Indigo Coliseum - 1134 hours local time - Day 111 of Ash Ketchum's Journey
"Hey, dude. What's the last thing you ever thought you'd see in the sky?"
A red haired trainer looked up from his sandwich at his friend, who was staring off into the distance. "Oh uh, t-that's a deep question, I-"
"No, no, 'cause it's blimps."
Floating down from the skies above the Indigo Coliseum were a trio of zeppelins, armed to the teeth, and proudly flying the thrice-cursed sigil of Team Cypher.
Within the Coliseum itself, everyone looked up at the blimps in utter disbelief as they slowly descended from the sky.
"...Sabrina, am I going insane, or is Cipher trying to attack us using blimps?" Kyoji muttered.
"Technically they're Zeppelins, but yes… it seems so." She nodded.
"...while there is a Legendary here, who could quite easily torch them from the sky?" Kyoji asked, glancing at Moltres who was already glaring at them. "Because those things are very combustible?"
"...no one said Cipher was smart." Sabrina said before sighing. "And they're using helium."
"Damn it!" Kyoji groaned. "...oh well, at least it'll be funny hearing them talk with all that helium they're sucking in…"
"Now, I know what you're all thinking." said the girl with the accent as the larger of the two craft approached for a landing. "You're wondering how we're not dead! Cipher was, like, killed all those years ago, right? Nope! A lot of us were, but we're back and ready to finish the job!"
"Lovrina, enough!" yelled a voice in the background.
"Oh, FINE. Surrender, like right now, give us your Pokemon and we'll let you live to see the dawn of the new Orrean Empire!" said the now named Lovrina as ropes were thrown down, armored grunts sliding down them.
"The one time I didn't have a gun." Kyoji muttered. The girl loudly whooped, wearing a one-piece white dress and her hair was…
'...why did she have to have pink hair and look cute…' Kyoji thought, before freezing. 'IDIOT SABRINA'S RIGHT THERE!' He glanced at Sabrina… but it seemed her attention was focused squarely on Cipher at the moment. 'Oh thank sweet Arceus…'
"Time to get started!" cried Lovrina, giggling as she fell.
Ash knew something like this would happen. He was expecting Team Rocket. Sabrina told him there were two admins left, Ariana and Patel, but Ariana was helping the Kanto League, so he expected Patel to make one 'death or glory' attack.
Well, he was right about the attack, just not who was doing it.
Charizard glared up and looked at the pink-haired leader, snorting. "Char." 'Yeah...fuck you.' he said, charing up a Fire Blast, but Moltres beat him to it, spitting out a stream of fire at the 'Peons,' roasting them alive in their armor. Charizard's ball of death shot past the girl, who yelped as it missed her, but set her fast line on fire.
"You know what, forget it!" she yelled as she jumped off, pulling a line on a bag on her back as soon as she was clear, unfurling a parachute. "Peons! EVERYONE, LIKE DIES!"
"Not if I have a say in it!" Ash said, pulling out two of his Pokeballs, releasing what he hoped was Garchomp in the air (it was, thankfully, as Garchomp tossed his evolite clip into the arena) and Sceptile into the stands, people rushing to get out of the building as he did so.
"Pika!" 'Ash, behind us!' Pikachu cried as a Peon dropped down behind them, locking back the bolt of some crute-looking gun as he landed, only for Pikachu to electrocute the grunt, sending him flying into a wall.
"Thanks, Pikachu." Ash said. His starter nodded in response. Ash sent out Goodra and Froakie, both in the stands. "Clear these guys out and keep everyone safe! Charizard, burn those things to the ground, but make sure they don't crash in the-" A gunshot rang out and a bullet zipped past his head from behind, fired from inside the tunnel.
"Hate to say, boy, but you ain't goin' nowhere." said the shooter as he came into view, revealing a tall, dark-skinned man wearing a purple jacket that was open from the front with a MASSIVE afro on his head colored like a Pokeball. In his hand was a gold-plated revolver with a barrel that was at the bottom instead of on top of the cylinder. "Gotta ge' rid o' you, Mista Crown Prince o' Rota. Ain't nothing personal."
Ash looked the man over, from top to bottom. "...the fuck are you, and the fuck is wrong with your hair?" He muttered.
"Fool, I'm Miror.B!" The man exclaimed, spinning the gun on his finger. "Admin and Disco-Champion of Cipher, fool!"
Ash decided to focus on getting out of there: he was cornered. "Pikachu, Thunder!" he commanded. 'Miror B' looked skyward and saw the lightning bolt come before he dived over the side, hanging from the wooden handrails before it slammed down. The poke-fro'ed man barely hanging on as Ash ran past him, intending to get deeper into the building.
"Hey!" Miror B snapped as he started climbing back up, aiming his revolver at Ash, firing another shot at him, but missing as he had to hold onto the railing to prevent falling into the seemingly bottomless pit below. "Get back ere! I'm gonna shoot your ass dead, boy!"
Ash and Pikachu got a fair distance away, gunfire distantly echoing in the building's halls. "Pikapi!" 'Ash, that nutcase is going to KILL us. You have to get over that hangup-' Pikachu started before Ash stopped.
"Protect Misty and the others. Get those Cipher punks out of the arena, too." Ash said before reaching into his shirt, pulling out a small metal key.
"Pika?" 'You're actually going to-' Pikachu said before cutting himself off. "Pi." 'This is unlike you.'
"These people want to conquer the world. They're like Team Galactic." Ash said, ripping the loose necklace from his neck, holding the key to the arms locker his weapons were stored in. "And they don't care who they hurt. It's self-defense as far as I'm concerned."
"Pika-pi." 'Well then let's get moving.'
A round glanced off the concrete above them. "You're dead, boy!" Miror B shouted, firing off another shot that grazed Ash's arm.
"Pi- KA!" 'Will you FUCK OFF!' Pikachu shouted, letting loose a Shadow Bolt that tore across the hallway ceiling towards Miror, sending chunks of concrete falling as it did so. Miror swore and dove for cover.
"Let's go!" Ash shouted, bolting down the opposite direction.
Oak Ranch - 1139 hours local time
The moment things went wrong on the radio, Belladonna and the Professor gathered all of Ash's Pokemon for one purpose: war.
Well, Belladonna gathered them: she had longer legs then he did, not to mention she was younger, while the Professor scrambled to do something to help.
As the regional professor (and first champion of the modern Kanto League, but who remembered THAT?) Oak had access to the shutdown commands for Indigo Plateau's teleport dampeners. A massive amount of trust, you may say. But given that Samuel Oak's greatest and only ambition was to learn more about Pokemon and his Pokemon were content to train the next generation, he WAS the best person to give the codes to.
So as it stood, he had to get Ash's pokemon to him ASAP - even if it meant taking down the field, which at this point wouldn't really change all that much since Cipher was attacking using bloody Zeppelins.
"Mi?" Oak glanced down, noticing the small rag-like Pokemon Mimikyu staring up at him in concern.
"...you're going first." Oak stated, "Get into your ball - Ash is gonna need you, and everyone else."
"Mi?" the Disguise Pokemon said before a strange...purple Pokemon came in, saying "Poi!"
"Took me almost forever to get him here." Belladonna said, panting as she caught her breath. "Think he's going to need the new guys?"
"Other than the Ultra Beast?" Oak said as he sent Mimikyu to Indigo, programming the teleporter to automatically release her on arrival. "Do you know how many calls I've gotten from that gibberish-spouting man about Ash getting a Poipole?"
"Yeah, wasn't talking about needle-boy here." Belladonna said, patting the alien Pokemon's head. "I meant the Machop, Bellsprout and Houndour. You know, the ones-"
"They're in recovery, Bell: you know that." the old man said. "He'll have to make due with the ones he's already got."
"Good thing I'm a poison master." she said, smirking. "I've been teaching the guy some new tricks." she then returned him, tossing the ball to her boss/surrogate grandfather, who sent it on through. "...I'm not getting the Muk. I hate Muk."
"Get the rest of them: I'll get the Muk!" the professor said, sending through Ivysaur, Hawlucha, Staravia and Noibat, hoping they would help Ash survive this new incursion.
Indigo Coliseum Skybox - 1138 hours
"When the hell is Samuel going to override the dampeners?!" Lance yelled, wanting to get all of his team here to make these remnant Cipher bastards get the hell off his lawn.
"They need to spin down anyways." Cynthia said, moving to leave. "I'm taking the fight to them. You want to come along-"
Gunshots were heard outside the room, the security guards having a battle of their own with Cipher Peons, probably ones that had infiltrated the building.
"Well, that's not good." Gaffery said, his Gible jumping off his lap. "Time for plan B."
"What, agitate the Moltres?" Steven asked. "If it uses anything BUT the lightest flamethrower, it will kill not only the Cipher fools, but EVERYONE ELSE, too! Overheat will flash-boil us alive-"
Blaine scoffed. "Young man, we are all aware of how dangerous a Legendary using normal attacks is." said the Cinnabar gym leader. "Anything can and will kill us if aimed improperly, which is the only reason the fire crane ISN'T blasting everything!"
"No." the psychiatrist said before taking off a panel covering the electricals for the lighting and PA system. "We're going to take the fight to Peons."
Gaffery stuck his hand into the box, reaching around several times before finally grabbing what he was looking for.
"Brace the door." he said, grunting. "Getting these out is going to be a pain."
"What, a wrench?" Erika said before doing as he asked, locking the door and shoving a chair in front of it for good measure.
"No." he said before withdrawing… a handgun with… a flashlight?... attached under the barrel. Smirking, he casually tossed it to Lance, who fumbled the catch, as that toss broke many firearm safety rules.
"What the hell, Gaffery?!" he yelled before checking the weapon, seeing there was no magazine before brass checking it; pulling back the slide to make damn sure there wasn't a round chambered. There wasn't. "You keep guns in the skybox?!"
"I'm not just the League shrink, Lance: you know that." Gaffery said, retrieving another one and tossing it to Cynthia, who brass-checked it as well. "Former Elite Four and all that. I helped build this place."
"Well, that's great: a bunch of empty guns." Cynthia said. Gaffery withdrew a third and final gun before pulling out a small case, which he opened as soon as it was clear, showing it to be filled with magazines and separate, large bullets. "Never mind. What's with the other rounds?"
Gaffery took two magazines, loading one into the weapon before taking all the larger rounds and stuffing them in his pockets. "You'll see." he said cryptically, giving their guest a look. "Shame rich boy can't pay them to fuck off, right?"
"Yeah," Kyril said, with a slight gleam in his eye. "Real shame, that. Well, I suppose Rin and I should get going. We're not trainers, so even with guns we might be better suited in a shelter."
Obviously, they weren't going to just sit around in a shelter, but he had to at least pretend they were. To keep up appearances.
It was a good thing that the Indigo Plateau 'Marauder Base' was actually underneath the stadium. Oh, sure, there was the standard 'Pernon Group cover facility' connected to it elsewhere, but Kyril was paranoid. And given that he attended these conferences as one of the key backers, it made sense to add a secondary entrance through the stadiums.
That being said, they were still stuck in the room, with a single door and a hallway filled with pissed Orreans.
"And you weren't referring to me?" Steven asked, half smiling.
"All your profits go to the League in one way or another." Gaffery said before loading a big bullet into the underbarrel attachment, which they thought was a flashlight, but was a smoothbore launcher, taking cover by the door. "They're going to be in for a nasty surprise."
A Peon put a shotgun by the door handle, preparing to shoot it off.
All the big League honchos were here. If they got them, the former URN was screwed.
He pulled the trigger, blasting it off before breaching the room. All he got for his trouble was a bullet to the eye, punching through his helmet visor and going into his brain.
More Peons followed, but they were also shot at, their thin steel armor only good enough to stop normal pistol caliber bullets, but the ones that Gaffery, Lance and Cynthia were using were essentially mini-rifle rounds, punching through and causing terrible, terrible damage to their insides. Then Gaffery fired the underbarrel, which hit a target, which happened to be a Peon, and exploded.
The man chunked, spraying the next three men behind him in blood and meat chunks. Shrapnel tore through the first man and pieced through three others, dropping one and disabling the other two.
By now, the twelve man squad had been reduced to a measly four, with only two of them really able to put up any resistance. The last two were easily dealt with, as Gaffery's Gible made himself known, tearing one peon's weapon in half with a single bite, taking some fingers with it.
The last combatant turned at his comrade's screams and raised his rifle, only to drop as Gaffery socked him with his pistol.
"Palkia's wings, I thought that was just a launcher for a bigger bullet," Erika said as she carefully made her way out of the room and into the now-clear hall. "Might I suggest we get our Pokemon and clear out the facility?"
"Moltres can't blast those airships, so-" Lance said, knocking out the peon holding his bloodied hand. Roaring was heard from a Garchomp, Charizard and Goodra in the distance. "…I suppose Mr. Ketchum will buy us time to get our Pokemon onto the field."
Gaffery reloaded his weapon. "I'll take point: Cynthia, take up the rear." he said, making the Johto-born champion scowl at him.
Kyoji punched a Peon in the face - stealing his shotgun and blasting him in the torso. "Gible!" He called out.
Du-dun, du-dun,du-dun! Gible's yellow fin snaked around the earth, leading up to a very confused peon - before suddenly he was absorbed into the earth up to his shoulders. Gible popping out of the dirt, smiling.
"Good, now a few-" Kyoji began to say, before there was a high-pitch scream.
"OH MY GOD IS THAT GIBLE YELLOW?!"
Kyoji glanced… and sighed as he saw the strange pink-haired girl standing there - looking at his Gible with starry eyes. "Oh my god he's like, SO CUTE!" She gushed.
"Yeah, he's cute alright." Kyoji nodded.
"Awww… if you don't resist, we can make him stronger you know!" The woman said pointedly.
"…tempting, but no." Kyoji shook his head, "I like my Gible nice and un-shadowified…" He glanced around for a moment, making sure the area was clear before he sighed. "Ya know what, I gotta ask… I'm sorry, miss…?"
"Lovrina!" She stated proudly. "And you?"
"Kyoji - look, Lovrina…" Kyoji shook his head. "...why exactly do you want to make Shadow pokemon? I mean… you seem like a nice girl and all, but… what's the point of turning Pokemon into these shadow monsters, when all they've done is make the world worse?"
"Have you SEEN Orre?!" she demanded. "It's all but desert! And it's not our fault, either! We gotta have Shadow Pokemon because no Pokemon live in Orre! We gotta make them stay! They get more powerful when they get all Shadowed up, too!"
"Sure they're more powerful, but they can't be controlled." Kyoji deadpanned, "Also, what's stopping Orre from getting a bunch of life-oriented Pokemon from spreading life? Put a couple plant-types, fairy-types, water-types and ground-types together, and you can quickly make a thriving ecosystem. Plus, if you could provide transport, Xerneas could probably be able to help… pretty sure the only reason Xerneas hasn't gotten to Orre sooner is because she can't swim."
"That damned tree deer can fly! She hates us!" Lovrina snapped.
"Why would Xerneas hate you?" Kyoji questioned, "She loves all life."
"Because Yveltal gave us the power to make Shadow Pokemon!" she said, releasing a cat-like Pokemon, which had a purple mane and three whip-like ends to the tail.
"Then ask her for forgiveness and admit you fucked up," Kyoji sighed, pulling up his confiscated shotgun. "Better that than to keep torturing poor Pokemon like this, and letting them go rampant on the world."
"We can control them better! Now, hand over the Yellow Gible!" Lovrina said before the Delcatty started growling, her right eye twitching.
Kyoji glanced at Gible, who looked back. "Do you wanna be a Shadow?" He asked.
"Gib." 'No thanks, I'm good.' Gible shook his head.
"My Gible does not consent," Kyoji stated, pumping the shotgun. "And neither do I."
"Well, too bad!" Lovrina said as Delcatty's twitching got worse and the Shadow Pokemon's glow showed that it entered 'Reverse Mode.' "You don't get a choi-" She was cut off as she watched her Delcatty turn its gaze towards her, twitching menacingly.
Kyoji watched as the Shadow pokemon glared at Lovrina. "…I'm sorry, what was that you said about 'being able to control them better'?" He asked, with a deadpan expression.
The cat then looked at Gible, pouncing on the land shark, who simply ducked into the concrete. Gible could seemingly swim through anything.
'I wonder… what do Shadow pokemon say?' Kyoji thought, as he looked at the Delcatty and tried to listen to it…
"DEL! DEL! DEL! DEL!" 'KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!' cried the Delcatty as it chased the yellow fin of the land shark.
'...You know, I don't know what else I was expecting…' Kyoji sighed, glancing at Lovrina. "Case and point… you literally cannot control Shadows."
"T-This doesn't prove anything!" Lovrina exclaimed.
"It's literally shouting 'Kill' over and over again."
"How do you know that?!"
"I can talk to Pokemon - you learn a lot of things when you can understand what they're saying."
Lovrina blinked. Then she sighed. "Just wanna do what's best for Orre," she said. "Cipher's doing something and no one wants to help us."
"Just because Cipher is doing something, doesn't mean it's the best thing for Orre." Kyoji said, taking a step forward. "And no one's helping Orre because they are terrified of the Shadows you created, and never stopped creating. Cipher isn't helping Orre… it's only going to make it worse for Orre if they keep this up."
A Staraviaswooped in and used Wing Attack on the normal-type cat, followed by a Swellow forming a ball of air in her mouth and unleashing Boom Burst on the Delcatty, launching it into the now-unoccupied stands higher up on the western side.
The Shadow distracted, Kyoji took the chance to glare at the Moltres, who was still just roosting there. "AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" he demanded.
"Mol!" 'I'm sorry, do you WANT me to kill every human here? I do anything but Flamethrower, that's what will happen!' the bird cawed back. "Moltres!" 'You think I want to sit here, doing nothing?! I want to KILL these Yveltal worshippers!'
Kyoji pointed to the Zeppelins still high in the air. "Then shoot the guys that are still way up in the air!" He exclaimed. "There's enough distance!"
Moltres looked up at the airships, blinking once before nodding. "Mol." 'Okay, fair enough.' The Bird acknowledged.
"…holy crap, you can talk to Pokemon…" Lovrina muttered.
Moltres took off, cawing before taking a breath, lobbing a Fire Blast at the lead airship and setting the outer skin on fire. but the ship's lifting gas was not igniting. That being said, it was helium, after all: helium didn't burn.
But the gas bags expanded, the hot frame melting the bags before they punctured, venting the gas into the surrounding area.
And everyone knows what helium does.
"…well now," Kyoji muttered, with a far more high-pitched voice. "I should have thought that one through… gonna be hard to take this fight seriously now…"
Gible then surfaced, taking a deep breath. "Gible!" 'Funny gas!' said the land shark in a VERY high pitched voice.
"…AWWWWWWWW!" Lovrina gushed as Gibles new voice - her own voice now equally high-pitched.
Moltres slammed into the wreckage, attempting to make sure it landed away from the building. After all, there were still thousands of people trying to escape the stands and if it fell...helium voices or not, it would not be funny to hear their screaming.
"Well, as fun as this was talking to you, I still have a job to do, so… surrender your Pokemon or suffer the consequences." Lovrina said, helium still making her voice insanely high-pitched.
"You're not getting Gible," Kyoji retorted, Gible nodding with him.
"You don't have a choice!" she said, tossing out another Pokeball. "Go, Altaria!" the ball opened, releasing the massive cloud bird, the roar revealing it was a Shadow Pokemon as well.
"You people are crazy."
"We need to do this, for Orre!" Lovrina exclaimed. "Now, Altaria, use-" the Altaria began to twitch, violently so. "OH SON OF A-"
Away from Kyoji, things were less funny, Helium or no helium. A Shadow Mawile chased after Misty, whose Starmie and Staryu hit the fairy/steel-type with Hydro Pump, but the Deceiver Pokemon was relentless, powering through the pressurized water, slowly but surely making its' way to Misty, getting to Staryu before using the massive secondary mouth on its' back to bite down on the starfish, crushing the rock it was made of, then tossing it like a shuriken into a seat, going through the steel.
"Kiya!" 'Stay the hell away from my trainer, you psychopathic freak!" Starmie cried, redoubling its' efforts to stop the literal iron pokemon.
"Maw…" 'But she looks so tasty…' said the Mawile, which would have made the sea star blanch if it were possible.
"Ya!" 'Screw you! You're not getting to my sister!' Starmie snapped before adding psionic might to the mix, using Psybeam on the corrupted Mawile.
But the insane Shadow Pokemon continued its' march.
"Bay!" 'Hey!' yelled a surprise as the steel-type was barrelled over by something much faster and just as heavy.
The steel-type slammed into a chair, metal screaming as the Pokemon tore into the seats, it tore into more of them getting up, finding the one that slammed into it.
It was a grass-type from Johto. Bayleef. "Bayleef!" 'I might not want her to get together with Ash, but stay the fuck away from her!' Ash's Bayleef yelled, whipping her head-leaf to send Razor Leaves at the Mawile, who batted them away, screeching as it charged at the Johto starter, who charged back, running up stairs as Mawile ran down, lowering her head to ram into the Mawile.
The two Pokemon rammed into together, impacting their heads with enough force to crack the stairs under their feet as they grunted, pushing for supremacy. But Bayleef summoned forth her Vine whips, which wrapped around the Steel-type's neck, as she added the extra force to push it down into the ground.
"Bay…" 'Stay…' Bayleef reared up on her back feet. "Leaf!" 'Down!' Bringing down her feet, Bayleef Stomped, and Stomped and Stomped, pushing the Shadow deeper and deeper into the concrete.
But while it won in the end, in the short term, nature was no match for the power of steel. The Mawile powered itself back to its feet, blasting Bayleef away with a Shadow-powered Sucker Punch. The abomination's trainer cackled before he abruptly stopped.
"Maw…" 'Stupid. Now you're food.' said the glassy-eyed steel-type. Bayleef simply chuckled in reply.
"Bay." 'I wasn't trying to beat you.' she said before Mawile's head turned around, feeling air pass over it…
Charizard, holding its trainer by the neck, glaring at the Deceiver Pokemon. Snarling, he snapped the Peon's neck, snorting smoke out of his nostrils.
"Char." 'Get the fuck away from my sister.' demanded the Flame Pokemon, tossing the body away. Grabbing the Mawile, he tossed it into the air before torching it with Flamethrower. Steel was no real match for fire. As the Shadow fell, Charizard used Dragon Claw on it to bat it into an empty set of chairs, the steel-type suffering heavy burns from the fire. Finally Bayleef used her vines to toss the Mawile's ball at the Shadow Pokemon, returning it.
"Bay." 'Nice.' she said, seeing the hundreds of Cipher Peons swarming the arena before looking at her Kanto counterpart. "Leef." 'We got our work cut out for us, huh?'
Charizard watched as Froakie did what ninja did best, eliminating the distracted Peons while Pokemon like Ivysaur and Squirtle got their attention while that Trapinch that came with the Sinnoh and Hoenn teams used his jaws to break their legs.
"Zar." 'It'll be a workout.' the starter said simply. "Char." 'Maybe you'll evolve this time.'
"Bay?" 'And have Sceptile mooning over me?' she retorted. "Lee." 'No thank you.'
Fletchinder was enjoying being her bigger self. It wasn't Talonflame, but it would do. She used Brave Bird on a Shadow Gloom, knocking it out of the fight before it could hurt Froakie, who didn't see it behind him.
The ninja frog gave her a grateful nod before diving back into the fray.
A Shadow Magmar rushed at her, screaming something she couldn't quite get before Squirtle blind-sided him, using Brine on the damn thing. Nodding her thanks, she looked up at Moltres, who was cawing overhead, ripping into the side of one of the blimps with its talons.
Now THAT was a Legendary. On fire, no bells or whistles, just a bird that happened to embody fire in its purest form.
'Don't get distracted.' she thought, going back to the fight. 'You have a bunch of idiots to deal with.'
At least Tranquill was having fun beating the crap out of someone.
And so were Jigglypuff, Monferno and Starav-Nope. He evolved while fighting a Shadow Swellow. Staraptor, then.
Fletchinder decided to focus on the fight. Everyone else was fine.
Snorunt used Ice Beam on a Shadow Cubone, freezing it into a block before moving on to another target.
He hadn't evolved yet, despite training every freaking day with everyone, practicing his moveset like a madman.
So why the hell wasn't he turning back into a damn Glalie?!
A roar was heard as a Shadow Salamence flew overhead, heading for Pidgeot, who was busy Hyper Beaming some Shadow normal-type into the ground.
"Sno!" 'Pidgeot, look out!' he cried, using the strongest Ice Beam he could manage to defend Ash's first flying-type from the dragon, the cool beam of ice energy hitting the dragon in the right wing, making it veer into somewhat empty stands. One person was crushed by the falling dragon as it thrashed about, throwing them into a steel chair, their head colliding with a metallic thud.
The Dragon Pokemon roared, getting back on its feet, glaring at Snorunt, who did not bother running away. He'd faced worse. He survived the end of the universe.
Well, Ash brought him back, but still.
"Sno!" 'Come and get me!' he shouted, charging up an Ice Beam in his arms as the dragon ran at him, screaming bloody murder - literally - as it came towards him.
"Runt-Sno!" 'Screw you!' Snorunt yelled, firing an Ice Beam four times the usual strength, almost to the point where he blacked out.
The Salamence, on the other hand, was hit with the frosty beam, freezing the head solid. The dragon slid on the concrete, and bounced. The neck and shoulders following suit along with the wings.
"Geot?" "What the hell was that?" Pidgeot asked before looking at the Salamence. "Pidgeot!" 'Nice work, Glalie!'
The ice-type blinked before seeing that he wasn't touching the ground, but hovering over it. He was back to normal. "Gla!" 'About time!' he cried. Then, suddenly, he wanted to take a nap.
He fell to the ground, face-first. Then again, Glalies were all head.
"Okay… my last Pokemon… Farfetch'd, please just… do as I say, please…" Lovrina begged at her last Pokemon, which had the telltale signs of Shadow's on it.
Kyoji meanwhile still stood there - using his shotgun more like a cane, as Gible just dug around in a circle, waiting. "Five out of six of your pokemon have gone into rage-mode." He said calmly. "How does this not sink in yet?"
"I've had Farfetch'd for a while!" Lovrina shouted, "He won't-" The Farfetch'd let out a loud yell before it rushed back towards the battle in a mad dash - attacking anyone in his way. "…OH COME ON!"
"…and my point still stands." Kyoji sighed, Gible popping out with a nod. "You cannot control Shadow Pokemon, not for long at least. They go rogue and get people, Pokemon and themselves killed."
"…s-still!" She exclaimed, "You… you're outnumbered with everyone else! Please… I… I don't want anyone else getting hurt here, just… surrender your pokemon!"
"It won't happen," Kyoji shook his head. "We'll always stop you, no matter what you do…"
"You and what army?!" She shouted… as the ground suddenly began to rumble.
Du-Dun. Du-Dun. Du-Dun. Du-Dun.
Kyoji blinked, glancing at his Gible. "...since when could you do that in stereo?" He asked.
"Gib." 'Not me.' Gible Smiled. "Gible!" 'It's everyone else!'
"What do you…" Kyoji's eyes widened. "…oh my god…"
Kyoji wondered where Ash's Garchomp went. As soon as everything started, the Mach Pokemon flew off and disappeared.
Well, it made sense.
Johto and Kanto had a lot of Diglett. And a little known fact about Diglett… they co-evolved with Gible. Where there was one, there was usually the other.
And while they were easier to find in other regions, Gible were plentiful in Johto and Kanto, too.
A fin poked out of the ground, revealing a Gible, then another… and another… and a LOT of others.
"GIBLE!" cried the seeming army of land sharks.
And they remembered Cipher. And like all wild Pokemon, they had long memories and HATED the sight of the Cipher Peon.
"GIBLE!" they cried, swarming the stadium and attacking the Cipher forces, swarming a Shadow Lotad like piranhas, a Peon getting jumped by another angry Gible school…
It went on and on, Gibles even helping out a herd of Tauros that…
"How did Ash get his herd here?" Kyoji asked before a group of Gibles and a Gabite rushed at Lovrina.
Lovrina gulped, backing up trying to get away from the Gible army…
"Hold on there, little guys!" Kyoji called up, as his Gible stepped up - standing between them and Lovrina. "Gib!" 'Wait!'
In perfect sync, all of the Gibles and the Gabite stopped in their tracks, looking at Jaden and the yellow Gible in confusion.
"Gab?" 'Isn't… she with them?' Gabite asked, looking menacingly at Lovrina - who looked a mix between terrified and confused.
"Yes, but… let me and my Gible handle her, alright?" Kyoji pleaded. "Please?"
The Gibles looked at the Gabite, who then noticed Ash's Shiny Noctowl fighting another normal, Shadow Noctowl. Gabite made a Gabite warcry and led his Gible school to help the Shiny.
"…You…" Lovrina started before her Altaria slammed into the stands, groaning as something crawled out of the fluffy wings.
It was purple and batty. "Noi…" 'Never doing that again…' said Ash's Noibat.
"Look, you're obviously not very good at the whole conquest thing." Kyoji said. Gible nodded in agreement. "You're probably just going through this because you're trying to save Orre or something - and that in itself is a noble thing… but have you considered the lives you're endangering doing this? There are millions of people in Kanto; thousands here at this stadium today." Noibat flew past his head, a normal Gible going after him to help. "Did you think about them?"
"I…" Lovrina muttered… oddly enough her 'valley girl' voice dropped a bit, sounding more… normal. "N-No… but… t-they never think about us though! They've never tried to help us!"
"Because your Shadow Pokemon continue to make the world more and more dangerous for people to travel," Kyoji sighed. "Look… you seem like a nice girl and all, and you can probably do good things… but it's not with Cipher…"
"…yeah, Cipher made mistakes, but…" She spoke, "We… we need to do something! I… I can't just…"
"You can leave," Kyoji offered, "Start somewhere here in Kanto, Johto or literally anywhere else, and use it as a chance to help Orre."
"But I… I can't leave Cipher," She shook her head. "It's… all I've known, I… I can't abandon them…"
"…then I can at least offer you a chance to leave this place then," Kyoji said, picking up his weapon again. "Leave Kanto… and think very long and hard about what you really want to do…"
The pinkette looked at the army of land sharks… then ran away, heading for a line to the airship that was still airborne.
"Gib." 'I think we can save her.' said the yellow land shark.
"Hope so. Sometimes decent people are raised by pure evil." Kyoji said as a bullet narrowly missed his head, fired by a Peon with an SAA Revolver. "ASSHOLE!" He dropped to a knee as he aimed - firing the shotgun and blowing the Peon away. "Alright Gible, back to business!"
"Gib!" 'I love business!' Gible said before diving back into the concrete and doing the shark thing.
Weapons Storage - 1149 hours local time
Ash entered the room where Kyoji and all the others stored the weapons they were forced to carry for their own safety thanks to the Shadow Pokemon threat. Ash would be more than happy to let them rust and rot away, but Miror B was not playing fair, even with Pikachu drawing him off to give Ash time to get armed up.
A bullet grazed his shoulder, the massive round slamming into a wall. Ash grunted and ducked behind the rows of lockers as a shield.
"Damn, out of ammo." Mirror B said, swinging open his revolverand emptying it out. "Ther' ain't no way out of here, little Princy! Yer gonna die in here!"
Ash didn't say anything, using what little ninja training he had from the last timeline with Koga's sister Aya to remain as silent as possible.
"Nothin' ta say?" Miror B said as he flicked the revolver closed. "No yells 'a defiance, screaming that I'll neva win? Well, maybe you'll hear dis, Ash Ketchum."
Ash got to his locker, quietly putting in the barrel key and opening the locker, the squeaking making the giant poke-fo move towards him.
"Make it easy for me, why doncha?" the disco maniac said, rounding a corner… and only finding an empty row with one opened locker. "Ok, you're good. Give ya that. But we know all about you."
Click
"I doubt that," Ash said, his rifle pointed at the back of the disco man's head, having made his way to the row behind the one where his arms locker was while Miror B was rushing over and circled round to get behind him to get the drop on him.
Miror B smirked. "Nice touch." he said, raising his hands.
"Drop it and put your hands behind your head." Ash demanded, referring to the weird revolver. "I don't want to kill you, but I will if I have to."
"Really? And lose any information I got on your old timeline?" Miror B said, much to Ash's shock.
The man used that shock to spin around, kicking the rifle out of Ash's hands before blades, almost like ice skates, shot out of the soles of his disco boots, where he started to try and kick Ash in the throat.
Ash instinctively ducked backwards - narrowly avoiding the bladed feet. Rolling over, he got some distance before reaiming his handgun at him. "How the fuck do you know about that?" He demanded.
"Heh… it's funny, really…" Mirror B smirked. "We're both not all that different, actually… we all want the same thing."
"You're corrupting Pokemon into these… Shadow monsters." Ash growled. "We're nothing alike."
"Oh, yes we are." Mirror B chuckled. "After all… we both want to stop Cyrus, don't we?" Ash blinked at that. "Oh yes, we know about him… 60 years ago, we tried to stop him: we were going to use Shadow Pokemon to conquer the four original regions, and prevent his rise to power before he even started… of course, things didn't go quite as planned…"
"You mean you murdered millions and broke the world!?" Ash snapped, firing his homemade pistol at Miror B, who dodged the first shot with a twirl, the next two by bending over backwards.
"We had ta kill a lot a people: Cyrus was't eve' born yet!" Miror B said, disco dancing behind the rows of lockers to take cover from Ash's wild firing. "Can't do a dance wit-out steppin' on toes, right? I mean, they even got ME to join back up!"
Ash got his rifle back, sliding it back to him with his B broke cover and fired at him, forcing Ash to take cover again before Miror B's gun went dry.
"You don't look a hundred years old!" Ash snapped as he picked up the rifle, instinctively checking for damage. "Forty at most!"
"Yeah, well, when ya gotta Chansey tha uses a super-powered Heal Pulse on ya, it turns the clock back." Miror B retorted. "Nearly kills the thing, but it keeps da wrinkles off."
"…you're a piece of shit." Ash growled.
"I'm a piece of shit that's gonna save the world, and get worshipped by the masses." Miror B laughed as he launched himself forward. Ash fired - missed - but before he could be pierced by the blades, he rolled backwards and started running - making his way back towards the stadium firing back at the crazed man chasing after him.
"Ya can't run foreva!" Miror B said, firing at Ash. "You'll get tired eventually an' when that happens, Orre's gonna CELEBRATE the day ya died!"