Episode 47: (Look for the Caesar's Code)
"… Hey Hoopa." Anto looked to his right to see Hoopa floating right next to him on a beach of a tropical island.
The proud, but small ghost psychic type folded his arms. "Remind me again why I don't blast you to kingdom come, Human?"
Well for one he found out he was immortal… though he probably shouldn't test that out in his dream-dimension-thing-or-whatever. The second obvious reason was that killing him would definitely have an impact and potentially trap the small Pokémon here.
He went with the third option.
"Because it's too much effort to do." Anto answered nonchalantly.
Seconds went by as Hoopa's face remained frozen.
The small Pokémon put a hand on his chin. "I do find cleaning up the mess afterward to be very tedious…" Hoopa examined carefully.
And people told him laziness wouldn't help in life.
"Ahh, if it isn't Anthony." The Fake Anto came out wearing a hula shirt, shorts, and a flower necklace with two coconut drinks in his hand. He gave the other coconut to Hoopa before turning back to Anto. "How are you?"
"I still have no idea who the heck you are." Anto folded his arms before looking to Hoopa for answers.
"Now that the 'other you' has returned, I think it's time for some answers. Who are you and why are you trying to destroy my world?!" That quickly caught Anto's attention. Hoopa was here because his world was in danger?
The fake boy looked out to the ocean. "For now, just call me Anthony, or Fake, or Zeed, which ever works between you two. As for destroying your world, I assure you, I'm not doing it… at least on purpose."
"Zeed? What are you talking about?" Anto asked. That third name felt… familiar for some reason. Where had he heard that before?
The Fake Anto paused and drank his coconut juice, as did Hoopa.
Anto threw his hands up in the air before realizing something. "Hey wait. Why don't I have a coconut drink?"
"Alright let me tell you something." Fake quickly said, making the real amnesiac narrow his eyes. "As you both realize this is not a normal dream. This is a pocket dimension of sorts that I have manifested in this boy's subconscious."
"You make it sound like I'm supposed to understand a single word you just said." Anto folded his arms in a huff.
Fake rolled his eyes. "Let's try this then: I have powers. I am in your mind. I used my powers to create a pocket dimension within your mind. Happy?"
Was that actually supposed to make him feel better!? "No! My mind is not some… some… piece of construction for you to make your own beach resort!" Anto pointed in a very miffed manner.
"But the dream coconut juice is really good…" The fake said as he looked at his drink and started sipping it…
Anto smacked it out of his hands and the drink fell into the beach sand.
"Enough dancing around it and tell me who you are!" Anto yelled in pre-hysteria.
Fake looked sadly at his fallen drink. "But I was enjoying my coconut juice…"
"It's not even real!" The boy started pulling on his hair.
"Yeesh, Human, just because it isn't real doesn't mean it tastes bad." Hoopa commented as he continued to drink his coconut.
Anto's eyes twitched several times despite him not blinking. "Can we just please get on with it?"
Fake sighed. "So, what do you want to know?"
It seemed like the atmosphere changed instantly because Anto suddenly calmed himself down and felt a bit of nervousness within him.
"Who are you?"
Fake folded his arms and looked to the sand with a contemplative look. "I suppose I'll go with an easy answer. You can think of me as a powerful demon of sorts. You can call me Fake because my real name is unpronounceable to humans," He looked to Hoopa. "I can tell you it later."
"Something tells me that I've heard of you somewhere…" Hoopa mused.
A demon?! There was a demon in his head?! … Wasn't there a song about this—wait why was he thinking about that!?
"Hold up, hold up, hold up! What are you doing in my mind?!" To further emphasize this point, Anto pointed to his cranium.
"Because you had a strong essence and I wanted to absorb it. It was a lot easier since this body is dead and all." Fake up and said casually.
"What!?" Anto cried out again confused.
Hoopa's eyes suddenly lit up. "I see where this is going. You've been gravely injured, and are absorbing mortal souls to get back to full power that's why you've attached yourself to this boy's mind."
Fake winked and snapped his fingers. "Astute of you, O mighty King."
Hoopa huffed with pride—
"Wait, you're a King?" It should have been sooner, but Anto was starting to realize that he was going to have a hard time figuring out what the heck was going on here.
The other two party members just groaned. Hoopa was rolling his eyes while Fake placed a palm in front of his face.
"For your sake Anthony, I'm going to try one more time," Fake rubbed the bridge of his nose as if he was talking to a mentally challenged child. "Let's see… think of this like a movie. For this scenario think of a powerful cosmic being that was in a deadly battle and barely survived the fight. However, the being was in such a weakened state that he had to go a lower realm and slowly feed off others to get back to strength."
"That's a fairly uncommon story outline." Anto quickly commented. "So that's basically you?"
Fake nodded happily. "Finally! We're on the same page!"
…
"Wait doesn't that mean you're going to absorb my soul, kill me, and free yourself from the world when you're done?" Anto thought out loud since that was how stories like that usually went from following that specific premise.
"Oh so you're not as slow as I first believed you to be!" Fake seemed rather proud to just admitting he was going to kill Anto.
Though, as quickly as Anto thought at the back of his head, he sort of wasn't in the position to defend himself at all.
During this horrible realization, Fake started laughing and walked to Anto. "You know, I'm glad we had this talk. I really feel like we bonded in these… five minutes or so in dream time. I think. I really should make a dream watch for this place. Anywho! Good Luck on Today's Match, kid!"
Fake slapped Anto's back hard then the mute found himself wide awake on his bed.
…
"BUT I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!?"
It would be later on that Anto found it that it was 2:00 AM in the morning, and he would not get any more sleep for the rest of that night.
[Later that morning.]
"Anto, I know you've had sleepless nights before, but did you even sleep at all last night?" Jamie asked worryingly as the boy she was asking while their group of friends was in a large booth for breakfast.
"Ṩḹḝḝṗ ḭṧ ḟṑṝ ṱḫḝ ẝṏṙṱṳṋḁṭḙ." Anto's left baggy eye twitched.
Black pointed his spoon at obviously sleep deprived boy. "Is his telepathy supposed to sound glitchy?" He worded carefully.
"First time I've heard of it like that." Wes admitted after swallowing a blueberry bagel. "He was also psionically screaming into the night for some reason. Did you have a nightmare or something?"
"Ṁỷ ḹḭḟḗ ḭṥ ẳ ṉḭḡḩṱḿḁṙḗ." You know at this point, Anto's friends were wondering if the boy was purposely forcing his eyes to never blink.
"OK, even I have to admit, he's a lot more out of it than usual." Wes noted as he poked his friend with his finger. The only reaction was his right hand twitching.
Misoka and Candela soon came up to the group of friends. "Hey guys! How's it going!?" Candela greeted cheerfully.
"All well except for Anto here," Benga pointed to his friend. "… I think he's having an existential crisis." He tapped his chin in a scholarly manner.
Misoka and Candela noticed how horrible Anto looked. Unfortunately this gave Misoka worry.
"W-What!? B-But he must battle with…"
"There you are, Kiyomi."
Only a few recognized that voice, but they all turned when they saw Haruto Izuru and a Scizor with a jewel placed on his head band walk towards them.
"It seems my family is quite ticked that you're trying to get out of our contract with this little loophole you've made." Haruto smirked haughtily.
Candela took a step forward. "Let's not forget that you agreed to those terms. We have more than one outside witness for that."
"Oh please, just because some hack knew about one of the previous owners of the Dojo, doesn't mean that he'll defeat me." The green haired adolescent proclaimed. "I mean, who would train females such as yourselves if you're just going to fail?"
Most people within earshot glared at him for that sexist comment.
"Really? A sexist comment? Are you trying to be a one dimensional character?" Jamie sighed.
"Wes, you have my permission to pickpocket him." White whispered low to the Orre teen.
"Who said I was going to stop there?" Wes darkly glared.
Haruto paid the peanut gallery behind him no mind, but he did notice Misoka moving to him.
"Anto shall defeat you! He's twice the trainer and has twice the strength of character you have!" The silver haired woman boldly declared.
Haruto still felt confident and turned around, his smile disappearing as he did. "… Is my opponent's head drowning in that bowl of cereal?" The smile only left because he was utterly bemused by this.
Quickly, everyone turned to Anto who had fallen face first into his cereal without anyone noticing.
Benga and Jamie quickly helped their friend up—whose face was wet with milk and cereal pieces—then his mouth fell open with some milk, causing Jamie to wince back in disgust and making Benga lose grip without the other person. This made Anto promptly fall back into his cereal bowl face first.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Haruto and his Scizor laughed mockingly at the pathetic sight. "This is the most humiliating thing I have ever laid eyes on! I almost feel bad for you Kiyomi—almost." He spoke out as he started walking away.
When he was out of sight, everyone turned to the unconscious boy.
"Alright, Anto is in no condition to battle like this." White stated the obvious.
Suddenly, Kryx appeared out of thin air, telekinetically carrying a strange helmet like device. "Looks like we can use the power of SCIENCE!" She boldly declared.
There were a surprising amount of people that weren't startled by a psychic type suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Candela and Misoka were not one of those people.
"Is that Elgyem talking?" Candela pointed in disbelief.
"Translator duh! I'm using my galacto-translator so that I can communicate with your primitive language and sound pitching." Kryx proudly stated.
Wes looked over to the still stupefied girls. "She's Anto's Pokémon. She abducted him once to space." Misoka and Candela were clearly needing more context than that, but didn't get any. "Anyway, Kryx, how did you even know Anto had sleep problems?"
"I wasn't in space silly! I was in your mesosphere!" Kryx responded before pointing to Anto's side where a Premier Ball jumped out and seemed remodeled to have four metal, spider legs. "And I remade my Hammer Space Container into a fully functioning mobile base of operations! It can even function as the sacred Human contraption known as "The Disco Ball"." Kryx took out a remote and pressed the button before the ball transformed on the outside and a large cannon looking thing shot out and fired a large ray of light at some unsuspecting person at the distance.
"AAAHHHH! MY EYES! MY EYES! I'VE GONE BLIND! MY SURGEON CAREER IS RUINED! I FAILED YOU LITTLE TIMMY! I FAILED YOOOOUUUU!" The man wailed into the skies before falling into the ground and sobbing madly.
"Whoops! That was the weapon system. Wait, but if I placed the neon lights in my cannon, what did I put in the actual sphere? Oh well!" Kryx mused as she put away the remote after turning off her defense system.
Candela and Misoka were still looking at the man who lost his sight and was now gaining a crowd around him.
"Uhh… is he going to be… OK?" Candela carefully worded.
"Kryx! You have to help that poor man! Anto and I have been trying to tell you to be more careful in your experiments!" White scolded.
"Oh don't worry, the effects are momentary, it will dissipate soon." Kryx dismissed with her limbs on her sides before opening her eyes and looking genuinely curious back to White. "Wait, "Soon" means "In twelve years" right?"
Wes spoke up. "Alright, before Kryx accidentally turns machines against man and Pokémon again, (Candela: did you just say again?) we should probably help Anto here from his obvious… not functioning." The thief exclaimed while ignoring the now former surgeon wailing in the background.
"Should we not help him first?" Misoka pointed towards the poor man in the background.
Kryx threw her limb. "I can do that later, I'm sure he has nowhere to be!" As if on cue, the man wailed out that he couldn't help Timmy get his eye sight back in an afternoon surgery that day.
"Kryx…" White folded her arms.
The psychic type seemed to sigh. "Fine, gimme a sec."
[Later]
So everyone thought it would be a good idea to move the process of helping Anto in a more secluded area.
"Are we sure this is safe?" Bianca asked carefully since her first impression of Kryx was very… memorable…
Kryx popped her head up from behind Anto's shoulder. "Oh don't worry about that, I've followed all the safety rules I found on the human guide of how to give birth!"
"Wait, what—?"
Kryx's eyes showed elation before she pressed a button on Anto's helmet.
Needless to say, the lights and violent shaking of the helmet covering Anto's face did not look ethical, safe, or good.
After a while it stopped.
…
…
Kryx looked around and then threw up her arms. "It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!"
Everyone turned to her.
"What? That's not an earth custom to scream every time an experiment happens?"
"Is Anto alright?" Binaca asked again with worry.
Everyone shut up as the boy in question started to move again with his arms on the helmet and quickly removing the thing to gasp for air.
"Why was this attached to my face!?" Anto asked as he pointed to the object in question.
"Well he sounds normal and looks a lot like himself." Black commented.
"It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!"
"Kryx!"
"When is it appropriate to scream it then?" The psychic type pointed out.
Anto said he felt a headache coming and told her to just return to her Poké Ball before he would explain later.
"Glad to see you're feeling better, got a bit worried there with Kryx." Black patted Anto's back. "So why were you up all night?"
"The nightmares. The Nightmares. I saw them even when I closed my eyes." Anto seemed to look pale recalling.
"What nightmares?" Jamie asked.
"I dreamt I was being used as an experiment by Kryx and no one tried to stop her."
…
"Whoa! That sounds a lot like what happened!" Benga obliviously smiled. "So what happened when you woke up from it?"
"I didn't." Anto duly noted.
At this point, Black coughed and looked at his empty wrist. "Oh well look at the time. I've got to go ready for my match. See you later Anto, good luck with that jerk!" He said as he left and everyone as well left to do what they wanted now that Anto was alright.
…
So why was Anto still standing there not moving?
Why did he shove Kryx's Premier Ball deep into his pockets?
And why where his irises turning purple?
But the strangest thing of all: why was Anto opening his mouth?
"Looks like we've reached this stage already huh? I have to admit Anthony, you've got sharp friends. It's gonna be hard to fool them, but then again, you've always been quite the actor. Weren't you, Mr. School Theater Nerd?"
With that, Zeed strode forward towards the Pokémon League.
[?]
(Do you remember your first story? Was it told to you by a creative parent playing with their child, or was it by a book where someone had to tell you the words you obviously didn't know how to read yet?)
It was the day of the second rounds. 16 trainers had made it past the first round and in this second round, the stipulation for this match wa double battle. The first to knock out all four Pokémon from their opponent would win.
(I remember. I lived through them. I was there in my first, my second, my third, my seventy-eighth, my 400345th story—all of them. I'm not mortal. I am eternal.)
As he walked back down the same dark hallways, reflecting once more, one could see something different when the young teen was walking.
When he started walking into the sunlight, he heard a foreign sound of people cheering wildly.
(It's strange when one thinks of it. The screams of Terror are actually different than the screams of Joy and Excitement. The latter are less likely to be silenced suddenly by death.)
As the crowds died down, he looked across the field towards his opponent: a smug, older teen with green hair and bangs covering one of his eyes.
"Ha! Listen, boy, make this easier on yourself and just surrender!"
(I love arrogant people. It's always fun to see them quickly lose their bravado in front of true power.)
"Anto" said nothing but smiled cockily then motioning one of his fingers to say, 'Come and get me'.
Only a few of his friends immediately saw something off with their friend, but they said nothing while the other cheered.
(Ahh right. No powers. Not yet anyway. Guess I'll have to do this the human way.)
The younger teen was barely paying attention as the MC declared the start of the match. He did snap out of his thoughts when his opponent brought out two Pokémon of interest: an Abra with a bow sleeping on the ground and a Bastiodon.
(OK. I think there's a pattern here. Misoka came from a school that taught Pokémon different forms of combat. Since Sea Weed Hair here is from a rival dojo or something that means the kid is still facing against battle-hardened Pokémon with war themes.)
The younger boy carefully eyed the bow and the defensive looking Bastiodon with a… saddle?
Then he quickly threw out Sentinel and Super Nut.
"Another day, another tale of epic battles for Super Nut and Friends to adventure across!" The Heroic Pokémon jumped up one of the platforms and pointed a clamp up to the sky.
Sentinel walked a bit before looking at Super Nut. "Aww man, I forgot my cape!"
Before the match began, the Guyver declared that this round will have the field lock on to normal mode for the entire battle.
So when he did, Haruto quickly ordered his Abra awake. Something was strange though, it looked as if The Abra forced himself to wake and quickly teleported on top of the Bastiodon's head with his bow drawn.
Amazingly, an arrow made from psychic energy started to form from the bow.
The young trainer quickly ordered Super Nut to descend and use Protect as a the purple arrow shot into the forcefield—then exploded with telekinetic energy.
"What the heck was that!?" Benga screamed from the bleachers.
"I've heard of that. He compressed the psychic energy into a smaller, more compact form before launching it at his opponent. It's easier to launch and it has much more power when it make contact with a target." Misoka explained.
"So it's basically how Ohko uses Focus Blast." Wes commented before looking back to the fight.
"This reminds me of the tale of Archer Man, vigilante of Man Hat City!" Super Nut reminisced despite keeping up the barrier as psychic arrow after psychic arrow bombarded his forcefield. "Defender of truth, justice, and fashion! I liked his hat."
"Was there an issue on him stopping a rampaging Bastiodon?" The dual type beside the super hero asked curiously.
"Huh. I don't know. That does sound like one of his adventures." The Ferrothorn contemplated.
However, Sentinel just pointed his claw in front of him. "I was talking about the one ramming towards us right now."
Super Nut turned to see the opposing Pokémon closing the gap very, very quickly by using Rock Climb to launch himself at ramming speed while Abra was continually shooting arrows with increased rate on top of him.
Luckily, the two misfits knew exactly what to do!
"AAAAHHHHHH!?" They both yelled as they hugged each other when Bastiodon rammed into the protective bubble and promptly burst it.
Smoke filled the area after the contact and Bastiodon and Abra flew out of the dust clouds and slid in the ground.
However, as the dust was starting to settle, nothing remained of the other two but two shadows—
"Eat this!" Sentinel cried up from high in the sky as he threw a speeding Shadow Ball down on his opponents.
Despite how fast the attack went, Abra's eye lids started glowing and quickly teleported on the other side of the field with his bow drawn and fired three bolts of psychic arrows at Sentinel. The dragon skeleton suddenly felt a vine coil around his claw before being pulled away from the three arrows.
Super Nut acted fast as he yanked his ally away, but Abra tilted his bow and aimed right for the falling Ferrothorn.
An idea formed fast for Super Nut as he Used Stealth rocks mid air, sending one large one right in front of the path between them and a barrage of arrows. Several arrows stabbed into the rock before imploding with a boom, throwing both Pokémon into one of the other floating rocks that were now scattering around the arena.
Sentinel and Super Nut got up then the delta Pokémon quickly used Phantom Force to appear right behind the duo of Abra with his claws ignited with dragon energy mid air. He swiped at the Abra as fast as he could, but a barrier blocked the attack.
The Protect move from the Bastiodon repelled Sentinel back and Abra did not hesitate to fire another arrow as the dual type was sent flying.
He and his ally did not expect a boulder to come flying in between the shot and taking the arrow before their changed trajectory flew off and made the boulder explode a safe distance from Sentinel who back flipped mid air and slid on the ground.
"They either teleport away or straight up block my attacks. How do we get them!?" Sentinel cried out before vanishing into Phantom Force as more arrows were sent his way.
Abra quickly turned his attention to Super Nut above them and suddenly teleported the two of them. The masked Pokémon looked around but suddenly felt something on the rock behind him.
Instead of looking back, Ferrothorn jumped away as the boulder he was on shattered. He swung and look behind him to see that Bastiodon was now using Protect and surrounding him and Abra in a forcefield. What was even more disconcerting was the fact Abra was moving the rock they were on, effectively making them a moving projectile locked on Ferrothorn.
Super Nut's eyes widened at the combo attack. "Oh that is so awesome!" He then yelped as he swung towards a hard right to avoid the duo smashing through him live half a dozen Stealth Rocks in the air.
Sentinel appeared near Anto. "Anti, we need help here!" He waved his claws up frantically.
(Alright, Anthony, what would you do?) The boy's eyes quickly viewed everything in the battlefield, even the less chaotic parts of the fight.
(Nothing on the surface, so what's your next move, Anthony? … Hmm? Oh so this is how your brain works! … That looks crazy—crazy enough to work!) "Super Nut, can you control your Leech Seeds after they bloom!?"
The Ferrothorn slung into the air with his opponents quickly after him. "I dunno!" He yelled as he fell back down with his enemies in pursuit.
"Meh. He's worked with less." The boy decided before explaining the plan.
Sentinel and Super Nut heard the plan, but then they had to first get the two enemies off Ferrothorn. The Delta Pokémon fired a Shadow Ball at the flying boulder. The Protect move absorbed the hit, but Sentinel kept his barrage up, forcing the two to change course towards Sentinel.
The skeleton braced his ground as Bastiodon dropped his force field and landed on the ground. Abra drew his bow and fired at Sentinel as the steel type beneath him started using Rock Climb to rush at him with amazing speed.
Sentinel activated Shadow Claw and ripped apart the arrows coming his way but as Bastiodon came barreling towards him, he phased into the ground to avoid being hit.
Haruto was getting impatient and ordered Abra to actually aim properly this time and sense his opponent since he was a ghost type. As soon as Sentinel appeared on a different side of the arena where a lot of the broken Stealth Rocks had fallen to, Abra turned expertly and fired a fast arrow that slammed and exploded in front of the dark skeleton.
"That is one athletic Abra." Wes admitted as he was watching from the group.
"One of them alone is hard enough, but the two of them together seem invincible. How will Anto fair against them?" Misoka anxiously spoke out.
Candela looked back at the boy. "He doesn't look like he's giving up."
However, Jamie stared deeply at Anto, but not with hope, but doubt. It wasn't because of the battle, but because something wasn't right about the look in his eyes. At the same time, Tiana, who was capable of using Aura, saw something off with Anto's soul.
Super Nut jumped in front of the injured Sentinel.
"Please tell me you did what you had to." The delta Pokémon slowly struggled to get up.
"I won't know if I try! … That phrase fits here right? Did it sound heroic enough?" Super Nut glanced back at Sentinel honestly.
Unfortunately, while the two talked about one-liners, Haruto's Pokémon came rushing like an out of control locomotive to them. Abra fired more shots, but instead of Protect, Super Nut held his ground and took the shots.
"What the heck is he up to?" Haruto wondered as he noticed his opponent's steel type taking in the hits.
Bastiodon was rampaging towards his targets before a question popped in his head: why did his legs suddenly stop moving?
BAM!
In one instant everything changed.
The reason why Sentinel was distracting them both was so that Ferrothorn could work on a trap. He went towards an area and quickly planted Leech Seeds across the area, hiding them by scattering a few shattered Stealth Rocks nearby this location. He was up in the air when Sentinel got into place, but was then knocked further back.
Super Nut had to convince his opponents to stay their course from the trap, so he took on the hits and didn't use his force field in case they would try to move.
Bastiodon didn't notice that one of the rocks he crushed on his way to attack his opponents just so happened to have a dozen Leech Seeds hidden under them that quickly grew and ensnared his stubby legs to a halt. This stopped the shield Pokémon in his tracks and sent the Abra flying off his head towards his enemies. Super Nut acted fast and used Power Whip to launch his clamp right into the stomach of the flying Abra and shove him back into the ground.
Following that, Sentinel used Phantom Force again to appear right above Bastiodon's head—where he wasn't as heavily protected and unleashed a torrential Dragon breath.
A loud buzzer rang, signaling that both Pokémon were down and out. This meant that Anto still had all four of his Pokémon.
"And our young competitor takes the lead!" The Mc cried out for the entire crowd to cheer.
"What!?" Haruto screamed out in surprise. "How the heck did you do that!? My Pokémon were clearly superior to yours!"
(Anyone with more than one brain cell can tell you that power is only a factor in a fight. Unfortunately, all my previous enemies learned this the hard way.)
"Just hurry up and bring out your best Pokémon now." The boy spoke to Haruto with a foreign and cold feeling.
The green haired adolescent clicked his tongue and threw out two more Pokémon, a Hitmonchan and a Scizor.
The Stealth Rocks came to life and quickly launched themselves towards both Pokémon.
Not many expected to see the two Pokémon destroy all rocks heading their way with little effort.
"Oh that doesn't look good." Benga commented what everyone was thinking up at the stands.
"Hitmonchan! Scizor! No mercy!" Haruto hissed as he threw up his hand, revealing a bracelet with a Key Stone etched into it.
The Scizor was surrounded in rainbow light before he came out as Mega Scizor.
When the next round began, Super Nut and Sentinel weren't expecting the two Pokémon to rush in right after them.
The Hitmonchan rushed in for the Delta Pokémon. In retaliation, Sentinel ignited his claws with Shadow Claw and swiped at the opposing fighting type.
However, Hitmonchan ducked under the swipe and threw his fist back as it suddenly glowed a light blue color. The boxer quickly stepped forward, twisting his body in perfect form as he uppercut Sentinel in his ribcage with a heavy Ice Punch attack and knocked him hard into the sky—breaking through two floating Stealth Rocks above them.
Ferrothron quickly used Protect, but Mega Scizor stopped and used Swords Dance before attacking the shield with X-Scissor. The bubble shattered like glass before Scizor, with uncanny speed, grabbed Ferrothron's clamp and swung him around like a rag doll.
"Why! Is! This! Always! Happening!?" Super Nut cried each time he was thrown into the ground. He quickly used his two other clamps to tie him to the ground, but he felt something above him.
To his surprise, Sentinel was falling right on top of him and quickly the steel type removed one of his claws to catch his ally from falling on top of him and his spikes. However, with one less claw, Scizor pulled harder, making Super Nut hold on and immobile.
Hitmonchan jumped with his fist set on fire this time as he headed towards the weakened Sentinel. As soon as the both Super Nut and Sentinel—who recently had his head spinning stop—looked up, Hitmonchan punched Sentinel hard onto Super Nut with the fire fist, causing them both to get hit by powerful flames which while Sentinel was resisting, the Pokémon beneath him was jabbing spikes onto his bones and was feeling the pain of a type that was for times effective.
The attack exploded and quickly the buzzer rang to signal both Sentinel and Super Nut were taken down without much of a fight.
"Even though Anto had a Ferrothron, Haruto's melee Pokémon were still able to knock out both of Anto's Pokémon without any damage…" White spoke in shock.
"For a jerk, he's got powerful Pokémon." Candela noted.
Back in the battle field, the younger trainer recalled his two Pokémon. He checked his Battle AR and noticed his opponent had Pokémon that had above average stats.
Still, it only made sense to bring out these two. One of them had a personal reason for this battle. The other? He always gave his best.
Takezo and Ohko entered into the field.
"A skeleton, a steel ball, now a rodent and a cripple?" The Mega Scizor folded his claws with disappointment. "What? Were all true warriors scared away?"
Ohko looked down to his friend. "Yo Tak? What's a warrior?"
"From my understanding, it's someone who dedicates their lives to fighting." The small one responded as he drew two of his wooden blades.
"Their lives to fighting? Yo, I can't even do that. Fighting too much would cut on my favorite television shows." Ohko tossed away his cloak.
Takezo smiled. "You do have a point. Ever since Kryx adapted a translator for television, I too have been quite excited for the next episode of General Pokémon Center."
Hitmonchan angrily grunted. "Hey! Take us seriously dang it!"
"Let us just finish this." Mega Scizor stepped forward.
As soon as he stepped forward, the air changed. Takezo and Ohko's eyes sharpened. The two opposing Pokémon paused from that.
{Recommended Music: Two Steps From Hell- El Dorado}
"I'm always serious!" Ohko pumped up while Takezo took a stance with both his wooden blades.
They both launched themselves at their opponents. The Patrat with amazing speed as he amazingly closed the distance—jumped on one left over boulder on the ground then just wall jump right for Mega Scizor while spinning his entire body with his blade in the span of three seconds.
The Mega Scizor's eyes widened at the sheer speed and brought both of his claws up to block—then saw the electricity gathering around the small normal type before he felt a shock course through his entire body. Takezo motioned his entire weight and momentum downward, knocking the claws down and smashing Mega Scizor face first into the ground in a matter of seconds.
Hitmonchan stared in disbelief before taking a step towards Tak—taking a step forward to punch the rock just thrown at him. When the rock shattered into pieces, the fighting type saw a blue leg shot past his punch and land on his face.
The impact made a loud sound before Hitmonchan was sent flying away by Ohko's kick. The one armed fighting type saw his opponent and ran for him, while behind him, Mega Scizor got back up to face his smaller opponent.
Takezo was waiting for him, gripping his blades tightly after finishing a Swords Dance. The two stared at each other before stepping in to a flurry of slashes and stabs. Mega Scizor unleashed an assault of X-Scissor on the smaller Pokémon. Takezo side stepped each slash before timing his swing in an upward motion to hit Mega Scizor's chin.
The attack connected, but it didn't do much thanks to Mega Scizor's amazing defense and he quickly stood up and used Bullet Punch on the Pokémon to knock him back.
Meanwhile, the mute trainer quickly looked up his Battle AR. "Alright let's see here. I can actually use the Synergy Burst on both of my Pokémon. Cool. But the down side is that it takes longer to charge up. Really hope they can handle it just a little longer."
Ohko round house kicked Hitmonchan, but the boxer stepped back to avoid the swing before hopping back with a solid Power-Up Punch on Ohko's right face. The Sawk held strong and quickly kneed his opponent in his stomach.
The two fighters staggered back before Ohko jumped and spun kick—only for Hitmonchan to bring up his right arm to block the kick, step forward, and punch Ohko again in the face. However, Hitmonchan quickly grabbed the leg he caught and pulled back after the punch to prevent the Sawk from flying.
BAM!
The second punch actually created a shockwave which sent the one armed Pokémon right through one of the floating platforms.
Hitmonchan panted for air then looked towards where Mega Scizor and Takezo were battling.
"Where…" Hitmonchan stopped and looked towards the dust cloud he made."Do ya think… you're goin?" Ohko stood up, breathing in deeply. "You and I… still are fighting…"
Hitmonchan sized up his opponent before he saw Ohko fell onto his knee.
"Stand down, you can barley fight anymore." Hitmonchan responded.
Ohko smiled before he pointed towards one of the arms of the boxer was hanging down like string, the one that Hitmonchan tried to block with. "The way I see it: ya can't use your left hand no more and I can't use my legs that good, but we still got one good hand each. Why don't we end this?"
"We? There is no we." Hitmonchan declared as he rushed towards Ohko with his fist ablaze with another upgraded Power Up Punch.
Ohko forced himself to stand, trembling a bit as his opponent reached for him. The boxer jumped, his fist flaring even brighter as Ohko clenched his fist so hard, the trainers could hear his muscles tightening all the from the edge of the battlefield.
Ohko threw his punch, which was actually his most powerful move: Elemental Uppercut.
The explosion covered the entire battlefield as the two made contact, forcing the trainers and even some of the audience members to cover their eyes from the gales.
The dust settled and both Hitmonchan and Ohko were planted on walls and they were both on the opposite end of the arenas.
Haruto stared at shock as he saw his Hitmonchan out cold.
"You're kidding me… a no named brat is pushing me this far!?" The green haired young adult clenched his fist before looking towards Anto with a glare. "I will not lose! I am part of the Izuru family, and we do not know defeat! Mega Scizor, end this!"
The Mega complied and quickly locked onto the small Pokémon. The bug and steel type attacked faster than before, making Takezo go on the defensive. The small Pokémon was forced to use Detect a lot until it failed and the Pokémon got hit into one of the fallen Stealth Rocks.
"End it!" Haruto shrieked. His mega complied and used another Bullet Punch towards the downed normal type.
"A shame it couldn't fill in time, but better now than never." The young trainer pressed his button on the Battle AR.
A rainbow light suddenly wrapped around Takezo and the burst of power pushed away Mega Scizor.
"What the heck is that!?" Haruto screamed out.
Back in the stands, Wes moved in closer. "Time to finally see how Synergy Burst works against Mega Evolution…"
Takezo jumped in again with new strength and speed that surprised even Mega Scizor. The two danced with some amazing sword play that funnily enough entranced the crowd.
"Leave it to the young Anto to have unexpected sword fights in his battles!" The MC exclaimed.
Mega Scizor boosted itself one more time with Swords Dance before unleashing a very powerful X-Scissor.
Takezo ducked under the attack… then inhaled deeply as he quickly positioned one of his blades behind him.
The young trainer quickly pointed his hand out. "Tempest Laceration!"
Faster than even a blink of an eye something cut Mega Scizor. The steel type stepped back before he saw something strange.
There was electricity dancing around Takezo as he drew both of his blades…
Black electricity.
Suddenly, the two wooden blades Takezo was wielding were coated in dark energy but then quickly turned gold and extended the blades into two katana shaped blades.
Takezo jumped and started fighting again with mega Scizor, but the strangest thing, even after so many Sword Dance boosts… Takezo was over powering the Mega. Each time the blades struck something, they glowed brighter and had a much darker outline as even more black electricity started dancing around Takezo's body.
"No." Haruto whispered as he saw Takezo countered a Bullet Punch and swept the mega off its feet.
"No!" The green haired young man screamed when Mega Scizor tried to get back up and attack, only for Takezo to side step and stab him right in the chest. The impact made the mega fly until he slid to a stop, and even when he stopped, the Mega fell to his knees.
Takezo took a step forward—before spinning. He slashed the air and a cut shaped beam suddenly shot out of both blades and absorbed together into one giant slash that hit Mega Scizor right out of the arena.
{-End Music-}
(Swords Dance, Thunderbolt, and Assurance. The Tri move: Tempest Laceration. The Patrat has one of the most powerful Tri Moves so far, being able to hold blades that can shoot cut blasts and make both user and move get stronger, faster, and more skillful each time they are swung. Anthony that talent is surprisingly dangerous…) The young trainer smiled as Mega Scizor fell and reverted back to his normal form. (I think I'm going to miss you the most out all of them.)
"NO!" Haruto yelled as the buzzers rang and Anto was declared the winner.
"Yes! He won!" Misoka cried out as she hugged Candela.
"Easy! Easy! You always were so emotional, Mis." The Team Valor leader tried to calm her friend down.
Benga smiled. "Isn't that awesome—huh? Jamie? Where did you go?"
Everyone turned to see Jamie was no longer in her seat. Actually, even Tiana was not in her seat as well.
"Where did they go…?" White pointed out.
[Elsewhere]
"Jamie!" The brown haired girl looked over her shoulder to see the girl with long black hair running up to her.
"You know don't you?" Tiana asked as the two of them kept pace. The screens they both passed by were showing that Haruto recalled his Pokémon and quickly left the field and the teenage trainer looking confused as he returned his Pokémon.
"W-What are you talking about?" Jamie turned back ahead and kept moving on. "Hey, isn't your sister's match coming up next?"
Tiana walked faster. "Jamie, I have Aura. It may not be strong, but I can basically see people's souls," She grabbed her shoulder. "And ever since I saw Anto walk out into the field something has been wrong with his Aura… your Aura reacted weirdly when he first started the battle."
Jamie looked nervous.
"What are you hiding? Do you know what happened to him?" The black haired girl asked.
"Tiana, listen to me." Jamie spoke out before suddenly grabbing the girl and hugging her.
"(Forget what you saw or else you'll die.)"
Jamie then let go and quickly ran away from the amethyst eyed girl.
Tiana looked on with utter shock as Jamie disappeared into a crowd. As she did, her memory flashed of that time when that odd cloaked figure led her to save Anto.
She clenched her fist. "There's more to this isn't there?"
[Later]
(Hmm~ Da do da~ dee dum.) He stopped as he saw the brown haired girl standing in front of him all alone in the hallway.
"Jamie? What are you—"
"Cut the crap." The green eyed girl glared before fishing her pockets. "I know who you are. What have you done to Anto?"
"…" The young teen looked genuinely confused, but Jamie continued her glare. A few more seconds passed until. "Well, you caught me."
Jamie was obviously not expecting Anto's real voice to come out. She also wasn't expecting Anto's ordinary, dark brown colored eyes to suddenly turn a deep purple.
"Now is that a Locater Stone in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" The purple eyed Anto crossed his hands in an amused manner.
Jamie grunted before slowly reaching for her pocket and revealing an oval shaped, smooth stone with carved symbols on it.
"So that's why none of you guys tried to meet with this kid, you had a stooge babysitting him this entire time!" He chuckled darkly. Even with a voice that character did not… fit…
"Look, whatever you're doing, stop!" Jamie gathered strength and said.
Anto's eye brow was raised high. "Uh question? Yeah, what exactly did they tell you about me?"
The girl seemed surprised. "Y-You're a… a… True Being? Whatever that meant…"
"Oh jeez. They're still on about that?" He placed a palm on his face. "I guess that's why my old friend kept warning me about having fanatics as followers…"
"Just whatever you're doing, bring Anto back!" Jamie regained her courage.
Suddenly, the boy in front of her removed his hand on his face and his eyes narrowed at her. "… Listen, grunt girl, I'm going to go easy on you since obviously the ones who sent you don't gave a flying care," He stepped forward to her and quickly slammed her to the side of the wall with his face over hers. "But let me tell you this: Do. Not. Command. Me."
He stepped away from her, letting Jamie catch her breath.
The boy smiled. "Now, come on then. I've always wanted ice cream. I wonder if they have fish flavored ice cream here." He spoke so casually and started walking towards the exit.
Jamie felt her body ache and slowly slid to the floor.
It was at that point, Jamie knew what was coming very soon if he started to appear.
And she dreaded everything that came with it.
"Anto… please, please be safe…"
{?}
"Hello? Hello!?" Dark brown eyes or Amber eyes looked around the empty path in front of him. There was nothing but a purple void around and him and what looked to be ruins… that were all above him and seemed to be put upside down.
"Where the heck am I?"