Turn 16: Twist Mountain Squall
Location: Twist Mountain
Time: 3:22 AM September 18th
Condition: Rainy
Panting, Cross, Lelouch and their pokémon were taking a small break inside the temporary sanctuary that was the Caves of Twist Mountain. "How many did we lose in that fight?" Cross asked.
"At least fifteen, including the ones that we were cut off from and the ones the Shadow Triad took captive in our retreat. Rosa and Blake were also taken." Lelouch said.
"They got Rosa?" Cross almost seemed shocked by this news.
Lelouch ignored Cross' dismay, he had more important things to worry about. He then contacted Kallen. "Kallen, do you know if my units stationed here managed to do as I instructed?"
"Yes, they hardly finished when I got here. What are your orders?" Kallen asked.
"Get everyone out into the Open Pit mine." Lelouch ordered.
"The pit mine?" Cross questioned. "Why there?"
"After all this time and still you doubt me Cross?" Lelouch asked.
"Fine whatever." Cross rolled his eyes as they got up and headed for the pit.
The pit was in the center of the Twist Mountain sloping downward with four main levels. The first was the brim of the mountain which sloped inward and outward out. The second and third were long wooden paths built in for ease of access, and the fourth was the bottom of the pit which was solid earth. Two bulldozers could be seen at the very bottom of the pit.
"This is where you want to fend off two massive armies either one possessing the strength to take us on alone?" Cross' brows lowered at the prospect.
Flying up to the two of them on riding a charizard was Kallen. "What are we doing here Lelouch?"
Lelouch stood forward to address the entirety of the army gathered here. It didn't take long for them all to focus in on him.
"Team Plasma, we are going to make our stand here. Once we know that both armies are here, we will start a slow retreat down to that tunnel." Lelouch pointed to the mining tunnel at the very bottom of the pit. "Any who are defeated will go down there, any who are broken, will flee down there, any with doubt, will go down there. Do I make myself clear?"
"Lelouch, that's a dead end tunnel down there." Kallen told him.
Lelouch smiled at her. "Is it now?"
"Team Rocket's now entering the Twist Mountain Caves." A grunt stepped forward to warn them. "It seems that Proton himself is leading them."
"I've got confirmation that Xingke and Black Plasma are coming in as well." Another grunt added.
"Kallen, get over to the south entrance, you'll lead our men there, Cross you go with her. Ohgi, you know to do." Lelouch commanded. Kallen and Cross left to the south entrance, before Lelouch turned to face his men once more. He extended his arms outward drawing attention to himself and spoke in his loudest voice, "Team Plasma, remember every sight and smell you experience, for today you will experience a miracle."
"A miracle?" CC questioned him. "How melodramatic of you."
"Hardly, I almost feel as though I've undersold you." Lelouch admitted to her.
"So you really do plan to use me here?" CC questioned.
"I can feel you're itching to go, despite your cool temperament. I think our bond has grown stronger." Lelouch told her.
"If you insist." CC shrugged.
Everyone crowded around the entrances to the pit mine in preparation for the up and coming attack. Sweat tears and rain was accumulating on each face as they waited. They knew they were here, what was taking them so long? Perhaps they suspected some sort of trickery.
It was so quiet that a man could hear the slightest twitch of a finger across the entirety of the mine, and the sound of the rain falling echoed throughout the pit. Cross was mildly distracted in his mind, he was more worried about Rosa and Blake then he was himself, not out of confidence in Lelouch, but out of honest concern for his longtime comrades.
Kallen stood side by side with her Charizard named Guren. She could hear the flame on the end of his tail flickering in tune with his heartbeat. The rainwater sizzled when it touched the flame on Guren's tail. Her hand rested on him as if prepared to leap on his back whenever the moment would arise. Her intense eyes focused on the entrance to the mine.
It happened then; tearing his own entrance from an area nearby Lelouch was Shen Hu and Xingke. Rocks flew in every direction causing the entire army to stir. Did they really intend to have Xingke single handedly take on the entire army?
The question was answered almost as soon as it entered their minds whenever Xingke drew his sword and cried, "Attack!" Coming from all the entrances were Black Plasma and Rocket Grunts. Golbat began to cover the sky and swooping down to attack. Battle had broken out everywhere.
Charging forward Xingke and Shen Hu aimed right for Lelouch ignoring everyone else. He appeared to be without any pokémon with him. Falling in from the sky holding from his Crobat was Proton in Lelouch's area, it seem the both of them wanted to bite off the head of the snake. Little did they know they bit off more than they could chew.
"CC," Lelouch expressed his desire for her to take to the stage.
"Leave it to me then." CC acknowledged. The limited lighting around her began to bend before a shadow wrapped around her. The display was so strange that both Xingke and Proton stopped for a moment. Emerging from the darkness were two massive wing-like claws, and then the cone tail with the wings. Soon the darkness surrounding CC disappeared revealing her form as Zekrom.
"What?" Proton stammered, never before having seen such a pokémon before.
"It can't be!" Xingke gawked at the magnificent image. His eyes shook with fear trying to take in and understand what he was seeing. "You really are the true leader of Team Plasma. No one else could control… Zekrom!"
The entire battlefield was distracted by the sudden appearance of the legendary Zekrom. Some weren't sure whose side it was on because it was so miraculous. But then the men of White Plasma recollected Lelouch's words; that he would show them all a miracle today, they knew.
"So the girl that he worked so hard to free is actually… A Pokémon?" Proton questioned. "Interesting, but not worth worrying too much about, Crobat attack it with your cross poison."
"CC, I command you." Lelouch started before whipping his arm to the side. "Annihilate them!"
The rainclouds above grew darker and the sound of rolling thunder could be heard above. After CC let out a horrid wail dozens of lightning bolts shot down, bouncing from falling raindrop to falling raindrop until it met with a more solid object. All flying type pokémon were immediately shot down within a matter of moments, Proton's Crobat was among those that was blasted out of consciousness in a single flash. At least 1/8 of the enemy's strength was annihilated in a single attack from Zekrom.
It was a universal shock to the entire battlefield the amount of power CC had unleashed in only a few moments of the battle. Proton was devastated; his pokémon had more or less been tossed down by a side glance of the powerful creature.
"Now Xingke, prepare yourself for defeat!" Lelouch's smile grew larger. "CC, Dragon Claw!"
"Shen Hu, switch to the chill drive and use techno blast!" Xingke said almost desperate to get him to move fast.
CC floated up off of her feet and then swooped on fast as a bolt of lightning towards Shen Hu. Her right claw started ablaze with ametrine flames. The light on Shen Hu's cannon turned into a light blue color as he took careful aim at CC.
Shen Hu then unleashed a deadly burst of ice in CC's direction. CC however just rammed right into it and ice flew in every direction, it appeared as though she was unstoppable. Xingke however wasn't worried; the Blaze Luminous System would activate and protect Shen Hu from the attack.
Just as expected a green energy field deployed around Shen Hu protecting him from anything that would come his way. But Xingke's face turned dark when he saw that the attack went broke right through the field shattering it as if it were simply glass. It disappeared as the massive claw swooped down slamming into Shen Hu and sending it flailing past Xingke into a rock wall flaring up a massive dust could.
"That ought to keep Xingke out of commission." Lelouch said before suddenly from the dust cloud that Shen Hu was in a massive burst of ice energy shot. The hit sucker punched CC dealing super effective damage against her.
He could see that the damage was harsh but not enough to get her below half her health. Xingke's Shen Hu on the other hand was built in such a way that Lelouch wasn't sure about how much more it could take. It was fine, however, he knew that he didn't need to deal any more damage; he just needed to affirm to Xingke that he was indeed a threat.
He turned to his men, "Everyone, retreat!" He commanded his men. They all started their quick decent into the bottom tunnel.
"Cross, Kallen, you'll join me in covering their escape!" Lelouch ordered.
"Right." They agreed.
Gidra and Guren both landed in front of the entrance to their last stand escape route hitting any Rocket or Black Plasma pokémon that came near it as everyone fled down into the cave. "What kind of strategy is that?" Xingke wondered.
"Everyone, after them!" Proton commanded.
Lelouch and CC joined Kallen, Guren, Gidra, and Cross at their exit. The intimidation factor made their enemies freeze for a moment thinking about whether they wanted to even attempt it. "What are you punks waiting for? Get in there!" Proton commanded.
As if waking up they all then started down trying to take them. "You fool; I can't get a clear shot at Zekrom now." Xingke told Proton. "Shen Hu, get down there and attack with an X-Scissor!"
Flying down aiming right for CC, Shen Hu drew its blade and crossed them before striking harshly on her. The attack wasn't every effective but it was a way for Xingke to get it closer to use a more accurate techno blast. "Now hit it with another techno blast!"
Shen Hu charged the beam. Just as it fired the attack Guren swooped down striking with a powerful dragon claw, which moved the cannon enough off course that it completely missed its target and hit a rock wall.
Chiba then jumped out from the tunnel they were guarding. "Master Lelouch, Ohgi is in position for the final assault." She exclaimed.
"Excellent." Lelouch said before turning back to Cross and Kallen. "Come, we must retreat at once."
"Why, we can take them." Kallen argued.
"Trust me; you'll be glad not to be here." Lelouch reassured her.
"Fine." Kallen agreed. Lelouch, Cross, and Kallen all got onto Guren's back and they flew into the cave. CC grabbed onto Gridra and flew him into the cave before scraping the top with her claws collapsing the entrance. "You just sealed our only way out.
"Hay wait a second, where is everyone?" Kallen was expecting the tunnel to be crowded with people but there wasn't a single person in there with them.
"I had people stationed here make an exit from this tunnel all the way to the subway system. But of course that's not all I had them do." Lelouch smiled.
Standing on the outside of the collapsed tunnel was Proton and Xingke. "Get some fighting types down here; we need to clear this out as quick as possible." Proton grumbled out his order.
As they waited Xingke began to notice something above them. At the brim of the mine he saw movement. Circling them on the ledge of the mine were a handful of drilbur dispersed evenly around with Ohgi at the head. It suddenly hit Xingke. "Everyone out of here now!"
It was too late; the entire area began to shake uncontrollably. They had all simultaneously used earthquake. Earth, rock, stone, and debris began to slide down into the pit. Proton's eyes widened as the avalanche of rock quickly slid down to meet him. All their flying pokémon had already been defeated by Lelouch's thunderstorm attack. This was his plan the entire time.
There was panic in the air as they all stared; terrified at the oncoming slope. Xingke drew closer to Shen Hu. "Everyone regroup around Shen Hu, now!" He ordered and all the Black Plasma men started to group up as closely together around Shen Hu as possible.
The rock slide had already swallowed a number of people as it slid into the pit filling it with dirt. The Blaze Luminous field activated at its maximum range which only covered so many of them. Everyone in Shen Hu's protection braced themselves when the ground crashed into the barrier. For a moment it seemed like the field would break and they wouldn't make it but they it somehow managed to save them.
The sliding grinded to a slow stop until everything stopped, even the barrier they were in was completely covered in dirt. Once Shen Hu lifted the barrier it leapt up breaking anything that would fall on them out of the way.
The Plasmas then climbed out of the hole provided by Shen Hu and flopped onto the floor panting. Proton dropped by next to them. He had survived by grabbing hold of his weezing. It was a horrific scene; mankind had been swept out of existence from the mountain side. People, pokémon forever buried in the mountain side never to be seen again.
Dirt and dust covered the entire area making it difficult to see. Most of Black Plasma had managed to make it out unscathed but it looked as though Proton was the only Rocket to survive this attack. Looking across the now deepened ledge, Xingke noted that their attackers had all disappeared.
Kallen, Lelouch and Cross, Guren, and Gidra were all on the floor panting. CC had reverted back into her human form. Cross looked up at CC. 'All this time, she's been the legendary pokémon Zekrom? Why didn't Lelouch tell us? Why didn't he use this to save Rosa or anyone back there?'
Kallen seemed much more grateful then concerned. Ohgi joined them from the tunnels. "Lelouch, it's done."
They all sat up whenever a train rolled up next to them. It slowed to a stop, and a grunt peeked his head out a window. "Hay, did you guys need a ride?"
"When did we get a train?" Kallen asked.
"You should know by now Kallen, I plan for everything." Lelouch told her.
"All aboard!" Another grunt sounded.
Cross, CC, Lelouch and their pokémon all piled into the train but Kallen stalled for a minute as if thinking. Then a hand appeared before her face. She looked up to see it belonged to Lelouch. "Come on, we're not done quite yet."
Next time: The Battle For Opelucid City!