Chapter 105; Show of strength
The morning sun found Sonic near the beach at Mauville city, standing in front of the sea, closed eyes, trying to get to a peaceful state despite the whirlwind of emotions.
After Wally's departure the previous day, he found the rest of it to be unnervingly silent and somewhat boring.
Wally's presence and positivity had rejuvenated Sonic. And now he was once again on his own.
Alone, far from home, away from his friends, plagued by his darkness once again.
He was very proud of the trainer Wally had become and how he had taken control of his life. But through all that Sonic didn't realize how integral Wally's belief in him was to continuing to pursuing his redemption.
And now he had left. Left to follow his own path.
"So what do I have left now?" Sonic wondered.
He introspected, trying to find the answer.
Despite his deep desire to earn Ash's forgiveness, another one was slowly festering in his heart.
The desire to pursue Shadow. To make him pay for everything.
But, true to his name, he was a shadow.
Sonic wouldn't find him without information from mr Stone. Best he could do was let Shadow find him.
And that made him mad.
"But what happens when we cross paths again?" he thought through all the anger.
His thoughts then returned to the brawl in the museum. To Shadow's powerful team.
"I needed help from that Archie guy to stand up to Shadow. I've got to be ready next time" he thought.
Yes, he needed to be ready. And that meant he had to continue building power with his pokemon. Which meant it was time to test their power to earn the third badge.
With his target clear, Sonic headed to the electric gym, Raichu by his side.
"My Hoenn team will be the strongest of my 3. Next time I run into Shadow I will break him, like he did me".
While heading for the gym the pair had a small discussion and decided Sonic would go with Raichu during the battle. If the gym leader had a Raichu then Sonic's Raichu wanted to battle it.
The sight of the gym that seemed extravagant the previous day, today looked like it promised a challenge.
Sonic went to push the door but the door didn't budge.
"Huh?" he kept pushing.
Raichu joined him but it made no difference. The door refused to open.
"What's with this damn door?!" Sonic groaned.
The two groaned and dragged with all their strength but the door still wouldn't open.
Sonic's patience ran thin quickly.
"Alright, step aside Raichu. I'm going in!"
He got on his knees and started preparing a spin dash.
Raichu grinned excitedly. The door just had it coming.
Sonic launched himself.
Just as he was about to break the door down, the door collapsed on its own, allowing Sonic to charge straight through.
Caught off guard at the lack of impact, Sonic came out of his ball form and sprawling on the ground for a few moments, getting a few bruises.
"Ouch. What's with this place?" he complained as he rubbed one of the bruises and looking ahead.
A pair of saber teeth met his gaze.
"Woah!" Sonic cralwed back, kinda fearful.
What was Raikou doing here? Was Tails in Hoenn?
Raikou took a predator stance, growling.
"Easy" Sonic said as softly and calmly as he could, getting up while holding his hands in front of him as a gesture of peace "I'm your ally Raikou. Remember?"
Raikou roared in response. At first Sonic was bewildered until he processed what he heard.
He had spent a lot of time with Raikou and that was not it's normal roar. It didn't even sound like a normal roar.
It sounded… constructed. Digital.
Upon closer inspection, Sonic noticed another crucial detail; Raikou's eyes were glowing red.
"You're not Raikou" he whispered as he noticed the metallic body of the beast "you're a robot looking like Raikou".
"Alright" he shouted in the darkness "nice stunt with the robot Raikou but joke's up. Show yourself".
The Raikou roared and pounced.
Sonic calmly dodged. This Raikou was nothing like the real thing.
"I said show yourself!"
Raikou pounced again. Raichu went to intercept it but Sonic gestured it to not fight as he dodged again.
"I'm not here to play games! Show yourself or I will trash this robot right now!" he shouted again, issuing the ultimatum.
The robot Raikou was turned off and the lights turned on.
Sonic looked around and saw the gym leader standing with his back turned.
"I've been anticipating your arrival. And so has my Raichu".
A Raichu hopped out of a dark corner next to Wattson.
"Is this how you greet all your challengers? By having your admittedly cool robot Raikou jump them?"
"Of course. But you're the first one not to fight it. Which makes me all the more intrigued for our battle".
"And me too" another voice called out to Sonic from the darkness. A familiar voice.
Sonic sighed. He was always there every darn time.
"I take it you were the one controlling the Raikou robot Ash?"
Ash stepped out still holding the controller for the Raikou. Pikachu, May, Max and Brock were revealed to be sitting on a bench near the arena.
"What's going on here?"
"I want to see this battle for myself. You have claimed time and time again your Raichu is twice as strong as a normal Raichu. So prove it right here and now".
Sonic's lip curled.
"What are you hoping to gain from this?"
"I want to see if it's the truth. If you ever hope for me to forgive you then I need to understand you right? So show me. All your power! Use Raichu to win! Just Raichu!"
Sonic's eyes widened for a moment.
"Just Raichu?"
"Yes. If your Raichu is so strong it should have no problem taking in Wattson's Raichu plus his other 3 pokemon. Unless of course… you two really are a fraud".
Sonic contemplated this challenge.
"And here I thought I was going to be issuing a challenge to the gym leader, not the other way around" he thought.
Raichu cried out, both to Ash and Sonic.
Sonic looked at his partner first in surprise and then in agreement.
"So what's it going to be?" Ash asked Sonic again.
Sonic merely smiled.
"Well as my partner said, it's a fair fight. Let's do it! Bring them out!"
Wattson was unnerved by the statement. Sure Sonic's Raichu had to be strong but 4 against 1?
"Are you sure? Ash didn't specify it but it's going to be 4 against 1 at once".
Raichu cried out instead of letting Sonic hesitate hopping into the arena
"Raichu insists the fight is fair" Sonic said, trusting in his partner.
Ash didn't really expect Sonic to accept without any bargain. He joined his friends and Pikachu in the stand, a singular question lingering in his mind.
Pikachu instinctively sat behind Ash's hand. It didn't feel entirely safe.
"What does it mean for me if he wins?"
Ash had defeated Wattson with immense ease because of an incident with the robot Raikou overcharging Pikachu unbeknownst to anyone. Sonic didn't have this advantage. In fact he was at a huge disadvantage.
Ash doubted supercharged Pikachu could beat such odds.
"Gym leader, please send out your pokemon!" his assistant and referee, Watt, asked.
Wattson took out 3 pokeballs as his Raichu hit the field.
"Magnemite, Voltorb, Magneton! Come out!"
The three electric types lined up behind Raichu. Sonic's Raichu braced itself.
"Battle start!"
"Raichu thunderbolt!"
Wattson's Raichu fired a quick thunderbolt. Sonic's Raichu didn't try to dodge, merely stood strong and tanked it.
Sonic felt a tingle.
"My turn! Raichu! Thunder punch!"
Raichu charged Wattson's Raichu. The punch was devastating but Wattson's Raichu persevered and stood back up.
"Magneton! Zap cannon!"
Magneton fired the move. Raichu dodged with immense ease.
"Voltorb rollout!"
Voltorb rolled towards Raichu which again dodged.
"Magnemite thunder wave!"
The thunder wave was dodged although it cost Raichu to get hit by the rollout as Voltorb rolled around again.
"Raichu! Quick attack on Magnemite!"
"Raichu! Intercept it with shock wave!"
The shock wave was fired but it wasn't enough to even slow down Raichu. It slammed into Magnemite but due to the steel typing it survived.
"Raichu! Slam!"
"Dodge!"
To Sonic and Raichu's fortune, Voltorb was attempting to land another rollout which ended up striking Wattson's Raichu instead.
"Look at him go!" Max said amazed.
"Four opponents and nothing deters them. But then again they went up against all of team rocket in Goldenrod" Brock commented with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
May looked at Ash and was impressed by the level of focus on his face.
The pallet town trainer was observing the hedgehog so closely that the next step would be using a microscope.
And inside of Ash's head, his mind was maniacally looking for the answer.
What made those two so strong?
Although he was still very mad at Sonic, having trained with May for her contests had showed him how out of shape his pokemon truly were. Taillow had been overwhelmed by Beautifly.
After Ash had a talk with his pokemon about how they had been falling behind and the two parties assured the other that they would work harder, Ash pushed some of his pride aside and started trying to understand his rival.
"What makes them so strong?" he questioned himself again as he observed Sonic give instructions to Raichu so fast that it barely left any time to read the battlefield.
The amount of reconnaissance Sonic did per second was insane. Raichu had yet to be seriously damaged.
"You certainly don't disappoint young Sonic. But I hope you realize my back wasn't into it yet! Magnemite, Magneton! Sonic boom!"
This managed to catch Sonic and Raichu off guard. Sonic boom couldn't be dodged.
The two Sonic booms knocked the wind out of Raichu.
And as if that wasn't enough, while Raichu was wheezing trying to catch it breath, it was run over by a fully powered rollout.
Sonic felt his back melt as if the quills were being pressed inwards. The small curious part of him was impressed at the level of accuracy their bond had when inflicting one's pain onto the other.
"Now Raichu! Iron tail!"
Wattson's Raichu landed iron tail on Sonic's Raichu's head. Sonic felt the familiar bump on the head.
The move triggered the memory of the Johto league finals in both him and Ash.
Wattson pushed on.
"Now Magneton! Trap Raichu!"
Magneton split a bit, as the three magnemites forming it, trapped each of the downed Raichu's paws and tail, immobilizing it. The back paws were still free but with Raichu lying on its back they were no help.
"Wattson's got him down!" Brock said in surprise. Wattson wasn't kidding when he said those pokemon had been training for a very long time. And the electric gym leader had probably skipped mentioning they had team training as well.
Voltorb! Magnemite! Sonic boom!"
The two electric types unleashed a barrage of sonic booms on Raichu that wasn't unable to react in any way.
"Your turn Raichu! Iron tail!"
Raichu jumped towards Sonic's Raichu, tail glowing.
Ash watched on anxiously, wondering if Raichu would go down.
"Wattson's got him on the run!" he said in amazement.
The iron tail slammed into Raichu's belly. Following up Wattson's Raichu slammed into Sonic's. And that triggered another painful memory, this time for Sonic and Raichu.
The feeling of helplessness.
The inability to fight back while pinned down by Persian.
And the malicious, hellish voice of his archnemesis.
"There it is. There's the world of pain".
"No. Never again" he whispered.
May glanced at Sonic upon hearing the whisper despite the sound of his Raichu getting pummeled and saw his face had turned into a mask of fear.
"Never again" he said a bit louder.
And then fear consumed her as it slowly turned into a frightening mask of rage as he spoke those words.
"Never again! We haven't trained this hard to be pinned down! Raichu break free!"
Raichu let out a loud cry.
But there was something about that cry.
An aura of rage.
The same rage that had taken over Sonic.
They had no idea of it yet but their bond had developed even further.
It wasn't just their thoughts that were being shared.
It was their emotions as well.
And Raichu also remembered that night that sealed their fates forever. The fear it had for Persian.
As it continued to cry out, its tail began to move, causing the arena to vibrate as one third of the magneton struggled to hold it down.
"What's happening?!" Max hugged May instinctively.
Pikachu hid behind Ash's head in fear as well.
The tail was suddenly freed and with a powerful swipe, Wattson's Raichu was off Sonic's Raichu. Harnessing their shared rage, the other two thirds of Magneton were forced to release Raichu's paws and the three pieces formed Magneton again.
As Wattson's pokemon regrouped, Sonic's Raichu stood back up, lightning crackling all over its body as it would on Sonic when he was preparing to use his super speed.
But the most alarming sight wasn't Raichu bursting with power. It was Sonic.
The blue hedgehog's skin had somehow turned a darker color and his spiky hair were slightly pointing upwards.
"Such power" Brock managed to say, worried as to how it was going to be wielded.
"Quick attack! Take voltorb out!" Sonic's voice reeked of attack mode as he called out the move.
Raichu dropped on its four paws and with another loud cry slammed into Voltorb.
"Now iron tail!"
With a quick spin, before Voltorb could even be launched away, the iron tail slammed into it, sending it crashing on Magnemite so hard the two were launched together on the gym wall, the whole building vibrating from the impact.
Everyone was in shock at this display of power. And also distracted.
"Magneton's next! Brick break!"
With terrifying speed, Raichu charged Magneton.
"Raichu block with iron tail! Magneton, Zap cannon!"
The iron tail blocked the brick break, causing the two Raichu to get interlocked. And with this opening, the zap cannon landed.
Sonic had heard stories of Zap cannon's power and was always told that its low accuracy was made up for with its immense power. And in that moment he was forced to admit that the stories had a point.
The amount of impact exploding through his body was almost as much as Steven's Metagross.
But the result was not the anticipated one.
The pain made them stronger, not weaker.
Raichu, still interlocked with Wattson's Raichu cried out very loudly, a lot more than before, giving ground with brick break so Wattson's Raichu lost its balance and allowing Sonic's Raichu to plow forward.
Despite the paralysis trying to hold Raichu down, it kept on going, fighting the numbness to land a powerful thunder punch on Magneton, so powerful that Magneton fainted and even splitting into the three magnemites upon crashing on the ground.
"What's happening?!" Ash said in shock and, to his surprise, fear "their bond should have damaged them and yet they are growing stronger!"
"Those 3 pokemon have been training for a lifetime and went down in one move each! I think Sonic has been holding back a lot more than we ever realized" Brock said as he had instinctively stood in front of May and Max to shield them from any rogue blasts.
Pikachu cried out silently in pure terror. If that was Voltorb it would have been torn to shreds.
Raichu was beast.
Wattson was unnerved and tried to reach out to Sonic to tell him he was yielding.
"Hold on! You win! I yield!"
But the hedgehog was not with them.
"Time to end this! Iron tail!"
"Counter with iron tail!" Wattson called out in desperation.
The two iron tails clashed and in that moment Ash was brought back in the Johto league.
If Sonic wasn't stopped, history was going to repeat.
"Wattson! Pull Raichu back! He won't stop until it is beaten!"
Wattson quickly raised his pokeball to recall Raichu.
"No! Iron tail the ground!"
Raichu slammed its tail into the ground. The vibration of the impact caused Wattson to drop the pokeball.
Leaving Wattson's Raichu no time to even brace itself, Raichu thunder punched it, causing it to sprawl back roughly.
"Sonic stop, this isn't you!" Ash got up and tried to rush to his rival but the intensity of Raichu's power made him stop in his tracks. He wasn't sure the electric type recognized anything anymore.
He watched on, unable to act as his rival continued to devolve into a enraged force hellbent on winning.
This wasn't Sonic battling. It was a dark version of him.
"Finish it! Thunder punch!"
Raichu prepared for a second then charged, paw winded and crackling with electricity, heading for the helpless Raichu.
Wattson's Raichu cowered and closed its eyes.
"No!" Ash reached out.
"Sonic stop!" Brock pleaded.
"Sonic!" May and Max tried to reach the hedgehog as well.
"Pika pi!"
Pikachu acted.
It got in the way.
With an iron tail, it redirected Raichu's punch and caused it to crash into the ground, saving Wattson's Raichu but causing the ground to rumble.
Everyone watched in shock, feeling the impact of the attack. Nobody wanted to even wonder what that attack would have done if it landed.
"Pika pika! Pika pi! Pikachu!" it cried out in defiance at Sonic's Raichu despite the obvious fear at standing in front of the very pokemon that broke its tail in the Johto league, as well as the extreme show of power it had just witnessed from that same pokemon.
"He has done nothing wrong! And you were going to hurt him like you hurt me! You are no hero! You're a monster!"
The words sank into Raichu's mind and the rage started being replaced by shame.
The shame was slowly also transferred to Sonic who heard the thought as well as experiencing the crashing guilt.
He stumbled and fell back, as he looked up at his shaking hands.
"What's wrong with me? Why didn't I stop? Why… why didn't I want to stop?" he whispered.
"You ok lad?" Wattson approached him, albeit cautiously.
May also approached but without any caution.
"Sonic what's wrong?"
"I don't know… I… I blacked out. I couldn't think straight".
"I think that's an excuse" Ash disagreed as Pikachu climbed on him.
"I agree with Ash" Brock told Sonic in a judgemental way "you had no reason to go this far this time".
May however didn't agree with them.
"I think I know".
All three looked at her.
"During the battle you said, we haven't trained so hard to be pinned down. I don't know what to make of it but I can tell that's what pushed you over the edge".
Sonic forced himself to recall the moment through the swirls of uncontrollable emotions.
"Yes. It is. Because that's what happened the night I first confronted the boss of team rocket. He pinned us down. He almost killed Raichu. We swore we would never find ourselves in that state again. And yet… we did".
May was horrified. So Sonic's rageful state wasn't intentional.
Ash on the other hand, didn't see it that way.
"And you decided the best way to go about it was to destroy everything and everyone standing in your way. Can't say I'm surprised" Ash surmised.
"No, I didn't…"
"Save it! I said I was here to watch and understand and I do! We're leaving!"
And with those words he headed for the exit, followed by Brock and Max who avoided eye contact with Sonic as they left.
Sonic, drowning in shame, also headed for exit.
"Wait!" Wattson called out, throwing the dynamobadge at Sonic.
Sonic caught it without even turning around.
He looked at it for a moment, then looked over his shoulder.
"Why?"
"You are bit too much, but your power is undeniable. You beat me, so the badge is yours".
Sonic nodded after another moment before he walked out the door, Raichu following him closely, as he tried to think of a place to go to be alone and process everything.
"Sonic" May again tried to stop him "don't take what Ash said to heart. He…"
"Stop. Don't bother. He is right. I was once again ready to hurt another pokemon. And worst of all, so was Raichu. The circumstances do not matter, only the facts. And the fact is that we're far from worthy of his forgiveness" he shut her down and left, convinced he was as much of a monster as his nemesis.