It started to rain.
He stood alone, as the city bustled around him. His men scurried around, directing people towards the teleportation points, to Pallet, Pewter and Celadon. This was it, the last battle in this long war, and Indigo's fate depended upon it.
For decades, Johto had slowly strangled Kanto, like a Tangela killing its prey, agonisingly slowly choking the life out of it. They watched year on year as Kanto's taxes skyrocketed, nothing returning to Kanto while Johto spent lavishly on vanity projects, each Wataru puppet getting their own. They protested as historic lands were stolen from gym control and placed under ACE. He had personally forced those Rattata from Mt Moon in a joint effort with Pewter, but other gyms were not as fortunate. Cerulean had lost Cerulean Cave, the graves of the first Leader Waterflower. Cinnabar lost the Seafoams, the island's ancestral hunting ground. Meanwhile, Fuchsia barely held on to the Safari Preserve by ensuring every ACE head that came to take over it was dead on arrival. And Saffron, once the gleaming jewel of Kanto, was shattered. Both Leader and heir murdered via Blackthorn's Gyarados, allowing the league to steal Lavender away while Chuck's useless son was installed as a Wataru puppet. The dismemberment of Kanto had to stop. For his region, for his family, for their future, he had to…
"Sir, the Celadon group has been evacuated. My team and I are ready to face him." A shout derailed his thoughts. His second-in-command, a girl orphaned by those Johtoan monsters, that his dear wife had picked up and raised as their own, stood before him, arm raised in a salute.
"No," He began. Her reaction was immediate, her body tensing, her mouth open, an argument waiting at her lips. "I have another task for you, perhaps the most important of all." His words stopped her mid argument, her mouth dropping as he reached inside his suit jacket and taking out a Pokeball from within.
"Take Nidoqueen with you and go to Celadon. This is your final mission from me, Domino. Protect him in Delia's absence. While she handles Saffron, you are the only one we trust with him. Go." With those words said, he walked past her. With teary eyes, and a final salute, she released her Kadabra, and left with a loud pop. With that he was left alone in Viridian, the once bustling city completely barren.
The rain continued to fall.
He released the remaining members of his team, stowing away the six empty Pokeballs in his suit jacket. "You guys know what to do, prepare the defence." As Golem, Steelix, Marowak and Rhyperior began their work, he stood, watched and reminisced. He thought of Nidoking, his third capture all those years ago, a feisty Nidoran(M) that had grown into a loyal stalwart. All those years, thrown away in a flash, lost in a foreign land to allow him to escape. His sacrifice had been repaid in blood, he made sure of that. Violet had quickly withdrawn her forces from Indigo after Walker's head was delivered to his young son. The renovated Sprout Tower, bought with Kanto's money, fell that day, every greedy Sprout monk inside enjoying the lavish décor falling onto them.
Soon, the final preparations were afoot. Golem began to brew a Sandstorm, but it subsided as quickly as she could set it up. With a growl, she tried again, but there was no relief from the heavy rain. With a scowl he barked, "Move to Plan B, we'll revert to A if possible later." His team quickly began to erect barriers, thick stone walls around the central plaza. Once the bustling centre of Viridian, in a moment the plaza became a warzone. And not a moment too soon either, as he showed up soon after, four dragons orbiting him as he stood atop his Charizard. The foreign tyrant himself, the mad dictator hell bent on maintaining his control over Kanto, Lance Wataru.
A tense silence filled the air. The entirety of Kanto was on his shoulders. This was the moment he had been waiting for. The last battle in the war for independence. Then, it began.
Draconic flames rained down, unhindered by the torrential rain and Viridian burned. The red roof of the Pokemon Centre was the first target, undying blue flames dancing across it, and soon the rest of the city followed. Giovanni barked out orders to his team, urgency laced in his voice.
"Marowak stay with me," The bone keeper stood at his side, tapping his thick club against the ground to raise stone shields against the draconic flames before sending the flaming rubble away with a flick, protecting him from the barrage of attacks.
Giovanni continued his orders, "Steelix offence. Rhyperior focus on anti-air. Golem, you have to protect them." He needed this to go according to plan, this final battle. Standing still and taking in a deep breath as he watched over his team, he felt entirely powerless, it was all up to them. Steelix shone silver, batting the larger attacks back towards the enemy while shooting Dragon Breaths back whenever he had a chance to. Golem rolled around the battlefield, sending spirals of stone upwards, targeting the menaces flying above, while raising earthen barriers to protect both Rhyperior and herself. Rhyperior stood unmoving, as he focused on the Stealth Rock planted earlier in the air, forcing the dragons above to crisscross as they dodged the flying shards. The battle settled into a stalemate, and now he waited for the opportune moment, all according to plan.
And then, all of a sudden, it wasn't. A giant deluge of water accelerated towards them without a hint of a warning. Beyond anything Giovanni had ever witnessed before in a water attack, it burst through Steelix's hastily erected Protect like it was mere paper. It was only through the combined efforts of Marowak and Rhyperior, one attacking to burst the enormous bubble, the other raising walls to protect from the dispersed attack, that his team had emerged largely unscathed from the first attack.
Giovanni's stunned silence lasted mere moments. Even as he mentally reformulated his plan, he hastily ordered both Rhyperior and Steelix to split their focus and contribute to the team's defence. Yet there was little he could do, the tide of battle had shifted. The barrage of undying blue flames continued to rain down, but every additional burst of water that came down pushed him and his team backwards. Directly defending against it was next to impossible, even a pair of fully developed Protect erected simultaneously were shattered by the force of the attack. Even dispersed, the sheer volume and speed that the attack possessed necessitated defending. The previously hard, compact dirt, which had remained firm even in the torrential rain, devolved into a muddy bog with every deluge that poured down.
The mud stifled his team's defence. Every subsequent earth wall became muddier and more sluggish, slower and less capable of defending from attacks. Golem screeched in pain, hit by a Dragon Pulse as she spun in place, stuck in a bog for a moment too long. Step by step, as the torrential rain continued to fall, they were forced back, leaving behind a field of mud in search of more solid ground. Panic slowly seeped into his mind as water seeped into the ground around him, turning solid ground into mud. Something had to change.
"Marowak, swap to offence, use Giga Bone. Rhyperior, defend, leave the Stealth Rock for now. Steelix, swap to defence too. Golem, help Marowak out with Scattershot." A burst of activity followed the desperate command, an attempt to regain lost momentum, to buy just a little more time. A blast of stone shards flew up towards the rampaging dragons, with Marowak's bone, glowing a dull purple, hidden among it. It met the latest deluge of water and burst through it, continuing its path towards the enemy. Even as half his team went on the offensive, the remainder struggled to defend against the incoming attacks. Steelix swung his tail, glowing with a bright green barrier, warding off both the draconic fire and the remnants of the deluge from Rhyperior and Golem. Meanwhile, Rhyperior focused on protecting the rest of Steelix's large frame as well as both Marowak and his trainer.
But it wasn't enough. Lacking Marowak's foci and surrounded by bog rather than solid ground, Rhyperior could barely manage a muddy wall that reverted to sludge instantly upon contact with the dispersed half of the deluge. With a loud groan, Steelix bore the brunt of the hit, the impact sending the behemoth back a couple of feet. The remaining portion of the attack continued past Steelix and towards Giovanni. Even this small part of the deluge had the volume of an average Hydro Pump and would be lethal. Was this it? The war lost before his plan could be completed? All his choices flashed before his eyes as he stared death in the face, yet there was no regret for the path he had chosen, only frustration that he would fail at this final hurdle. Giovanni raised his arms in front of himself, in a final vain effort to stave off the inevitable.
And then Marowak moved. Arms crossed and his body coated in the brilliant green of Protect, he leapt in front of his trainer, and took the blow. Just a small part of the deluge, yet without any obstacle in the way, it sent Marowak flying deep into Viridian Forest, a line of broken trees left in his wake. Far beyond the range of his Pokeball, there was no time to react. As another wave of draconic fire approached, and the torrential rain momentarily intensified before lightening into a drizzle, a roar of pain echoed from above.
"It worked," He marvelled, amazed at the results his improvisation had brought, even as he lamented the cost. He couldn't dwell on it, all he could do was send a silent prayer to Mew, praying that Marowak still lived, even as he heard a boom coming from Marowak's resting spot. He had a plan to execute, he just needed a bit more time. Quickly, he ordered the remnants of his team to regroup, Rhyperior returning to manage the Stealth Rock, pestering the flyers above, while Golem and Steelix focused on defence.
The battle had balanced out once more. Draconic fire lazily rained down, the entire city as well as the adjacent forest coated in the blue flames. In the distance, beams of light flashed into the sky, loud booms echoing after each flash, like lightning but travelling in reverse. Thankfully the deluges had stopped, the respite bought with Marowak's blood. Yet Hydro Pumps continued to pour down, accompanying the light rain with blasts of water. His team continued to stave off wave upon wave of attacks, perpetuating the uneasy stalemate, waiting for the perfect moment.
Then the battle stopped. Interrupted by a bright orange comet that streaked up towards the sky, accompanied by screeching that tore deep into him. As it reached its peak, bursting through the rain clouds that had hung over the battlefield since the beginning, it exploded into a shower of Draco Meteor. As the meteors fell towards the depths of Viridian Forest, he exploded into action. "Plan A, now." The remnants of his team scrambled into action. They had been on the defensive for far too long, it was time to go on the offence. This was the moment he had been waiting for. This would win him the war.
The rain stopped. A sandstorm brewed. And a scream filled the air.
A/N Thank you to the people at the Traveler discord for helping me glance through this. It is my first time writing so I would love to hear your feedback, although I have this story largely planned out already, albeit still largely unwritten. Unsure when the next update will be, real life is a pain...
