Chapter 13 - Legendary Encounter Pt. 2
Fenrir Far East Branch - God Eater World - Mere Seconds after the end of the previous chapter
(General P.O.V)
Dr. Sakaki groans as he slowly gathers his bearings after that explosion in the base, looking around as he sees his office in ruins, part of the wall wholly gone as much of the base is in ruins, he can even hear the fighting going on in the civilian area due to how much damage was done to the branch building itself.
"T-this…this is inconceivable…" Dr. Sakaki says as he looks over the ruins of what was the location of both the den area and the operations/communications room just a few flights of stairs below his office.
Some Rank and File God Eaters begin to rush from their various positions in the base to help any survivors of the blast as the screams of pain, crying, and calls for help begin to echo from the ruined parts of the building.
Dr. Sakaki rushes down a flight of emergency stairs that are not too far from his office as he knows that Director Johannes was in the Operations room at the moment of the explosion, being flanked by some more Rank and File God Eaters who have decided to join him as bodyguards.
As the man reaches the impact point of the explosion, he can see just how lucky he was that his office was just a single room away from being another decimated and crumbled part of the building as he is shellshocked at how many missing limbs, dead bodies of people he's actually talked with over his time here at the Far East Branch…
But soon enough he spots the director crawling his way out of the rubble of what was once the Operations/Communications room, the man's clothes are singed and blackened in multiple areas, burns on his face, and his previously immaculately kept hair is now singed and frayed…
However, what startles Dr. Sakaki the most is when he rushes up to Director Johannes, a piece of metal has lodged itself in his left eye, only destroying said eye and thankfully not going any further into the brain as well as his right arm is completely gone just above the elbow.
"Johannes!" Dr. Sakaki shouts as he does his best to grab the remaining hand of his old friend and pull him completely free of the rubble, Director Johannes struggles to push through the sheer pain of losing an arm as well as an eye but in keeping his role as director in mind here in the far east he has to at least keep up even a semblance of calm.
"D-dr S-sakaki…..it's good to see…that you are safe…" Director Johannes says as he looks about with his remaining eye and sees that half of the entire military building is utterly caved into itself due to the explosion.
"Just wait here Johannes, I will go acquire medical assistance!" Dr. Sakaki says but before he can leave, his robe is grasped by the sole remaining hand of Director Johannes, the man himself shaking his head before he says…
"I will be….fine….focus medical attention on other surviors…." With that Director Johannes begins to stand up shakily, his body feels incredibly dizzy but he can stay upright for the moment at the very least.
"Johannes, I simply must insist that you at least see a medic for both that arm and eye of yours!" Dr. Sakaki says firmly, although both he and Director Johannes can tell without even properly looking that there is no saving either of them.
Director Johannes shakes his head and gives his own firm retort by saying… "Dr. Paylor Sakaki, I will be fine, the blast thankfully cauterized my wounds so I won't have to worry about bleeding out, I was lucky enough to be behind a terminal when the blast happened, I know several technicians that were not, and took the full blast…go find them OR their bodies.."
Dr. Sakaki looks deeply frustrated but ultimately sighs and gives in but before he leaves he does end up still sending a medic to where Director Johannes is regardless, much to the blonde man's frustration.
Director Johannes looks around and just sees so many dead and heavily wounded men and women around him, memories of his late wife Aisha filling his head, and now that he is being confronted with so much death and carnage one unknown entity can cause…
He ultimately decides to abandon his secret project as he knows full well that he no longer has the resolve to go through with it anymore, not to mention with his mutilating injuries he can't even push the project forward himself even if he wanted to continue.
It is one thing to cause an apocalypse from the safety of an ark, it's another altogether to see so much death occur in a single instant. As the medic bandages the stump that is his left arm, he wonders if he'll be able to remain the director of the Far East after all this as even if both the Aegis project and his secret Ark Project have failed due to this unforeseen situation, he may at least be able to keep his position, for what little good it may do for him in his current state…
As he closes his remaining eye to rest, he spots Soma rushing into the wreckage alongside Captain Lindow coming into the wreck, with Captain Lindow splitting off to look for someone. Just before Director Johannes falls unconscious at long last, he briefly recalls that Captain Lindow had a sister that worked in the den at the time of the explosion…
Far East Sector, not far from Fenrir - Seconds later
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
I grit my teeth as both myself and Alisa jump away from our position, narrowly avoiding an incoming Shadow ball as it explodes in a surge of shadowy mist, forcing us to split from each other as Giratina immediately focuses on me.
As it charges up an Aura sphere, I rush forward with duplicates of my Gae Bolg Alternative manifesting around me and firing at a breakneck pace, the first managing to detonate the Aura sphere early and cause it some minor damage, the Legendary Pokemon roaring in anger as much of the Gae Bolg Alternative duplicates either bounce off its thick hide or bury themselves into said hide and not doing much damage at all.
As Giratina begins to glow in a faint white haze, I realize it's about to use Extreme Speed and combat slide onto the ground just in time to narrowly avoid Giratina passing over my body. I grab onto one of the Spears lodged in Giratina's hide and flip myself onto it's back, peppering its upper body with spears from behind but once more the Hide of Giratina is too thick to do more than superficial damage.
However, the Spears are at least positioned so that I can begin using them as parkour platforms to get up to the head of Giratina, so I start rushing towards the back of Giratina. Unfortunately, before I can, Giratina glows in the tell-tale white aura and I spot it aiming itself at Alisa, forcing me to apportate to her in order to push both her and myself down in time to avoid being run over by a fucking legendary Pokemon.
"You alright Alisa..?" I ask as I pull her up, my apprentice nodding at me as we turn our spears at Giratina who despite being riddled with my spears, seems to be still in top condition. The Legendary Pokemon roared as it begins to charge up another hyper beam, however, that is when my Darksteel Vajra finally comes out of my shadow, having recovered enough to re-enter the fray and fire off a shadow ball replica attack right at Giratina.
Giratina fires the Hyper Beam and as a result, both the Hyper Beam of Giratina and the Shadow Ball Replica collide in the middle of each other's trajectory and detonate into an explosion of of shadows, flames, and smoke.
Taking advantage of the smoke, the Darksteel Vajra roars and rushes forward with incredible speed, allowing it to close the gap rapidly and pounce on Giratina before the Legendary Pokemon has time to recover from discharging the hyper-beam attack earlier.
Then, as if in taking revenge for being hit with Hyper Beam earlier and showing yet another display of being able to replicate attacks, it begins to charge up an electric blue surge of energy by opening its mouth as the Darksteel Vajra pins Giratina down as long as it can.
Just as Giratina is about to wrestle out from under the Shroud-bound Aragami, the Darksteel Vajra fires its newest attack as an electric blue beam of energy slams into the hide of Giratina, dealing massive damage although the recoil from the attack at such a close range knocks the Shroud-bound Aragami off of Giratina.
It is right then that, Giratina finally fires off another Aura sphere right at the prone Darksteel Vajra, the Shroud-bound Aragami struggling to get up in time as it is still recovering from firing off that beam for the first time.
However, it is right then that another voice echos out…
"Rhyperior, Rock Blast!"
Out of nowhere, several rocks fly out and take the hit for the Aura sphere in the place of the Darksteel Vajra, prompting both me and Alisa to look towards the source of where the voice came from and my eyes widen at who I see…
[Insert Music: Pokemon Darkviolet - Giovanni Battle OST ]
The man next to what look to be the Pokemon Rhyperior is a man wearing a fedora, a long overcoat along with a silver scarf but most importantly, I catch sight of a ring on his finger…a Tempest Jewel Ring at that.
"Tch, and here I was hoping your new pet would be able to handle Giratina without my help…figured even a brand new Aragami can't stand up to a legendary Pokemon for long…" The man says, his voice stern yet familiar to my ears as before long an old memory creeps up into my memory from my past life…
The man, if my suspicions are correct, is a contractor version of Giovanni from the Pokemon Anime. "Well when it's a legendary Pokemon, it's kind of expected they'd be incredibly powerful.." I can't help but say in response to Giovanni's words, making the man give an amused smirk as he says…
"True, still it helps to be prepared….Garchomp, come out!" The man throws out an Ultra ball as he sends out a large blue dragon with wings that look more like fins with a dorsal fin on it's back to complete the sand shark look of Garchomp as the Psuedo-Legendary Pokemon roars, Rhyperior coming up alongside it as Giratina stares right at the two pokemon.
Oddly enough the pressure me and Alisa were feeling prior lessens to an almost unnoticeable amount with the presence of Giovanni's Pokemon, making me wonder if said Pokemon are naturally being lightning rods for the events of hostile Pokemon.
"Garchomp, Ice Beam….Rhyperior Ice punch.." Giovanni commands his Pokemon as Garchomp begins to form a surge of pale white energy in its mouth while Rhyperior rushes forward with pale blue energy forming an aura of frost around its right hand.
As Giratina goes to charge up a shadow ball, both myself, Alisa and the Darksteel Vajra kick into action with me and Alisa using rune magecraft to distract Giratina with fire blasts to catch its attention while the Darksteel Vajra fires its own Shadow Ball Replica which hits Giratina dead on, once more focusing it's attention on the Shroud-bound Aragami.
Unfortunately for Giratina, this means that Garchomp is able to fire off the Ice Beam fast enough to slam into the Ghost/Dragon Legendary with deadly force, Giratina roaring in pain right as Rhyperior slams his fist into the gut of Giratina, adding to the already insane pain.
It's right then that I suddenly find a Pokeball being tossed my way, finding it empty as I look up at Giovanni who grins like a shark who's got the scent of blood as he says… "Funny thing about Shroud users, is that they integrate clothes and all but if they can integrate shit like power armor and all…makes you wonder what else they can integrate…"
As Giovanni winks, my eyes widen as I realize what he's implying as my shroud forms around my body, thick and heavy as it is eagerly anticipating what may be a crucial upgrade to its capabilities.
"Heh, how many shroud users have you met in your life I wonder…" I remark as I shake my head with a bemused smile before focusing on my shroud and having it bind the Pokeball. It quickly surges forth in my hand as it wraps around the red and white orb, eventually, the Pokeball disappears as I can now feel how the shroud has integrated the functions of the device entirely.
Seeing that my shroud has integrated the Pokeball, Giovanni lets out a bark of excited laughter as he soon says… "Go on then newbie, let your fucking first legendary capture be our current problem of the day while I keep it busy…"
I nod and rush toward the Darksteel Vajra while Giovanni's Pokemon keep Giratina distracted, getting onto the Darksteel Vajra's back as I command it to rush toward Giratina at full speed so as to not give away the plan.
The Darksteel Vajra roars as it goes at top speed toward the legendary Pokemon, catching Giratina's attention as it charges up a Hyper Beam, letting it loose just as Rhyperior comes in for another Rock blast to its cheek to knock the Hyper Beam off-course, the beam passing both me and the Darksteel Vajra by as I mentally count down….3…2…1
I leap off the Darksteel Vajra and as I am about to soar past Giratina's body, the Shroud of Power comes to life as the shroud's shadowy form suddenly explodes outward to rapidly cover and contain Giratina, forming a cocoon that strongly resembles a Pokeball.
As I perform a quick combat roll to minimize the impact of jumping off an object and going at an incredibly high speed, I watch as the cocoon begins to roll and rumble like a Pokeball, brief shows of light indicating that Giratina is doing everything it can to escape the cocoon.
Under regular circumstances, the cocoon would fail to capture Giratina, but due to its current injuries, the integration of the Pokeball, and just how exhausted Giratina is at this point, the cocoon finally stops moving, and with a loud ping, the battle is at long last over as I can feel the connection to Giratina form in the conjunction link.
Both Alisa and I just fall down in exhaustion as the battle is finally over, with a new member of our pseudo-family in tow as well. As the Cocoon dissipates and the shroud returns to me, I see a fully rejuvenated Giratina look down at me and we're both hit with feelings of appreciation for stopping it.
"Heh, well would you look at that, nice work Kiddo!" a voice says from behind as I look over my shoulder to see Xigbar waving before turning to Giovanni, the two stare at each other for a while before Giovanni smirks and recalls his Pokemon.
"Remember our agreement, no more favors owed!" Giovanni says before he suddenly disappears in a flash of light that comes from Apportation. As I briefly wonder if I'll see Giovanni later, I soon turn my attention to Xigbar who comes up to pull me to my feet, grabbing the hand he offers as I pull myself up…
"You're probably wondering where he learned that shroud users can do that, well so am I as that's a trick I never heard of until now… " Xigbar remarks, shrugging his shoulders as he watches the Darksteel Vajra and Giratina suddenly disappear into my shadow without warning.
He briefly opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself before throwing up his hands in surrender, shaking his head while walking away as he says… "I give up trying to understand how the shit you capture is able to do shit like that, I genuinely give up…"
Xigbar opens a Dark Corridor out of this world, but before he leaves he turns back to me and soon says… "When you're done with the clean-up, I'll be coming back to see if you're ready to start moving on….until then, enjoy trying to figure out how to explain all this!"
As the eye-patch-wearing possession origin contractor leaves through the Dark Corridor, Alisa comes up smiling as we have finally managed to deal with the looming threat of Giratina, all while having said legendary Pokemon captured way sooner than I had expected thanks to the integration of the Pokeball into the Shroud of Power…
Although from what my Shroud is indicating to me, it could only perform such a unique and speedy capture on Pokemon and only Pokemon. As such there is a good chance I will never be able to pull off something like this a second time unless I end up in a Pokemon world at some stage in my travels.
Soon though the smiles both me and Alisa had on our faces disappear once we see how bad things are for the Fenrir base, an entire half of the building decimated. The Elated feeling of victory is quickly tempered by the harsh realization of how many are likely dead by this point, so as we get ready to head back to the base, I am already dreading to know how many have fallen…
Fenrir Far East Branch, improvised director's office - Two Days later
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
I stare at the bandage-wearing, one-armed man that is Director Johannes as there is a tense silence between us both. The last two days have been a mix of both fending off Aragami that get close to the still-being-rebuilt walls of the Far East Branch as well as trying to get into contact with Fenrir HQ all the way in Europe as Giratina's final attack on the base itself decimated communications completely.
While the higher-ups such as Dr. Sakaki and the Director himself know about Giratina to a degree, it was decided between me, Director Johannes, and myself as the only one who could actually give a direct account of the fight that everyone else is to be told that a powerful mutant Aragami had been the cause of the attack and that I had taken it out after a long and hard-fought battle that resulted in the corpse being annihilated to prevent it from being assimilated by any surrounding Aragami.
However, I did give both Dr. Sakaki and Director Johannes a more truthful account of what happened, leaving out the presence of Giovanni, his Pokemon, and the brief appearance of Xigbar.
The funerals for all those lost to the attack were held only hours ago, the casualties of Giratina's rampage numbering in the dozens which also includes Tsubaki Amamiya and over half the engineering section that worked on the Dual Blade God Arcs as well as many Rank-and-File God Eaters who had been preparing to join the battle outside with all the Aragami in the base.
During the last two days though two things of note that don't involve death happened, first is that I got given 500 credits to my account from the company directly, both as a reward for capturing Giratina and also as an apology for letting an unrelated mission bleed over into a new Contractor's starting world.
The second is that I requested that Alisa be transferred to me permanently, which would mean she would be an unaffiliated God-Eater from Fenrir, something that the Director wanted to think about, and now with the funerals over, he may be ready to answer…
"...Let me say this first and foremost Ms. Scáthach, I would like to thank you for your vital assistance over the last few days, as well as for being able to train Ms. Amelia as well as you have to gain similar skills to you in such a short timeframe…" Director Johannes says, a solemn expression on his face as he is still reeling from the loss of his left eye as well as his right arm, the medics were thankfully able to ensure he didn't die from blood loss although they were annoyed when today he had left his bed to give a funeral speech personally.
"You don't need to thank me, Director, I just wish I could have done more to help…" I say as I sigh and just ponder on what-ifs regarding the battle that has been plaguing me upon seeing all the devastation…
Director Johannes shakes his head and replies by saying… "Despite not being affiliated with Fenrir, you went above and beyond the call of duty for even our most hardened of God Eaters and that is a feat worth acknowledging, although I have a feeling that considering your request for Ms. Amelia you are intending to leave the far east.." I grimace and simply nod at his words, not wanting to lie to him after everything that's happened, and he sighs before he soon says…
"Very well, I shall approve of the request, by tomorrow Ms. Alisa Ilinichina Amiella will be honorably discharged from Fenrir although we will not be sealing her armlet as I have a feeling you would be displeased if she were to lose access to her God Arc…" His words make me slowly nod in affirmation as I would indeed be rather annoyed if they did that to her.
As things return to tense, somber silence I soon find myself asking… "I will probably be gone before Fenrir HQ manages to get anyone over here in time, so with that being the case what do you plan on telling them about me…?"
Director Johannes thinks for a moment before he simply says… "That the woman known as Scáthach has taken her new apprentice to an undisclosed location to continue training in a more peaceful environment due to the sudden attack.."
With that, I nod and slowly get up from my seat, but before I leave the office entirely, I hear Director Johannes speak one final time as he says… "I think in the end, we were fortunate to have had to here when that ungodly entity appeared as I am almost certain the Far East would have fallen otherwise, so once more I thank you for your aid Ms. Scáthach and wish you well on your journey, wherever it is you are going…."
I turn my head to look at Director Johannes and nod, leaving the improvised office as I head towards my room which is thankfully still intact, intending to plan for the next world on my journey…
Meanwhile - Ruined Part of the Fenrir Building
(General P.O.V)
One of the still living technicians sighs as he continues to dig through the rubble with his tools alongside several others in various parts of the ruins as they are clearing it out so the building can be restored later.
"What a fuckin mess…" The man says as he decides to take a quick smoke break, lighting up a cigarette as he eyes the rubble he has yet to finish clearing out. As the technician takes a drag of his cigarette, his eyes widen as he spots a suitcase of some sort buried underneath some rubble that looks like something he's seen the director have in the closet of his office.
He looks around to see if anyone is watching him before he takes up his tools again and starts clearing away rubble until he can safely grab the suitcase and pull it free. The lock on the suitcase has been busted open due to the rubble and while there are some dents and dings on the metal suitcase, the technician believes the contents are unharmed.
His suspicions are verified when he opens the suitcase to find stuff regarding an Ark Project in the suitcase, finding direct documents from the director himself as well as a preserved data disk for all the research so far, making the Technician realize he just found something big…
"Hehehe, looks like just the sort of thing that Claudius woman might be interested in…" The Technician says to himself as he decides to close up the suitcase and hide it among his own stuff so he can sell it to a certain wheelchair-bound Dr. Claudius…
For him, today was a very good day…
Author's Notes
This took WAY longer than I had expected to get out as I was having trouble figuring out how to best handle ending the God Eater World.
So, there won't be many plot point discussions this time, but the ones that are will be quite in-depth if I can help it.
Ground Zero for Giratina's attack in the previous chapter
I felt it was needed to get a first-hand account of the damage regarding everything that happened so far as well as try and do my best to properly convey the death, injuries, and destruction an attack from a legendary Pokemon could have…
Plus I may point out something regarding the layout of the base in the game, It feels like the single elevator is both a convenience and a fatal flaw in floor plan management as one blast would be apparently enough to take out everything in one fell swoop.
Even though the layout in the fanfic isn't the same, there are still similarities that caused such a massive wipe-out of so many people.
Giratina Pt. 2
So, this time I wanted to dive further into how powerful Giratina is in its true form, as well as allow the Darksteel Vajra to replica one more attack before the climax of the fight. Ultimately I was tempted to actually kill Giratina but had trouble figuring out how that would play out even with the aid that came out in the end.
So I moved to Plan B, capturing Giratina, which came with its own issues due to capturing time being so high for what would essentially be a Tier 10 or so creature. This is where I remembered something crucial, the Shroud of Power can integrate even stuff like Power Armor or Kamui from Kill la Kill.
With this in mind, the question then became if it can integrate something like the Master Chief's Spartan Armor, then could it then also integrate the complex systems of something like a Pokeball?
The answer I came to after thinking about it, is yes.
Of course, I made sure that this sort of capture would only ever work on Pokemon and can't be abused to capture other waifu, meaning the chance of Scáthach being able to use this sort of capture feature again will be highly unlikely.
But it does help pose the possibility of integrating other forms of tech as well.
The Final Scene
This is something I've been planning to have happened ever since Giratina came into the equation as you could say it's the world trying to ensure that certain things will always happen.
Meaning a certain Blonde Doctor will be getting her hands on the data regarding the devouring apocalypse…
So, next time we'll be making our way into the next world, the world of Akame Ga Kill!
See you all on the week of the 24th, as I don't think I can have the next chapter ready until then.