Satrapay's Damnation (PG-13)

[Shamfrit-The-Scorched]

Introduction

Satrapy felt alone, indistinguishable, yet thoroughly alone. Something inside her fragile mind had snapped, broken, perforated from her soul. She was suddenly aware of so many new words, so many new feelings; her simple life of grazing and playing in the sun kissed fields of the Coronet Fields seemed so distant, so childish to her now.

The sun tingles with wildfire across the tall reed like grass, a gentle wind kicks up an atmosphere of melancholy dreams wasted. All the while, meowth, Persian and tauros, to name but a few of her fellow 'pokemon' roamed the vast expanse all around her, as far as the distant sea, and behind her, to the rising might of Mt Coronet itself. She smiles, for she was one of the few pokemon in the world that had been born with an almost human form; a form no-one had seen, ever, for she was alone - alone, so terribly apart.

It had happened, her birth, sixteen years ago. She had no memory of her parents, she only caught a glimpse of a small pink tail, and a gleeful smile, before the sky erupted with blue lightning, a viral sphere which tore the world from her; it was not until what seemed like hours until she came around, her body grown at extraordinary rates into it's fully formed state. The whispers in her head still haunt her now, 'I will come back for you…child of the Mother.'

Now she had greater problems. A new change, a quickening, had split her vision in two. In one eye, she saw only pokemon, shadows of their former selves, bedraggled, torn, bloodied, and in the other, she saw the world as it truly was, humans and pokemon in blissful harmony - or so they thought, and thought alike. Something made her keep both eyes shut. As much as she was able, they remained closed, and she found her world of obsidian as comforting as the egg in which she was nested.

"Mother…" A whisper forms on her lips, and drifts out across the wind tainted plains. She had to learn to control these urges, for making herself apparent to pokemon caused a terrible, terrible curse, a raging, fiery breaking of the soul - she, with the minds of the two greatest psychic beings in all the world, could give something to pokemon that no-one else could…she could give them…speech. The ability to formulate there words, each and every pokemon, could talk - but Satrapy could not control this, she knew too much from her mind's reach, and the pokemon which fell beneath her gaze would vent their entire frustration, every moment of pain, every anguished push, upon their trainers; the bond between the two would sever if weak, or strengthen, with friendly banter, between pokemon whose trainers believed in them and themselves truly.

In her heart, she knew she was special, that she had a purpose - she just wished she did not cause so much hurt…so much fear. She was alone, so utterly, utterly alone…

 

[Shamfrit-The-Scorched]

Part One - Prep-Talk & Charcoal

"Right…on my mark, get set, Flamethrower!" The booming command is pursued by a long jet black blast of fire, which reaches fifteen feet into the air before flicking outwards in a small darting cone. Al's face beams with excitement, the pre-eminent rush of battle knocks his nerves into disarray, turning his cheeks red and his brow sweaty. "Alright, go Famfrit!" The youth's great Charizard turns to meet the gaze of his trainer, and smiles with a bold, silent defiance.

Al could still not comprehend why his Charizard, of all the Charizards of the world, had to be as black as the night sky, why Famfrit's breath had to be flames of midnight…whilst a Charmeleon, there had been nothing, nothing at all - after the horrific events of the Jaunting Tower…he had awoken in the ruins of the night's destruction to Famfrit's new form, a stronger, darker, more menacing form…

"Okay, good, Famfrit, return!" A flashback of an inferno breaks Al's concentration, and he pauses in silence for a moment, one hand hovering, dead, before his waist. In it he loosely grasps a poke ball, large and swollen, ready to fill. "Famfrit…return!" A thin red beam, like a targeting laser, connects with Charizard's chest and it whips away in a flash of high speed light. Silence falls across the arena, until the slow sound of Al's breathing retakes control.

"Go," he takes hold of the next ball attached to his belt, and pulls it clean, "Crallos!" From the new ball a blur of steel and wing scrambles into a collective image, a Scizor, with armour as black as Famfrit's wings, springs out from the dancing lights. Without command, it leaps with a clear bound across the arena, driving it's claws downwards, cleaving two vertical iron bulkheads in two with deadly focus and perfect accuracy. Standing in a stance of a samurai, it flickers back into a red whirl, and is gone quickly from sight. Al lowers the ball back to his belt, Scizor never talked, it seemed to shy away from praise - it simply loved the challenge, the silence thought that accompanied a pokemon with the clash of steel…he had come to respect that silence.

The connection with that night weighed heavily on Al's mind. Ever since he had taken over the ninth gym - the focus gym on the Coronet Plains there had been nothing but trouble, attention unwanted and vile, disaster…the tower.

"Go, Shaw!" This time, from the whirl of crimson, springs a black midnight mouse, which bounces onto the arena floor with a great rendered tail, which springs it twenty feet into the air amidst a crackle of sparks. The Raichu bounces around, until it settles it's gaze onto Al, it's smile revealing radiant teeth on coal fur.

"Shaw, our battle approaches - together, all of us, we can win! Are you ready?…Good, okay, Volt Blade!" With a quickly gathered grace, Raichu performs a high sprung back flip, and charges sparks from it's reserves along it's tail - which would normally ground it, before driving it heavily into the ground. With a great thunderclap and flash, a wave of electricity darts out across the arena floor, it slams into the high walls and dissipates with a fizzle.

"That was perfect, we're going to have a battle on our hands with your radiance Shaw!" Amidst the Raichu's screech of jubilant glee, Al levels a poke ball with his most trusted pokemon of all, and nods. He waits for the red whirl to carry Raichu away, before slumping forwards to lean on the railing that surrounds his duelling booth. It was raised, standing 20 feet above the arena, designed, so Flint had said, to protect Al from his own technique; the sheer power and uniqueness of his pokemon had drawn challengers from all over Sinnoh, and even beyond - there was no rest, not for the wicked…Al lets out a long, drawn out sigh.

"Well…now, we come to you…" The fires of his memory explode into view once more. As he focuses, he is drawn nearer, and nearer the inferno's epicentre…there, he could see two red pupils, glowing in the night flames. Somehow, his communications with the Grove Institute had brought one pokemon to the forefront of his mind…Giovanni's greatest creation, and the proudest nightmare of our world…Mewtwo.

"Go, Lapin!" The last of Al's pokemon flies from the red ribbons, and appears, hands held behind back in solemn judgement, utterly silent, utterly still. The Slowking turns, as slow as it's breath, to stare blankly at Al. Already Al could see the only non black part of Slowking's skin glimmer, the gem in it's crown. It was hypnotic, and Al, during training had focused on that…somehow, his Slowking, above all, could talk…

"What shall I do…Al?"

"Lapin - this time, we're going for the reverse play - you're leading up front, ready to take on the battle head on?" Al clenches his fist, using the adrenaline to stand upright and defiant once again.

"Oh, I am ready - I will enjoy…this." Still, thought Al, there was a bonus to the speech, he just wished such intellect and emotional calm came with more, exuberance.

"Okay…Power Gem!" Before Al had even made a motion, the gem in Slowking's crown glows a bright red, and from it, like a repeating cannon fly small glimmering shards, which cascade into the sky before clattering down onto the arena floor like stone rain. Al smiles, in some respects Lapin was the only true friend he had. They had discusses, talked, reminisced. The painful process of bonding had taken months, for a Slowking, as wise and powerful as they may be, still retained the reticent slow processing of it's forebearer Slowpoke, and peer Slowbro. He'd forgotten to ask the pleasantries, and intelligent conversation required; but he'd still be here tomorrow if he bothered…

"Brilliant Lapin, return!" In the flurry of red, Slowking bows out.

Tonight the next challenger would arrive, and Al's meaningless life would continue - he had achieved all he wished to achieve, and now continued to achieve for the sake of his friendship, the bonds with his companions. There was nothing left for him to search for, except gyms and leagues on distant shores…he wished he could see the truth, what really lies behind the world, and the greatest secret of all…why Mewtwo came for him that night, in the Tower…

 

[Shamfrit-The-Scorched]

Part Two - Raichu Vs. Alakazam

The roar of the crowd uplifted Al's spirit, for these brief moments where pokemon connected, became locked in battle, the cold in his heart thawed, and he blazed across skies and cities the like.

"Welcome!" Roars the announcer, his jubilant smile and oversized glasses and suit were becoming more of a spectacle than the fights, "Todayyyy! We see our reigning champion, Al, of the Focus Heart Gym, battle a newwwww challenger!" The giant screens that surround the arena burst into life to display a shadowy figure, with two small antenna…and a metal face mask, with a thin, glowing, blue visor…Al tenses in his stand. Something inside his memory has sparked, and was now roaring aflame.

"Giovanni's champion," Al mutters something under his breath, a pre-emptive wording of the challenger's name…he began to feel sick…it had not taken the creature long to find him…what more could he have done? "Mewwwtwo!" Where once there had been a cheer and roar, there was now a sudden gasped silence. If Al had been paying more attention, he would have noticed the slight limpness to the announcer's stance, and the pale glow behind his eyes; clear signs of psychic possession. Mewtwo was talking through his new, sick, puppet.

"You are the one who felled me, I lay broken, and defeated, weakened by The Mother; now, you will pay for your transgressions. I am Mewtwo! I am not defeated." With an audible snap, the bond between pokemon and man breaks, and Mewtwo's full concentration turns suddenly to the summoning of a jet black poke ball, of a type Al had not seen before - it seemed almost like the shell of a turtle, but a turtle of a dark, depthless lake. "You will battle me, I will meet your conditions, and you will fail; I want…'honour,' I want, 'pride…' I want to feel!" A blast of energy erupts from Mewtwo's outstretched hands, pushing the poke ball out into the middle of the arena. The crowd falls deeper into their seats, utterly afraid, yet full of wonderment to see a pokemon battling!

Al, unable to utter any defence takes the first of four poke balls from his belt and matches Mewtwo's throw; both roll to a stand still, half-cocked, half prepared, in their own semi-circles, marked into the arena floor by pokemon's hands and chalk. "Go - ALAKAZAM!" Mewtwo's shout booms across the fields, and the ball bursts into a black whirl of ribbon light.

Taking note of the normality of the pokemon that had appeared before him, perhaps presuming too much, too soon, Al thumps his chest, "Go - Raichu!" The Black Mouse bounds out into the streaming sun, bobbing up and down on it's coiled tail, as if ready to strike…

"This will be a four on four battle…there will be no prizes, only honour. No Fame, only glory -" Al felt sick, now the memories of The Tower were coming back clearer, stronger, faster. He was beginning to remember what had truly happened, sixteen years ago…

"I accept your challenge, Mewtwo, and hear this - humans do not take glory for their loss, pride comes from accepting their losses, and fighting on!" He whistles with two fingers, a secret call to Raichu, who darts it's gaze back to his friend, and turns back to meet the Alakazam's intense, deeming glare. "Volt Blade!"

Before Shaw can even gather static from the air, Mewtwo's Alakazam crosses its two great silver spoons, forming a sign in the air. With a simple, calm closing of it's eyes, a force field of brilliant purple light forms in a square directly in front of it's creator. It curves off into a slight dome, like a shell. "Kinesis…kinesis…kinesis…" The dull repetitive mantra of the Alakazam echoes into Al's mind; snapping his attention from the horrible imagery of fire…and a young boy alone.

The circular shockwave rips across the Arena floor, leaving Raichu in it's centre, and Alakazam unhurt, as the magnetic field disrupts the attack, sending it's energy flying clean around the pokemon's slender physique. Al sighs, he hated the unseen.

"Now…Alakazam…attack, with Psycho Cut!" Immediately following Mewtwo's command, Alakazam's eyes glow bright purple, and with a push of it's spoons several long humming energy lines criss cross before him in the air.

"Shaw, Double Team!" Al shouts a defensive order, and with a clench of it's cheeks, Raichu, very quickly becomes eight, but too soon do the purple blades flicker across the arena, one by one slicing the illusionary figures into dissipating light. One blade remains, and two Raichu's…Alakazam's eyes focus, reaching out with it's mind. It sees it's target.

The blade cuts across Shaw's upper arm, cutting a deep gash into the skin. A trickle of blood runs down Raichu's hand and drips from it's fingers. Al pushes himself into the barrier, his hand outstretched with a cry.

"Shaw! Hold steady, we can beat this. It's time to rinse this guy out!"

The Raichu wobbles on it's feet as it adjusts its foot holding. Head down, eyes ablaze with static, and small paws clenched, a dark cloud gathers across the arena…rain begins to fall. "SURF!" Al's voice seems to carry the rainfall from one end of the arena to the other, forming a tidal wave which washes over the Alakazam before disappearing into mist. Al's face beams as Raichu rides the surf on it's rudder like tail, screeching with excitement all the way.

Mewtwo's form begins to radiate a deep blue static. "Alakazam…Psychic!"

A silver spoon on outstretched hand bursts through the leftover waters, and with a blast of psychic energy the flood is fully pushed away into nothingness. Steadying itself, Raichu watches with close intent, ready to leap free; but the blast of distorting mind fire comes too quickly, too strongly, for the small pokemon to do anything about. Raichu's body tenses, shakes, then falls prone onto the cold stone of the arena floor. "No! Shaw, return!" Al pulls back the poke ball as the red threads reel Raichu in.

"This is not over Mewtwo! One down, three to go - and your servant of the mind has no hold on this fight, go - Famfrit!" This time, to Mewtwo's distaste, a great black winged beast flickers into view from it's poke ball, itching to enter the fray. With a great roar, Charizard brings the crowd to it's tippy toes, crooning their necks to get a closer view - the threat of Mewtwo; the Feared One, was slowly fading, and Al was claiming the battle back - but things were only beginning, for Mewtwo himself had not set foot in the Arena…and Al feared, this time - he would not be so lucky…

 

[Shamfrit-The-Scorched]

Part Three - Totems & Timelines

Satrapy looks at her Mother. She had not seen her for so long; sixteen years - but now she had returned after a midnight flight across the peaks from a distant land. The small, pink, glimmering figure before was known to those who knew her, as 'Mew.' To Satrapy, daughter of Mewtwo and Mew - she was 'Mother'.

"I have come, there are questions, but now is not the time - we have greater troubles. Father is mad, angry, uncontrollable. We must save the One who saved us, all those years ago - then, then we can talk." Without needing further discussion, the small levitating pokemon returns to her blue orb, and flutters away like a poultice fairy of the night.

I'm not alone anymore…Satrapy smile, her simple life was becoming ever the more complex, and that in itself, gave the horrors she witness a cause, a need, a feeling. She floats into the air, and takes clean after Mew.

It took them almost no time at all to clear the five miles between the Coronet Fields and the location of the Arena. Satrapy had witnessed it many times, but only ever from afar, gazing at it in the lethargy of the midday sun. She had never been drawn to it, she had seen what her powers could do to pokemon, she had yet to witness the effects of her psyche on humans…she guessed now she would find out.

"It is dark here…soon, it will be light; I will take us to the future, for time is of the essence - Mewtwo must be stopped." Mew's voice seems to hum through the air, as if carried by the wind. Satrapy smiles, it made her happy to hear Mother's voice again.

The sense of time starts to crack, and both glimmering spheres of light, one pink, one red, disappear into the slipstream.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Famfrit, Night Slash!" It took a split second for the great black dragon to flit across the arena, and tear an onyx line across Alakazam. Mewtwo braces, Al gasps, and then…the two spoons fall to the ground with the clatter of tin.

"Alakazam…return!" The black ball whips back the pokemon with a flurry of black light. The tall, sentient pokemon wipes its maw with a sombre mockery of a tear jerk, before lowering his paw to the second of four poke balls. "Very well child, you fight well - but now, face, Bronzong!" The whispering vortex crackles outwards, and the black ribbons turn into a column of shimmering steel. Two fins, and a curved arch don the totem pole pokemon. Al shudders, he had not encountered this before - but had heard enough.

"Bronzong…" Mewtwo's eyes glow with blue shimmering light…a powerful telekinetic force lifts Bronzong into the air, and suddenly it springs to life, as if it needed a kick-start. Two gleaming red eyes burn into the steel, and suddenly it appears ever the more threatening. "Confuse Ray…" Mewtwo's paw lifts into the air, and with the uttering of the attack word, he snaps it shut.

The steel core of the Bronzong begins to vibrate, and magnetic energy pulsates, vibrating in unison until it crackles with white lightning. The Bronzong lifts into the air, and as it falls to the earth with a terrible bang, a bolt of lightning darts upwards, then splits, and falls over the Charizard as a cylinder of pale radiance. The Charizard flinches, then returns to it's terrorising snarl.

Al felt suddenly less certain of his ability. Status effects, a dirty, tactical way to play - Mewtwo was 'upping the anti,' as his peers might have said. Composing himself, he analyses the situation, and prepares to make his counter measure. "Famfrit - melt this monstrosity, Flare Blitz!"

The Charizard braces, then looks at it's hands. Al tenses, hoping his friend can overcome his confused state. "Come-on Famfrit, don't let these tricks wear you down, Flare Blitz!" It lurches forwards, taking one thundering step at a time.

"Who do you turn to…when you can't decide which friend is an enemy, and which enemy is your friend?" Al looks Mewtwo in the face, both lock snarls; and in their concentration miss Charizard's leap, flap of wings, and descent. As the shadow slash rips three great grooves into the hard metal shell of the Bronzong, Al and Mewtwo snap back to the battle, and the more immediate issue at hand.

"It appears the bond with your pokemon is stronger than…most. Bronzong - Charge Beam Charizard!" In quick response, the Bronzong begins to levitate upwards again, turning slow, then quick, then swiftly on it's own axis. Lightning crackles into view, and like a great gyroscope, Bronzong jettisons the charge in a thin beam of electricity, directly at Charizard's wings.

Al raises his hand, to return Famfrit - but, seeing the lumbering beast crawl back into a standing position, and making a feeble grunt, as if it wished to continue its fight, floors him. What to do? "Will you push your pokemon to the upper most limit, human? Or will you bow before the might of psychic pokemon!"

It was a tough decision, but Al had no heart to hurt without need. Charizard morphs into Scizor in a flurry of red ribbon light. The battle continues.

"Crallos, Swords Dance!" A brilliant collection of energy blades formulates in the air, before slowly rotating into the great black metal claws of the bug pokemon, the hum of it's wings is loud enough to penetrate the now roaring, jeering crowd.

"Pretty lights, Bronzong - it's our turn," Al smiled at the humanity in Mewtwo's genetic flaw, "Hypnosis!"

A ripple of sound bursts from Bronzong's garish eyes. It washes over Scizor, but with a spurt of speed the insect warrior darts across the arena with blinding speed; the hypnosis was not strong enough, not for the bravery and hive mind of the Scizor…

"Brick Break!" Al knew that the duality of Bronzong's nature would leave Brick Break with only Scizor's power behind it, but - it would be enough to level the injured pokemon. It was simple mathematics…

The claw connects with the top edge of Bronzong's geometric shape. The sound of steel on steel rings out across the arena, with no visible effects…

"Your bug cannot harm the impenetrable shell of Bronzong," Mewtwo laughs with an unnatural tone, "Bronzong…" It appears slowly, as f unsure of itself…a thin crack down Bronzong's front…in a minute second it hairlines across to the left, chipping the fins…a low, deep, metallic roar booms out across the arena; and before it withers away completely, it disappears in a black thread way of light.

"Focus overcomes the purity of tactics, and of the mind - even the most unintelligent soul can overcome a wise foe." Al's joy comes through with an expression of solemn blankness.

Mewtwo snarls…only one pokemon remained before… "Very well child, my third pokemon shall be…Slowking!"



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