A Reminiscence

Chapter Twenty

Showdown, Part Two

()()()

A search of the ground floor of the facility turned up little, beyond a weapons room I had no interest in, a barracks, and a garage. None of these rooms had any sign whatsoever of Zerus within them, and I was beginning to get frustrated by the third time I passed the studio room.

"Damn it, where is he?!" I cried out, waving my gun around. I hoped dearly some answer would come to me, and thankfully it did, but in a form that was hardly ideal, as I heard the growing sound of a crackling, deadly fire, and smelled the very specific smell of burning gasoline, along with some muffled shouting that was impossible to make out. I looked around me, but saw no sign of such flame, so I went back outside to see what I could see. As I exited the front doors, I noticed my group was standing outside the front gates, minus Latias and Slick, staring up in shock at the roof, and also saw that the pile of unconscious mercenaries had disappeared, likely making their leave after waking up and realizing they were in a poor position to fight.

"Anne!" I cried. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, and Slick is doing okay, I gave him a potion," she answered, "but I think you might want to look at the roof a moment."

"What?" I asked, turning around and gaping in shock as I saw Zerus, stood in front of the great conflagration, smoke pouring into the sky.

"What?" I asked, turning back to my friends. "Why aren't you stopping him?"

"Because, Larch," he shouted over the roar of the flame, holding up a device of some sort. "I'm holding the detonator to one and a half tons of TNT I have buried under the compound. I press this button, and we all go up. They weren't stupid enough to try anything until you came along."

"Are you insane?!" I yelled up at him, pointing my gun for effect.

"Insanity and genius are often confused for one another," he said cruelly, his lips curled in a terrible rictus. "Then again, at the moment, I can't tell which one I am! Why don't you come up here and help me find out?"

"And get burned by those flames? I will pass, thank you very much."

"Don't worry, Larch, there's enough room up here for us to scuffle. At least, there will be before it spreads out."

"This is absurd, you can't possibly expect me to fight you on a giant flaming military base!"

"But you'll fight somebody in your very nice hotel room which, might I remind you, I provided you with?" he asked, as if to criticize me for being finicky.

"This is absurd!" I said, pointing my gun up at him. "Why should I not just shoot you right here and now?"

"You don't know how to use that gun," Zerus said. "What makes you think you can hit me from up here?"

"I can try!" I responded, pulling the trigger, doing nothing.

"Pull back the hammer," Zerus instructed, "tuck it under your shoulder, and point it at me."

I attempted to follow his instructions, yanking back the knob I believed to be the hammer, tucking it somewhat under my shoulders, and taking aim once more.

"You realize, if I hit you, it will not end well for you at all?" I questioned.

"If."

I smirked and pulled the trigger, the bullet sailing entirely past him while I was sent to the floor by the sheer force of recoil.

"That form was terrible!" Ralph chided.

"Shut up, Ralph!" I cried, getting back up. "All right, that may not have worked, but I still have fists!" I threw the gun away and ran back inside, heading for the stairs and running up to the roof, shielding my face from the terrible heat.

"So, you did come up?" Zerus asked, bemused.

"Yes, I did!" I answered. "This new plan of yours is wholly ridiculous and you should feel ashamed for it!"

"Perhaps," Zerus said. "Of course, this detonator was a fake. I don't actually have any TNT buried under here, I'm not completely stupid."

"Aren't you?" I asked.

Zerus frowned. "Whatever I am, my idea seems to be working," he said. "After all, you seem very uncomfortable, and you could slip up."

"Perhaps I will, perhaps I will not. Is it necessary to fight right next to the fire? Little more than a distraction, really."

"Now that you mention it, maybe not. Here, let's move over a bit so we can fight properly. Your friends won't have quite as good a view when I kick your ass, but I think it's a fair trade for being able to fight at all."

"Your concept of fairness is quite skewed," I noted as we both stepped away from the fire. "Why set the fire if you are still going to let me away from it?"

"I can still push you into it!" Zerus cried as he rushed at me. I quickly moved out of the way, barely dodging his deadly sharped claws.

"So, this is it?" I asked, pulling back my arm and throwing it forward, expecting a devastating hit. However, as I had so severely projected the attack, Zerus caught it with ease and sent me to the floor, twisting my arm behind me. I shrieked, rather embarrassingly, I admit, and he began speaking once more.

"You know, I always do like to play with my prey before I kill them."

"Didn't you ever hear that you shouldn't play with your food?"

"Food?" Zerus laughed, twisting my arm further. "Why the hell would I want to eat you? At least, not raw. I need to cook you first…" With these words, he moved me closer to the flames, the heat causing me to sweat profusely.

"You know, I am impressed that you managed to fight with one of your eyes out," I groaned.

"Oh, please, it's still in there, just…damaged, somewhat. I can see you perfectly, and believe me, I want to see you burn!"

"Too bad!" Rembrandt cried, suddenly entering the fray from the stairwell, as I turned to face him, glad for the help.

"Piss off, beagle!" Zerus yelled. "This is between me and him, you have no part in this!"

"Hey, he's my main man," Rembrandt said, "and I'm not about to let you charbroil him in a gasoline fire."

"And what are you gonna do about it?" Zerus asked.

"This!" Surprisingly, without my command, Rembrandt proceeded to unleash a Leaf Storm upon Zerus, sending hundreds of deadly sharp leaves towards him. He instinctively covered his wounded eye to protect it from the onslaught, but many of the leaves still struck him nonetheless, severely injuring him and making him look even more disturbing, blood staining his black coat as he stood before the ever-expanding flames.

"All right, now I'm really mad!" he cried, spitting blood out of his mouth. "Come on, face me! Stand up and fight me! Don't just bullshit your way out of this like everything else!"

"What are you talking about, you lunatic?!" I demanded. "Why not just kill me now and be done with it? Why the charade?"

"Because I want to make you suffer!" Zerus said, running over and kicking Rembrandt out of the way, before picking me up by the throat. "I want to hurt you for all the shit you put me through, and I'm not going to let anything stop me!" He pulled his claw back and struck me in the face multiple times, drawing blood from my nose without any difficulty. "You look like you're giving up already! After everything you've done, it's surprising you're stopping now."

"Rembrandt?" I choked out, blood sputtering away from me as I spoke.

"What?" he asked, recovering from the earlier assault.

I smiled, and said only two words that greatly reduced Zerus' psychotically good mood, replacing it with a look of abject fear. Two words was all it took to destroy the pillar of victory he had convinced himself he was on.

"Hyper Beam."

His eyes widened, his mouth dropped, and in that moment of surprise, it was enough to kick him in the knee and thus push him away from me, as Rembrandt opened his mouth and released a bright white burst of raw energy that enveloped Zerus and very nearly blinded me with its incredible power before I was able to turn away. I heard Zerus scream, and when he stopped, I looked back and saw that he was lying on the roof, smoke rising from his body.

"Is…is it over?" I wondered, getting to my feet and looking at him.

"Please don't ask me to do that again," Rembrandt said, stumbling over and observing the unmoving form of the Zoroark that had caused us so much grief. "Is he dead?"

"He does not seem to be in very good shape, alive or not." I looked around, and noticed that my friends were also getting to their feet.

"He knows Hyper Beam?" Jack shouted up.

"Indeed! I do not use it very often, but it is quite lucky he picked it up before I caught him."

My voice had practically left my throat as something exploded powerfully behind me, rocking the entire compound and nearly throwing me off the roof. As I turned around, I noticed the fire had spread by a very appreciable amount, and smoke was coming even heavier now.

"What the hell was that?" Rembrandt asked.

"They must have had gasoline or some other hydrocarbon stored in the garage," I said. "Perhaps we should leave now."

"What about him?" Rembrandt pointed to Zerus, who had slightly started to stir. "Should we just leave him?"

"And let someone die?" I countered. "I do not think so!"

"Are you crazy? He tried to kill you!"

"I do not intend to return the favor," I said, picking up his surprisingly heavy body. "I would like a clear conscience, thank you very much."

"He's dead weight! We don't need him!" Before Rembrandt could continue yelling, another explosion occurred, this one collapsing a good portion of the roof and rendering the staircase back down unusable.

"Uh, guys?" I asked. "Could I have some help, here?"

"Here, give Zerus to me!" Jack said, running up to us.

"How shall I do that?" I asked.

"Just drop him down before you explode!" Jack demanded.

"All right, catch!" I dropped the body down towards him, which plummeted like a stone and landed just in front of him, as it went limp once again. "Good job!" I called down sarcastically.

"Bite me! How are you going to get down?"

"Do you just always keep forgetting you have a psychic dragon?" Latias asked, floating up next to him. "Here, I'll get you down from there!" To do so, she surrounded us in her telekinetic aura and lifted us off safely, moving us (and Zerus) away as the compound behind us collapsed in completely.

"I sure hope nobody was in there," Rembrandt said, as we observed the conflagration from a safe distance. "Wait, where's the president?"

"Right here," Greeley said, exiting from the forest and showing himself. "You saved my life, you know."

"Mr. President!" I said, surprised at such a sudden appearance. "You are safe at last!"

"And my country, thanks to you," he said, smiling. "I think that, for your service to our great nation, you deserve a complete pardon for your, uh, actions."

"Pardon?" Anne asked.

"Well, let's face it, you've broken a ton of laws. You could very easily go to prison for life, but since you did save us and stop this madman," he gestured towards Zerus, who still seemed out of it, "I don't think you deserve that."

"And what of Zerus?" I asked. "He is the vice president, after all, and if this story were to get out, it would be an unimaginable scandal."

"Eh, we'll say he was embezzling funds and he committed suicide before we could apprehend him. Still a scandal, but not as bad."

"What about the giant smoking wreckage?" Jack asked.

"Accident at an experimental military laboratory. I've done this before, I know how the dance goes."

"I am sure you do," I said. "So…Latias, would you be so kind as to return us before something else stupid happens?"

It was not even slightly after my question was asked that Zerus awoke, looking up at us for a moment with a gasp before jumping up and attempting to have a go at Greeley, who, surprisingly, took him in a headlock, which prevented his tired body from doing anything further after the initial rush of adrenaline.

"I've had enough, Zerus!" he shouted, tightening his grip. Zerus gagged, but he was not quite finished yet.

"I'll get you," he groaned from behind gritted teeth. "You'll see. Whatever shithole prison you stick me in, I'll get out and I'll come for you."

"You're half-blind and kind of an idiot," Greeley mocked. "I don't think you're going anywhere, not after all the shit you pulled."

Zerus growled. "Why not just kill me and get it over with?"

"That's too good for you," Greeley whispered cruelly.

A shaking noise drew our attention away, and the source was soon seen as Anne's pack, within which a PokeBall popped open and revealed Slick, who was still injured but looked as if he was recovering, if only enough to stand up with support from his cane.

"Glad I got this thing," he breathed, sounding quite tired. "So, Zerus, how's things?"

"Don't you fucking talk to me," Zerus spat, sheer hatred obvious in every aspect of the words.

"Dang, bro, you look awful!" Slick said, chuckling slightly and then clutching his stomach in pain. "Note to self, don't laugh. Anyway, you lost, right? Because it looks like you totally lost."

Zerus did not answer this, choosing rather to stare at Slick in sheer, unbridled fury.

"I'll take that as a yes." He leaned in closer, now whispering. "I can't say I'm gonna miss you."

"GODDAMNIT!" Zerus cried, desperately thrashing about in a poor bid to escape. "I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

"Will you shut up?" Greeley asked, reaching over with his other hand and delivering a pinch to his neck, knocking him out once more. I stared in surprise and Slick observed the body with disdain, but Greeley seemed bemused by it. "What? I have to know how to protect myself in case of emergencies. It's just practical."

"I suppose it is," I said. "Are you going to call for a pickup?"

"Yes, hold on." Greeley allowed Zerus' form to drop to the ground as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed in some absurdly long number. "Hello, Command Center? Yeah, this is President Greeley, authority passcode Delta-Romeo-Golf-Niner." (I feel it fair to note that this was not the actual code, but a mockup I created for his protection.) "Hey, Steve? Could you send out a high-sec pickup to my location? I have an attempted terrorist here that I need taken in. Yes, I got him. Okay, I had help, but I put him out of commission. No, he isn't dead, just unconscious! Just send a helicopter and put him under federal arrest, will you? Also, could you bring along a Presidential Pardon for me while you're at it?" he frowned a minute, then grew more neutral once more and hung up.

"Who's Steve?" Slick asked.

"That's a national secret," Greeley said, before cracking a smile. "Seriously, he's a friend of mine. You'd be surprised how often I get involved in this kind of thing, and he usually does the cleanup after I get out."

"Yeah, I saw that movie too," Jack said. "Ever had your plane hijacked?"

"Twice, actually, and both times it worked out a lot better."

"You seem like a president willing to take action," Ralph said. "I only wish you had someone like that during the war."

Greeley looked at him oddly. "Well, I'm here now, and I intend to bolster the peace. And I think that if I were to help you with your presentation on the translator, it would foster excellent international relationships."

"What?" Slick asked.

"If I say good things about his invention, Kanto will like us," he answered. "Sorry, I forgot I was speaking to normal people."

"Normal?" Slick asked. "Us? Yeah, right."

"Good point," Greeley noted.

"So who's going to be the new vice president?" Anne asked.

"Line of succession," Greeley said, waving his hand to dismiss the concern. "Don't worry, I can recover from this without much difficulty. Zerus never actually did anything in office, anyway. The Vice President doesn't really have many responsibilities, and I doubt many people would notice a difference once he's replaced."

And so, we continued with the conversation for a bit, occasionally ensuring that Zerus remained upon the floor, until we finally heard the sound of helicopter blades later in the day, and saw an approaching military helicopter start to come down. We quickly moved out of the way so that it could land, the powerful winds from the rotors buffeting us as it touched down before us. They soon stopped moving, allowing us to look at it once more. What we saw when the doors on the side opened was a gentleman of about thirty years, rather heavy-looking, and wearing extremely casual clothing.

"Is that Steve?" Slick asked, disbelieving.

"Yes it is!" Greeley said, walking over to the fellow cheerfully, though his friend did not seem to return the feeling entirely.

"Damn, Greeley, what the hell did you do?" he asked, staring at the wreckage of the facility in confusion. "What is this place? I haven't seen anything like that on any records."

"Zerus did it," Greeley answered. "He's been using mind control to make me do his bidding, I think. This was probably something I silently approved a while back when I didn't realize it."

"Wait, the VP?" Steve asked, doing a double take as he realized who, exactly, Zerus was. "Zerus was a Zoroark? What the hell is going on?"

"It's very complicated," Greeley answered, "and it would take a very long time to explain. By the way, did you bring the pardon?"

"Right here, sir," Steve answered, removing a rather crumply looking piece of paper from his pocket.

"Ah, good." Greeley took the paper and looked over it, finding everything to be in order, before taking out a pencil and making it official. "I assume you've already done the clearing?"

"Of course. They're free to return to whatever they have left to do."

"Good. Here, I'll explain what's going on while you bring this guy in." Greeley came back to us and held up the paper to me. "I'll trade you this for Zerus."

"A fair trade," I said. I looked over it and saw it offered amnesty for all our actions previously in the day, which was a welcome sight.

"Can we please go back to the hotel?" Slick asked. "I'm sick of this hellhole."

"I could not agree more," I said. "I assume you will be going with Steve, then?" I asked, facing Greeley.

"Yeah, I'll try to come to the presentation tomorrow," he answered, climbing inside the helicopter with Steve, who still seemed somewhat displeased. "Good luck!"

"Thank you!" I shouted as the helicopter came to life once more, causing more of the same wind as it took off and returned to its destination at rapid pace.

"All right, let's get back to Black City!" Jack said, pulling out Latias' PokeBall and preparing to throw it, before Slick grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jack demanded.

"What about that riot?" Slick asked. "If that's still going on, it might not be safe for us there."

"That's a good point, actually," Anne noted. "Maybe we should wait?"

"Are you sure it will go anywhere further?" I asked. "After all, we have not been gone a particularly long time, and it might not yet have evolved to that point."

"Yeah, but you punched out a cop," Jack noted. "That's probably going to inspire somebody to do something stupid."

"Perhaps," I said. "Still, I doubt they will have razed the city or anything like that, and the people at the hotel also seemed displeased with the proceedings. I say we go back at once and relax! Besides, how is a massive mob of people going to get up to our room?"

Jack considered the options for a moment, and then released Latias anyway. "You're right, let's head back. Latias?"

"All right!" she cried, encasing us in that bubble once more. "Let's do this!"

We were raised up from the ground, high above the broken remnants of Zerus' fortress, and flew off again, this time slightly more used to the experience, though it was still something I would not frequently recommend. Still, it would get us back to Black City quickly enough, so it was perfectly acceptable as far as options went.

()()()

Within minutes, we were once again in that astonishing city, set just outside the hotel to the astonishment of all present. It seemed that the riot had quieted down some in the interim time, though there was still a large crowd outside City Hall, and they still seemed quite displeased.

"Okay, now what?" Jack asked.

"I think I might be able to talk to them," I suggested.

"What?" Anne asked. "How could you possibly do that?"

"Well, I was the reason Zerus was running about the city in the first place, so they would probably see me as the victim in this, you know? Like I was a symbol of the people that were falsely attacked by their government."

"So you can represent them," Jack said, understanding. "They'll listen to you!"

"Maybe," Ralph said. "People in groups are dangerous, and they might not be as rational as you're expecting them to be."

"Well, hopefully I can still convince them," I said. "Broad emotional appeals, perhaps?"

"That sounds like my kind of idea!" Slick said. "Maybe I can help? After all, Zerus just gouged my stomach out."

"How does that connect to my thing?" I asked.

"Well, you know, it's a lot more, uh, tactile. And painful. Seriously, that really hurt."

"All right, perhaps you can provide backup. Let us solve this mess and be done with it," I said. As the others returned to the room, we walked over to City Hall, ready to provide something of assistance.

As we approached, a policeman noticed us and ran over from his post containing the mob, clearly quite annoyed with us.

"I have orders to arrest you on sight," he said. "Come with me peacefully or I will be forced to use violence."

"Well, I am afraid to inform you that I have a full presidential pardon for me and all my associates," I said, pulling out the valuable document. The policeman observed it, finding it to be completely in order.

"All right, what are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I believe that I, with some assistance, can help you in placating this crowd."

"How?" the cop asked, unconvinced.

"Well, Zerus was chasing after me because I…" I paused, remembering the cover story Greeley had proposed, and decided to use that instead. "I was in possession of information that implicated him as embezzling government funds, and he later committed suicide. Obviously, these people feel as if their government has failed them, and I can talk to them, because I was the focus of the business." I smiled, but the policeman only stared at me as if I was insane.

"That's ridiculous," he said. "Look, I get that you have good intentions, but that won't work at all. These people are too angry to listen to anybody, we just need to let this go away on its own. It probably won't even last that much longer, all things considered…"

"Hey!" somebody from within the mob shouted, pointing at me. "Isn't that the guy Zerus was after?"

"Hey, yeah!" somebody else confirmed, before several of them broke into a wild cheer.

"Uh…" I said, now realizing my plan may have been ill-conceived. "Hello, everybody! How are you this fine day?"

They cheered once more, to the confusion of the policemen all around.

"Well, uh, the situation has been brought under control. Zerus had been embezzling funds, and I had evidence proving such, but he killed himself before he could be brought to justice." A few people gasped, including the policeman who had previously been lambasting us. "Anyway, as I said the situation is under control, so…please calm down, would you? The fault is solely that of Zerus', the rest of the government cannot be implicated for this crime."

They cheered again, even louder this time.

"Who's the Zoroark?" someone else asked, pointing at Slick.

"Uh…a friend of mine. I just recently met him, quite a nice fellow. Anyway, how about coming to an agreement with the police? I need to give a presentation tomorrow, and I would hate if the city were in a state of disrepair from any overexcited protestors." I glared at this last sentence, to establish that I was quite serious. A few of them immediately threw down their signs and walked out, but many still remained.

"All right, that worked out quite well," I said to the policeman. "Now what will become of these people?" I asked.

"Well, only a few of them got violent, and they've already been arrested, but the rest of them were only engaging in peace…okay, just protest, really. Nothing illegal about that. When they decide to stop yelling, we'll let them go."

I smiled, glad that this would not escalate any further. "Very well, I shall take my leave then. Good luck with this!" I said, taking my leave alongside Slick. With the protestors quelled, Zerus in government hands, and several well-recognized individuals backing my translator, I knew that tomorrow would be an excellent day to give the presentation once and for all…