A Reminiscence

Chapter Nineteen

Showdown, Part One

()()()

After we had all recovered from the recent incident, some of us vomiting, some not, we congregated once more to discuss what had to be done, trying to stay hidden from the base that was so close to us, luckily protected by the trees above.

"Has everyone recovered?" Ralph asked, rubbing his throat. "That was really unpleasant."

"I'm good," Anne said, and the rest of soon gave confirmation as well, quite eager to begin planning for Zerus' defeat.

"Obviously, it's not a very large compound," Ralph noted, "so there probably won't be a huge amount of security to deal with, but we'll still need to be prepared."

"What about Zerus?" Anne questioned. "He'll probably be able to figure out exactly where we are if we try anything."

"Does that mean he knows where we are now?" Latias asked.

"I doubt it," Slick countered, "we're pretty far away from the compound and we came down pretty hard. He probably assumed we all crashed and died or something."

"A massive advantage," I pointed out. "We should probably get a feel for what we are working with before we start. If everybody would be so kind to release their Pokémon?"

"Sounds good." Anne did, pulling out the four spheres and releasing the creatures contained therein, their powerful and frightening forms soon revealed to us all.

"Oh, I'm back?" Bill wondered aloud, looking around. "Sweet!"

"Who's the black guy?" Carolus, the Arcanine, asked.

"For goodness' sake!" I cried. "Does nobody realize how bad that sounds?"

"I'm Slick," the aforementioned answered regardless, proudly presenting himself. "I am Anne's latest addition to the team."

"Sweet," Henry, the Mightyena, said in approval. "What can you do?"

"Illusion magic, fighting, cat burglary…"

"What?"

"Well, it's true, and you asked what I could do!" Slick cried, indignant. "Are you gonna get all pissy that I answered your question?"

"Um, no sir?" Henry backed down slightly, clearly afraid of him, despite his own abilities.

"That's what I thought…"

"That's…that's quite the collection," Jack noted, sounding worried for some reason.

"Isn't it?" Anne said. "So, Ralph, what do you have?"

Ralph shrugged. "I left them at the hotel. I didn't think to grab them."

"Oh," Anne said, sounding genuinely disappointed. "All right, Jack, what do you have?"

"Uh…really, I think Latias is going to be enough…"

"Aw, come on!" Anne said, grabbing his shoulder and delivering a noogie upon him. "You're, like, the most badass trainer ever! Who knows what you have!"

"Well…that's the thing, see—"

"What?" Anne asked. "You've gotta have something useful, right?"

"Well…remember that story I told you on the ship about how I caught Mew?"

"Yeah?" We all leaned in closer, eager to here this new addition to his tale.

"That…kind of never happened." Jack rubbed the back of his head, the ruse finally up.

"What do you mean that never happened?" I demanded. "What about the Manaphy? Or the Tyranitar that had just leveled a mountain?"

"Those also never happened," Jack explained, now thoroughly embarrassed.

"So you lied about everything except the Latias?" I further prodded.

"…Kind of?" Jack smiled, trying to deflect it.

"I knew it!" I cried. "Nobody could possibly accomplish all of the things you claimed!"

"I never agreed to hang around with a liar!" Latias cried, anger clear on her unique visage.

"Agreed?" Slick asked. "What, like me and Anne did?"

"Well…yes," Jack said. "I have a Fearow right now, and he and I were able to track down Latias after a while, and she agreed to go with me because…I made a good impression, I guess."

"I was impressed you were able to find me," Latias corrected, "but if I knew how often you lied about things, I never would have agreed."

"Well, I had a reputation to uphold, all right!" Jack cried. "Do you realize how few people have even seen a Legendary Pokémon? Not many, so I was the talk of the town! But once people started getting bored with me, they moved on to other things, so I had to make up for it! I figured I wouldn't be able to catch another one, so…I made some stuff up so I could stay in the spotlight."

"And if you lied about all that, how do I know you're not a sleeper agent for my brother?" Slick accused, pointing his cane at Jack like a finger.

"What?" Jack asked, genuinely confused. "Why would I do that? Your brother's a douchebag!"

Slick calmed down, relaxing the cane. "All right, but I have my eye on you."

"Okay, so you have a Fearow and a Latias," I said. "We can definitely work with that, I think, no huge issue…"

"Here you go," Jack said, pulling out a second PokeBall and releasing his Fearow, the large bird appearing in quite imposing form.

"Hey, long time, no see!" he said, in a scratchy, high-pitched voice. "Who's these sorry nerds?"

"That was not even close to a sentence," I noted.

"Ooh, a heckler, eh?" Fearow asked. "Yeah, I'll bet you think you're hot shit, huh? I'm here all week!"

"I get the feeling some trainers might not like your translator invention," Ralph noted.

"I am beginning to worry the same," I said, quickly changing the subject to something less stupid. "Latias, is it possible for you to provide psychic interference as to the source of one of Slick's illusions?"

"Uh…I think!" she said. "Here, let me see one so that I can try to mess it up."

Slick immediately complied, changing himself to resemble me, in a very suspiciously unflattering manner. While I pouted somewhat, Latias carefully studied him, eventually coming to a conclusion.

"Yeah, I'll definitely be able to work with this," she said, nodding in approval.

"Okay, if you can block the source, I think I know what we should do," Ralph began explaining. "First of all…"

()()()

A bit later, after our plan had been decided upon, and though it was certainly risky, we knew it had to be done.

At the edge of the forest just outside of the compound, I laid in wait, along with the rest of my compatriots, carefully observing the gates that led in. There were two guards on the outside, and both of them looked very, very bored. Luckily, I was about to make their day far more interesting, and at no cost at all.

To them, it appeared that I walked out of the forest, very casually and a smarmy grin on my face. As I walked up to the gate, they stared in confusion, not entirely sure what to do when faced with somebody who was, by all accounts, a coprse at the bottom of a lake.

"Hello, gentlemen," I greeted, "might I be given audience with Mr. Zerus?"

They did not answer, instead choosing to continue staring.

"Well? Yes or no?"

Again, the question went rudely unanswered, so I resorted to the other option.

"Hey, Zerus!" I shouted as loudly as I possibly could. "How about you drag your miserable self out here and we settle this matter once and for all! Or are you too lazy to do that? I know you have trouble with actually checking to ensure you've killed your enemies!"

The two soldiers held their guns up, but were given pause when the massive gate behind them opened, very slowly revealing Zerus standing there, absolutely fuming with rage.

"What the hell is this bullshit?!" he demanded, stepping outside. "I killed you!"

"Evidently, you have not, as I am still standing here and am not, in fact, dead."

"Look, you smarmy little asshole, I don't know what the hell you did, but I'm going to end this, just like you wanted!" To fulfill this promise, he pulled out a gun and aimed it level with my forehead, but I showed no reaction whatsoever. He stared at me, baffled that I would not show fear, but then broke into a smile.

"I get it," he said, "you survived getting thrown out of a helicopter, so now you think you're goddamn Superman. Is that it?"

"Perhaps," I answered.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Before I kill you, how about you go ahead and tell me how you did it."

"Simple," I stated, "my friends came to my aid. Very good to have companions, I find."

Zerus scowled. "That's garbage. The only person you need is yourself. Other people are just a distraction."

"Is that why you abandoned your brother?" I asked, intentionally trying to drive him up.

"Shut up!" he cried, putting his finger on the trigger. "He was a useless asshole, just like every other dipshit on this planet! Those stupid humans have all this shit about 'oh, you're so special' from preschool on, and what's it do? It convinces everybody that they're the shit, and then they never do anything because they think they're entitled to everything! Well, I'm going to fix it, and you won't stop me, no matter what you try!"

"What if it is not just me?" I prodded. "After all, the people of Black City have begun a riot against your little stunt earlier today."

Zerus merely scoffed at my point. "A minor distraction, at best. Just a bunch of children throwing a temper tantrum. I'll have to hold off the announcement of the polonium attempt for a bit so they'll actually pay attention to it, but that won't matter. I waited ten years for this; I can wait a little longer."

"But your plan hinges very precisely on my death," I noted. "And here I still stand while you yammer on and on."

"Good point," Zerus said. "You seem remarkably fearless for somebody who's about to get shot between the eyes."

"Like you said, I nearly died once, and who knows, perhaps I will get lucky again."

Zerus smiled cruelly, clearly enjoying what he thought was about to happen. "I doubt it." He pulled the trigger, and a massive report echoed loudly throughout the forest, but to his shock and horror, I still stood, the bullet seemingly having no effect.

"What…" he whispered, stepping back. "That…that's not possible!" He fired at me a few more times, but again, it did nothing. "What the hell is this?"

"Want to try again?" I asked. "You might well get it eventually!"

Zerus looked me up and down, but then smiled. "I get what this is," he said. "Slick is trying to make some fancy-ass illusionary projection of you so I get confused. Well, nice try, but I can tell exactly where he is!" Zerus focused for a moment, but horror was soon evident on his visage as he realized something was blocking him. "W-what? Where are you? What's blocking me?"

"Such is the power of a legendary Pokémon," I explained. "They can stop you from telling where, exactly, your brother is. Care to keep trying?"

"Don't you dare mock me!" Zerus shouted. "I'll put a stop to this nonsense!" He fired his gun wildly into the forest, hitting none of us at all. He screamed once more and threw the gun to the ground. "Show yourselves!"

His request was fulfilled in a way as Latias flew out of the bushes, the psychic barrier broken, and she attacked the two soldiers, knocking them out and removing their weapons so quickly she appeared only as a streak of white and red.

"What the fuck?!" Zerus cried as he watched the two men collapse to the ground. "What did you do?"

"Ever seen a Latias?" I asked. "Absolutely amazing! Capable of moving at incredible speed, and numerous psychic abilities!"

"You son of a bitch!" Zerus shouted. "You tricked me!"

"You could try shooting again," I suggested, putting on the smuggest smile I could manage.

"Fuck you!" Zerus shouted, running over and picking up one of the guns that the soldiers had lost, pulling back the hammer and aiming at the forest. "I'll hit you somehow!" He pulled the trigger back, releasing a deadly volley of fire, but all of the bullets missed again, passing through the false image and the trees. By the time he had emptied the magazine, nothing had been accomplished at all, and he was absolutely steaming with rage.

"Sir, what's going on?" somebody asked from the other side of the wall surrounding the complex.

"We have some intruders here," Zerus said, breathing heavily. "Pull out all the defenses."

"All of them, sir?" the voice questioned.

"ALL OF THEM!" Zerus shouted, a tower of bright red flame erupting upwards as he revealed his true form once more, red energy coming off him as his rage built higher and higher. "Kill them! Kill all of them!"

The gates opened up and revealed a large number of other soldiers, all well-armed with those same rifles.

"Did you forget that I am nothing more than an illusion?" I asked. "Besides, Latias is easily able to deflect any bullets that might hit one of us. Speaking of which…"

My illusory self dissipated, leaving nothing in its place that would imply something had once been there, the signal for Bill to fly out of the forest, another one of Slick's illusions making him look like a terrifying beast straight from the bowels of hell itself, much larger than any Charizard had a right to be and spewing black fire all about. The soldiers fired a few shots at him half-heartedly, terrified of this dark specter, but Latias easily deflected them as he landed before Zerus, looking down upon him like the judgment of a god. But Zerus, surprisingly enough, showed no fear of this imminent destruction, and simply looked up.

"This is nothing more than an illusion to make me think that you're bigger than you really are," Zerus said. "I have no reason to fear you. Now get out of the way so I can kill these assholes once and for all."

"I refuse," Bill countered, his voice echoing throughout the forest even louder than the gunshot earlier.

"Well, that's too bad!" Zerus cried. "Cause you're right where I need to be going!"

"I won't move," Bill insisted.

"Then I'll just have to move you out of the way myself!"

With these words, Zerus leapt up, spinning around rapidly and delivering what would have been a deadly kick to where he thought Bill's head was, but as his size was an illusion, he hit nothing but air. However, the disturbance from the kick was enough to make the illusion dissipate, revealing Bill's true form, although now he was quite angry.

"You missed," he said, pulling his head back and unleashing a terrible volley of searing flame. Zerus barely dodged out of the way, as did the soldiers behind him, who quickly took cover behind the doors and started shooting, but Latias' protection again graced him and they dissolved, leaving him unharmed.

"Will you assholes stop cheating?!" Zerus cried, sharp claws poised to gouge something. "Just die already!"

"I'm not planning on it!" Bill spun around, his flaming tail nearly taking Zerus out, but he easily dodged the attack, ducking under it and running at Bill, attempting a few jabs at his neck with his claws while he was distracted and he had an element of surprise. This was easily noticed, however, and Bill ducked under it, soon realizing that this was a pointless effort.

"Anne!" he shouted as he weaved between some other blows. "Return!"

That same red glow enveloped him and he disappeared, causing Zerus to stumble, giving him a chance to cool off.

"All right!" he cried. "Who's next up? Probably that Arcanine of yours, right? Or the Houndoom? I know exactly what your team is and what they do! So tell me, which one will it be?"

"Me!" Ralph shouted, leaping out, handgun raised, and loosing several shots. Zerus impossibly managed to weave between them, all the bullets barely passing by and striking the wall, missing the soldiers as well. I noticed that Ralph silently cursed and threw the gun away. He faced the ever-approaching Zerus, who threw a punch as Ralph threw one as well, both of them connecting with the powerful sound of flesh and bone striking colliding. They reeled in pain, Ralph ducking back in as Latias, Slick, Rembrandt, and myself all reconvened in the shadows of the forest, still well-hidden to all of them. Anne, meanwhile, released Carolus to keep Zerus busy, so that we might be able to discuss the rest of the plan.

"We need to get rid of those soldiers somehow," I said. "Otherwise there is no way for us to get in."

"They don't seem to be very good at their jobs," Slick noted. "Unprofessional, not using tactics very well, weak…they might just be paid mercenaries that Zerus got for this."

"I agree," Ralph said, walking up to us. "They've probably been really poorly trained compared to actual soldiers. And we should use that…"

"But, that plan!" I objected.

"Look, we need to get past them somehow."

"I have an idea for that," I said. "I fear whatever it is you were thinking of doing. Latias?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"Would it be possible for you to knock the guards unconscious with your psychic powers?"

"Uh…it could be dangerous…"

"Is that a yes?"

She frowned. "I could give them serious brain damage, but…I'll try." She closed her eyes and focused hard, Zerus soon crying out in surprise as his hired mercenaries dropped to the floor.

"What the hell did you do?!" he cried, trying as hard as he could to keep Carolus at bay. The Arcanine nearly took a massive bite out of his torso, but it was barely avoided, and a strike at the back of his neck sent Carolus slinking back into the brush as Zerus took a moment to recover.

"Now is our chance!" I said. "Slick, Rembrandt, come with me!" I leapt out of the brush, as did both of them, Zerus not noticing as he tried to recover his strength. We expertly slipped inside the compound, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the mercenaries, but then noticed something that put a damper in our plans: a large artillery gun hidden beside the gate, aimed straight at us.

"Damn it, he's good," Slick said, as we all instinctively ran to the side of the deadly weapon, moving too quickly for the man inside to get a shot at us. Slick immediately ran up the side of the machine and threw the operator off of it, who landed in a crumpled heap at my feet.

"We should probably get inside," I suggested, "there is no doubt that he heard that."

"Let me just grab this…" Slick picked up a rifle from one of the fallen soldiers, brandishing it proudly as we entered the building. It was a fairly bland institution; grey concrete walls, a few side rooms, very few amenities and quite Spartan in appearance. Still, its simplicity offered us a hiding place, and as a furious Zerus ran in, we were able to duck down and hide ourselves so that he was unable to do anything.

"All right, let's look for the broadcast area," Slick whispered as Zerus passed us by.

"Broadcast area?" I questioned.

"Yeah, he's gotta have something ready to deliver a nationwide broadcast, and if we take that out, the plan is foiled!"

"Clever," I commended. "But we must hurry, and be cautious of him."

We looked outside the room, and saw that the coast was clear, giving us the perfect opportunity. Slick pointed his gun outside and we slowly made our way forward, looking around for anything of note.

"What are we looking for, anyway?" Rembrandt whispered as we made our way, gently as possible.

"Any implication that the room is some sort of broadcast area…there!" I responded, pointing to a door labeled "TV room". "That must be it!"

"Shit, here he comes!" Slick said, pointing his gun down the hall as we heard those terrible footsteps. We immediately entered the room, quietly closing the door and just barely avoiding Zerus as he walked past, unknowing that we were inside. We relaxed and turned around, observing the room and what was contained therein. There was a camera in front of a green screen arrangement, clearly intended for the false message to the people of Unova, as well as a large array of intricate control consoles that were thankfully unmanned, and would hopefully remain as such.

"Good, we're here," Rembrandt said. "Let's mess this stuff up!"

He excitedly ran for the camera, but I ducked down and grabbed his tail, halting him before he doomed us all.

"No, you idiot!" I said. "If we make any noise, he is sure to notice!"

"Yeah, Piccasso," Slick chided, "You've got to be subtle about it. For example…" To demonstrate his theory, he walked over to the cable connecting the camera to the power, and with a single slash of his claw, severed it, causing quite severe damage and rendering it wholly unusable.

"Good work!" I congratulated, before looking at the console. "If we were to change about the presets there…"

"On it!" Rembrandt said, jumping up to the control panel and observing the massive amount of buttons in glee. "Oh, this is going to be fun…"

I did not stop him this time, as he was merely having some good fun pressing all the buttons he could and completely ruining the setup, yanking a few wires out and painting over the screens for good measure, rendering it utterly unusable.

"Good luck broadcasting now, asshole," Slick said, turning to look at the green screen. "Hey, Rembrandt, what if you painted over that?"

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Rembrandt halted his work of ruining the controls and walked over to the green screen, the color of his paint changing subtly. However, his fun was ruined as he barely made his first stroke, as the door opened to reveal none other than Greeley, holding a gun at us that was shaking heavily. We all froze in shock for a moment, surprised by this turn, before Slick grew furious.

"What the hell, Greeley?!" he shouted, pointing his gun at him. "You were in on this?!"

"Look," Greeley said, sweat pouring down his brow, "just walk away now and we can put this all behind us. The plan is ruined, and Zerus said he doesn't want to go through with it anymore, so let's just all pretend this never happened…"

"Liar!" I cried. "Why should we believe you? You were working for him along! I might say you were the greatest deceiver of all!"

"Now, Larch, let's not say anything we might regret," Slick suggested.

Greeley stared at us for a few moments more, his gun switching targets faster than I could keep track of, before his eyes turned up and he fell over, surprising us even further.

"What the fuck?" Rembrandt said, running over to him and attempting to rouse him. "He just dropped."

"Let me see," Slick said, kneeling down to him and putting a claw to his forehead. "Oh my god, he's being mind controlled. The strain must have been too much for him."

"Mind controlled?" I asked.

"Yeah, Zerus must have done it somehow. Let me see if I can break it…" Slick carefully observed him for a moment, and then smacked him on the forehead.

"Slick!" I cried in alarm.

"What? I broke the mind control."

"You just bruised the president! He is sure to be furious now!"

"Oh, he might be a little pissy, but he'll thank me later. Probably give us a full pardon if we stop Zerus from being an asshole."

"Ah, yes, we have broken several laws recently, haven't we?"

"Recently for you, maybe."

"You haven't done this before?" I asked.

"Well, nothing like this, but I'm no stranger to borrowing things and not putting them back."

"So, stealing?"

"Tomato, tomahto. Wait, he's waking up!"

Indeed, Greeley slowly came to and sat up, leaving his gun lying on the floor. "What happened?" he asked, his voice groggy.

"You were being mind-controlled by your vice president," I explained. "He is secretly a Zoroark in disguise who aims to take over the world with a false terrorist scare."

"What?" Greeley asked, still confused. "He seemed like a good running mate…"

"Again, mind control," I said. "You must leave, it is not safe for you here."

"Right." Greeley did not hesitate to make himself scarce from that studio, leaving us alone once more.

"Well, we saved the president," Slick said. "Now, where's Zerus?"

"Right here," he said, appearing in the doorway, absolutely boiling with silent rage. "You interrupt my beautiful plan, waste my time, take out my mercenaries, attack my base, break my control over that idiot Greeley, and now you've completely ruined my studio!"

"Your plan stops here," I said proudly. "You cannot do anything more. It's over."

"It's not over!" Zerus cried. "After all, I'm still alive, and I'm still going to kill you!" He rushed at Slick, who held up his cane to block the blow, but was still pushed back several feet from the sheer force.

"Hey, this cane was expensive!" he complained. "You'll scuff it up!"

"I'll do more than that, brother!" Zerus yelled, beginning a furious barrage of punches that Slick was barely able to keep up with. Eventually, Slick slipped, and the claws glided past his defense and stabbed deep into Slick's stomach, blood quickly pouring out of the devastating wound

"Slick!" I cried, horrified at the brutal sight.

"Well, I guess this is how it ends, eh, brother?" Zerus said, leaning in and cruelly twisting the claws.

"No," Slick choked out, pulling his hand back and striking Zerus right in the eye, gouging it and blinding him. Zerus reeled back in hideous pain, clutching at the wound, as blood began to pour from Slick's own wound. Zerus left, screaming all the way as he did, but I had more important matters to attend.

"Slick!" I said, leaning into him.

"I'll be fine," he said, nearly falling over. "If you can…get me in a PokeBall, I'll be okay until you can get me attention…Anne should be able to handle this…"

"I thought you hated PokeBalls?" Rembrandt asked.

"I'm dying, you idiot, I don't care what I end up in!" Slick yelled, wincing. "Or didn't you notice the blood coming out of me?"

"Hold on," I said, taking Rembrandt's PokeBall and holding it out. "You'll be okay. And we will get Zerus."

I pressed the button, and Slick was immediately digitized within the sphere, which I handed to Rembrandt.

"Take this to Anne," I instructed, picking up the gun that Slick had dropped. "I'm going to go get Zerus."

Rembrandt understood and ran off, as I left the room and started looking around for the man who had caused us so much misery, fury in my eyes…