." Butch commented.
Cassidy shook her head. "Put these two in their cage, and let's get ready to leave."
AZ and Anto started panicking as the Team Rocket duo started making their way down back into the sub as the tentacles were bringing the two into a new open hatch which no doubt dropped them into some dark prison.
For some reason though, everything felt colder as he went closer to… why did the tentacle stop?
"Huh what!?" Cassidy and Butch screamed as they looked back to see the water surface around them be frozen despite being it being the middle of the day. Suddenly, the duo were attacked by Shadow Balls that came from the sky.
Anto recognized this attack. He trained with that Pokémon in how to increase its power.
"Yo Anti! How come you keep getting yourself into these fun situations?" Sentinel appeared in thin air nearby the young boy.
"S-Sentinel!? What are you doing!?" Anto cried out in shock. Why was he using his Pokémon moves!?
The tall hobo's eyes widened as he saw the strange looking Charmeleon. "Is that a Delta Pokémon?"
Sentinel unleashed his Dual move of Dragon and Shadow Claw, Monster Shred, making his dragon claws glow and extend with dark energy. "Duh, saving you!" In two fierce slashes the tentacles holding both AZ and Anto fell down and the two landed on the head of the submarine.
AZ landed on his feet, Anto landed face first. Still, he didn't care about that as he quickly got back up and looked towards Sentinel.
"Sen! Stop using your moves! You'll die quicker the more you use them!"
Sentinel, despite lacking facial features, tilted his head and looked very confused. "You make that sound like a bad thing."
"It is a bad thing! Sentinel, I don't want you to die!" Anto spoke out as he went closer and kneeled to the ghost and dragon type.
To the amnesiac's surprise, Sentinel just gave a huge goofy grin. "Oh really? Then don't worry about it."
The mute's surprise did not stop. "Of course I'm worried! Why aren't you!?"
"Because I really really like being with you. So what if I die? You guys are the best people I've ever been with, and I want to spend as much time I have with you as possible!" Sentinel smiled simply as if there was no other answer in the world to him.
Anto stared in shock before he turned and saw AZ smiling towards him. "Your Pokémon is very wise."
The mute looked to the innocent Sentinel before petting his head fondly. "They're more than that, they're all amazing."
"I know I am." Sentinel beamed before Anto laughed. AZ was right, instead of just sulking about a horrible thing, it's best to make the greatest out of whatever time Sentinel has left. It will probably hurt when he leaves, but it would hurt a lot more if he regretted not spending more time with them.
"You're all dead that's for sure!" AZ, Anto, and Sentinel looked back towards the smoke were a disheveled Butch and Cassidy looked especially peeved at the ghost dragon.
As the smoke died down, Anto noticed a small army of Pokémon under (Caitlyn) and Butch. There was a Charizard, a Granbull, a Sableye, a Houndoom on (Sissy's) side while on Butch's there was a Primeape, Hitmontop, Mightyena, Aggron, and Shuckle. Added with a hypnotized Floette, Hypno, and Raticate, it was 12 versus 1.
"This doesn't look good…" AZ nervously said, but to his surprise, Anto stepped forward with a confident smile as Sentinel followed beside him.
"If you're not going in the easy way, then we'll just have to take you out the hard way!" (Cassie) cried out as her army of powerful Pokémon readied themselves towards the boy.
"You really think that is going to scare me, Katie and Butch?"
"It's Cassidy! I just said my name! Were you not listening!?" Cassidy screamed and stomped her foot down hard on the metal head.
"Holy crap, so this is what it's like to see that from the outside!" Butch noted in utter shock.
"Grr! That's not the point!" Cassidy growled madly before pointing to the defiant boy. "It's 12 versus one! I don't care how weird that Pokémon looks, just take it down and his trainer!"
"Like I said, I'm not afraid. Because I've face far worse opponents… only because of the friends I have to fight alongside me."
Sentinel readied his Dragon Claws. "Plus we made a promise to travel with you, Anti! We all don't have anything better to do really!"
AZ had lived a very long time. In his prison of immortality, he eventually learned or had gained the ability to understand Pokémon. While it has been such a long time that he has truly forgotten if he either learned or gained this ability, the fact remains that he can understand all Pokémon he comes into contact with. And what the Delta Pokémon had just said piqued his curiosity: he never used a singular phrase such as "I" or "me" in that sentence.
"Primeape, Outrage!" Butch cried out as the fighting type exploded with fierce dragonic fury towards Sentinel.
Anto raised his hand to the sky. "Takezo, Detect Counter!"
Something small quickly landed in between Sentinel and the Primeape closing in. It was Takezo whose eyes were already glowing a vibrant light blue towards the exploding fighting type. The Primeape was about to body the smaller normal type until in a quick motion, Takezo drew his blade, slid towards the fighting type, and slashed the side of the knee that was closest to him. The evolved Pokémon stumbled forward which made Takezo catch his stomach as he fell forward and with the continuing momentum, the normal type tossed the taller fighting type over his shoulder and into the ice.
"We're always not too far behind you, Anto." Takezo said as he re sheathed his blade.
"Is that a Patrat? One of the most common normal types in Unova? How the heck did such a simple little creature beat Primeape!?" Butch called out in shock.
The immortal king blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of the sword wielding Pokémon. "Where did that Pokémon come from?" He then recalled that he came from the sky, and he quickly looked up. His eyes widened as he saw something flying in the sky.
There was giant pile of flying leaves that were levitating in the air with a Liligant and a Sawk standing on top of the pile. Next to them was a Elgyem holding some kind of gold and pointy stick. The three Pokémon descended nearby the young trainer, looking all eager towards the boy.
"You guys came after me?"
"We thought it would be a good idea to follow you around, since ya know… bad things follow you around as well." AZ noticed the Liligant speak to Anto.
Anto laughed. Something told him that probably death wouldn't keep these crazy Pokémon off him.
Strangely… he was OK with that.
"It's not all bad, I met you guys because of it. Now let's kick some butt!" Anto looked back at Team Rocket. "Listen up Helena and Butch! Give back AZ's Floette or else!"
"That isn't even close!" Cassidy screamed. "That's it, everyone attack! No mercy!" At he call, the other Pokémon of Team Rocket all rushed forward.
Anto's mind raced quickly. "Lily best defensive wall, now!" With expert timing, the grass type summoned a storm of leaves that came up and erected a large wall between them and the attackers.
The young trainer looked over to his first Samurai Pokémon. "Takezo, how's that new Dual Move coming along?!"
The little Pokémon sheathed his blade and took some kind of praying stance. "I'm ready, everyone fall back!"
"Dual move?" AZ repeated in confusion before the Lily the Liligant made another large pile of leaves that both Sentinel and Ohko jumped back on it.
Anto came up to AZ offering a hand. "This move is kinda devastating, so hurry up!"
Takezo charged with electricity and then summoned the fake swords of the Sword Dance move. As he did, the wall of leaves were starting to fail quickly from fire and other attacks. Suddenly he unleashed a pulse of thunder towards the ghost like blades which suddenly started glowing a gold yellow.
Lily made the platform rise with all of them in tow. AZ quickly saw what the Patrat was doing and asked. "What is that Pokémon doing?"
"Basically we're fusing two moves together: Thunderbolt and Swords Dance."
"Fusing Pokémon moves? Is that even possible?" AZ asked in shock.
"Has anyone tried?" The telepathic mute countered.
Back with Takezo, the wall of leaves fell, unleashing all the other Pokémon of Team Rocket to attack the lone Patrat, but the dozen or so Pokémon were not expecting a flurry of electric swords pointing right towards them.
Anto pointed down on them. "Blade Storm!"
The thunder swords constructs were let loose on the on the unsuspecting enemies, getting hit with even one of them was like being hit with a single Thunderbolt. Some of them dodged the attack, but there was one little thing they didn't account for that Anto did.
They were on a submarine; AKA a metal object: AKA a conductor for electrical currents.
It didn't matter if some missed and some hit, as soon as they made contact with the head of the metal floor, the electricity raced across the floor and hit all those that weren't flying or levitating. Even Team Rocket and their Hypno were shocked very heavily.
"Kryx, now!"
The Elgyem teleported near the still hypnotized Floette and whacked her with her probe.
"Ow! Wait what happened?"
Kryx looked to the Hypno. "You were poisoned by this neanderthal!" Then she psychically blasted the Pokémon into the open cage hole that AZ and Anto were supposed to go into before grabbing Floette and teleporting the two of them back with Anto and the others.
"AZ!" The strange colored Floette called out and hugged her friend.
"Floette thank goodness." The giant hobo returned the hug.
"Kryx get ready for round two. Takezo again! Blade Storm!" Anto called out.
Cassidy and Butch shook themselves out of the shock and looked up. "Why that little twerp! Hurry up and blast him out of the… where's the Patrat?" Cassidy started before she realized that the little Patrat was nowhere in sight.
"Get off me you flying runt! (Roar! Growl!)"
The looked to the side to see Cassidy's Charizard trying to shake off Takezo who was taking a free ride.
"Gladly." Takezo complied before running up to his head and kick off from it to jump, making the evolved starter flinch as the normal type gained more air. Funny enough, he was right above both Butch and Cassidy… along with even more and bigger Blade Storms. "HA!"
"AAAAHH!?" Cassidy and Butch moved out of the way, but then they noticed that the attack didn't go for them, but once more in the open hatch towards the cell.
Inside the Cell, the Hypno slowly regained consciousness after being thrown into the cell only to see a hail of huge thunder sabers raining down on him. "Oh Arceu—"
The Submarine rocked hard, cracking the ice and causing the submarine to implode on itself. With the water starting to come back the submarine shook violently and most of Team Rocket's Pokémon and Team Rocket were trying to get their sea legs back.
Kryx came in and teleported with Takezo back on the platform.
For some reason though, Takezo looked to be glowing… "Anto, the last Blade Storm is ready, the power really stored up."
"Why is he glowing?" AZ spoke out as Anto motioned both him and his Floette to back up a bit.
"Long story short: it works like Furry Cutter, it gets stronger after each use. It's just it only goes up to three." AZ was about to ask, why does it only go up to three? But then Anto looked back to his Pokémon. "Everyone, hit them hard and hit them fast! Use all your long range attacks!"
Takezo jumped, Ohko gathered energy in his palm, Lily absorbed power, Sentinel embraced his ghostly essence, and Kryx silently moved her arms…
Anto pointed. "Fire!''
Kryx sent a blast of psychic energy towards the submarine; Sentinel brought down a fierce Dragon breath to his enemies; Lily fired an empowered Energy Ball; Ohko threw a condensed Focus Blast; and Takezo unleashed the biggest set of electrical blades hailing down on them.
Needless to say the attacks all gathered up together and created a huge explosion. Out of the dust, Team Rocket and their Pokémon were seen flying off.
"I can't believe we got beaten by another twerp!" Cassidy exclaimed.
"I can't believe he remembered my name!"
"But we can't believe we're blasting off again!" They cried out before they became nothing but a speck in the sky.
"You've got some good Pokémon Anto. I would tell you to be safe in your travels, but I think you're in good company."
"You too AZ. I hope you do… whatever it is you're trying to do?" What? He was mysterious hobo with normal smelling hands. He didn't know much about him.
The two parties said their farewell, on their way back to the Pokémon center towards the others, Anto recalled everyone but Sentinel.
"Hey can we talk?"
"Oh sure what's up?"
"… Do you really not care about dying?"
Sentinel stopped and looked over to Anto. "What are you talking about? I'm a little sad that I don't get to live as long as some others, but we all die anyway. I may not be as smart as Kryx or Ohko."
Anto chose wisely not to comment and let Sen continue on.
"But I figured that staying with you guys for my last year really is a fun deal. I don't see anything wrong with that."
So basically, Sentinel saw death and life differently from that of Anto. It's true he understood the concept of death, but he didn't fear or put much thought about it as the mute did. Rather, Sentinel seemed more concerned about who he was with before his time came.
"AZ was right." Anto smiled as he looked towards the setting sun in the sky.
"What was he right about? Did I miss something?"
The amnesiac petted the ghost dragon type. "Oh nothing Sentinel. Just… getting my bearings."
{Author Notes.}
Sorry this took so long. I had a lot of things to do and I still didn't do them right in my life. Le sigh.
Ahh well. Here's the new chapter! Butch and Cassidy have appeared! Which means the others hunting down Anto are closing in on the boy as we speak!
One little note is Takezo's new Dual Move: Blade Storm it is surprisingly very powerful. It works much like Fury Cutter in that it gets stronger with each use-getting that from the power of the Swords Dance Boost-However, it can only be used three times and the third use for that day is a very powerful that could rival a Hyper Beam or Explosion.
But I cannot wait for the next few chapters! Things are going to pick up and maybe just maybe we'll meet Anto's final sixth member!
Trust me… I always grin when thinking of that peculiar Pokémon.
Edit: thanks to ADDBaby for noticing a particularly awkward wording.
Before I leave you all off, I have one little deleted scene and blooper reel to tell you...
{Blooper: Stop Probing!}
"Kryx, now!"
The Elgyem teleported near the still hypnotized Floette and whacked her with her probe.
"Ow! Wait what happened?"
Kryx looked to the Hypno. "You were poisoned by this neanderthal!"
Then she took her probe and telekinetically shoved…
Up above, everyone winced. "Dang it Kryx!"
Back down, Cassidy and Butch looked on horrified.
As for the Hypno…
"LORD ARCEUS ALL MIGHTY!?"
Kryx hugged AZ's Floette and screamed out mightly. "Take that Religion! Science for the win! Oh, and Arceus is a Scientist!" Then she teleported away.