PokeStones of the Dead – Chapter Sixteen
Temperance, after battles against the very same foes at Lavender and Mt.Moon, knew the methods to overcome the Dead. The same attacks – Flamethrower, Razor Leaf, Earthquake – were used, with the same result. Temperance was feeling pretty confident of his chances at overcoming the attack here. Although the Dead were more in numbers, they were forced to come in from a bottleneck passageway. As long as they did not breach the door, defending the room would be a relatively simple task. Even the cold, clammy breathing that caused immediate nausea had been fought off, due to their long exposure to it.
That was before the ground started rumbling, and Temperance was aware of a second front from underground. The Dead had opened another passageway to the room, which made the defence twice as hard. Lillette immediately motioned to Lapras to freeze the new hole, but a jet of flame punched through the ice, and the assault was renewed once more. They would have broken through, if not for a huge rock thrown down the passage by Rhydon, which crushed many Dead trying to come up. But the loss of vigil by Rhydon, originally guarding the door, led to further leaks in their delicate defence. A Vileplume at the door jumped on top of its counterparts, then shot its own Razor Leaf at the defending party. The attack hit Rhydon in the arm, and then deflected to ruin some tapes adorning the walls.
"Temperance! You take the door, I take the hole."
Temperance nodded his assent, and ordered a simultaneous Flamethrower from Houndoom and a Hyper Beam from Gyarados. So strong had Temperance's Gyarados become that the Hyper Beam simply carved through the first few targets standing in the doorway, only stopping after it destroyed fifteen zombies. The mass of zombies at the doorway momentarily cleared, and Temperance asked the ghosts – tended back to health by his potions – to venture down the passageway for another attack. Soon, Shadow Balls were being flung at the zombies at the rate of two a second, forcing the crowd back even more.
Lillette was having more trouble. Defending a hole that curved and twisted underground prevented her from using her customary beam attacks to keep the zombies at bay. She was limited to actual physical objects, like rocks and water, in order to slow the assault. Rhydon was not in the best of conditions, and Water Gun was not exactly a very powerful attack. Lillette's military mind thought of a plan, and she quickly tossed a Hyper Potion to Rhydon for the wound from the Razor Leaf to heal. Then, she ordered all the attacks to stop.
A grossly deformed head emerged from the tunnel, once belonging to a Raichu. Yet even the shade of orange, bright and cheerful, that defined Raichu's existence had been deformed – now it was dirty, with streaks of brown lining the orange. Whether the brown was just dirt or caked, dried blood, Lillette did not want to imagine. Then the head was blown off with the force of an Ice Beam and a Psybeam put together, throwing the Raichu through the dirt and back into the tunnel. However, the force of Raichu slamming back through the earth widened the tunnel, just enough for Lillette to launch the sortie.
Rhydon had been curling himself up into a ball, and once the tunnel widened enough to fit, the Rollout started. The Defence Curls executed beforehand had lent power to the move, and Rhydon had the initial force of gravity on its side. The Rollout got faster and more powerful with every passing second, and Rhydon sped through the tunnel, either pushing the unfortunate Dead back or simply trampling them underfoot. Rhydon sped through the entire tunnel, made beforehand by the Dead, and would have rose up into the passageway. Then a steel hand reached out and stopped Rhydon in its tracks.
Lillette gasped in surprise. Certainly there was no zombie in the ranks of the attacking force that could stop a Rhydon using Rollout? By right, even Water or Grass special attacks from a zombie would be deflected by the speed of the spinning Rhydon. Yet…
Before she could even complete her thoughts, another hand from the same unknown force gave an almighty punch to the immobilised Rhydon, sending him right back where he came from. Still rolling, but in the other direction, Rhydon went out through the tunnel and landed in a heap, widening the hole further. The hole was now wide enough to fit three Dead coming out at the same time. Lillette hurriedly examined Rhydon, who was amazingly knocked out in one blow from the steel Pokemon. Lillette used a Max Revive on him, but not before she took note of the fist-shaped mark on Rhydon's back. Meteor Mash.
"Temperance! The Dead captains are here! Metagross, at least, is one of them –"
Temperance didn't reply, because a sand storm had started blowing in the tunnel. Either one of the Dead Pokemon had cast Sandstorm in the passageway, which made no sense, considering it would hurt them far more than it helped their Rock and Ground Pokemon – or he had found another one of the Dead captains. Tyranitar, king of all Dark Pokemon. And it proved its power, sending an Earthquake hurtling through the tunnel and slamming some of the Ghosts back into the room. Those unaffected by the Earthquake due to its trait quickly retreated.
The Earthquake's power reverberated all around the small room, knocking most of the Pokemon off their feet. Temperance, standing the closest to the passageway, felt the brunt of the blast. Flying backwards against a shelf full of books, Temperance felt his right arm get crushed between his own body and the wooden shelf. Already injured from the fight with Agatha, the arm went limp, and Temperance lost all feeling in that arm. A quick wiggle of his fingers calmed his fear of a broken arm, but at the least, it was very badly sprained.
Temperance then found that the shelf, knocked over, revealed a door that in turn led to a stairway leading up. Signalling to Lillette, the two returned their Pokemon and ran up the staircase in full retreat. Temperance needed to get to a PokeCentre in any case to treat his injured arm. Running pell-mell up the stairs, the two ignored the Dead that flooded the room and up the staircase with them. The Dead captains had defeated their initial resistance.
The Dead were in hot pursuit. Dragging their deformed bodies up the stairs, the slow pushed along by those at the back, the Dead were making steady progress up the stairs. While their speed could not compare to that of Temperance and Lillette, the miniscule time gained by retreating – or running away – was definitely not enough for any plan to defeat the swarm of Dead coming up the stairs. Not to mention that, as living humans, their stamina was limited, as compared to the Dead – their will would remain until Lance, far away, decided that they had no further use. Already, Temperance could feel the burning in his legs. Turning a corner, he peeked up and saw that they were only two-thirds of the way through.
The Dead were about eight metres below the running pair, a sandstorm following them as they chased Temperance and Lillette – courtesy of the captain Tyranitar. As she ran, Lillette pondered why Lance would risk sending his sources to the frontline, when their defeat would mean the liberation of Zapdos and the other two, and thus giving them a hope to defeat the newly-powered necromancer. Let me see. Lance must have known we would access his secret room to find out where his sources were. Yet he would have no way of finding out whether we did get the required information. Perhaps, he decided to end the battle fast, sending his most powerful incarnations, so that the break-in from the tunnels would be complete in the shortest period of time possible. Or, even if we did get the information, he was confident that his Dead captains could defeat us.
The third possibility flashed across Lillette's mind, but it did not bear thinking about. Or, he has already become so powerful that even the release of the three legendary birds will not halt his rise.
The pair was almost at the door. Made of clear glass, it allowed Temperance to see where it led to far before he even reached it – the kitchen. The kitchen walls were made of panels of pure glass, each with beautiful paintings on them. One of them must have served as an alternative entrance to the secret room. The door was now only metres away. And then came a terrible roar from beneath them, followed by the awful sound of the concrete and wood of the staircase crumbling away. The beating of wings was unmistakable – Dragonite, the final Dead captain, Lance's favourite Pokemon turned into a grisly manifestation of its former self – rose up from far below, and intercepted their path to the escape door.
"Dodrio, Drill Peck!"
The three-headed flying Pokemon was out before Dragonite could land in front of them, and attacked the zombie fiercely. While that sort of attack would have dismembered any normal Dead Pokemon, this was most certainly not a normal zombie. As hardy as a normal Dragonite, yet with the will and never-ending spirit that came from Lance miles away from Indigo, the Dragonite was only forced back from Dodrio's attacks. Rearing itself up to its full height, Dragonite retaliated with a Thunderbolt at Dodrio, and only her quick reflexes, jumping onto the railing, saved her from being instantly knocked out. The Thunderbolt rebounded off the concrete and fizzled harmlessly onto the walls.
Dragonite was blocking the entire passageway, while the Dead caught up behind to kill them. And it might have succeeded, if not for the fact that Misdreavus was out to lend assistance. A Mean Look from her froze Dragonite in the casting motions of a Dragonbreath. Temperance was about to ask Dodrio to attack Dragonite once more, but Lillette stopped him and pushed past the temporarily immobilised Dragonite, earning an arm crawling with maggots as a reward. Brushing them off, Lillette and Temperance continued running away from the army of Dead, now very close after the delay at the final landing.
Yet there could be no stopping, or even slowing down. Lillette had locked the kitchen's secret door, and the kitchen door itself, as they ran from the Champion's apartments, but the doors were all made of clear glass. Whether toughened or not, the two could not say, but they knew that with five hundred Dead banging on them, even the toughest glass would not continue standing for much longer.
"Where are we running to, anyway?"
Temperance's question had just come to his mind after about ten minutes of mindless running from the secret room. The arrival of the three Dead captains, without all the weaknesses of regular Dead, had shaken his will and thrown him into near-madness. Only the run all the way to the initial lobby where challengers waited for the Elite Four managed to clear Temperance's heat-oppressed brain.
"Well, you sure took your time thinking of that question! We are running all the way to Viridian City. I know you expect me to do everything important for you, so I am simply doing my duty. I had previously instructed Giovanni to construct defences at his city – if we flew from Indigo, pursued by the Dead. Presumably, it will be rather more defensible than being surrounded without backup in the wide open arena of Indigo. Comprehend?"
Always two steps ahead. Well, if my legs can last till there, I'm sure her plan would be a brilliant one. I don't think she considered being slashed by a knife, being thrown across the room from an Earthquake passing by, and now having a limp arm when she instructed Giovanni before she started looking for the secret room. And must she act so high-and-mighty all the damn time?
Sounds backwards snapped Temperance out of his moody attitude, and began to pay full attention to his surroundings once again. The two were out of the Plateau building, but a glance backward showed that the Dragonite was in full pursuit, easily going three times as fast as the pair. And there was still the Plateau – Victory Road – to descend before they would reach Viridian, with backup and relative safety compared to where they were now.
Dragonite was out of the building as well, and now would be able to fly and show its full speed. Even as Temperance and Lillette sprinted down Victory Road, the downhill slope adding to their speed, they saw Dragonite take to the air not twenty metres behind them, and casually overtook them with no effort at all. Still running, mind too confused to even consider giving up hope, the two saw Dragonite position itself ten metres above them, before it dived down rapidly like a bullet. The very heavy and deadly bullet shot down, the angle perfectly calibrated. They now had two choices - maintaining their speed to get slashed by its mighty claws as they ran right into it, or pull back for it to blast them away with elemental attacks. Even as Temperance fumbled at his belt for his Poke Balls, he could not foresee a way out of this mess – the rest of the Dead, marshalled by the other two captains, were on their way.
Dragonite pulled up in front of them way before they even had a chance to release their Pokemon from their Poke Balls. The familiar sight of Dragonite charging up attacks from its mouth met their eyes, and Temperance felt that it would be the last thing he would ever see. Even as he bent his knees, preparing to throw himself to the side in a bid to avoid the Flamethrower that would no doubt kill and cremate his corpse in one fell swoop, he knew that he would be too slow.
Then Dragonite was thrown off, an unknown body slamming into it at full speed from the air and crushing it against the hillside. The Flamethrower was charged up too long to be simply cancelled, was released right against the ground, and rebounded back against its casters' face. Even the toughened skin of the zombie Dragonite could not take such a blow, and its head was blown off, scorched by the force of its own Flamethrower. Yet it continued fighting. Fighting back against its attacker, Dragonite fought gamely with its wings and tail, but without access to its elemental attacks it really had no chance against its rival at Hoenn. Salamence, one of the most powerful non-legendary Pokemon in existence, easily dispatched the first Dead captain with a Dragon Claw, ripping its torso into two. The horrible sight of the decomposed flesh being torn apart, sending all the insects it played host to far away, would have caused nightmares for many a trainer in Kanto.
Temperance and Lillette took to the skies. With the Dead's only strong Flying Pokemon dismembered, the sky would be a much safer place to be, fending off weak birds, than on the ground against the two remaining captains of Tyranitar and Metagross. On Xatu and Flygon, the two were also to increase the speed of their descent to Viridian. Salamence stayed behind to fend off the rampaging Dead behind, along with the ghosts. However, it was clear than even the mightiest of the Elite Four's Pokemon could not fend off five hundred Dead and two hardy captains. The main fight would have to take place at Viridian City.
Which was now visible in the distance. Lillette noticed with delight that the barricades HAD been set up. There would be a very good chance of holding the fort at the city. Lillette was tempted to simply rush into the mass of Dead and deliver their most powerful attacks on the Dead captains, freeing all three legendary birds, but it was far too risky. Also, she was aware that destroying only one source – like how Salamence had killed Dragonite earlier – would not free one bird on its own. The three legendary birds were tied together. Once all three sources were down, the legendary birds would be free.
Dragonite finished its job. A quick check with the other Pokemon once belonging to Lance showed that all the Gym Leaders were now on high alert, ready for action. They were all training their Pokemon for the final battle, but that was only the secondary priority. The main priority was to get back their powers that had been hidden from them. Their bloodline might have been watered, and their ancient power forgotten, but it was there, ready for use. True, the loss of three Gym Leaders would make the job much harder, but the power of the evil inhabiting the body of Lance had been frozen for many a century. As long as the evil was not allowed to feed on the souls of the dead it had killed, there would be a chance.
Temperance and Lillette landed. Giovanni was there to meet them, his various Earth Pokemon at the ready. Gazing towards Victory Road, where Salamence and the ghosts were raining elemental attacks down on the Dead, Temperance knew that there would be a need to offer assistance. And there was resistance from the Dead – marshalled by the captains at the scene, the Dead were much more organised than usual. An array of Ice Beams moved in the opposite direction, clearly fired in formation. Catching Salamence off-guard, two of the Ice Beams would have hit, if not for the ghosts firing off Flamethrowers to nullify the attacks.
"Lillette, call a retreat. I'll organise the things here…"
Then Temperance collapsed. He had not slept since the previous night at Viridian, and in that short space of 20 hours, he had defeated three Elite Four members, lost narrowly to one, made a long flight to Seafoam and back – after the drama at Seafoam itself. Then he had gotten slashed on the arm, almost got incinerated by his own Houndoom's Fire Spin, and fought off the Dead for an hour. Pure adrenaline had been keeping him active for the last few events, but even that too was draining away now that he was finally safe, behind well-fortified barricades and the mighty Pokemon of Giovanni.
"Temperance!" Lillette was at his side in an instant, and then turned her head to the battle at Victory Road. Salamence had just taken a hit, and Lillette was torn between the importance of the two fronts. Before she could make a decision, Giovanni made it for her.
"Go take care of your friend. We shall hold the city. The defences are strong enough, thanks to your warning… and Dragonair's. Besides, I have a lot of backup."
Lillette followed his hand gesture to the greenery of Viridian City, where she saw, for the first time, the reappearance of Team Rocket for two years. All clad in the trademark uniform of Team Rocket, the soldiers' strength could not be counted, as they blended in with the forest very well. However, from a quick count by Lillette, they numbered no less than four-fifths of a hundred.
"So, relax. You and your friend have earned your rest. We can hold Viridian for a week if need be. Not to mention that the Gym Leaders have all been informed of the situation by Lance's defecting Pokemon. I shall lead the defence. Salamence has been told to retreat already. Go and take care of your friend – the Pokemon Centre would be well-equipped for the task. Go!"
Hearing this, Lillette hastened to transport Temperance to the Pokemon Centre nearby. Obviously, she could not support his entire weight alone, so Giovanni helped carry Temperance to the door, where he bade Lillette goodbye. After a last turn towards the battle that would take place within the next five minutes, Lillette checked Temperance into a private ward. The Pokemon Centres in Kanto were also well-stocked with human medicines. After a short time, the nurse had Temperance's injured arm disinfected and bandaged. Temperance's and Lillette's minor cuts were also treated, and then they were ordered to rest for at least six hours.
The ward door closed, and the soundproof walls of the Pokemon Centre separated Temperance and Lillette from the raging battle outside. Swallowed in the darkness of the ward, Temperance sank into his comfortable bed, cut himself off from the worry and care that came with every battle, and allowed himself to sink into a deep sleep.
Misty had received the message from Aerodactyl and prepared for it accordingly. Would the others do the same?