Wes was so close, managing to get through to Eve for a moment there. But of course the Phantom had to step in and ruin the whole thing. Now she's completely lost it, and her transformations are going out of control! Will Wes be able to keep her calm? Or will she snap and kill everybody? When dealing with something like this, the important thing is to keep the dangerous pokemon happy!
The Elimination Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has started! Make sure to get those votes in, we've only got a couple of people who have voted so far! Please, make sure to get those votes in! You can vote for up to 5 girls, so make sure your favorites have a chance to shine!
Nominated: Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Chloe, Cynthia, Donoma, Elaina, Kate, Maddi, Marion, Misato, Ryoko, Sango, Satsuki, Sylvia, Vic
KedharS: The fact that he's being a dick to someone who he can't manipulate and is more than strong enough to snap him like a twig.
Hyphenman: Who knows? Things certainly aren't looking good for Professor Decker, that's for sure.
Leppyvstheworld: Definitely sustained some damage.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 977
Maddi stopped to catch her breath, clutching her side. Her ribs still hurt from where the Phantom nearly caved her chest in. But she couldn't stop now. She'd gathered up all of Wes's pokeballs, and she needed to get them to him. He was a powerful pokemon trainer, so maybe if he had his pokemon, then he could do something.
But when she got back to the lab, Wes was nowhere to be seen. The Phantom was gone, too, and more worryingly, so was his gun. The only person still there was Professor Decker, leaning against the wall. His stomach had been shoddily bandaged, but at least it looked like the treatment was holding. Maddi rushed to his side.
"Professor, are you okay?" Why would she ask something that stupid?! It was pretty fucking obvious that the old man wasn't okay.
"Eevee…" Vee whimpered, just as worried as his trainer.
"Ah… Madison…" Professor Decker cracked his eye open.
"Professor, don't try to talk." Because she didn't know what was going on, she wasn't as against the professor's actions as Wes had been. That left her free to be concerned about his safety. She didn't ask him what was going on, either, because right now, the important thing was keeping the professor's condition stable until help arrived.
But Professor Decker wasn't concerned about that.
"Eve is… fighting up there now…" Professor Decker wheezed, raising his head and staring up at the hole in the ceiling. "That thing… that Mechadoll… it's powerful, but… my Eve should be able to… defeat it… I'm sure…"
Eve. So that was the name of that strange transforming girl that looked like Dakota? In the heat of the moment, Maddi hadn't even known what to say about that. "That's not important right now, you need to stay still!" She urged the professor.
"I… don't believe… that will matter…" Professor Decker was already seeing the end of his life before his eyes. "It's a pity… but… I wanted to see Eve's growth… for myself… but apparently I failed to earn her trust, even as her father… or maybe… this is the punishment for the sins I've committed."
"I don't care about that now!" Maddi shouted. "Whatever sins those are, what's important is we keep you alive to atone for them, you hear me?!"
"Atoning… yes… that's something…" Professor Decker turned to Maddi with a solemn expression on his face. Wincing with pain from moving, he reached into his lab coat, fumbling around for something. "But you're right… that's not important right now…"
His hand dropped to his side, his energy completely expended. Clutched tightly in his fingers was a syringe filled with a shiny pink liquid.
"This is… the last completed dose of the µ Gene. There isn't any left… and without me… when I die, no one will be able to create it again… without this sample," the professor murmured, staring pointedly at Maddi.
She didn't know what he was asking her. And she didn't want to know. "Don't say that! You can't think that way," she urged him.
"Madison… you need to… keep this safe. Don't let Gleiss… Valon… whatever he calls himself… you can't let him get his hands on this, do you understand me? If he figures out how to replicate it… and uses it on the Shadow Pokemon to unlock their DNA potential… the results will be…!"
He burst out into a coughing fit, clutching the hole in his stomach. The syringe slipped from his fingers and rolled to the ground at Maddi's feet.
She didn't know what to do.
Meanwhile, far above on the deck of the S.S. Libra, Wes was just as confused about the situation as Maddi was.
"Eve, what's the matter?" He cried.
Eve was breaking down. She was screaming and thrashing violently, her body transforming at a rapid speed. Wes didn't understand her reaction because he had no idea what Eve had gone through at the hands of the Phantom.
Or more appropriately, what Dakota Evans had gone through.
Eve and Dakota were different. You couldn't consider them the same individual, even if Eve had been created from Dakota's DNA. But even though they were different, separate entities, Eve was still built from Dakota. Her body remembered Dakota's life down to a genetic level, and due to her Mew DNA, the two were connected, in a way, through a psychic link.
It was because of that connection that Eve's remembered the feeling of dying at the hands of the Phantom. Even if Dakota had managed to survive, the terror and pain was still etched in her DNA like a scar, and Eve was feeling it overwhelm her.
Emotionally, she was a mess. Part Dakota and part pokemon, she didn't have the composure or experience necessary to remain rational when exposed to overwhelming fear like she was facing right now.
So she did what any crazed pokemon would do when confronted with something that frightened them, lash out.
And lash out she did.
A long, thick appendage shot out of her arm, transforming into the fist of a Machamp. It swung at Valon, nearly grinding him into paste with a single punch. But the Phantom was fast, and managed to jump out of the way, leading the fist to smash through the deck of the boat.
But Eve had more attacks.
"Kyaaaaaah!" Eve screamed, two appendages ripping out of her shoulders. They bent like the twisted elbows of twin arms, but instead of hands, what pointed at the Phantom were a pair of snarling heads, like a Hydreigon. With matching roars, bursts of dark flames exploded from the savage maws, threatening to burn down the entire ship.
"Fucking monster," Valon spat, ducking under the flames. He fired a few more shots, but it was pointless. At the moment, it was questionable if Eve could even be considered a solid mass due to the shifting and roiling of her body.
And then she stabilized. What was left looked nothing like a little girl at all. She was a twisted, misshapen amalgam of different pokemon, a beast fully built for combat. Wes could see the torso of a Lucario, but with the added bulk of a Machamp to support four arms. The upper appendages were the wicked, twisted blades of a Kabutops, and its lower, dominant arms had the arm blades of a Gallade and ended in the sharp claws of a Weavile. Eve's legs were those of a Blaziken, and growing out of each one were hilts for a Samurott's shell blades. Two sets of wings sprouted from her back, the massive wings of a Salamence and beneath them the swifter, gossamer wings of a Ninjask. A long, sharp Seviper's tail stretched out behind her, and on her chest was the crystal of a Sableye. From her waist, two large vines like those of a Venusaur rested in wait. Her head was that of a Scyther, and her piercing eyes belonged to a Luxray. Her mouth elongated into the jagged jaws of a Mawile, and a Kecleon's long tongue danced between her lips. A Rhyperior's horn jutted out of her forehead, with the bladed horns of an Absol curved back on either side, framing a mane of wild pink hair that ended in a bobbing, rounded tip, the sole trace of what she once was.
The beast that was Eve tilted back her head and let out a terrifying roar. Then she attacked. She was no longer sane enough to even bother with pokemon moves, instead resorting to swinging her claws and blades to hack the Phantom to pieces herself.
He would have been done for if Misato had not leapt to his aid. She appeared in front of him so fast it was like she teleported, raising her shield to block Eve's strike.
"King's shield," Misato said, her voice cracking like there was something wrong with her. A massive barrier appeared to cut off the strike, keeping the Phantom safe.
But of course, he expressed no gratitude whatsoever towards his savior. "Took you long enough," he snarled, shooting a glare in her direction. "What's the matter with you, letting yourself get beaten to this extent?"
"I have no explanations," Misato answered. "My body is-zizizizi!- unable to *zi* maintain stability of my current- ZIZIZIZIZI!"
It was clear that extensive repairs might be in Misato's future given her condition. While her wounds could not be considered severe, or even technically wounds, she had expended a great deal of energy in her prior fight against Eve, and she was not moving at 100%. Her internal diagnostics did not display any serious threat to her body at the moment, but then, that was not her priority given the extensive harm Discord was doing to her processing abilities.
Right now, it could be said that Misato was prioritizing the success of the mission over her own personal safety. Even with Sparky protecting her and keeping the damage inflicted at a minimal level with their control over her machinery components, Misato could not determine if victory was a possibility to any degree of statistical significance.
But she could not advise the Phantom to retreat, either.
Meanwhile, Wes had a different set of priorities to worry about.
"Eve!" He shouted, running over to the clearly-suffering pokemon-human hybrid. He couldn't see any trace of "human" still left in her, but he had to try and reach her anyway. He'd gotten close, so close, and he couldn't let that be for nothing, he just couldn't!
If Eve heard his voice, or cared to register it, she didn't make a point of showing it. Instead, she swung her tail, carving through the deck of the ship as she slashed at Misato from below. But Misato could fly. She leapt into the air, building up an electrical charge, and fired the discharge out from her blade with a slash.
Eve didn't even need to defend. With Rhyperior's horn, she drew in the electricity like a lightning rod, nullifying the attack completely with her Ground typing.
"That won't work," Valon warned Misato. "She has components from every type of pokemon right now, it would be fair to say that she lacks any… conventional weaknesses."
Of course, that didn't mean that she couldn't be beaten. He had an ace up his sleeve, after all.
"Launcher, take care of this beast," he ordered, sending out his Dragapult. The Shadow Pokemon emerged from its pokeball with a roar, filling the sky with darkness as he flew into the air.
Eve responded to her new foe immediately. She raised her head and opened her wide jaws, firing a blast of darkness at the dragon. But Launcher was fast. He was able to easily avoid the dark pulse, and began to build up shadowy energy around his body.
"Shadow storm," Valon ordered.
"DRAGAPULT!" Launcher roared, summoning a massive tornado of dark energy. The curling blades of shadow tore across the S.S. Libra and slammed into Eve, engulfing her in endless waves of darkness and pain.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAARRRHHAAAGH!" Eve roared, her body besieged by the attack. Wes winced, watching helplessly as Eve was ripped up, wishing that there was something he could do. But without his pokeballs, he couldn't stop Valon and his Shadow Pokemon from harming her.
"You might have the powers and abilities of every pokemon," Valon scoffed. "But you still have weaknesses. Did you think that taking on characteristics from multiple pokemon, and thus multiple types, would give you some sort of advantage? All it's done is maximize the amount of damage you'll take from my Shadow Moves. Do you feel that, little girl? That's real pain right there. Pain that you'll never be able to escape, no matter WHAT you transform into."
He approached Eve, standing before the writhing storm, getting as close as possible to the suffering pokemon just to enjoy her misery from a front row seat.
"Shadow Moves can't be resisted. You can't withstand them. Even if you were to take on the Wonder Guard of a Shedinja, I would still be able to end you like this. Your creator said that you were the perfect pokemon, no… the perfect weapon… but no. Not yet. Really, all you are is a mad beast. Without the versatility you had before, the adaptation of your transformations, what else is there?"
"Me."
Valon turned just in time to see Wes's fist collide with his face, sending him sprawling across the deck. He seethed, glaring at the middle-aged man in front of him. "You! How dare you?! Misato! What's the matter with you, you fucking robot?! You're supposed to be protecting me!"
He turned to Misato, but he saw that, finally, she had shut herself down. Discord had returned to their pokeball. Sparky had left her body, and Arms rested uselessly on the deck of the ship. Misato lay still, save the occasional twitch. Her eyes were completely unresponsive.
"It looks like your doll used up the last of her energy saving you," Wes spat. "But as expected, you don't even care."
"Why should I care?" Valon smirked, rising to his feet. "She's a Mechadoll. Sacrificing herself for my sake is her duty."
Wes remembered the pained look he'd seen on Misato's face earlier. Maybe it was some sort of malfunction brought on from merging with that Porygon-Z, he didn't really know. But what he did know was that the idea of this scumbag demeaning her as just another tool to be disposed of didn't really sit right with him.
"You really are the worst trash… it seems all these years later and that still hasn't changed," he said, shaking his head.
"You're the one who hasn't changed, Wesley," Valon said, spitting some blood out of his mouth. "Making these grandiose speeches, thinking they matter… but this time, I'm the one with the power! You don't even have your own pokemon! Launcher! Take aim at this fool next, using your dragon darts! Now!"
"Dragapult!" Launcher roared, tilting his head down. He fired sharp projectiles at Wes, faster than he could ever hope to dodge.
But not faster than Eve.
A thick vine shot out from the shadowy tempest, circling around Wes and deflecting the dragon darts. With Eve's Fairy typing, they bounced off without a scratch.
"Eve!" Wes brightened, thinking that she'd finally come to her senses.
Then the vine tightened, wrapping around his waist, and flung him off of the boat.
Wes tasted sand, pain shooting through his body. He had no idea what parts were broken but it felt like everything. He raised his head pathetically, staring up at the ship, his body lacking the strength to rejoin the fight.
"Eve…" he winced, slumping over, "why?"
It was questionable if even Eve knew the answer to that question. She stomped out of the tempest, her body a mass of cuts and bruises. It looked like all the extra parts of her were about to fall off. But she still roared. Another vine shot out of her side, wrapping around Launcher's throat. She dragged the Dragapult forward and opened her mouth, hitting him point-blank with a dark pulse.
But the Shadow Pokemon just shrugged the move off.
"That won't work," Valon chided her, shaking his head and smirking. "You see, Eve, Shadow Pokemon are built tougher than even creatures like you. Launcher won't go down to something like that. But don't despair! After he's finished with you, and after I get the chance to bring you back to MY lab, then you'll become an even greater weapon than he is."
Valon could picture it now. The ultimate Shadow Pokemon, a beast capable of assuming the qualities of any pokemon imaginable, transforming into the perfect combination of moves and types to take on any foe, with its powers boosted by the might of shadowy energy. Totally obedient and loyal, the perfect weapon of war.
It was almost in his grasp. He just needed to tear through the last defenses of this little girl. And judging by the way her body was shrinking, he was almost there.
Eve fell to the deck, her transformations reverting one after the other. Her wings disappeared, followed by her tail, and the extra claw arms. Her fangs sank back into her face as her horns shrank away, her body evening out again into the form of Dakota Evans. Even her dress disappeared, leaving her lying naked on the deck of the ship. Her skin was unmarred by the wounds of the shadows, but that didn't mean she was uninjured. She barely stirred.
Valon laughed. Finally, victory was his!
"Now, Launcher, go secure my prize!" He ordered triumphantly. The Dragapult shot down to snatch Eve up.
But then the girl sprung to her feet, her hand snapping up and pointing right at the approaching dragon.
"Spatial rend," she whispered, and her arm transformed. It stretched out into pink armor, with her shoulder turning into a large disk with a bright, shiny pearl embedded in the center. The air around Launcher began to twist and curl, space itself turning into blades of devastating power the cut into the Shadow Pokemon.
Launcher fell to the ground, helpless, completely destroyed by Eve's attack.
Valon couldn't believe what he'd just seen.
"Impossible…" the Phantom whispered. "You… you can even turn into pokemon from legend?"
"I am… not a weapon… not a beast…" Eve hissed, her eyes glowing as she stalked towards Valon. Her arm transformed again, into a wicked blade. "But I know… I can hurt. I can kill. That's what I am. A killer. I won't feel that pain ever again… even if it means… killing everything that stands in my way."
While Eve prepared to finish off the Phantom, Maddi was stuck with a crisis of her own. She curled up on the floor, rocking herself, not sure what to do.
That thing… that girl… she's too strong… Maddi thought, shaking her head. She could still remember the power she'd seen. And more than that. She could FEEL it now. From above her, hatred and killing intent was flowing into her, and she didn't know what to do.
Her harmonia was finally triggering for her in a way where she could feel it. And all she felt from that pokemon was malice. Malice and fear.
If someone didn't do something, they were all going to die.
Well, while I can't say that Eve killing the Phantom isn't for the best, the fact that she's planning to kill everyone else afterwards doesn't seem very good. Too bad, too, it looked like Wes was really getting through to her for a minute, but I suppose her pain and fear were simply too much for her to take, the poor thing.