She had really grown since the last time he saw the girl.
Right ahead, a humongous slaking easily took on the brunt of the assault of its opponents. That slaking is his starter, Judge, the cornerstone of Norman's team. Norman watched silently with his arms crossed over his chest as Velda commanded her pokemon to take down his starter. She and her pokemon are not quite yet at the level where they can do that, but that's not the point of this exercise. He's simply here to get an accurate gauge of Velda's current skill level so that he knows where to start giving her pointers.
The improvement she made was astonishing. When she resigned from her position as his gym trainer she was only… twelve? In a mere two years she had now grown to be able to command a tyranitar that is well on its way to quite possibly grow into a Pillar level pokemon in the near future. Not just that, the way she commanded that large horde of ghosts was something that even he had witnessed for the very first time. That is not a skill that she possessed the last time he saw her.
Judge announced the start of its counterattack with a bellow, easily forcing Velda's pokemon to back off with a simple violent swipe of its arm. He had made sure to tell Judge that this is only a friendly spar so Judge is holding back a considerable amount of its strength. Even so, for Velda to be able to push Judge to this extent was already an impressive feat in itself.
"I think there's really nothing much that I can impart to you from this point onwards. You already have a mature existing framework that you rely on to command your pokemon, it's really just a matter of building upon the basics and striking a balance," Norman informed Velda once their little exercise ended, although he still couldn't help but keep an eye out for the unbelievably large number of ghosts dotting the space around them. He had heard that she has an affinity for ghost types, but this is really pushing the boundaries of what is supposed to be reasonable and is steadily heading towards the realm of unbelievable.
Granted, most of these ghosts are young ghosts, but even Phoebe couldn't command such a huge number of ghosts at the same time like Velda did, and Phoebe's an Elite Four.
"Are all of these yours?" Flannery finally spoke up. She had been watching from the side in silence this entire time and obviously, she had the same questions he had after witnessing their spar.
"The ghosts?" Velda asked and after seeing Flannery nodding her head, continued to speak. "No. Technically, only Dolly and Wacky are mine. The rest are wild."
"Wild?" Alarm bells started to ring very loudly in Norman's mind. He and Velda's father are good friends despite their age gap so he had heard from him how Velda had somehow managed to create an enclosure to house ghost types which they voluntarily took residence in. It's a huge step forward in the pokemon breeding industry because now that it is possible to raise ghosts in captivity, the possibility of trying to successfully breed ghosts in captivity doesn't seem like a faraway goal anymore.
Even so, wild ghosts are not to be trifled with and are to be approached with caution regardless of a trainer's skill level. How on earth did Velda manage to stay unharmed for taking so many ghosts in and even build an amicable relationship with them? This cannot be simply explained by her affinity for Ghost types. There is something more to it here.
"I don't know if you know, but this," Norman's hands gestured to the huge number of ghosts just casually dotting around them doing their own things, "is not normal."
He knew that she was a brilliant child, he experienced it for himself when he took her under his wing for the period of time she worked as his gym trainer. She had far outstripped many of her peers in the same age group as she is even if it doesn't seem like she really understood the implications of what she had accomplished, because she's always in the company of equally brilliant people like Steven Stone and Tate and Liza and these people are also outliers from the norm. Then, she somehow got herself into an elite group known as the interpol, a group made up of equally incredible people. Volkner and Akamu are fine examples of that.
But, he thinks that maybe it's time for her to actually be aware of how ahead she is, that she's already very far ahead of her peers and that whatever she's doing, it's actually not normal. Someone needs to point this out for her. During his time in ACE he had seen too many bright youths burning themselves out because they advanced too fast and too soon, pushing themselves too hard because they kept comparing themselves with people that were either anomalies like Steven Stone or people who had many more years of experience over them. He doesn't want that to happen to the girl as well.
In his opinion, Velda is more than capable in completing her duties as an interpol agent and representing Hoenn on the global stage. She has a lot of potential, he won't deny that, but contrary to what Wallace and Steven might have planned for her he felt that maybe this is not the right time for her to take on such a heavy responsibility. Her abnormally rapid rate of growth is already an indicator that she is pushing herself far more than she strictly needs to. At this rate, he is worried that she might really burn herself out before she could really grow into her potential. She's pushing herself too hard. Not everyone can be like Steven Stone and there's no shame to that. Just how hard had she pushed herself to be able to achieve a feat that even Phoebe could not recreate?
"Everybody says that, but I've seen weirder things in the interpol. Trust me, when compared to my colleagues, I'm considered normal."
There it is, she's starting to compare herself with people that are far from the norm. That is not healthy.
"How weird can things get?" Flannery probed further.
"One of my friends befriended the legendary Zygarde, another was granted protection and blessed by Lugia itself. They also have very strong affinities with ground and flying types respectively, and don't get me started on their tyrantrum and dragonite, they are absolute monsters. I've seen Nova's tyrantrum tearing apart an aggron's armour with its jaws like it's chewing through paper and I don't think it's something I will ever forget. What else… Then you might have seen a huge man with a harmless looking ditto that can transform into an Ultra Beast in the blink of an eye. It's a very terrifying sight, I tell you, makes me feel so relieved that we have none of those creatures roaming our region. Our resident researcher can get any nearby wild psychic type to come to her aid, and we have a genius inventor that perfected Foldable Space Technology-"
"None of them are normal," Flannery cannot help but blurt out with a slight frown.
"And that's why we are all in the interpol," Velda completed her summary of her list of weird things and even weirder colleagues she had befriended in the interpol and as if to emphasise her point, was actually carrying a litwick in her arms. Flannery let out a very unsightly shriek when she finally saw what Velda was doing.
"Vel, PUT IT AWAY! Haven't I told you before when I first introduced my chandelure to you?! Litwick absorbs the lifeforce of anyone touching it!"
"And the brighter the flame on its head, the more it's absorbing, correct?" Velda very calmly added on to that snippet of information before Flannery could go insane, because the flame burning on that litwick's head was burning very brightly. "That's the thing, I'm not affected by whatever things ghosts usually do to others. For most ghosts that I encountered, they liked me enough not to do that. I'm not normal, I have a very special set of skills, and that's why I'm in the interpol."
"This cannot be written off as just having an affinity for ghosts," Norman frowned. The girl definitely knows more about her oddity than she lets on but it's a good thing that she's aware of it.
"Vance never told you anything about this? I thought he would," Velda turned to look at Flannery, who simply shook her head.
"He's a siscon. Whenever he talks about you all he talks about is how cute you are, that he won't allow you to start dating until you are thirty and stuff like that. Not exactly very useful information."
"... Why am I not surprised?" Velda sighed tiredly but quickly recovered anyway. "I guess I trust you guys enough to tell you this, but I am an Ability Holder, ghost inclined. This is why these ghosts don't harm me and why I can have a harmonious relationship with them; they see me as one of them."
"That's new," Norman remarked after he quickly got over his surprise. Ability Holders are rare to encounter outside Unova but not entirely unheard of. In Hoenn, the number of known Ability Holders are so small in number that they are almost non-existent. He wasn't expecting this girl to be one of those people, just like Tate and Liza.
"I know, but keep this a secret, okay? I have faith in our public security back home and I'm more than capable of protecting myself, but this is Unova, not home. If Team Plasma are hunting Ability Holders to harvest their organs and conduct who-knows-what horrifying experiments, I think it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Does Steven know?"
"I have no idea if Vance or my father ever told him. Even if they didn't, it's not a matter of whether I trust him because I do trust him, but does he need to know?" Velda questioned in return. It's a good question.
"For your protection and just in case, I would say yes," Norman gave his honest advice and he knows the girl is listening. "It was the same thing with Tate and Liza when we found out about their existence. Spenser immediately took them under his wing not just because of their potential, but also to protect and keep an eye on them because they were so young and had no means to defend themselves from criminals who they had attracted attention from. Trust me, you wouldn't believe the number of threats Spenser and the ACE operatives assigned to watch over them had defended them from behind the scenes. It only got much better after they became trainers powerful enough to protect themselves. They wouldn't have been able to experience a normal childhood otherwise. It's a little different for your case and I understand if you do not wish to publicise your status as an Ability Holder to everyone else, but I think at the very least, Steven has to know."
"I agree," Flannery added. "There's no harm in letting Steven know about your status as an Ability Holder. Given your families' close relationship with each other I don't think it will be an issue if he's let in on your secret. Then again, this is just our advice. In the end, it's your own choice."
"Then I will guess I will let him know once this is all over," Velda replied and Norman let out a mental sigh of relief when Vel chose to heed their words. Not far away, Judge lay down on the ground where he was, unperturbed by the curious ghosts hovering around him and chatting its ears off after it understood that these ghosts will not be causing any mischief or harm.
"Honestly speaking, do you think this operation will go well?" Velda asked, steering their conversation to a different topic.
"It's hard to say. At least for me, it would really depend just how far Team Plasma's army of pseudo Ability Holders can tap into the power that Resonance can bring," Norman gave his objective assessment of the situation. Out of the four strongholds that the Unova League is going to raid, Straiton and Nacrene City are the places where the largest number of Team Plasma's pseudo Ability Holders are stationed according to the intelligence which they gathered. Nobody has any idea if their strength is comparable to Champion Harlow's army of Ability Holders from the days of old. It will be a gruesome battle if they are indeed as mighty as that famed army documented in Unova's historical records. Right now, the only hope that they have is that since Team Plasma's army of Ability Holders are largely made up of "fake" Ability Holders, the amount of power these people can draw when in the state of Resonance will also be less potent than their worst estimation.
"I guess we lucked out. Opelucid is not supposed to have too many of these guys if Unova's intelligence is to be believed," Flannery commented. "But still, organ theft. Seriously, that's very disturbing. Glad that Hoenn had always been rather strict on enforcing public order and security, there's no way we would allow such things to blow up to such proportions back home. That said, how on earth did Unova manage to allow the situation to escalate to this point? Something is wrong here."
"I'm placing my bet on corrupt officials, just like what happened in Indigo," Velda offered her two cents on the issue. "Most likely, someone from the Five Weapons and if my guess is right, the Euclids are involved. They had been acting really shady since the start, just that the interpol is not supposed to meddle too much in Unova's politics and that we do not want to alert them that we are already watching them. The Carrillos too, in my opinion, and maybe one or two more from the Assisting Houses closely allied with the Euclids."
"Can I take this as insider information?" Flannery asked, not knowing if she should be privy to such sensitive information.
"Did I say anything?" Velda questioned "innocently". Right, see no evil, hear no evil.
"Nope, I heard nothing. Right, Norman?"
"Hmm? What were you saying?" Norman feigned deafness before they all shared a laugh.
Well, he can only hope that things will go well on the big day.
In my opinion, things had gone a little too smoothly.
"This is Traveller. I have positive confirmation on my end, over."
"This is Looker. Copy that, mine is negative. Reconvene at our earlier position, over."
With Dolly's help, we managed to sneak back to where I last separated from Looker. He was already waiting for us when we arrived.
"Total?" Looker asked softly the moment I arrived.
"Four guards, shouldn't be too much of a problem to take them out," I reported back what I found out as we continued to hide ourselves within the depths of Team Plasma's Opelucid stronghold.
"I found none on my side, which means that Team Plasma gathered all of their abductees in one area. Location?"
"Floor B4."
"Got it," Looker said before speaking into the radio with a whisper. "Looker to Dragon, we have a rescue operation on our hands. Location, Floor B4, I suggest that we shift to Plan C?"
"Agreed," Drayden's deep voice responded from the other end of the line. "We will take note not to bring the battle to that area as much as we can. We will try to attract the Plasmas' attention and lure them to us but I cannot guarantee for how long. Make it quick, I will also get a team to try to reach your location to assist you. Copy?"
"Copy that. We will wait for your signal before we start, over."
"Roger that. Best of luck, Dragon over and out."
The transmission came to an end, leaving Looker and I to wait for Drayden's signal in silence. Deep down in this underground stronghold the spaces we can use are limited. If a battle breaks out here there's no telling if the entire place will sink and cave in. The release of my bigger mons will definitely result in such a situation and due to the lack of space in the underground section of this Plasma stronghold, we also are unable to release too many pokemon out with us. So, the best course of action will be to avoid the chances of a battle occurring entirely.
"How many hostages did you spot?"
"Approximately twenty, Dolly wasn't able to get a very accurate count because she would have been caught if she went too close," I translated Dolly's words for Looker as Dolly softly whispered into my ear.
"Drayden had this entire place surrounded by the influence of Darktycin technology, it will have an effect on our ghost types as well, Shadow Sneak will probably not be as efficient as we would like," Looker reminded me and I nodded in understanding. This is a tradeoff that we had to make, because the efforts we put into planning and executing this whole operation would have gone down the drain if the Plasmas simply escaped via teleportation. Darktycin technology can prevent teleportation within a certain area that it is being deployed in, but it also limits the ghost and psychic type moves when used within its boundaries. While Teleport will be rendered entirely useless if anybody tried teleporting from within the Darktycin field to outside it and vice versa, Shadow Sneak can still be used, but its effects will be diminished. Be it in the distance travelled, the number of passengers we can bring along, these factors will all be negatively affected in the presence of Darktycin.
The both of us waited in silence at where we kept ourselves hidden. We knew the signal that we were waiting for came when the entire stronghold started to shake violently as if a meteor had dropped down on it. The Team Plasma grunts within were suddenly thrown into a frenzy as they scurried to scramble themselves to meet the invaders head-on.
That left the area we were in pretty much empty, allowing Looker and I to easily forge on ahead.
Dolly quickly led the way and we found ourselves back at the basement, knocking out whatever unlucky guards that were left behind and had unfortunately crossed our paths. The corridors in the lower levels were not very spacious, so I could only allow Archer, Rena, and Kel out to accompany me alongside my ghosts. Soon, we found the people that we were here for.
"Don't panic. We are from the PWL, International Police. We are here to get you out."
The kidnappees we found were definitely not in the best state. Most of them were starved and were obviously beaten at least more than just once or twice. There were a handful who had suffered injuries that would affect their mobility. This rescue operation was definitely not off to a very good start.
Archer easily cleaved through the iron bars of the cells that were imprisoning them. Looker and I managed to get them to calm down and cooperate with us easily enough, but when the stronghold began to violently tremble once again halfway into our escape it was when things suddenly looked grim.
"Kel?"
Kel had gotten incredibly restless, lightly tugging on the fabric of my pants with her fangs in order to catch my attention and letting out high pitched yips as if trying desperately to convey something to me. This is very out of character of Kel, one of the most calm and collected pokemon in my team and basically could not be bothered to put up a fuss with anything unless it annoyed her like how Fuzzy or Wacky usually do, or if she felt that it would pose a great danger.
"Vel, what's going on?"
I was covering the group at the back. Looker, who was leading the group from the front, noticed that I wasn't keeping up almost instantly. Naturally, that caught the attention of everyone else too, adding on to the intensifying anxiety and panic that they were already under the pressure of. They were counting on us to make it out alive and safely.
"I think Kel sensed something, she doesn't want us to go up," I quickly explained as I knelt down to face her, trying to ease her anxiety as I stroked the top of her head with my hand. The last time she acted like this was during the Battle of Olivine where the Legendary Birds made their appearance. This really is not a good sign.
Maybe the pressure and anxiety had finally pushed the rescuees to their limit, but one of them finally had an outburst.
"But if not up, then where?! If the Plasmas come back we will be trapped-"
As if to prove that person's point, the stronghold trembled violently once again as if another earthquake had struck. The frequency of the occurrences of these tremors had been getting increasingly shorter and shorter. Communication with Drayden and our forces outside were also cut due to unknown disturbances disrupting our telecommunication signal which sadly, is a common thing to encounter in our line of work.
"We will be buried alive here!"
"Rest assured, that will not happen," Looker immediately tried to calm the civilians down but it had little effect because the hysteria and panic had started to infect the rescuees like a plague. Meanwhile, I was trying to get Rena to translate for me what Kel was trying to convey.
'Kel does not have a clear picture, but she strongly felt the presence of a calamity that will be arriving into the city soon. Her instincts are screaming at her that it will be safer inside rather than outside.'
"She says a calamity is heading towards the city, that it will be safer hiding here than going outside," I quickly spoke over the din so that Looker could hear me. The frown between Looker's eyes deepened. He is a very accomplished trainer and he understands the unique ability that the absol species possess. Their ability to foretell calamities are something that no experienced trainer will ignore.
"Whatever calamity it might be, most likely, it will be a handiwork of Team Plasma," Looker came to the conclusion that I arrived as well. We tested our comms one more time but like before, all we received were static noises.
"Someone has to inform Drayden of this development. I will go, you stay here and keep them safe until I come back with further instructions," Looker gave me an order and the tone of his voice clearly indicated that he will not be accepting any form of objection. The rescuers looked like they wanted to riot when Looker made such a proposition and I heard many unkind words hurled at Kel. These people are clearly deeply entrenched in their superstitious view of the absol species, viewing her as the reason why they were robbed of their chance to escape from here.
And I do not like that. Nobody insults my pokemon and gets away with it, especially not after we went through all the trouble risking our lives to try and save theirs. Looker simply disappeared with a Shadow Sneak, not wanting to waste time arguing with these ignorant people.
"Keep quiet, or I will make you," I warned and Rena exuded a mildly suffocating pressure on them with her psychic abilities, having sensed my intent with her empathic abilities. That forced them to keep their mouths shut temporarily.
Ungrateful people.
"Sorry you had to hear that," I spoke softly to Kel as Archer kept a stern watch on these misbehaving and uncooperative rescuees in my stead, the look in his eyes sharp enough and the metallic sound of his snapping pincers convincing enough to dissuade any of them from acting out. Kel fondly nudged her head at me, telling me that she didn't take any of those insults to heart.
Still, I would like to know just what on earth is going on outside. I'm trying my best to stay calm as well, but knowing that a calamity is incoming with no way to find out just what is coming is frankly, a very tortuous and anxiety-inducing waiting process.
We continued to wait in silence, still feeling very on edge and high strung. There were people who wanted to foolishly make their own independent escape the moment they mustered their courage to do so, but the sound of a swift snap of Archer's pincer would immediately convince them to abort it. As much as I dislike them after the unkind words that they hurled at Kel, I still have a duty to ensure their safety as an interpol agent. Their well-being is my responsibility for the duration of this operation as far as I'm concerned.
I knew that we had unwanted company when my shadow started to swirl agitatedly and my ghosts made a sudden appearance, putting themselves in front of me in a defensive position. A lanky man wearing a dark purple coat slowly walked up to greet us. He wore a black face mask with the image of a creepy smile printed on it over the lower half of his face, preventing anyone from taking a proper look of his face.
However, I had a feeling that I had seen him before.
Nobody knows who this person is but his presence screamed danger. The rescuees were immediately up on their feet and some of them who had a better control of their abilities had also activated them in response to the unknown man's presence. That man didn't seem perturbed, but rather slowly scanning us with his gaze as though he's browsing through groceries at a supermarket.
"Tsk tsk, and here I thought I sensed a delicious meal waiting for me. Now, which one of you is it…" The man pointed a finger in our direction and it slowly swept through us one by one until it pointed at me.
"Found you."
At the same time, I had already released another two pokemon out of their pokeballs. Ness and Hulk emerged as I gave them their orders. This narrow corridor will definitely be where a battle will be taking place within the next few seconds and I cannot fight freely while trying to protect the rescuees at the same time. My options are limited enough as it is in this narrow underground basement where my larger pokemon are unable to be released lest I wish to have everyone be buried under tons of rubble.
"Both of you, protect the people there and bring them away from here! Archer, Quick Attack!"
Archer immediately sped forward in a red blur, aiming to cut the seemingly defenceless man down before he could put up any form of resistance. I would be a fool to believe that he's truly defenceless because even if we did not spot any pokemon with him, this man clearly is dangerous enough to warrant our full attention. Even so, we have to try our luck, and taking the initiative to have the first move wouldn't hurt.
Archer's speed had always been one of his greatest weapons. I had never been able to follow his movements with my eyes so I had no idea what had happened. All I knew was that in the next second, bluish flames had sprouted up from nowhere and forced Archer to skid backwards, leaving a nasty burn lingering on his crimson armour. Our attempt to end this battle before it even began had failed.
I took a quick glance backwards, just in time to see Ness and Hulk herding away the escapees to somewhere further away and safe from whatever will be happening next. They disappeared around the corner in a few seconds.
"You are a Ghost Specialist," I stated when my attention was directed back to this masked man. Now that I had a better look and was able to assess the situation with a calmer mind, I could spot the near indiscernible yet intimately familiar signs in his shadow. True enough, a chandelure emerged from the man's shadow after hearing what I have to say, followed by a cofagrigus, drifblim, and a golurk.
"And here I thought that you will be one as well, I know you have a ghost inclined ability, I can sense it from you," the man pointed a crooked finger at me as he said that, making me a little uncomfortable at how predatory his gaze had turned. "Yet, the kind of pokemon you surround yourself with says otherwise."
"Your ability is to sense people like us?"
"Only for Ability Holders with ghost inclined abilities, among other things," he vaguely replied, "but you don't need to know. Dead girls have no need to know, you will be a part of me soon."
Just hearing his reply was able to give me goosebumps. What a damn creep.
Archer fired a Flash Cannon as I used this brief moment of distraction to release Fuzzy. Fuzzy knew what he had to do the moment he appeared, swiftly crossing over to the other end in a yellow arc before discharging a huge amount of electricity. The cofagrigus fired a Shadow Ball which left Fuzzy no choice but to avoid it with a well-timed Substitute because for some reason, that Shadow Ball seemed to have a mind of its own and was able to track Fuzzy despite his best efforts to avoid it. I deduced the reason for the oddity of the Shadow Ball fairly quickly thanks to Agatha's lessons on every known ghost type in existence.
"Golurk has the No Guard ability! Don't bother trying to evade attacks, switch to defensive tactics!"
No Guard's effect is indiscriminate, forcing all participants within a certain radius of the ability bearer to be affected by its effect. The Night Slash that Archer released next easily found its mark even when he wasn't making much effort to take an aim, easily proving my hypothesis.
"Dolly, suppressive fire, Shadow Ball barrage."
I have no idea just how many ghosts this creep has. It could be just those four which he had shown, there could also be more. Whatever the case is, I don't plan to give him a chance to react or to even breathe. If he came into this battle underestimating me then I will make sure that he will pay the price for doing so. If he has more pokemon that he had not yet shown, then I will not give him a chance to call them out.
This is not a battle, but a death match. Everything and anything goes.
Dolly wasted no time raining down a volley of Shadow Balls down on the man and his pokemon. This is one of her earliest and favourite combos that she learnt under my tutelage. Each Shadow Ball is weaker than the usual one but what they lack in power, we made up for it in numbers. The purpose of the Shadow Balls was merely to provide suppressive bombardment to prevent our opponents from having any breathing space and it is serving its intended purpose well.
Wacky emerged from a shadowy part of the corridor, launching himself at high speed at the moment the creep and his pokemon least expected it after seeing that Dolly had taken up the bulk of their attention. The golurk immediately put up a shield of Protect to block the entirety of Dolly's bombardment, allowing the drifblim to meet Wacky head-on. Wacky dove back into the shadow when he recognised that his assassination attempt had failed but the drifblim dove into the shadow as well in hot pursuit. I'm not too worried about Wacky because he can pull his own weight. In his own way, Wacky had already significantly contributed to this battle by pulling one of the creep's ghosts away from the battle.
"Fuzzy! Thunder Wave!"
Arcs of Thunder Wave rained down just as Dolly's Shadow Ball barrage was about to end, forcing the creep to be cautious of his movements lest he wants to be on the receiving end of a nasty shock. The golurk did not hesitate to put itself in the way of Fuzzy's attacks, using the natural immunity it possessed as a ground type to neutralise Fuzzy's Thunder Wave. That is within my expectation, because the whole idea was to lure the golurk out into the open.
"Archer, take him."
I have the numerical advantage in terms of the number of pokemon we possess as far as I could tell. The man could have more that he's hiding and had not yet shown, but I will leave that to future me to worry about. That golurk had been acting as the shield of the creep's team and if we can bring it down or separate it from its team, the battle will definitely swing into our favour.
Archer instantly reappeared beside the golurk with a Quick Attack, his deadly pincers swinging and slicing with precise accuracy and forcing the golurk to divert its entire attention on him with how Archer was intentionally pressuring him to do so with his moves.
The creep now only has a cofagrigus and a chandelure left to defend him and I decided that now is as good a time as any to start my assault. Kel dashed ahead, having already empowered herself with Swords Dance when she stayed at the backline earlier to use the time everyone else had borrowed for her to increase her strength. Her Night Slash easily tore through the ground beneath as a crescent wave of dark energy with a swing of her horn. The cofagrigus dispelled it with an equally powerful burst of Night Shade, resulting in a minor explosion of unstable energies that forced us to keep our distance.
I could easily tell that the cofagrigus is no pushover from that Night Shade alone. This is not a very reassuring piece of news to learn.
I have defenceless rescuees nearby. Kel's calamity foretelling abilities had warned us that staying underground will be a far better option than escaping upwards into the open. There is also a huge battle between the Team Plasma forces stationed in this stronghold and those led by Drayden and Flannery outside. In here, it is relatively safer, but I am forced to restrain myself from releasing my bigger and more powerful pokemon or it might cause a destructive cave-in that would most likely accidentally kill the people that we were originally here to rescue.
The terrain is not in my favour. The restrictions that I am forced to fight under are also not in my favour. The only thing in my favour is the numerical advantage that I seemingly have but even that is uncertain. No matter how I look at it, the odds are not optimistic.
Can I beat him? I have no idea, especially after the brief display of power the cofagrigus showed, hinting at us that this creep is a trainer of considerable skill and experience. At the very least, he's not any less skilled than I am.
Chandelure's flames came roaring at us as a wall of ghostly blue flames and Rena forcefully dispelled it with a Psyshock. The surrounding area shook under the influence of her psychic powers as she finally made her move. Like Kel, she hadn't been sitting by doing nothing when the rest of the team were initiating the assault. Her power had already been repetitively boosted under the effects of Calm Mind.
A compressive wave of psychic energy rippled outwards in the direction of our enemy as Rena took the lead. Chandelure retaliated with its ghostly flames but Rena's Light Screen was sturdy enough to keep them out. Fuzzy returned fire with several blasts of Charge Beam, a move that he had learnt from Volkner's own pachirisu during our time in Indigo. Charge Beam is a move that Volkner gave out as TMs to trainers who won his badges back when he was still the Gym Leader of Sunyshore, and that act alone showed just how important he felt this move is for electric types to master. Naturally, Volkner's understanding and usage of this move is at a level where it surpassed professionals and I had the luck to learn a little of its secrets from him.
The worth of Charge Beam lies not in its power, but rather the secondary effects that it can bring about. Charge Beam provides a good chance of allowing its user to raise its offensive power when using the move and according to Volkner, there are tricks to further raise the chances of the occurrences of the secondary effects to almost a near hundred percent. This is a much more reliable and safer alternative for Fuzzy as opposed to the Nuclear combo I designed for him, and it is a much more suitable option in such a situation where outright destruction is an outcome that we cannot allow to happen.
Fuzzy's quick and successive usages of Charge Beam allowed him to be able to temporarily match chandelure's firepower. The scale of the power unleashed between the clash of fire and lightning was enough to dissuade me from releasing another pokemon because there's really no space left to do so unless I wanted to be an irresponsible prick and chuck them right in between that vortex of fire and lightning.
"Shadow Ball!"
The creep finally gave a verbal order. The cofagrigus released a huge and powerful Shadow Ball that barrelled down the entire corridor, forcing both the chandelure and Fuzzy to abort their fight in order to get out of its way. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to run in this narrow space, which probably was the creep's intention all along.
"Protect!"
Rena's Protect easily shielded us from harm but this brief pause in our assault that the creep forced on us had now become an opportunity for him to finally go on the offensive. Ghost type attacks of all sorts were fired at us and I knew the creep was trying to force Rena's Protect to expire from repeated usage. However, I could take a leaf out from his own book in dealing with such a situation.
Rena's Psychic was powerful enough to destroy the incoming attacks before they could touch us. Anything that she had missed out or was unable to remove, Dolly and Fuzzy could easily render them useless. Seeing that now might be a good opportunity, I mentally commanded the ghosts who had been patiently hiding within my shadow to finally make their move.
"Shadow Ball!"
Individually, most of the ghosts are far from powerful, but they certainly make up for it in numbers.
The sudden emergence of so many ghosts had definitely shocked that creep, but I didn't grant him the time to indulge himself in his shock. The bombardment of Shadow Balls soon rained down on him and his pokemon with indiscriminate savagery, allowing me and my pokemon to catch a short breather and plan our next move.
"Dolly, use our Miasma tactic. Kel, try to find a chance to assassinate-"
My next instructions to my pokemon were never fully conveyed. Archer was sent flying back at us from a forceful punch of the creep's golurk, allowing it to finally have a chance to rejoin its trainer. Archer seemed to be fine other than the burns I spotted on a few spots on his armour, but I felt the golurk rapidly gathering a considerable amount of ghost type energy before the world suddenly muted itself.
It's like the colours of the world had lost its lustre, the sounds of our surroundings had dulled. Even the amount of oxygen in the air had suddenly lessened to the point that for a moment, I could not breathe.
I know this place. Dolly had brought me here before when we were trying to stay alive from being hunted by that ancient volcarona.
"Phantom Force?"
"Bingo, been here before?"
I looked up, and was shocked to see the creep in here as well. Beside him are his four ghost type pokemon; drifblim, cofagrigus, chandelure, and golurk. Meanwhile, none of my pokemon are with me. I'm entirely alone and it didn't take long for me to figure out just what he had done.
This creep is a master at utilising Phantom Force. Normally, Phantom Force could only allow the user to hide itself in this parallel world where only ghosts could freely enter and exit. Skilled users of this move are able to bring along a passenger or two, like how Looker's golurk had demonstrated and how Dolly had brought me along for the ride before.
However, this golurk had mastered this move to the point that it can isolate its prey by forcefully pulling them into this separate parallel world regardless of their will. Not only that, it had brought along not only its trainer, but their entire team as well. It's a very effective assassination method because no matter how many pokemon the opposing trainer brought along, it will be a useless endeavour the moment golurk isolates the opposing trainer from the protection of their pokemon.
I immediately pressed the button on my suit so that the oxygen mask built in it would spring up to cover the lower half of my face. Breathing became a lot easier after that. I will admit, the creep has a really effective trick up his sleeve and it caught me entirely by surprise, but this is not entirely disadvantageous for me. At least in here, in the world of Phantom Force, I do not need to worry about collateral damage.
This also means that I can finally go at my full strength.
I immediately released Kratos and Snap, who did not hesitate to lay waste to our foes with a powerful blast of Dark Pulse and Dragon Pulse respectively. I frowned a little when I realised the creep's cofagrigus managed to guard them all with a Protect. Maybe I had been a little too optimistic.
"And… disappear."
This time, I was truly shocked when Kratos and Snap simply disappeared when the creep dramatically snapped his fingers. They simply vanished.
"Is that it? No other tricks up your sleeve? Come on, don't be stingy, I see that you still have a few more unopened pokeballs. Come on, surprise me," the man taunted mockingly as he sauntered up to me with unhurried steps and I found myself retreating backwards with every step he took.
I think I understood what had happened to Kratos and Snap. This is the world of Phantom Force, a place where only ghosts can enter and exit but no matter how good you are in prolonging your stay in here, you will eventually be forcefully ejected from this world. The creep's golurk must have forcefully ejected Kratos and Snap from this parallel world somehow. Its mastery over Phantom Force had allowed it to cause Kratos and Snap's time here to expire prematurely.
We could observe the outside world from here. Kratos and Snap are going stir crazy trying to find me and return to my side. I can only hope that they would not accidentally bring down the entire underground basement with them in their rage. Rena and the rest are trying to talk to them, presumably trying to understand just what had happened.
"Nowhere to run now," the creep cackled when he successfully backed me into a corner with my back against a wall. He caught me before I could reach out for my pokeballs and I tried resisting, but his strength easily overpowered mine as he pinned me against the wall with a firm hand choking my neck.
"What a waste, such a pretty little thing…" The man leisurely spoke as he observed me closely, his face close enough to mine that I could feel his disgusting breath breathing across my face as I struggled not to black out from suffocation. "I have no idea what kind of ability you have, but I think you will make a fine meal. Now then…"
To my horror, the man increased his choke over my neck, this time with both hands as I flailed and struggled with all my might to no avail. He's trying to choke me to death.
"Cease struggling, become one with me, you will live on within- urk!"
A powerful zap of electricity shot a clean hole through the man. It would have ended his life then and there by putting a hole through his abdomen if the drifblim that was hovering beside him all along didn't pull him away in time. Instead, there's now a small smoking hole through the man's left shoulder. I had collapsed onto the ground to heave for air when the man's choke over my neck disappeared, but I still managed to look up to see what had happened.
"J-Jarvis…?"
Right then, Jarvis' mechanical whirr was the most reassuring sound I ever heard in the full fourteen years of my life. He never had much of a presence among my team, simply content to assist me silently without showing himself. Managing my files, analysing data, opening doors and closing windows for me, only occasionally indulging himself with a tetris game or two… He had no interest in battles and so he rarely made an appearance. He was so good at hiding in plain sight that sometimes, even I would momentarily forget that he's almost always there beside me, hiding in the xtransceiver that I will wear around my wrist.
"Thanks," I managed to breathe out after succeeding in catching my breath and recollecting myself, finally standing back up on my feet. Jarvis must have been waiting for an opportunity to assassinate the man, knowing very well that the odds of him taking on his full team of ghosts alone was too slim for it to be possible. He really had almost succeeded in doing so once he found the best possible opportunity when his guard was at his lowest. We were simply unlucky that we failed, but that's fine. I'm still alive.
I took a better look at the man, who's busy screaming in pain and cursing me with a long list of expletives. The hole Jarvis put into him was bleeding profusely to the point that a pool of blood was steadily forming beneath him. His ghosts began to attack us in retaliation, but Jarvis steadfastly put himself in between me and them without fear, instantly erecting a powerful shield of Protect.
I spotted the Golurk gathering that same vibe of ghost type energy once more. I recognised that it's trying to eject Jarvis out of here as well through Phantom Force. There's really nothing we can do about that now and my mind began to race to think of the next best plan once Jarvis had been ejected out from here.
So, I was pleasantly surprised that Jarvis remained here with me even after Phantom Force was casted on him. I could tell that I wasn't the only one who was shocked. Even the man and his ghosts took a brief pause when they witnessed just what happened. Golurk made another attempt, as if unable to believe that the move it painstakingly mastered would fail. Again, Jarvis remained, still impassively blinking his large yellow eyes at them as if taunting the golurk if that's all it could do.
"Normal type…" I whispered in realisation. Jarvis is a normal type, he's immune to ghost type moves. Like how it probably will be impossible for him to be brought into this world under normal circumstances, it's also equally impossible for him to exit it through Phantom Force once he somehow found a way in. Nobody here can eject Jarvis out from this world through Phantom Force.
Most importantly, Jarvis can fight at his full strength in this oxygen deprived world, because his species were originally invented for the purpose of space exploration. They had no need to breathe.
If it wasn't for the fact that I'm still in a very precarious situation I almost wanted to throw my head back and laugh vindictively after coming to this realisation. Splendid, how splendid.
"Guess it's just you and me now," I spoke to my ever trusty AI as my confidence returned. Jarvis answered with an equally determined whirr as his yellow eyes began to blink in an even more erratic and quicker rhythm. Now, I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to exchange pointers with Jayce and learned how he had trained his porygon-z's Download ability. I'm sure Jarvis had been silently observing and analysing the man and his ghosts ever since our battle started. It's time for us to put what we have learnt into practical application.
"Download."
The sound of Jarvis' whirr violently increased in volume and the light in his eyes shone brighter and brighter as he activated his ability at full drive. It's one against four, but for some reason I don't feel like I will lose.
It's time to decide the victor of this deathmatch. The apex of human technology, or the viciousness of otherworldly beings.