Chapter Twenty: A Song of Solitude
Iserno, the Pokémon which Charlotte had just sent out, was a fierce lion. He was a ragged golden, his eyes determined and his teeth bared. Iserno stepped forward, growling at the Venomoth. His fur was incredibly hot, releasing a constant stream of warm steam, creating a hazy atmosphere around itself.
"Venomoth, Psybeam!"
Venomoth released the multicoloured beams of psychic energy from its eyes, which hit the floor, as Iserno easily dodged it. Bevan felt his hand tingle.
"Again!"
Venomoth thought it was odd that he'd retry a failing strategy, but nevertheless, the lavender moth obeyed, firing a second round of Psybeam. Only this time, when Iserno went to jump out of the way, he found his front paws incapable of movement, causing him to trip, right into Venomoth's Psybeam.
She doesn't know about my… abilities. And what better way to practice?
Charlotte had a dazed look on her face, but quickly recovered. "Smoke Plume!" Iserno leapt forward, its fur releasing a thick, black, toxic smoke.
"Flap it away!"
Bevan's lack of knowledge of Venomoth's anatomy was his weakness. Venomoth, already tired, feebly flapped her wings, but to little avail. The smoke enveloped her, and she twitched with the poison, as it began to seep in, carried by the smoke, through Venomoth's pores.
"Flame Wheel!"
Venomoth, trying blindly to escape the smoke, was met with a charging lion, surrounded by a twirl of flames.
"Sleep Powder!"
Too late. Iserno had already collided with Venomoth, searing her body and left wing. She tried, rather nobly, to flap up, but her attempts were useless. All she could do was collapse.
Damn. I didn't know Venomoth well enough.
"Fine," said Bevan, recalling Venomoth. "Gliscor, go!"
The purple flying scorpion Pokémon emerged, growling. He hadn't quite caught on to his master's renewed apathy, and was proud to fight for Bevan.
"Night Slash!"
Gliscor hurled himself towards Iserno, his massive claws glowing a dark purple. Upon his trainer's command, Iserno gracefully leapt out of the way, but was struck by Gliscor's second claw, which spun around with surprising speed. Iserno stumbled, but didn't fall.
This one's not going down easily, thought Bevan coolly.
"Smoke Plume!"
"Swords Dance!"
Gliscor swung his body powerfully in a circular motion, scraping his claws against his body and each other. Not only did these powerful motions swish away the smoke with ease, they sharpened his claws and sent a rush of adrenaline through him, making him stronger.
Charlotte noticed the threat. "Agility!"
"Night Slash!"
Gliscor powerfully swung his arms towards his opponent, but Iserno leapt into the air with grace and speed, dodging Gliscor's attack. The lion began to run across the room tirelessly, ready to strike at his trainer's order.
"Stay, Gliscor. Don't try to follow him."
Charlotte smiled. Bevan had no idea how to deal with an Agility-based attack. You never stood in place, you made use of the environment to make it difficult to be attacked. He was learning fast, but at his core, he was still a rookie.
"Flame Wheel!"
"Swords Dance!"
It was a clever move: Swords Dance attacked from all directions. It was true that Bevan had no experience with Agility, but he knew that a targeted attack like Night Slash would surely miss. Swords Dance would do less damage, but it was a more assured hit.
Iserno, surrounded by a magnificent, orange wheel of flames, charged at his spinning target. Both took damage: Gliscor's claw was burned, and Iserno was knocked to the floor.
"Night Slash!"
Strengthened by two Swords Dances, Iserno thumped both of his claws down on his foe, but Iserno rolled to the left, and then to the right, to avoid the two strikes.
"Smoke Plume!"
Iserno's fur shuddered with the Pokémon's signature move, releasing poisonous black smoke. Gliscor, who was already leaning down, stumbled to rise away from the smoke, but could not. He let out a squeal as the poison seeped into his skin, and stumbled back.
"Forget the pain! Night Slash!"
"Flame Wheel!"
Forgetting the pain proved to be too difficult to Gliscor: before he could raise his claw, Iserno had charged at Gliscor, tackling him, surrounded by fire. Retaliating, Gliscor smacked Iserno stiffly across the head with its left claw. Iserno let out a mighty roar, before ripping into Gliscor with his teeth, without command.
"Iserno, back down!"
Panting, Iserno crept over to Gliscor, sniffed him, nodded to his trainer, and turned to face Bevan.
"Gliscor, return," said Bevan grimly.
This one's taken down two of my Pokémon. I need to knock it out fast.
"Pupitar!"
Bevan threw his Pokéball, releasing his newly evolved Pupitar.
I can trust Pupitar. Not only is he strong, but he has the fighting spirit. And, Iserno's tired. He doesn't stand a chance.
"Bite!"
"Dark Pulse!"
Iserno charged at Pupitar quickly, but he wasn't fast enough: he was struck by the wave of dark energy, and knocked off his feet. Iserno's eyes burned with fear, but he got up, ready to fight again.
In that instant, Bevan was taken back to when
he was subjected to a Dark Pulse attack. He had no will to fight back – it filled him with fear and dread. But this Pokémon saw only his target: Pupitar. This Pokémon aimed for victory, and despite its tiredness, despite the power of the attack, it kept going. In the short second that Iserno got up to charge again, Bevan realised that that was what he wanted to be.
"Again!"
Pupitar released another Dark Pulse attack. This time, the staggering Iserno was no match: he was knocked back. He made several valiant attempts to rise, before eventually collapsing, unconscious. Bevan felt a twinge of empathy.
No, he thought.
Control yourself.
Charlotte returned Iserno. Her only Pokémon left was at a type disadvantage.
But I can still win, she thought.
"Togetic!"
The adorable Pokémon emerged from its Pokéball, announcing her presence with a high-pitched trill. When it saw Pupitar, however, she realised that it was time for battle.
"Psychic!"
"Move closer," said Bevan calmly.
Pupitar didn't understand this command, but he rocketed himself through the air nonetheless, to be struck directly by Togetic's Psychic attack.
As he fell back, Bevan yelled, "Payback!"
Immediately, Pupitar shuddered with rage, adrenaline coursing through his body, and he flung himself wildly at Togetic. Togetic, terrified, tried to escape, but Pupitar caught her, and began slamming himself against her repeatedly.
"Shadow Ball!" Charlotte's voice was getting desperate.
Togetic released a ball of ghostly energy inaccurately, and Pupitar easily moved aside. But the rage from Payback had subsided. They were now staring each other down, both beginning to get tired.
"Water Pulse!"
"Dark Pulse!"
Togetic squealed, releasing a circle of shuddering water, which was immediately destroyed by Pupitar's wave of dark energy.
"Again!" As he said it, Bevan released a wave of his own psychic energy to immobilise Togetic's wings. They were easy enough to hold in place, and made escape from the relentless wave of nightmares difficult.
She couldn't handle the attack like Iserno could: she squealed and writhed in pain, like Bevan had when he was attacked by Gengar.
"Again!" He was relentless, continuing to cheat, holding the enemy Pokémon in place with his own, relatively secret, psychic abilities. Another wave of darkness washed over Togetic. She tried to squeal, but couldn't. She tried to writhe, but she was still.
She had passed out from shock.
Charlotte rushed over to her Togetic, stroking her softly and speaking to her. She picked her Togetic up, and glared at Bevan. "Congratulations. You won." She paused, and then almost hissed the sentence, "
But at what cost?"
"Ah, I've been expecting you," smiled Manfred. It was the day after the battle between Bevan and Charlotte.
"Because you're in my room, waiting for me, knowing I forgot my watch?"
Manfred winked. "So, what's new?"
Bevan rolled his eyes and reached for his watch, only to find a force field around it. "You only get your watch if you listen to me." This was always a feature of Manfred that drove people mad: he would give people his advice, whether they wanted it or not.
Bevan leaned in. "Fine. I'll just have to experience the torture of having to ask someone else for the time." He turned to leave, and found the door immovable.
"Yeah… I sort of lied about the part where you had a choice."
Bevan leaned against the door defiantly, stared at Manfred, and said, "Let's get this over with."
"I grew up in rural Johto, Bevan."
"And I care, why?"
"Because when I grew up, there was this boy in our village who was short. And we used to pick on him for it. We picked on people for being different, you see. We didn't understand that differences were OK."
"And Torcra does?"
"In terms of things like race and height, Torcra's quite tolerant. It's only intolerant to different ideas. But anyway, he hated us for it. He said that he couldn't help that he was short, and we should stop bullying him."
"You were a bully?"
"I was a kid."
"And a bully?"
"I suppose I was. Like everyone else there. I've grown up since then."
Bevan sneered. "Bullies attack those who are weaker than themselves in order to boost their own ego. It's pathetic."
"Would you say that you
hate bullies?" Manfred smiled insincerely.
"Hate is as irrational as bullying." Bevan was lying. Perhaps he could block out most emotion, but the one thing that he had hated throughout his life was bullies. He hated his father for it. He hated himself for being a victim.
"Liar."
"And yet you're still here."
"Because I fear that hate will fade. And, if you keep this up, it will. Even Cyrus didn't give up all emotion overnight. And he still destroyed the world."
"Wait – I thought your grandfather started your cult?"
"No. The cult was started by me, when I emigrated. Back in Johto, the teachings were pure and real. In Torcra, I had to taint my words and create an effective prison in order to carry the word of Giratina. But nice of you to take an interest."
Bevan looked away, bored. "Get to the point."
"Ah, yes. The boy we teased. A new family moved to our village. And they had a son our age. He was a midget. And, guess what happened?"
"Is there going to be a moral to the story that relates even slightly to me?"
"You're taking the fun out of it, Bevan. You're a teenager. Lighten the hell up." Manfred spoke jovially, but provocatively.
"Get on with it, you old fraud."
A moment of darkness crossed Manfred's face, before he returned to his signature smile. "We made fun of the midget. Even the short kid, who had proclaimed that height didn't matter before, was now teasing this poor boy. He once told us, in front of this boy, that the reason Arceus created short people was to keep midgets in their place."
"What's your point?"
"That he sacrificed a part of his humanity, in this case, his principles, to be stronger. You are sacrificing a part of your humanity in order to be stronger. Your emotion. We like to think of ourselves as evolved, but if I had to sacrifice my principles or my emotion, I'd tie my principles up, smear it with Houndoom blood, dance around it and wait for the heavens to strike 'em down."
A darkness crossed Bevan's face. "I don't want to be human. Humanity allowed themselves to be controlled by the Oligarchy."
Manfred realised it was time for a desperate ploy. He had to evoke emotion from Bevan. "Do you want to know how your mother really died? When she was taken away, she was put in a men's prison in Catriz. You do the math. She lived a coward and died their *****."
At that moment, Manfred was thrown across the room psychically. He screamed in pain: he had landed on his leg and broken his tibia. It was the most overwhelming psychic force that he had ever felt: even more powerful than that of Augury. And yet, he was happy: that came from anger, which in turn came from love. Bevan was not dead inside. Not yet.
He said weakly. "Get… Cicero. Tell him to fix my leg and get your psychic powers checked."
Bevan stood at the door before leaving. "If you want your leg fixed… crawl there yourself." And, after all that, he still didn't have his watch.
Samantha Lincoln, the Ears of the Oligarchy. The Ears was a very auxiliary position: she ran the domestic spy network, and helped to manage the foreign spy network. Her public face was kind, but her heart was black.
"You have nothing for me?" Augury was livid.
"My Lord, they are impossible to find." Her voice trembled with a strange mixture of fear and resentment. She knew that her power would diminish when Lord Augury named himself the autocrat, but she knew that if she defied him, she would die. "But what about that agent I discovered?"
"A fake! He was slaughtered by the Moonlight Squad, and he was a key person for the setting up of the Brain's new prison in Ruraya Town. The Knife left false clues, and you fell for it."
"Are you going to kill me?" She wanted to know.
"Don't be ridiculous. I don't kill people for one act of incompetence." He stood still, and stroked his gloved hand against Samantha. It was not romantic, or affectionate. It was just creepy. "But continue this pattern, and I'll rip your spine from your back." He said this in the sweetest whisper he could muster.
"Then where did Evan Emerit go?"
"He insisted on following his principles against me. I know you're not
that stupid."
"No, my Lord."
"There is only one way to proceed, in order to catch The Knife. And, incidentally, it's the first step to my autocracy. We must declare martial law."
"That requires a unanimous – oh, right." She still hadn't gotten used to the fact that she was not the only Oligarch working for Augury.
"We will crack down on the entire region like Cronine does on its slums. The military and Cloaks will roam the street. I'll have Susan set up a division in Unit 6."
"So, are you going to repeat the Ozoldra massacre?"
The Ozoldra massacre. People didn't like to talk about it, and few knew of it. Five years ago, when Cicero had come out of hiding, he had revealed to a news station the true nature of the Oligarchy. Evan Emerit had laughingly described Augury as 'He who is Merely a Rumour', but now, that name struck terror into the hearts of those who knew of him. In response, Susan Adams, under the direction of Augury, had lead a witch-hunt throughout the capital, killing those who posed a threat to his secrecy.
"The Ozoldra massacre will pale in comparison to what I have planned," said Augury. "Before it was death with a purpose. Now it is death for the sake of fear."
"My Lord, is it really wise…?"
"I thought you had a political radar, Samantha. I will have you all declare martial law, and rally the people in support. Then, as it becomes brutal, and the people get silently restless, I take over."
"How will you take over in that mask? And with that voice?"
Augury chuckled. "Because, to the public, I will be an experiment of the Brain's brutal experiments, championing freedom. I'll simply return things to how they are now. After a year or so of the martial law I have planned, it will almost seem libertarian." It almost seemed like it should be punctuated with an evil laugh.
