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From a Dusty Attic
By Corvus no Genmu
Fighting Death
The last of the Team Flare administrators went running like a flock of frightened Pidgey with a Skarmory hot upon their tail feathers. Not that Turok the Tyrantrum had any true idea as to what those were exactly, but he understood the expression nonetheless as he further enticed their retreat with a primordial Roar. He panted for breath, tongue hanging lazily out of his fanged lower jaw as he turned to regard Calem. The Despot Pokémon growled tiredly to the young boy who nodded in agreement.
"Rest up Turok… You and the others have more than earned it." He said, recalling the Tyrantrum back into his PokéBall.
More than earned it indeed. Calem had honestly lost track of the number of grunts, administrators, and official scientists he and his team had fought through getting here, to the abysmal heart of Team Flare's "ultimate weapon." Just about every one of his Pokémon, while at full health thanks to a healthy hindsight of previously purchased Potions, were all but dead on their feet. Figuratively speaking for most and quite literally for one. The trainer's hand strayed down to the Poké Ball containing the one and only member of his team he felt capable of fighting to the absolute fullest potential.
Was it fate that it was Maurice, his starter Pokémon?
He clutched the ball tightly in hand and pressed it against his forehead and for a moment, he entertained the notion that the motion was repeated within the small orb. He replaced it upon his belt and took a solitary step forward to the core of Team Flare's ultimate weapon, the resting body of the Legendary Pokémon of—
CRACK.
Calem froze. The massive tubes and wires connecting the frozen body as a power source to Team Flare's ultimate weapon far above in what was left of Geosenge Town were sparkling more now than ever before. Yet that alone was not what had Calem taking a cautionary step back away from the apparatus. No, the red trails of energy flowing through the cables were not going upwards but downwards heading back into the massive black cocoon from whence they came.
Azure light began to shine in a vicious halo around the black cocoon as alarms began to scream shrilly across the facility. Beams of energy began to pierce through the faint opening within the obsidian cocoon before it was swallowed entirely in a blinding light.
In the moments that followed, when he could see nothing but the spots of color dancing like drunken Spinda in front of his eyes… That was when Calem heard it.
The Voice of Death…
It was as much a bird's screech as it was a dragon's roar, both intertwined so tightly together that it was impossible to tell one from the other. Calem looked upwards. He watched as the energy condense into a distinctive Y-shape before solidifying entirely into a purely living form as the energy cables were torn asunder and sent flying to the walls.
Black hardened scales on the outside, a bloodied red on the underneath with thick veins of obsidian crisscrossing their way from clawed wings, torso, and down to the clawed tail. Black horns curved forward above pupil-less blue eyes with a pair of thin prongs flowing back like antennae from the back of its avian head. A large, feathery gray ruff encircled the birdlike neck and billowed out along the thick hide of its back.
Do you fear death, mortal?
This was the Legendary Pokémon of Destruction.
Do you fear me, human boy?
This was Yveltal.
And its gaze was entirely upon Calem who found the space between him and the wall suddenly nonexistent as the massive Pokémon landed upon the metal ground and loosed another terrible cry as a red light began to shine from deep within its chest. Calem's eyes closed tightly against the bloodied glow.
A blazing blue light and a familiar roar made Calem's eyes snap open. "Maurice!"
The Chestnaught's fists were clutched tightly together, the thick forestry across the back of his forelimbs weaving together into a thick, spiked shield as he loosed a double-handed Hammer Arm across Yveltal's face. The Destruction Pokémon's head turned with the blow before slowly looked back down upon the grass-type Pokémon at its feet.
Very well.
It lifted into the air and the whole room was swallowed up into a darkened abyss the likes of which brought a nasty sense of vertigo in Calem.
Show me your conviction.
Still, he stood tall and proud besides his starter, one hand reaching out and clutching tightly upon the Chestnaught's shoulder as he spoke, "… If it's a challenge he wants. Then it's a challenge he's gonna get! Wood Hammer!"
Maurice roared and leapt skywards with his arms coming together and forming a massive hammer made of mahogany's might before bringing it down upon Yveltal's head. Blackened light danced along its form and shot outwards in a Dark Pulse easily several times more powerful than either Pokémon or trainer had ever seen before. The Chestnaught was hit nearly point blank and he was sent flying, rolling tightly into a ball and letting his spiny armor take the brunt of the assault. Even so, the grass type did not immediately uncurl from his protective shell while Yveltal appeared none the worse for wear but for a sudden surge of yellowish light dancing along its horns.
Maurice flinched, his clawed fingers digging deep into the earth as Disable took effect not once but twice in rapid succession, cutting him off from two of his most powerful moves.
Two.
But certainly not all...
Calem blinked in surprise as an emerald glow began to surround Maurice's body before the Chestnaught's eyes snapped open in the same vivid light as he roared, the grass energies coursing down through his arms and into the earth beneath him before erupting upwards in a massive flailing storm of thick, thorn ridden roots.
"Frenzy Plant…" breathed Calem in disbelief. "How did you—When did you even…?"
The Chestnaught looked back at his trainer and smiled tiredly as the dust started to settle, revealing that the roots had crumbled away into splinters and Yveltal preparing to unleash—
Oblivion Wing.
Crimson light burst from the Destruction Pokémon's chest and completely enveloped Maurice, drowning out his agonized roar with the shrill scream of death's deliverance. The beam vanished as quickly as it had come and showed the unmoving form of the Chestnaught lying prone on the ground as orbs of reddish light drifted upward into the welcoming wings of Yveltal. The wounds that Yveltal had received regenerated with astounding speed until it was as pristine as when it first awoke from its centuries long slumber.
As for Maurice…
He wasn't moving.
"Oh Arceus, no… No!" Calem ran into the battlefield, heedless of Yveltal's presence as he knelt down beside the grass/fighting-type. "No, Maurice, damn it, stay with me!" He dug through his backpack but as he tossed aside countless varieties of PokéBalls, Full Heals, and even an odd Rare Candy or three, Calem was rapidly coming up dry with anything remotely resembling a Potion or even a health inducing Berry.
It is inevitable.
Calem turned wet eyes upwards and glared angrily up at Yveltal as it landed once more to the earth, the chamber returning to normalcy as it did so.
Death comes to all who stand—
Yveltal's pupil-less eyes widened as a clawed hand clamped down upon Calem's shoulder. The young trainer looked over his shoulder with wide, tearful eyes at the smiling face of his Chestnaught. Blood trickled lightly from Maurice's mouth but there was no mistaking the light in the Spiny Armor Pokémon's eyes, the light of conviction even against insurmountable odds.
How can this be…?
The PokéBalls along Calem's belt jiggled once before they erupted simultaneously as the Pokémon within emerged and encircled themselves around the downed Chestnaught and their trainer.
At the fore, with shield held tightly in her clothed arms, Arturia the Aeigislash glared with her solitary draconian eye at Yveltal in a silent dare for the Crimson Death to try and make a move as the familiar ivory light of Sacred Sword danced along her body's blade.
Just beneath Arturia, with her mouth agape with cryogenic energies for an freeze-inducing Sheer Cold, was Neseag the Lapras, the mild-mannered Pokémon glaring in open rage. Turok took his place opposite of the ice-type with teeth fully bared, golden geokinetic force gathered in the crown above his eyes as he readied a vicious Head Smash for Yveltal's torso.
Standing atop his familiar perch at the top of Maurice's spiny shell, Jean Luc the Pikachu's cheek sacs sparkled dangerously as electricity gathered in a terrible Thunder, ready to bring the Avian of Death down to the earth once more.
Behind Maurice and Calem, with massive wings spread wide in a loose embrace and the blazing light of the sun impossible piercing down into countless yards into the earth was Bowen the Charizard in his full Mega Form. The fire of his lengthened tail was steadily burning hotter and higher by the moment, a crimson glow beginning to develop along his body as he readied a Blast Burn, the fire-type's equivalent to Maurice's Frenzy Plant.
Calem looked at all of his gathered Pokémon. Each and every one of them were on their last leg with little more than a sliver of red equivalent to their overall health and yet each and every one of them were willing to stand against the Pokémon equivalent to Death itself with their most powerful and, for some incredibly damning, attacks at the ready. He looked up at the hovering Legendary, his fists clenching tight.
"I may fear you..." he whispered, his hand reaching down to an empty UltraBall lying beside him, "but that doesn't mean we can't beat you!"
