Chapter 21: Tarnished

It was mid afternoon now. We hadn't been out long. We just missed Greg's match against Phoebe. It apparently was a splendid match, with Greg winning by using his Emboar to beat Phoebe's Venusaur in the very end. It was weird, though, because, from what I remember, Phoebe and Greg were supposed to fight after Sklyar and Count Silver. Its like... they wanted us to see this fight.

I gave Lucy my large brown cloak. When all she had has a shredded dress and many questions, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I honestly don't know what they did to her. How can someone take away her memories?

The three of us walked out to the lobby. There was no one is sight. Michael walked on ahead to make sure, Lucy stood close by me.

"Okay" Michael said "doesn't look like any Cataclysm grunts are about."

"Good" I said

We kept walking until we found a display monitor. The match had already begun. Count Silver had out a weird Pokemon that looked like a tree. A Sudowoodo. Guess he wasn't kidding about him liking rare Pokemon. Skylar had out one of his many powerful Pokemon, Gliscor. Gliscor was flying around and hitting Sudowoodo with powerful attacks. Gliscor kept hitting the ground, making it shake slightly and causing Sudowoodo to be tripped up. Gliscor wasn't using Earthquake... no he was using Bulldoze. Sudowoodo was easily beaten. Count Silver recalled him.

"Andrew!" Michael shouted "We have company!"

I looked over towards the corridor and there was a large group of Cataclysm Grunts running right for us. Their appearance was so totally unexpected. I turned around and hauled ass away, pulling Lucy along with me.

"Wh-where are we going? Who are those people!?" Lucy screamed from behind me.

"I'll explain later!" I yelled, running away as fast as I could.

Michael followed closely behind us. The grunts were in hot pursuit of us. Guess their admins had finally decided to blacklist us.

There were at least thirty of them behind us. I knew we could never take on that many at once. We had no choice but to run. They were hot on our tails. I don't know what they wanted from us exactly, but it was best not to find out.

I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of another TV monitor. At this point, Skylar's Gliscor was attacking a Heracross with a nasty Aerial Ace attack. Of course Heracross had no chance in this part, and went down easily.

We kept running. There was nothing better we could do. I looked around and there wasn't anywhere we could slip in to hide. The grunts were ready for battle, too. Each had a Poke Ball at the ready for when they caught up to us. I was beginning to get tired.

The grunts were slowly catching up. No use in hiding it.

I caught another glimpse of the battle. Skylar's Gliscor was out. He was using a Jolteon now. Jolteon sent a powerful Thunderbolt at a Crobat. Crobat was staggering a little. Skylar seemed to be having no problems with this battle.

We kept running. Not much to it really.

Jolteon sent another powerful Thunderbolt out. Not at a Crobat. This time it was a Gyarados. Not just any Gyarados, but one that was red. Guess that's what happened to the Gyarados from the Lake of Rage incident all those years ago. Of course, as mighty as it appears, when it came to Jolteon's Thunderbolt, it went down.

We finally came to an opening. I pulled Lucy for the final stretch and we arrived outside.

Count Silver's Donphan used a powerful Earthquake. Skylar's Jolteon couldn't take it.

We arrived on the outside of the stadium. The grass crunched underneath our feet as we cleared as much distance as we could. The grunts followed us outside, still hot on our trail.

Skylar's Octillery was now out. It fired a powerful Octazooka, knocking out Count Silver's Donphan. This left Count Silver with only one more Pokemon.

Skylar commanded his Octillery to use Octazooka again. Count Silver was trying his best to keep his Typhlosion in the game.

I collapsed in the middle of the field, bringing Lucy down with me. Michael ran up to us as the grunts completely surrounded us.

Count Silver's Typhlosion used Solarbeam. Octillery took the attack head on, but survived.

I struggled to get up. I was out of breath from all that running. Lucy was passed out behind me. Michael stood before us, trying to defend us.

Skylar commanded his Octillery to fire one more Octazooka. Count Silver had his Typhlosion use Flamethrower as a last resort. The attacks connected in the middle.

My vision began getting blurry as all the grunts sent out various different Pokemon. I could make out a Mightyena, a Ludicolo, a Rapidash, a Tangrowth, and a Golurk among the Pokemon there.

Octillery's Octazooka won out. The attack hit Typhlosion, knocking him out. Skylar was victorious. One less Cataclysm Royal for us to deal with.

By now all I could see were blurry colors. As I struggled to stay conscious, I saw the blurry figure I knew to be Michael send out a Pokemon. As it appeared, I could only make out a large, dark purple mass. The dark purple mass fired a beam of shadowy energy that took out all other Pokemon before it.

I blinked.

My vision was returning a little bit. The mass was taking out Pokemon left and right with this beam attack. Grunts were recalling their Pokemon and then running away.

Soon, I saw a red beam engulf the large purple mass. I blinked again. My vision was fully restored. Michael held a Master Ball in his hand and he had a pained expression on his face. There wasn't a grunt in sight. Not a single black and white hoodie.

"We're not speaking of this ever again" Michael said sternly as he clipped the Master Ball to his belt.

I struggled back up as I tried to piece together what had just happened. Michael had used that Pokemon he insisted on never using. What did he use?

As I regained my strength, I lifted Lucy into my arms and carried her.

"Where to?" I asked Michael

"Guess our rooms. We can leave her there."

And with that I carried Lucy all the way to my room. When I got there, I laid her next to a sleeping Kai. They both had been through a lot. I turned around and left them there to rest, locking the door behind me.

"So what do we do now?" Michael asked

"I figure we should go check the brackets for the next round" I replied. "They're bound to have it up by now."

And that's what we did. We went right back to the arena to see if the brackets were up. Whatever Michael did seemed to make the Cataclysm grunts afraid of us, or at least go into hiding, because we didn't see a single one our entire way there.

We entered back into the underground lobby of the arena. The victors of the battles were gathered around a monitor that displayed the tournament brackets. There were two clear sides of this tournament now. There was Team Cataclysm and then my siblings and friends. With Team Cataclysm there was Master Black, Lord Diamond, Red, and Catalyst. Then there was Greg, Skylar, Michael, and me. As much as I didn't like Skylar, I knew he was as much against Team Cataclysm as I was. And, I would rather have him as an ally then as an enemy.

Skylar is perhaps the most powerful of all of my family. He is a genius strategist, his Pokemon are so very well raised, and he can keep a good composure. His only real flaw is that he's an asshole.

Then we had Greg. Greg had a very laid back style that didn't really make much sense to me. He was good, considering he was a Unova Champion. He doesn't seem to care about much though...

I walked over to the brackets. Now this was really interesting. I looked it over and over again. Round 2 was very oddly put together. I was supposed to fight Master Black. That had me scared. I have lost to Jared before...

Then Michael was to fight Lord Diamond. I had no worries there. If I failed, which I was certain would happen, at least I knew that Michael could take down Lord Diamond with ease.

The brackets then took a turn for the worst. Skylar vs. Greg. What? My brothers were going to face off against each other in this round. That means we would automatically have one less for our side in the next round... but that wasn't even the weirdest part of it.

I looked at the final bracket.

Red vs. Catalyst. The charismatic and fearful Red was going up against his demented and horrid leader. It made me wonder. Would Red throw the match so that his leader could go on? If so, then that means I wouldn't have to deal with him. Or would Catalyst want him to win? What did they intend to do?

So many questions stirred through my head as I looked over the brackets again. It was such an odd bracket. What would unfold in the next round?

I walked back towards the entrance. As I walked I hit someone in my path and fell down. As I got back up I saw who I had run into.

The blue jean shorts and plain red shirt looked all too familiar. I looked at his face and there was that awful mask again.

"Very interesting brackets we have here, aren't they?" Red asked me in his horrifically charming voice.

"Y-yeah" I responded as I got back up

"I must thank you for taking Lucy with you. No need for anything bad to happen to the poor girl." Red said

I stayed silent.

"I guess you must be wondering what happened to her, yes? Well, its very simple. Catalyst used a device constructed from the powers of Celebi and Darkrai to erase her memories of her time with us. I can ensure you it had no other negative effects. The same thing was just done to Liam, in fact."

"Who's Liam?" I asked still rather intimidated by the fact that Red was interacting with me.

"Ah, yes, that's right, you only knew him as his Royal name, Count Silver. At any rate, please, follow me. I promise that no harm will befall you. I just want to show you something."

I got up and began to follow him. I don't know why. Something in me just said I should, even though I was scared beyond belief. He was leading me down tunnels that twisted and turned.

"You know, the reason we know so much about this underground portion is because Lord Diamond actually helped to design this arena" Red said as we turned to another hallway. At the end of the hallway was a single door. Red pulled out a key and, when we got there, unlocked the door. We entered.

"Don't worry" he said "We're almost there. This is something that not even the grunts know about, so, as long as none of the other Royals show up, no one else will know you were here" Red said.

In the center of the room, there was a platform. We stepped onto the platform and it began to descend into a much larger room underneath that.

The room was incredible. The center of the large underground room held a large machine that extended to the ceiling. It had electricity running through it to the point that it was visible on top. On the left of the bottom of the machine was a white stone inside a case hooked up to the machine. The right side had the same set up, except the case had a black stone instead of a white stone. In the center was the half gold and half silver Poke Ball I had seen Count Silver use to capture Celebi with. It was also hooked up to the machine. Towards the center of the machine was a large triangle holding three Poke balls. One was marked with a lightning bolt, one with a snowflake, and the last with a flame. In the center of that was a large opening for one last Poke Ball. That spot remained empty.

"Well, what do you think?" Red asked me

"Wh-what is this?" I asked in response

"Simply put, it is the machine we will use once we win the tournament" Red explained. "As you can see, it is hooked up to six different Pokemon. In the cases on the bottom are Reshiram to the left and Zekrom to the right. In between them is Celebi. In the rotating triangle above them is Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno."

"What about Genesect? And Darkrai?" I asked

"Ah yes, well, Genesect is inside the machine. You see, the technology Team Plasma used to upgrade Genesect is incredibly advanced. We were able to reverse engineer it to create this machine. As for Darkrai, we yet to create a spot for him."

"But.. that center spot in the triangle... its empty, what's that for?"
"We realized that we couldn't finish this without one more Legendary Pokemon. The one that commands the three Legendary Birds. You see, Lugia is needed to complete this. And that center spot is reserved specifically for him."

"Lugia..." I repeated

"Yes. Lugia. As soon as he is placed here, the machine will be fully active" Red confirmed.

"And... what is this machine supposed to do?" I asked

"Very simple. Using this machine, according to Catalyst, we should be able to wipe humanity off the face of the planet" Red explained casually.

It hit me hard. All of humanity, wiped out from this machine...

"However, that's just what Catalyst believes will happen. Its nothing more than her silly theory of what she thinks should happen to all humans" Red explained

"What do you mean?" I asked

"You'll see soon enough" Red said, almost hauntingly. "Now, we must go, I'm sure Master Black will be back soon to make the final adjustments on the machine."

"Okay..." I said as I followed Red out.

We walked down the through the hallways again.

"Why did you show me that?" I asked him as we got back to the lobby, which now had many spectators looking at the newly released brackets.

"Simply put.." Red said as he leaned in and whispered in my ear "I want you to try and stop us."

He then walked off.

His voice was chilling in my ear. It sounded almost like a taunt. Like he wanted me to try... try and fail.

I walked back to my room, Red's words haunting me.

A/N: Hey guys, so here's the next chapter! Round 2 of the final tournament is upon us, so expect a lot to come from it! I hope this chapter is enjoyable. As always, please review to tell me how I'm doing. Also, the prequel hasn't gotten many OC submissions... so yeah... On another side note, X and Y in one month guys! As soon as those are out (and I play through them and I finish this story) our exciting sequel will begin, so look out for OC submissions for that one too! Anyways, enjoy as the Nova League Chronicles develops further and further!