CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Eternal Nemesis

Knowing that the blow Saya's entire body suffered from falling off of a giant flying battleship didn't make it any less painful when she hit the ground and fell unconscious, waking up what felt to her like hours later to find herself lying in a dense forest. The rays of sunlight gleaming through the canopy warmed her skin and steadily eased the pain as she lay there longer, but the calm mood switched to intense confusion when she saw the thing that had woken her up.

Seconds before she had regained consciousness, she felt something very lightly poking at her cheek and her very distinct grunting like that of a large animal. Now that she was awake, she could see that there was indeed a large animal on all fours standing near her, but certainly not the kind she was expecting. As she sat up, the brown-haired and red-tied gorilla steadily approached her with a very expressive grin on his face. He let out another series of grunts and lightly tapped her forehead right as Saya became aware of a weight on her lap. She turned to find an even stranger sight: another ape standing on her legs with a red baseball cap on his head and a red T-shirt pulled over him, his tail wagging rapidly, contradictory to his very chimpanzee-like appearance. He scratched his head and let out a small and curious hoot.

"Umm…hello?" said Saya, not really sure what to say to these creatures to get their approval. She knew that apes (gorillas in particular) could get very violent when provoked, and who was to say they wouldn't consider speaking to them in a language they most likely didn't understand…amusing?

The gorilla let out a loud and cheery hoot, lightly beating his chest as did his chimp companion and Saya giving the two of them an awkward smile. At least she'd gotten on their good side.

"Umm…oh, what's the point? They're monkeys, for goodness sake."

"SAYA!"

The gorilla and chimp looked away from Saya and focused on the approaching Jill, Mewtwo, and Mac. As far as the two apes could tell, they weren't a threat aside from Jill having a holstered gun on her belt. Thankfully, she knew better than to whip it out at them. That, and it didn't seem necessary, but it certainly was odd seeing what she assumed were wild apes in a forest in Japan so far from where one would normally see them.

"Uh, Saya?" Mac asked. "What's with the monkeys?"

The gorilla let out a series of hoots and made several motions with his hand, stroking his fingers along his open palm and twisting his fingers into various shapes and signals. Neither the three humans understand a thing that he was doing, but their Pokémon companion was quick to explain.

"Ah, I see." Mewtwo said with a smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you, too."

"You understand him?" Saya asked.

"Yes. He is using sign language."

"Really? What's he saying?"

"He is introducing himself. His name is Donkey Kong."

The gorilla let out another light-hearted hoot and held up his tie to them, pointing at the bright yellow letters on it. Mewtwo smirked.

"DK for short. And his little companion is named Diddy Kong."

"Anyhow," Jill started, still wary of their simian companions. "We've gotta get you back to that…oh, now what?"

As she had started to speak, there came a low thumping sound from elsewhere, steadily growing closer and closer as time went on. As the sound grew louder, Saya's head started to smart again as she heard another horrifying memory, this time from within Jill's mind.

"My God…how did he find me?!"

What followed Jill's terrified pant was a deep and death-like voice uttering only a single word. Saya hadn't a clue what it meant, but she was at the very least unnerved by its tone.

"Staaaaaaaarssss…."

She finally shook the memory out and stared at Jill, who was steadily taking out her handgun. She noticed Mewtwo's eyes glowing brightly as he looked about, Mac cracking his knuckles in defiant confidence despite there being a visible line of sweat on his brow, DK lightly beat his chest and furrowed his brow, and Diddy pulled out two wooden gun-like objects that Saya speculated weren't going to cause much damage to whatever was coming. Another jolt of pain went through Saya's head, this time prominent enough to cause her to cry out in pain and rub the smarting spot.

"Saya, what's wrong?!" Jill asked.

"…something's coming…something deadly."

She looked Jill in the eyes and uttered the one word that could possibly have ruined Jill's stoic and fearless expression.

"…Nemesis."

Even Mewtwo and DK grew shocked with what happened next. They knew that whatever was coming couldn't be friendly, but little did they know that what was coming was nothing they could have possibly imagined.

They could see its shape through the trees and finally its frontal appearance. To say the least, it was horrifying to look at. It was over seven feet in height and garbed in a heavy leather coat covering most of its body aside from its legs outfitted with leather pants. In fact, the only visible part of its skin was its face, but this had to be its most disgusting attribute. It looked as though it didn't have lips, its gums and teeth showing prominently and showing signs of rotting. Its face looked as though it had been stitched together, and not very well. A great deal of its skin looked melted especially around its neck with strange violet tubes coming from its neck and wrapping around its shoulders, and it had only one lifeless eye on the right side of its head.

As it came closer, it looked up and fixed its gaze on Jill, growling under its breath and cracking its knuckles.

"Oh my God…" Jill whimpered.

"STAAAAAAAAAARSSS!"

With the bellowing of the one word he knew, the furious Nemesis broke into a sprint toward them, raising his fist as he came close enough and having it stopped in mid-air as Mewtwo telekinetically seized it just in time. Nemesis let out an angry shout before one of the tubes wrapped around his shoulder revealed itself as a tentacle and wrapped itself around Mewtwo's arm, yanking the Pokémon forward and allowing the ungodly abomination of a living thing to deliver a strong strike across the face.

"This can't be happening…this is just a Poltergeist, right?!" Jill thought to herself, reflexively aiming her handgun and firing at Nemesis' forehead over and over again in a futile attempt to make a dent in him.

All the bullets did was make Nemesis even more furious as he marched on Jill, DK getting in the way and winding up a strong punch. When the punch connected, Nemesis strained his face but otherwise showed no visible signs of pain, letting out a deep growl before slamming his forehead against his opponent's.

"What's going on?!" Mac shouted. "Why can't we hurt him?!"

"NOTHING hurts him!" Jill cried. "Oh, God, I can't believe he actually came back…"

"What the hell do we do, then?!"

"The only thing we can! RUN!"

And they ran. Good God did they run, and good God did Nemesis give chase. Even a mighty gorilla like DK knew better than to fight something that barely even reacted to him punching it as hard as he could. Through the bushes and between trees, the group kept moving as fast as they could with Nemesis in hot pursuit, roaring in nonsensical fury and smashing anything that got in his way. Jill wasn't really sure why since she knew it wouldn't do a thing, but she kept firing back at him in a desperate attempt to hit something…ANYTHING to possibly slow him down.

She didn't. The bullets made contact and fell uselessly away, bury into Nemesis' skin but sadly not harm him, and there was even an unlucky case of a few of them ricocheting off of him and zip past the fleeing group's ears.

"Damn it…there's only one thing for it." Saya growled, squeezing her eyes shut as she clenched her fists and tried to well her stress up into enough anger to give her at least partial access to her cursed power. "Come on…got it!"

The thought of being relentlessly chased by something that S.I.N. had let loose on her allies just to torture them was irritating enough for her, and she took one look back at Nemesis before putting her reckless plan into effect. Upon passing the nearest tree, she seized it with both hands and with a loud battle cry, she marvelled her allies as she ripped it from the ground roots and all before raising it over her head as Nemesis approached her.

"You ever heard of tree huggers? What about when the tree hugs YOU, sucker?!"

Nemesis had no time to stop Saya before she slammed the tree down on him, sending a massive tremor shooting through the forest floor and very nearly knocking her allies over, though bringing a great amount of relief to them…until the mutated beast sent terror shooting through them again when he split the tree into splinters with only a couple clean punches.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Saya screamed.

Nemesis released another menacing roar as a fleshy blade sprouted from the palm of his hand before he lunged at the marvelled Saya. Thankfully, Mac was having none of that as he rushed forward and leaped just in time for his fist to make contact with the side of Nemesis' head, obtaining a small scratch from his blade but managing to knock him backwards anyway. Much to Mac and Saya's dismay, however, the great mutant monster was back on his feet in seconds.

"Sweet mother of mercy, this thing's unstoppable!" Mac hollered.

They turned on their heels and ran again, not sure of where they were running and just trying to get away. By the looks of it, though, there was no getting away. Nemesis would chase them to the ends of the earth and back if he could catch them. Even if they were staying a fair distance from him, it still felt like he was gaining on them with the heavy thumping of his feet very much crashing against the ground and his constant roaring and shouting of "STAAAAAAAAARSSS!" It seemed like the path was endless. They kept jumping over bushes and snaking through trees with Nemesis in hot pursuit, the whole time wracking their brains for any possible way to stop him. They couldn't find one…until they heard a light rushing sound and found themselves running across a wooden bridge.

There was a river some distance below them, the surprisingly deep water rushing fast and relentlessly. The bridge stretching over the gorge seemed strong enough to hold up even Nemesis, but if the bridge were to be destroyed, there would be nothing to stop an unaided passerby from falling into the raging waters below and likely drowning. The first one to realize this was Mewtwo, and he knew that only he would be a big enough fool to try the plan in his head as he put it into action, stopping once they had reached the other side.

"Mewtwo, what are you doing?!" Saya cried. "Run!"

"I know what I'm doing! Go!" the Psychic Pokémon shouted back to her.

"No way in hell!"

Saya ran forward in a vain attempt to pull Mewtwo away from the quickly approaching Nemesis. From there, everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Mewtwo carried out his plan as quickly as possible. With one hand, he telekinetically repulsed her and gave her a soft smile. He was grateful that she was concerned for him, but that wasn't going to stop this monstrosity, was it? He turned back to Nemesis who was now very nearly right on top of him and focused all of his energy into one strike, looking at the behemoth with glowing blue eyes.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" he bellowed as he unleashed a massive storm of psychic energy.

The energy slamming into its supports and utterly ruining them, the bridge began to creak and splinter underneath Nemesis' feet, causing him to look around in disbelief and fury before his glare settled on Mewtwo. He let out an angry growl and stepped forward with his hand outstretched, but as he did, the bridge finally gave way and he let out one final roar of anguish before he fell to what seemed to be his doom.

Saya breathed a sigh of relief as did the rest, but not for the same reason she had. Mewtwo had indeed taken down possibly one of the worst threats they'd encountered yet other than Ridley, but she was just relieved he hadn't been hurt. He stepped back toward her…and was then suddenly pulled backward and over the cliff!

"No!" Saya cried, lunging forward and seizing Mewtwo's hand at the last possible second.

She may as well have grabbed onto a small boat, the strain ripping through her arm like fire. Nemesis had made a last ditch effort to stop himself from falling by grabbing whatever he could with his tentacle, which just so happened to be Mewtwo's ankle. With the intense weight of both Nemesis and Mewtwo shooting intense waves of pain through her body, it was only a matter of time before Saya's grip finally slipped.

"Saya…" Mewtwo whispered. "Please…let me go."
"No! I'm not letting another person die because of me!"

"Saya."

She looked deep into her Pokémon friend's eyes. She saw probably the most unbelievable thing she could ever see in someone's eyes at that moment: a lack of fear. Mewtwo wasn't afraid to die. He wasn't afraid to sacrifice himself for her.

"Too many times, people have made sacrifices for me. Now I want to make a sacrifice for you."
"It's because of Amber…because you couldn't save her."
"Yes. I look in your eyes and I see her. Promise me that you'll stop them. Promise me that my sacrifice won't be in vain."

She wanted to promise him that, but the sadness was just too much for her. She couldn't say it. She couldn't let someone else die for her. She was just like him in that too many people had done such a thing for her, but she couldn't do anything to stop this. Nemesis was still holding on, and Saya was starting to lose her grip.

"You have the power, Saya…all you have to do is control it."

And thus, Mewtwo couldn't hold on any longer. His hand finally slipped from Saya's as he fell away her, Nemesis dragging him down with him into the deadly waters below. The forest echoed with Saya's scream of anguish and rage. Yet another life was lost because she had failed to act, and it was a wonder she didn't ultraburst right then and there.

She slammed the ground with her fists, not caring if they ended up bleeding as a result. She felt so ashamed and heartbroken. This whole calamity was because of her and now she'd lost ten allies. She wanted to just drop dead and take Yami's power with her, but no. He wouldn't let that happen, would he?

"Saya…" Jill said in a sad tone as she holstered her gun and knelt down next to the weeping girl. "I…I'm so sorry."

Saya had no words left to speak. She let herself lean up against Jill, Jill herself wrapping her arms around Saya in an attempted hug of comfort while Mac, DK, and Diddy lowered their heads in mourning. Nothing could comfort Saya in this moment, though. Nothing but thinking ahead.

She could see Jedah's pompous face in her mind. She could see him laughing at her. Laughing at her suffering at losing yet another friend. The longer she thought about him, the more furious she became. Before long, she finally found the strength to stand and the group began proceeding along the cliff to find another way back to the city.

"I'm gonna kill him…I'm gonna kill them all for you, Mewtwo. I won't let your sacrifice be in vain. Not now, not ever…"

The group was too far away now to notice what was going on beneath the waves. As if steadily losing air wasn't enough to give Mewtwo distress, Nemesis had to pull him closer and begin brutally beating him to top it off. Trickles of Mewtwo's blood clouded the water in front of Nemesis' face in moments as they continued to sink further and further, but through the red haze, there came a glowing blue light. Not just Mewtwo's eyes lighting up, but his whole body wrapped up by a strong aura.

"So you think that after my futile attempt at slowing you down, I'm not a threat anymore?" Mewtwo said, his voice echoing prominently. "That my powers were good, but not great?"

Mewtwo's body began to change, glowing brilliantly as his limbs and torso extended. Nemesis could feel the great power building up, trying to strike Mewtwo again but just barely failing to do so. At last when the light stopped, the last thing Nemesis felt before his consciousness faded away was Mewtwo's powerful hand clenching his throat.

"Let me assure you that this is just the beginning!"

Introduce two more characters, kill off an older one (not really because Mega Evolution). That's the way the cookie crumbles.

On the subject of DK, has anyone here played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze? That's a pretty cool game if you'll pardon the expression. Give a try if you haven't already.

And referring to that thing I was talking about in the last chapter's notes regarding another fanfic idea: Twilit Smash Nova, you just hit the nail right on the head. Feel free to call me a dork now.