Turn 22: The Kagutsuchi's Maiden Voyage
Location: Undella Town Pier
Time: 9:33 AM September 30th
Condition: Clear
"System checks!" Cross shouted from the helm. Cross was now wearing a Black Plasma uniform minus the hat to let his hair remain spiked up which suited his personally quite nicely.
The room was rounded to fit the shape of the helm with windows in the front of it to look out over the entirety of the ship and everything in front of it. Standing on an elevated platform extended from the very front of the room to the center of the room was the Command Deck. At the front of the Command Deck was a computer featuring the surrounding area and all of its facets, the chair in front of it stood empty. Standing on the Command Deck along with Gidra was Cross.
To either side of the Command Deck extended long control panels that reached as far as the windows did. Each control panel had three men keeping track of all the individual processes as well as numbers and durability of the ship and military might.
"The vitals of all our units have been double checked and we have all of them."
"Our fuel reserves are at full."
"Float system is operating at 100%."
"Shields are operating at minimal capacity."
"Communications are operational."
"The Kagutsuchi is ready for launch."
"Great." Cross smiled a little. "Then let's see if we can't take her up."
"This is the Kagutsuchi, requesting the gates open."
"This is P1, you're cleared for takeoff." A slightly scratchy sounding voice called from their comms system. "Give 'em hell Kagutsuchi."
"Will do." Cross nodded.
Above the Kagutsuchi, the roofing of the warehouse began to move opening up to the clear blue skies above. An energy field began to emanate from the haul of the ship. Several fans started to blow in the warehouse until the energy wings caught the wind and began to float up into the air. Once in the air several fans extended from the bottom and began to blow in order to keep it up in the air.
"Watch what you doing." Cross shouted after they almost scraped the sides of the warehouse.
"Sorry."
"I recommend more caution. It would be a shame if the Kagutsuchi crashed in her maiden voyage." They all stood up at attention when they heard Lelouch's voice.
Lelouch was wearing a purple Pseudo-Victorian suit complete with a handkerchief stuffed into his collar. The suit was trimmed with gold coloring that extended down the chest several times. The gold trim extended down the center of the leggings and boots. Over his suit he wore a long black cloak with a tall standing collar that would cover his face from onlookers from either side of him. The cloak, like the suit, was trimmed with gold.
"At ease gentlemen." Lelouch told them and they all turned around and sat back at their assigned seats. Lelouch and CC then joined Cross on the command deck. "You've trained them well for the short amount of time you've been with them."
"Well, I thought if we wanted to be seen as an official military force, we might want to start acting the part." Cross explained.
"That's a wise decision. I knew you would make for a great commander." Lelouch told him.
"Commander…" Cross repeated the word almost bitterly. It was the title that rightfully belonged to Rosa and he still hadn't really become used to being called it. He accepted the job gratefully but felt like he was betraying her by accepting it.
"Comms put me on to the rest of the ship." Lelouch ordered.
"Right." The communications operator nodded before patching him through. "You're on."
Lelouch picked up the microphone connected to the main computer. "Brave men and pokémon of Team Plasma, I am Lelouch vi Britannia. You have all been specially selected because of your strength and determination to Liberating Pokémon. I am proud to stand amongst such brave and strong people today. For today we stand not as pokémon or humans but as people united for a single goal. If you believe in a god whether it is Arceus, Palkia, or even Dialga, pray now, for you will not get another chance."
"Hay Lelouch," Cross nudged him.
"Yes?"
"If this mission is as big as you say it is then why isn't Kallen, Xingke, or even Chris here at least?" Cross seemed confused.
"Don't worry; all will be clear soon enough. Now if you wouldn't mind, the commander should be with his men." Lelouch told him.
"Right." Cross saluted before leaving the helm.
Somewhere on route 13 Kyouhei was whipping through the forests. He and the rest of the Knights had been sent on a relative goose-chase for any Team Plasma activity. For the past week or so he had been assigned to watching out over the forest section of Route 13 and as the number would suggest he was getting no luck.
He didn't think that this would be any good. He needed some hardcore evidence in order to track them down with any real accuracy. Lelouch did a good job of cleaning up after himself so he wasn't very hopeful.
"Kyouhei." He winced at the sound of the more or less annoying voice calling for his name. He turned around to face Iris. She leaned forward holding her arms behind her back with a cutesy smile. "Who's Ruri san?"
Kyouhei's eyes widened at the mention of her name. "What? How? Huh?"
Iris then pulled Kyouhei's x-transceiver from behind her back. "She's kind of been calling you."
"What?" Kyouhei snatched the watch from her and looked through the history. There were at least thirty missed calls. "How long have you had this?"
"I don't know I found it in your bag sometime around last week or something like that. She's been calling pretty much every couple hours ad nazium ever since. It was a real pain to sleep with all the ringing, so I turned the sound off a while back." Iris explained.
"Why on earth didn't you give it to me before?" Kyouhei demanded an answer while putting it back on his wrist.
"It's not like it's a big deal. Whoever it is I doubt it's that important." Iris shrugged nonchalantly.
"You know for a girl who constantly bugs me about how immature I am, you sure are a brat." Kyouhei said. He was about to call Ruri back whenever Alder swooped down from a tree branch.
"Kyouhei, Iris, we've received word about an attack on Icirrus City." Alder said. "Lelouch is leading the assault."
Kyouhei's drooped over staring at Alder with a grim face and a gaping mouth. "You can't be serious."
"What's the matter?" Alder questioned before shaking off his own question. "Whatever it is, it can wait we need to get moving now."
Swooping down was Alder's Braviary. Iris let out her Altaria. The both of them got on their pokémon before they flew off out of the forest westward.
"I'm really sorry Ruri san." Kyouhei said before taking out his poké-ball and letting Riley out. He climbed onto his back before they set off after the other two.
Standing on the very top of the Silph Co building with a rocket grunt holding an umbrella over him was Archer. There was no rain, snow, or hail in fact there wasn't a cloud in the sky it was bright and sunny outside, something that Archer wasn't particularly fond of as shown by the umbrella to keep it away from his skin. He disliked the sun so much it was one of the reasons why people called him Archer Bradley the Vampire of Team Rocket. The other reason being…
He overlooked the cityscape, the iron, the industry, and the luscious manmade environment until something beneath caught his eye. Looking down he saw a young woman no older then sixteen years with shining blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Her hair was tied into a side tail with a blue scrunchy. She wore a bright pink sweater and white shorts. As he looked down at her he licked his lips as if hungry.
"Hay you two." Archer called two other grunts on the rooftop. They both walked up to him. He pointed to the girl below. "That girl, I want her sedated and brought to my bed chambers immediately."
"In broad daylight?" The grunt seemed confused.
"Boss Archer!" Another group of Rocket Grunts ran up to the roof to join him.
"What is it?" Archer asked with a disappointed sigh.
"It's Icirrus City, Team Plasma is attacking." The grunt explained.
"Hmm." Archer almost laughed. "Lelouch that fool, he's walking right into my hands. I'm sure he met with the presents I left for him on Route 8."
"No sir." The other spoke up.
"What do you mean no? Is he attacking Icirrus or not?" Archer demanded.
"Team Plasma's mounting an assault on the city from an airship." He explained.
"An assault mounted from an airship?" His eye began to twitch.
"And the minimal number of troops you had stationed there are getting slaughtered." He finished.
"Mobilize all of our forces, we can't let Lelouch gain control of Icirrus I don't care who has to die!" Archer commanded them. "What are you waiting for get moving now before I have you all killed!'
They all shot down the stairs and prepared for their counter assault. Archer lifted an arm to cover his face from the sun as the designated umbrella carrier just left with the rest of them. He glared down the stairs as if ready to kill someone. "Tch, idiots."
"Finish him off!" Cross ordered Gidra.
Gidra lunged forward forcing a graveler into a nearby pond. He then turned triumphantly slamming a foot into the ground. The Rockets were in full retreat disappearing up the hillside of Twist Mountain.
"We did it, Icirrus City is ours again!" Cross announced. The thirty or so members of Team Plasma on the ground and their pokémon dispersed throughout the city all cheered while pumping their fist up into the air triumphantly. Overhead the Flying Plasma Frigate: Kagutsuchi floated stationary above.
"Not quite." He heard Lelouch's voice call out to him from his transceiver.
"Yes," Another voice cut in. "We are receiving multiple reading from the south. Team Rocket is sending reinforcements."
"It is only just about thirty or so members for now but expect others soon." Lelouch finished.
"You heard the man, reform the ranks we're expecting company." Cross said as the troops under his command all stirred into formation. Once the line was formed, Cross emerged from the center taking the lead. "Let's give them a warm welcome shall we?"
"You shall," Lelouch agreed. "Now attack on my mark."
Rampaging down the mountainside was at least ninety-some pokémon. Cross almost took a step back. "Lelouch, I thought you said it was only forty guys?"
"Forty trainers, three pokémon each, but have no fear. The numbers are in our favor." Lelouch explained.
"If you say so." Cross said before lifting up his arms to indicating to all the Plasma Grunts that they should prepare their pokémon.
Soon enough the enemy had reached the foot of the mountain. After only a few mere moments they were pretty much on top of them. When they inched only a little towards them Cross heard Lelouch's cry for attack and at the same moment he flung his arm down signaling everyone to attack.
"Gidra attack with a stone edge!" Cross shouted to his pokémon companion.
Launching from all corners of the line-up were all kinds of attacks from rock to flying, from water to fire. Attacks were flaring from every corner of the battlefield and landing in various spots. A machoke whipped around landing nearby Gidra. He cracked his knuckles before as if planning to deal a super effective blow on him.
Before he got the chance a swanna threw a gust of wind his direction blowing him away. Gidra returned the favor by hitting a sneasal which was zipping through the battlefield in its direction with a powerful stone edge.
The numbers didn't appear to be in their favor but Lelouch could see their levels were hardly high enough to be a major threat. He was sure that it wouldn't be any trouble at all.
"Lelouch." One of the tech heads on the desks pointed to the screen.
Lelouch took a look at it before picking up the microphone again. "Cross, we've picked up a new group of signals. Something is coming in from the east."
"What?" Cross asked before dodging a flailing graveler. He looked to the east to see The Knights of the Round each riding one of their pokémon. Flying overhead on Albion was Suzaku leading them right to the battlefield. "You've got to be kidding me. What's our strategy?"
"No more than ten of you can stay behind to deal with the Rockets if you want any chance at defeating the Knights." Lelouch explained.
"Right, come on you all we've got bigger fish to fry then these guys." Cross waved his arm pointing eastward guiding them to try and go against the Knights.
"Alright, I want all of you to cover me." Suzaku told them as Albion started flying higher into the sky. "I'm going for Lelouch."
"Right." All four of them agreed before increasing their pace to ramming speed.
"Lelouch, that's not the end of it." Another person pointed out.
Lelouch looked down at his screen. Hundreds of more were signals were coming up from the south into Icirrus City. There was far too many of them or them to handle alone, even if they didn't have to deal with the Knights at the same time. They were surrounded, overpowered, and outmaneuvered there was no way they could win.
Lelouch growled in fury as he tried to think of some way out of this. His thoughts were quickly interrupted with the sudden shaking of the ship.
"Albion, dragon pulse!" Suzaku ordered.
Albion then let out a terrible pulse of ametrine energy sending several Plasma Grunts and their pokémon flailing around the deck. With a single blow they were all defeated.
Suzaku then pointed at the helm from his back. "Slash!"
When Lelouch and CC saw Albion charging at the helm they leapt back down from the command deck. Then quick as a flash he tore through the glass and metal into the helm destroying the command computer. All the tech heads on their computers began to stir before Lelouch stopped them. "No, don't panic, if you do we all die."
Suzaku then leapt off Albion and onto the command deck. He drew his sword while he walked down the steps to where Lelouch was laying. Suzaku then grabbed Lelouch off the floor by the collar holding him up with one hand and with the other he placed the blade against Lelouch's throat. "Did you really think that you could get away with a stupid move like this? I thought you were better than that."
"It's really been a long time hasn't it Suzaku?" Lelouch asked.
"What?" Suzaku glared confused at him, he thought that they'd already moved past this.
"It's been four years," Lelouch, or who Suzaku thought was Lelouch said as he grabbed his own neck. He pulled his face off of his head letting his long green hair fall beside his waist. Underneath the face was actually N? "Four long years since that day at the Pokémon League."
"What?" Suzaku shouted in disappointment. He then turned to CC who he could easily verify the identity of with his right eye. "Where's Lelouch?"
CC then morphed into its true form as a Zoroark holding Ampharosite. "Beats me." The Zoroark shook his head.
"I'm sorry." N smiled at Suzaku. "But the person you're looking for is in another airship."
Lelouch stepped forward into the streets of Nimbasa City from the subway building. He was wearing the same uniform that his double, miles away, was wearing. CC walked out with him. "Nimbasa City, it has been a while."
"Yes, it's the place we first met." CC pointed out. "It sure seems like using the Zoroark with the ampherosite worked out perfectly though. The combined mixture of the pure power and the pokémon signature made it look just like me to someone with Evolution."
"Yes, just as I planned." Lelouch said. "Now if you wouldn't mind…"
"Alright." CC dug her fists into the ground and pulled out a few wires. She took a deep breath before sending a massive jolt from her arms into wires. The electrical surge burst through the entire city putting out all the lights and all the power throughout the cityscape, it wasn't so terrible because it was still light out but it would certainly work in his favor.
"Team Plasma." Lelouch shouted. "Attack!"