PokeStones of the Dead - Chapter Seven
Lillette and Temperance left for Victory Road after bidding farewell to Giovanni, who had been more helpful he the two could have reasonably expected him to be. The pair of Dragonite and Moltres could still be seen in the sky, raiding attacks on the Dead. Temperance assumed that the entire Elite Four was there – Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha and Lance. Presumably, that was Lance on the Dragonite. As they got closer to the scene, Temperance could hear the faint sounds of the battle. The cries of Moltres energised both of them with a magical motivation, and they found the energy to run to Indigo, even as their legs cried for rest.
Moltres unleashed a fearsome Fire Spin that reached from its body to the ground, then turned and flew away, much like Zapdos at Lavender. Temperance knew that this was a sign that the battle was about to end, and he estimated that by the time he got there, the Elite Four would have taken care of the Dead. As usual, the two walked in silence. Lillette still hadn't spoken directly to him since passing the Leaf Stone over.
Great… what did I do? Apart from forgetting to bathe the previous night, stuffing myself with food at the buffet, and making her wait for forty minutes downstairs while I took my own sweet time scrubbing in my room. Oh, shit… I guess all these conditions together count as adequate grounds for ignoring.
Victory Road was now visible. The Dead had all but vanished, leaving the Elite Four there. They were about to retire inside the building, but on seeing their approach, turned around and waited for them to reach Indigo. Each still left one of their Pokemon unrecalled – Dewgong for Lorelei, Steelix for Bruno, Gengar for Agatha and Dragonite for Lance. Temperance and Lillette got closer, and soon they were at the steps of the Plateau.
"So, you have arrived. We have had news that you would be coming here to challenge us, but you were expected one full day ago," Lance said, voice icy cold. There was no emotion in it at all, and Temperance banished the thought of asking him to make an exception for him and Lillette to access the historical records.
"We were delayed… an ambush at Mt. Moon."
Lance nodded, appearing to understand. "Well, if you wish to access the historical records, you have to become the Champion of Kanto. Technically, both of you cannot take on us at the same time. However, we have decided to give you a choice of whether to fight one-on-one, while the other one waits, in a 3v3 format. Or, you can choose a dual battle, with both of you using one Pokemon while we will use two."
"Can we have some time to discuss the matter? Also, what about the Dead at Victory Road?"
"That is acceptable. We will give you a period of time to come to a conclusion among yourselves. Regarding the Dead, they retreated as soon as Moltres appeared. I suspect that the broken PokeStones are connected by an underground network of passages. Also, something that you should know is that the PokeStone at Victory Road was never authorised to be built. There is no record of it at any of the meetings."
"What! That means that it must have been built here in secret, without the approval of the other Gym Leaders or the Elite Four?"
"Yes. However, as you probably know by now, not everyone can make these PokeStones. Each contains a small portion of a Gym Leader's spirit. That means that whoever made these…"
Lance did not complete his sentence, but his meaning was clear to both Temperance and Lillette. A Gym Leader, betraying his entire country by erecting secret PokeStones, acting as an outlet for the Dead? Where else had he placed these PokeStones? If they were his, there would be no need to steal other Gym Leaders' Pokemon. He could sacrifice his own living Pokemon at his leisure, allowing more Dead to emerge from these underground passages.
"Lillette… this is…"
"Never mind about that now. What is more important is that we must decide on the format. Once we find out the history of this, we can deal with that renegade Gym Leader at our leisure."
"All right, then it's settled. We will fight the Elite Four in a dual battle. Anyway, what I think is… Lt. Surge, Erica and Koga are obviously out, being dead. That leaves the five other Gym Leaders… all of which have no motive, and none are our primary suspect. We must stop worrying about his new turn of events, NOT reveal it over the radio, and become the Champions of Kanto."
Lillette took Temperance's hand again, sending shivers down his entire arm. "Let's go! For Kanto!"
I really can't fathom the mind of that girl. Never mind, I'm not complaining.
"We will choose the double battle format."
Temperance and Lillette walked into the building, where they immediately made preparations to battle the Elite Four. To their surprise and delight, there was a Pokemon Centre and a Mart there, allowing Temperance to restock on his dwindling supply of Full Heals. Since the Lavender Battle, there had been simply no opportunity to buy more of them. He should have got some at Viridian, but his… irresponsibility… in personal hygiene had left no chance for that.
The entrance to the challenge lay in the distance, after a long corridor. Temperance engaged in conversation with Lillette before they went that way.
"Lorelei… what should we use against her? Dewgong and Lapras is a common choice of hers… but that was years ago. She might have strengthened her squad with Pokemon from Johto or Hoenn, though the latter is unlikely – I doubt the Elite Four would have time to train Pokemon from the newly discovered world enough for use in battle."
"No matter what, she will not deviate from her Ice Pokemon. Use Houndoom – you can test him out at the same time. I will be using Xatu."
Temperance and Lillette checked their Poke Balls, making sure their Pokemon were in tip-top condition, then entered the official arena, where the first battle lay surrounded with clean, clear ice. There was none of the slush that could be seen in natural conditions. Everything was as smooth as glass, and very beautiful in an abstract sense. However, it made the arena cold, not only for the Pokemon but for the trainers. In long sleeves and jeans, Lillette took the cold better than Temperance, who was clad in only a T-shirt and shorts. Before Temperance could voice his discomfort, Lorelei had already started talking.
"I shall repeat the format of this competition. Each side shall release two Pokemon combined. If a Pokemon faints, the side may release another Pokemon as a substitute. When the third Pokemon on a side is unable to battle, the other side is declared the winner. In the event of a draw, both sides shall choose one more Pokemon to represent it, and it will be a tiebreaker. Understood?"
The two nodded, and Lorelei held out two Poke Balls, as Lillette and Temperance took one each from their belts. "Then, let the battle begin!" said Lorelei, as both sides threw out their Poke Balls, revealing Houndoom and Xatu on one side, and Dewgong and Piloswine on the other.
Piloswine… this is unexpected. We can still deal with it though; Xatu carries a type advantage over it… at the expense of a type disadvantage for Houndoom.
Temperance noticed that the ice of the arena was only about two inches thick, while below it lay freezing cold water. Temperance suspected that this was to give Dewgong an advantage in the arena. Sure enough, the Dewgong immediately used its head to burrow through the ice, and was now somewhere below them. Xatu responded by taking flight, far out of reach from any surprise attacks from below, and dove at Piloswine in a Drill Peck attack.
"Piloswine, Ice Beam!"
The Piloswine shot Ice Beam after Ice Beam at the Xatu, who dodged left and right, rather adding to the ice decorations around the arena. Just as about the Xatu was about to connect, Dewgong appeared from the ice, around the middle of the arena, and shot an Ice Beam from behind. Sandwiched between two Ice Beams, Xatu had nowhere to run.
"Houndoom, Flamethrower!"
Houndoom aimed at Dewgong's Ice Beam, then opened his mouth to breathe a jet of fire at it, virtually cancelling the attack out in a burst of steam. Nevertheless, Lillette had already ordered Xatu to pull back, and so Piloswine was unharmed. Dewgong disappeared beneath the ice again, no doubt hoping to catch them more off guard this time. Temperance was getting annoyed at this turtling, and decided to go for Piloswine in a surprise attack, one that Dewgong could not interrupt.
"Houndoom, Faint Attack!"
Houndoom disappeared, then appeared behind Piloswine, where the slow Pokemon had difficulty turning to deal with it. Slamming his body against the Ground Pokemon, Temperance succeeded in scoring the first hit of the match, though it was weak. Temperance was about to order a follow-up Crunch attack, but Dewgong appeared right next to him and used its head to cancel the attack, sending Houndoom skidding across the ice back to where Temperance was. Then Dewgong soared through the air, elegantly casting freezing water out of the arena depths in an awesome Surf attack. Xatu flew higher to dodge it easily, but Houndoom was right underneath the Surf, and there was no way of dodging it. Was their attempt to beat the Elite Four going to fall at the first hurdle?
The Surf hit Houndoom hard, causing the dog Pokemon to skid a long way across the ice, almost hitting its trainer. It was badly hurt, but not down yet. The Dewgong, meanwhile, dove back underneath the ice, out of sight and range of any attacks Temperance and Lillette might try to throw at it. Meanwhile, Piloswine used Earthquake, sending a fissure in the ice towards Houndoom.
Apparently, they're leaving Xatu alone and going for Houndoom… both have attacks that are super effective against me, but fire beats both of them… let's create fireworks!
"Houndoom, Fire Spin!"
A wall of fire appeared around Piloswine, not hitting it, but preventing it from being seen or using attacks. Dewgong emerged from the ice, and shot water at the fiery barrier, but it didn't get anywhere near it due to the presence of Xatu's own Barrier, sending the Water Gun crashing uselessly to the ground.
"Houndoom, Faint Attack!"
Houndoom appeared inside the whirlpool of fire, then first shot a scorching jet of fire at the mammoth, then finished by Crunching its body. Engulfed by the flames, then bitten hard by Houndoom, the Piloswine was knocked out, as the fire dissipated. However, Dewgong appeared next to the exhausted Houndoom, then Headbutted it. While weak, the Headbutt did enough to the damage Houndoom to cause it to faint.
"So, Lillette, who do we use now?"
"The Dewgong is too annoying. We have to freeze it so we can do some damage to it… you don't have any such thing, do you? Besides, the other Pokemon you have aren't exactly good to ice. Flygon would get totally pummelled, and Dodrio isn't that good here either. Its inability to fly would make it an easy target for Ice Beams."
Cloyster appeared out of Lorelei's third Poke Ball, joining Dewgong in the fight. Lillette then released Misdreavus, resuming the battle.
Guess I'll have to leave the battle in the hands of her… time to sit back and relax, I suppose.
"Xatu, Psybeam!"
Xatu shot a Psybeam at the newly released Cloyster, who shot an Ice Beam in return. The two beams of energy met in an explosion of colour and power. The resulting explosion threw ice dust all over the battlefield, preventing both trainers from seeing their Pokemon fully. As Lorelei waited for the ice to clear, she saw Misdreavus appear next to her Cloyster, then Lick it, freezing it into immobility. Xatu was on hand to take advantage of the chance, proceeding to use Psychic to fling the stunned Cloyster across the room, landing on the hard ice painfully.
Dewgong appeared, using Icy Wind to sting the eyes of both trainer and Pokemon, then followed it up with Blizzard. Small but deadly pellets of ice reaching from the floor to the ceiling were shot at the unfortunate duo. Xatu quickly used Barrier to fend off the assault, but the force of the Blizzard was so strong that the Barrier buckled under the assault. Then, Cloyster, now recovered, used Spike Cannon to shoot sharp spikes that synergized perfectly with the Blizzard, crumpling the Barrier so much like rice paper.
Back and forth… this looks like a match that would make any TV highlights all over the country.
Both Xatu and Misdreavus were hurt, when Dewgong appeared once again to renew the Blizzard. However, Lillette was ready for the move, and before Dewgong could attack again, Misdreavus used Mean Look on it, freezing its head above the ice. Xatu then shot a Psybeam directly at it, throwing it wholly out of the water and into Cloyster.
The room then became almost completely dark, and Lorelei was aware of a shadow circling her Pokemon, as what little light in the arena faded. Misdreavus then appeared for a brief moment, before fading right through Dewgong and Cloyster. The Night Shade was too much for Dewgong, as it slumped to the ice. The battle was now 2v1 in favour of Lillette. Things were looking good.
And indeed, both Xatu and Misdreavus working together in tandem were too much for the battered Cloyster. After a period of tormenting, where Xatu and Misdreavus dodged all of its Ice Beams and Spike Cannons with relative ease, it released all its energies in one shot towards Xatu, which proved to be its undoing, as it left Misdreavus free to approach close and use another Night Shade on it, causing it to faint. Xatu and Misdreavus circled the arena in sweet victory.
"Congratulations. You have defeated me." The voice was still without emotion, even in defeat. Lorelei gestured towards a door in the far end of the room, where it opened. "You have earned the right to go on." So saying, she turned away, leaving the two to proceed to the next Elite Four member.
"Lillette, that was awesome!"
There was no quiet acceptance of the praise. "You better repay me against Bruno. At least they've allowed us to heal our Pokemon between fights, instead of having our tired and injured Pokemon soldier on battle after battle. There were some complaints about Pokemon abuse…"
Sigh.
The necromancer laid another complete concoction on the round table, labelled with pictures of Zapdos and Moltres. He then took them both and walked towards an exit in the room. It was time to capture his prizes.