Chapter IX: Falling
October 1, 2061 8:22 a.m.
What am I now?
It has to be a dream. Just a long, twisted nightmare.
I…I'm not really lying here, right? I'm not bleeding!
My leaves haven't gone black! There's no spines on them!
There's nothing wrong with me!
THIS CAN'T BE REAL!
…
…is it?
Pain like this can't be fake. But…but he ATTACKED me, he'd never do that!
…and I…
No, I couldn't have…what is wrong with me?
I ATTACKED HIM!
And what I did there, above me…I attacked Bolt too, and their friends. I actually followed that madman's order and attacked.
Have I really lost it?
Oh…oh no…
THIS CAN'T HAPPEN TO ME!
Why?
Why did I have to be so weak then? Why did I just let them capture me?
Fear of death? Did I honestly think they would've been good to me? They may have let me live, but now…
… I know how wrong I was…
…with what I am now…
*sob*…I might as well be dead…
…
AAAIIIIIEEEE!
Sparks danced against Shadow's cheeks. Random spikes of cold and heat were burning and freezing the ground beneath the flying bird…
"Help…
"…Please…"
"…We can't stop it..."
All four of them jumped in separate directions as a massive beam of fire incinerated the ground they had stood on.
Rebounding off a tree's bark, Ash rushed across the ground in front of Zapmolcuno…
"Hrrraaaa!"
Light ran past the hail of flame Ash had launched at the Articuno side, tail glowing behind her as she went straight for the Moltres side…
Zapmolcuno spun back in the air, throwing Fyron off balance in the sky. Roaring, he rolled back and opened up his wings to glide, fast and smoothly, on the gales.
The sheer force of wind coming off Zapmolcuno's massive wings caused the blasts of flame that Ash had launched from his hands explode like flak.
Light ripped up the ground as she turned tail as ran with the winds, feeling her limbs almost forced to go faster by the raw power.
Articuno's bright blue eyes flashed dangerously. In front of it the air frosted over into misty, razor sheets of ice.
Whipping its head around, the Zapdos head screeched into the air, creating a massive, blinding blue flash in the gathering clouds. Again, thunder boomed as the entire cloud suddenly lit up, filling the air around them with static...
Bolt sprinted as fast as he possibly could, teeth gritted as he felt the heat of a massive strike of lightning bear down on him from behind. Behind, the blue lightning punctured the ground and ripped both earth and trees out with its unspeakably strong explosion.
(Woah!)
(Light, move!)
Shadow slid out on a hind leg as a burning tree trunk flew overhead, then he and Light both jumped high as waves of rock surged below…
Meanwhile, a fierce firefight was raging on the street adjacent to the park. Gasping for air, a stunned Rocket stumbled back with his hands covering four individual, smoking holes in his chest that exposed the shattered bottom bone of his ribcage, the middle of his stomach, his charred liver, and his right pectoral.
Moments later, a dark-skinned Rocket ducked as another burst of lasers zoomed over and bore into the other shocked man's face.
Shooting from behind a dusty, concrete roadblock, another Rocket grunt gritted his teeth as blasts of red streamed out from his heavy machine gun.
Then red was streaming down his face.
"Got another one…" Sentinel whispered to himself as he ripped out the empty cartridge he had from behind a small pillar holding up the once extravagant front roofing of a theater. Inside, he could hear the shouts of both armed civilians and Kanto soldiers yelling battle cries filled with both valor and the need for vengeance against the captors of this magnificent city.
More lasers zoomed by, from behind and in front of him. He was the only one of his group who had scooted up this far; Jenny and the rest of the group had taken to hiding in the torn-up houses that lined the street past the theater. Meanwhile, the Rockets on the other side of the intersection had created a barricade of vehicles for them to take cover behind.
"Eat laser! Go to hell where you belong!" A man with sunken-looking eyes said fiercely before his left shoulder was split open by a single laser.
The former policewoman looked over to him as he dropped back into a bush, dead. Shaking her head, she fired off a few rounds from the M1911 Sentinel had given her before its slide locked back with a click.
"I really appreciate the power of this little thing, but reloading after ten shots sure is annoying…" Jenny mumbled as she slid down behind a green house's fence, letting an empty extended clip drop from the 1911 before roughly jamming a new one in.
Sentinel crouched down as lasers continued to zoom by from both sides. Cursing under his breath as a laser hit some grass by the sidewalk, he hurriedly put numbers into his radio.
"Tango Sierra Charlie, this is KAM-TS Spec Ops Unit 7-2, requesting air support!"
The radio buzzed back with sounds of distant gunfire in the background of the man's voice. "7-2, our air support is running on a tight schedule right now, can you hold out?"
The clouds seemed to burst into a blinding blue flame above.
"Ah!" Sentinel gasped, quickly covering his ears from the powerful vibrato of thunder. Squinting his eyes, he saw other Rockets yelling in panic upon being thrown to the ground by an unknown force as a single, unbelievably massive beam of bluish-yellow shot from the sky and into the park…
What the…
"7-2, are you still there?" The radio buzzed.
He could actually see waves of static blast out from the distant tree line ahead of a wall of dust, chunks of gravel and even trees.
Sentinel took a single step back, then another and another until he was fully turned and running with a desperate look on his face from the hail of earth. A dead civilian's body flew past to his left, with half his arm nothing more than a blood-spewing stump. Blood ran from his mouth, with blank, wide eyes rolled up as if to look up at the hole in his skull.
…Fuck!
Sentinel was yelling into his radio as more and more debris crashed into the ground around him. "I'm still here and I need air support NOW, DAMMIT!"
"…" Jenny stood with her mouth agape along with the other men and women, both from the army and the citizens, who were also staring at the wall of destruction that was rushing towards them…
"…What the hell are we waiting for? RUN!" She screamed as the others around her all yelled out at once, horror written on their faces as concrete shards and wood shot out behind them…
Shadow's paws burned on the rough pavement he slid onto, while flaming projectiles smashed through both glass and concrete in the structures around. A car's alarm went off loudly as a tree speared into its cabin.
Light's paw swung out, full of white energy. With a flash of her eyes she grabbed her paw with the other as light energy surged out into the smoke in bursts, flailing both 'Chus' ears and tails back.
Ash jumped high up, barely tapping his feet onto a flying chunk of rock before bouncing off. Putting his fingers to his mouth, he whistled powerfully. "Fyron!"
The Charizard dived underneath waves of stone and beat his massive wings to take him high, catching Ash on his back. Grasping the dragon's back, Ash put his hand to his brow and looked down for a sign of the three 'Chus below.
The smoke cleared around the lone electric dome in the center of the blackened ground. Within, Bolt stood with his arms lowering from the dome, making it disappear from around him. Dust began to settle onto the grass that had remained within the dome, darkening it within a matter of seconds.
Looking up, Bolt braced his hind legs back with a grunt as both the Zapdos and Articuno heads reared back with their respective elemental energies swirling powerfully in front of their beaks.
The Articuno swung its head and the ball down at Bolt, screeching with its mouth wide. The icy ball in front of its mouth contracted into itself before expanding rapidly.
Three charges of white energy ripped though the dust, colliding with their combined chests. The resulting explosions caused the birds to lose balance in the air, such as with the Moltres crying out and forcing the Zapdos side to move its wing over to cover their chest.
The move made then drift fast to the right, allowing the Articuno side to see Ash and Fyron shooting in from above like a flaming bullet.
(Now?)
Ash lifted himself up, carefully standing straight up on Fyron's back. Watching the birds, he extended electricity from his hand as the Articuno redirected its Ice Beam at them. "Now!"
Fyron rose high into the air as the crystallized energy raced underneath, steadily climbing with them. With a roar, Fyron quickly rolled to throw Ash right off his back.
Ash glanced to his Charizard and nodded, twisting round in the air by extending an arm like a wing. Looking over to the birds, he gasped as he saw fireballs exploding out from the Moltres's beak.
That'll make this a little harder to do…
…It'll make it more effective, too!
Blue aura flared up on his legs just as they hit the Ice Beam. Frost instantly ran up his heavy boots as he lunged forward at least fifty yards, deflecting one of Moltres's fireballs away from himself and towards the ground.
The Moltres's eyes narrowed, screeching as it forced the entire body to turn sharply in and rocket towards Ash. Lightning roared overhead as the Zapdos head let out a scream.
Speed up!
Ash narrowly escaped the Moltres's next barrage of fireballs just as he zoomed in-between its head and the Articuno's, stabbing down into their conjoined back. Electricity sprang up from the point of contact as Ash plunged it as hard as he could into and across their back. From Fyron's view, the bird's eyes seemed to flare up an eerie flash of black, twitching violently…
AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!
Ash clenched his teeth, eyes widening in pain and surprise as thick black aura exploded from within the bloody cut he sliced on the chimera's back. Heavy grunts escaped his mouth as he was thrown off on the wave of dark energy that felt like it kept pummeling him while he soared through the air.
The bird screamed once more as rays of dark energy began to shoot out from its body. Random flashes of ice, flame and thunder shot from them, then black variations of those. Many of their feathers began to get ripped off by the energy that exploded from within them…
The final, combined screech they made was haunting.
It was as bloody-curdling as it was horrific. Blood could be seen briefly flying off Zapmolcuno before its entire body became consumed by dark energy. Flashing, the energy expanded outward with a deafening roar.
Ash began to descend head-first, able to see the massive energy that began to come at him once more. Fighting the pain, he focused and let out his aura all around himself…
Fyron dived low at high speed as the massive, purplish-black sphere of dark energy expanded with violent chorus. Below, he could see Bolt running away as cracks ran across the ground behind him before ripping out jagged chunks of soil. Roaring, Fyron dived down to where he was flying right next to where Bolt ran.
(Get on!)
(Aw, damn it.) Shadow growled as he prepared to run once more. As soon as he turned, however, Light put a paw out in front of him. White aura licked up the sides of her body like a heavenly flame. Her warm, hazel eyes flashed like stars, assuring Shadow with apparent fearlessness.
(Don't worry; I can handle this. Stay behind me, Shadow!)
The white blasted out from her paws, held in place by more energy that was flowing from her outstretched arms. The tuft of fur that crested the top of her chest flared in lead with the rest of her hair as the dome completely surrounded herself and Shadow.
From within only the silhouettes of the buildings to the sides and the debris flying every which way could be seen. The side of the barrier they Shadow was facing had been thrown into a silvery, dark gray color.
The ground quaked underneath them; the silhouettes of the buildings that were next to them vanished under the hail of debris, flame and dust. All through the calamity, he could see Light staring straight forward, her jaw tightened fiercely as white continuously blasted out from her paws and into the shield that protected them.
…I'm lucky to know her.
…Except for the sounds of Light breathing heavily, there was silence.
(*huff**huff*…)
Light lowered her paws from the dome as it disappeared, allowing them to be met with the visage of destruction all around them. Crimson red-coated feathers of yellow, cream and light blue drifted down from the air while black static ran erratically across the dust on the ground.
…
"*cough**cough*…Augh, what the fuck was that?"
A light toned hand roughly pushed a slab of concrete off its ghillie suited body. Letting out a pained grunt, Sentinel rolled his right shoulder, hearing a small crack in the joint as it got back into place. Muttering to himself, he carefully lifted himself up, using his sniper rifle as support.
"…Holy shit…" He whispered in disbelief of the carnage around him. Looking down to a spike of pain in his leg, he whispered various obscenities to himself at the sight of a long, wide cut down his leg...
Buildings that were once on the sides of the street near them were decimated, save for the crumbled foundations. Odd, black flames rose from some pieces of debris near the 'Chus.
(…)
Shadow looked back in awe at the extent of the damage; what caught his eye next was small movement among the rubble on the other side of the street.
(…Sentinel!) Shadow said apprehensively as he saw the sniper climb out from the dust and concrete on only one leg, the other bleeding profusely. As he limped up out of the concrete, another figure of about equal height ran over from the side of the street, limping but relatively unharmed.
(Okay, Ash made it out of that…) Shadow whispered to himself as Ash wrapped Sentinel's arm over his shoulder for support. From afar, the silhouette of a dragon started to come into view until it was clearly visible that it was Fyron with various scratches apparent on his body, with Bolt holding onto the twin spikes on his head…
"Fyron, to me!" Ash said calmly as his Charizard descended to their level. Landing next to him, Fyron listened for further instruction as Bolt leapt off his back. "Are you two okay?"
(I've been better…but I'm fine.) Fyron grunted as he took a lick at a scarlet gash torn across his right wing. The Pikachu nodded to Ash. (I'm good. Where's Shadow and Light?)
"Here they come now."
Shadow jumped over a beam of concrete, stopping near Sentinel with Light tailing behind him. "Sentinel, are you alright?"
The sniper exhaled, wiping dust off his sweaty face. "…As long as I can shoot, I'm still good…I can't really walk though. Just take a look at my leg."
"You can't shoot like this, sentinel. I'm pretty sure you need steady legs to stand on, right?" Ash said, suddenly tensing up and looking toward the park.
"Yeah…I do…"
AAIIIEEE!
Shadow spun around to face in the direction of the ruined park. Within the tangled mess of burning trees and mass flames, a massive orb of static black erupted from the ground…
The blackness receded slowly in small lines, releasing dark smoke as the chimera within gazed directly at Shadow and Light with their six Ethereal-like eyes.
The colors of the fused birds were faded into black at the tips of the wings. All three heads now shared the same bleak color of black, along with reflective, black eyes with red rings in them at emanated out from the centers. The feathers themselves on all of them had become a monochrome gray
"…I'm not gonna complain about fighting normal Pokémon…" Sentinel said as Ash led him towards his Charizard, "…but I didn't sign up to fight these…'Etehreals', or whatever you call them."
"Fyron, I need you to get Sentinel out of here. Understand?" He said, lifting Sentinel up onto the dragon's back. The Charizard let out a puff of smoke from its nostrils in disappointment.
(I understand, but I hate to have to leave you here with that.) Fyron replied, looking worriedly at the abomination nearby.
Confusion.
This power…
So cruel, so evil, so tainted…
…so great, so rejuvenating, so strong…
Yes…
Yes…!
The grayed Zapdos head snapped its beak several times at the group below them, popping bursts of static in front of its beak. Blood-colored flame rose from the black-headed Moltres; The Articuno head simply rest its red-ringed black eyes over them.
Sentinel looked up to the Zapmolcuno as Fyron began to hover above the ground, ready to take off. Quickly, he reached for his radio. "…Jenny, you there?"
The transmitter buzzed randomly for a few seconds before the officer's voice came through the static.
"Sentinel, I thought we had lost you in that explosion…where are you?"
Sentinel looked over his shoulder towards the Zapmolcuno as Fyron began to fly away. "I'm fine…listen, can you see the monster bird overhead? I want you and everyone else to get the fuck out of here. I'm being led out right now and I don't want to have the team get killed while I end up safe and sound. Got it?"
"…We can't just leave, Sentinel. Everyone else still needs help."
"I know. Just stay away from the park area…I can tell something big is about o go down there."
…
The chimera screeched again and gave one, powerful thrust of its wings that showered off-waves of darkness at them. With seconds to spare, Shadow tensed up his hind legs and thrust himself forward.
Concrete split and exploded behind him, crackling with dark energy. On the far right Ash had jumped to a large slab of concrete that jutted out of the remains of an apartment building, then leapt forward onto another stable piece of cement as Bolt ran behind, jumping onto his shoulder.
Blue aura concentrated into his feet as he landed onto another pile of rubble, making a loud, warping sound before he rocketed high into the air toward the dark birds. Below, Light dashed fast towards where the chimera was above.
The light in her eyes was blinding.
Cackling madly, the Zapdos head opened its mouth. As the whole bird dived, the electricity from its beak struck all across the air in front of them, snapping to in fro as errant strikes blasted into the ground and shredded more debris in roaring explosions.
"Here!" Ash yelled to his friend as a larger blast of lightning descended on them. Grunting, Bolt let Ash take him by arm and throw him far upward past lightning that struck into Ash's raised palms.
"Aahk!" Ash roared as his face scrunched over his clenched teeth, feeling the power of thousands of volts crashing into his hands. Wrenching one hand free from the lightning, he threw it back towards the ground and immersed himself in a sphere of his aura.
Light's aura continued to grow around her, practically turning her fur white. As she came into the intersection of the road they were on, she noticed Shadow running right beside her, silent. Letting go of a serious look for a moment, Shadow smiled lightly and nodded, which she returned with understanding as his dark aura flashed around him.
(Together?)
(Together.)
White lightning concentrated into a beam at Bolt's paw as he flew up at the birds. Narrowing his eyes, he brought up the White Lightning Blade in front of himself.
For the first time since its transformation, the Articuno head screamed out. Thrusting its wing, black Ice Shards shot forward from the frozen air like arrowheads.
Bolt spun the beam in his paw to deflect the hail of needle-like ice. Random shards slashed into his coat; grunting, he felt one slice across his forehead. Moments later, he was within ten yards of the birds…
The Moltres snapped its head forward, brutally smacking its head into Bolt's Lightning Blade. As electricity exploded around its head, the left side of its beak smashed into Bolt's gut.
For a moment, the Pikachu's eyes went blank with shock. If he was human, it would likely have been comparable to getting hit by a large truck going at 90 MPH.
Luckily for him, he had dealt his damage. As his breathless form was thrown back to the Earth, electricity surged into the very bone of the chimera. Twitching erratically, the Moltres head went into a screaming spasm along with the other two heads as their electrocuted body fell out of the sky.
A ball of silver, black and white sliced through the dust, concrete and burning wood on the ground, throwing up orange sparks around it. The sound of its own energy zapping into itself radiated all around. Within, Shadow and Light ran side-by-side.
"Ready?"
Ready when you are.
The sky above went into a shade a gray for a moment, rippling from the bright, silver beam that blasted up from the ground. It sounded like a cannon blasting in the distance from where Ash was recovering from the lightning. To him, it seemed to move slowly from the ground at first, catching the attention of the dark bird…
But when it had turned its head to look towards the oncoming attack, the head of the attack sent wide cracks of energy like horizontal lightning through the sky before instantly crashing into them.
Jet black feathers ripped out of the bird's flesh beneath Shadow's paws. His shoulder was jammed into it, running black and blue electricity off his body.
White electricity flashed around Light's body, combining with Shadow's. Her back's fur rubbed against his, mingling their energies together and into the possessed enemy.
And then, she felt the bird begin to fall in the wake of blood that splattered onto her face from above. The stench made her nostrils flare; inside, she wanted to stop this. But even with the horrified, agonized sounds of it screeching above them, she kept pouring her energy into it.
Suddenly, her face was pressed into the black plumage.
Ash raised his arm, grunting as he felt waves of white and black energy batter him and his surroundings. Shards of rock smacked into him, dust nearly blinding his eyes. Gasping, his eyes contracted at the sight of a weakened Bolt putting his paws out to protect himself from the shrapnel. Beneath his dusty fur, a massive spot of purple stood out against the light skin. He seemed to have had difficulty breathing.
Ash ran to his friend, sliding into a kneeling position by him and extending his hand in front of them with a shield of his aura. Silver ran up the glassy barrier like ocean waves, interrupted somewhat by pricks of debris that ricocheted off of it.
…
"What…in fuckin' hell?" Archer growled to himself from behind what remained of a bombed-out skyscraper's wall as energy waves blasted across the ground. While his wounded arm was hugged close to his side, the other, still holding his pistol, helped him lean up against the chipped and burned concrete.
It was like going through an earthquake; except, of course, for the feeling like he was going to get thrown into the air.
"AAAAAAH!"
One unfortunate Kanto Army soldier flew past him, screaming like a banshee before his head brutally smacked into the ground. Eyes rolling up, the soldier's body continued through the air like a ragdoll as blood poured from his ears.
A car's alarm went off somewhere nearby, muffling the horrified cries of humans and Pokémon as the world seemed to tear itself apart all around them.
"This is bullshit…I can't properly aim a rifle. I'd be fine with that, then comes the fact that I barely escaped that building before it went crashin' down…Fuckin' miracle…"
He bit his lip as a Sandshrew's bloodied body went flying past with a large pipe stuck through its torso. "…But this? Damn, I really might have to think about retiring if I get fucked up by this!"
After about a minute, the trembling around him stopped.
Archer blinked several times, wiping the dust and grime from his face. Slowly, he looked out from behind the concrete, studying the cracked and disheveled roadway before him. That strange, dark static was still running over things…
"Uhhh…"
Archer spun around on his heel, lifting his pistol to eye level. Lowering his pistol's angle, he slowly approached a man in a Kanto Army vest who appeared to be trapped under the rubble. His cut up hand slowly drew back to his own body, as if he was trying to drag himself out of the concrete that buries most of his body. Only his forehead was visible while his face was turned downward to the cold ground.
"*huff*…are you okay, boy?"
He twitched, shifting a strap that was around his dusty shoulder. Archer grunted, kneeling with his unusable arm to his side while he lifted the man's head to look him in the eyes.
"…" Grimacing, Archer took in the sight of half of the soldier's left cheek blown off, while blood leaked out from between his crimson-stained teeth. Again, the young soldier attempted to drag himself out.
Red had begun to paint the cement underneath him. Teeth clenched, he wheezed with a wide eyed, agonized look before a bubble of blood rose out of his mouth, popping at the same time that his face limply hit the ground.
"…Aw, dammit…fuckin' sick a' seein' people die. I might actually become pacifist after this damn war…" Archer sarcastically joked with himself, snorting. Looking back over his shoulder, he rolled his lip. "What the hell was that crap anyway?"
…
(*huff**huff*…)
"…*huff*…Bolt…are you okay?"
His Pikachu grunted, but nonetheless nodded. (I've…definitely felt better before…this isn't as bad as practically being gutted…)
Blurry vision faded in.
Shadow shook his head out, getting off his back and into a sitting position. Paws on the concrete between his legs, he checked his surroundings for his companion.
(Light*cough*…augh, where are you? Are you okay?)
(*cough*…over here. I'm fine.)
Shadow brought up his arm as a brace so he could lift his other arm into a four-legged position, allowing him to lift himself back onto two legs. Look behind with small pants, he could see Ash and kneeling behind Bolt, lowering his arms from the electrical shield he had erected in front of them.
Light sighed as she grabbed onto the edge of a concrete slab, lifting herself up on top of it. From her new vantage position, she could see the gaping hole in the earth where the dark Zapmolcuno had landed. Truly, the buildings that once stood around them were now reduced to juts and slices of concrete, metal and glass that littered the road and the flattened lots.
Silently, she nodded to Shadow as he looked over to her.
Ash stood up, dusting off his shoulders as his eyes lit up with aura…
There was a grayness everywhere, then came the blinding sight of Light's aura, then the blue hue of Bolt's and then finally the gold of Shadow's. The area around the hole seemed just as gray as everything else…
Then a jet-black aura shot from it.
Ash's aura-filled eyes widened as he braced his legs…
AAAIIIIEEEE!
The ground gave way under the alarmed Pikachu, feeling himself suddenly being lifted off the ground and into Ash's right arm, followed by the quick jolt of him picking up Light. Gasping, Shadow caught he quick flash of the bird's head exploding out from the hole, screaming.
Shadow cried out as he was suddenly tossed onto the ground by a wave of black that threw them all forward and out of Ash's grip. Gravel grinded against his fur for a moment before he stopped.
(Wha…) Shadow mumbled in shock, propping himself on his back to see Ash getting onto his hands, looking up towards the demon birds. A few feet to his left, Light had slid into the flat part of a metal beam.
Though disoriented by the sudden impact of the metal, Light understood exact;y what was going on; Shadow was on his back to her right, worriedly looking from her to the birds. Bolt had run to Ash's side, charging static by his mast as he got to his feet.
Ash grimaced, his spiky black hair waving in the gales coming off the black Zapmolcuno. His brown eyes narrowed, his focus starting to come back after seeing the rips across the bird's chest. The Zapdos head had scarlet running from its eyes, its spiky feathers turned dark. The Articuno head twitched erratically, opening its beak and closing to release short bursts of ice crystals.
The Moltres head was completely consumed by a black flame, obscured behind angular, blood-red spikes of flame at the front of it, forming demonic eyes with a wicked, crooked-looking strike of red flame below that formed into a smile…
"Even the purest of souls…"
"...even the brightest..."
Red and black flame spewed out from the 'face' the Moltres now had, mixing the bird's agonized scream with a lower, sinister register of it. To the right of it, the Zapdos cackled madly as the gray Articuno head hissed in a hollow voice.
"...can be corrupted by the dark!"
…
…
…
I have a question:
What do you, the readers, want to see in the story?
Tell me in the reviews or PM me about your thoughts.