Pokemon Virus Version Chapter 67: Rise Of A Hero(Part 3)
Location: Azalea Town's Western City Limit
Zero's POV
With 10 and the many grunts behind me, and 12 and C.C right in front of me, we were here and ready to begin our takeover of Azalea Town.
"We're here..." I said to myself as I stared at the view in front of me.
Even after making our way past the forest, there was green as far as the eye could see. The hills and mountains flooded the distance, and you could see wild Pidove flying above us, just passing by. People going about, children playing, and trainers battling...At the end of the day, the lives of all these people would never be the same...A town that's destined to fail from the start...A town with a face and named that will both inevitably be rechristened for the name of Neo Snagem...What's wrong with me? Why do I continue to destroy the lives of many people like this?
"Alright, so here's the start," Commander 12 started as she addressed me, 10, and the many grunts, "Sector 1 will be Azalea's Western City limit. THIS many of you will be assigned to Sector 1. Sector 2 will be-"
-12's assignments and explanations were quite lengthy. Commander 10 and I were given no specific station, as we were the supreme authority. Grunts were scattered everywhere, and all the pieces were just about set. With 12 and a fair number of grunts headed to Eastern Azalea, only me, 10, and a few grunts remained at Azalea's western edge.
"Ah, chaos is on the horizon. I wonder what kind of damage I should cause first?!" 10 asked with a snicker and a sneer.
"Like I told you, you're not to kill anyone," I told 10 as I walked ahead.
"And like I told you, I don't take orders from you." 10 countered.
"Have you forgotten who I am?" I asked as I stopped walking, one of my fists clenched, "I'll have my father banish you from the organization."
"Please. do you honestly believe your family name is supposed to scare me?" 10 asked, "You and your father...Your whole family's full of a bunch of overprivileged parasites who's power over everyone is slowly slipping away. Why, if you and your father dropped dead right now, you'd be doing the whole world a favor."
"..." I clenched my other fist, and gritted my teeth.
"Are you getting angry again?" 10 asked.
This was it. The tension was on the brink of boiling over as 10 continued to mouth off. In the moment, the mission to take over Azalea Town was a mere 'sidequest'. Rosen, Father Atticus, Mother Flora, Rose, and Seth...our family has already worlds apart as it was, but hearing such dishonoring words coming from HIM of all people...It was insult added to a severe injury for us. And it was taking all of my willpower to resist retaliating against Commander Shadow.
"You don't know my family like I do..." I said.
"Oh, but I do. I heard all about how you turned on your dead brother and missing stepfather five years ago. Where IS Rosen? Where is your sister in Commander 26? You and your family have only yourselves to why she turned her back on the organization. Oh, and Flora..."
"No...Don't you dare talk about my mother!" I said with a rising voice as I took an asserting step toward Commander Shadow. My eyes were wide open.
"Why, she doesn't even have enough emotion to care about you. I mean, being personally forced into Neo Snagem? She should do herself a big favor and kill herself right no-"
"SHUT UP!" I yelled.
And that was it. Shadow wasn't going to stop. I couldn't hold in my rage any longer as I rushed toward 10 with a closed fist. I was just about to hit him so hard that his cloak would fly off. But-
"-Fool!" 10 said as he swiftly rushed a dark aura toward me as a part of a counterattack.
"I'LL KILL YO-"
Going in trying to strike 10 would prove to be a huge mistake. Just as my fist was closing in on 10's head, a dark aura surrounded my hand. The dark aura rushed up my hand, and not long after, it blurred my vision. I could feel the darkness sneaking it's way inside me. I felt it rush toward my mind, and I became paralyzed for the moment.
"...This time, I'll let you off with a warning..." 10 said as he started to clench his gloved fist, "Mind Crush..."
I gasped, "Gah!-Uh!" I was the first time I had got to experience his Mind Crush first hand. First, it felt like my head was throbbing from a sudden overflowing of energy. And then, everything just went blank...A cloaked 10 was the last thing I remembered seeing before falling to the ground and blacking out.
"...You no longer govern Neo Snagem..." Those were the last words 10 said to me.
Commander 10's POV
Now that that 'wanna be' leader was out of my way, it was time for me to take matters into my own hands.
"C-Commander...What did you just do?" asked one of the grunts assigned to Azalea's Western edge.
"What does it look like I did?" I asked as I slowly turned toward the grunts.
"You killed him?" he asked.
"It was for his own good..." I answered.
"You killed him...for his own good." The grunt repeated to himself slowly.
"I didn't kill him. I simply put him in an 'inactive state'," I said as I cleared the false accusation.
"But you...you..."
"What I did was not only for Commander Zero''s own good, but for the greater good of Team Neo Snagem as a whole," I started, "Yes, Zero WAS one of Neo Snagem's primary Commanders. However, your 'leader' posed as a very obscure threat to our goal of taking over Azalea Town. He would become the primary reason for a failed mission, if any of us were to not give it our all. Now with Zero out of the picture, I believe I'm calling the shots. And I say: Should the time come, use the threat of death! Leave nobody alive, if you must!"
"But Zero..." This grunt was quite a sensitive person...
"Why do you just pretend you didn't see anything?" I snickered.
"What? But, you shouldn't say that!"
"Then pretend I didn't say it." I fired back in a calm voice. I then started walking into town, "Things are finally right. Now do your job and stand guard while I check on how everyone else is doing."
Location: Ilex Forest
Noah's POV
The path going back to Azalea was exactly the same as before. The pink haired girl had to bid farewell to the Purifier Pokemon before she, the giant Ariados, and the red haired girl began to follow me. Silence decorated much of the trip before one of the girls finally decided to speak up.
"I remember now, the two occasions where we met. One, you battled Seth just past Cherrygrove. And the other, you were apart of Neo Snagem?" The pink haired girl said, "Please tell us about yourself, Noah."
"Yes, i won't deny that I was apart of Neo Snagem for a period of time, but things have changed since then. My reason for becoming a Pokemon Trainer? To save someone very precious to me..." I answered, "So here I am, standing against the organization I once swore my life to..."
"Wow, you've kind of changed since we last met..." The pink haired girl said.
"So does that mean you're not trying to take Celebi from us?" The red haired girl asked.
It was as that question that the two girls were beginning to open up to me. So I gave them a 'that's right' nod, answered the question without any need for words.
"If that's the case, I'm Maisy!"
All of a sudden, a sort of friendly atmosphere had surfaced as the red haired girl introduced herself. Maisy looked and sounded so innocent...
"My name's Althaea," The pink haired girl said, "Sorry for not introducing myself before. It's just, you never seemed like you were on our side."
"There's really no need to apologize..." I countered without facing the girls or Ariados, "But there IS something that's been on my mind. It's Ariados. What's it doing here? And what happened to 22?"
"..."Maisy didn't reply.
"She crossed paths with us and threatened to destroy Ilex Forest if it mean finding Celebi." Althaea answered. "Consequently, she and her Ariados were defeated, mainly by Kurt. I guess Kurt must've just released Ariados back into the wild..."
"I wonder whatever happened to that Lucy lady that was with her?" Maisy asked with a curious expression, "She never DID come back for her Ninjask."
Maybe I could capture this Ariados for myself...It was the only reason 22 became a Commander. But capturing Ariados would have to wait, for we were now entering Azalea's outskirts.
Location: Azalea Town's Western City Limit
Right upon entering Azalea Town, we laid our eyes upon the very people I was hoping to avoid: Neo Snagem grunts. There were just two of them, and they didn't seem ready to engage in any sort of conflict.
"Huh?" I took a look closer at what one of the grunts was doing. He was on one knee, tending to a downed person. The downed person looked to have brown, hair that went down to his shoulders, and two blonde bangs that went down the left side of his face. "!" I gasped. Only one person I knew had that kind of hair. "Zero?" My eyes were wide open.
"Oh," The grunt said as he suddenly faced us, eyes narrowed and Pokeball at hand. But then he saw my face, and stood down, "...Noah? I haven't seen you since you were banished from the organization. And Ariados...Where's 22?"
I didn't bother to answer the question as I shifted the focus back to Commander 00.
"What happened?" I asked.
"10 happened." The grunt answered, looking back at Zero.
"Shadow..." I whispered the name of Neo Snagem's most evil Commander to myself, "Did he kill him?"
"-Now hold on!" Maisy interrupted, "Now why are we supposed to care if the guy's dead or not?! He's apart of Team Neo Snagem! And if he's dead, then I say good riddance!"
"Maisy!" Althaea looked at the red haired girl with a shocked expression, "You shouldn't say something like that!"
Maisy looked at Althaea, "Why? Am I supposed to just forget about how Neo Snagem left us in a burning forest to die?!" Maisy then looked away from us all, whispering to herself, "Would've never been able to see Grandpa again...I need to find him now!" Sticking with those words, Maisy then started to continue on her way to wherever Kurt was at the moment.
But before she could take a second step, I saw movement coming from a downed body. I called out Maisy's name, telling her to wait a moment. She didn't even bother to see Zero open his eyes.
"Er...rr..."
Zero's POV
Slowly, I was regaining consciousness. As soon as I came to, I slowly put a hand on my forehead. I had a headache, and I was trying to remember what happened. I was on the losing end of a verbal argument turned physical between 10 and I.
The tension between the two of us had boiled over...
"Where am I?" I asked rhetorically to the grunt who was right beside me. I then got up, looking at the other grunt assigned to Azalea's Western City Limit before laying my eyes on the very unexpected: It was two girls, and the banished son of Commander 07. "Noah?" I said confused.
"They told me about what 10 did to you..." Noah answered with his eyes half open. I was also given a mean look my the pink haired girl, and an indifferent face by the large Ariados that once belonged to Commander 22.
"Why...should you care?" I asked as my eyes narrowed. I had become fully awake by the end of my question.
"Oh?" Noah said confused as his eyes became fully open again.
"I am your enemy. I am Neo Snagem," I said.
'I am Neo Snagem'...Those were the words being spat out from my mouth. And you know what they say: Talk is cheap. All this time, I've been talking about how I would create a name and identity for myself by being the face of what Neo Snagem would become. Though only five years have gone by, it felt like it was just yesterday that I devoted my entire life to the organization. All that time, only to be cast aside when I was no longer needed...Becoming more aware of what I had helped create as time went on, it was only just minutes ago that I had to do something. Mother...Sister...Brother...It's time for me to undo all the ruin I've brought to everyone's lives. Who knows, maybe one day, I could be a hero.
"...Actually, your enemy is what I WAS supposed to be...These last few shown me what I must do. I must create the world that my real family desires," I said as I looked up to the sky and slowly closed my eyes, "Mother, Brother, Sister...Please take the mended world of tomorrow as an apology from me..."
"What?" Noah and the pink haired girl said confused.
As an answer, I walked right beside the red haired girl who refused to acknowledge my presence. Opening my eyes, I looked straight toward the Neo Snagem-infested Azalea Town before me. I was aright about myself: I HAVE outlived my use for Neo Snagem.
"Let's go," I said, "Let's put a stop to Neo Snagem!"
To Be Continued...
So now we have it, the beginning of our third protagonist(Seth and Wes), or maybe our third tritagonist (Yumi and Chapel). And this is ONLY still the rising action. What a plot twist this happens to be...