DISCLAIMERS: See first post.
Author’s Note: In a future scene (which is a battle), Shadow Claw is its own individual move, not a Shadow-based move. However, I feel that it should be treated like it, so that’s how it’s going to go. Also, the battle scene may seem a bit long; that’s because it is. So, the first battle is written out, but the next two will be skipped, so next chapter will be the long battle against Gonzap.
Chapter 2: Haunting Pyrite Memories
Wes arrived in Pyrite Town at last, after 5 hours; during the night, Pyrite is said to have exceeding amounts of criminal activity. So far, there hasn’t been any, as far as Wes could see. He decided to first pay a visit to the Sheriff’s Office just a little bit down the way; he was walking along a ghastly road, and between each building, Wes saw them in his mind; the few people who neglect their pokemon, who leave them chained to a post with no food for weeks on end, who beat their pokemon half to death, and say “Walk it off,” and those who just plain abuse their pokemon and release them if they don’t do well in battles. The very thought of this made Wes cringe, and sent shivers down his spine.
He entered the sheriff’s office, only to find it barren. No inmates, no deputy, no nothing, not even the sheriff himself. Everyone was gone. He felt a vibration and a ringtone in his coat pocket; his old P*DA had rung, signaling an e-mail had been received. It was from an unknown sender, which read,
“To whom it may concern.
If you’re reading this, all the citizens and tourists of Pyrite are now hostages to our will. If you surrender yourself now, Pyrite’s citizens will be freed immediately. However, failure to comply will result in the death of everyone here, including you. Pick your poison...”
Wes was now caught in a dire situation; risk himself for the lives of many, or risk the lives of many for himself. Both poisons may very well get himself killed. It’s a risk he’ll need to take in order to save the people of the town. He needed to negotiate with whoever is behind this. He needed to see whether or not Gonzap was still at the Colosseum, so he immediately ran over there as fast as he could. The attendant looked up in sudden relief to see Wes standing in the building, and she asked,
“Are you here to stop them?” in a whisper tone. Wes nodded, and the attendant pointed the way to the colosseum grounds, which were behind the big iron gate still standing after so many years.
Standing in the middle of the colosseum grounds, were mysterious men and women in gray-ish outfits, and wearing ridiculous-looking ascots around their necks. The biggest one of the bunch, with no doubt being Gonzap, the former leader of Team Snagem, due to his bolty mustache.
“So you’ve finally come, Wes... You’ve been a pain in my ass for the last time, and Cipher will stop you so we will take over all of the pokemon in the world! Standing behind me are all of Pyrite Town’s lovely citizens, including the not-so-brave-and-powerful Sheriff. If you surrender yourself right now, all of these people will be freed, while you will take their place. Fail to cooperate, and not only you, but all these people will be taken away, to die a slow, painful death... by torture. You going to get down, or lay down?”
Gonzap, although clearly not being gangster enough to say that, put Wes in a pickle. The lives of many, or the life of him? He had to compromise with Gonzap, so he challenged him and three other grunts to battle. If he loses, he’ll let himself go, and let his pokemon be taken, and let everyone to die with him, but if he wins, everyone must be set free, and they must leave here, never to be seen here again. All the grunts seem to agree with this idea, because they think that they are going to win, due to their fact that they have stronger pokemon. Gonzap eventually comes to a decision,
“Alright. It’s a deal. You’ll face off against the three grunts you challenged first, respectively, and then you’ll face me.”
The first grunt walked forward to the circle, where trainers stand, as Wes did also. An epic endurance round was about to begin; no healing, and no rules. Wes will determine the fate of many citizens of Pyrite, as well as his own life. Wes sends out one of his old Shadow-turned purified pokemon, metagross. The grunt sends out a breloom, and so the battles begin here.
The grunt makes the first move,
“Breloom, use Mach Punch!” The creature speeds forward at incredible speed, and punches the giant living mech for a little bit of damage. The mech shakes it off like it was nothing, and receives Wes’ order to use a Psychic attack, though Wes hadn’t spoke a word. The giant supercomputer’s “X” in the middle of its head started to glow, as well as its already lit eyes, and the breloom was lifted up in the air. The metagross then flung the breloom into a wall of the colosseum, to land in the stands. The attack did super-effective damage, leaving bruises and a chip of its head lying on its body. The breloom had been knocked out, no sweat; and the mech’s Special Attack stat isn’t even its main attack stat.
“Grr! Breloom, return!” The grunt held up the Pokeball and a red stream shot from the capsule, sucking the damaged creature back into its safe place. The grunt murmured to the ball,
“You worthless piece of ♥♥♥♥! I can’t believe you didn’t even last a turn! You are the most useless Pokemon I have ever owned, and you are never getting any food until we get back to base, understand?!” Realizing his voice reached a little bit farther in volume, Wes heard every word he had said. What a disgusting trainer, if he could even be called that, he thought.
“Lucario, I choose you!” A white stream shot out of the grunt’s next capsule, releasing an anthropomorphic jackal-like creature, with blue fur covering most of its body. Wes’ P*DA suddenly activated at the sight of the Lucario, and showed a small pane of glass with a camera on the front. Wes looked through and saw a purple aura surrounding the jackal, signifying its shadow status. His first Shadow pokemon within his sight, he prepares his metagross for the worst.
“Lucario, use Shadow Sphere!” The jackal put its paws a couple of inches apart from each other, and concentrated using the purple aura of the heart’s closed door. A ball of pure shadowy energy appeared and grew as it concentrated more, until it was at an optimal size to fire at the mech. Wes ordered Metagross to dodge, but as the jackal fired, the sphere immediately found Metagross and hit it with such force, that Metagross almost shut down; its X chipped in many different areas, and almost all gone, one of its legs malfunctioned, and purple bolts flying out of its circuitry. Wes decided to switch out, and give the mech a well-deserved rest, complementing its stupendous work, and promised it some food. Wes summoned his next pokemon, his espeon, Dawn, to the field. She was a strong pokemon, and willing to do anything to defend her master. Dawn opened up using Calm Mind, raising its special powers by a little bit, as well as her defense against projectiles and others of the kind. The grunt gave his next order,
“Lucario, use Shadow Claw!” The jackal rushed forward and charged up its claw with the shadow energy it used before in Shadow Sphere, and ran towards Dawn. Wes ordered Dawn to dodge and use Future Sight. Since Dawn is an espeon, it was able to read the lucario’s movements and quickly dodge the jackal’s movements and launch the attack. The grunt ordered the next move, but the lucario’s aura suddenly changed from purple to red with bits of black here and there. Wes remembers this as Hyper Mode, where a Shadow pokemon’s critical hit ratio increases, but it will deal damage to itself at times. This gave Wes the opportunity he needed, and put up a Reflect, so that it will reduce the damage of the next physical move. This passed the first turn for Future Sight, but the grunts always seem to forget easily, so he ordered the next move.
“Lucario, use Shadow Rush!” The jackal became surrounded by the blood-red aura, and charged toward Dawn at full speed. Lucario tore through the shield no problem, but was slowed down, only dealing a little bit of damage to her. However, it was super effective, and it dealt quite a number on her; a couple of bruises here and there, but nothing serious. Wes ordered the last attack before Future Sight came into effect. He ordered Confusion on the jackal, and Dawn sent forth an invisible psychic wave, spinning Lucario around like a ballerina, until it was confused. Finally, Future Sight came into being, as a strange, unknown wave of psychic energy out of nowhere hit lucario, almost to the point of knocking it out. The lucario was too weak to do anything; Wes, seizing the opportunity, pulls out a Pokeball with his hand, and throws it at the lucario. An explosion of energy occurred on contact, as the lucario disappeared into the red and white sphere. The ball landed on the ground, as both Wes and the grunt looked eagerly; one was hoping it to be snagged, to free it from tyranny, while the other was hoping to keep it, and keep abusing it in the process. The ball shook once... twice... three times... CLICK! Lucario was successfully snagged out of the grunt’s possession. The ball quickly disappeared, into Wes’ PC account. The grunt still had his injured Breloom to send out, so he sent it out, only to have it being attacked by Dawn’s Confusion. The attack, instead of spinning the breloom, attacked it with enough force to knock it down, unconscious. Wes had won the first of four battles.
TO BE CONTINUED...