-1Chapter 3: Fire, Rain, and the Fall of Lilycove
Cesar, Leader of the Green Shadows. His attire unchanged since he ran away from the dying family farm. Cesar only knew his desperation of revenge on something more than just Giovanni. Dead, dark, and depressed memories quietly rang in his mind all the time. Memories of the girl and best friend he wished he could hold in his arms. The friend he lost in a fateful bloody fight… But those memories… gone. Dead, like his soul.
The rain didn't stop falling as the gang ran to what looked like a warehouse. It was indistinguishable. The darkness of the storm was unearthly. The only light on the warehouse was the faint greenish glow the clouds seemed to radiate.
Lifting one of the garage doors with the help of Chris. Cesar's gang ran into the building for cover and recuperation.
Watt and Jean held off the horde just long enough, and the door came down with a slam.
"I can't see a thing!"
"It's darker in here than outside."
"Over here," a girl in the corner of the dark room said softly. "Are you guys here to rescue us?"
"What?"
"There's a bunch of us here," another person said in the darkness.
"We need to get out of here and back to the supermarket with the others, they're already outside," Cesar said.
Speaking too soon, behind the muffled sounds of the storm, the garage door boomed with a loud metallic thud. Followed by blunt banging of fists and claws, the door behind the gang clattered with the moans of the blood thirsty sick and dead.
Cesar belted out curses as he ordered his gang to help the survivors out of the warehouse. Yelling to Rachael, his champion trainer, the two fighters faced themselves off against the mob outside.
The famous trainer's dark Murkrow eyed the weakening door. The bird was soon backed up by a fierce looking Dewgong.
With a burst of broken glass and bent steel, a mossy Nosepass stomped over the debris. The rock beast was quickly overcome by a swarm of shadowy figures.
A Surf attack followed by a Whirlwind signaled the futile defense. A Zigzagoon charged itself towards Rachael, dark foamy blood dripping down it's wild mouth.
The Murkrow cawed out an eerie melody, flying above the horde of undead. Dive bombing, a Razor Wind sliced the front line.
Dropping to the ground, Rachael ducked the Zigzagoon's Tackle. Above her, Rachael could smell the wafting odor of rancid flesh.
Throwing out an old Super Ball, Rachael's Persian roared out of the white light. Gleaming two large fangs and reflexes of lightning, the big cat realized the peril his trainer was in and threw itself at the Zigzagoon. Rolling in a somersault, the mountain cat dug his claws into the raggedy brown fur and threw the undead corpse into a far wall.
Running to Rachael, Cesar helped her up, but soon had to push her aside and pulled out his large hunting knife. Slicing across the body of a charging Marill, Cesar kicked the blue water mouse to the ground. Spinning around, he threw out two Poke Balls. A Houndoom and a Marowak. Whistling to his three Pokemon, Cesar's Murkrow swooped down and blocked a Tackle attack by a blood thirsty Aron.
The rusty steel Pokemon sparked a little scraping against the floor of the warehouse. The Houndoom ran in front of the defending Pokemon. And with all it's strength, the fire wolf breathed out a beam of fire, stopping most of the slow moving zombies in their paths.
An angry Mightyena jumped through the flames and growled out it's fury. The smell of singed fur filled the battle. Howling a menacing war cry of the dark forest, the Mightyena went into a full sprint towards Cesar. Readying himself with his knife, the fires of battle burned in the master fighter's eyes.
Rachael screamed, and Cesar's attention turned away to see his partner being tackled by a flaming Shroomish. The Shroomish was about to burst into a spore attack.
The Mightyena tackled Cesar and they fell to the ground. Firmly gripping his knife, Cesar stabbed the rabid wolf in the throat. Clinching his eyes as dark red blood sprayed out of the beast, he gave the Mightyena a hard kick off of himself.
Rachael ordered her Persian to attack the Shroomish, then a violent chill swept through her body like poison. Going through her bones and blood, she began to feel suddenly weaker. Trying to keep balance, she teetered on her feet and fell to the ground. The many dark shadows crept closer to her and Cesar got up to his feet and ran to his comrade. A man with dead white skin and dry blood on his mouth moaned, grabbing Rachael by her ankle. Preparing to bite her, Cesar kicked his foot into the man.
Picking Rachael up by the shoulders, he called to his Marowak and told him to take Rachael to safety. Ordering the Dewgong and Persian back into their balls, the Houndoom busted out another flamethrower to the front line of oncoming zombies.
Whistling out a screech, Cesar's Murkrow bolted out a large purplish ball of energy into the crowd of undead which stunned them for a small second. The Nightshade attack was soon followed by another shot of flames.
The warehouse was now well lit with burning fires all around and Cesar knew he had to fall back his defense. Grabbing hold of his Houndoom's neck, he held on tightly as his Pokemon rode him back towards the escaping survivors.
The old Murkrow soon followed his master's lead out the back door.
Roxanne, the gym leader of Rustburo, locked the survivors inside the Supermarket with a heavy rock shell. The aisles were lit with candles, fire and electric Pokemon, and miscellaneous camping lights.
A young trainer walked solemnly to the pharmaceutical section. He took off his red cap and held it loosely in his hand beside him. His raggy light brown hair was both wet and sweaty. His green vest and jeans ripped in several areas from too many fights and retreats that night.
Looking around, the young trainer released his dead Butterfree behind the counter of the Pharmacy; out of site from everyone else. His face was red with emotion, and tears welled up in his face. Grabbing the strongest prescription revive he knew, he tried hard to force feed the liquid into the Butterfree's mouth. He took a revive spray from another section and sprayed the Butterfree's limp body.
"C'mon Happy… Please, wake up…"
Taking another bottle, the trainer grabbed a syringe and filled the needle with the potent medicine. Taking the needle and pushing the air out of the syringe. The trainer bit his lower lip firmly and injected his Butterfree into it's arm.
Nothing happened.
Taking the revive once more, the trainer cried as he tried once more to force feed the liquid into the Butterfree's mouth.
"Please, Happy…"
The dark brown juice flowed off the side of the bug Pokemon's tiny mandibles.
The wounds the Butterfree had taken were his last. Looking at the little butterfly Pokemon was pathetic. One lower leg was obviously snapped in the wrong direction. Large rips in the once beautiful wings. Drying blood all over the abdomen and face.
"Please, Happy…" the young trainer prayed.
The trainer was now on his knees hunched over the dead Butterfree's body. He head down in this chest. Getting up, he looked around and found several Super Potions. Taking out an old Pokeball, he released his Pikachu.
The Pikachu had ruffed hair and seemed badly fatigued.
"Hey, Sparky," the trainer called, giving of the Super Potion to his Pikachu.
Sparky, the Pikachu, quickly seemed to gain more energy, but was obviously well beaten from the fights to keep the Supermarket safe. He looked over to the Butterfree and the little yellow mouse stared in shock with his jaw dropping slowly. Rushing over to the Butterfree, the Pikachu cried out to his best friend. "Pika-CHU!!" he screamed, giving out an electrical shock in hope to revive the Butterfree. "CHU!!" he tried once more. "Chu!" trying again. Every single time, a little bit weaker. Every single time, hope fading the little mouse's spirit. "Pika…"
The trainer was sitting against the wall crying. "C'mon, Sparky… He's gone…"
"Pika-CHU!!!" the Pikachu screamed in defiance. A strong rush of electricity rushed through the Pikachu's body and into the Butterfree once more.
"Sparky! Stop it, already!"
"Pika…"
The trainer crawled to his Pikachu and gave him a strong hug, and the Pikachu buried his head into his trainer's body. The two friends stayed silent for a while until another Rustburo survivor walked into the Pharmacy hearing the commotion from Sparky. "Are you alright?" she asked.
The trainer looked up to a girl and said, "yes."
She noticed the dead Butterfree and looked sadly at the poor creature. "Your Pokemon… Is he… dead?"
"Yeah…"
With a small pause, the girl couldn't find the right words, but "I'm so sorry…"
"His name was Happy… He was the second Pokemon I ever caught in the wild…"
"Are you from Kanto?"
"Yeah."
"And the Pikachu?"
"Yeah. My name's Richie."
"My name's Daisy. I'm from Kanto, too."
The two trainers stared in silence. But then Daisy realized the danger of keeping the Butterfree within the Supermarket.
"I don't mean to sound cold," Daisy paused. "I really think you need to bury or cremate your Butterfree."
"What? There's still a chance that--"
"The rabid Pokemon outside aren't just rabid, Richie. They're," Daisy paused, "Please don't panic, but if my father's theory is correct; your Butterfree has a good chance in becoming one of them…"
"Huh?"
"That's why you're hiding, isn't it? You don't want the others in here to see a dead Pokemon. The possibility of panic. I'm sorry, but that Butterfree needs to go. For the safety of us all."
Richie stood up defensively against Daisy and puffed his chest in her direction. "How do you know that?" Richie screamed. A tear ran down his bruised face. "Happy was never infected with the virus! I want him buried right! I want a funeral! Is that asking too much?!!"
"I don't know, that's the thing. That's why we need to be careful. I'm scared to think what might happen if--Just look outside!--What if--What if my father said--"
"Who's your father?"
The wind whipped across Luke's face and the Pigeot seemed to growl as another one of the storm's long arms slowly plowed through Lilycove.
The turbulence was deadly. Lightfoot, the Pigeot, kept stalling in midair. A hard gust from the side caused Lightfoot the spin out of control. Luke held on hard to the great bird's neck; wrapping his arms around both Naomi's body and the bird.
Below, Lilycove citizens ran out of their houses trying to escape the zombies. Panicky police officers shot round after round of bullets at dead people and Pokemon. But with the slow coming to the storm, far too many were left stranded at empty docks, abandoned buildings, markets, and shelters.
Blood blanketed some parts of the street, soon to be washed with the rain that started to sprinkle. A man at the top of the Department Store threw himself off the roof of the tall building, spinning when he hit the side of a window sill, crashing head first into the hood of a station wagon.
Hell had become Lilycove in the worst way.
Archie ran down the road through the coastside suburbia, followed by his Crobat.
Jumping over a fallen palm tree, Archie breathed hard looking up to the sky which was beginning to darken once again.
As quickly as it left, a crack of lightning hit a transformer somewhere, and the loud earthshaking explosion echoed through the coastal neighborhood. A waterfall of rain hit Archie and his Crobat with a thumping shove; and a sudden pump of wind made the gigantic bat lose control and tumble straight into Archie. Both got road rash, and Archie growled holding his now bloody face.
Bringing his Crobat back to his Pokeball, Archie knew there wasn't enough time before the storm became too dangerous to run through. So Archie popped into a full sprint.
Down the road, an old sailor locked himself in his sea cabin, holding a shotgun pointed toward the front door, hugging his wife.
Inside the small cabin, the front door banged loudly and Archie's voice screamed. "Gramps!! Let me in!! It's not safe!! Come with me to the Aqua Hideout!!"
The old sailor rushed to the door followed by his wife. Throwing the door open, the raggy old man smiled and laughed heavily seeing his only grandson.
"What's going on outside, Archie? I heard screams, so we kept the lights off and--," Archie's grandmother said pausing.
"It's hard to explain, Grandma. But we've got to go, now! We don't have time for packing."
Rain ran down Archie's face and the usually tough guy burst in emotion, hugging his grandparents tightly.
Archie's grandfather put down the shotgun, but Archie bursted, "Bring the gun, and bring your Pokemon, Gramps. Lots of ammo, too."
Carrying a couple boxes of shotgun shells and candy in her purse, Archie's grandmother followed quickly behind Archie down the footpath of the cabin and into the street. Grandpa soon followed close behind, wearing his Pokemon belt and holding the shotgun.
The wind came in sudden gusts; Archie yelled to his grandparents to hurry behind him down the road.
The time it was taking to get back to the docks was stretching a lot longer than Archie had wanted it to, and his frustration growled in his throat.
"How much farther, Archie? What's going on?" Archie's grandmother cried.
"I'm sorry, not too much farther," Archie said, turning around. "Behind You, Grandpa!! Shoot! Shoot!!"
Archie's grandpa turned around wheezing hard; the old war veteran smiled as his younger spirit laughed and came alive. What he saw was one thing, but the seriousness of the fight was another. He knew that survival was in his gun. And with two clean shots into a charging Poochyena; the trio was safe once more.
"What's going on?" Archie's grandpa asked, reloading his shotgun.
"People and Pokemon are out for blood, the whole town's goin' down! I think everybody's turning into zombies."
Hurrying down the road, Archie's grandmother said, "here's some more shell's Harold. You two gents want some Meowthy Mints?"
A gleam of metal sparkled in the corner of Luke's eye and he turned his head. It was a trainer riding a flying Pokemon towards the eye of the strom. It was obvious that the bird and it's trainer were having worse trouble flying in the wind than him and Lightfoot. And with a violent gust of wind, Luke saw the bird be smacked against it's side as if hit by a baseball bat and spin out of control to the ground.
"LIGHTFOOT!!" Luke yelled, pointing to the Pokemon and it's trainer.
The great Pigeot crowed out a magnificent scream and flapped horrifically powerful bursts toward the screaming trainer.
Nearing closer to the ground, Luke thought he couldn't save the trainer and screamed to the Pigeot to fly faster. "C'Mon!!"
The bird tucked in his wings and sped in the air like a missile. The trainer screamed to her bird helplessly; but the bird wouldn't wake up. Looking down towards the ground that crept closer to her by every second, she thought this couldn't of been the end of all things she knew as life.
"Who's your father?"
"Professor Oak."
"What?!" Richie replied stunned. "You're his daughter?"
Just then, a tired looking man in a wet business suit walked in holding his head. "You kids have any aspirin or valium in here? I can't take this anymore." Looking at the Butterfree, the man stared for a second and realized the reality of where he was once more.
"This isn't what it looks like, sir." Richie quickly stuttered.
"Uhh… What's that Butterfree doing in--Is he dead?"
"Umm."
"Don't worry, mister." Daisy said uneasily. "I've got things under control."
"No, no, NO!" the man glanced behind his shoulder, then back to the Butterfree. "You got to get that thing out of here! Burn it if you have to! Holy of holies! What are you trying to do, bring in a dead Pokemon in here with all of us? Don't you have any sense!?"
"Happy's not a Thing! He didn't die because of the virus! We were fighting the zombies outside!"
"What were you thinking! Bringing in a dead Pokemon in here!!! We could be the only survivors in Rustburo that aren't zombies already!!!" Looking around frantically, the man ran out of the Pharmacy screaming, "Everybody! I need some help!!"
"NO!" Richie screamed. "Daisy, you got to help me!"
"I--I…"
"Please!!"
Behind him, the warehouse was engulfed in large flames. Before him, a small group of survivors and his gang ran down the street. Lightning ripped across the blanket of the black-green clouds, and a jet of rain seemed to be spraying into everyone's eyes constantly. Cesar slowed his Houndoom down and jumped off the fire wolf's back and brought him back into his Pokeball.
A larger guy, that could of passed as a marine ran up to Cesar. "Cap! There's a Rock Tomb on all entrances of the Supermarket, we can't get inside! There also seems to be a large amount of the zombies forming around the Market."
"They're readying to attack us in full force, Chris." Cesar said, glancing back to the mob of zombies a couple blocks behind him. "Take Rachael to Tammy as quick as you can; she has the meds on her. We'll head for Devon Corp."
Saying a prayer to God, Beth brought her Skarmory back to his ball. Her eyes were clenched, and the water whipping off her glasses blurred everything in site. The crash to the ground should be painless if she died instantly, and the death she knew coming in just a few more seconds wouldn't be so bad.
God save Hoenn, she thought.
Archie and his grandparents reached the docks, but saw a fierce battle between nearly all of Lilycove and a large army of zombie pokemon that seemed to be coming from the swamps down west. The western pier was consumed by masses of zombies and half rabid beings attacking in all sort of ways. Team Aqua, Police Officers, Sailors, Cool Trainers, Gamblers, Lasses--Every single ordinary citizen with a capable Pokemon, and even a few Team Magma! fought in the gigantic battle that seemed to be turning into a mouth full of blood for every living survivor.
The storm didn't seem to help the defenders of Lilycove one bit. In fact; the zombies seemed to be gaining power and strength from every single bolt of lighting that shot across the sky.
An Aqua Exec saw Archie and ran to him, "Archie! We can't hold them off forever! The storm's picking up too fast for any of us to have an advantage!"
Archie looked around, watched masses of people running out of Lilycove and towards the crowded docks. Group after group of Lilycove citizens, carried off by Pokemon and boat towards the Aqua Hideout. The waters were harsh though, so travel to the Aqua Hideout was slow. With that many people cramped in one place, disaster was waiting to happen.
As Archie ordered his grandparents onto the next boat, a dark green sphere zipped overhead. An indistinct black figure resonated from within the sphere as it hovered above the Lilycove crowd.
Panic flamed across the crowd and some people screamed in terror.
Archie's senses peaked as adrenaline swallowed his body. To his left a baby was crying within the arms of a hypnotized man. A Biker Punk cursed quietly under his breath, grasping onto a limp Sevivper in his arms. A strange energy blasted from the zombie mob, the unknown power waved over a chunk of trainers and their Pokemon, throwing them backwards unconscious.
Two bloody red eyes opened from the dark orb above the docks. Blood curdling Screams filled with violent death rang into everyone's ears.
Drowning at the bottom of the sea. Falling down an elevator shaft. Being burned alive. A slit across the throat. Violent images flooded into everyone's minds.
The dark orb began to pulse. Archie slammed his hands over his ears, trying hard to muffle the Scream that weakened every limb in his body.
A huge arm of lightning flew across the sky, lighting the dock as if it were daylight. And with that single instant, dozens of unidentifiable four-legged beasts stood on every single building cackling the yells of banshees. Archie could of sworn he heard the beasts laughing out his demise.
Everyone curled in to the ground holding their ears. Archie's eyes were tight shut and tears began to stream down his face.
The dark orb slowly moved to the front line of fighters, and the zombies began their charge to the stunned front line.
Everything suddenly became dead quiet. Time seemed to pause for a few seconds, but was interrupted with a heavy earthshaking boom that shook the entire cape of Lilycove.
A pitch black cloud that looked like the void of space rushed outward from the flying orb and consumed nearly the entire front line of Lilycove fighters in a flash flood.
The Screams stopped and looking at the battle, Archie forgot about his gang and ran to his grandparents on the boat and yelled to the ship captain to leave the dock.
The hit against her side was powerful. The wind was nearly knocked out of her and her glasses flew off into the abyss of the windy heights. Beth found herself on top of another girl who's body was as cold and rigid as ice.
"Breath easy, I got ya,' " the calm voice of Luke said over her.
Up close, her vision wasn't bad, and she noticed she was on the back of a large bird--obviously a Pigeot.
"Hang tight, this might be rough."
Gliding close to the ground, Lightfoot huffed as he carried the three passengers in between large trees and buildings. The wind was still hard to fly through, but it was easier than the higher latitudes of where he just was.
"We're going to have to land in the Safari Zone," Luke said to Beth. "C'mon, Lightfoot! Over there! Hyah!"
Landing beneath a giant umbrella tree, the Pigeot ruffled his feathers and breathed calmly.
Luke jumped off the great bird and helped the girl just saved from the wind. Grabbing Naomi's body, she was as stiff as stone and laid her on her side against the trunk of the great tree.
"She's dead," Beth said quietly. "What happened to her?"
"Why is she stiff like that?" Luke said, holding back the gasping sob from his throat.
"Rigor mortis. The body becomes stiff once it dies. It usually sets in twenty minutes to a couple hours after death."
Luke sighed heavily and turned to Beth. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Maybe. The virus kills the living, then it mutates and uses the dead corpses as a host."
Luke face shaded with slight confusion and he looked to Naomi's body and began to grit his teeth thinking what Naomi's dead body might become.
"I'm sorry. That's what the research shows."
"Penny!" he ordered opening a Poke Ball from his belt.
Penny the Ponyta bucked her hooves up and looked to her trainer eagerly for his order.
"Burn Naomi's body," Luke began to choke on his throat and he began to cry. "Flamethrower, and don't stop!"
"Wait," Beth said softly, but realized it was the only thing to do with the dead at this point.
As quickly as it came, and as quickly as it turned the tide of the battle; the strange creature with red demon like eyes was gone. Even the Hellhound like creatures on the rooftops of Lilycove had vanished.
With half of the Lilycove fighters unconscious, everyone at the docks had just become sitting ducks.
It was as if the Devil himself had cracked open the Pit of Hell and shot one dark stab at Lilycove's heart.
An older gentleman by the name of Howard Blakes came out of crowd. He knew the fight was over, but knew that even now that the weak, young, and old were now forced to fight. He considered himself a has been for the past forty years. He was the legendary trainer, "Flame."
"Charizard! Camerupt! Torkoal! Ninetales! Growlith! Blaziken!" All six of the Flame's Pokemon roared out with pride. They were champions once again.
Shadows crept over the unconscious crowd and began to rip away at their victims. Blood splattered across the decks.
The six Fire Pokemon marched in front of their old trainer, and with the team's captain, Blaziken. The cry of the bird of prey screamed.
"Fire Blast and Overheat!" Blakes the Flame ordered.
The bonfire grew and Richie cried in defiance as he was being held back by two men. Penny sat in sad shock, knowing she couldn't do a thing to stop the mob.
Firewood from aisle five was being brought in and from behind a canned food display came the effigy of Rustburo. The dead Butterfree named Happy.
"Rustburo wont fall to evil monsters!" a woman shouted.
"Burn it before it becomes one of Them!" another person screamed.
Richie fell to the ground, still held up by his arms. Tears of rage fell from his face and he cried out for his Butterfree.
Right before the crowd threw the dead Butterfree into the fire. It began to twitch violently. Once through the arm, shaking the abdomen. The people carrying the bug above them dropped the Pokemon jumping back in shock.
Another spasm jolted through the entire body of the Butterfree. The spasms became constant and the bug shook across the ground like it was having a seizure of some sort. The supermarket was dead silent, except for the crackling of the fire at the center of the fresh produce islands.
The Butterfree stopped, then it jumped to it feet screeching so loud, a man's glasses broke nearby.
Panic went across the crowd, but one quick thinking trainer ordered his Hitmonlee to throw a Mega Kick at the Butterfree.
The crowd grew silent once more, watching the Butterfee scream and shout as it began to burn--undead to ash.