Chapter 12: Sky Cult Surprises.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Moon asked, he had decided to take Ruekra up on the idea and went and found the lady tutor in Helios in the middle of the park. When the old lady turned to face him on the bench, she let out a smile at Sunny, who was sitting on Moon's shoulder.

"Ah…I see you've heard about my special skill huh?" The lady asked. "Well, I'm glad to hear that another person is interested in unlocking their Eevee's fullest potential instead of just half-hazardly evolving it into one of the evolutions that best fit their team."

"Yes, I was told you could teach Eevee moves that it couldn't normally learn." Moon replied. "So…how exactly does that work."

"Well, my family has been teaching the master arts of eevee's evolutionary moves for years. I have a sister over in Gaea Town, the hometown of our original Augur. She's more focused on the competitive aspect of Mega Eevee."

Moon blinked, Ruekra had told him about Mega Eevee, but he was still curious.

"Now then dear, give your precious Eevee the mega stone if you would so please." Moon nodded his head and took the brown and white stone, handing it to Sunny. Once the stone made contact, rainbow light glowed from Sunny, and the Mega stone.

Once the light settled down, Moon looked as Sunny emerged. Its lightly tanned fur now surrounded it entirely, with the brown fur taking up a mane like role. Sunny also now had white ears with yellow halo rings surrounding them, it had two different colored eyes, one red and one green. And, surrounding Sunny's body were 8 different colored spheres, Red, Yellow, Dark Blue, Black, Purple, Green, Light Blue, and Pink, which floated around Sunny.

"Now deary, Mega Eevee is a bit special." Moon looked at the lady. "Its base stats are nothing impressive, they're 83 across the board, even its health. Nothing great, but nothing spectacular."

Moon nodded his head.

"Where Eevee truly gets its power, in its mega form, comes in its ability, Protean Maxima. Do you know how Protean for Pokemon like Greninja simply changes its typing? Well, for Eevee, it actually changes into the evolution of the type of move it was using. Gaining its stats, abilities, and typing."

"I think I understand…" Moon replied. "So…If I were to have Sunny use…Thunderbolt? He'd turn into a Jolteon?"

"Correct. Even though your Eevee is now a Jolteon, it can still access Protean Maxima and switch to a different form as Jolteon. So you could try to bait a Ground move and switch to Leafeon instead. However, should Eevee use a Normal type move, it will revert back to the base Mega Form. Using a move with no corresponding Eevee evolution, like say…Shadow Ball, Eevee will just use whatever form it is in currently."

"I see…" Moon replied. "So…I imagine Eevee can only have two moves capable of transforming it at a time then?"

"Nonsense, you can make Eevee's whole moveset if you'd like. Now, here is the list of moves that I can teach your Eevee. One move for each Evolution, my sister could teach you more."

Moon looked at the list. Flare Blitz, Hydro Pump, Thunderbolt, Psychic, Foul Play, Leaf Blade, Ice Beam, and Moonblast.

"You can always come back at any time if you want to switch."

"Thank you, just give me a couple minutes."

After about 10 minutes, and a 5 minute trek back through the sewers and Perfection Base, where he didn't actually see Ruekra or Taen, Moon arrived at the 3rd floor to the Jade tower, with no sign of the sky cult in sight.

When he reached the top, he found Damien, who was busy talking to Jaern, as well another man, who Moon assumed must've been East, the Helios Gym leader. Given the man's very professional suit and tie, fancy cane, and sky blue hair.

"Oh good!" Damien breathed a sigh of relief as Moon came into view. "Moon, you can back me up. You're the one that heard the Sky Cult?! Right?!"

"I did," Moon replied, looking Jaern in the eye. He sensed a bit of concern in the second Augur's face as he said that. "The sky cult apparently blew up some hole, trapping a hiker and his family inside, they said they were going to use the Scroll of Dragon Ascension to get you to give Rayquaza to them, they said they had some type of blackmail they'd expose to the region if you didn't."

Jaern simply looked at East, Moon suspiciously saw the Gym leader give the second Augur a shrug.

"Well…that's very unfortunate…" Jaern said, after a moment of silence. "Of course the Sky cult would pick now of all times to try…I'm afraid my hand has been dealt. I've got no choice. Come on out."

Moon looked over, and, like Damien, he gasped as the same four members he had saw at the desert, the four Sky Cultists walked in from the opposite room, and stood next to Jaern, as well as East.

"You…you…" Damien stuttered.

"Correct, I am the leader of the Sky Cult." Jaern said. "I started the cult years ago, just after I had started working for the first Augur. It was never my intention to get rid of him, at first. However, I saw that his methods weren't working. At first, my group was small, just a rag tag group of individuals. All desiring one thing, Change."

"But…why?" Damien asked. "The first Augur was changing things?!"

"Oh, how naive you can be." Jaern replied. Moon sensed a bit of pity in the man's voice. "You see, the first Augur was the perfect hero of the people. With his partner, Hoopa, he defeated cult after cult, trying to bring good values to the people of Torren, such as peace, love…and…most importantly…mercy."

Based on that statement, Moon had a pretty good idea of where Jaern was going.

"The Augur, being the merciful man he was, he forgave anyone who begged him to, letting criminals in those cults go unpunished. As a result…many of the members of the disbanded cults he took down, just joined other ones…repeating the cycle in tandem. For every one person who didn't turn their life around, 100 more just went back after the Augur forgave them."

Moon chanced a look at Damien, the young boy looked rather angry.

"The Augur was a strong trainer, but he was also a coward. Not able to deliver the necessary justice needed to keep the region safe. That's why I, along with the other members of the sky cult, dealt with him, crowning myself his successor. With a new Augur, myself, we could cure Torren of the disease plaguing us every day…for good."

"You'll never get away with this!" Damien protested. "You…you're a murderer! A monster!"

Jaern simply sighed. "I figured telling you the truth wouldn't satisfy you. As for getting away with it…look around you…I already have. With a bit of propaganda, I've already got the whole region on my side…and now that you two know the truth…I won't let you blab about my identity. Realistically, no one would believe you, except maybe the other cults. But no one is going to listen to them anyway."

"So then…" Moon asked. "What exactly is your goal here? And, my more important question, if you are who you are, why is Rayquaza on your side?"

Jaern gave him a rather displeased look. "I must admit, I'm surprised you never realized that I don't actually have Rayquaza. Not yet at least. I mean, no one has ever seen me with it. But it was better for the region to think I did have it rather than not. Give them hope that I'll keep it safe from the sky cult."

Moon had to admit, that was actually pretty clever.

"But, once I have Rayquaza, with its unmatched strength and control of the sky. I can be omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. I would be able to create a utopia, free of war and crime! Where people can feel safe and secure, where people can trust that they can go to their leader for help, and he will deliver! I will not be the coward that the first Augur was. East, please go get a cultist so we can summon Rayquaza."

Moon looked over at the old gym leader. "Uh, sir, I know we planned on using a cultist…but…since these two kids are here, and would both likely be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Why not use one of them?"

Jaern took a moment to contemplate that. "You make a good point, East." His eyesight was directed towards Moon. "After all, one of them doesn't remember the pain they've caused me."

"Wait!" Damien piped up. "You said you wanted to make a utopia, free of crime, where people could trust their leader, and go to him with problems! We came to warn you of a potential crime! Don't you think Rayquaza would find it hypocritical of you to kill us now?"

Once again, there was a moment of silence. Before Jaern simply nodded his head.

"Fair point, it would be hypocritical of me to do that…" Jaern replied. "Alright then, Moon, you will battle East, the loser will be sacrificed to Rayquaza!"

"But…But sir!" East protested. "Why risk me? Why not one of the grunts?!"

"Because, you're a gym leader, East, most gym challengers don't even make it past Xaiver, I have confidence that you won't lose."

Moon stepped up and looked over at East, the old man looked a bit concerned, but agreed.

"Very well, sorry to do this to you Moon, but I don't really want to die."

The old man took out a small feathered Pokeball, and let out a steel looking bird. The Skarmory perched itself on the battlefield with a small glare.

"Okay…sky themed gym leader…" Moon thought to himself, "Likely flying and dragons…if he leads with Skarmory then…"

"Scorchy, Battle Stance!"

The Delta Emolga emerged from the Pokeball and flashe da little peace sign as its flaming tail emerged and was set ablaze.

Skarmory's steel wings flashed into spikes as it went to fire them.

"Taunt!" Moon commanded.

Scorchy puffed as it taunted the Skarmory by flipping her hand. Instantly, the spikes on Skarmory's wings fainted and the steel bird began to shake, as it seemed to struggle to use the move.

"Flamethrower!"

Scorchy's tail was set on fire as her cheeks flared, before firing a beam of fire at the steel bird. Skarmory, once again, was still struggling. As the flames made contact, East quickly called back the Skarmory, before replacing it with a giant seadragon. Kingdra landed on the ground before hovering in place.

"Okay…so…it doesn't seem to have any attacking moves…" Moon noted. "As long as I have a way to block status, I win automatically if its the last thing standing."

Kingdra flared up as its eyes glared, focusing on Scorchy. The Delta Emolga flared up before she fired a pulsing beam of dark energy from her mouth. Kingdra took the blast, before it fired a gigantic blast of water from her blowsnout. Scorchy was blasted by the Hydro Pump as she was pushed into the wall of the Jade tower. Falling against the ground.

Moon just nodded his head as he returned Scorchy. When looking back at Kingdra, he noticed a scoping lens attached to her snout. Scorchy had done her job telling him what he needed to know.

"Okay Sunny, Battle Stance."

His little Eevee emerged from his Pokeball, which the Kingdra leered down. However, Eevee looked more than determined.

"Kingdra! Hydro Pump!"

Rainbow light began to flash around Sunny's body as he transformed into the Mega Eevee Moon had seen previously. As Kingdra fired her hydro pump at the Eevee, the dark blue orb went into the Eevee's body, a tannish looking orb took its place as Sunny's body shifted into a Vaporeon. The hydro pump simply absorbed into the water dog's skin, as he responded by firing his own hydro pump at the sea dragon. Kingdra once again took the blast.

Kingdra floated back as a blue meteor orb emerged from her snout, she fired it into the air, where it promptly exploded into many more meteors.

"Moonblast!"

The bright pink orb went into the Vaporeon's body, with the dark blue orb replacing it, Sunny's body transformed into Sylveon, as the meteors smashed against his body. Not even leaving a mark. Sunny then fired a beam of bright blue light, which smashed Kingdra backwards, where the sea dragon collapsed.

East returned the Kingdra, before letting the Skarmory back out. Once again, the steel bird began to have rocks surround his body as he went to fire them.

"Psychic!" Moon commanded.

The purple orb went into Sylveon's body, replacing the pink orb as he transformed into Espeon. Skarmory fired the stealth rocks at Espeon, however, instead of settling down on his side of the field, a wall of light emerged from Sunny's body and bounced the Stealth Rocks back to Skarmory, where they settled on East's side of the field.

Moon felt some satisfaction seeing Jaern give East a very frowning look. Seemed like the Gym Leader was very off his game. Especially since Jaern had said he was confident the man would win.

East once again called Skarmory back to its ball before he called in an orange bird with white polka dots. No sooner had Talonflame been let out of its ball than had it been smashed against with rocks.

Moon returned Sunny to its ball as Talonflame's body began to envelop in flames.

"Gandalf, battle stance!"

The wizard looking Ludicolo developed from its ball as Talonflame unleashed a huge Flare Blitz, smashing into the water wizard with full force, before it flew back with a few sparks. The fiery bird then perched itself on the ground, beginning to shed its feathers as green light surrounded its body.

A few glowing swords then surrounded Talonflame, however, the Wizard Ludicolo clapped his hands together as a shockwave broke the swords and made Talonflame freeze, the Ludicolo then summoned a wave of water and hopped onto it as he surfed into the flinched fiery bird. Drenching Talonflame, however, Moon was quick to notice that a sash attached to the bird broke, meaning it had healed back to full.

Talonflame then surrounded itself with fire again, only this time, it flew up past Gandalf's massive tidal wave before crashing down and making the battlefield explode, as the dust settled, both Pokemon were found collapsed on the ground.

East now looked insanely concerned, Moon reckoned that, though this was a kamikaze that left them even. With his Skarmory not having an attacking move, he had to get rid of Sunny if he wanted a chance at winning.

East then let out his next pokemon. A bird with a black song note for a head and bright multicolored feathers. The Chatot flew on the ground, before it too was smashed by the Stealth Rocks.

"Whiteout! Battle Stance!"

The Delta Scizor emerged from its pokeball and posed for a minute as it looked at the SongBird.

East tapped his cane on the ground, as rainbow light began to emerge from around Chatot's body. The light settled revealing that its multicolored wings were posed in the way of a DJ with a piano looking design, with its once Eight Note head being shaped like a vertical Breve note.

The Chatot then let out a screeching cry as a Boomburst of soundwaves shocked through the area. Whiteout quickly jumped up to avoid the shockwave, before crossing his arms as he slashed at the bird with an icicle pinch. Chatot held up one of its Piano looking wings as it fired a heat wave from its body. Whiteout continued forward and still managed to punch the songbird, despite its heavy heat damage.

"MOON!" He looked over Damien. "Mega Chatot's ability is called Amplifier! It boosts the strengthening power of sound-based moves!"

He nodded his head before commanding White out to use Bulk Up.

The Chatot once again flapped its wings before letting out another boomburst of energy. Whiteout braced himself as he crossed his pincers, the shockwave pushed the Delta Scizor back. Before Whiteout once again uncrossed his pincers and fired an icicle meteor shower at the bird.

Chatot danced around the icicles for a bit, before one finally struck the bird and crushed it against the ground.

"DEFOG!"

With its last remaining strength as the Icicle forced it, Moon spotted Chatot's wings begin to glow.

"I don't think so! Night Slash!"

Whiteout summoned a sharp blade of dark energy and charged at the songbird, he cut through the bird before it could use defog to clear the hazards, before kicking off the bird and the icicle as both smashed against the ground.

The rainbow light once again surrounded the Mega Chatot as it returned to normal and collapsed against the ground.

Moon noticed the sweat was really starting to go down the Gym leader's forehead as he returned his Chatot.

"Blaziken! Go!"

Moon blinked for a moment, before being taken aback by an Egyptian looking Blaziken. It reminded him a bit of the god Horus. With its bright golden wings, Pschent looking Pharaoh Crown, red body, and sharp claws and talons. It didn't look like a fire type…and frankly, he wasn't ready to change if it was. Once again, the Stealth rocks immediately smashed into Blaziken.

He returned Whiteout to the ball, before thinking for a moment.

"Skyblazer! Battle Stance!"

The cockatrice Pidgeot emerged from its ball and let out a screech as it took to the sky. Leering down the delta Blaziken.

Blaziken's talon leg surrounded itself with Fire as it jumped up towards Skyblazer using its golden wings. The Delta Pidgeot dodged the attack as the golden wings flapped to keep the Horus pokemon up.

Skyblazer screeched as she grabbed the Delta by its Pschent and threw it down to the ground as she unleashed a foul play to smash it further into the ground.

Delta Blaziken once again stood up and quickly meditated, its body flashed red before it once again attacked with a talon slash. Skyblazer took the slash as she landed to Roost off the damage she'd taken.

Delta Blaziken took the opportunity of her being vulnerable to try and land a jump kick. Skyblazer finished shedding her feathers before glaring back up. She used her vision as Blaziken's leg surrounded by fire turned to stone. She quickly flapped away as the stone legged Blaziken smashed into the ground, leaving a big divot that it struggled to get out of.

"Outrage!" Moon said.

Skyblazer's eyes flashed red as she charged at Delta Blaziken and unleashed a very vicious amount of physical damage. With strikes to its head from her wings. Clawing the Blaziken's arms with her talons. Furious pecking to its wings. And even her snake tail smacked its none stone leg. Eventually, her outrage finished as she flapped away, smacking Blaziken with her snake tail, the Delta Blaziken's leg broke from its stone prison and sent it flying as it collapsed in front of East with swirls in its eyes.

East returned his fallen delta, Moon imagined based on his flustered face and furious amounts of sweat dripping that the man was basically ready to collapse, he had one Pokemon left that needed to deal with four of his own. As Skarmory couldn't attack.

He let out his last Pokemon, a Noivern, which flapped up in the air for a few moments before the Stealth rocks smashed into it.

Skyblazer's eyes flamed, before she even gave Moon a chance, she instantly charged at the giant winged bat, still recovering from its shock of rocks, and instantly just began another assault with Outrage. Once again, she finished with a swift smack from her snake tail, and sent Noivern tumbling to the ground, where the giant dragon wyvern stopped moving.

Skyblazer flew back to Moon and perched herself on his shoulder, nibbling at his ear, Moon looked over at East, who looked absolutely mortified. Then, over at Jaern. Based on the Second Augur's facial expression, he was absolutely ready to take him on too if he didn't stick to his word.

"I…I don't believe it…" East stammered.

"I'm disappointed, East…" Jaern said. Moon weirdly didn't sense much anger in the man's voice. "I'd very much love to change my mind and save you, and, as your long time friend and co-founder of the Sky-cult, I absolutely would. However, I can't."

"But…but sir!" East stammered, the man looked ready to break down. "You can't! I'm your best friend! I've been with you the longest! After all I've done with you to help you try and make Torren a better place! You're just throwing me away?"

"I made a promise, and a good leader keeps those promises. If we want Rayquaza to see that I am a man of honor, a man worthy of its power, a man who would do absolutely anything necessary to save the region. Then I must uphold those promises to keep Torren safe. I'm sorry, but it seems this is, farewell. I'll make this painless."

Jaern outstretched his hand, Moon noted the weird crystal he had seen in Telnor town began to glow, a bunch of ghostly spirits came down as a Dusknoir emerged from the shadows, grabbing onto Easts' body and dragging him down through a portal. East let out one final scream, before cursing Jaern as the portal closed.

As Moon and Damien, along with the other Sky cultists looked at Jaern, the Augur simply bowed his head.

"In my mind, I see a region. A region rid of cults, filled with love, peace, and sincerity. It's a far off, almost unachievable dream. However, along the way, death is simply just a triviality to strong leaders with good intentions. I will ensure that East's sacrifice will not be in vain. I know Rayquaza will accept me when I summon it."

"And what makes you think that we won't stop you?" Moon asked.

"Oh, you can try and stop me." Jaern said, calmly looking at Moon. "I'll be on the roof if you think you can stand up to the might of Rayquaza. But do be warned…I spared you once, I won't spare you again."

Without saying another word, Jaern then turned and began to walk up the stairs towards the roof.

And with that, the Sky Cult Leader's identity has been revealed! Were you expecting it to be Jaern? I'll be honest, I most certainly was not expecting it to be Jaern. I did expect that he would end up being evil, most characters like Jaern in Pokemon do. But for him to be a cult leader I wasn't expecting. I was expecting something more along the lines of him getting jealousy that we were stealing his glory as the new Second Augur. That he, while a complete sham in his strength, did mean well for reason.

Funnily enough, Jaern's character is rather interesting. I've seen a lot of people clown on him for being terrible at his job, and almost a joke for villain. I mean, the game most certainly has the other cultists outright say he's a total sham.

But like, based on his dialogue and actions, especially later in the story. He did truly have the region's best interest in mind, after all, mild spoilers for next chapter. Rayquaza does willingly join him. It's not forced to via a capturing with the Masterball or Blackmail. No, Jaern just makes his case about how he will use Rayquaza, and the thing just accepts him. And by this game's own stated lore, the legendries are smart enough to know exactly the types of people that are summoning them are. Look back at Persephone and Darkrai in chapter 1.

Now, I haven't ever checked what the Developers of Insurgence have had to say, but I do fully believe they wrote Jaern with the intent that he was an Anti-hero. You'll see later down the line that I think they do a good job with his lines to do so. Yes, he is portrayed as an egomaniac. But as you'll soon learn, I do believe he has the region's best interests at heart. After all, he even told East, who's implied to have been his childhood friend that helped him make the sky cult, a FUCKING GYM LEADER, that he would not go back on his words and values of a leader. Even though he very easily could've just said "Nah, it'll be fine." and just killed us and tried to summon and catch Rayquaza himself.

I know Pokemon games, with the exception of Black and White 2 where Ghetsis just tries to just fucking kebab you with Black/White Kyurem, usually just try to play around the fact that these evil team leaders could always just take out their strongest Pokemon and murder you, or have all their grunts jump you at once with like 20 Pokemon. But hey, at least Insurgence tries to give you a reason why these cults who terrorize and kill don't just instantly kill the player when they show up.

Jaern has noble values, Reukra and Taen are just kind of businesspeople doing business, and while I can't make a strong case for a reason Audrey and Persephone to not kill you, they even give a reason why Zenith, who we have yet to see, won't kill you either.

Oh yeah, there was a new Delta and Megas I showed off? Hmm, I don't want to inflate the story, and luckily I don't have much to say about Delta Blaziken and Chatot other than I like their designs, and to inform you that East actually doesn't use either, I subbed them in for his Gliscor that tries to play Smogon Stall with Toxic, Roost, and Subsitute. And his Mega Altaria, because hey, Insurgence introduced new megas. Might as well sub them in place of Megas you all already know and love like I do to show off more cool stuff.

As for Mega Eevee, this is the reason why I pick Eevee over the other Delta Starters. Don't get me wrong, the delta starters are amazing. But Mega Eevee is just so fucking fun that it's hard for me to not want to pick it.

Now, I know that how I portrayed the Mega Eevee makes it sound absolutely fucking ridiculously overpowered. However, I personally think the developers did a great job with balancing it.

For one, it's still an Eevee at the end of the day, if you're going to use it, it HAS TO BE your teams mega. Because if you waste the Mega on something else in a tough battle, you essentially play the game with 5 Pokemon, and in a nuzlocke, if you perfer using Set Mode, Eevee is essentially forced to always be your lead Pokemon, or a Pokemon you bring in if a team member goes down. Because...it's Eevee? You think it's going to survive a single hit in a game where you're well into your late 50s by now?

Secondly, though Eevee is free to access one stab move fit for its different Evolutions, those being the ones I listed. It still only gets four moves at the end of the day, and its EVs and IVs are best used mixed so you can play into the strengths of swapping to each evolution. Because the last thing you want is your Eevee to be more skewed in a direction that one of the swapsies isn't suited for.

Lastly, though Mega Eevee does get a stat buff like most Megas, its actual evolutions that it swaps too don't actually receive that nice little 100 points added onto their already decent base stats. So you're essentially Mega evolving a Pokemon who's roll is to be a jack of all trades and fill in gaps where your team might be struggling. And, surprisingly, on Hard mode, the AI can sometimes be very cheeky. So don't think you can get away with swapping between ones with immunities to try and cheese them. It might work a few times on Hard mode, but it won't always.

My preferred set for Mega Eevee in the game has always been Foul Play, Ice Beam, and Moonblast, with me going back and subbing its fourth move depending on the situation. However, it's well fit to run every stab move that isn't Flare Blitz (Sorry Flareon). In the post-game story, it does get access to another set of moves that are more clearly designed for competitive online back when the game was still relatively popular. So it's quite fun to expierment with. You just got to be willing to lug an Eevee around the whole game.

Anyway, thats it for today's chapter, I'll see you guys, next time.

Moon's Team:

Sunny - Eevee
Satanel - Delta Charizard
Irwin - Feraligatr
Shortcake - Delta Crustle
Cobalt - Lucario
Sahara - Delta Muk
Ambio - Delta Ambipom
Whiteout - Delta Scizor
Helios - Delta Sunflora
Weiss - Delta Gardevior
Terroriser - Delta Quagsire
Skyblazer - Delta Pidgeot
Scorchy - Delta Emolga
Gandalf - Delta Ludicolo

Mew - (Unofficially)