Chapter XII: Blackout
October 1, 2061 8:11 p.m.
(Oh Shadow, you disappoint me. How could you not tell me from me?) AntiLight cooed, her stance almost motherly with a soft smile and her paws together in front of her. The one thing that betrayed her true intent was her unnerving, bright red eyes.
Heat rose in Shadow's chest, though he was unsure of whether it was from the flames rising behind him, or from this new revelation. In either case, he looked furious.
(What…Where's Light?)
(I'm right here, DEAR Shadow. Have you gone blind?) She responded, her voice exactly like Light's.
Tenma looked on with a bored but serious expression, the black and red flames consuming his saber dying as he deactivated the weapon. He crossed his arms, smirking ever so slightly. "I didn't think this would be so easy, but then again, you would do anything to protect Light, right? Of course, she was the first to show you any kind of affection at all. The rest of us knew exactly what you were and still are: a freakish weapon born only to kill and destroy."
"Why don't you walk over here and say that again?"
(Poor Shadow. The truth hurts a lot, doesn't it?) AntiLight said, (If you were normal, maybe Light…I…wouldn't be so afraid of you on the inside.)
A short burst of red flashed across Shadow's sclera. (YOU have a lot of reasons to be afraid of me, not her. There is nothing I would do to harm Light, and I getting sick of you and my AntiReal acting like you're me and her!)
(Shadow...why are you so naïve? I thought you've learned by now just how similar you can be to him. When you unleash the inner hate you have, you can be just as bloodthirsty as him, even more so. And you wonder why she's afraid of you.)
The wind picked up around them, swirling the leaves into the air. Tenma's silver hair swished around his face, silent as he heard AntiLight continue on, smirking as if he knew what she was saying. (After all, Shadow. You've almost purposefully killed her twice already. The first time, you had no real reason, after all, WE were just trying to help you. Yet you choked and battered her, and despite her pleas you continued.) She shook her head slowly, crossing her orange-furred arms. (You even threatened to kill her. How could you forget? You even said that you wouldn't forget it.)
Shadow growled, his sharp canines twitching with his jaw, tightened like a vice. Rage began to bubble in him; rage for the fact that she was right.
Now that he knew the truth about Team Rocket…the reasons he had attacked her then were ridiculous. He could still remember her horror-stricken face as he held her up by the throat with both of his paws, the tears rolling down her cheeks as when she cried for him to stop. But no, he continued on and slammed her to the ground. He was just so infuriated; in memory, Shadow was sure the battle before they came back to the Rocket base was the only time he had been any angrier.
(Don't you dare even say my name…you're lucky I don't do what Ash could've done to you.)
Every word he had said to her that night was laced with venom…
(…GET OUT OF MY FUCKING SIGHT.)
…Every word.
AntiLight laughed to herself. (You remember well, don't you, Shadow. Do you remember afterward, when she saw you again? Do you remember that one time you talked to her, the only time you had heard her say anything negative about someone that was supposed to be her friend?)
(Is there a reason you're being so quiet?)
She looked up from where she sat, bloodshot eyes immediately locking onto him. (You.)
(And I guess you can say that she said that because of me. After all, I am the darkest part of her…)
(You were the one who attacked your own team, so the punishment you received was justified.)
Her eyes were unwavering, radiating a hate for him that seemed so very alien for her. (Punishment for what, passing out because I was fighting someone even you couldn't beat? I never attacked you or Darrel.)
Shadow was rapidly reaching his boiling point…
(But, that part of her could've only been released by something so horrible…)
(How do you still have the gall to lie like that? You know what you did; you couldn't have just forgotten that and replaced it with some memory of you passing out. You're lucky I don't punch a hole through your head right now.) He turned to walk away from her…
…but another, scrutinizing comment reached his ears: (You don't think of anyone but yourself, do you?)
(…that YOU caused to happen to her.)
(I think of this organization, that's what. If you can't handle simple punishment, then you can't be here. What was the punishment anyway?)
She spoke softly, tiredly through tears that slowly ran down her face. (The first machine was used to try to get me to submit to dark energy… the second machine they used on me…they used it to…punish me…)
(…by violating me.)
(I think that's all the evidence I need there, Shadow. It's just like what so many have thought or said about you over the time you were in Team Rocket. Most, if not ALL of them…believed you were no Pikachu, no real Pokémon even…but a WEAPON…)
Shadow's fists clenched at his sides…
(A FREAK…)
Black static danced across his body, his downturned eyes flashing with shades of red…
(And a MONSTER.)
Dust and hot wind briefly buffeted Tenma's face, his arms unmoving from their position across his chest. The flames from earlier was now lighting up the entire forest around them, leaving almost no place for an escape…
AntiLight's paws shook with Shadow's, grasped tightly together when she blocked them. Behind him the ground was cracked and ripped from where his sudden burst of speed had scarred it. Dark energy whipped in a cyclone at their feet, ripping the grass and soil from the ground. The rapid, spinning energy through winds that were fanning the inferno around them, letting the fires in the trees climb higher into the sky with a mighty roar of burning wood and leaves.
Her bright scarlet eyes were wide, her smile now a line across her face. (You're just like that Bayleef. You're just like that legendary bird fusion. You're just like your AntiReal. Face it, Shadow…any hopes you have of truly being accepted into this world have been dead since the day you awoke in that Team Rocket lab five years ago...)
Despite his furious glare stabbing at the dark Raichu in front of him, he could see several silhouettes breaking against the flames around them, growing in number, and in variety…
Tenma let his arms slowly go back to his sides. Within his view, he could see at least twenty…no, thirty…forty…
Many Ethereals lumbering in from the fire, passing right through the wild and flickering flame.
(You asked me earlier where Light was…well, it goes like this…WE took her.) AntiLight said as the jet-black, slit-eyed creatures descended on them. Some looked like the standard humanoid Ethereal, with no visible mouths and long, knife-like claws protruding from their fingers. Others, on the other hand, looked like dark, mutated versions of some of the local Pokémon in the area.
A group of gray furred Rattata crawled out into view, twitching and growling lowly with their teeth chattering beneath their red eyes. Blood trailed down from raw, open and burned wounds on them, as was the case with a black and red-striped Beedrill who now had black, organic-looking spikes protruding from the left side of its face.
AntiLight leapt back, landing next to a silent, monochrome Pidgeotto who had both of its original wings mangled and broken, replaced by two thin wings with razor-like feathers covered in blood from where it had torn through its skin.
The Ethereals passed right by Tenma as he looked on. The faint smirk on his face grew into a satisfied smile as he turned away from them, walking into the billowing, rumbling fires that made his hair wave erratically in the wind.
…
"Ready up! All of you get off yer asses and waste these fuckers!"
Archer felt another tremor as artillery ripped the fence up from a blue house on the other side of the road. Next to him, a sniper called "Phantom" pulled down a pair of night vision goggles over her red hair and onto her eyes before she raised her sniper rifle over the hedge they were hiding behind and scanned for targets.
"Phantom, get Vixen on the radio and tell her to move up to the blue house's second floor window to give Techno and Wizard some help!" Archer yelled as another shell crashed down in the house behind them, causing them to be briefly pelted by burning wood, broken shards of glass and small, scrunched up pieces of metal. Phantom took her rifle down from the hedge as Archer took her place, looking though his own night vision goggles as Phantom talked into her comlink.
"Vixen, do you copy? This is Phantom, Archer orders you to get into the second floor of the blue house and lay down covering fire for Techno and Wizard, they're pinned down!"
Archer peered through the scope of his gun, again welcoming the crosshairs of his scope to his right eye. Far ahead, he could see the many Team Rocket soldiers running and getting to cover, shooting out from behind concrete barricades and the two torn houses at the intersection of Viridian's main street and a bridge over a creek.
"1,2…3,4,5,6…" Archer counted to himself with each push his rifle gave him from the recoil of his shots. "That's 7, 8, 9, 10. Phantom, gimme some cover, I'm reloadin'!"
Archer dropped down behind the bush while Phantom stood up again and immediately began taking shots. A soft click sounded when the empty magazine fell from Archer's sniper rifle, followed by the thunderous boom of another artillery shell striking the ground. Cursing to himself, Archer forcibly led his bad arm to insert the new clip it held into his rifle. "No fuckin' wound this small is goin' to stop me!"
Static buzzed over his earpiece as lasers lit the sky above. "Rrr, this is KAM-TS Spec Ops Unit 7-Actual, what do ya want?"
"7-Actual, this is General Surge."
"…What can I do fer ya, sir?" Archer said with sudden calm, looking over the hedge with his finger on the earpiece. "7-Actual, be advised, you have enemy aerial combatants targeting your position, expect two low-flying heavy bombers and flight capable Pokémon."
"Gotcha, I'll relay that to the rest of the unit."
"7-Actual, there's more pressing matters as well. We've gotten information of some strange attacks around the city. Teams have spotted large, muscular humanoid creatures that appear to be mutated Rocket members. Be advised, they appear to have a noticeable resistance to pain and are highly unstable. Any provocation will cause them to charge you head-on."
Archer grimaced, cursing to himself.
Great. Musclebound dumbasses with a temper problem.
"Do ya suppose bullets will stop 'em?"
"Their bones appear to be almost unbreakable by normal rounds, however a sniper named Sentinel said Anti-Tank rounds should be able to bust them open. This resistance does NOT apply to their meaty parts, got it?"
"Roger, over and out, General." Archer said once more, his hearing once again filled with the sounds of yelling, explosions, and various types of gunfire.
…
The buzz of what sounded like propellers wafted through the forest, high over the spreading flames that licked up into the sky…
The thin, reflective blade submerged in black aura spun with Shadow's body. For a brief moment Shadow felt the resistance to his Iron Tail from the Ethereal's body before it was torn in half.
He landed and slid to catch a mutilated Beedrill's arm before the Ethereal behind him hit the ground. His hind paws swung and smashed into its abdomen before he cartwheeled back into the air and roared, his fists alight with shadowy electricity.
Each and every one of them, from the jet black humanoid Ethereals who shrieked so sharply, to the possessed, battered and cut Pokemon showed no kind of relent, no kind of fear as they slashed at Shadow with long black claws or tried to bite him with what remained of their tattered jaws.
(HRRAH!) Shadow yelled as his paws cracked the ground beneath him and blasted several Ethereals back with an earth-rending shockwave that made the flames that danced around them to retreat back, bowing to the mighty force.
(!) Shadow flipped on his front paws, jumping forward ahead of the dark fiends that seemed to materialize out of nowhere and screech as they dash forward to replace the others that had been thrown back.
And all throughout his struggle with these monsters, AntiLight simply watched from a distance, enjoying every moment of Shadow fighting through more and more of what seemed to be an unlimted force of the creatures. As a demonic Growlithe's bloody and torn corpse was thrown behind her with its guts hanging out from its body, another living corpse ran out with its blood red eyes blank, its natural cry distorted by both the increasing horrors of the conditions of their bodies and the by the influence of Ethereals that had control of them.
(Just keep fighting, Shadow, just keep fighting. You can fight and fight, but sadly, unlike us…you have limits…) AntiLight said to herself, peering at Shadow with her bright red eyes as his Iron Tail ripped into a dark Raticate's chest.
Bones snapped and shattered, fragmenting along with the muscle that was brutally ripped out of the rat like fish being gutted. The sound of another shriek issued into the air as more blood flew from a Pidgeotto's stub of a left wing after it was torn off.
Shadow's tail stopped glowing as he landed and gasped for a small amount of breath, growling to himself as an Ethereal stabbed as him from his left, screaming. As soon as he had sidestepped the first Shadow was forced to jump as another two struck from behind at the same time, their own claws crossing underneath him like a giant pair of scissors.
Dark energy came crashing through their heads from above as Shadow slammed his paws through them both. The edge of his tail came crashing down on a zombified Raticate as he flipped, making it let out an ungodly scream the instant its head was driven through the ground and split in half.
Landing on his feet with multiple Ethereal and Dark Pokémon converging on him, Shadow crossed his arms over his chest. A second later black electricity slashed and left jagged trails in the air around him…
(Dark Shockwave!)
All of the energy around him exploded outward from him, shredding the ground around him and throwing the Ethereal through the air, most screeching before their bodies were vaporized by the combined electrical and dark forces. Most of the possessed Pokémon were launched high into the air, issuing their various, mutated cries before they crashed into the ground.
Just as these had been dispatched, more Ethereals and zombified Pokémon emerged from the burning forest. Shadow got on all fours as they got closer and closer, sparks flying from his cheeks as he was once again surrounded…
(I think that's enough.)
Shadow's ears perked, his eyes glancing around himself as the demons suddenly ceased their advance. Low growls could still be heard coming from the demon Pokémon that were there, amidst the soundless glares given by the humanoid Ethereals.
(*huff*...*huff*...)
(A little too easy for you, Shadow?)
AntiLight walked between the circle of Ethereals and possessed Pokémon, arms crossed while her head bowed ever so slightly with a malicious grin. The bright red of her eyes seemed to fade in with the fires behind her as if they were one with the raging inferno.
The Ethereals and Pokémon silently backed away, forming a wider circle around them to where they all appeared only as silhouettes against the bright orange of the flames in the trees around the small clearing. Some did not retreat, however;
These were some of the Pokémon that now lay lifeless around Shadow, blood pooling around their mangled bodies. Black smoke rose from the tears and rips in their flesh, some twitching violently when the fumes finally stopped flowing from them. At that point, the bodies, one by one, stopped their spasms as the glow in their eyes went out.
(Don't worry though, all of your troubles can only get harder from here on out…for instance, you still don't know where she is. For all you know, she could already be dead.)
(I know she's not dead.) Shadow responded calmly, eyes narrowed on AntiLight like as if he were looking at a bug. (I know for one that you wouldn't be here if she was dead. Don't you dare try to fuck with me…now I want a straight answer: where is Light?)
(How should I know? According to you, I'm not her, so why would I have an idea?)
"Why would she know where Light is? She's not really her…"
"…right, ME?"
The flame's heat beat down on him, right through Shadow's fur and through the somewhat singed bandages that remained on him. Despite the constant movement of the Ethereals around them, Shadow was solely focused on AntiLight. Breaths still came a little heavily as he studied her for a moment.
Her smile bared her fangs as she saw him lower down into all fours, his tail straight behind him with his ears diagonal from his head. The red of his eyes' shrank as sparks erupted from his cheeks.
(…I'll make you tell me then.)
Mirroring Light's own battling posture, AntiLight fell forward onto her front paws, the electricity crossing over her orange body laced with dark aura. If not for the sheer murderous intent in her eyes, they would've seemed playful. (It'll be just like fighting her, Shadow…except, you have no reason to hold back do you…because no matter what you say, no matter what you think, I am always going to be a part of her…)
(…DEAR Shadow.)
The black electricity flowing around her suddenly flashed white as she and Shadow instantaneously shot towards each other with such force that a shockwave of air and dust ran behind them. Just as their paws locked and their separate energies collided, so did the waves to create a deafening sound like that of a shotgun's blast.
(Rrgh!) Shadow grunted as the energy coming off AntiLight slammed into him and threw him backwards. She grinned and rushed after him as he gritted his teeth and reached over his head with his paw while he was upside down to flip himself onto is hind feet. As his sight returned to level ground he saw her white and black aura blast ahead of her, cutting the ground in two beneath it.
He rolled to avoid the attack, hearing the powerful explosion it made as it hit the burning trees far behind him. Even as spark and flaming tree limbs began to rain down he found himself with AntiLight smirking directly in front of him once more, throwing her balled-up paw towards him. He fell back, throwing his arms out to his sides as a rush of dark energy overtook him. Her paw left behind a gray afterimage the moment he absorbed into the ground as a silhouette.
(How clever of you.) AntiLight said as the black puddle zoomed behind her. Her red eyes flashed as she turned and jumped back as the ground exploded with dark energy. Shadow ascended out from the explosion for a few brief moments along with several chunks of rock and dirt, his eye turning to see AntiLight landing from her jump and immediately throwing her paws together in front of herself.
Her paws began to glow as dark energy combined with light energy in-between them. Her ears flared back along with the grasses beneath her, bending to the gale force winds that surged from the energy swirling between her paws.
(Recognize this?) She said, rearing her paws back past her right shoulder for a second before bringing them back ahead of her, outstretched towards where Shadow was about to land. (Hakumei Taihou!)
A bright flash lit up her paws before a gleaming silver ray exploded with a massive shockwave from her paws. Wide-eyed, Shadow put his electrified paws out in front of him, hearing her twisted laughter flood his ears along with the roar of the beam and the raging fires in the forest.
(Thunder Shield!)
The electricity burst out from his paws and made a transparent static sphere around him the very moment the silvery-dark laser exploded in his face. The shriek of the energy colliding and diffusing across the shield was ear-splitting, like the sound of a bolt of lightning crashing forever.
(Rrrgh…Gghh…!)
His arms felt like they had been lit on fire along with the rest of the forest. He could feel the earth beneath him giving way, the soil slipping out from under his feet and blowing into the ray behind him. The dome he had formed was shivering and coursing with his electricity, damaged and repaired each second that the beam ripped into it…
(Very good, my dear Shadow.)
The silver that had formed around him flashed, screeching of the energy colliding with his shield becoming even louder. His ears folded against his head as his arms went numb. That moment the electricity protecting him gave way to the beam's assault like a bullet shattering glass.
At first he felt the sensation of frostbite and flames roar across his body, then a push-pull that formed in his head like something was trying to rip his skull in half. At last, he felt wind surging across his back as he went flying back with the beam into the fires of the forest.
AntiLight sighed as she lowered her paws, a glare on her face as she shook her head. (It looks like it wasn't good enough…)
Sparks flew out of the tangled mess of trees opposite her like a swarm of orange fireflies. Many of the Ethereal that had been at the sides of the clearing began to converge slowly towards the spot, their clawed black hands dangling to their sides…
(Over here, you bitch!)
AntiLight spun around just in time to see Shadow smash a powerful Iron Tail into her chest, followed by a rain of sparks from where he had blasted out from the fires behind her.
Her teeth grinded together for a brief moment before a smile returned to her face as she flipped back onto her feet and dodged another quick slash of Shadow's tail, followed quickly a Thunder Punch.
Electricity trailed off into the air behind him as he slid forward to trip her with one of his hind legs. AntiLight jumped over and past him, spinning on her front paw as she landed. Her tail whipped around and collided with his own tail twice before she leapt back onto her feet and rushed him.
(Having fun yet, friend?) She laughed, her paws rapidly colliding with Shadow's arms when he blocked and vice-versa. Small, black waves rippled from where both of their fists hit the other.
Shadow sidestepped and spun, swinging his left paw around with his electricity quickly forming a small electrical blade at the tips of his digits.
She lunged forward and grabbed his arm, spinning and throwing his arm over her shoulder. With a quick jolt of her body, AntiLight flipped Shadow off his feet threw him towards the ground in front of herself.
Damn it! Shadow thought to himself as dark energy rushed over him. When he made contact with the ground he went right through it, forming a black silhouette against the ground.
(Quick thinking.) AntiLight spoke hurriedly as she jumped back the moment Shadow exploded out from the ground once more. The dark energy that came up along with him stayed with him as he focused it into his paws with a growl. Landing, he threw his arm back past his shoulder. (Shadow Flare!)
Black aura exploded from his arm, sweeping through the air like a fiery black shockwave. AntiLight stood firm, throwing her own paw back She laughed as she yelled: (Twilight Burst!)
Silver exploded against the fiery black wave, sending a powerful explosion out towards them as they both rushed in towards each other, their faces showing totally different emotion, from the focus and determination gleaming through Shadow's eyes to the bloodcurdling sight of AntiLight's bright red eyes and smile…
…
A strange buzzing sounded through the air from above. Pausing from shooting, Archer looked up towards the sky, his face going pale as he spotted the near-invisible silhouettes of two twin-engine bombers flying in from the north. "Incomin', get down!"
Just when his head hit the ground, explosions began to light up the area in a jagged line, punctuated each second by another group of explosions and the terrified yells of men from both armies. Archer held his rifle to the back of his head, feeling a chunk of rock thump off the side of his scope. Even with his face to the ground, he could see the flashing of numerous explosions ripping through the street.
The scent of smoke filled his nostrils as he lifted his face up, looking over towards Phantom on the ground next to him. "Phantom, you okay?"
Phantom took her rifle off from atop her head, shaking her head out. "I've felt better, old man." She spoke, a smirk crossing her face.
"Ya know what? You can be one hell of a bitch sometimes, whether yer transformed or not, ya little Zorua." Archer griped, pushing himself up to survey the battlefield now. Shadows of soldiers ran across fires on both sides of the street and on the street, some dragging away wounded comrades or limping out of the renewed crossfire. "C'mon, let's go."
Dust hung in the air like fog. Archer coughed as he slid next to the roof of a partially collapsed house, his transformed Zorua partner following him and kneeling at his side. His bandaged left hand went to his radio, his right on the trigger of his rifle. "Techno, what's your status, over?"
"This is Techno, Wizard is down, I repeat, Wizard is down! Those bombs knocked him clean through a car's door. He's breathing, but bleeding pretty heavily, and I'm pretty sure some of those flying types have night vision!"
"Roger that…Sentinel, do you copy, how things on your end?"
The radio buzzed at his ear for a moment before Sentinel's voice came through. "The trainer's school is under heavy fire from targets at the southern bridge of the main road, we have at least two Titans down and another one in the distan-."
Archer could hear an explosion go off in the background. "Sentinel, ya still there? What the fuck was that?"
The radio buzzed for a few more moments before Sentinel's voice came through again. "I don't know, it looks like one of the rooms at the trainer's school just exploded. I think one of the electric types in there went rampant, I'm seeing some static trailing into the air with the smoke; it's too dark to really tell for sure. Listen, I'll have to get back to you later, sir!"
Archer nudged Phantom and signaled for him to move closer to a bashed pickup that had been turned on its side in the middle of the house's driveway with a Skitty shivering under its side, eyes wide and claws extended. "Yeah, roger. Keep yer head down, ya got that boy?"
"Over and out, sir!"
…
"…Wha…"
"…What…?"
Droplets of blood trailed down Xepher's face and stained his glasses. Random sparks burst from the wiring of a crumpled MRI machine by the bed he had just been standing at. He himself had been thrown into a sitting position with his back to a wall, with another doctor next to him with spurts of blood pouring from where his arms had once been attached to his shoulders and three small holes punched into his skull. A rectangular ceiling light buzzed as it hung down from one end overhead, flashing between dim and bright to illuminate the room.
Two others behind the cart looked almost like they had gone through a giant cheese grater. The one doctor who was still standing was right next to the table, arms out to his sides and shaking. What sounded like gags escaped his mouth before a slicing sound came to Xepher's ears before the black haired doctor fell backwards. As he hit the ground, his head rolled from his body, revealing a very clean cut through his blood-gushing neck.
"Well Xepher…"
Xepher looked up to the small Pokemon on the table, seeing but disbelieving. Its right paw lowered back to its side from where it had been parallel, coated in blood. It's piercing, bright green eyes were even sharper than the 3-inch, knife-like claws that were extended from its paws. It wore green-lined, fuzzy black gloves with a stylized green 'R' on each. Instead of the cocky smile Xepher had remembered him with, the Pichu instead wore a frown.
Zero let a small smirk cross his face, which instantly disappeared as he spoke again. "…I'll cut right to the issue. Where's Shadow?"
…
…
It looks like…HEY! What are you doing-OW!
Zero: Guess who's back.
…
Hakumei Taihou-Japanese, "Twilight Cannon"