Chapter 23
June 21st, 2006
The grunts jumped off of each other when Lugia broke through the wall. Drops of rain slowly accumulated into the building, making the floor sparkle with a sheen of cool water. The building shook as debris tumbled from the broken walls and scattered all across the room. Dust filled the air and it caused a few people to breakout in a series of harsh and painful coughs. The crowd stared as the beast disappeared from view into the dark, stormy night sky. It was quiet except for the continued tussling noises from Proton and the opposing rocket grunt. Serena and Ash were still fighting him as well; the two friends were locked in a tight tussle on the floor. Serena had grabbed a hold of one of Proton's guns and slid it on the ground towards Clemont. The steel scarped against the floor, causing a strange, plastic-like sound that just didn't make sense to the ears, though they were all a little messed up from the crashes from Lugia. The bispeckled gym leader gave it a malevolent look before ignoring the harsh pain in his leg and reaching over and grabbing a firm hold of it. He did a quick lock of the gun and held onto it carefully. It wasn't something he wanted to hold onto let alone feel in his palms.
Ash had snagged the other gun and quickly jumped off of the Rocket executive. He held onto the gun and pointed it directly at Proton, Clemont stared. Between Serena and the other Rocket grunt, they managed to straddle and restrain Proton on the tiled floor. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Proton spat to the grunt, he quite literally spat in his face as well. The grunt barely took notice. "You're working for Team Rocket you moron, you signed a contract stating that you can't oppose any of this without severe punishments, and Giovanni knows exactly what is happening right now, he always knows."
"Empty threats." The grunt said with a shrug. "Giovanni can do whatever he wants to me. My life is just one compared to the thousands that were in risk. I took my chances and did what I was planning to do from the very start. Team Rocket is easier to infiltrate than what I expected. All I needed was a fake ID and bam; the G-Men have a spy in Team Rocket. Team Rocket has been beaten twice before in the past, why not a third?" He laughed, "The people who disbanded the Johto headquarters before are in this very room, a few extra G-Men in our presence, the better. Just so you know, Lance knows exactly what is happening right now, he always knows." He smiled down at the green-haired executive.
Proton stared at the grunt with a narrow eyed glare. "Who the hell are you?" He demanded in a yell.
"The person who tricked a whole evil organization, that's who." He said smugly. "I never expected you all to be this stupid. I knew you were all idiots in the first place, but this is honestly pretty laughable."
"I'll remember your face." Proton sneered. "All traitors of Team Rocket will be found and they will receive the proper punishments for their actions, just you wait, nothing will barricade us, not even the protection of the League."
"I'd like to see you try." The grunt retorted and Proton wiggled roughly to try and break free, a leg coming out of Serena's grasp and kicking her in the face. Serena let out a cry and the knee went up to knock the grunt in the back, he let out a gasp, the wind leaving his chest, but barely budged otherwise. Serena constrained his legs again and held onto him tightly. Clemont could see that she was digging her nails into him. "Shoot him." The grunt ordered Ash.
"What?" Ash remarked. "A-are you serious?" His eyes widened at the nod he had gotten in response.
"I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't serious." The grunt didn't look at him. "I know who you are, you know who I am, we've spoken on more than one occasion. You can trust me, just shoot the gun."
"I..." Ash started.
"Ash, move." Clemont said, a surge of braveness rushed through his body like a drug. He had no fear in his body, not an ounce. He pushed himself up off of the floor and gingerly limped over to the group, it was clear that he was favouring one leg rather than the other. He turned the safety off on the gun and cocked it, pointing it at Proton. "I'll do it." He said scarily calm.
"Clemont—" Ash was cut off.
"Shoot!" The grunt insisted.
Proton narrowed his eyes, "You don't have the guts."
Clemont wasn't shaking like he expected to be. He positioned the gun and in a loud reverberating bang, the gun went off. "I think I do." He said. "You shot me, hurt Serena; I had plenty of guts to be able to shoot you." He hissed. "You are the one who deserves punishment."
The room was quiet. Everybody was in awe of what had transpired before them. Proton didn't even make a sound; he stared at Clemont wide eyed with one hand clamped tightly over his shoulder. Proton's mouth was a gape. There was a series of screeches as Ho-Oh ripped itself free, taking the baby Lugia with it. Ho-Oh's eyes were ablaze with anger and hatred. It stretched its beak wide and formed a streak of white hot flames and sent the beam across the room. Explosions went off, making everybody's ears ring in different degrees. Clemont grabbed Serena and Ash and pulled them towards the stairs. He had to get these two out, they some of the most important things to him. Their safety was at the upmost importance to the inventor.
Gin had grabbed Gary and Lyra much like Clemont had, instead he pulled them harshly towards a staircase in the corner of the room. It looked as if he was trying to pull their arms out of their sockets. "They're angry; we need to calm them down." He instructed. Lyra stared at the red-haired man with narrowed eyes. They suddenly widened as if something made sense.
"You're—" The man didn't let her finish and shoved her to the stairs.
"We need to go now." He insisted.
"What about Sammy?" Gary asked.
Gin still held onto them as he took two steps at a time. "Celebi's gone. There's not much help he can do other than fight. We're more important."
"What about the other protectors?" Lyra asked.
"They'll work on what they need to do. We just need to focus on what we need to do." Gary and Lyra raced up after the red-haired man and Gin swung a large door open. They were standing on the uppermost deck of the tower. They had access to the outside. It was metal all around them and the sky was a dark blue-gray. Both Lugias and Ho-Oh were circling the sky rampantly. Gary had pulled out another pokéball; he had left Blastoise, Nidoking and Nidoqueen downstairs. He just hoped that Leaf would notice and take them with her, or for the others to take them too. He didn't care who so long as they were with somebody trustworthy.
Gary clenched Umbreon's pokéball tightly. He stared as Lugia stared back down at him. He had only one option and it wasn't a good one, or his first choice to do in this situation.
He had to battle it.
June 21st, 2006
Clemont's arm was yanked as Ash pulled his arm free. "What are you doing?" Serena asked him quickly, "We need to go!"
"I need to find Leaf!" He insisted. "She's probably freaking out right now, she's experienced too much stuff and could be in the middle of a breakdown, that and I need to find where they stored my pokéballs, you guys go on ahead and grab other people. I'll be out soon."
"Ash don't be stupid!" Clemont protested. "It's too dangerous, there are grunts that are probably willing to kill after what I've done to Proton, we need to go now."
"I'm not leaving!" Ash refused. "I'll be okay, I promise!" He smiled fondly at his two worried friends. "My journey's not ending here so don't worry. I'll be there in ten minutes."
Clemont stared at his friend. He let out a sigh of defeat and shook his head slightly. "I'll be counting so you better be out in ten minutes."
Ash laughed with a nod. "Yeah, don't you worry about it!" He gave them a thumbs up and dashed away in the blink of an eye.
Clemont rolled his eyes at Ash's antics. There was a tug on his arm from Serena, he glanced over at her and he could clearly read the worry on her face. "Are you sure we should let him go off on his own?" She asked.
"He's Ash; he's both an amazing and really confusing person. He always ends up being just fine when he's by himself right? Ash will be okay."
A faint smile graced on her lips. "You're right." She agreed. "You are most of the time anyway."
"That's hardly true," Clemont said as he hurried along, tugging her with him. The blazes were becoming more prominent now and had sent a jolt of fright through Clemont's nerves. He hadn't noticed the bright flames because of his distraction with Ash. Now that Clemont had one free hand, he reached and clenched onto a pokéball. Grunts were still racing around the building, either busy trying to put out the flames, catch the people fleeing, or fleeing themselves.
He skidded around a tall shelf and pushed Serena through a door that lead to a winding staircase, the same one Clemont had used before when he first reached the top floor. Serena grabbed a hold of him again and raced down the stairs, a few steps in front of him. He felt himself reeling as Serena dragged him along. He tried to pull his hand from hers.
"You can get away faster if—"
"Don't bother," she said breathlessly, "I'm not letting you leave me too." Her grip tightened on his hand and her eyes had such a fierceness to them, like a pyroar.
They went further and further down the stairs. The unexpectedly, a huge rumble shook the building, little pieces rained down on them, they weren't dancing through the air like the leaves falling from trees in autumn. They crashed down hard on them like softball-sized chunks of hail. The cement hurting just as much, or more, than the rock hard ice pellets.
Clemont could hear the terrified screams from floors above them. His heart raced in distress. They were sure to die.
June 21st, 2006
Gary narrowed his eyes. Three of his strongest pokémon were not with him, half of his team was gone so he and the last three pokémon he had they all had to work their hardest they could, the same went for Lyra and Gin, they faced the same fate that he did.
Lugia slithered through the air like a snake. It's rage overtaking its mind. The one little mistake made by Proton had set it off into a wild tangent of anger and hatred, Lugia had no conscious thought and it wasn't really to blame. It had undergone something horrible and scarring and its mind had reached its limit. Thunder rumbled loudly behind them.
Gary tried to steady his rapidly beating heart but as he expected, he was unsuccessful, giving up on his attempts. In one swift movement, he threw the pokéball in his hand high into the air.
"Umbreon!" His pokémon snarled. Lugia stilled, its eyes tracing carefully over Umbreon. "Breon!" The dark-type hissed again.
A thought struck Gary; Umbreon was against a psychic and flying type legendary. Gary clenched his fists, he had the upper hand. "You can do this Umbreon. We just need to get it to regain its focus into a positive light." Lugia screeched and spread its wings wide. Its jaw unhinged and out came a wild tornado of wind. It pushed Gary backwards so he stumbled and tripped over his own feet. He steadied himself and glared at the wild beast. "Hidden power!"
Bright white balls appeared out of thin air. In one swift movement, the many balls shot like bullets, each landing solidly against the massive pokémon. Lugia barely flinched at the impacts. Gary frowned, "Hidden power again!" Umbreon repeated the action; bright white balls of light sparked up and grew around the dark-type. The attack hit dead on again, however, this time the wild pokémon let out a cry, one sounding more pained than before, but only slightly. Gary could easily pick up on the tone change in its voice. There was a loud crack as lightning split the sky, illuminating the backs of the three legendries for a brief moment. Their powerful statures loomed over them even more with the quick flash of their black silhouettes in front of the bright white light.
Ho-Oh and Lugia's child had moved in. A tall Azumarill stood beside Lyra while a sinister looking Gengar was next to Gin. Gary could see the red-head's eyes quickly flick from Lyra to the pokémon and back and forth again multiple times in a matter of seconds.
"We all attack on the count of three." Lyra ordered. "Use moves that will cause the most damage at a far range."
"Got it." Gary and Gin spoke simultaneously.
"Three," Lyra started and beside her Azumarill stepped forward, tensing its muscles.
"Two," Gin added next, Gengar let out a loud cackle with its tongue sticking out of its mouth. It stepped forward too.
"One," Gary breathed and Umbreon leapt forward with a snarl.
There was an agonizing pause that in reality was a few seconds only. "Now!" The three shouted in unison.
"Shadow ball!" Gary commanded.
In a booming voice Lyra ordered, "Water pulse!"
Gin spoke much more quietly than the two, but held more authority. "Shadow ball as well!"
The three moves all shot off at the same time, crossing balls of dark, shadowy matter and a swirling torrent of water before they crashed into each designated pokémon respectively.
The smell of smoke reached Gary's nose and the fear-inducing, death causing, black smoke billowed out of the building to his left, the building rumbled viciously underfoot. Gary grimaced. "We are the protectors of Johto, we need to save the region, Team Rocket is already taken care of, now it's up to us to finish this conflict." He said. "It's up to us."
"Don't forget that there are four other protectors!" A voice laughed behind him. "We expected that you'd need as much help as you can get, especially from some G-Men!" Gary smiled slightly, even after meeting the guy for a few brief moments, that energetic voice was easily recognisable. Ethan appeared in the open space next to him, a grin was plastered on his face as he stared at the flying pokémon. "Let's kick some ass once and for all!"
"Don't harm them too much." Kris advised. "They're just infatuated with hate. They just need to realise the truth, the best option is to talk. Fighting will just antagonise them more and make the situation worse. Fighting is out last priority understood?" There were a series of nods. Gary didn't doubt that he was in the real presence of the G-Men.
"Why are you out here?" Gin demanded, "Who's taking care of things inside?"
"Khoury." Ethan replied, he kept his gaze off of Lyra purpousfully.
"Khoury?" She gasped. "He's here?"
Gin's red eyed hardened. "Why the hell would you say that?" He demanded.
Ethan locked eyes with Gin. "She has a right to know, Gin."
"Ethan shut up!" Kris ordered.
"Why is Khoury here? Why are you two here?" Lyra asked, hurt, but also hope swam in the depths of her eyes. "We're you all here this whole time?"
"That will be discussed later." Kris said. "We have more pressing matters to deal with other than personal relationships."
"I think this is very important!" Lyra shouted. "I've been looking for you two everywhere and Khoury! I searched through Goldenrod and Ecruteak! Did you know I was looking for you? Did you know I was here? Did you know about what I was?"
"Lyra, your emotions are taking over." Gin said.
Lyra whipped around to look at him. "You're not really who you are either. You're not Gin. I knew it! I knew you were familiar!"
"Lyra—"
Lyra cut him off. "Why haven't you spoken to me?"
"Lyra—"
Gary rushed to her side, this wasn't needed right now. Gray grabbed a hold of her arm and looked down at her. "I'm not sure what is happening right now, but trust these guys and everything will make sense."
Lyra stared up at him, pulling her arm away. "Fine,"
Another voice cursed loudly, "They're attacking!" Gray whipped his head around, Ritchie was there, he hadn't even noticed because he hadn't spoken until now. The man's hat was gone and his hair was tussled. He had a Pikachu in front of him that was sparking electricity. "We can't talk, they only have one objective on their mind and that is to stop us." His eyes widened sharply. "Brace yourselves!"