Pokemon Adventures: Where Legends Cross
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon Adventures/Special.
This will probably be my last updated chapter before vacation starts. After that... who knows? :( I'll try to keep in touch, though.
Now I'm in a little dilemma... Black's English name for his Pokemon is now revealed. Musha and Tula are unchanged, but Poka is now Tep, and War is Brav. Do you think I should adjust future chapters to use their English names, or just stick to the ones I'm using now? I need your opinion on this matter, 'cause you're gonna be the ones feeling its effects!
Began writing on July 4th, 2011. Still stuck on Chapter 4 of Arc 2.
Chapter 23. Vs. Reshiram (Part 2): The Sixteenth
"Blue-nee!" Silver cried out as he coughed and gasped in a sea of smoke, unable to see three inches ahead to spot his sister. "Blue-nee! Are you okay? Damnit, Crobat, use Twister!"
"I'm fine, Silver," Blue's assuring voice came from a little ahead as the Bat Pokemon quickly blew the smoke away, revealing her standing in front of him, back-to-back with a shaken Blasty. White was right beside her, worriedly looking over an even worse-off Gigalith. "What in the world was that? It almost breached Blasty's Protect!"
"How could a Fire-type attack hurt Gigalith this badly?" Whispered White in numb shock as she busily sprayed a Burn Heal over the Compressed Pokemon's body. Quickly scanning their surroundings she gasped: "Oh... my."
Following her eyes, Silver was somehow not surprised to find the interior of the chamber utterly ravaged. Beside the fact that all the windows were either smashed or melted, practially the whole of the platform (though it failed to reach N or Zekrom) was charred black, with small pillars of fire and smoke still rising from here and there.
"Such is the power of a deity, I suppose," he mused quietly, remembering his - well, Blue's - fight with Lugia, nearly six years ago.
"Where's Black?" White asked frantically, trying to see through the flames to find her friend. For a moment Silver felt like telling the young girl off for losing control, but relented; if it was his friend - or worse, his sister - in there, he wouldn't have acted so differently.
"We'll never be able to see in this condition," he muttered instead, taking out three Poke Balls and flinging them into the air. "Feraligatr, Kingdra, Gyarados! Let's put the fire out first!"
His three Water-type Pokemon appeared beside his Weavile and Crobat, at once setting out to extinguish the flames along with Blasty. But they had only begun for several seconds when the smoke cleared enough for Black to be visible, crouched on both knees at the close end of the large platform.
"Black!" White cried as she rushd forward, only to stop short as her eyes widened in horror. The boy looked in terrible shape, his clothes singed here and there and a part of his face burnt red. But all of them were nothing compared to the shock and anguish on his voice and expression as he crouched over his fallen Pokemon, moaning something inaudibly.
"It is done," a soft voice sent Silver looking up at Reshiram, who looked down upon Black from the center of the hall with a strangely blank expression. "I have felt your Pokemon's heart... and yours through them."
Black looked up at the deity, and Silver almost swayed on his feet from the desolate expression on his face; from the impression he had gotten on the strong-willed boy, he had though him incapable of making such a face, of knowing the fear of failure at all.
"Do not be grieved," said Reshiram, appatantly noticing as well. "You may not belive me, Black, but your Pokemon were aware of the fact that they would not be able to lay a claw on I; they are no amateurs when it comes to measuring their opponents."
Black's eyes widened in shock, but the Vast White Pokemon continued without pausing: "Even so they fought a fight they knew the would fall in. Do you not know why? It is because you mean that much to them; they would rather die fighting than let you down. That is the kind of trust and love you have earned from your comrades, Black."
Black didn't answer, tears of revelation beginning to flow from his face as he looked back at his team. After watching him mourn for a shirt while, Reshiram slowly opened her jaws and whispered: "Dragonbreath."
"What are you doing?" White exclaimed in shock as a thin blue thread of fire shot itself out of the deity's mouth, gently washing over Black and his Pokemon in its caress. Instead of burning them, however, it enveloped them silently like an aura of a cocoon. Before Silver's astounded eyes their wounds began to heal, the burns and bruises vanishing from their bodies until they were as good as new, getting to their feet in amazement before throwing themselves over each other in joy.
"What I have done, I can undo," said Reshiram with satisfaction as Black finished embracing his team and turned to her again.
"I... I can't thank you enough," he spoke sincerely, his voice to choked up to speak properly.
"And I can't thank you enough for your willingness to accept my cowardice," the deity replied as she bowed her head deeply, her eyes almost coming low enough to match Black's gaze on level. "Zekrom was right... I was wrong to have ever doubted you. You are as every bit as deserving of my loyalty as I had felt the moment your fingers had touched my soul, back in the collapsing castle where my brother and I had last clashed."
"Reshiram..." Black murmured, sounding utterly touched.
"There is no need to say more," said the Vast White Pokemon softly as she moved her head forward, touching the young Trainer's head with her muzzle before rearing up to face the two figures waiting from the other end of the platform. "It appears we have kept you waiting... my brother, N."
"Not at all, noble one," N replied nonchalantly, giving her a short bow before retreating behind Zekrom, who smirked with a look that said: "I told you so". However, this time he wasn't alone. Silver's eyes narrowed to find that five more Pokemon had appeared behind the King of Team Plasma, watching the two deities facing off with anticipating faces. He could easily make out a Vanilluxe and a Klinklang, although the rest he had never seen. (#1) Almost instictively his hand went to his uploaded PokeDex, followed suit by Blue, White and even Black.
"Oh," said N, his eyes narrowing as they focused on the object. "The PokeDex again. So all of you have it as well." There was a kind of disdain in his voice that bit at Silver's temper, reminded of the effort it took him - and Blue - to obtain one. Not that he was proud of the thievery, but still.
"Why do you hate the PokeDex so much?" Apparantly the attitude had annoyed Black as well, betrayed by his demanding tone. "For us, who can't hear the voices of Pokemon like you, this is the best way to get to know Pokemon, to understand them! Isn't that what you want? So why do I see you frowning in disgust every time I so much as take it out?"
"Temptations, Black," N replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You may not understandm, your heart is too kind to even consider that. But I've discovered that when people gain knowledge of something, they feel a desire to... abuse it."
"So you would rather keep them ignorant?" Black countered, sounding angered.
"What I meant was that humans can be so... ignorant," said N, slowly reaching into his pocket with one hand. "Wouldn't you agree? Claiming to understand Pokemon with a petty human invention... like this."
The hand pulled back, revealing a small rectangular object, colored gray and lined with greed edges. For a moment Silver was confused of what it was until his glance went over to Black's PokeDex, colored black with red edges, and White's, white and blue.
The three objects were of exactly the same shape.
"A PokeDex..."
That was all that Black could hope to speak as he stared at the too-familiar object in N's hand, in utmost shock. N, who had scorned and despised the use of the PokeDex ever since Black had first met him, was in possession of one. That fact alone was enough to make his brain overload. Even Reshiram and Zekrom looked dumbfounded by the unexpected revelation.
"But... impossible..." an insignificant part of his mind caught White's disbelieving whisper somewhere behind him. "No... how did you ever...?"
"It was during my first venture outside the castle," said N quietly, looking down on his PokeDex with an unreadable expression. "Careless as I was at youth, I wandered into the woods and found friends there, free and playful in the wild."
"As we played there like they would any other time, a man happened to come by alone, about as old as Ghetsis, I suppose. He was the first human I had found outside the castle, and I daresay our prescence had intrigued each other. It was he that gave me this PokeDex, after introducing himself as a Pokemon Researcher."
"Dr. Cedric!" Black exclaimed, remembering the old professor he and White had met before. Only slightly less eccentric compared to his daughter, it wasn't so surprising that Cedric Juniper would readily hand a precious PokeDex to a stranger boy apparantly deeply bonded to Pokemon at such a young age.
"When I returned to the castle, Ryoku saw me with it," continued N after an affirming nod to Black. "He adviced me not to show it around the other Sages - especially Ghetsis - but he allowed me to keep it. I suppose he had taken sympathy on the child in me... back then I only thought it as an amusing gadget, and kept it because it was a gift."
"But time passed, and I grew enough to know the true relationship between human and Pokemon, the true purpose of the PokeDex and those who created it. I was then tempted to throw it away... or better, crush it under my foot. But then something prompted me against it, what I remember not. Now I keep it as a token, a symbol, a constant reminder of human tyranny over Pokemon."
"N..." Black murmured in disbelief, an inexplicable surge of anger suddenly rising deep beneath himself.
"But, after today, I will no longer be needing it," N stated firmly, leaning down and setting the PokeDex in front of his feet. "The battle that will decide the fate of the Pokemon of this region is about to take place here. When it ends in my victory, I shall celebrate... by bringing my foot upon this accursed machinery. A fitting end for a humans' shackle."
That did it.
"And who says you will win this battle?" Black demanded hotly, the oath that held him back now shattered.
"Black?" N replied in a surprised voice, as if having been disturbed during a monologue.
"I was hoping, even up to now, that AI could talk you out of this, N," said Black quietly, staring at his feet to control his churning emotions. "I had hoped that, after all the times we've met, I had managed to open your eyes even a little, made you see what you couldn't see. But you refused."
"I don't blame you, N. Whoever had made you like this had done it so thoroughly that you wouldn't accpet what is plain anymore. I swear, they shall pay. But I'm not gonna let you blind forever."
"Black..." Reshiram whispered, sounding touched.
"So don't smash the PokeDex yet, N," said Black as he walked out in front of the Vast White Pokemon to face N and Zekrom. "If telling you the truth wasn't enough, so be it. We will SHOW you the truth, in the conventional way!"
"Black!" White could be heard exclaiming from behind.
"Boss, stand back!" Black replied quickly as he turned back, facing her along with Blue and Silver standing further behind. "Thanks for helping me all the way here, but this is my job to do."
"... Then am I correct in assuming," growled Zekrom's deep voice as Black turned again to face the black-armored deity. "That you are ready to accept N's - and my - challenge?"
"I'm the challenger," Black corrected him. "I challenge your world with mine, your illusion - not your ideals - with the truth I can offer you. And if it must be, I challenge you, Zekrom, with the Deity of Truth!"
As he finished he looked up to see Reshiram marching past him and his Pokemon to face her brother. To his confusion, both deities' eyes were gleaming with satisfaction.
"Took him long enough to see his heart," spoke Zekrom in an amused, half-mocking voice as he readied himself in battle position. "I still think your faith in the boy is quite admirable, sister, if a little foolish."
"I would have a brave fool over a cowardly prophet any day," said Reshiram, turning back to Black with a grateful smile. "It was very, very nice of you to say 'we', Black."
"I - thank you for understanding, Reshiram," Black replied solemnly, unable to find the right words.
"Mine is the gratitude, Child of Steel," said Reshiram softly as she raised her head again, standing about twenty feet away from Zekrom as they finally faced off upon the huge platform with their Trainers standing behind.
"If I may ask, N," asked the Deep Black Pokemon, one crimson eye rolling back to the grey-eyed Trainer as he raised a single black arm above his head.
"Yes, my Lord?" N answered as he looked up, his face set in anticipation.
"You wouldn't mind if I destroy parts of this castle during our fight, would you?" Zekrom inquired casually, his motor tail beginning to rotate rapidly as tendrils of electricity began climbing up his raised arm.
"We'll end up doing it anyway," Reshiram pointed out dryly as her own claws went up, her blazing tail starting to feed a bright orb of crimson flame that began forming between them.
"As long as the Pokemon aren't hurt," said N with a glance at his team standing behind. "I wouldn't mind if you demolish the place out of existence."
"Now we're talking," Zekrom chuckled, as a crackling orb of blue lightning formed on his fingertips.
"Males," said Reshiram, rolling her eyes. Both orbs, red and blue, were now ripe, ready to unleash their devastating power upon the other. "Are you ready, my brother? The time for judgement has come."
"Aye, sister," Zekrom replied grimly. "May our devotion burn brightly in the heat of battle. Let us begin!"
"Fusion Flare!" Reshiram howled, launching the crimson flame at the same moment Zekrom charged forward.
"Fusion Bolt!" Zekrom roared, lashing his supercharged arm forward to meet the attack.
- The Pokemon League, Chamber of Mind -
KA - BLAMMN!
"What - ?" Caitlin whirled around at the incredible explosion of noise in shock, momentarily halting her healing process with Alder. Quickly following the Psychic-type Elite Four to the window, Cynthia's eyes rounded as she saw a great pillar of fire and electricity shooting up from the top of the castle, completely annhilating its roof and piercing the sky, for a moment scattering the dark clouds that now covered the sky.
"An impossible amount of energy..." gasped Marshal as he shielded his face from the burst of light that suddenly invaded the semi-dark chamber. "Master! Could this mean - ?"
"Aye," said Alder as he heaved himself upward beside Cynthia. "It's begun."
"Oh, no..." the Sinnoh Champion turned at the whimpering voice and looked into Yellow's terrified face; it was filled with fear and devotion for her friends that she insisted were there, an expression that Cynthia had often seen on Diamond and Platina's face. Being a Dex Holder...
"I must be there for them!" Yellow exclaimed, her fear quickly switching into determination. "Ratty, Chuchu, let's go!"
Her Raticate and Pikachu quickly cried out in agreement, following the young woman (#2) as she raced out of the chamber in a flash.
"No, wait!" Shauntal cried as she rushed forward, but Cynthia stopped her with a firm hand.
"She will not be alone," she assured her friend quietly before turning to the other Elite Four and Alder. "Yellow has gone to do what she must do as a Dex Holder. Now we must set off to do ours as well."
Hm, this will probably be the last chapter to be updated before vacation. Like I've said before, there's no telling what may happen afterwards. Miss you all *sniff*
#1. The reason? Well, two of them (Carracosta, Archeops) are fossils and one (Zoroark) is an event Pokemon... I don't blame him for missing them.
#2. In my opinion eighteen is old enough to be called young woman... waitwhat? YELLOW EIGHTEEN? *explodes*
I wonder how many people who read this chapter will be outraged by my little theory: wtf N a Dex Holder? It's something I came up with while I was planning for the story, and the idea stuck. I think N's unique personality will make a nice asset to the ranks of Dex Holders... oh, and another reason. I wanted to keep the number of Dex Holders at sixteen. That's why I dragged White into this crazy adventure as a Dex Holder, why I cruelly dropped Cheren and Bianca out of the rank. Remember Uxie's prophecy in Chapter 2? She said sixteen Trainers. Well, now you know why. No flames please! XD We'll be delving deeper into this theory in Chapter 33.
Oh, and another news. I've been making plotlines for Arc 3 for awhile and I'm almost done, and I realized that if I carry on at this rate Arc 3 will end up with more than 50 chapters! OMG... so I've decided to split the arc up into two, bringing an unexpected Arc 4 into the fray. Arc 3 is left with 24 chapters or a little more. Not that... I'll be writing that anytime soon. You know, just so you know. :/
Anyway, from now on the location of the story never shifts from N's Castle, so note of that. At least, not in this arc. In the next chapter Reshiram and Zekrom finally begins their battle, though the fight will be interrupted by quite a lot of characters... like you know, those guys who suddenly vanished after Chapter 22? :)
Well, that's enough for today, I think. R&R!
Writing completed on July 9th, 2011. This is Yowl of Time, out.