"Wow, they did it."
"Did that meet your expectations?" Yasuhira asked the only woman in the group, who simply crossed her arms and softly huffed.
"Passable."
The Plasma Frigate crashed down onto the ground a few seconds later, creating a rippling shockwave from the explosion of fire and ice that rippled outwards and causing the earth to tremble. The Plasma Frigate is down, one more threat neutralised.
"Over here!" Aaron waved his arm and called out in his booming voice, catching Jayce's attention from where he was flying in the sky above with his honchkrow's help. He landed next to them and the Cards were finally reunited.
"Bravo!" Aaron gave Jayce a slap on his back in encouragement. From the looks of it he might have accidentally used too much strength because he was glaring daggers at him soon after. Oops.
"Colress wasn't with you?"
"No idea where he went," Yasuhira shook his head. Not that it really matters to him where the slimy scientist disappeared to because strictly speaking, his usefulness in this operation had been depleted. From here onwards it's a battle of strength and the three elders had plenty of those.
"The remainder of Team Plasma's army is marching towards Castelia as we speak," Aaron helpfully informed what he sensed through his mastery of Aura. It goes without saying that everyone understood the significance of Castelia to Unova. Both Castelia and Nimbasa are the heart of the region due to its geographical location and economical development. Castelia's importance to Unova is akin to Goldrenrod's importance to Johto; take control of it and you would hold the region in a vice grip.
Castelia cannot be allowed to fall into Team Plasma's hands if they are to stop their plans. Ghetsis is truly planning to end this conflict once and for all and is betting his victory on everything he has. It's truly fortunate that the Plasma Frigate was taken down before it could lay waste to Castelia. It'd be problematic for everyone if it shared Opelucid's fate.
A slight frown on Jayce's face could be spotted when he processed the news dropped by Aaron.
"I cannot leave Castelia like that. Are you guys planning to join in the battle or…?"
"The Unova League is not entirely useless to the point that they cannot handle a siege. I understand that your allegiance is to Unova, if there's something you have to do go do what you have to do, the three of us will keep an eye on the bigger threats," Yasuhira assured their newest member with a lazy wave of his hand while still sipping on his flask of tea. The fight which the three of them were involved in at Undella earlier took a little out of him.
Jayce briefly glanced at the smoking debris of the Plasma Frigate, then turned back to them.
"There's a legendary pokemon called Kyurem on that ship earlier. It should still be within that debris."
"Kyurem? Okay, noted," Yasuhira nodded along despite already knowing about it earlier thanks to Aaron's unbelievable sensing prowess with Aura. A little encouragement to their newest member will go a long way. He's already pretty impressed with what Magician, Hanged Man, and Sun had managed to collectively achieve throughout these few days. Assassinating nearly the entirety of Team Plasma's inner circle until only Ghetsis and the Seven Sages were left, taking out the Plasma Frigate, planning a rescue of the hostages held at Team Plasma's castle. Sure, they did utilise their respective connections and influence to get some external help in order to complete the job, but their own connections and influence is part of their strength as well. There's nothing wrong with using it.
Yasuhira cannot claim that his opinion is able to represent everyone present, but he truly felt that Fool made the right choice including him into their ranks. At the very least, their newest Magician had earned his recognition and acknowledgement.
"Magician," Aline called out to him before he flew off with his honchkrow, prompting him to turn around and face her. She could easily tell that Jayce had not once used the pokemon Tarot had loaned him ever since their mission started.
"If you are planning to go up against an army of Ability Holders, I suggest you use the pokemon we loaned you."
The look on Jayce's face after hearing her suggestion made it clear that he's apprehensive at the idea.
"Whatever it is that you loaned me, it's apparently powerful enough for Tarot to warrant the use of a Master Ball. I'm not the one who captured it and not the one who tamed it. Even the pokedex was unable to identify it and the only thing I can say for certain is that it is a dark type and that it probably is a very vicious pokemon. There's no guarantee that it will take orders from me and no guarantee that it wouldn't kill me the first chance it gets and you are telling me to use it? If you want me to die an "accidental" death there are better ways of going about it."
Was Aline irritated at his reply? Yes, definitely, if anyone dared to rebut her like how Jayce did she would have incinerated him without hesitation but she held her displeasure in because she understood her master. Her master had purposefully gone to seek out a darkrai despite the risks in doing so, and she chose to do it right before she mobilised them to take down Team Plasma. Aline believed that this wasn't a coincidence, the decision for her master to capture and tame a darkrai before loaning it to Magician had to be deliberately planned. Her master believed that Magician would need darkrai's power to tide over this crisis and personally went to such lengths to get him a darkrai. She wouldn't loan it to him if she wasn't confident that darkrai would be cooperative.
Jayce may not fully trust them and to be perfectly honest Aline does not trust him either, but Aline understood her master's intentions far better than anyone else here would.
"I'll let you in on something. That pokemon handed over to you, it was Fool who went to great lengths to personally track, capture, and subsequently tamed it before deciding to loan it to you. If we truly wanted to get rid of you we do not need you to die an "accidental" death. We will just remove you from the picture within minutes and trust me, we can do that. After all, we are Tarot."
"Alright, chill out, guys," Aaron played the role of the mediator and raised his hands in both their directions before turning to Jayce. "But y'know, Aline's right. If we really had to get rid of you we don't need to go to such trouble. Yeah I understand where you are coming from but trust me, if Fool gave you a pokemon like that it would mean that she believed that both of you can work together."
"I'll keep that in mind," Jayce replied after a tense period of silence before flying off with his honchkrow, leaving the three elders alone.
"He still doesn't trust us," Aaron commented with a helpless shrug of his shoulders.
"It's to be expected," Yasuhira nodded before turning to face Aline, "but Fool personally captured a pokemon for him? I don't think they've ever met?"
"It's been who knows how long since we saw her, we could be wrong…" Aaron pondered over the point that his partner had raised. It's a valid question.
"It's a darkrai," Aline revealed.
"Wow, darkrai, talk about playing favourites."
"Were you ever her favourite?"
An explosion from the debris of the airship interrupted their conversation and the three elders turned around to look in its direction.
"Guess it's starting to stir."
"We don't have orders to capture it though? She said capturing the Swords and Victini is enough."
"Nobody would complain about adding another legendary pokemon into our arsenal, much less one that nearly nobody knew the existence of-"
"Until today."
"Did anybody bring along any Master Balls?"
Judging from the way all three of them shared a look with each other in silent askance, probably not. Yasuhira sighed. Why is it always him being everybody's nanny and the one who always ended up picking up after what everyone else forgot to do?
"Fine, let me head back and bring some of those magic balls over real quick."
The siege had already begun when I finally reached Castelia. From where I am above in the sky I had a bird's eye view of the chaos erupting at the edge of the city. From the looks of it I'm convinced that Ghetsis had mobilised all of his forces to Castelia City for one final gambit and the battle was arduous on our side thanks to his powerful Ability Holder army.
Now, I'm actually glad that Colress and I managed to sink the Plasma Frigate before it could reach Castelia. Imagine the devastation that ship could cause to Castelia if what happened to Opelucid was anything to go by. If the Plasma Frigate were to arrive at Castelia it would truly be game over for Unova since I now know that there was a legendary pokemon powering the ship and the tactical weapon built onto it.
Whatever was happening down below was so chaotic that I couldn't quite tell friend from foe at the site of the battle. Battle had erupted on all fronts on both the west and east side of the city and small skirmishes can be spotted near to the south and northern ends as well. Battles on the west side are in a much better state in my opinion since Team Plasma were trying to lay a naval siege but they couldn't get close or even land on solid ground due to a powerful Water Specialist creating violent waves with his water type pokemon. A trainer like that would be someone who I would keep an eye out for going forward, I will have to inquire about his identity with my father once this is all over.
The battles on the eastern side are where things are most heated, chaotic, and outright brutal.
The standard Unova forces were already clashing with Team Plasma's army of Ability Holders at the warfront. I think I spotted a few from EDGE being mobilised to participate in this battle as well. There's also no mistaking the few individuals from the interpol since some of them were being pretty flashy in their battles. I think I even spotted the reinforcements from Hoenn, the two Gym Leaders sent to aid us as a show of goodwill from the Hoenn region. Flannery and Norman, if I recall correctly.
After a quick observation of the battle down below I decided that the best way I could help would be to slip into the backlines of the enemy and create havoc from there. That was what we did as honchkrow carefully flew us above the battlefield until we were at the other end of the Skyarrow Bridge. I could tell that our forces were trying to get past the enemy to blow up the bridge so that Team Plasma could not continue their siege but there were simply too many enemies in their way for them to do that. I had made a detour from the south of Castelia to reach the east side, effectively avoiding the crossfire and while it took a much longer time to finally reach deep within the enemy's lines I succeeded in slipping past them.
"Destroy the bridge."
Hydreigon was pretty excited to make my words a reality as he blew up the bridge in a fireworks of draconic fire and darkness. That act immediately attracted hostile attention of all kinds from all sides and I took out the Master Ball from my pocket.
If a pokemon as powerful as this has to go on an uncontrollable rampage, deep within the enemy's lines is as perfect a place as we are going to get.
"I know you can hear me and I don't know if you are planning to cooperate, but I need to exterminate them. If you don't wish to help me it's fine, I'm always open to negotiations but let's not make violence a means of communication between us, okay?"
I threw the Master Ball down and it finally opened to release the pokemon within. I couldn't immediately identify the pokemon because pitch black darkness blanketed our immediate surroundings, almost like what you would see if you spilled ink all over paper if I have to make a comparison, and the suffocating pressure that the pokemon emitted just by being there took me a few seconds to adjust to as well.
A chilling shriek announced the presence of the pokemon I was loaned from Tarot. It's not huge by any means. In fact, it's height is shorter than mine and it's humanoid in shape. Its entire body is black like a shadow with a white fog-like plume billowing from its head and exposing one lone bright blue eye. There is red spiky growth around its neck and it possesses skinny arms and equally black claw-like hands.
I had never seen one with my own eyes before until now but I still managed to identify this pokemon from its appearance. This is a darkrai, Tarot had loaned a darkrai to me and the implications of the fact that they could capture a darkrai sent a chill down my spine. What else are they not capable of?
Darkrai raised its head, turning back a little to look at me and our eyes met. It broke eye contact with me a second later, turning back to face our opposition and while we never exchanged a single word or thought, I understood what it's trying to convey.
Darkrai is agreeable in aiding me in my fight against Team Plasma. Honestly, the fact that it's willing to do so goes beyond what I was initially hoping for.
The entire battlefield seemed to fall silent upon darkrai's entrance, its presence simply too fear inducing and the aura it emitted too bone chilling for them to know how to react. The fact that it is an unknown pokemon to most of them helped because it is human nature to fear the unknown. We always fear what we do not know.
An inky black orb of dark energy formed between darkrai's hands and it rapidly expanded in size, large enough to filter out the light and cover the area around us in darkness when darkrai held the gigantic dark orb above its head in preparation for a throw. Darkrai screeched in a hair raising howl, the sound of it finally breaking everyone out of the spell that they were seemingly subjected to when darkrai first made its appearance. We watched as an entire army charged in our direction in an unspoken understanding that even if they had no idea what darkrai is, everyone understood that it is a creature too powerful to be ignored and left alone, that it would need their collective effort to take it down before it took them down.
But darkrai is a mythical pokemon and I saw for myself why it was known as such soon enough.
That gigantic orb of dark energy was being released when darkrai flung it in their direction. Even with my knowledge of all dark type moves currently in existence I couldn't identify just what darkrai's attack is. All I could tell is that it has to be a dark type move.
An entirely new and unknown dark type move.
I watched in fascination when the orb enveloped the entire army that we were up against. Instead of the sheer obliteration that I was expecting our enemies had swiftly dropped one after the other like puppets with their strings cut. A closer inspection allowed me to deduce that they were forcefully put to sleep and it was then I remembered that darkrai was described by ancient myths to be a bringer of nightmares. I shouldn't be too surprised that it has a unique method of dragging its foes into a forceful slumber.
From the looks of it the sleep of our enemies is not a peaceful one. Their faces are contorted in discomfort, their bodies covered in cold sweat, some are sleep talking and shouting fearful words in their dreams and I got to see for myself what the personification of nightmares is really capable of, bringing an entire army down to their knees with just a single move.
Seeing this makes me feel glad that darkrai is not acting antagonistic towards me. I wouldn't have any idea how to handle that unknown attack should darkrai choose to turn it upon me instead.
The surprise didn't end there. As I continued watching our victims screaming and tossing about fearfully in their sleep I soon realised that there was an increasing number of them that slowly ceased moving at all. Feeling a little bolder now that I'm certain that darkrai wasn't planning to be hostile to me, I motioned for honchkrow to descend before walking over to one of darkrai's victims. I had my suspicions but when I placed a finger in front of his nostrils I received confirmation that this person was already dead. He wasn't breathing.
Is that darkrai's powers? To put its victims to sleep in an neverending nightmare that ultimately takes their life? No wonder none of the myths about darkrai painted it in a favourable light. This is a very fearsome power.
"You are really strong," I cannot help but tell darkrai a few minutes later when the entire battlefield turned silent. Ghetsis' best soldiers, artificially modified and enhanced to become artificial Ability Holders with Resonance at their disposal, having their lives so easily reaped by one pokemon who only used one single move to drop them into an eternal slumber. The entire battlefield is littered with their bodies and of their pokemon, each and every of their faces contorted into an expression of fear that is affixed on their faces that showed very well how they felt in their last moments.
Darkrai returned my praise with a low and hollow howl. My ability allowed me to vaguely understand what it was trying to ask me and I'm not too sure if I should be surprised that my ability was able to work on mythical beings as well.
"My name is Jayce. Jayce Dandolos."
Darkrai nodded once in acknowledgement. It looked up at the sky and I looked up as well to see what had caught its attention. The sky is currently bathed in an orange-purple hue. The sun is starting to set.
"You like to watch the sunset?" I asked and Darkrai nodded in answer, looking oddly peaceful and subdued as it looked in the direction of the sea in the western end. This is definitely not a behaviour that I would expect from a fearsome being that just massacred an entire army minutes before.
We both enjoyed the comfortable silence for a little longer until darkrai mysteriously vanished by slinking into the shadow beneath its feet and reappearing to stand by my side. Not gonna lie, that spooked me a little despite me knowing that darkrai and I had somewhat of a friendly relationship going on at the moment.
I watched as darkrai seemingly plucked off something from the long black tatters hanging from its shoulders. A small piece of it came off, looking like some sort of wispy thin cloth billowing in the wind about the length of a finger and I was pleasantly surprised when it offered it to me.
"A gift? Thank you," I accepted darkrai's kind offer and after some quick consideration, decided to place it in the inner pocket of my coat. Darkrai wasn't agreeable to that, however, for it grabbed my wrist before I could store his gift away, took back that wispy black cloth-looking thing, and shoved it into my opened mouth before I could do or say anything. I couldn't even spit it out because I had already swallowed it on reflex.
I bent down on my knees and released a few uncontrollable coughs from the sudden rough treatment before turning to look at darkrai in silent askance of what the hell was that for. Darkrai didn't give me an answer, but it seemed oddly pleased at itself for what it had done to me and returned to gazing at the setting sun far ahead with such peacefulness that you wouldn't associate with such a fearsome looking pokemon wielding an equally fearsome power.
Darkrai just made me eat a piece of it, and I have no idea what to think about that.
Name: Jayce Dandolos
Age: 23
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Umbreon, male
6. Hydreigon, male
7. Drapion, female
8. Zoroark, male
9. Bisharp, male
10. Shiftry, male
11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless
12. Greninja, male
13. Spiritomb, male
14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male