It was an almost vampiric Pokémon that glided silently towards Asrael on leathery wings. Huge claws that dwarfed the red arms that supported them clicked menacingly and a segmented tail was held out behind it for balance and direction. That wasn't the only thing it could be used for judging by the two large barbs jutting out from the furthermost segment.
The Pokémon glided serenely, though that was slightly belied by its frankly freaky yellow eyes and large jutting fangs which radiated the intention of doing something to you that definitely wasn't serene. The two Pokémon circled each other before the Gliscor moved faster than Jack thought was even possible for a creature of that size and build.
It was hovering above Asrael's neck in a flash, gripping onto the scaly flesh with both its huge claws. It was only when the claws began to dig into his flesh, cutting through the thick protective scales like they were cobwebs, that Asrael realised what danger he was in. It was too late. With a triumphant shriek the Gliscor slashed through Asrael's neck sending bright red blood spurting into the air.
Asrael screamed once before collapsed unconscious, blood spurting from a severed artery, staining the previously clean sand. The crowd roared with glee, completely overtaken by bloodlust in watching this epic fight. 'I play my second recall card,' shouted Jack above the din, recalling Asrael resignedly, 'and I release my third Pokémon.'
There was sudden silence as the whole arena watched with bated breath to see which Pokémon Jack would choose. Whether they had bet for him or against him a lot hinged on this next Pokémon.
Harry appeared with deadly intent, immediately releasing a barrage of attacks on his unsuspecting opponent. Using its surprising speed the Gliscor managed to avoid the bulk of the attacks, but one errant psychic ball smashed into its chest. The Gliscor was knocked heavily to the floor, but it showed good resilience and immediately rose back up again, mostly unaffected by the attack.
'Gliscor use aerial ace,' ordered Paul, grinning madly as if Jack had fallen into one of his traps. Suddenly the Gliscor disappeared, moving so fast that for a second it was impossible to see. It reappeared next to Harry, repeatedly smashing the frail psychic Pokémon with large claws.
The first blow had hit Harry in the chest, easily knocking him to the floor and completely knocking the wind out of him. Even though he was fighting desperately for breath on the floor Harry still managed to erect a barrier to protect himself from the rest of the attacks, giving him a badly needed rest to recover his breath.
'Now Harry use psychic,' shouted Jack seeing a great chance to knockout the Gliscor. Harry's eyes glowed eerily purple as he swiped his hands sideways through the air. It was as if the Gliscor had been smashed by a giant's fist. It screamed in pain and plunged towards the ground, its wings ripped and crumpled by the attack.
It hit heavily and this time was barely able to pull itself up, the powerful attack coupled with the hard impact with the ground had done a lot of damage. 'Harry finish this,' shouted Jack, his voice rising in excitement as he saw a win in sight. 'No chance,' shouted Paul, still grinning insanely as if he knew something that Jack didn't. 'Gliscor use night slash.'
Before Harry could attack the whole arena was suddenly plunged into thick darkness. The darkness seemed heavy and oppressive, almost like a living thing, and you could see absolutely nothing. Harry erected a powerful barrier around him as soon as that happened, twisting and turning to try and see where the attack would come from.
He felt fear for the first time that day. When the attack came it was more powerful than Harry expected. Gliscor was surrounded by a dark aura as his heavy pincers slashed through the barrier towards Harry. The barriers were ripped apart as if they didn't exist and a heavy pincer smashed into Harry's face.
Harry was knocked out instantly by the attack and he fell to the ground, his head twisted to the side and his face covered in his own blood. As soon as the attack connected the darkness that had covered the arena lifted revealing the beaten and unconscious Harry lying on the floor. 'I play my third recall card,' said Jack, worry now written obviously on his face.
The battle had gone from completely in his favour to completely equal and he only had one last card to play. He just hoped that Kabi wouldn't let him down. Kabi appeared looking angry as always, fixing her small black eyes on the Gliscor and growling with sinister intent. Come on Kabi thought Jack please help me out here.
'Kabi use hyper beam' yelled Jack, not knowing whether Kabi knew how to complete his order. Kabi nodded and blasted a huge white beam of energy out of her mouth too much relief from Jack. This attack was nearly half again as large as the Honchkrow's and it did sickening damage when it hit the Gliscor.
Its right arm where the attack hit was completely ripped off its body, flopping limply where it hit the ground. The skin and part of its flesh was scoured from the whole right side of its body and its right eye began to weep blood. For a second the Gliscor hung there, looking like a doctor's model with one side showing its insides and the other half completely intact, then it fell slowly to the ground.
Paul recalled it with a scream and twisted around in his bubble looking like a caged wolf.
'Screw this,' he suddenly screamed and released a huge bear-like Pokémon with enormous muscular shoulders and arms and huge, dagger-like claws on either arm. The creature smashed its shoulder into the bubble and began to rip wildly with its devastating claws. After taking a lot of punishment the bubble simply disintegrated and Paul and his Pokémon fell to the ground.
'Release the death squad,' squealed the voice on the tannoy, fear instead of glee now prevalent in his voice. The pack of wolf Pokémon ran drooling towards Paul's Pokémon, ready to tear it to pieces. 'Ursaring kill them,' said Paul quietly and his Pokémon quickly complied.
It ran towards the incoming pack, gutting the first with a powerful sweep of its left paw, breaking the neck of the second with a destructive punch, launching a terrifying two footed kick that completely decimated the third and disembowelling the fourth with all of his claws. In less than ten seconds all that remained of the death squad was a bloody heap of corpses.
Paul saluted the crowd before turning to Jack. 'We will finish our battle,' he said quietly, nastily before recalling his Ursaring and somehow releasing his Honchkrow, now fully healed. Though he completely dwarfed his Pokémon the Honchkrow easily took Paul's weight and powered through the air with great beats of its heavily-muscled wings. 'Hyper beam the roof,' ordered Paul, waving sarcastically to the crowd for the last time.
The Honchkrow's attack ripped easily through the ceiling and out onto the ground above, raining down large chunks of crushing rocks onto the spectators beneath. Jack looked on in disbelief as large fragments of rock pinned people to the ground, some even skewering their unlucky victims like kebabs. With one last wave Paul disappeared into the bright portal leaving the underground world behind.
A vicious punch to the back of the head brought Jack crashing to the ground. 'Don't you dare think of following him you little bastard,' screamed the voice, sounding more than a little hysterical. Jack lay unresisting on the floor as a hail of vicious punches and kicks from a terrified, hysterical Rocket grunt were landed upon him.
Luckily a wayward kick powered heavily onto his head, knocking him into the unfeeling bliss of unconsciousness. The man was still kicking him even after he fell unconscious, and had to be physically heaved off Jack by three other people to stop him from beating the teenage boy to death.
For the technologically advanced Rockets all it took was one injection to fully heal a half dead Jack, and when he woke up he was surprised to find that he felt fine. All the damage that had been inflicted on his body was gone after one miracle injection developed off the same technology used to heal Pokémon. Jack was less surprised to find that he was strapped down to his bed, tight leather straps chafing his skin.
A small man in a black suit stood over him, a man that Jack recognised all too well. 'Giovanni, what.....what.....why are you?' asked Jack, his confusion clearly evident. Giovanni laughed, 'I'm the head of Team Rocket kid, I run this place.' Jack's body tensed as he strained against his bonds to try and land a hit on a man that he now hated with all his soul.
Giovanni just laughed again, 'you thought I was a good guy when I warned you, all passionate and intense.' He broke off and snapped a sudden salute, 'thank you acting classes. I just didn't want you interfering with business, you see. Didn't work, but still...it was fun.'
Whilst Giovanni was chatting cheerily to him, Jack's face was contorted in hatred and he strained with all his might against the bonds that held him. 'Fights to the death,' screamed Jack suddenly as Giovanni finally stopped talking, 'to the death! Why?' he was almost sobbing, 'why to the death?' It was only now that all the blood and death had finally hit Jack, and it had hit him hard. He stopped straining and lay still on the bed, his body shaking with shock.
Giovanni shrugged, 'it doesn't hurt me and it brings in good money,' he said philosophically, 'what do you think funds this huge organisation? Money doesn't grow on trees you know, if we fail a mission we have to have a failsafe, a back-up which brings in good money. This is it.'
He looked at Jack with a wide grin on his face, 'don't tell me it's not worth it. That fight was epic! The public will pay lots of money to see you fight now. And we're back to what I really wanted to talk to you about.'
'I'm transferring control of you. You will fight for me now. I already have four other personal fighters but you have so much more potential than them. So much more.' He broke off with a sigh, 'you shouldn't be here, really. Good trainers like you need to be out there, challenging gym leaders, beating Victory Road, but you had to get yourself tangled up didn't you!? You just had to.'
He sighed again, shaking his head, 'oh well. Got to make the most of a bad lot. If you agree to work for me I will move you out of a cell into a nice apartment. You will be treated well, you'll get to train yourself and your Pokémon in a state-of-the-art gym with my other fighters, you'll fight only the best and most important fights and you'll even get to keep some of the profits yourself. If you refuse....' he paused for dramatic effect, 'let's just say you will still be fighting for me, but you will have no comforts. None at all. I await your decision.'
Jack struggled with his morals for a good ten seconds before deciding, though it was never really in doubt. Jack was a survivor at heart, and his instincts overrode his morals. 'I accept,' he said shortly, turning his back. Giovanni broke out into the widest grin Jack had ever seen and clapped him hard on the back, 'I knew you would Jackie boy.' His cheery demeanour was really starting to get on Jack's nerves.
'Someone will show you to your room, I will come to you with information about your next fights.' After Giovanni had left Jack was ushered out of what seemed to be an underground torture chamber through an endless labyrinth of dank corridors getting progressively lighter and cleaner looking as Jack was brought closer to the surface.
Soon the corridor he was walking down was smooth and clean, lined with mature oak panelling and lit perfectly by bulbs embraced in cages of wrought gold. 'Here's your room sir,' intoned the emotionless usher, opening the oak door to reveal a beautiful apartment painted in muted browns, reds and yellows. Jack smiled as he threw himself on the huge bed, things might not be so bad after all.
Miles away in the town of Viridian City an old man suddenly looked up from his coffee and swore loudly. When asked what's wrong he didn't answer, he was too busy cursing a young, naїve teenager he had met not so long ago.
As the days and weeks passed Jack began to spiral into deep dark depths of depression. True to his word he helped Giovanni. He trained the hardest he had ever trained, working both himself and his Pokémon past all endurance just to forget about the killing. Each kill was like a mark on his very soul, and with each kill he felt that a part of him died.
Everything he did seemed deliberately created to remind him about the heinous acts he was committing on a regular basis. Every match his kill count was announced proudly, every match a pompous eulogy about his truly unrivalled killing skills from Giovanni introduced him, making it impossible for Jack to forget his crimes, even for a moment.
It did not help his conscience that other seemed to elevate him to an almost god-like status because of his "accomplishments". Other fighters viewed a battle against him as a death sentence for their Pokémon, a battle on his side a blessing from God. People flocked to watch his matches, each one of the blood filled gladiatorial fights bringing more and more money to an evil organisation.
The worse thing for Jack, the thing that stoked the depression which threatened to engulf him, was that he was becoming numb to it. That was the first step. After you achieve numbness comes acceptance. After acceptance comes agreement. After agreement comes enjoyment. Jack woke up drenched with sweat on many occasions, too numerous to count, from bloody dreams of becoming a sadistic killer.
He had seen them in the ring, revelling in the pain and blood of the opponent, he had even fought against them, digging hardest to crush them into the ground. It was in these matches, against crazed opponents swallowed by bloodlust, that he scared even himself. In striving to crush those abominations, or so he thought of them, he began to stoop to their level.
He enjoyed the power he held over these people, and that more than anything terrified him. As the saying goes power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Part of him wished that he would finally lose, and that they would have the power over him. A very small part of him.
The only solace that Jack found in those dark times was in that of his egg. As it came closer to hatching the Pokémon's presence expanded out of its organic prison, probing the dreams and minds of those around it. The communication was tentative, tenuous and wordless. When contact was broken or snapped Jack's mind was invaded by bright vivid colours, half-remembered dreams of heaven and an all-pervading feeling of calmness.
Jack could feel the emotions of the presence in the egg, feel its childlike attempts to soothe his depression that was so alien to it, and that caused it such deep confusion. All it knew was the egg, and in that egg seemed to be a world of complete and never-ending happiness that can only be accepted by a young being with such little experience.
Its clumsy attempts made Jack laugh and this past time was what kept him going, even when he was plumbing the deepest darkest depths where man is not welcome.
Whilst he was languishing in the darkness of depression Giovanni visited him. 'How are you doing Champ?' the man asked cheerily, though Jack wasn't fooled. Giovanni thought Jack didn't know about the dark side of him, but he knew all too well.
He had seen one of Giovanni's fellow fighters lose, and had hung around after everyone had left to console him and talk to him about the battle data he had collected (a job assigned by Giovanni. A special device was given to an inactive combatant that would record all the battle data of any match, so the combatants can learn and improve) and witnessed something that would always linger with him whenever Giovanni enticed him with his silver tongue.
The pure brutality of the encounter scared him, and it had shown in his next match when he crushed his weaker opponent with no mercy. Jack got little sleep that night.
Giovanni had picked up the poor kid, his eighteenth birthday only a day away, and shook him. 'How dare you lose? How dare you! Do you know how much money you lost me?' He raged and raged, all the while shaking the kid like he was a doll. Finally Giovanni stopped and a brutal, violent look glistened in the depths of his eyes. He put a hand either side of his defeated fighter's head, and with a vicious flex of his arms snapped the boy's neck.
The loud crack echoed around the empty stadium and Jack stood there, stunned for a second. Then he ran as if the very demons of hell were breathing down his neck and snapping at his heels. After that life felt like a tightrope, getting thinner and higher by the minute, which Jack had to dance his way through, never stopping and looking back. It wasn't a nice feeling.
Jack looked up at Giovanni and spoke in a deadpan tone, 'I'm fine.' Giovanni raised his eyebrows, 'really? Well that's just great. I've come here to tell you that a very special match is coming up for you, and I've drafted in a very special opponent. If you win the four on four battle you will reach your fiftieth kill, and you truly become a legend here. If one of my fighters reach their fiftieth kill, which is very rare I can tell you, I will perform a little ceremony. Not only will you get a nice lump sum of cash and an improved stake in whatever money is made off you, but you will also get the Earth Badge and a rare gift from me.'
At Jack's enquiring look he elaborated slightly, 'the gift is a prototype, a one of a kind. Think of it as extra motivation, which I've seen that you seem to be lacking of late.' He raised his hand as Jack opened his mouth to argue, 'just my opinion. The fight will be tomorrow. I think you're adequately prepared.'
Whenever Jack was escorted to the ring now, he wasn't pushed or shoved by vicious and sadistic grunts. No. He was now escorted like a returning hero, pampered, loved and given gifts and compliments like a shower of confetti. He treated them as such. This fight was huge. Jack only recognised that when he was led past the entrance to the main arena. This fight would be somewhere even better.
The entrance was a slab of solid gold, and that was the least expensive part of the arena. The whole arena was beautifully cut and polished diamond. The battlefield, the walls, the trainer hubs, the stands, the floor, the ceiling – everything was made out of diamond. The effect was disconcerting – think of a whole building made out of solid glass with a slight sapphire tinge – and you'll be the closest you can come to imagining.
But Jack didn't have eyes for the battlefield.
He didn't have eyes for the ridiculous arena that was a scary testament to the power and riches of Team Rocket.
He only had eyes for his opponent. 'Hi Jack.'
Oh shit. Lelana?!