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[Pokémon] The Retelling of Pokémon Colosseum

50
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Jul 6, 2013
I just read the first chapter alone and scanned through some of the more recent things.

Absolutely fantastic.

It's a rare thing to find an ambitious project of the caliber of the opening entry and stick with it for this amount of time.

I hope I'm able to stick with such a Pokémon fic some day in the future.

Pokémon Colosseum with its characters, ideas, and story itself struck me almost as a video game adaptation of a creative, unique, and unrestrained (within reason) awesome fanfic of some sort, so to come across this is quite a treat for me and I'm glad I happened to come around so soon after an update, or else I might not have noticed it.

I'll ration the many chapters to go and I fully expect to enjoy them. I wont reply often, maybe I'll comment on large chunks as I go along later down the line.

In short, the opening was some nice work and I hope to see writing and ideas of equal or higher quality as I move along.
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,891
Posts
16
Years
I just read the first chapter alone and scanned through some of the more recent things.

Absolutely fantastic.

It's a rare thing to find an ambitious project of the caliber of the opening entry and stick with it for this amount of time.

I hope I'm able to stick with such a Pokémon fic some day in the future.

Pokémon Colosseum with its characters, ideas, and story itself struck me almost as a video game adaptation of a creative, unique, and unrestrained (within reason) awesome fanfic of some sort, so to come across this is quite a treat for me and I'm glad I happened to come around so soon after an update, or else I might not have noticed it.

I'll ration the many chapters to go and I fully expect to enjoy them. I wont reply often, maybe I'll comment on large chunks as I go along later down the line.

In short, the opening was some nice work and I hope to see writing and ideas of equal or higher quality as I move along.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed this - nice to see a long review here from a new reader. =)

Certainly ambitious I suppose given how big it's gotten, this fic, although I didn't expect it to be so long when I started, nor was it written that well originally, I'd wager. XD Anyways I hope you enjoy the other chapters when you get around to them!
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,891
Posts
16
Years
Oh look, another chapter. And within a month of the previous chapter being posted too, OH MY! :O


Beta read by Chris the Com.




***

Chapter 23 – Back to the Drawing Board






"Today's breaking story!" shouted a news reporter from a radio in Nascour's office which was empty save for a bored Dakim. He had nothing to do after being told off by Nascour for breaking all the chairs in training the grunts on how to defend oneself against enraged Ursaring, and so he had given the Cipher agents the rest of the day off from his care.

"There have been various unconfirmed sightings of a Raikou in the region," the reporter continued. "Police have quashed claims from various citizens that this is a sign of either the apocalypse or an oncoming sale, but have nonetheless investigated the claims. The police have been busy today, having made a raid on a large faculty. We do not currently know the purpose but are hard at work in training our undercover Rattata in recording conversations and garnering the truth for our loyal listeners! All...ten of you."

"Man, that's weird," Dakim mumbled. "Ein had one of those yellow things, didn't he?" He then sighed, reminded of his loss of Entei, and gazed out of the window at the still, dark night. Sure, the Pokémon had been rather angry and didn't listen much to him, nor had it been keen on wrestling, but it was tough. But it wouldn't have survived that fall from Mt Battle.

Nascour then walked in as the reporter moved to interviewing the aforementioned Rattata.

"Hey, Nascour, can I have a new Entei?" Dakim asked.

"No," he replied coldly.

"Aw," Dakim complained.

"We'll be lucky if we can make any more Shadow Pokémon within a year," Nascour continued, before Dakim could ask about getting a giant Rattata. "I think acquiring more powerful Pokémon is the least of our current worries, given the current state of matters. And first we need Ein back safely, and given he should have arrived two days ago... anyway, we have a special guest," Nascour continued as a short, stout man walked in.

"Who is that man who was shouting at me about not wearing enough blue?" he asked Nascour as he tugged at his brown coat.

"Ah, sorry about that, that must be Bluno, one of our agents. We found him moping about in the desert recently and so we brought him back in. He and his brothers are... a bit odd, to put it plainly," Nascour explained.

Dakim blinked blankly. "Hello, man..." he said slowly as he scratched his head and looked down at the newcomer.

"You do realise who I am?" the man replied, only for Dakim's vacant expression to remain.

"He's the mayor of Phenac, Dakim," Nascour muttered. "Es Cade."

"Oh yeah!" Dakim brightened, shaking the mayor's arm. "You gave us money!"

"...Yes, I suppose that's the main thing I've done," the mayor said angrily as he rubbed his arm. "If it wasn't for my actions there would be no Cipher!"

"And we're all grateful for that, sir," Nascour said soothingly.

"But it seems because of Cipher there will be no me," the mayor continued. "Granted, when you put money in any investment there's always going to be a risk, and this one had more than usual. But to have Snagem fall just like that..." he said, snapping his fingers. "And just when construction finished on this wonderful tower as well!"

"On behalf of Cipher I apologise for what has happened," Nascour said quickly. "That's why I think it's wise for us to pull out our operations now, for the time being. Get Ein back, go into hiding and wait for things to cool down before going back into business. We have other factions still being developed after all, so it may be best to wait for those to be ready."

"Hmm. That may be for the best," the mayor muttered.

"Man, I had an idea too!" Dakim continued with a smile, oblivious to the current discussion. "Say we got someone to look like Wes and have him do bad stuff! Then everyone would think he is bad and be distracted from us, man!"

"That is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard," Nascour replied. "Besides, we already have an arrest warrant put out for Wes."

"Well... two Wes are better than one!" Dakim protested. "Or...Okay, how about this – we make a big door that can be only unlocked with keys and each admin gets one of them, so they have to beat us all individually to be able to get in!"

"And how do you propose we get a key to Venus?" Nascour asked. "And that won't stop them coming in from the top by helicopter or the windows if they were to storm in. And what about when we open this place to the public – how would they get in?" he added, counting off the bad reasons on his fingers.

"We've gone into great length discussing the details earlier about this, Nascour and I," the mayor added. "We're going to open this place up tomorrow regardless, so I want you all to help clean up so any sign of Cipher here isn't in open view. But Shadow Pokémon battling will have to wait for a later date, which is a shame for that was the drawcard for this place! Phenac's Colosseum didn't draw the number of people I wanted, so Shadow Pokémon was the way I was to get people back in."

"And then we'd put a punching machine behind the door, man!" Dakim continued. The mayor sighed and sat down on the sofa as Nascour tried to dissuade Dakim.

"Hello, all!" Miror B sung as he waltzed in and spun on the spot, striking a typical disco pose. "What's been grooving over here?"

"Ah, about time," Nascour said, waving away Dakim's protests that punching machines were cool. "I trust that everyone from the lab is now back?"

Miror B's smile faded slightly as he paused. "Yes, about that..." Miror B said slowly.

"Oh no," Nascour said, feeling an all too familiar pang of pain in his stomach in anticipation of Miror B's answer. Groaning, he decided to join the mayor on the couch.

"What do you mean?" the mayor asked gruffly.

"Oh, hello there, mayor!" Miror B sung, patting the man on the head. "My, is it just me, or did you lose some weight?" The mayor simply stared back, his frown growing by the second.

"His weight is the least of our worries!" Nascour shouted. "Uh, no offence of course, sir," he added.

"Well, man, now that he mentions it..." Dakim said.

"The news," the mayor said sternly.

"Well... I'm the only one to get back, unless people make it through the tunnel by foot," Miror B explained. "Police showed up suddenly and stormed the lab, and I was the only one to get onto the train. I couldn't have waited either or police would have caught me too. Ein might have escaped but I don't know about that."

"Well that's just great," the mayor spat. "If I understand correctly, Ein was the brains behind the whole process?"

"Yes... but we do have the majority of his work documented thanks to his files," Nascour said slowly, walking to a set of drawers and opening it up, throwing papers behind him. "How to use the GTS...RNG files...Criminal Syndicates and You: Creating a Dress Code... ah, Ein files."

"Shouldn't it be called Ein's files or something?" the mayor asked.

"He insisted on this wording," Nascour answered. "Anyways, it all seems to be here," he said as he leafed through the documentations. "Even if he cannot make it back, it merely means that we'd need a new person in his position if he doesn't return, and we can store this information in a safe place easily enough."

"That's good. Not ideal, but good. Block off the train system then," Es Cade said. "If police are at the lab and find the train system they could then find us. Cave it in or something."

"Alright then, all we need to consider is how to keep Cipher hidden from the authorities. We've lost Venus already, and possibly Ein too. At this rate I don't even think this place will go without notice for a while – one of them would eventually talk," Nascour said. "Hence the need for us to burn the bridges, so to speak."

"Well, what if we stayed with that man, that..." Dakim began as he tried to think. "That Deep King man?"

"The person owning the Deep Colosseum in The Under? No, we're not hiding out there," Nascour said abruptly. "Even if we gave him a Shadow Pokémon and he was to work along with us in giving them out to the public. Venus may not have minded the place so much because she had everyone wrapped around her little finger, but I refuse to live underground for a few years. Besides, that place is cut off now anyway, and we don't need to be hidden from view ourselves except for those who have already been linked to Cipher by the media."

"Wait... a few years?" Miror B echoed.

"Well of course! Given what's happened we can't afford to let it be known that Cipher will still be in operation for another...say, three years minimum," Es Cade said. "In the meantime, the aim is to make it seem that Cipher has disbanded."


"I think we'll sort that out tomorrow then," Nascour said. "After hearing about police forces at the shadow lab – the shadow lab! – I think I should go...lie down and get some rest, after I deal with the railway. You two, help clean up the place and don't let Cipher's presence here be obvious to the random bystander. " Nodding to the mayor, he then left.

"So... " Dakim began to the mayor, "you like battles?"

"This isn't a time for Pokémon battles and attracting undue attention to ourselves," the mayor replied.

"Well... do you like karate?" Dakim tried. When he was greeted with silence, he added, "How about throwing people great distances? I just find picking someone up and hurling them to be really calming, man, you know?"

"I'm going to go practise my dancing," Miror B said as he departed, humming a tune to himself. "And then I'll go to the control room and see if everything is in order there."

"Nah, man, Nascour's the only one who has permission to go there now. His orders," Dakim said, shrugging.

"Really?" Miror B replied, frowning. "Well... dancing and decorating it is then!" he concluded.

Es Cade sighed, watching the giant afro with a man attached to it turn the corner. He had thought him strange when they had met only a couple of weeks ago, yet now it seemed it was more the norm for this place – and besides, Miror B never shouted at him for not wearing blue. Somehow I wish for the police to come here tomorrow just to end this all. Cipher's by far the worst investment I've made since that gamble with those power-draining light bulbs, but I'm determined to stick with it. I've come this far, and to have put so much into this building...

***

Nascour heaved a sigh as he descended to the underground train station and looked miserably at the scene. It would be a shame to have to cut ties and lie down low, but what else could he do? Despite his efforts, everything had come crashing down around him with Cipher.

And the mayor was proving rather difficult as well. He had insisted on opening the place up to the public the next day – a full week earlier than initially planned despite the situation, and so that meant a lot for everyone to do without prior warning. He couldn't help but think that it wouldn't be quite so simple.

And now they had quite possibly lost Ein as well as all the other scientists and Cipher peons, which would bring a further halt to the whole operation. And the mayor had been rather disapproving of Cipher's spending costs on various computers and televisions too which he had broken upon wave after wave of bad news, and Nascour felt somewhat guilty when he found out exactly how much that had cost the mayor. Not that he would let the mayor know he had been responsible for that, but he now knew that he had to be a bit more careful in how he went about letting out his anger. Luckily he had someone put all the remains of the appliances in the control room so as long as the mayor didn't go in there for the time being he wouldn't find out about it.

Walking past the train and glancing at the insides, Nascour made a mental note to get someone else to clean out the mess of confetti and the disco ball Miror B had left behind in the train. He then gazed at the dark tunnel in front of him and breathed in the smell of damp soil and sighed again. He also didn't like the idea of blocking off all access between the lab and the base, given Ein had been the brains behind the Shadowfication process Cipher had been built upon – it didn't seem right to abandon him like that. But the mayor had a valid point; if they left it open they left themselves vulnerable to police forces storming in from underneath.

"Come on out, Metagross," Nascour said, pulling out a Poké Ball from his belt and pressing the button upon it. A giant four-legged creature appeared in the air and landed with a heavy clunk, slightly shaking the train due to the sheer weight of its metallic body.

"Metagross," (Annihilation phase initialising,) it stated in a computerised voice.

"Not now," Nascour said.

"Gross," (Charging Hyper Beam,) it continued.

"Maybe tomorrow, but today I just want you to do something a bit less destructive," Nascour sighed. As annoying as Metagross' lust for destruction was, he was most definitely one of the better perks of being the lead admin of Cipher in Nascour's mind – there was something undeniably frightening about fighting a malevolent creature with higher capabilities than a supercomputer, and owning such a Shadow Pokémon was always a plus in his books. In fact Nascour had requested this one as his Shadow Pokémon instead of the legendary beasts three of the other administrators had been given, even though the average Orre citizen would have been more interested in seeing a legendary in action.

"Metagross," (Target locked,) the Pokémon said.

"What? There's no... wait," Nascour said, glaring down the tunnel. Suddenly, save for the quiet hum of the Metagross, he noticed the sound of footsteps approaching. Soon enough a lone Cipher peon came into view, breathing heavily as he continued to jog.

"Oh... hello, Nascour," the man breathed as he noticed Nascour, before stopping as he also became aware of the presence of his Pokémon.

"Hello... Skrub, wasn't it?" Nascour said, frowning as Skrub admired the large Steel Pokémon. "I thought Miror B said he was the only one to get away."

"Miror B got back? Oh good," Skrub breathed, before realising what Nascour had said. "But the only one back... yeah, that makes sense. I managed to give the police the, uh, slip, but they were getting everyone else pretty quickly."

"And what about Ein?" Nascour quizzed.

"I don't know," Skrub answered. "He might have been able to, he might not. It was too hectic back in there but he was trying to, uh, get rid of some data."

"Ah, he is a good man if so then," Nascour said softly. "So you are sure that nobody else is on their way back?"

"Yes, I'm positive."

"Excellent. Metagross, get to work. Hammer Arm into the wall there," Nascour directed, stepping back. Without hesitation the Pokémon slowly rose into the air as its humming increased in volume and frequency, floated forward and raised one of its legs.

"Wait, what are you do-" Skrub said before the Pokémon crashed its limb into the side of the tunnel and twisted. At once, the tunnel in front of them collapsed, rock and soil tumbling down from above and blocking off the tunnel.

"Orders of the mayor," Nascour said simply. "We don't want the police to come through here. You're somewhat lucky you came here at this time," he noted as he turned. Skrub merely frowned and stared at the man and his Metagross who hovered back. Nascour pulled out his Poké Ball and returned the large Pokémon back, before a noise from within the train caught his attention. He gazed at the door before a bedazzled man with a large afro akin to Miror B's covering his eyes stumbled out.

"Sasyasya explusions! Hairesy everyshmears!" the man shouted as his flailed his arms about.

"What are you doing here?" Nascour shouted. Tom gave a small jump in response to the loud yelling and pulled off his afro.

"Arrsgh! Scares mans!" he said when he saw Nascour glaring at him and hurriedly put the afro back on. Annoyed, Nascour stepped forward and pulled off the fake hair.

"Out of uniform, drunk and not at work! I'm docking your pay for the week... whoever you are," Nascour exclaimed angrily as he tossed the afro to the side. "Skrub, see that he gets back to work and then join him. We're setting up for the opening tomorrow, so we need to hide all the incriminating evidence." Nascour then stomped up the stairs, feeling all the more intent on getting his planned sleep.

"Stupid Nascour..." Skrub muttered to himself. "I lose to the guy who everyone else lost to and I get a demotion, but someone can turn up drunk and sleep on the job and keeps his position! A joke if ever I saw one!" he grumbled as he followed, dragging a confused Tom behind him.

"I donny wonny goes tum schooly!" Tom shouted desperately.

***

The group that had been the cause of much of Cipher's angst meanwhile had returned to the police station. Wes' Pokémon were recovering decently outside of the room the people were resting in despite the tough battle they had, partly because Hariyama could no longer fit in the room, and was normally not trusted inside to begin with due to his tendencies to punch everything when he was a Makuhita. Umbreon had been treated to a lunch of Persim berries to help treat his confusion status, and Feraligatr and Yanma had been revived.

"Hariyama!" (But my treatment also works!) Hariyama said to the Eeveelution.

"Umb...Umbreon," (Uh thanks, but... I'll pass on your offer,) Umbreon replied uneasily.

"Espi Espeon," (At least you've recovered enough to recognise the folly in accepting,) Espeon remarked to his brother as he ate his own meal.

"Feraligatr?" (So since when did you get so fat, Hariyama?) Feraligatr remarked with a wink. Hariyama stared at the crocodile and then slowly turned and looked at the police station with interest.

"Yama?" (Hey, Espeon?)

"Esp...eon?" (I'll humour you...what is it?) Espeon said.

"Hariyama?" (Reckon I can throw Feraligatr over that building?)

"Espeon. Esp...," (Maybe try when people aren't inside it. Besides the prisoners of course...) Espeon advised as he looked up at the group accompanied by a swarm of flies, as Feraligatr gave a warning growl to Hariyama.

Wes meanwhile had recovered considerably well from his battle, also thanks to the help of several Persim berries, but he personally felt that Rui's facial expression when she had seen what had happened to him from the battle, her sweet kiss and then nonsensical angry shouting at Ein earlier on had a greater effect than all those berries. Johnson for the moment was strutting around the room boasting about his own contributions to the raid to anyone who cared to listen, which amounted to a wall painting and a mirror.

"Well, we're to attack the hideout of Cipher tomorrow," Sherles said happily to the group as he walked into the room.

"We are?" Rui asked. "Ein already told us where it is?" Ein had earned his own jail cell, having been found only a short distance away from the laboratory. Hariyama had been most pleased with himself, but disappointed that the police had insisted that Ein had been thrown around and spun about in circles enough. Likewise the two Growlithe had also wanted more fun with the scientist, but settled for licking their wounded trainers' faces. Said police officers were recovering with the help of the best medical support Pyrite could offer, which consisted of a few pain killers and more bandages than the insides of a Cofagrigus.

The news of Ein's capture and arrest and its importance was currently being kept away from the media as best as possible, although it did not prevent an angry Eusine from finding out and proceed to shout at Ein for 'tainting the pure and wonderful creature that was his darling Suicune' repeatedly. Annoyed at the lack of response given by the scientist, he then treated the man to 'purposefully poorly-performed card tricks' as some sort of additional punishment, despite the fact that Ein slept through most of his 'show'. The rest of the cipher prisoners were luckier than the group that had been arrested in The Under, spared from being chained to the roof of the prison in Pyrite and instead kept inside the Shadow lab.

Despite the evidence indicating he had been there, Miror B was nowhere to be found. What had been found besides spare copies of his salsa tape were wiped disks of data that Ein had tampered with. The members of the Kids Grid in Secc and Nett had taken them in an attempt to recover the lost data, but had so far only managed to pull up more garbled text files containing golfing scores and secret ingredients to making the perfect waffle.

"No, a new source did," Sherles replied. "A bit embarrassing actually because it involved a police force we had in Eclo Canyon..."

"What do you mean by that?" Rui asked.

"Well... there may have been an incident involving everyone on the force stationed there falling into a pit," Sherles said dryly. "The important thing is that we now know where to attack."

"Was it Team Snagem members who told us?" Wes guessed.

Sherles nodded. "The deal is that we leave them alone, and they help us take down Cipher. We're a bit down on numbers now after all those battles and the need to have people monitoring other areas at the moment like The Under. Duking at least can keep an eye on things here, but elsewhere... and we're still trying to find that Raikou as well."

"Strange... maybe Cipher pissed them off," Wes suggested.

"Yes, that seems to be their motivation, besides giving themselves a buffer from ourselves. It's somewhat odd as we know Cipher used Team Snagem as a front and all so they had an agreement beforehand. But I'm inclined to believe them."

"Why is that?"

"Firstly it's because those officers are still in that pit. Secondly, we recently installed a person there as an undercover spy and thus far what we've been able to get back has confirmed the claim."

"A spy? Since when?" Wes asked.

"Earlier today, in fact, and already we have some info. We're currently trying to link up with the person who leaked to us about Cipher's attack on Mt Battle."

"Not a bad idea," Wes said. "So where is this place?"

"Realgam Tower," Sherles said. "A large tower in-between Phenac and Pyrite, set to be the region's new main battling colosseum and hotel."

"Ah yes, Rui and I saw that earlier when we came from Phenac – it's kinda hard to miss. In fact, that's where I got the gear for the windmill from," Wes said.

"The workers there were smelly," Rui added.

"It's been made to bring people into the region to watch 'fantastic Pokémon battles like you've never seen before'... which is an interesting investment given Phenac's City's Colosseum failed to bring in enough tourists by itself despite its own stature. And having checked financial records, it's been personally financed by the mayor himself," Sherles continued, before frowning. "Only it seems the money used came directly from taxes taken in Phenac."

"You don't suppose..." Rui begun, frowning to herself, "that they were going to use Shadow Pokémon to advertise the region?"

"Perhaps."

"How could he?" Rui said angrily. Sherles shrugged in reply.

"He's the mayor, so he can basically do as he likes – as said, even though his power was only for Phenac, he basically had a lot of say for the region as a whole. He is why you can't buy bubble gum or red apples in this region, and it seems his power includes what gets constructed outside of Phenac, clearly. But tomorrow that may all change. Hopefully anyway! We've got a- yes, what is it? Come in," Sherles said as a knock sounded on the door. An officer walked in.

"Chief," he said, saluting. "The visitor has arrived."

"Ah, that's good. Rui, we have a surprise for you," Sherles said.

"Oh?" she asked curiously.

"Hello, Rui!" Eagun said as he walked in.

"Grandpa!" she said as they hugged, her head briefly disappearing in Eagun's beard. "But why are you here?" she asked as she withdrew.

"I asked for him," Sherles answered. "A couple of reasons – firstly, I want to consult him regarding the legendary Johto beasts."

"Oh?" Rui asked, looking at her grandfather curiously.

"Well, they don't call me the legendary trainer for nothing!" Eagun boasted. "Or the Super Deluxe Spinster Champion either!"

"They don't call you the latter," Sherles said slowly.

"They don't?" Eagun said, blinking. "Well I know my things about legendaries at any rate!"

"Yes... I'm sure you and Eusine will get along swimmingly," Sherles said, already seeming to regret inviting the old man. "Thing is, we need to decide if bringing Suic-"

"Back when I was a lad I became famous for solving the mystery behind the Jirachi of Orre!" he boasted, before leaning in. "The true culprit had been the maniacal Poffin," he whispered.

Sherles sighed. "Maybe tomorrow evening will be a good time for old tales," he suggested. "But I'll ask about what I wanted later. The second matter is...well Eagun, did you bring it?" Sherles asked.

"What? Oh, yes, it's somewhere in here..." Eagun said, reaching inside his beard and rummaging through it. "Ah yes, here it is," he said eventually, pulling out a Poké Ball and handing it to Wes.

"Is this a..." Wes said quietly, turning the purple and white sphere around in his hands to locate a small capital 'M' inscribed above the ball's button.

"A Master Ball," Sherles confirmed. "I know Eagun had one, and so asked if he still had any need of it."

"And I'm long retired, and it holds little sentimental value to me," Eagun added.

"I feel it may be useful if this Nascour fellow we heard of from other admins has a powerful Shadow Pokémon that you may have trouble snagging with a regular ball," Sherles explained. "Every little bit helps after all."

"Well...thank you," Wes said, unsure what to say. He had heard about the item – it never failed in catching its target once it made contact with the Pokémon, and only a few had been made, usually for Pokémon professors or the sort. Eagun must have been good in his day to be able to have one...

"Anyways, I think some heading to bed early would be a good idea," Sherles said. "We'll leave in the morning once I get confirmation from Team Snagem. And then we'll look into making a bigger system for purifying Pokémon too, because it is likely there's a large number to get from the Colosseum there."

"One thing though," Wes interrupted. "You mentioned the spy, but who is it...?"

"Ah," Sherles said. "Well, when I said we sent someone there, it's more like he went by himself without telling anyone beforehand..."

***

Silva grinned as he exited the supplies room of Realgam Tower. It seemed for once that he had managed to sneak into a Cipher area without being caught, although it helped that he had dressed up as a guard to help convince people that he was supposed to be there, complete with fake glasses and moustache. Having met Eusine in the morning and being handed one of his business cards, Silva had followed suit and made up his own to add to it and found giving it to everyone who asked who he was to be strangely fun. And nobody questioned him afterwards as well, so it clearly worked.

Sherles had been far from pleased that he was there when he had contacted him, but he didn't care – he wanted to do his bit and he was damned if he didn't at least try. He now had something to do as well – try and find the person who had leaked the details of Cipher's strike on Mt Battle.

There wasn't much he could do though besides try to gleam information about what was going on here and pull off small stunts like the one he had just performed now.

Yes, he gloated to himself. If anyone was in a rush to escape in different clothing they would surely waste valuable seconds dealing with the fact the shoelaces have been tied together! And the itching powder in the spare socks...hehehe.

He was still puzzled over why everyone was cleaning up and removing various papers and signs of Cipher from the reception area though.

It can be only one of three possibilities, Silva mused as he observed someone hauling a large crate labelled 'not incriminating evidence' away. Either things here are usually this busy, they had a party the day previous and so were cleaning up now, or something is going to happen. And the lack of streamers and balloons don't suggest the second option was the case.

Unless Cipher just have really lame parties, he added to himself.

"Ah, this would be much more delightful!" a man said as he walked into the reception area. Silva stared for a moment before instinctively ducking behind a desk and quietly observing Miror B's trademark afro move to a wall, as music played softly from the radio he carried with him.

"Yes, much better," Miror B declared as he tossed away a poster about Cipher from the wall and replaced it with a cheerful painting of a Ludicolo. He took a few steps back to admire it, continuing to gush about its fabulousness. "Now if only they had decided to make a fountain about Ludicolo and not that silly Sudowoodo! And statues of the legendary dogs... what a silly and unstylish choice. But this shall do."

Silva remained silent. Well, he thought as he breathed deeply, I guess that rules out the 'cipher's parties suck' option if he's here, but I didn't count on this. I hope he doesn't recognise me after I got caught by those two cipher grunts working for him... Checking that his fake moustache was still firmly in place, he then noticed Miror B dance out of the room to decorate another part of the building. Silva stood up and followed from a distance. The man was now hanging a disco ball from the ceiling as he hummed to himself to the tune.

How is this the same guy that kidnapped Plusle? Silva mused, as he considered if it would be wise to throw something at him as revenge for being caught at the risk of giving himself away. Maybe I could somehow slip in some itching powder in there?

"Hey, Miror B," another man said, walking into the room with another following him, stumbling about.

"Oh? I know that voice!" Miror B said with a smile as he turned and shook the man's hand warmly, before changing the song to something more fitting. "Good to see you get back, Skrub! Been working on those dance moves?"

"Uh... I kinda haven't had time as I only recently got here," Skrub said.

"Aw, you didn't dance on your way here?" he asked in disappointment. "And who is this...?" he said, looking at Tom.

"Arrghblurrghsmur!" the drunk shouted, pointing at the afro before running off.

"...A fan, perhaps?" Miror B continued, scratching his chin. "I know people are often surprised by my afro but they don't usually scream at it. He does look somewhat familiar but...well, he's not that weirdo Mirakle B fan of mine at least," he mused, shuddering slightly.

"Bah, never mind him, he's been shouting at everything in sight," Skrub said. "Just some drunk worker here...anyways, I was the only other person to escape via the tunnel, I think," he said in a quieter voice as the two walked off. Silva's eyes lit up and he quickly followed, eager to hear more.

"...and now it's blocked off by Nascour," Skrub continued.

"Yeah, he mentioned that he was going to do that," Miror B said. "But now what? We're shutting up shop here, so if the police are going to act..."

The police? Silva thought with surprise.

"...then the sooner the better. We're going to have to get some message to them, but as the control room is now only accessible by Nascour which has the communications, and the mayor's here that's a pretty big risk for us-"

"Ahem," Silva interjected, and grinned as Skrub and Miror B turned around hastily. "I think I may be able to help."

"And who are you?" Skrub said sharply.

"Oh, I am the great Silva!" he shouted as he ripped off his moustache, only to wince and shout in pain and hop about awkwardly, clutching at his mouth.

"Who?" Skrub asked.

"Ahhh... you know, I'm that... never mind," Silva said, rubbing his face. "I'm on the side of the good guys, and although I don't know about you two, your conversation suggests you're not keen to stick around and get arrested. Did one of you beforehand send a message to the police about Mt Battle...?"

"Why yes," Miror B said slowly with a smile.

***


Nearing the end!

And the usual stuff about what is here and in the game!
Spoiler:


Next chapter hopefully will be around a month or so as well (especially as part of it is already written too), but we shall see! Hope you enjoyed this one!
 
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Bay

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LOL Darkim trying to join the conversation with Nascour and the mayor. Poor him. XD And speaking of the mayor, had an idea he's involved with Cipher somehow for a while now. I like it though it involves him in investing the organization. Woo investments!

I chuckled over the part where Metagross was about to blast the Hyper Beam. That's what you get for having a supercomputer as a Pokemon Nascour, haha. Yay for the return of Tom. I'm also going to have to say poor Skrub for having a demotion while Tom doesn't. :P

"We are?" Rui asked. "Ein already told us where it is?" Ein had earned his own jail cell, having been found only a short distance away from the laboratory. Hariyama had been most pleased with himself, but disappointed that the police had insisted that Ein had been thrown around and spun about in circles enough. Likewise the two Growlithe had also wanted more fun with the scientist, but settled for licking their wounded trainers' faces. Said police officers were recovering with the help of the best medical support Pyrite could offer, which consisted of a few pain killers and more bandages than the insides of a Cofagrigus.
Glad to hear the two Growlithe are all right, lol. My face went blank though over Pyrite's medical support using too much bandages. HOW is that possible? *_*

Anyways, oh bit more info on the mayor, especially him having quite an influence over the Orre region. Interesting most likely the Shadow Pokemon are going to be used for advertising the region. Moving on the part with Eagun having a Master Ball but never used it I thought was quite nice too. Hopefully Wes will put it to good use!

Unless Cipher just have really lame parties, he added to himself.
Couldn't agree with you more, Silva…unless it's Miror B hosting it. :P Looks like though Silvia and Miror B might strike a deal of some sort. Hm…

Overall another chapter I enjoyed quite a bit. Seems like the last few chapters will be quit exciting as everyone are making their moves now, which I look forward too. Can't wait for the next chapter!
 

bobandbill

one more time
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Yay belated review replies. >_<
LOL Darkim trying to join the conversation with Nascour and the mayor. Poor him. XD And speaking of the mayor, had an idea he's involved with Cipher somehow for a while now. I like it though it involves him in investing the organization. Woo investments!
Yay finance? Maybe he personally knows Grave the Steelix? =p But yeah, not surprised an idea was had with the mayor for it was probably NOT VERY SUBTLE on my part. Then again neither is the game. =p
I chuckled over the part where Metagross was about to blast the Hyper Beam. That's what you get for having a supercomputer as a Pokemon Nascour, haha. Yay for the return of Tom. I'm also going to have to say poor Skrub for having a demotion while Tom doesn't. :P
I'll admit that Metagross is one of the Shadow Pokemon that make me think 'heck yes'. Seriously, look at that thing!
Glad to hear the two Growlithe are all right, lol. My face went blank though over Pyrite's medical support using too much bandages. HOW is that possible? *_*
When one is entirely wrapped multiple times in bandages from head to toe, that's too much. =p (I guess the chansey or whatever was very enthusasatic?)
Anyways, oh bit more info on the mayor, especially him having quite an influence over the Orre region. Interesting most likely the Shadow Pokemon are going to be used for advertising the region. Moving on the part with Eagun having a Master Ball but never used it I thought was quite nice too. Hopefully Wes will put it to good use!
As I may have mentioned in the notes, an NPC basically presents the whole 'shadow pokemon used to attract people in super cool battles' thig fairly bluntly at the end. Yay for NPCs giving useful info on ocassion!
Overall another chapter I enjoyed quite a bit. Seems like the last few chapters will be quit exciting as everyone are making their moves now, which I look forward too. Can't wait for the next chapter!
Yeah, that's my aim anyways. ;p Hope you'll enjoy it and thanks for yet another review!
 

bobandbill

one more time
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And here's the chapter! I quite enjoyed writing this one in particular and think it came out well, but I'll let you be the judges of that. =p

Thanks again to Chris the Com for beta reading this.





Chapter 24 - Gonna Battle Like It's 1999



Nascour yawned as he walked into the reception area and began welcoming people into the Realgam Tower Colosseum for its grand opening. He hadn't gotten as much sleep as he had planned, no thanks to the troubling dreams he had had. He didn't recall much, but it had involved being arrested, only to run away and jump off the tower for some stupid reason, only for his leg to be somehow tied to a bungee rope, followed by flying over a swamp and being worried about his shoes falling off.

He hated how nonsensical dreams could get at times and yet how they still worried you long after waking up, nagging at your mind more obnoxiously than a disagreeable aunt eager to watch you eat that last badly cooked slice of chocolate brownie.

Beforehand he had another meeting with the mayor to decide when it might be possible to show off a Shadow Pokémon in one of the exhibition battles. The mayor naturally wanted it sooner rather than later lest interest in his venture drop off, but Nascour was not keen on making that risk just to appease some customers, even if they were rich.

It was certain that there were some of those here – some of the hotel rooms offered that featured strange gimmicks like water beds filled with raspberry jelly had already been booked, and a few of the arrivals had already headed straight for the tower's Game Corner, complaining loudly about how they hadn't been able to use slot machines in Johto anymore. But a lot of the people coming in today were curious citizens of Orre, which was only to be expected for opening day.

Every single one of them that had the ability to talk seemed keen to tell their life story to Nascour however, and so he had for the last half an hour been treated to amazing tales such as how someone had found a quarter in his shoe, or when another had bought a pumpkin that had a black spot upon it. The ones who were incapable of stringing two simple sentences together were arguably worse as their speech was either completely incomprehensible, or they resorted to either making butchered attempts at sign language or simply smiling oddly at him.

Somehow though the worst part of the day thus far was the decision for him to go under a false name, in case someone knew Nascour was part of Cipher. And Nascour disliked the name of Jakira – it just sounded silly. Nobody else seemed to notice given the standard name of the Orre citizen was weird to begin with, but he liked his name and maintaining the respect from others when it was mentioned.

Sighing, he moved away from the main door as a short lull occurred in the stream of people coming in, and decided to check on the rooms adjacent to the reception area. They didn't have the problem of everyone coming in through the doors as the initial entrance was a good half-kilometre away – people had to travel by a small train through a series of glass tunnels to get to the reception area.

Nascour moved to open a side door only to stumble backwards as it flew open.

"Wah!" a large bodybuilder shouted.

"Why did you do that?" Nascour bellowed back quickly, glaring angrily at the man.

"I gave you a good jolt, eh? Wahahah! I've been waiting behind the door for you to come along!" the man boasted. "Been waiting a looong time! Next, I'll shock you even more with my-"

"I haven't time for you," Nascour said quietly, deciding that greeting people was a better idea after all.

"Hey!" the man shouted at Nascour. "Do you know how hard it is to just wait and wait and wait without moving!?" Noticing that Nascour was ignoring him he gave up and grumbled as he moved back behind the door. "Back to standing still I guess..."

As he returned to the entrance he noticed that a man was now standing in his original place and greeting people, declaring each one to be the thousandth guest to enter the 'REALGAM TOWER'. He placed a strange amount of emphasis and volume into the name of the place despite the number of people ignoring him after realising that he had no prize, and the man admitting to each person that it wasn't the case anyway.

Nascour tapped the man on the shoulder and put on his best glare. "Excuse me, but could you please cease playing your incredibly witty prank on everyone here?" Nascour asked.

"Uh...congratulations! You are the thousandth guest!" the person replied with a sneer.

"Don't worry, Jahati man," Dakim said as he wandered in excitedly. "I'll deal with him." And before Nascour could object to the action or the fact that he had said his false name incorrectly Dakim had picked up the troublemaker, opened the door and flung him down the tunnel past a cluster of arrivals. He then grinned at the group who uneasily smiled back and wondered if it was a good idea for them to come here in the first place.

"Okay, come here," Nascour said, urging Dakim to follow him back from where he came from. Dakim happily followed his boss into a room.

"Look, you can't go and show yourself to the public!" Nascour chided. "Never mind pick them up and throw them away! We want visitors to come, not scare them off."

"...Oh yeah, man," Dakim said.

"Please remember next time – I can deal with trouble makers myself easily enough without throwing them." Nascour then looked at Dakim's clothing.

"But where's the fun in that, man?" Dakim asked, but Nascour ignored the man.

"Well, at least you got out of your usual martial art gear for a change so that defining feature of you isn't there to be noticed. Besides your height and size I guess," he added.

"Well of course!" Dakim boomed. "I couldn't get paint on my gi after all!"

"Anyways, stay put here please," Nascour said as he walked back out. Dakim fiddled with his fingers before observing the room to see if there was enough space for him to practise some fighting drills, before Nascour walked back in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that – what do you mean by that?" he asked with a tinge of worry in his voice.

"You know! A gi is what you call the clothing martial artists wear!" Dakim explained, shaking his head. "I thought even you would-"

"Not that," Nascour snapped, "I meant what did you mean by getting paint on your gi?"

"Ah." Dakim paused. "Well man, I wanted it to be a surprise..." He then turned around and shouted down an adjacent corridor. "Get over here!" A moment later Nascour gasped as a man came into the room, nervously closing the door behind him. His Cipher uniform was no longer its usual black but now a deep blue too uncomfortably akin to Wes' outfit. His hair had also been dyed and a pair of poorly made glasses (made of two sticks duct-taped together with some cellophane) and some streaks of sunscreen on his face gave him the general appearance of Wes.

"Dakim," Nascour said slowly, "I thought I said it was a stupid idea."

"But he looks like Wes!" Dakim protested. "You can't deny that!"

"He does somewhat, but it's still stupid." He then examined the clothing and only then noticed the unmistakeable sharp smell of paint. "And you... instead of finding some replica clothing you painted his clothes!?"

"Yep!" Dakim said happily. Nascour facepalmed before facing the Cipher peon.

"And what is your name, and why, oh why did you encourage this big oaf?"

"F-F-Fein," the grunt mumbled, before glancing quickly at Dakim, his bottom lip trembling. "He s-s-said he wa-was going to pu-pu-punch me if I didn't st-stay still..."

"He kept shaking," Dakim complained.

"Oh. That's fair enough then," Nascour said, as he petted the peon on the head. He then observed his hand which was now silver and wet.

"Yeah man, I painted his hair too!" Dakim said.

At that moment the mayor hurriedly ran inside the room and looked in, only to slam the door shut loudly and jump. "Why, you- hang on, you're not..." he said to Fein.

"No, he's not. Blame him," Nascour said, motioning to Dakim.

"Well... never mind that. Change of plans. The police are here."

"What?" Nascour breathed.

"Sighted from the top of the tower in force, and I suspect that they're not here for a picnic," Es Cade growled. "So we need to buy some time. Dakim, instead of doing...whatever it was you were doing, would you rather punch people at the entrance?"

"Yes!" Dakim exclaimed, running out of the room quickly as he dragged Fein along with him who yelped in surprise.

"Wait, why are we meeting them head-on?" Nascour frowned.

"I'll tell you as we head up," the mayor replied as he walked off. Sighing yet again Nascour reluctantly followed.

***

"I see movement," Sherles said, peering through binoculars a few hundred metres away from the main entrance of the imposing tower, as the wind howled past them and sent another layer of sand from the desert flying with it. "I think Cipher has spotted us."

"So how do we do this?" Wes asked anxiously, standing by his Zoomer with Rui next to him, and Andrew and Johnson next to Sherles. He was still annoyed by the deal he had with Andrew that Johnson was to travel with him on the Zoomer, and was now at the point of considering turning the radio's volume up again to drown out Johnson's inane chatter at the risk of having the advertisement jingles stuck in his head for days. He then briefly had the horrible thought of Johnson being on the radio and involuntarily shivered. "You said that Silva managed to contact us and said that the tower's open to the public..."

"Luckily we also know it's likely that the mayor would not wish to endanger his investment. He put a lot of money into this, as we know, and is interested in protecting his own position and reputation – I doubt he'll suddenly start taking hostages. It complicates matters that they are here, yes, but not in that manner. Remember, I know the mayor's personality well enough. He's more likely to just try to escape."

"Fair enough," he said, looking at the tower. Long tunnels were situated behind the building that made up the entrance, connecting it to the base of the tower. It seemed a far cry to what it had looked like only a few weeks ago; the construction workers must have done their jobs exceedingly quickly to transform the dusty and dirty area into a polished black-and-white tiled floor, with holographic crystal beams around the perimeter of the building and two Sudowoodo statues standing above small fountains.

"A criminal waste of water, just like what he did with Phenac," Sherles muttered. "If it comes to a brawl as well we needn't worry about the tower itself. It's been made to withstand a high standard of colosseum battles after all, and if we damage anything... well, the mayor can foot the bill himself," he added, allowing himself a smile. "Priority is to get in and arrest those in charge of Cipher, and anyone working for them as well."

"They're here, all right," Andrew confirmed as a wave of grunts suddenly spewed out from the entrance, yelling and throwing out Poké Balls. "Right, men!" he yelled at his fellow policemen. "If we clean up this bunch now then we can go back home!"

"Let's take them!" another yelled, and the police team coupled with their army of Growlithe charged forward. Wes readied his Poké Balls as well but remained where he was as planned – he was to snag from a distance and come in only if needed. The police squad, although smaller in numbers, still matched the cipher gang, so it didn't seem that he would be needed anyway.

Until, that was, Dakim walked through the door, grinning from ear to ear and waved at the police team who visibly slowed down. He then strode up to one of the glass Sudowoodo statues and ripped it from the fountain, spinning it in his large hands before priming it behind his shoulders, clearly ready to take on the team.

"This'll be easy!" he said, stepping forward and swinging the statue, only narrowly missing a Growlithe who had strayed too far forward, but managing instead to collect a Cipher grunt behind him. "Oh, sorry man," he said absentmindedly. Despite that though the rest of the Cipher agents began to attack as well, and the police quickly rearranged themselves into a more defensive structure.

"But...why are they taking off their shoes?" Rui asked, confused, as some of the cipher people began to hop around awkwardly and do just that, as well as fling their socks away which quickly latched on to the wind and carried into the distance.

"Strange people," Johnson remarked. Wes raised an eyebrow – if Johnson recognised how weird something was correctly then either he was getting smarter or it truly was odd. Suddenly a stray shoe came flying in their direction and although Wes easily sidestepped it, it landed in the Zoomer and struck one of the controls.

"DELICIOUS GARDENING TOOLS NOW AT TWENTY-SEVENTHS OF FORTY-ONETH OF A WATERMELON PRICE!" the vehicle roared suddenly, its radio coming to life. Alarmed, the group then noticed the Zoomer take off by itself towards the tower, distracting a few of the policemen and cipher grunts alike with its advertisements.

"BATHTIME FUN WITH NOVELTY-SIZED RUBBER DUCKS! NOW WITH LAZERS!"

"I hate that thing, I really do," Wes muttered.

"I think you and Rui should go see where it ends up, it might crash into something," Sherles said gruffly. "But maybe first you could lend a Pokémon to help out with Dakim..." he added, looking back to the battle and Dakim who was currently swinging a policeman around his head in one hand and the Sudowoodo statue with the other.

"Good idea... Come on out, Hariyama!" Wes said, throwing out his Poké Ball. The Fighting type stomped as he was sent out and grinned at the prospect of another battle.

"Go for Dakim and stop him hurting any more policemen," Wes instructed. "Or Growlithe," he added as a sharp yelp sounded.

"Hari!" (Certainly!) Hariyama boomed as it walked towards the scene.

"Right, let's go around," Rui suggested, and as Wes nodded his agreement the two followed the yelling Zoomer, making sure to keep their distance from the brawl. They kept pace with the Zoomer, but weren't quite able to gain on it as it lumbered across the desert.

"At least it's... not going very...fast..." Wes panted. He then cringed as despite this fact the vehicle went straight through one of the glass tunnels, sending sharp pieces of glass across the ground. It stopped the Zoomer dead in its tracks, but not the noise it was making.

"Stupid thing," Wes said, covering his ears somewhat as he stepped into it and turned off the engine, and then removed the shoe. "The heck... there's some strange powder in this shoe."

"Maybe that's why they took them off?" Rui said, scratching her head. They paused in thought before Wes sat upright and slapped his head lightly.

"Hang on, we just got in, didn't we? Bypassed the whole fight!" he said. "That was...easier than expected."

"You're right!" Rui said happily, before turning around. "Although I think a couple of them noticed," she added, remarking at two Cipher grunts who had followed them and were quickly converging, making grunts of pain as their bare feet burned on the hot sandy ground.

"Hmm. I think we should cool them down first then!" Wes said with a grin as he pulled out a Poké Ball.

***

"No," Nascour said flatly as he and the mayor looked down on the battle below them as they ascended to the top of the tower by elevator. Like the train tunnels, they were also made of reinforced glass and so they had a clear view of the battlefield. Dakim was swinging about his Sudowoodo statue haphazardly (to the mayor's dismay – he had paid good money on those fountain decorations) and the battle between the police and Cipher was currently even, but they hadn't failed to notice the two teenagers who had started all their problems crash their vehicle into the tunnel. And the few cipher agents who had followed them had just been sent flying back across the desert by the boy's Feraligatr blasting water from range into the pair. Nascour shivered, as if he had been hit by the attacks himself.

"Why didn't they bring their Pokémon with them?" the mayor fumed silently.

"Never mind that – why did you order the attack?" Nascour said. "Maybe they hadn't known that we were here!"

"I doubt that," the mayor replied. "They came in numbers, prepared for a showdown. When I saw them I decided to call my office and check my answering machine for any messages, and figured out that they know of my input here."

"Ah," Nascour said, pausing in thought for a moment. "So we're screwed then, right?" The man buried his face in one hand and sighed deeply. "No," he mumbled into his hand a moment later.

"Well, that depends by what you mean by 'we'," the mayor said slowly. "If you mean Cipher in general as a group, then yes and no. I've taken care of the papers in the office here and passed it on to the other party we have, so if they are careful, Cipher may yet remain. If you mean Cipher's current employees though, especially the ones stationed here, I am sceptical of their current career lasting beyond tonight. And if you mean my career as mayor, that's quite possibly over as well, sadly.

"And by we as in the two of us...." The mayor then paused. Nascour looked to Es Cade, and noticed a small glint in his eye. "We'll open the Colosseum to the public right now, let those peons we planned to open proceedings have their small competition opening to appease and distract the masses watching, and then escape. I have a few helicopters positioned on the top of the tower, luckily. That's why I ordered our attack – anything to hold back the police for an extra minute will be to our benefit."

"Alright," Nascour said. "Pity our defences have been breached by those two scoundrels, but when we get to the top I'll contact Miror B first thing and get him to hold them. He should still be down there so if anyone gets through, I'm sure he can hold them up."

"Excellent thinking," the mayor replied, before pausing and looking down below again. "And do humour me, Nascour, but is that what I think I see?"

"What?" Nascour asked, following the mayor's gaze. Another small group of people were approaching the tower from the opposite side, clad in a familiar red uniform.

"Team Snagem!" Nascour said after a moment. "Interesting... maybe, just maybe, if they can help our group defeat the police right here and now, we could sweep the region in one fell swoop!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves... but we have help, most certainly. And if not, we'll still have our escape plan. Best case scenario – we defeat the police and so can push to regain control of the region. I'm still mayor after all so if the police are defeated...well! And if not, we lose our power, but escape ourselves, and Cipher may yet remain, ready for its rebirth when things cool down."

"Yes... maybe we're not so screwed after all, Es Cade," Nascour said softly, thinking deeply. Just then the elevator reached the top part of the tower and so their vision of the land below disappeared with the replacement of the glass – although the middle of the tower's stalk was made of glass, the topmost section was not.

"Please," the mayor said with a smile. "We might as well get better acquainted. Call me Evice."

***

"Ha, this is a fight worthy of myself, man!" Dakim shouted as he ran forward at Hariyama once again, ignoring the buffeting wind or the other struggles around him between police and fellow cipher peon, recognising the threat the oversized fighting type posed to them. The Pokémon grunted as he raised his large arms to block the incoming statue that Dakim had swung swiftly, and quickly stepped closer and tried to grab the man's clothing. Dakim was ready however and shifted his body out of reach before he attempted to hit the Fighting type on the other side with his improvised bat. This time Hariyama took the hit but grabbed at the statue as it struck, and ignoring the throbbing pain on the right side of his chest, squeezed, crushing the glass object into pieces. Dakim frowned and then quickly darted to the left as Hariyama threw what remained at him, only for the remains to harmlessly land on the tiled ground. Dakim meanwhile moved to another fountain and uprooted its statue, ignoring the water spurting out of the glass structure that soaked the lower part of his pants.

"Hari!" (I can do that too!) Hariyama shouted as he grabbed at an object that he noticed from the corner of his eye and wielded it, only for it to squirm in his grip and shout.

"Let go of me!" Andrew shouted, brandishing his policeman's hat at Hariyama.

"Hariyama! Ya!" (Stop shouting and keep still! I want to attack!) Hariyama bellowed back. Andrew shuddered as his ears rang from the yell of the Pokémon, guessing that he wasn't going to let go of him. He then looked at Dakim regard this development, yet maintain his grinning expression and gulped, as the colour quickly drained away from his face.

"Hey, Team Snagem are here!" a Cipher peon yelled. Both Dakim and Hariyama looked and noticed a large group of grunts charge towards the brawl, with Gonzap leading the charge, dust flying up from the ground behind them as the thundering of their running grew louder.

"Aha, more help!" Dakim said, his grin growing wider as he kept an eye on the Hariyama. "Your police have more trouble now, man! Hello, angry man!" he shouted to Gonzap, waving an arm at him.

But why is he frowning at me? Dakim mused, now frowning slightly as he also noticed the police seemingly disregard their arrival – in fact, they didn't even try to move out of the way. A moment later Gonzap reached the battle but didn't slow down, instead running right past a police officer.

"Welcome, Sir Gonzap-" a Cipher grunt started with a salute.

"For Snagem!" Gonzap shouted, as he threw a straight punch at the welcoming Cipher agent. The man staggered for a moment before his legs gave way and collapsed.

"Hey, man! That's mean!" Dakim spluttered, completely thrown off by this action. "Oof!" he added inadvertently as Hariyama took advantage of the distraction and struck the man with a large open fist directly in the solar plexus, winding the human giant. As Dakim wheezed for breath the Pokémon then swung the yelling Andrew around into his temple, bringing both the unfortunate policeman and Dakim into the land of unconsciousness. Satisfied with a job well done, Hariyama shouted loudly and then looked around for another victim.

"Wh-why are you...attacking us?" the victim of Gonzap's first punch gasped. "I thought Snagem were Cipher's ally..."

Gonzap merely looked down and smiled. "You'll do well to learn that friends are just enemies who don't have the guts to kill you." He then kicked the man and gazed around as the Cipher grunt groaned.

"You kicked me!" he screamed.

"Shut up," Gonzap ordered, kicking him again before something caught his eye. "You!" Gonzap shouted and pointed as the rest of the Team Snagem members joined the fray with their Pokémon. He then swung his other fist and connected with the new victim, knocking him out cold.

"Take that, Wes...wait," he said as he regarded his hand, which had collected some blue markings. He sniffed his hand and smelt that it was paint, and then looked down and examined the man, and realised that he was clearly not Wes, despite his appearance.

"The heck...?" he grumbled, before frowning. "Is this some sort of joke of Cipher's?" he growled, grabbing a Poké Ball and throwing it in front of him. "I'll show them with an object of their own creation! Skarmory, destroy your opponents! A widespread Whirlwind!"

"Skaaarr!" (Flowers!) the bird shrilled loudly. He flew around in circles above Gonzap for a moment and surveyed the field, before spotting the unmistakable body of a Cipher peon's Pokémon in Sunflora. Screeching suddenly he flew down and proceeded to stamp weirdly on the grass type.

"No, don't focus on...never mind, I'll come back for you later," Gonzap spat as he walked into the building, palming a cipher peon that made the mistake of trying to stop him out of the way. He didn't care for talking to this Sherles fellow just now, nor with helping him out in beating some no-name Cipher agents after all, nor what happened to that joke of a Shadow Pokémon of his. Clearly he had been jibbed by Cipher and given some poor excuse, some prototype to what they, especially Nascour, had claimed would be one of the ultimate fighting machines.

And now he had a score to settle.

***

"What happened here?" Rui said to Wes curiously as they walked past a man groaning in the middle of the tunnel. He mumbled something that sounded like a congratulations for being a visitor to the tower, but Wes ignored him and walked on the rails towards the main base of the tower. Feraligatr had easily accounted for the few Cipher guards that had followed them, so Wes had returned him to his Poké Ball. He kept his hand near it though, glancing side to side from time to time as he quickened his pace.

"Maybe he got knocked down by the Cipher guards that came out to battle us," he said as he pocketed his P*DA as well. "Just sent a message to Sherles. He says to go in and try to find the mayor and Nascour quickly, so we'll let the police tend to this guy when they're finished."

"Fair enough," Rui said.

"Sherles also says that Team Snagem are a few minutes from arriving. Bet that'll be a nice surprise for those Cipher grunts they're battling...You got your Pokémon secured?" Wes asked.

"Yes," Rui replied with a grin, touching the few Poké Balls she has secured to her skirt.

"Good. I don't think Sherles would want you to lose any of them, particularly that one," Wes said. Besides Quagsire and a few other Shadow Pokémon, Rui had one more Pokémon in her possession this time; Sherles had decided to loan the police's Suicune to her, reasoning that although the legendary Shadow Pokémon were hard to control it was silly to pass up having such a force on their side, should things turn tough. And although he hadn't intended for her and Wes to find themselves within the building so quickly, he had been clear that they should take advantage of their position.

"We should also keep an eye out for Silva and Miror B," Wes continued. "I'm a bit sceptical of the news that Silva managed to send to us last night, that Miror B is on our side, but it makes sense given what happened at the lab.

"Mmm," Rui hummed in agreement. "He did seem the least...mean of the admins you've battled after all."

"And the weirdest," Wes added.

A few moments of walking later they walked into the reception area. Rui quickly marvelled at the place – a checkerboard style of tiling greeted them, followed with more lavish fountains and lamps. A moat surrounded the room. A few people regarded the two's entry but ignored them.

"Must be part of the general public," Wes mumbled, glancing around. He then looked up and noticed a man clad in gray Cipher gear descending to the ground floor in the elevator front of them. "He, however..." he whispered, reaching down for his Poké Balls.

"Aha, the blue man again!" shouted another as he sprang from another room. Wes turned and vaguely recalled the man from Phenac City who had owned Feraligatr initially as a Croconaw.

"Yes, you are the one who defeated me long ago, Wes!" Bluno continued, shouting as he waved his hands about wildly and walked towards him. "But today I will-" His speech was abruptly ended as a door he had passed suddenly flew open and sent him flying with a loud splash into the moat.

"WAH!" shouted a bodybuilder that stepped out from behind the door. "I stood still again and waited a looooong time for this! I bet I surprised you all by jumping....out...like that..." he began, before trailing off as he noticed Bluno flail about in the water.

"Yes, you did," Wes said, blinking at this event.

"Help! I can't swim!" Bluno yelled, despite the fact that the moat was rather shallow, to the point that had he been lying on his back he still would not be submerged.

"You didn't see anything!" the other man shouted as he ran back inside the room he had come from and slammed the door shut behind him. Unfortunately the door had been moved so quickly that it fell off the hinges, revealing that the bodybuilder had moved behind it again. He ignored it and continued standing perfectly still.

"What just happened...?" Rui said weakly.

"I don't know, but I think my brain is melting," Wes replied. At that point the elevator doors opened as a soft ding sounded from the lift.

"We meet again, Wes!" Skrub said loudly. "I'm sure you remember me!"

"I'm sorry...I think I remember the face but..." Wes admitted.

"Oh." Skrub paused and seemed a bit upset by this, before he looked over at Bluno. "Oi, get up you stupid oaf!"

"I'M DROWNING!" Bluno continued to wail, splashing around stupidly. Skrub sighed.

"I'm Skrub."

"Oh... Silva mentioned you – you're not on Cipher's side anymore, are you?" Wes asked slowly, still trying to remember this one grunt.

"Wasn't he the guy at the Relic Stone?" Rui whispered to Wes.

Wes' eyes lit up as he recalled the event and nodded. "Yes, I think you're right..."

"Ahem! You are right – I've betrayed Cipher," Skrub said, "but I've got a qualm with you still. You're the one responsible for me getting demoted, and-"

"...Okay, and?" Wes asked, frowning. "So what? If you're quitting anyway-"

"But nothing!" Skrub screeched, pulling out two Poké Balls. "I need to settle this score for myself, or at least try to. Consider this a personal matter." He then threw the two capsules in front of the pair, as Wes pulled out his own and quickly tossed them too.

"And you're holding us up from finding the mayor!" Rui shouted, as Feraligatr and Umbreon came out to greet Skrub's Clamperl and Medicham. "Where are they? Or Miror B?"

"So if you're good enough, you'll be able to beat me and still find them," Skrub drawled. "As for those people, I do not know. Somewhere in this tower is all I can say. But now...I remember you took my Hitmontop, but this Medicham I claimed as my replacement, so let's see what it can do! Hi-Jump Kick on the Umbreon, and Clamperl, attack that Feraligatr with Clamp!"

"Clamperl!" (Chompy time!) the water type snapped as it hopped towards its foe.

"Oh, please," Wes said, quickly tugging Rui slightly to the side so their backs faced part of the moat not containing the flailing Bluno in it instead of the tunnel they had come through. "Feraligatr, just keep your distance. Umbreon, position yourself in front of the doorway!"

The large alligator obliged and punched the shell Pokémon away when it leapt in the air with its mouth open wide, while Umbreon tensed his muscles and positioned himself. As the Fighting type launched itself at him with a foot aimed at its head, Umbreon quickly flopped down and hugged his body to the ground, letting the Medicham fly over him and through the door. Wes observed the Pokémon turn its head and watch its intended target wave a paw at him as it continued to fly perfectly parallel to the ground down the tunnel. He then nodded to Feraligatr who quickly moved to the door and slammed it shut.

"Urrgh, I really hate it when that attack misses," Skrub muttered.

***

"Bunch of weaklings," Gonzap muttered as he continued down one of the tunnels, passing by one of the trains and wiping some sweat from his face. He ignored the groans of pain emitted from the couple of Cipher grunts he had left behind in the last room who had foolishly tried to stop him – he had knocked those down before they even had a chance to send out their Pokémon.

"The heck is with the design of this place though? It's like they're not yet finished with this part...whatever," he said to himself. He kept making the wrong turn to his annoyance, ending up in a dead end every so often that had usually been covered in hundreds of paintings of Pokémon, usually of Ludicolo. He had a feeling that this was the right way though, as the base of the tower seemed rather close now as the train reached the end of the current passageway.

One more turn and tunnel to travel through, he thought, and I can-

The large man suddenly jumped as a Medicham crashed through another doorway and kept flying through the room he had just entered, landing with a loud clunk. Gonzap frowned and took out one of his Poké Balls and let it bounce on the ground.

"Think you could surprise me, huh?" he demanded. "Like those stupid Cipher agents dropping in from the ceiling, huh?"

The dazed Medicham groaned and looked up, and then edged away slowly from the Gyarados that glared at the Pokémon.

"Oh, there's no escaping my wrath," Gonzap said coldly. Then to his Pokémon, he added, "Finish him!"

***

"Right, I'll try this one until he comes back!" Skrub continued, sending out another Pokémon. This time a Wobbuffet appeared and saluted all in the room.

"Wobbuffet!" (Wobba!) it said gruffly. It then opened a tube of lipstick it had been holding and then applied it to its lips with utmost focus.

"Why does it..." Rui begun.

"Shut up," Skrub said quickly. "But just you try to take this one on, seeing she's now far stronger than her previous Wynaut form!"

"Oh come on, that's the best you got?" Wes taunted. "Sure, it's dangerous if I attack it, but seeing I don't have to attack it right now as it doesn't know any attacking moves, I'd say it's none of my concern! Umbreon and Feraligatr, focus your attacks on the Clamperl!"

"What? No, that's not fair!" Skrub cried as the two Pokémon leapt on the shell Pokémon and unleashed a flurry of attacks. "Stop them!" he ordered his Wobbuffet, but the tall blue Pokémon merely continued applying lipstick. Realising that her lips had now been done, she then moved to the rest of her face, scrawling scribbles of pink on the back of her head.

"Stop that!" Skrub shouted.

"Clamp!" (Help me!) the Clamperl shouted as it tried desperately to snap at one of its opponents, but a moment later its mouth became still as it fainted.

"Bah!" Skrub, said, recalling it and sending out another Pokémon quickly. "This one which also evolved recently might do more!" A Graveler appeared as Skrub shouted, "Use Rock Blast!" at it.

"Umbre!" (Ah, one of those things!) Umbreon yelled, recalling the one he had battled on Mt Battle.

"Feraligatr, Water Gun please," Wes commanded. Startled, the Graveler decided against its attack and instead leapt behind the Wobbuffet, narrowly escaping the attack which struck the Psychic type instead, knocking the lipstick out of its arm. It frowned and picked up the tube, and then glowed a bright white colour and sent what remained of the burst of water back at Feraligatr at twice the speed it had been fired, successfully striking the large Pokémon who grimaced as he was hit. Noticing this, the Graveler smirked as glowing rocks began to surround it and grow in size. They then flew at the two Pokémon who retreated, Feraligatr behind a pillar and Umbreon a desk.

"Umbreon..." (At least it's not throwing its arm...) Umbreon muttered.

"Hmm, good thing I ordered a light attack then," Wes muttered. "But let's play your game then! Feraligatr, use that part of the moat for a Surf! Umbreon, Quick Attack your way at the Wobbuffet!"

Nodding, the Umbreon suddenly dashed around the room at rapid pace, easily avoiding the barrage of rocks that rattled against the tiled floor. Meanwhile Feraligatr grinned and raised his arms, sending the water by the side of the room into the air and rushing at Skrub's side, bringing with it a hapless and crying Bluno. Skrub swore darkly and jumped to higher ground as Umbreon then bumped into the Punching Bag Pokémon before bouncing off of it just as the wave struck the Wobbuffet. The timing proved successful as the Wobbuffet tried to retaliate to the physical attack and not the special one. The Graveler leapt onto a chandelier and hung on, looking down at the water, but was instantly knocked off by Feraligatr's following Water Gun attack and landed with a plop into the water, as the chandelier snapped off and followed suit.

"Well...I still have the Wobbuffet!" Skrub shouted desperately, ignoring the splatter of glass remaining as he recalled his Graveler.

"Good for you," Wes said as his Pokémon resumed battle stances. "But do you think you can get it to counter my attacks successfully when there's two Pokémon at once?"

"Focus, Wobbuffet!" Skrub said in a strained voice. The fact the Pokémon had resumed decorating itself with lipstick didn't fill the man with confidence however, nor its questioning gaze upon hearing Skrub's command.

"Wobb...?" (You want a go...?) it asked eventually, offering the lipstick.

"Wes," Rui said suddenly as Wes mused how to begin the attack again. "I think I've found Miror B. Or rather, he found us." She then gestured to the elevator. During the battle neither had noticed that it had ascended again, and now it was returning to earth with the telltale afro clearly visible.

"He better not want a battle as well, despite apparently being on our side!" Wes said in response.

Then the door the two had entered through opened with a loud creak.

"Aha, my Medicham has retur- you're not Medicham," Skrub said as a bald man entered the room. He looked at Wes and glared deeply.

"Why...hello, Gonzap," Wes said uneasily as his Pokémon regarded this new arrival and turned around.

"Umbreon Umbre..." (I see your eyebrows are starting to grow back...) Umbreon remarked.

"You seem like the real deal then!" Gonzap said. Before Wes could question this statement, Gonzap's Gyarados arrived by crashing through the wall next to the doorway and snarling at the occupants.

"You're not Medicham either," Skrub said quietly.

"Oh, there you are!" Miror B sung as he stepped out of the elevator, his usual salsa music accompanying him, as did Silva.

"Hyper Beam," Gonzap ordered. Wes quickly ignored the other arrivals, grabbed Rui and dragged her behind a pillar as Umbreon and Feraligatr did likewise. A split second later an almighty beam of energy flew out of Gyarados' mouth and struck the wall by Miror B, who threw himself to the ground as Silva squeaked and ran behind the elevator. The man of dance then gazed upwards and noticed how close the attack had come to hitting his hair, and the large, black, smouldering mark it had left behind.

"You... you..." Miror B muttered, before picking himself up and the radio he had been carrying. Silence fell on the room as he stopped the music and hastily shuffled through his tapes as he stepped forward.

"Out of the way, Miror B," Gonzap said slowly. "I'll deal with you next, as well as the rest of Cipher, but Wes is mine right now. So I suggest-"

"Nobody," Miror B interjected, "I repeat, nobody, messes with the hair." With that, he spun, grabbed Poke Balls from his afro and summoned four Ludicolo who quacked in unison as they appeared.

"My Ludicolo," he began, as Gonzap grabbed a few more Poké Balls of his own from his pockets, "the man before you dared to mess with the 'fro. You know what to do." He then grabbed a bunch of maracas from his hair and threw them to his Pokémon who grabbed them and danced towards the Gyarados.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Gonzap shouted, ready to send out his other Pokémon if he needed them. ""Trying to stop me with your ducks? Gyarados, Aqua Tail!"

"I think we'll just let him deal with it," Wes whispered to Rui, who nodded. They quickly moved across the slippery floor to the doorway of a room opposite the one in which the bodybuilder was in and still diligently standing perfectly still in, and motioned to Silva and Wes' Pokémon to follow. Skrub had taken refuge in the moat with Bluno who had ended up back in it and was still yelling his heart out.

"Stop screaming!" Skrub shouted at the man.

The Gyarados roared and twisted its body so to fling its tail at a Ludicolo, only to roar when it and the four others suddenly jumped and grabbed the tail and then swung it across the room into the forgotten Wobbuffet. The Psychic Pokémon flopped back upon impact before springing back upright and sending the Gyarados flying back into a pillar. Before it had a chance to recover the four dancing pineapples delivered a series of punching attacks to its jaw and body and in mere seconds they had successfully knocked it out.

"That's—that's- Arrgh!" Gonzap shouted before he decided he needed his other Pokémon after all, and released a Shiftry, Pinsir and Granbull. "Right, let's see you take on these three!"

Miror B responded not with a taunt but the insertion of a music tape into his radio. Wes raised an eyebrow when a chill disco song begun playing; he had seemed so angry that he had imagined something like Ride of the Valkyries would play. His Ludicolo however seemed immensely energised by the tune, clapping their hands in time to the music as their dance changed.

It was then that Miror B begun to sing.

"It's murder on the dance floor,
But you better not kill the groove,
DJ, gonna burn this goddamn house right down!"

At that moment, the Ludicolo clapped loudly and shouted, blasting sound at the three Pokémon and forcing them on the defensive. Gonzap also yelled and covered his ears, and then stared as suddenly the Ludicolo numbered not four, but eight.

"What...? Where did they come from?" he said slowly, as it dawned on him that this would not be a simple move at all.

"Clever," Wes breathed to Rui. "Uproar to distract, and followed with Double Team. Now he doesn't know which to hit!"

"Oh, I know I know I know I know I know I know I know,
About your kind," Miror B sung, clapping as the eight Ludicolo responded and spread across the room.

"Hyper Beam!" Gonzap ordered. All three of his Pokémon obliged and fired their beams but the Ludicolo and their clones merely danced out of the way as the attacks failed to hit anything but pillars and walls.

"Now Gonzap's too hasty; his Pokémon have to recover from those attacks," Wes commented. His Pokémon nodded in agreement as they observed.

"And so and so and so and so and so and so and so,
I'll have to play," he continued, clapping again as eight jets of water hammered into the Pinsir who stumbled backwards into the moat face first. Next a flurry of leaves flew at the large helpless Bug who flailed while each leaf hit before falling still. Gonzap yelled at the rest of his Pokémon but they looked uneasily around the room as they recovered from their previous attacks. Rui felt a little bit sorry for them given they were surrounded by an army of dancing pineapple ducks quacking angrily and a bizarre man singing at them, but she didn't like the look of the angry Gonzap or the fact he was attacking them, and so silently cheered on Miror B.

"The all-together!" Miror B called suddenly. Both sets of real and fake Ludicolo then joined hands and shouted again at the two remaining Pokémon, forcing them to again recoil at the blast of sound. As they did so they advanced towards them, forming a circle. The Shiftry quickly realised the trap and stumbled forward at one of the Ludicolo despite the waves of sound assaulting it.

"If you think you're getting away,
I will prove you wrong!"

The Shiftry ran straight into the waiting fist of a Ludicolo, which had been coated in freezing ice that quickly spread across the Grass type.

"I'll take you all the way,
Boy, just come along!"

Meanwhile the Granbull had also charged forward, but was surprised when he passed right through one of his foes. At this point the group split into two groups of four and three and spun around to surround the Shiftry and Granbull respectively.

"Hear me when I say, hey!"

And then the Ludicolo unleashed their attacks as one, the Granbull falling victim to another array of water jets and the Shiftry to a collective Drain Punch combo that struck it upon all sides of its head at once. Although three of the attacks had been from Double Team clones, the Ludicolo were so invigorated by the music that Gonzap's Pokémon stood no chance.

Miror B grinned.

"It's murder on the dance floor,
But you better not kill the groove,
Hey, hey!"

"How?" Gonzap said, recalling his Pokémon.

"It's murder on the dance floor,
But you better not steal the moves,
DJ, gonna burn this goddamn house right down!"

"Stop singing that!" Gonzap shouted. Miror B instead turned up the volume on his radio as his Ludicolo chimed in with their own quacking. Growling, Gonzap stomped towards the man only for a large hand to strike him in the back of the neck. Crying out loud he fell on the ground and lost consciousness.

"Hariyama!" (Number eight!) Hariyama boasted.

"Good timing," Wes said, moving back into the room. Miror B shrugged and recalled his Ludicolo before changing the song to a victory-like jingle, as Hariyama shook Gonzap.

"That was awesome!" Silva exclaimed.

"Hariyama! Hari!?" (My experience points! Where are they!?) he demanded of the man. But before he could attempt to extract such a thing from Gonzap, Wes had recalled him along with Umbreon and Feraligatr.

"Now, Skrub," Miror B said, "whyever did you attack our ticket out of here?"

"I've got my own reasons," Skrub said, picking himself out of the moat, water dripping from his suit. "I got demoted because of him, and-"

"Oh, that hardly matters anymore," Miror B scolded. "You're quitting anyway, aren't you?"

"That's beside the point!"

"So what would you have done had you beaten him anyway?" Rui asked.

"Well, I would... well," Skrub said, before he pondered the question. "Said 'ha ha, I beat you', for starters, and..."

"And nothing," Miror B concluded with a sigh. Ignoring Skrub's protests, he continued to Wes, "You sure have a lot of people after you, Wes!"

"I guess I'm not very likable among Cipher and Snagem," Wes said with a shrug. "Wonder why." Miror B grinned.

"Yes, that's certainly true. You've been quite the smooth criminal from Cipher's point of view! So much that I was recently contacted by a higher up to deal with you myself, but instead I think I'll just tell you that he and our wonderful mayor are at the top of the tower about to address a large audience."

"So you are on our side then," Rui said with a soft smile.

"Yes, well... sorry for all the trouble earlier," Miror B said, sheepishly scratching the side of his head. "Anyway, just take this and the next elevator straight up, and prepare your Pokémon for a fight. I have a feeling they intend to get away, so speed is of the essence!"

"Right," Wes said, catching his drift and moving into the elevator with Rui. "And what about yourself?"

"I'll head to the control room," Miror B said. "I had something set up there but it's been locked... however I can always try to break in!"

"Alright then. Silva, tell Sherles that they can begin moving in when they can, and where we're going," he instructed. Silva nodded eagerly and pulled out his P*DA.

"Good luck!" Rui said as the doors closed behind them and they ascended.

"Do the Wes dance!" Miror B called back. Skrub raised an eyebrow at this form of encouragement. Miror B ignored him, instead smiling at the pair above feeling better about his choice by the minute.

"Help!" Bluno called suddenly.

"Shut up!" Skrub yelled.

***





I wonder what will happen next!!! =p


Usual 'stuff-in-chapter/game' info:
Spoiler:


Hope you enjoyed!
 
Last edited:

Bay

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LOL the part with the Cipher grunts fling their socks and Johnson saying they're strange people is quite amusing. Also:

"Go for Dakim and stop him hurting any more policemen," Wes instructed. "Or Growlithe," he added as a sharp yelp sounded.
Poor Growlithe! D:

Continue on with the chaos going on, ha over Gonzap punching the wrong person he thought was Wes. Keep trying. :P

Hm interesting Rui got Suicune, kinda can't wait to see how she'll handle that Pokemon. And haha over Bluno flailing in the (not so deep) moat. Too bad he couldn't just stand up, heh.

Felt sorry for Gonzap dealing with the tunnels, lol. Going through mazes suck. :P As for him bumping onto Medicham, nope can't escape his wrath. D: (Speaking of which, as I read further where is Medicham? I probably missed it. >.>; ).

PFFFFFT love you for having a female Wobbuffet! So that's how they get lipstick on their lips. :P Moving a bit forward, oh dear indeed you don't mess with Mirror B's hair. D: Haha love the battle there, especially with Miror B owning Gonzap there. I admit to not knowing the song, though. :< *is ashamed*

Another fun chapter here! I totally can't wait for the finish. :D Here's to hoping I review sooner than the last couple times, lol.
 

bobandbill

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LOL the part with the Cipher grunts fling their socks and Johnson saying they're strange people is quite amusing.
It's a new attack to be revealed in the 6th gen. ;p
Continue on with the chaos going on, ha over Gonzap punching the wrong person he thought was Wes. Keep trying. :P
Fein will be requesting overtime bonuses after that.
Felt sorry for Gonzap dealing with the tunnels, lol. Going through mazes suck. :P As for him bumping onto Medicham, nope can't escape his wrath. D: (Speaking of which, as I read further where is Medicham? I probably missed it. >.>; ).
TBH the maze to Realgam's tower main reception area is not that hard, but it is annoying to navigate. Yay cutscenes showing you travelling between each room! Even if it is short, it can be a touch annoying.

As for Medicham, it does not appear later on; the implication is that Gyarados defeated him in the room before the reception area that Gonzap was in.
PFFFFFT love you for having a female Wobbuffet! So that's how they get lipstick on their lips. :P Moving a bit forward, oh dear indeed you don't mess with Mirror B's hair. D: Haha love the battle there, especially with Miror B owning Gonzap there. I admit to not knowing the song, though. :< *is ashamed*
I suppose a Wobbuffet was too good an Pokemon to ignore having in the fic given he did have it and all. XD AND HOPEFULLY YOU KNOW THE SONG NOW!

Another fun chapter here! I totally can't wait for the finish. :D Here's to hoping I review sooner than the last couple times, lol.
Delays are no issue, just glad you're still reviewing! =p Hopefully the last chapter and epilogue shall be to standard. Thanks!
 

bobandbill

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And so here is, finally, the last chapter. \o/

But not the last say on this story; a couple of days later I'll be posting a short extra thing that I had (mostly) written up a good while ago, and about a week after now give or take a few days will be the epilogue. Nonetheless, I'll still say a quick thanks for reading to all of you now! I'm glad to have entertaining such a surprisingly large amount of people with this story; certainly far more than I expected when I started out on a whim, although mind you I didn't think it would have taken so long in the first place too. XD I'll go into greater length with this later though; probably a while after the epilogue is posted.

Thanks, once again, to Chris the Com for beta reading this. I assure you if it were not for him there would be many more errors.






Chapter 25 – The Final Showdown



Nascour and Es Cade stood in the middle of the Colosseum's battle arena, surrounded by a large audience sitting patiently in the stands. A group of Cipher grunts stood to the side, awaiting their opportunity to begin their battle. The field was Poké Ball shaped, with one half of the stage red and the other blue, with a white centre and line separating the two halves. The elevator the two men had used that popped out of the centre of the arena had been sent down, and a microphone stand had been set up in its place.

"Right," Evice murmured to Nascour quietly, "a two minute speech should be plenty, and after we formally open the Colosseum, we'll leave."

"Alright, I'll begin then," Nascour said. He gazed around at the chattering crowd and cleared his throat before tapping the microphone. "Hmm, it doesn't appear to be on...Testing, one two THREE!" he said, before it suddenly turned itself on as he said the last word which echoed loudly around the stands. Everyone fell silent and stared for a moment before they cheered and began to chant the number.

"Uh, right," Nascour continued. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Realgam Tower Colosseum!" One of the Cipher peons then stepped forward and brandished a sign stating 'APPLAUSE' on it, and the crowd obeyed the command.

"We really need to get an electronic version of one of those installed," the mayor muttered to himself. "Or just use our large television display for it..."

"Today, you will witness a fine display of Pokémon battling from our group of specialists! But do take care to note that this is only a mere taste of what you can expect to see in future battles, both in exhibition matches and in formal Colosseum challenges you can take part in yourself!" Again the Cipher peon waved the sign, and again the audience gave their applause.

"Do...I need to say anything more than that?" Nascour asked the mayor.

"No. Oh wait," he added, noticing a man in a ridiculous costume wave at them from the sidelines. "I suppose we need to let our main sponsor have their say. Here are the details." The mayor handed Nascour a small card.

"Fair enough," Nascour agreed, before using the microphone again. "And now a word from our main sponsor, Terry's Terrific Toasting Takeaway! Where all toasters toast toast!" Nascour then looked with puzzlement at the card, and then at the man who approached them; it appeared that his costume was a poor attempt at a toaster impersonation, but why they would choose that to be their mascot was anyone's guess. The man did not look too happy to be there either; he was clearly sweating buckets from within his enclosed suit as he stood in front of the microphone. The desert was the last place anyone would want to be dressed like that. Then again, Nascour mused, I suppose it's a fitting getup to be literally toasted in...

"Hello," he began.

"And that's the word from our sponsor," Nascour briskly said, clicking his fingers. Two of the other Cipher peons then grabbed the man and hauled him away before he could say anything else, and the first one held the sign up again. As the crowd merely murmured in confusion, the peon looked at the sign, realised it read 'APPLE SAUSE' crossed out on the side he was displaying and flipped it around so the correct word appeared. The moment he did loud clapping sounded once again.

"Well," Nascour continued, ignoring this minor hiccup, "with that, we now conclude- hey!" he shouted as the elevator underneath the microphone stand suddenly appeared again in the centre of the stage. Nascour grabbed the microphone from its position just before it moved out of reach and stepped back.

"Now what?" the mayor growled. He then gasped as Wes and Rui stepped out.

"So soon? What was Miror B doing?" he shouted.

"Aha! Get ready, Rui!" Wes shouted. A few from the crowd recognised the pair of teenagers from the numerous reports in recent weeks and cheered. Es Cade noticed this and grabbed the microphone from the stunned Nascour.

"And to begin the proceedings!" he proclaimed loudly. "We have our very own local celebrities in Wes and Rui, who have no doubt captured the region's hearts and minds as they worked together with the police, as you all know!" Wes and Rui both frowned in confusion as they heard his words, but Evice only grinned at them. "So who better to challenge our team of battlers in a grand melee? An all-out brawl, five versus two!" The crowd cheered again as the group of Cipher peons advanced, bringing out their Poké Balls.

"For now the two of us must be off, but do enjoy the battle!" he shouted. He then turned to Wes and Rui.

"Enjoy," he said, and motioning to Nascour to follow, he turned and left, taking the microphone with him. He muttered something to the group of Cipher agents as he passed them, and Nascour lingered a moment to smile nastily at the pair of trainers.

"Wha..." Rui said slowly before turning to the crowd. "HEY! THOSE TWO ARE REALLY IN CHARG-" Unfortunately for the two, Nascour snapped his fingers again as he left, and loud battle music immediately followed, rendering her shouting useless. A large television screen behind them switched on as well, and displayed the arena for the audience's convenience. Rui continued regardless, but Wes rested a hand on her shoulder.

"No point trying," Wes said.

"He's a quick thinker, isn't he..." Rui said, glowering at the situation and how they had just walked away from them. The two then backed off into one half of the battle arena as the five opponents arranged themselves on the red side of the stage, blocking the exit that Nascour and Es Cade had chosen. A strange man dressed as a toaster was lying on the side flailing about, having seemingly fallen over somehow, but Wes chose to ignore that detail.

"Miror B wasn't kidding about being ready for a battle, huh?" Wes replied. "Send out your Quagsire for now, and resort to Suicune at the end if need be."

"O-Okay," she said, throwing out her Poké Ball, as Wes sent out his entire party save for Entei.

"Don't worry," he said softly, and smiled at Rui. "We'll get through this. And while they get themselves ready..." he added as he noticed the Cipher agents send out their own Pokémon. "Everyone else, prepare for a battle! Yanma, come here!" he shouted as he rummaged through his bag. The Bug/Flying type was in front of Wes' face an instant later and buzzed happily, as the rest of Wes and Rui's Pokémon appeared to face their foes.

"Yanma Yan Yan!" (Ohh-what's-that-is-it-a-present?) he asked curiously as Wes pulled out a small capsule.

"Right, this isn't in liquid form as you're used to, but rather condensed in this capsule. But I hope you like it all the same!" He then held it out. Yanma curiously hovered still in the air and nibbled on the pill.

"Wait, what is that?" Rui asked. "I mean, I know you bought it from the shop before we left, but..."

"Capsule form of coffee," Wes said. "It came free with bread from Pyrite's store, so I figured it might come in use! I did promise him coffee yesterday as well, after all."

Suddenly Yanma's buzzing rose several octaves, and Wes took a step back as its eyes bulged out. The Pokémon grinned back and suddenly flew rapidly around Wes, appearing as a mere streak of green and red to the two trainers. His chatter increased to the point in which it sounded like a continuous hum rather than repetitions of its name.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" (OhmygoshthatisverytastynowIamflyingveryfastfastfastwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)

"Now go chase those two men and stop them from-" Wes began, but it had already left before he could finish.

"Okay, good thinking. Hopefully he can stop them from escaping for a while then!" Rui said, already brightening up.

"Yes – hopefully long enough to either finish this battle or for the police to arrive. Right, let's see what we're up against..." Wes said, observing the Pokémon that had appeared in front of him, as well as the trainers. It seemed they each specialised in a specific type; one had sent out only Fire types, another Grass, the third Dark types, and the remaining two trainers sent out a trio and pair of Normal types respectively.

"What are they called?" Rui said, consulting her P*DA, but Wes already waved his in the air.

"I know some already, but... Houndoom, Magcargo, Torkoal make up that bunch, there's a Cacturne, Vileplume, Tropius and Cradily there..." he begun, pointing at the Pokémon as he named them. "Mightyena, Absol, and that floundering one is a Sharpedo, Miltank, Porygon2 and a Zangoose, and Spinda," he finished. "Might as well let you know what they are if you need to give some specific instruction after all!"

"Alright," Rui said, trying to repeat the names quietly.

"Any of those Pokémon Shadow?" Wes asked.

"Yeah... Absol, Mootank, uh... Tropic Dinosaur thing and... Doom Dog?" Rui answered uncertainly.

"Okay, I know which ones you're talking about but I guess we shouldn't worry about names..." Wes said, before trailing off as his mouth hung open.

"What is it?" Rui asked, frowning as Wes stared at the opponents. "Are one of those Pokémon super strong or something?"

"No... I noticed something else that stands out like a sore thumb," he said. Then he shouted at one of the battlers.

"Oi, Tom!"

***

Meanwhile, the battle by the front of the tower had already nearly drawn to a close. The combined forces of the police and Team Snagem members had overwhelmed the Cipher agents, and only a few now remained, desperately trying to defend the entrance after Hariyama has just strode in after he had gotten bored of bashing their heads together. Allowing himself a smile at the good progress, Sherles then attended to his P*DA which beeped upon receiving a message. He glanced at it and nodded, before typing a quick reply.

"Okay men, let's start to look at moving in..."

"Sir, what's that? In the distance," one officer asked, pointing. A strange object was running towards the tower, with brown dust billowing out into the air from behind it. Sherles picked up his binoculars and gazed at the object.

"Raikou?" he said incredulously.

"Raikou!" one of the Cipher agents shouted, grabbing at a Poké Ball and hurling it at its direction, but it easily missed as the beast ran right past the man, leaving him and the men around him in a fit of coughing as the dust cloud it left behind in its wake enveloped them.

"It fled again," Sherles sighed as he watched it. He then frowned as it proceeded to jump on the tower and run straight up the building's stalk.

"That's something you don't see every day," he muttered. He then sent out his Alakazam and waved a hand in the direction of the remained Cipher agents who were still coughing violently. The Alakazam obliged and held up its two spoons high into the air, light gleaming brightly from the two pieces of cutlery as the policemen and Team Snagem members turned away. A moment later the criminals screamed as they fell to the ground, clutching at their eyes.

"Right, you five round them up," Sherles instructed. "You might want to use extra rope for Dakim too, by the way." He then turned to the group in red and nodded his head. "Team Snagem members, you are free to depart; thank you deeply for your help here. All charges are dropped! The rest, follow me into the tower. I think we're done here."

***

"Nice thinking there, Evice," Nascour muttered as they approached an empty part of the tower well away from the Colosseum battle. The crowd cheering and music was considerably quieter here, and nobody else was in the area save for the two men.

"Thank you," he said, adjusting his collar. "I'm surprised they got here so fast, but I don't see them getting past that group so easily," he smirked. "And here are our rides out of here!" He motioned grandly to a pair of helicopters positioned in the middle of the platform.

"Good...but can you fly these?" Nascour asked uncertainly.

"No need to, my good man! These are set to fly by themselves-what was that?" Es Cade asked suddenly as a flash of colour buzzed past him and lightly bumped into one of the helicopters.

"A...Yanma?" Nascour asked, staring at the bug fly around the helicopter before it turned to stare back with its large eyes.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN," (OhgoodyIfoundyouguysIamgoingtostopyoufromdoingthingsbecausecoffeecoffeecoffeeIlikecoffeedoyouthisisamazingcoffee,) it buzzed. Naturally neither man understood what it had said, but both were unsettled by the way it was tilting its head and buzzing loudly with an impossibly large grin on its face.

"Well...probably some trainer's Pokémon that got loose," Nascour suggested, attempting to walk past it. It quickly droned loudly and flew into his head, knocking the man backwards and onto the ground.

"Arrgh!" Nascour managed, rubbing his back as he stood back up. "The heck is this?"

"He's not letting us past, it seems," the mayor noted. Then the Yanma shrilled loudly at the two men, forcing them to cover their ringing ears.

"Yes, I gathered! Let's see how he likes this then," he said, pulling out a Poké Ball and sending out a Pokémon of his own in Blaziken. The humanoid Fire/Fighting Pokémon assumed a fighting stance but immediately squawked loudly as the Yanma head-butted him repeatedly.

"Destroy the bug," Nascour ordered. The Blaziken responded by leaping at the bug and attempting to swat it, but it flew behind it instantly and shrilled at it with another Bug Buzz attack.

"YAAAAA!" (ThisisfunIlikefundoyoubecauseIdo!) Yanma exclaimed, performing precisely fifty-six somersaults in the air as it screeched.

The Blaziken responded by growling and setting both of its arms on fire, and punching out in the air with surprising speed.

"YAN!" (Thatisnotfunnoitisnot!) Yanma stated, narrowly flying backwards away from the danger. The Blaziken leapt after it but the Yanma continued to fly just out of the Pokémon's reach time and time again as it chased after it, flailing its arms. It soon grew tired of this and fired flames from its beak, which narrowly missed the bug but succeeded in striking one of the helicopters.

"Blaz," (Whoops,) the Blaziken muttered, scratching its beak.

"No!" Nascour shouted angrily, recalling his Pokémon and staring in anguish at the flames already spreading upon the metal as Yanma flew around the aircraft.

"That went well," Evice said drily.

"Oh, I'll get him good in a second, don't you worry!" Nascour spat, sending out his Metagross which landed on the ground with a large clump.

"Restrain that Yanma!" Nascour shouted. The Metagross obliged, glowing a deep purple and focusing on the bug, which was suddenly surrounded by the same colour. Suddenly Yanma found himself floating towards the Metagross, unable to move away no matter how fast he beat his wings.

"YAAAAAANNN!" (ThisisnotveryfunwhyisthishappeningwhywouldyoudothisIwantmorecoffeeyouareblueandmeanandnotfair!) Yanma wailed as he came to a stop in front of the Metagross.

"Metagross," (Initialising Victory Sequence,) the Shadow Pokémon droned, keeping the Yanma stuck in the air and raising one spiked limb, preparing to crush it into the ground.

"That'll show you," Nascour said with glee.

"Uh...Nascour?" the mayor asked quietly.

"What?" Nascour asked.

"What is that?"

"What is what?"

"RAIKOU!" (ROAR!)

Nascour turned his head. "Oh, that's a Raikou. Now, Meta-" He suddenly realised what he had said and stared at the yellow beast, which was slowly advancing towards the two. Thoughts quickly ran through his mind, including wondering if Ein had suddenly magically appeared, how the Shadow Raikou had managed to get here in the first place and why was it growling at them.

"I think we should run back," the mayor suggested as Ein failed to appear.

"Quite. Metagross, take that Raikou down!" Nascour commanded before he sprinted back. The mayor followed, albeit slower given his stouter figure. The Metagross used its psychic powers to throw the Yanma into the Raikou and then turned around to face this new foe, while the Yanma hurriedly flew away as fast as it could from the snarling beast and zoomed after the two men, buzzing anxiously all the way.

"Metagross," (New target confirmed and engaged,) the Steel/Psychic type hummed as it landed on the ground and sent a wave of Psychic energy at the legendary. Raikou responded with another roar and a volley of sparks that danced upon the Metagross' body upon impact. As Nascour's Pokémon's monotonic hum jumped up an octave the Raikou turned around and sprinted after the two men and Yanma.

"Meta," (The wild Raikou fled,) the Pokémon concluded before it rose silently into the air and gave chase.

***

"Hiysa, supermam!" Tom shouted back to Wes, waving his arms and suddenly stumbling into one of the other Cipher peons.

"Hey, keep it together man," one of the agents said. He pushed him away, but Tom was too busy waving at Wes to care.

"Excellent – I think we just got some unexpected help," Wes said to Rui. "I have no idea why he is here; I suppose the train he caught led him here but... Tom, I'll buy you a drink if you help me fight these four people!" Wes called.

"YUS!" Tom shouted. He then looked at his two Spinda he had sent out. "Doey teh...uh, punchyunch crunch!" The two Pokémon staggered towards the Cipher guards' Pokémon and before they had realised the threat they flung their stubby paws into the guards' own Pokémon rather than Wes and Rui's. One punch landed on the flying dinosaur Tropius, which gave a strange screech and flew into the air, and then began flinging the fruit that hung from its neck down below in anger. Some of the Shadow Pokémon's projectiles landed on the rest of the Pokémon clustered together in the crowded arena, and the rest flew at the audience.

"Hey, cut that out!" its trainer yelled, only to receive a banana to the face for his troubles.

"Okay, keep it up!" Wes said as the crowd yelled and tried throwing their own food supplies at the Tropius, starting a good old fashion food-fight featuring hot dogs, bananas and cream pies.

"Now," Wes continued as he tried to ignore the smell of food entering the arena, "Quagsire and Feraligatr, I want you two to focus on the Fire types! Hariyama, the Dark types! Umbreon and Espeon, keep the Grass types they have at bay and away from our Water types!" As the two Spinda continued to swing their arms about in a drunken fashion into anything in their way, twirling about with gay abandon, Wes' Pokémon joined the fray.

"Hari!" (Die!) Hariyama yelled as he charged in and slapped a Miltank out of his way. The victim gave a surprised 'Moo' and rolled through the crowd of partner Pokémon, temporarily splitting the group into two.

"Fera!" (What he said!) Feraligatr agreed as he blasted water high into the air and let it fall down straight on top of the arena, and grinned as the Fire types howled and roared in pain from the attack.

"Quag," (Duh,) Quagsire offered as he shot water at the offending types. By now the Cipher agents were rambling instructions at their Pokémon. Some were too panicked or preoccupied to listen, but the one controlling the Fire types managed to get their attention. They spat out flames in a wide circle around them in an attempt to protect themselves from their foes. Tom cheered before one of the Cipher agents tried to tackle him and stop his apparent traitorous actions. He quickly pushed the man away, albeit stumbling awkwardly as he did so.

"Spindaaaa! Save men!" Tom yelled. The pair of Spinda turned and advanced upon the man who realised the danger and shouted at his Pokémon to stop them quickly, taking all the Normal types out of the main brawl for the moment.

"Great... now, let's help the Grass types join the Fire types!" Wes ordered.

"Espeon!" (Here's my warm welcome!) Espeon said, smiling as he swung his head and sent a Psybeam into the Vileplume, which cried in pain and tumbled backwards into the fire.

"PLUME!" (BURNING!) it screamed, landing the right way up and countering by flailing its short arms and running around in circles.

"Umbre... Umb!" (And you'll be...uh, fired!) Umbreon tried, and ignoring the following ridicule of Espeon for his supposedly weaker pun, charged forward and head-butted the Cacturne, who stumbled back but regained its footing before swinging its long, spiked arms at Umbreon. He had already jumped backwards out of reach however, and then suddenly sprang forward onto the cactus Pokémon's head and clamped down with his teeth. As the Cacturne tried to remove the Eeveelution from his face, Feraligatr lumbered forward and happily pushed the blinded Pokémon into the ring of fire. Umbreon leapt off instantly just as the Cacturne swung an arm, failing to hit his target but managing to collect his own face.

The two Pokémon gave each other an approving nod while the Cacturne joined the Vileplume in running around madly into other Pokémon, spreading the fire around the arena in their fit of stupidity. They observed the Vileplume attempt to hug its trainer and receive some consolation, but this only resulted in the trainer's clothing also being set alight, and so she too joined them in screaming and running about in hysterics. Umbreon and Feraligatr were quickly forced to resume the fight however, as the Shadow Absol jumped at them swinging the scythe upon its head wildly and slashing at the Feraligatr's side.

"Fera!" (Don't be rude!) the Water type growled, rubbing his arm. Umbreon leapt forward and tried to Bite the aggressor, but it then ducked its head allowing Umbreon to only manage to latch onto the scythe. It then swung its head around, dragging the Eeveelution along with him and sending him into the air. He landed with a thud on top of the Miltank who had just been knocked down by one of the Spinda and tried an uncertain smile.

"Um...bre?" (Err...hello?) Umbreon said.

"MOO!" (MOO!) the Shadow Miltank bellowed in response as she spurted out milk into his face. Umbreon hastily retreated before slipping on one of the smashed bananas lying on the ground, while Feraligatr stepped forward to attack the Absol. A Mightyena joined in and the two dog Pokémon attempted to circle the large reptile, but he retaliated with a few quick bursts of water, attempting to keep them away from either side of his body. No other Pokémon of Cipher's were brave enough to try attacking the bigger and more aggressive Hariyama however, quickly learning that it was a bad idea to do so.

"Hariyama!?" (Why won't you move!?) Hariyama shouted as he tried lifting and then punching away the Cradily towards the fire, which remained firmly rooted to the spot.

"Don't bother with that one!" Wes shouted.

"Yeah, just bash it-watch out!" Rui added.

"Crad!" (Bonk!) it exclaimed, as the Pokémon's neck extended out before it crashed its head into Hariyama. Hariyama ignored the attack though and simply grabbed the Cradily's neck and shook violently before letting go and slapping its head with his large palm.

"Lily!" (My brain!) the Pokémon exclaimed, its head waving about in a daze before Hariyama grabbed its head again and rammed it into the remains of a cream pie.

"Bah, get rid of that fire!" one of the Cipher trainers shouted.

"Fine – Sharpedo, put it out!" another ordered.

"Nooosey!" Tom shouted. But the Sharpedo, which had been doing little besides snapping at anything that came to close to it, sprayed water at the flames. The Houndoom growled angrily and shot more flames to create another barrier of fire however, and before the Sharpedo could put that out Hariyama had picked the distracted Pokémon up.

"Shar!" (Put me down!) it snarled, trying to twist its body to bite Hariyama. Hariyama naturally refused and instead flung the shark into the audience. The spectators would have likely panicked and run off screaming despite the fact the Pokémon crashed into an empty seat and was knocked out, but one of the Spinda had picked up the forgotten sign exclaiming 'APPLAUSE' and used it to whack the Zangoose in the head. As a result they cheered wildly instead and began chanting 'APPLE SAUCE' every so often for good measure.

"Quagsire, aim some mud at the middle of the flame ring!" Rui said now, taking control. The fat Pokémon formed a brown ball of murk and sent it high into the air, and then gazed blankly in front as the wet dirt slowly began returning to the ground before accelerating and landing with a splosh on top of the trio of Fire Types. A roar followed before the Houndoom leapt through the fire, covered in mud and snarling with anger.

"Houndoom!" (Meet your doooooom!) it roared, managing to catch some of the audience's attention by making itself heard over the deafening battle music. Flames danced along its thin, ashen body, burning off the mud and invigorating the Fire/Dark type further, followed by an ear-piercing howl.

"Quag!" (Hi!) Quagsire said, slapping the Houndoom in the face before resuming its usual position. Shocked, the Shadow Pokémon stared for a moment before Quagsire followed with a Water Gun attack.

"Oh, it's gone into Hyper State now," Rui said, tugging at one of her pigtails as, from her view, Houndoom's aura flared up into a sharp red.

"Houndoom!" (You gonna pay for that!) it snarled and charged into the Water/Ground type with a Shadow Rush attack.

"Quick, catch him!" Rui shouted quickly. The Quagsire nodded and to the Houndoom's surprise did not seem to react to the violent collision, instead grabbing the Houndoom with its flippers as he rolled over backwards and brought the surprised dog with him. Landing on his back the Quagsire continued the momentum and flipped while keeping its clumsy grip on the Houndoom, and then twisted his body.

"Houn-" (What-) the Shadow yelped as his body slammed into the ground, and Quagsire's large, fat head followed, smashing straight into his. He then pushed himself off the fainted Houndoom and gazed at Rui with his big dopey smile and blinked, as Rui happily applauded the Pokémon's actions.

"Now go for the other two Fire Pokémon there... Fat Tortoise and Megago!" Rui suggested, pointing to the Torkoal and Magcargo who had been far less agile than the Houndoom. They were also less keen to advance out of their now half-open protective ring of heat, instead trying to navigate their way to the centre of the circle unsuccessfully thanks to the mud covering their eyes.

"This is a good start, but this will take too long if we don't hurry up," Wes shouted to Rui, as Feraligatr grabbed the Mightyena by the back of its neck when it had strayed too close to him and started smashing him into the ground. The Dark type was both unable and unsure how to stop him and so resorted to barking loudly each time he hit the floor. A moment later he found himself pegged at the Absol as it jumped at the crocodile Pokémon once more, but this didn't deter the Shadow Pokémon from following through in its slashing attack, knocking the Mightyena out of its way and into unconsciousness. It landed, disinterested in its partner, and pawed at the ground as Feraligatr tried to regain some of his breath.

"Keep the Absol moving!" Wes ordered. "Hariyama, join up with Feraligatr and help finish off that Absol!"

"Hari!" (After this!) Hariyama called back. He had returned back to the Cradily and figured out that it was unable to move from the spot it had been sent out upon, and was having great fun shaking its head around and further dizzying it. He let go of the Pokémon which sighed in relief, only for him to bounce its head rapidly back and forth between his two hands, its skull beginning to resemble a speedball being rapidly pummelled by a boxer. After a few seconds of this torture Hariyama stopped and checked that the Pokémon had fainted.

"Yama!" (Coming!) he called once satisfied, running back. Feraligatr was trying to keep the Pokémon at bay but the Absol had moved to firing Shadow Ball attacks from short range which the Water type was unable to avoid. The Absol then yelped as Hariyama picked him up, and deftly spun his head around, forcing the Fighting type to drop him as he swiped his wrist with his scythe. Feraligatr took advantage of the interruption though, and steamed forward before swinging his arm and giving the Absol a Slash of his own. As the Absol twisted his body to retaliate Hariyama struck out a leg and sent the dog skidding across the ground.

"Gat!" (Let's get him!) Feraligatr said to Hariyama with a grin, nodding his thanks. Hariyama nodded back and converged with his partner on their target.

Meanwhile Espeon had joined his brother and the Spinda, suddenly turning the previous two-on-three battle for Tom in his favour numerically. The two Normal types of his had been faring pretty well though and despite the earlier assault of milk fired at Umbreon, the Pokémon of the Cipher agent did not look at all comfortable at how the battle was going.

"Porygon – two two two," (Analysis – bad bad bad,) the Porygon2 informed its trainer in a drone as a Spinda whacked him in the face with her 'Applause' sign.

"Bananas!" Tom yelled as he picked one off the ground and began to eat it! "Nananananana, nanananana, makey everybodily sing!" he sung happily.

"Umbreon..." (I hate that song...) Umbreon muttered, keeping his distance from the Zangoose who was growling and trying to leap onto his back. He kept his eye on the Pokémon, eager to exploit an opening but finding the Pokémon's aggression tough to overcome by himself.

"Zaaaa! Zangoose!" (Stop dodging! Stay still a moment!) the mongoose Pokémon cried as Umbreon hopped to the side yet again to avoid him. The Miltank meanwhile was now dazed and rolling around slowly without any real purpose behind its attacks, but still refused to faint despite the number of attacks it had suffered already.

"Esp... Espeon!" (He may be drunk... but he's given me an idea!) Espeon remarked. Focusing on the fruity mess across the arena, he levitated the yellow fruit into the air and smiled. With a flick of his tail the bananas then went flying into the trio of opponents. Umbreon grinned and sprinted at the Zangoose, throwing himself into the Pokémon and then firing a short-ranged Secret Power attack.

"Porygon – two two twowowowo," (Analysis: banana banana bananananana,) the manmade Pokémon buzzed as a number of the fruit stuck him in the face, before breaking down as another sign-swipe and punch from the tumbling Spinda pair brought it down. The two then rolled forward and sprang into the air before stomping upon landing on top of the Miltank. As it sat upright and gasped, feeling winded from the double attack, Espeon applied a Psychic at its head and produced a groan before it too fell limp.

Wes glanced around at the rest of the arena, noting that Hariyama was now waving a floppy Absol around his head triumphantly, and Quagsire was sitting patiently on top of the fainted pair of Torkoal and Magcargo.

"Okay, we have one more to take on," he said, glancing up at the Tropius and then stepping back as it hastily descended, having run out of bananas to pelt everyone with. It landed with a stomp and roared loudly.

"That's the last Shadow Pokémon," Rui reminded Wes.

"Well, we can't snag it now, not with so many people watching, but.... it's now seven against one for us! Take it down with long-ranged attacks!" Wes shouted at his Pokémon.

"Umbreon!" (Combo attack!) Umbreon shouted, sending another array of sparks forward. Feraligatr and Quagsire joined in by blasting water from their jaw and mouth respectively, Espeon sent a Psybeam from his forehead's ruby, and Hariyama a pulse of brown energy from his hands.

"Singy wuth major tommy!" Tom shouted, as the ground shook with the stomps of the Tropius establishing its distaste for this greeting. The man held up a banana like a conductor's stick and waved it at his Pokémon. "Bananananana...NANANAnananananaNA!"

"Spininininin!" (Banananana!) the two attempted to echo, screaming an Uproar attack as one at the Tropius. Evidently the concentrated sound did not please the Tropius either, as it turned a pale shade of green, shuddered and slumped to the ground.

"Excellent," Wes said, pumping his fist as the Cipher agent begrudgingly recalled his Pokémon. The Spinda clutching the sign held it up once more and the audience erupted into loud cheering. "Thanks, Tom!" he added, and the drunkard yelled something unintelligible about bananas back at Wes. The other Cipher agents either decided that it was a good time as any to flee, or had been taken out by a stray attack long ago.

"We beat them!" Rui added, jumping happily.

"Yes, but now we've got to move on," Wes said, running now to the direction the mayor and Nascour had departed from and waved at his Pokémon to follow. "No time to wait around, we've a mayor to catch!" Rui nodded and followed, but Espeon looked up instead and flicked his tail with mild amusement as he sat on his hind legs.

"Espeon," (I think he saved us the trouble,) Espeon commented, making his comments clear to the two teens. Wes paused and glanced ahead, and noticed that both men were now running back towards them, the mayor huffing heavily as he ran behind Nascour. Yanma was flying after them buzzing loudly and anxiously.

"Good work, Yanma!" Wes shouted. "Not sure how you..."

A loud roar sounded from the distance and a moment later a Raikou followed by a flying Metagross appeared.

"Oh," Rui said quietly.

"Yanyanyan!" (ItisabigthinganditisangryandrunsfastIwonderifitalsohadcoffeecoffeecoffee!)

"Espeon!" (It's Ein's one!) Espeon shouted as he leapt onto all four paws. The rest of the Pokémon also observed the newcomers and tensed bar the Spinda who began to dance to the tune of Tom's slow clapping who was currently oblivious to this latest event.

"So I guess I have to use the Snag Machine then, just in case!" Wes said, grabbing at his bag and pulling out the Master Ball. He jammed the capsule into the Snag Machine and then clutched it in his left hand, realising how long it had been since he had to actually use the machine.

Normally I'd be worried about screwing this up but... the Master Ball never fails! Wes thought and with a grin chucked the ball at Raikou. The ball looped through the air and struck the Pokémon, sucked it in and immediately gave a ping as it landed on the ground confirming the Snag was successful.

"Well that was easy," Rui remarked. Es Cade turned around as he heard the ping and gave a sigh when he realised the Raikou was gone. He then looked at Wes, and then back at the ball and grinned.

"Oh... well, thank you!" he shouted as he sprinted for the ball.

"Espeon!" Wes called, anticipating the move. "Bring it here before he grabs-"

"Metagross," Nascour said quietly. As the ball was raised in the air by Espeon it suddenly froze in place, wobbling ever so slightly as Metagross engaged Espeon in a mental tug of war.

"Well I didn't see that coming," Wes muttered, realising now who the Metagross belonged to. The mayor meanwhile plucked the Master Ball and held it in the air, ignoring the few boos from the audience.

"This'll be useful, I'm sure," he crowed, smiling at the pair. "I see you beat our trainers bar one, but together with this you cannot possibly win. I have the legendary on top of my party as well as Nascour's, and your Pokémon must already be tired. Don't worry, for I'll raise a toast to you this evening; you've done magnificently well, but-"

"Toats!" Tom shouted suddenly. The mayor eyed the man uncertainly.

"...Yes, a toast."

"Beer!" Tom yelled again, and so he grabbed the sign the Spinda was holding and whacked the mayor's hand who cried out, releasing the ball. Tom leapt forward, caught the Master Ball and stared at it eagerly. Nobody noticed that the battle music had suddenly ended; instead all were firmly focused on what just happened. Espeon and Metagross were still focusing on each other but neither were able to prise control of the ball.

"He just hit the mayor," one person from the crowd muttered.

"Woo!" another cheered as the sign was raised for a moment by Tom who was now scrutinising the Master Ball.

"...Whereily is drinky?" he asked, shaking it before looking at the mayor. "Yous says toast! Toasts mean drunk! Tasdy! Yullows water!"

"Please," Es Cade began coldly as he rubbed his hand, "hand over that Ball. Now."

"Oh!" Tom shouted and smiled happily. "Drinky is insud!"

"No, don't!" Nascour shouted as he ran forward, but there was no stopping Tom pressing the button on the Master Ball which spat out the Raikou again. The Pokémon growled instinctively and stared at Tom.

"Arrrrgh!" Tom yelled, swinging his sign around but only managing to clock Nascour in the head instead of the Raikou. The Raikou snarled and began to run off once more but Tom grabbed onto its mane and then cried out as it dragged him along around the arena.

"Why are you doing this!?" Nascour yelled angrily as he rubbed his head. "You're supposed to be working for us!"

"We've got to stop that Raikou!" Rui shouted.

"WORSTY FLOVOUR!" Tom yelled.

"But how..." Wes mused. "Well... Umbreon! Try a Mean Look attack!"

"Umb..." (I'll try...) Umbreon said uncertainly, reluctantly moving forward towards the Raikou who was now trying to remove Tom by bucking wildly.

"Bah, this ridiculousness might as well end quickly," Nascour muttered to Es Cade. "Let's send out all our Pokémon and end this quickly. Relax for now, Metagross!" he ordered.

"Yes, I think that will be in our best interest," the mayor agreed, reaching for his Poké Balls. "I'll send out five of mine and you send out your whole team!"

"Quickly, Umbreon!" Wes urged as the Raikou continued another loop and rushed past them.

"Tomsy wil buy yous...busies a dollars!" Tom added desperately.

"Umb!" (Fine!) Umbreon shouted. He then shouted loudly at the Raikou to grab its attention and then breathed deeply in before contorting his face into the most terrifying facial expression he could possibly muster.

The :3 face.

"Huh...?" Rui said quietly. "That looks more...well, cute, not scary..." she remarked as the audience gave a loud 'Aww'. But strangely the Raikou stared back at the Umbreon and gave a soft whimper as it stood still, ending up on Wes' and Rui's side of the battle field.

"Espeon... Esp," (What people may find cute can be...scary for Pokémon,) Espeon explained. "Espeon?" (By the way is it safe to look?) he added; his eyes had been firmly closed.

"Umb!" (Yes!) Umbreon said, rubbing his face with his paw. "Umbreon..." (That really hurts the face...)

"So... now what?" Rui asked as the last of Nascour's and Es Cade's Pokémon were sent out. The battle field seemed very crowded now by these giant arrivals she was sure she had not seen before in her life. "Also that giant blue thing is a Shadow Pokémon, I think," she murmured, pointing to the Metagross.

"We deal with their Pokémon," Wes said quickly, noting the one Rui spoke about. "Need to firstly hold off their attacks on our current Pokémon and give them a chance to heal."

"How do we do that?"

"We reveal our trump cards," Wes said shortly, clicking his fingers. "I have an idea on how to use them, given how Ein managed the Raikou in the first place and what we found out from those files at his lab!" He then rummaged through his bag and threw down an assortment of healing items on the ground as he thought at Espeon.

Tell the others to fall back for the moment bar the Raikou and use these items to heal themselves!

Okay, Espeon thought back before relaying the instructions to the others. The Pokémon quickly obeyed and ran, hobbled or flew back. Tom meanwhile recovered by looking in his own bag, pulling out a bottle of alcohol and hugging it tightly.

"Now now," Nascour said with a smile, "there's no need to be shy."

"No, we're not shy," Wes said as he and Rui pulled out another Poké Ball. "We're just going to let you try out these two first!" Then they threw the capsules in front of them next to the Raikou which released the forms of Entei and Suicune.

Well, I think it was worth it just to see their reactions, Wes thought, resisting the urge to laugh as Nascour's smile faded away slowly as it dawned on him what the two trainers had just sent out.

"But... that's..." Es Cade said quietly.

"Yes, your group's previous Shadow Pokémon!" Rui shouted loudly. "You know, the ones you made?"

"I thought you said Dakim's one was lost at Mt Battle!" the mayor roared at Nascour.

"That's what he said!"

Meanwhile Espeon continued to instruct Wes' and Rui's Pokémon, who were quite unsure how to manage the items that Wes had supplied them. Feraligatr held up a Hyper Potion up and frowned at it before he shook it quickly and watched the purple liquid slosh inside the container.

"Esp, Espeon!?" (What, you never paid attention to how people used those?) Espeon berated.

"Har?" (Did they punch it?) Hariyama asked. Espeon sighed and shook his head.

"Espeon eon... Espi!" (No, you aim it that way on your body and press that thing... no not like that!) he shouted at the Quagsire who had simply picked up one of the potions and swallowed it whole. He then smiled at Espeon happily and wagged its tail.

"Umbreon?" (What's this thing?) Umbreon wondered, pawing at a small rotten object. He sniffed it and recoiled in disgust.

"Esp... Espeon?" (Maybe ... the White Herb from Phenac's Pre Gym?) Espeon wondered. Meanwhile Feraligatr ripped apart one of the bottles and let the fluid land on his body.

"Umb... Umbreon," (Well that works... but I think we should buy berries next time,) Umbreon remarked.

"Yaaaaaaaan!" (WhereismycoffeethatisallIneedforitisgoodandmakesmegoodandgooderandgoodestandstuff!) the bug hummed as it darted in and out of the pile of items, trying to find some of the capsule it had received earlier.

"Right!" Wes shouted at the three legendary Pokémon, ignoring the raffle behind him. "You want something to aim at? Something to be angry about?"

"What are you playing at?" Nascour spat.

"It's those two who made you into Shadow!" Wes said.

"The ones who captured you, brought you here and... made you angry!" Rui shouted. Now as the music had also stopped the audience was able to hear their dialogue and murmured among themselves, wondering what they were talking about.

"Stop your pathetic lies!" the mayor shouted. "We've done no such thing!"

"How could you lie?" Rui accused the mayor as the three Pokémon began to snarl. If Rui hadn't been so concentrated at yelling at the mayor, she would have noticed their three auras flare up into a harsh red colour. "How could you?"

"Andy nosy beerys gave Tom?" Tom added loudly.

"So where's your proof?" Nascour said. "Pokémon, prepare to take them out!"

***

While the Raikou had arrived on the top of the tower and Nascour's and Es Cade's Pokémon were sent out, Miror B was far below them all outside the control room. Two of his Ludicolo were punching the locked door in a rhythmic pattern, each pair of strikes thudding loudly down the hallway before suddenly the door gave way and fell with a thunk.

"Well done, my Ludicolo!" Miror B exclaimed as he clapped loudly and waltzed in. Silva and Skrub shrugged and followed the disco man inside and watched him excitedly jump on a computer.

"So what are you going to do?" Skrub asked.

"Oh good, the file I prepared is still there!" Miror B announced. "This is just a small video I made about Cipher last week and left here to give or show to someone," he said offhandedly before he danced over to a large screen showing all the visuals currently supplied by Realgam Tower's security cameras. He gazed at it for a moment before pointing at one and nodding.

"It sure looks dangerous there," Silva remarked, peering at the small window which showed Rui and Wes facing Nascour's and Es Cade's teams. But Miror B was currently noting down some numbers and running back to the first computer.

"Right," Miror B said after another moment of clicking and typing. "I've now connected us to the main television screen they have up there to show the video I made!" He then looked back at the screen. "And I suppose I should set up some fitting battle music for this climax as well; to have none would be a crime!"

"Wait," Skrub interrupted, scratching his head. "What sort of video will this be anyway?"

***

And so a moment later both Nascour's and the mayor's Pokémon paused as the television screen which was just about to show the next battle switched suddenly to a display of Miror B in all his glory. They stared in confusion and slight fright, as did the audience. The promoter for the toaster company had finally managed to sit up despite his irregular costume, but promptly gave a gasp and fell over as he saw Miror B as well. Tom looked up and looked at the screen for a moment before he turned around and took another swig from his bottle.

"May I ask," the mayor said quietly, "what that man is doing on the television screen now?"

"Hello, darlings!" Miror B shouted. "Here's a little video I put together about the mayor and how he's helped Cipher do ungroovy things!"

"Oh no," Nascour said.

"And here's my representation of this via a slideshow and interpretive dance!" Miror B said, performing a stylish spin.

"Oh no," the mayor repeated. "Cut the television!" he roared, presumably at the staff that were in charge of operating the display, but it was too late.

"We all know the mayor of Phenac,
The jolly chubby man of town," he sung.

"I'm not chubby," the mayor muttered defensively.

"But what you didn't know 'til now
Will surely make you frown!"

Miror B then began break dancing as the mayor's voice then took over in the video. Miror B had seemingly recorded the mayor ordering him to kidnap Rui, control Pyrite and use Shadow Pokémon for Realgam Tower's Colosseum amongst other misdeeds. The mayor's pacing of his speech had also been adjusted to fit the rhythm of the song. Document after document suddenly flew across the screen as Miror B added his own representation of the matters. As confused as the audience were about the video they soon figured out that these two men were bad and so began to boo loudly.

"Quiet! I'll... I'll arrest you all! I'm the mayor!" the mayor yelled desperately.

"Now," Wes urged the legendary beasts, "you can see they are responsible. Attack!"

They needed no further instruction from Wes nor encouragement from the crowd. Acting as one, they roared loudly and stomped their legs, shaking the ground.

"Oh no," Nascour said once more. He quickly tried to get his Pokémon to fire back their own attacks while the Entei's back flared alight, flames spinning off into a twister of heat above him. Suicune created its own Gust attack which collected most of the food lying on the ground and merged with the Fire type attack, and Raikou discharged a ball of electricity which also joined the combination of attacks. The three then leapt forward and the attack flew at the eleven Pokémon in front of them and engulfed the group, the sparks reaching out and springing onto the Pokémon the tornado did not manage to touch. A series of cries and grunts followed before the elemental onslaught faded away, revealing a significantly reduced number of survivors.

"Stop this!" Es Cade cried, recalling his Pokémon; to his dismay only his Salamence, who had flown clear of the attack just in time, and his Slaking, which had stood strong against the attack remained, and the latter had decided to fall asleep as was the nature of the giant sloth Pokémon. Meanwhile for Nascour only the Metagross, Blaziken and a Gardevoir remained, the first two along with the Slaking somehow not falling to the massive attack but clearly injured, and the pure Psychic type having teleported away from the strike. The others had either held a weakness to the attacks or were simply overpowered.

"Now what!?" the mayor shouted at Nascour. Music had started again as the video of Miror B's finished; he guessed that this was also the doing of the Cipher admin turned traitor.

"Now we fight back," Nascour said, waving a hand.

"Metagross," (Proceeding to annihilate,) it hummed as a purple hue enveloped it. Gardevoir followed suit and a moment later the three legendary beasts bellowed in pain as the duo Psychics were unleashed. The attack was followed by the Blaziken and Salamence which spewed fire on the three legendaries. They responded by firing single beams representative of their own typing back at their opponents who struggled to hold their own ground. Meanwhile Espeon had stepped forward and watched the battle, ready to summon up a Light Screen should one of the ranged attacks miss and come towards the group instead.

"That's it, I'm bringing out Tyranitar," the mayor yelled, sending out one more Pokémon. A large, green Rock type appeared as he threw out its ball, and as it growled sand suddenly flew across the arena, causing some of the audience to wrap clothing around their faces.

"Arrgh, what's with the sudden sandstorm?" Rui yelled, covering herself up with her jacket.

"That's the Tyranitar's ability," Wes said, putting on his sunglasses. "Summons a sandstorm upon being sent out...somehow."

"I see... it's also a Shadow Pokémon," Rui added.

"Tyranitar! Those Pokémon called you fat!" the mayor yelled quickly as it glanced around, pointing at the legendary beasts.

"TYRAN!" (HOW DARE THEY!) the Pokémon shouted, responding immediately to the claim by firing a Hyper Beam from its mouth at the Raikou which was sent flying a few metres back and stumbled before it slumped down onto the ground and became unconscious. Instead of resting a moment after the almighty attack, it then fired off another two white-hot rays which brought down the other two legendaries successfully.

"Woah," Wes breathed. "However did it manage that...?"

"Ahaha!" The mayor smiled, finally having reason to do so again. "The Pokémon was made Shadow by having personal insults made to his body image! A mere word about him is a trigger!"

"Hariyama," (Now that's just mean,) Hariyama grumbled, and stepped forward. He had healed himself fully now and so had the rest of Wes' Pokémon.

"No berry, any futs fantods!" Tom yelled angrily at the Tyranitar, hurling his now empty beer bottle which shattered upon contact with the Pokémon's rocky exterior.

"This'll be tough to take down," Wes said, looking at his Pokémon and their foes, and even without a confirmation from Rui, felt the Tyranitar had entered Hyper State. I have a slight numerical advantage and the opponents are mostly weakened, but this is still not going to be easy.

"Allow me to take over."

"Oh! Hello, Sherles!" Rui said happily as the sheriff entered the arena from the side with a number of policemen following him. "How did you get here from the side though?" she asked.

"You!" the mayor shouted. He spat on the ground before shouting orders at the Tyranitar who was currently in a frenzy, stomping on the broken bottle continuously to form a fine powder of glass.

"I took the second elevator," he said simply.

"Oh... I guess we took the wrong one that lead straight to the arena. Or the right one," Wes said, scratching his head.

"Anyways! Firstly, you two can come quietly or serve extra time!" Sherles shouted at the pair of Cipher administrators, elating cheers from the crowd.

"We'll choose freedom instead!" Nascour shouted, waving a hand at his own Pokémon to charge forward.

"Right men, greet them with fire!" Sherles yelled, and the police contingent sent out their Growlithe as Sherles barked more orders and sent out his own Alakazam. "Growlithe, focus on the Metagross; you have the type advantage! You there, Espeon, help Alakazam take care of the Gardevoir! Water types, the Blaziken! The rest, the other two!" The dog Pokémon had already leapt onto the machine Pokémon by the time he had finished talking and fired hot embers into the Steel type, as well as each other to power themselves further via their Flash Fire abilities. The Metagross rose into the air and shook itself violently to remove them from itself, but had now taken on the appearance of a burning UFO. The Growlithe responded quickly after landing by shooting short bursts of fire at the Metagross. Johnson meanwhile ran onto the battle field as well, clutching his Poké Ball eagerly.

"Johnson, just watch," Sherles ordered after a short moment.

"Bah! Tyranitar, destroy them all!" Es Cade ordered.

"Oi!" Wes called quickly after Sherles finished talking. "Tyranitar, that Salamence called you unfit and very ugly! And you other Pokémon, focus on the Gardevoir for the moment!"

"Tyrani TAR?!" (You dare say WHAT?) the Shadow yelled, turning to the Salamence. Wes grinned as he realised he successfully made use of the mayor's information.

"Sa? Salamence! Mence sala!"(What? I did no such thing! You're very decent looking and masculine!) Salamence shouted back nervously, but the Tyranitar merely roared loudly and summoned a large boulder.

"TAR!" (I'M FEMALE!) she shouted, and showing how unimpressed she was at the masculine comment hurled the rock into the dragon's face.

"By the way, Wes," Sherles said, "You have my full permission to snag their Pokémon!"

"Oh good," Wes responded, chucking a couple of Ultra Balls into his Snag Machine. As he prepared them the Gardevoir was unsuccessfully trying to teleport away from the converging Pokémon. Espeon and Alakazam combined their powers and held the Pokémon in place however, and Yanma's screeching in its ears prevented the Psychic type from being able to concentrate whatsoever. With a cry, the Gardevoir then switched to offensive tactics and fired Psybeams at Hariyama as he jumped into the fray, but Umbreon leapt in front of him and took the attacks with no ill effects, allowing the Fighting Type to punch the Gardevoir. Umbreon then bit into its arm and Yanma delivered another Bug Buzz to finish the job.

The Blaziken was leaping from side to side in the meantime to try and avoid the combined water projectiles from Quagsire and Feraligatr, but whilst doing so failed to dodge Wes' Ultra Ball which successfully snagged the Pokémon a moment later. Hariyama looked a bit disappointed at the missed opportunity for him to take on the Fighting type.

"Wes!" Rui shouted suddenly.

"What is it?" Wes asked, as Espeon delivered the Pokémon to his possession.

"That wasn't a Shadow Pokémon!" she yelled.

"It wasn't? Well... sure, but I could still snag it, and Sherles said I could," Wes explained. "I'm not going to keep it either," he added hastily. Nascour meanwhile had given up hope as his Metagross crashed down with a loud clunk; the flames continuing to engulf its body, and so the man sprinted away. It was for naught though; he yelled as the Growlithe pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. The mayor meanwhile tried to redirect the Tyranitar's fury but to little avail.

"Salamence! Sala!" (No I mean you have a beautiful masculinity! And wonderful eyes!) the Dragon shouted desperately as he flew away, trying to dodge the multiple Dark Pulse attacks, but it then cried out as another rock struck its wing, and crashed into the ground. The Tyranitar shouted triumphantly but by then the rest of Wes' Pokémon had moved on from the other Pokémon, including Hariyama.

"Hariyama!" (And now you're finished!) the Fighting type yelled, crossing his large arms. The Rock/Dark type only had time to turn around before Wes' Pokémon stepped forward and swung his arms into the middle of his body with a Cross Chop attack, sending the large Pokémon tumbling backwards. To add further to her woes the rest heaped more damage onto her, and Tom finished proceedings with another surprisingly accurate throw of a beer bottle and a double Headbutt from his Spinda. Lastly, Wes threw another Ultra Ball once it had finished being processed by the Snag Machine, which sucked in the Shadow and landed on the ground with a few bounces before shaking a few times. As it did, the battle music ended abruptly as all eyes gazed at the ball to watch the capture's outcome.

"Come on!" Rui shouted. Wes breathed quickly, aware that if this was successful then it would be all over.

Unfortunately it was not, as the ball burst open and Tyranitar reappeared from it, stomping loudly and breaking the Ultra Ball.

"TYRANITAR!" (I SHALL NOT BE CONQUERED!) the Pokémon exclaimed. The proclamation was swiftly followed by another Cross Chop attack from Hariyama from behind however, which caused the Shadow to fall face first. Hariyama then prodded the still form and smiled.

"Well, I suppose that works too," Wes remarked. As one, the audience erupted into loud cheering.

"WE DID IT!" Rui shouted, jumping up and grabbing Wes in an excited hug. Surprised for a moment he then grinned and returned it.

"Yes, we did, Rui," he said.

"Espeon..." (Sorry to interrupt...) Espeon said softly. As the two looked at him they followed his gaze. Es Cade was running off with a pair of Growlithe in hot pursuit. The mayor was clutching a black box with controls upon it as a small helicopter flew at him just above the ground.

"He must be controlling it! Growlithe, aim at the helicopter!" Sherles ordered, running forward himself as the audience yelled angrily at the mayor, some of them even hopping out of their seats to also give chase.

But the efforts of the chasing Growlithe were all for naught.

But circumstances did not unfold to the mayor's benefit.

A loud bird cry sounded from above before a giant ball of fire engulfed the helicopter. The burning, twisted metal crashed immediately as the mayor slowed down and gazed up, as did everyone else.

A large Ho-oh circled above, crying loudly and triumphantly. The Growlithe slowed down and stood, realising there was no longer any need to chase him, and barked instead.

"Oh, COME ON!" Es Cade shouted, falling to his knees and hammering the ground. "Of all the things to happen, a Ho-oh appears and destroys my other helicopter! WHERE DID YOU EVEN COME FROM!?" he yelled at the bird. The Ho-oh simply ignored him and turned suddenly, flying away towards the distant silhouette of Mt Battle. Nascour meanwhile turned his head while the other Growlithe continued to keep him from moving, and sighed.

"This," he muttered, "was a bad day."

"But not for me," Sherles said gruffly as the other policemen stepped forward and brandished handcuffs. "You're under arrest."

"Tommys lithe... liunrs..." Tom struggled to say as he gazed at the Ho-oh. "Gooood birdy," he slurred a moment later. "Best far-ire."

"Where did it come from though," Rui wondered quietly to Wes, as they watched it rapidly become a mere speck of rainbow-coloured wings against the cloudless sky. "Maybe, when the legendary beasts roared together they summoned it? Eusine did say..." she muttered.

"Maybe," Wes said, grabbing Rui's hand. "But I think we should worry about the details later," he smiled.

"Good idea," Rui giggled, and after a moment of staring at each other with wide smiles, they leant forward and allowed their lips to meet, prompting further wild cheers from the crowd.

"Espeon," (I don't think they need to do that so often,) Espeon remarked with an eye roll. "Esp," (Stop looking,) he added to Umbreon, flicking his face with his tail as the Dark Type stared at the two.

***

The Ho-oh mused to itself as it occasionally flapped its massive wings, lazily gliding back towards its home in the volcano of Orre, riding the hot air currents rising from the boiling hot sand of the desert below. It wanted to be back before the sun set, as when night fell the hot air disappeared and flying became more of a workout for it. It gazed down below to see if there were any Pokémon he could eat on his way back, but seeing the desert was devoid of life for the moment it shrugged and continued on its way.

It was fairly content with itself. It had no idea about what was going on at that tower; it seemed like there was a large party going on between those silly human beings and that nobody had been kind enough to invite it, but it was never sure about these things. All it knew was that the helicopter had been successfully destroyed and that its job was done.

It hated helicopters. It could hear the blasted thing all the way across the desert, and the machine had woken it up during its nap. They made such an awful racket.

***


And the second-last 'what happened in the games and how it's done in this chapter' comparison, brought to you by Toast.
Spoiler:




I hope that was satisfactory. Do post comments, and hang around for the following bits!
 
Last edited:

Bay

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"Uh, right," Nascour continued. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Realgam Tower Colosseum!" One of the Cipher peons then stepped forward and brandished a sign stating 'APPLAUSE' on it, and the crowd obeyed the command.

"We really need to get an electronic version of one of those installed," the mayor muttered to himself. "Or just use our large television display for it..."
No money for that? XD;

"Yeah... Absol, Mootank, uh... Tropic Dinosaur thing and... Doom Dog?" Rui answered uncertainly.
For some reason I found that cute, heh.

My favorite parts in the first scene is the sponsor from toast (can't go wrong with that :P ) and Yanma getting the coffee capsule. Gotta love his jittery mind, LOL.

Yay for Yanma distracting Nascour and the mayor. XD Late, but I think Yanma may be my favorite Pokemon of Wes, heh. Also, ha took long enough for Nascour realizing Raikou is there. I always love situations like that.

The huge brawl was an enjoyable read. Glad Tom came and help, kind of. :P And battles aren't complete without bananas. *nods*

"Umb!" (Fine!) Umbreon shouted. He then shouted loudly at the Raikou to grab its attention and then breathed deeply in before contorting his face into the most terrifying facial expression he could possibly muster.

The :3 face.
Best use of Mean Look ever. XD; Also, I can imagine Umbreon's Mean Look to be like that. Speaking of cute, the scene with Wes' Pokemon trying to heal themselves gave me a chuckle. That is why potions are best left to the humans.

Have to say, Miror B's video of showing the mayor's true colors is quite creative, heh. The part with Tyranitar I felt sorry for her being called fat and male, LOL. And woot for Ho-Oh's appearance and hating on helicopters. Those things are indeed loud, bleh.

Overall a very fun last chapter. Can't wait for the epilogue! :D
 

bobandbill

one more time
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No money for that? XD;
He would have had more if Nascour hadn't wasted it breaking stuff. =p That and I suppose also in their rush to get things started because of the police arriving they didn't set things up in time.
My favorite parts in the first scene is the sponsor from toast (can't go wrong with that :P ) and Yanma getting the coffee capsule. Gotta love his jittery mind, LOL.
Toast is pretty much awesome. =p (Also a quote from a terrible thing, btw.)
Yay for Yanma distracting Nascour and the mayor. XD Late, but I think Yanma may be my favorite Pokemon of Wes, heh. Also, ha took long enough for Nascour realizing Raikou is there. I always love situations like that.
I like them too, heh, so it was hard to resist writing the situation like that.
The huge brawl was an enjoyable read. Glad Tom came and help, kind of. :P And battles aren't complete without bananas. *nods*
No bananas means no potassium! And that's bad. You need that after a good long battle...or something.
Best use of Mean Look ever. XD; Also, I can imagine Umbreon's Mean Look to be like that. Speaking of cute, the scene with Wes' Pokemon trying to heal themselves gave me a chuckle. That is why potions are best left to the humans.
I was always confused/curious about the whole 'can't use manmade items' thing in games... Mean Look idea btw had been a on-the-go idea, so good to see that amused.
Have to say, Miror B's video of showing the mayor's true colors is quite creative, heh. The part with Tyranitar I felt sorry for her being called fat and male, LOL. And woot for Ho-Oh's appearance and hating on helicopters. Those things are indeed loud, bleh.

Overall a very fun last chapter. Can't wait for the epilogue! :D
Glad you enjoyed!

While you wait for that, here's an additional thing. Click the link when it appears and enjoy the song-parody scene! If the link doesn't work for whatever reason here's another. (But don't click this one yet!)






***

Miror B stepped out of the tower, nodded to the few police officers standing guard over the unconscious Cipher agents, and continued down the path from the entrance, radio in hand blazing his memorable salsa tune for all to hear. His Ludicolo followed him in a Congo line with the lead duck spraying a wet breeze from its beak so that the disco man had a nice cool breeze to enjoy rather than a hot dry one.

He sighed as he danced on, content with how things had finished up. He even appeared after the mayor and Nascour had been arrested and removed, along with the other defeated Cipher agents at the top of Realgam Tower, and performed a show for the audience of his own. Granted, he hadn't asked for permission but nobody had seemed to mind.

I am a touch disappointed that they didn't want to join me, but oh well; I'll dance my own groove for a while, Miror B thought to himself. Both Silva and Skrub had declined his offer to teach them how to dance if they joined his posse; it didn't seem that many people wanted to join him but he figured that they probably had other commitments instead. Why did nobody else realise how much fun dancing could be though? If Ein hadn't been arrested I would ask him to make me another radio that made people dance...

"Hey, boss!" someone called. Miror B turned and grinned.

"Folly and Trudly!" he yelled back and waved. "Where have you boys been? I haven't seen you since... well, since I told you to capture Wes and Rui weeks ago in Phenac," he mused.

"Uh, yeah, you're right," Folly said sheepishly and tugged at his shirt. "We got... lost?"

"Oh well," Miror B said, tossing the radio to him. "At any rate you're back!"

"Yeah," said Trudly as Folly looked at the radio. "Sherles told us you'll be here, so-"

"You know, I think this calls for a song!" Miror B continued as he pulled out a piece of paper from his hair and threw it at his assistant, incorporating the actions into a dance. "Hurry up and get singing, you two! We have things to plan!"

"...Well, at least he's happy," Folly said, examining the tape and showing it to Trudly before he put it back in and hit play.

"Ah, that song," Trudly nodded as he examined the paper. "He likes changing up those lyrics, doesn't he?" he asked quietly as a guitar began to play from the radio. Miror B began to sing a moment later.

Road trippin' with my two favourite allies,
Fully loaded we got music and jive,
It's time to leave this town,
It's time to dance away,
Let's go get lost,
Anywhere with a dancing stage.

Acquainted with the song, Folly and Trudly took over with the chorus.

Let's go get bossed,
Let's go get bossed...

Red you sit so pretty west of the white,
Sparkling afro with yellow suiting,
Just a Miror for the B,
Just a Miror for the B.
Just a Miror for the B...
All these Ludi's are just a Miror for…

Miror B took over again for the verse and so the three continued to interchange roles as they danced into the sunset, with the four Ludicolo following Miror B, shaking their maracas to the tune happily.

So much has come before those battles lost and won,
This life is shining in a disco ball of fun,
Now let us check that hair,
Get rid of Orre that sand!

Keeping that afro clean's
More trouble than it's worth,
With Miror B,
Just a Miror for the B.
Just a Miror for the B...
All these Ludi's are just a Miror for…

In Pyrite we'll take some time to groove on,
We three hunky dorys will get Team Miror on!
Now let us drink the stars,
It's time to dance away,
Let's go get lost,
Anywhere with a dancing stage,

Let's go get bossed,
Let's go get bossed...

Red you sit so pretty west of the white,
Sparkle afro with yellow suiting
Just a Miror for the B.
Just a Miror for the B.
Just a Miror for the B...

All these Ludi's are just a Miror for…
All these Ludi's are just a Miror for…
All your Ludi's are just a Miror for…
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,891
Posts
16
Years
Epilogue Up

...parodying Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Just when I thought you couldn't get more awesome, B&B, you pull out another stop.
I take it you liked it then. =p Good to see you're still about btw!



And so here it is. One note: there's a music link within it (optional to click but well, why not!). And one afterwards a bunch of rambling.

Thanks to Chris the Com for beta-reading.




The Retelling of Pokémon Colosseum



Epilogue: About Time!






Weeks after the events at Realgam Tower, a party was underway in Duking's house in Pyrite. Most of the guests consisted of members of the Kids Grid from both Pyrite and The Under, and the adults of the group were comprised of Duking, a few of his friends, Silva and Johnson. The police officer was currently offering his homemade collection of pastries but everyone else was wise enough to either graciously decline or dispose of the treat discreetly once his back was turned. The child Marcia had even made a game of trying to sneak the pastry under his tall police hat without Johnson noticing, which was proving to be easier than she had expected.

Balloon and confetti populated the living room they were all currently in. A large banner proclaiming 'GO US' made by the children spanned the bookshelves, and a large piñata of a chubby Es Cade hung from the ceiling. A company had the masterstroke idea of making them shortly after the mayor had been arrested; the new product had proved immensely popular especially when it had turned out that amongst the mayor's other investments had been the Loan Sharks, the group that so many in the region hated.

Johnson's Magikarp had meanwhile been left in a bucket of water by the door.

"Plusle plus plus!" (I like buckets too but they don't taste very nice!) Duking's Plusle told the fish Pokémon, jumping up and down so that the Magikarp was sure to see him every second or so.

"Hey," Nett said suddenly as the group conversed, "the news is on!" Duking grabbed the television remote and turned up the volume as the rest ceased their chatter. Nobody had been really interested in the news but today's event was why they were having the party in the first place. The usual obnoxiously cheerful tune of the program played before the woman presenter cleared her throat and shuffled papers to pretend she had a lot of important things to say, despite the fact half the pages were blank and the other half were advertisements for paper.

"Welcome back to the 5:30-" she began, only for the news jingle to start again. She waited for the sound to end before opening her mouth to speak again, but was once more interrupted.

"Do you mind?" she shouted to the side. Meanwhile the cameraman got bored and started to sway the camera side to side.

"Shwooosh," he said. "Swoooossssh.... swooooossssh!- uh, sorry," he muttered as the reporter glared angrily at him, and moved the device back to its upright position.

"Thank you," the reporter said shortly as the music jungle stopped abruptly a moment later.

"Huh, they seem to be better than usual," Secc said drily to Nett who nodded his mock agreement.

"This time they didn't have to present the news with sock puppets, after all! Well, yet anyways."

"Today in Phenac," the reporter began, "a large parade was held to salute all people credited in the cleanout of Cipher. This was followed by a smaller one in Pyrite, which had been delayed due to a lack of stock of the town's emblem; quiche." The television screen then displayed footage of said parade in the former location.

"About time they got those in stock," one of Duking's friends grumbled as he adjusted his quiche-shaped hat.

"There we are!" Marcia shouted, pointing eagerly at them walking past Phenac's plaza fountain. The kids grinned happily – it had been quite fun even though the musicians in the parade hadn't been very good and most only knew how to play 'Mary had a Little Lamb', and the fact that a jogger with a Castform had shouted loudly at the organisers because he had been unable to perform his 'usual duty' in running around the fountain.

"The parade also served as a sending off for the policemen sent from external regions. As special thanks the current stand-in mayor of Phenac presented them with discount coupons to hotels in Orre should they ever return," the news reporter continued, as footage showed Andrew and his fellow colleagues boarding a plane as reporters tried to extract a few last words from the group.

"Sir, what do you think about going home?" one shouted.

"Which flavour of cheese-flavoured snacks do you prefer!?" another queried as the plane door slammed shut and Andrew shouted 'Step on it!' from inside. The pilot seemed to respond quickly as the aircraft sped down the runaway with the reporters giving chase whilst continuing to ask inane questions. A bunch of coupons could be seen hastily chucked out of a window before the plane took to the air. The footage then returned to the reporter, only with the camera zoomed in far too much so only her mouth appeared on the screen. She hadn't appeared to notice however and so continued on.

"The policemen returned today as their work had been officially declared finished by Sheriff Sherles." Now an overlay of Sherles' moustache appeared above the mouth. "They have spent the last few weeks with Sherles and the two heroes Wes and Rui rounding up remaining Cipher agents across the region and retrieving Shadow Pokémon. Places cleared out include an additional Colosseum within The Under. The Under is now the subject of evacuation discussions on whether after several health issues were raised."

"It is good to hear that it is all over now," Duking remarked. "Now I can go back to running the Colosseum!"

"The former mayor and other members of the now-believed finished group Cipher have also been moved to a jail with improved security after people had repeatedly broken in to make fun of them, and in cases even ask for advice on how to start their own criminal organisations. And now for the next news story: Are Wailmer hiding underneath your bed? William is with us for this next investigation."

"BORING!" the children shouted as one, prompting Duking to switch off the show and turn on some music instead.

"Pity Wes wasn't here to celebrate with us, I suppose," Duking remarked. "Should I save some potatoes for him and Rui when they get back from Agate?"

"Plus!" (No!)

***

A far larger group, albeit only due to the sheer number of Pokémon present, was meanwhile gathered around the Relic Stone in Agate Village. Most were Shadow Pokémon that had not yet been fully purified, with many of those recently claimed from Cipher agents at the tower or across the region after the showdown against Nascour and Es Cade. Having checked the records finally obtained by Nett when he had hacked into Cipher's files, they were content that they had obtained all forty-eight Shadow Pokémon that had been in Orre, and also obtained a few more that had been put up for auction on the internet.

The Shadow Pokémon were watched by Wes, Rui and Sherles' other Pokémon in case they got too aggressive against one another and accidentally destroyed the Relic Stone, but the calming effect of the forest seemed to lessen that danger considerably. The three people had one other person in their company in Tom; Sherles explained that due to strange legal issues, although Wes had snagged the legendary beast, Tom had ownership of the Pokémon after having held the Ball for the required minimum length of time of five minutes and four seconds.

"Ah, it'll be good to take a break after tonight," Sherles said softly, looking at the Pokémon around him seated on the stone path. "But before we do this, I will ask you Tom; whatever do you intend to do with your Raikou?" He then glanced at the yellow Pokémon who was lying down next to the Entei and Suicune, which were under extra surveillance from Hariyama and Espeon.

"...Espi Espeon," (...I much prefer Entei when he's quiet,) Espeon conferred to his fellow partners.

"Umb!" (Agreed!)

"Illy been realy leashy!" Tom responded with a stern nod and a frown.

"...Release it? But why?" Rui asked with a small frown.

"Too biggy," Tom answered. "Andy he... takey ma drinky! No politeys!"

"Well... that's fair enough I suppose," Sherles responded with a shrug. "After all, we're also going to release Suicune into the wild again and let it find its own way back to Johto."

"Wait, did you tell Eusine about Suicune?" Rui asked curiously.

"No," Sherles replied. "Took a while to distract him so we could bring it to Realgam Tower before, and here now as well..."

"Then..." Wes said slowly, pondering this news. "Then I will also release Entei." The man nodded as he finished his statement and smiled. "It's nice to have a legendary and I'm sure it'll be far easier to control when purified, but... it doesn't really feel right to own it after all this. And besides, I'm sure I'd still be one of the very few in the world to be able to say that I had a legendary Pokémon!"

"Alright then, we'll release them together then after we're done, if we're successful," Sherles said.

"And as you said, you didn't find anyone who claimed to own our current Pokémon before they were snagged, right?" Wes continued. "Meaning we can keep them."

"Yes, that's correct," Sherles said, smiling at his statement. "The rest will go to their original owners or be released into the wild, but luckily the Pokémon you used a lot were among those that weren't claimed."

"Hello, people!" Miror B exclaimed as he suddenly waltzed into the clearing and marvelled at the place. "My, what a perfect place for some calming meditation," he added as he switched his radio's music to a calm and soothing tune.

"Greetings, Miror B," Sherles said, walking forward and offering a handshake as Tom took a few steps backwards uncertainly. "I'm glad you were able to respond to our request. After all, we thought you might be able to handle a number of instruments."

"Oh, anything for you, after all the trouble I'm sure I gave you in Pyrite," Miror B responded. "Now, where is this Time Flute you mentioned?"

"Here it is," Rui said, gently handing over the object they had been given by Vander, as well as the book about the Relic Stone flipped open to a specific page. "It'll supposedly disappear after you play the song and Celebi appears, so don't be too surprised about that. And this is the tune you're meant to play apparently..."

"Oh, how delightful!" Miror B exclaimed. "Strange choice, but delightful! Shall I play it now?"

"Might as well," Wes commented. Miror B smiled and raised the object to his lips and began to blow air through the flute, producing a clear series of sounds. Umbreon subconsciously bobbed his head to the tune of 'I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts'.

"You know, I think I might know why this is the song that summons Celebi," Rui said after a while of watching Umbreon.

"Oh?" Wes asked, raising one eyebrow. "Why is it then?"

"It's a timeless classic," she giggled. Both Wes and Sherles tried and failed to suppress laughter at the remark but were interrupted when a bright green flash was emitted above the Relic Stone. A moment later a Celebi appeared. The small fairy-like legendary was a pale green colour and had small clear wings. It hummed to itself softly before it opened its eyes and jumped a bit in the air in surprise to see so many visitors. All people stopped laughing and stared at the Celebi. Rui's mouth hung open slightly and Tom considered whether he should offer the newcomer a drink.

"Cel...Cele Celebi," (Hello... I am the time traveller Celebi,) it said softly.

"Fere. Feraligatr?" (Hello. Why do you have eyeliner?) Feraligatr asked a moment later, breaking the silence from everyone.

"Celi... Celebi!" (Oh, that... it'll be in fashion in a few years!) Celebi said quickly, rubbing at its face anxiously, seemingly embarrassed by the question.

"Espeon! Espeon Espi?" (That's not important! Anyways we would like you to purify these Pokémon here if it's not too much trouble?) Espeon asked politely, bowing his head before his fellow Psychic legendary. He made sure that the humans also understood this part of their conversation.

"And," Miror B said quickly, "what is the music scene going to be like in say, a few years?"

"Celebi..." (That's a lot for one request...) Celebi remarked, frowning slightly. It then turned to Miror B. "Cele bi." (Disco will be in.)

"Disco, huh..." the music man mused as Espeon rolled his eyes at him.

"Umbreon," Wes said quietly. The Dark type sighed slightly.

"Umbre..." (Oh fine...) Umbreon muttered before stepping forward and looking at the Celebi intently. "Umb!"(Oi!) he shouted. The legendary Pokémon turned to him and gave a squeak of surprise upon seeing Umbreon's Mean Look attack, despite an inevitable 'Aww' from Rui.

"Celebibibi!" (Okay then I'll do it!) it shouted. It then flew around each Shadow Pokémon, spreading a strange green glow behind it upon the creatures as it flew rapidly. Once each Shadow Pokémon was covered to its satisfaction it raised its short arms and clapped twice. Rui gasped; all the dark purple auras vanished suddenly as the green engulfed them. Each Pokémon gave a contented sigh as well, as if they had been carrying a large weight upon their backs for a day and could finally take it off.

"It's done," Rui beamed. "Thanks, Celebi!" she said as she turned around, but it had already disappeared.

***

"So, what now for you two?" Sherles asked as they later sat together on a cliff edge in Agate Village with Espeon and Umbreon sitting on the teenager's laps. They had already dealt with the other Pokémon and were watching the sunset as the three legendary Johto Beasts ran off towards the warm glowing light together, sand billowing behind them as they sprinted through the desert. Sherles noticed that the two teenagers were holding hands quite firmly at the moment and chuckled softly.

"Well," Wes began as he hugged Rui softly, "Rui's going back to her family, and I suppose I'm following. I've no other attachment to this region after all."

"Fair enough," Sherles replied. "Ever think you'll be back?"

"Well, who knows? Maybe," Wes said. "After all..." He pulled out a bunch of coupons from his pocket and examined them. "These things aren't limited to one-use-only and can stack, so technically any hotel in the region would have to pay me to stay!"

"Espeon," (Always the scourge,) Espeon commented drily.

"And I may come back another time to visit my grandparents too," Rui said. "Hopefully if that's the case I won't get kidnapped again."

"Indeed," Sherles laughed.

"But for now," Wes continued, standing up and shaking Sherles' hand, "I suppose we'll be gone for a while..." He paused and pondered what to say and clicked his fingers in an attempt to jog his memory. "How should I put it..." he wondered. "You could say that it's..."

"Umbre?" (The end?)






THE END






***

And before a bit of rambling, the spoiler of things both touched on here and in the game:
Spoiler:





Thanks for reading, guys! It's good to see that I've finished my first fic finally, four and a half years after I started and while juggling modding, other projects and real life stuff. Better late than never I suppose! =p Thanks in particular to everyone who ever reviewed; whether the comments were short or long, I've appreciated them and it's nice to know that the story has entertained a lot of people across the places I've posted this (and continue to post on for that matter).

And thanks to people who have happened to have done extra things; be it advertising it on their youtube Let's Plays... twice, voting it for sppf's fanfiction awards for a few categories and netting a few awards in the process (such as funniest fic, scene and character), or making a tvtropes page for the fic without my knowledge and contributing to it, writing a review for it on the main PE2K website, or for making various amusing pictures.
Spoiler:


Thanks also to cieux of sppf who made the main banner for my fic. Lord knows it was better than my own attempt in Paint at the time...

Spoiler:


Thanks also to Genius Sonority (and The Pokemon Company) for making the game! After all this parody relies on that creation, one with a number of flaws but a good deal of fun in it too. Worth picking up and trying out if you never did before.

Lastly and most certainly not least, special thanks to Chris the Com - a good friend of mine who has beta-read the latter half of the fic and offered ideas such as DAKIM PUNCH - and Hype_Chao who also offered ideas such as Miror B's Umbrella Afro in the Miror B battle chapter.



It's not quite the end for this fic; I'm in the process of doing minor edits to older chapters as I post them in other places as well, but in the grand scheme of things, this is finished. Glad to have entertained, and hopefully any other fics I may do shall do the same.


To end, I think it only fitting to link to the credit music of Pokemon Colosseum.
 
Last edited:

bobandbill

one more time
16,891
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16
Years
...or it would be the end, but Tom wishes to finish his story.

Spoilers contain original part from the intermission posted for April Fools before the Venus chapter.


Spoiler:


Ah, issy tassy things! Toms likss buttle. But-lily. Anyheyways, yoms dance says why suppur gos on spinny fings ands thns kissys! Hun Vensus says thinys un battles rattles wis fanicials monster an mr catty, ans lovy dangers mans wus in troubls, but quags appurs and quaggy quags for all quigs. Vunses rans aways buts chaseys works afsters I braves lads policy to places. Suicunsse captures whens shuffiff quested. Lost arrursted manys ans waters imposring s slows whils tioms fights roary traisns braves. Hes thns sees mun who seks bathrooms badsy sos tommy falls aslesps.

Jails crowds bytes goss more peoples wanted! Suppers go zoomy zom zoom labs withz bad thigsys ands fitghs. Punchman gos punchs thungs and wessy findings trappings un sci...sigh...scifimans yous angrys and tries runrunruns buts rattles instud. Bisgs fights withs twos ad caves johsnson too withs fishy. Isns doess welss buts rfells withs roars thingys. Punchsmans gests fat thoughs, ssos throws puppies fir creat hustices. Yays agains.means hilts snagman catchs wilds poflece i makses deals. Mirors maksy dance musics un driavy trains.

nassy cool mans angrys and maysors joiny hims fir plans. Hairmans arrives un nascours rudly shoutings at toms mans whos ataacatacks bys hairs. Sos scaries! Thsns sckurbs gives hses helmets ands shouts toooe. Policyes and supermum plans vists ands sos runs overs nexts days. Hairy skubry and grays meets fur palsns.

whns arrives poksmons sentesn outs buts zoms sooms ands sos subbers ands girlys chases uts. Tallsy dakims figrhts buys punchmans punchypunchy win. Sores headsy fors polies buts snag teams comes snad hulps. Mains mans fights wes nagyrs bits lossed fors wairs comes if muzaz ands concords. Elevators takens and so bigs fights happens whns mayors and nassy greets and sends peoples at upperham and ruui.. Toms hulps things though withs banannaanNNAas ands spinydas andssos alsls poksydwiu faints, yays. Bug filluws mayorsmans and shcases backs aftsur srai chaes toos ands toms catchs its buts no beers. Manyss disppoints. Bigs figths and ssherelsysz coms ands thens fires comes whens victorys to ssssssspots mayors runs. Tomss likes firres.l Thsens tomsys hides whens hairymans comes.

nestxs tosms gorss to borings rocks andsays higshysys to gresns things. Selss ruunns things and gos to gets drnks.
 

Bay

6,383
Posts
17
Years
Great epilogue there! Haha quite like "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" and oh gosh Umbreon's Mean Look again. Glad the legendary beasts are free, don't want to think how Tom will train Raikou. XD

Hooray for getting this fic finally finished and I wish you luck on the edits! Thanks for a great story. :)
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,891
Posts
16
Years
Great epilogue there! Haha quite like "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" and oh gosh Umbreon's Mean Look again. Glad the legendary beasts are free, don't want to think how Tom will train Raikou. XD

Hooray for getting this fic finally finished and I wish you luck on the edits! Thanks for a great story. :)
Glad you enjoyed it. =) And why not? Drunk Raikou I imagine would be fairly entertaining. =p Thanks for reading throughout though as well as constantly reviewing (and being the only consistent reviewer on pc as well for my fic, haha. =p).

If anyone else is going to comment be sure to do it within a month of the last post given the no bumping rules here. And I'd have probably moved to completed fics by then too. =p
 
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