Chereads / Pokemon: Shadow of Time / Chapter 55 - chapter 55

Chapter 55 - chapter 55

Shamouti Island - 2005 hours local time - Day 170 of Ash Ketchum's journey

"Damn it, I thought Ho-Oh killed that thing at Mount Battle!" Kyoji yelled as Lugia was blindsided by the Shadow Aeroblast, sending the legendary towards the rockface, slamming the Guardian of Shamouti into it.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" Ash called, the thunder mouse charging up and discharging a bolt of lightning at the corrupted Lugia, hitting it in the eye, making it scream in pain before a shell hit it in the face.

"Wait a minute…" Sabrina said before three more loud bangs preceded three more shells slamming into the corrupted Diving Pokemon, coming from one Nihon Navy Sakurajima-Class battlecruiser, which happened to be the Heart of Indigo.

"Ash, get your Pokemon here; ALL of them!" Misty snapped before looking at the corrupted Legendary. "I thought purifying Yveltal would purify that thing, too! Why is it still a Shadow Pokemon?!"

Robin groaned as she got used to being on solid land again. "He purified the source." she said. "That doesn't automatically purify every Shadow Pokemon on the planet. It just means making more will be excessively difficult, too difficult to be worth it."

Another salvo slammed into XD-001, allowing the Guardian of Shamouti to get back into the air. "Chosen of Arceus." he addressed to Ash. "I will require your aid. The spheres-"

"I know!" Ash called as he put in a command to his Pokedex. "I'll get the final orb, but you're going to need help with that Shadow Lugia AND the guy that wants to capture you!"

The Lugia nodded in understanding. "Then I will accept your aid." the legendary 'pathed before beating his wings, putting out his call to calm try and calm the Titans down. The birds just cried in confusion, not knowing which Lugia to obey. "Perhaps your comrades can help with the Titans of Fire, Ice and Lightning."

"What?!" Iris yelled. "We're no match for those things! That Articuno will tear Axew apart!"

Kyoji looked at Ash. "Do your Pokemon have a problem taking orders from other trainers?" he asked, Ash giving him a grin as an answer.

They didn't need to be under his command to help. And most of them wouldn't have a problem taking orders from Misty, Iris or Serena. And the ones that did…

Somehow, he doubted they would at all.

Pallet Town - 2008 hours local time

Belladonna stared at the screen, seeing requests for ALL of Ash's remaining Pokemon.

"Dear." her mother said as Cyndaquil lit himself on fire, much to Red's delight. "Your brother's in the middle of whatever's going on. I think he's going to need them."

She sobbed as she went outside to collect the Pokemon she was sure was out to kill her, the door closing just as the vid-phone went off, Professor Oak walking towards it and answering. "Ah, Professor Ivy." he said as the face of the purplette professor of the Orange Islands appeared. "I take it you're wondering just what's going on at Shamouti Island."

The professor whose theories extrapolated from Darwin's on the evolution of regional Pokemon nodded on the other end. "Indeed." she said, her deep drall not betraying any worry she had. "I would love to know why I suddenly have a metric ton of snow on my roof and the beaches are starting to freeze over. We're in the tropics, Samuel; of COURSE I'm starting to wonder."

Belladonna then came back in, a thin layer of frost covering her, which would make her already frizzy hair worse. "...COLD!" she yelled, almost at the top of her lungs.

"Cynda!" said Cyndaquil before he bounded over to Belladonna, whose eyes widened.

"NO." she said, to no avail, as the quil lit his back on fire before belching out embers, setting her on fire and prompting her to rush outside screaming.

Quilava and Meltan walked past her as she dove into the closest snowbank, before Glaile and Snorlax walked past her, Gible's fin smacking into her as he 'swam' through the ground. The land shark surfaced before making a happy Gib and latching onto her head… before realizing it was cold as hell and dragged her inside, still nomming on her head.

"Aw, Gible likes you." Red said as the land shark made a happy warble, then detached from her head and shook the clip off, Delia returning him to a ball before he turned into an overly large Garchomp and broke something.

Mother looked to youngest daughter. "Yellow, dear, can you-"

"Send Ash his Pokemon so he can solve whatever mess he's landed himself in?" Yellow cut off before taking the ball and getting up. "Sure."

Belladonna groaned something they didn't entirely get. "Blame Mimey." Yellow said as a retort before putting the ball on the machine. "This is gonna take a while."

Red jumped off the couch, smiling. "Want a hand?" he asked. "Given, well… Bell's kinda out of it…"

Belladonna just groaned in pain.

NS Heart of Indigo - Waters off Shamouti Island - 2020 hours local time

(BGM: Last Judgement - Resident Evil 2 Remake OST)

"Increase speed to three-quarters!" Nakajima ordered. "Main guns A and B, target the Pride of Opelucid, all starboard side secondaries and aft mains, salvo fire into that abomination!"

His orders were relayed, the forward turrets turning towards the Defiance-Class aerial warship, which was also shooting at the Hitokyu.

He had no idea what was going on and he didn't care. They had standing orders: the bitch was going down for all the bullshit she caused. The incident on the Germanic was just the last straw.

The Indigo lurched as the starboard 8-inch guns and rear 14s fired as one, their shells slamming into XD-001, the forward guns firing seconds later, two shells missing the flying target, but one grazed it and one hit home, tearing through the thin armor and exploding inside.

"Gotcha, bitch!" the XO cheered before realizing his captain was still there. Not that he cared at the moment.

"Gotcha, bitch, indeed." the captain said grinning.

J gripped the arm rests of her chair as the ship rocked and alarms went off. "Report!" she snapped.

"Indigo just fucked us!" reported her engineer as he looked at the holographic boards. "Damage to flotation units one through five, six and eight are just gone and reactor core temperature's rising beyond safe limits!"

J was known to be an uncaring bitch… but by no means was she going to tell her men to die doing this. "Evacuate the ship." she ordered. "I will not order you to die on this ship. Leave now and I'll take the controls."

The crew all looked at her in shock. After a moment, they shook it off, returning to work. "What the hell are you-I told you to leave!" she demanded.

"All due respect ma'am…" her gunnery officer said. "We're not going anywhere. You gave us a place to be. If you're going down, so are we!"

"SO SAY WE ALL!" the rest of the bridge crew called, running damage control to keep the ship in the fight.

The grey-haired bitch scoffed. "I don't deserve you idiots." she said playfully before steeling herself. "Once more into the breach! All guns: fire on the Hitokyu! Break that shield open! Once the guns can't fire, RAM THE DAMN THING!"

There would be no redemption for them. They were all criminals and monsters and knew it. But sometimes, it took evil to save the world.

So be it. Let Ketchum take the glory.

Kyoji had to admit, Ash had a good plan.

With the exceptions of any new captures as well as Pokemon from Hoenn, Sinnoh and Alola, most of Ash's team were placed under the command of their 'regional girl'. Misty had Snorlax, Totodile, Quilava and Heracross, for example, while Iris had Krookodile, Pignite and Oshawott.

If they couldn't fly, they were with the girl they were most familiar with.

New captures were put under Anabel and Robin's care: they knew them, they trusted them and they didn't have an issue with the girls being Ash's proxies, as Meltan took his place alongside Robin's Eeveelutions and Jigglypuff took place beside Anabel's psychics while the remaining regionnaires (Sabrina mentally whacked him for that pun) were left to them as well, even if they didn't like it.

Ash was left with all his flyers, sans Rowlet and Pidgeot. The little owl had no place in a war against gods and Pidgeot… it was almost impossible to keep her in place long enough to have Ash Mega Evolve her so she could seek revenge against Lawrance for what he did in the last timeline.

"You're not seriously going for that island, are you?" the soldier asked, even as his own team readied for battle. "Those are three out of control Legendary Birds, more powerful than the usual kinds you see all over the world, that nutcase collector, Hunter J AND Shadow Lugia! I mean, it's awesome, but shouldn't we deal with them first?"

Ash shook his head as Charizard kneeled to let him climb up, Pikachu following in short order. "Get the last orb, Melody can play her song and help Lugia calm them down and restore balance." he explained. "That takes them out of the picture. Pidgeot took being separated from me rather seriously-"

"GEOT!" "MEGA EVOLVE ME SO I CAN TEAR HIS EYES OUT!" cried the raptor, shaking with justified rage.

"I see." Kyoji dralled. "Just so you know, Gible is terrified of her."

Ash chuckled. "She's a nice bird." he said as Charizard snorted in amusement. "When she's not angry."

The yellow land shark hid behind Snorlax out of fear. "Gib…" 'Scary bird lady…' he said trembling.

Ash reached into his shirt and touched the Key Stone, which glowed, the Pidgeotite reacting and transforming her into a Mega Pidgeot before the enraged bird took to the skies.

"Good luck, Ash." Serena said, smiling sadly. "Come back to us."

Ash nodded before Charizard took to the air.

Snow crunched behind them. "Not cowards, I see." Of COURSE, the asshole Horusian would find them. "Merely unable."

"Do you HAVE to insult them?" Sabrina demanded of the old guard. "They're not going with him-"

"I know WHY they're not going, Gym Leader." he cut off. "Few, if any, of their Pokemon can fly, the sea is too dangerous and frozen over and all of my lord's flying-type Pokemon can't carry them into the battle and be effective at it. I am merely admitting I was wrong about them."

Sabrina blinked at the man as Ash made his way closer to Korijima. "I see." she said simply.

"Too annoyed to use your mental powers, I see." the man noted. "You want to help him? Get those things away from him so he can perform his duty! I will ensure the Navy idiots know theirs."

Kyoji smirked. "About that…" he trailed off.

"The Hitokyu?" Nakajima asked. "You're sure?"

"His Highness was held aboard the ship." the guard said over the wireless. "Lawrance will answer for his crimes against the crown. Shoot them both down."

"We don't answer to you, guardsman!" the XO snapped.

"He held several trainers, including Gym Leader Sabrina, captive and has confirmed to have been attempting to capture the Titans." the royal guard retorted. "You have orders to deal with those sorts of things. I suggest you get to it."

The line was cut, making the captain snarl in rage. "Rotan bastard!" he snapped. "Finish off the Pride of Opelucid and target the Hitokyu! I'll be having words with that bastard later!"

"Gunnery crews are having a hard time with the damn thing, Captain." the XO relayed from the forward gun crews. "They trained to fire on ships, not aircraft."

"It's a Defiance. One more shot and it'll crash." Nakajima spat. "And when this is over, I'll belt that bastard upside the head!"

Shadow Lugia flinched as he was hit with another salvo of shells, preventing him from charging another Aeroblast.

He sought death. The lives of others would sustain his lucidity for just one moment more.

But these lesser beings refused to DIE!

Then a Hyper Beam slammed into him, putting him into a spin. On the island were an army of Pokemon, including an overly familiar Goodra.

"CHARIZARD, BLAST BURN!" seconds later, plasma washed over his back, slamming him into the ice.

"Char!" 'How'd that feel, asshole?!' Charizard demanded before lightning nearly clipped his right wing, Zapdos using Thunderbolt to try and hit Charizard before Pikachu returned fire, hitting the Titan of Lightning in the face. But it did as expected: nothing but annoy the avatar of a god.

The rogue titan charged up again before a purple bat with blue wings latched onto the titan, the laws set by Arceus dictating exactly one thing: that the electricity would be channelled into the offending ground-type, who would be unharmed.

"Gli!" 'Gotcha!' Gligar cried as Zapdos tried to get him off his back. Literally. An Ice Beam slammed into Zapdos, the attacking Lapras following up with another one, clipping the wing, disloging the ground/flying-type.

A far more powerful Ice Beam nearly hit Gligar as Articuno swooped in, intent on killing Gligar and moving onto whatever was next. But a flaming comet slammed into the ice titan, Talonflame cackling as the ice bird screeched in pain before grinning. "Talon!" 'Watch this!' she cried before spewing fire onto the ice bird, making it worse.

Ash and Charizard looked at Talonflame, honestly curious. "When-" her trainer started. "No, I'm not going to ask how you can suddenly use flamethrower."

A screech got their attention as Moltres divebombed them from above, fire welling in his maw.

Pidgeot circled above, her new form watching the Hitokyu from a distance before her wings flashed silver and with a warcry, dived on the ship that cost her Ash in the last timeline.

It was petty. It was stupid.

She didn't give one flying FUCK.

(BGM: Sol Squadron - Ace Combat 7)

Flying energy enveloped her as Brave Bird took hold, giving a hard STA boosted edge to her Steel Wing, making it even deadlier.

"GEOT!" 'THIS IS FOR TAKING ME AWAY FROM HIM!' she cried before slamming into the shield, which rippled before shattering like glass, the bird forcing her way in, eying the supports with her steel-coated wings, doing a roll to get closer before extending her right wing, steel snapping under the might of the descendant of Arceus' iron wings, propeller shafts falling away before rising again. Destroying his ship wasn't enough.

And so she used Tailwind, Quick Attack, Steel Wing and Brave Bird, diving on the bridge. For his sins, he would pay. Life, death or livelihood, all were acceptable.

No one took her away from her family!

"The shield is down!" the sensors officer yelled, even as his post caught fire.

"Helm, ramming speed!" J ordered without hesitation. They were all dead anyway. "It's been a pleasure, gentlemen. You can still evacu-"

"We're with you to the end, ma'am." her exec cut off. "RAMMING SPEED!"

"Warning! Damage to shielding system!" the AI warned. "Weapon systems failing!"

"Redirect power to the shielding grid!" Lawrence ordered as he saw the Pride of Opelucid suddenly thunder forward. "Redirect it NO-"

He was cut off by the shattering of the command bridge's tempered glass, with a Mega Pidgeot diving through it, just missing him before tearing through the steel deck, the ship beginning to bend and break from the strain and damage it had sustained.

One broken and sharp shard of glass spun towards his neck, Lawrence only realizing that it would hit him when it was too close to even try to avoid, sticking into his neck like a shark biting into a whale.

The world would later say that for his hubris in trying to contain the gods, this was punishment and a rebuke.

The Pride of Opelucid rocked and shuddered as it impacted the Hitokyu, slamming into the main concourse as the engines failed.

"Dead in the water." J said as the Pride came to a stop, only for the ship to shake again as something slammed into it, alarms ringing anew. "THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

Her sensors operator smacked his console. "Normal/Flying-type, fully evolved! From the speed of impact, I'd say it was a Mega Pidgeot!" he reported before things got a lot worse. "Heart of Indigo is turning ALL of her guns on us! Ma'am, if they hit the reactor core, they'll make it as bad as a bomb; we're on the edge of a nuclear explosion anyways!"

"We weren't planning to get out of this anyways." J said. "One last effort. Fire the engines and get us as deep into that thing as you can. If Nakajima wants to kill us, he'll take us AND my insane brother at the same time!"

Metal screamed as the Unovan-built ship was hit with more naval artillery, the explosion snapping the bridge off and sending it into the sea. J, not wearing restraints, was flung out of the ship, cursing that Ketchum likely had her Salamence.

She didn't want to die. Not without her crew. Call her a monster for her deeds if you wanted.

But no one should die alone. Not even Hunter Jeanette.

But she would. And at the hands of the Titan of Ice, as Articuno still struggled with Talonflame and an Ice Beam slammed into the human.

"Gyarados, Snorlax, Hyper Beam!" Misty ordered the two Pokemon on the cliff. "Keep Shadow Lugia from using Aeroblast and give Lugia as much room as you can!"

The massive sleeper and sea serpent inhaled and spat out the most powerful Normal-type attack, Snorlax's missing, but only just, while Gyarados' smacked into the corrupted legendary's legs.

Being five miles out wasn't helping with their aim, but most of their Pokemon were land-locked, with only Lapras sitting on the ice, spewing Ice Beams at Zapdos while Garchomp wrestled with Moltres, firing a single Draco Meteor into the Fire Bird's head before the pseudo-legendary bit hard on the crane's neck, making it cry in pain.

"Nice shot!" Kyoji said as his Gible spat lightning into the sky, the weakened thunderbolt hitting Moltres and causing mild irritation before Garchomp dived for the sea, slamming him into the ice.

"Shame our Rocket 'friends' can't do anything." Sabrina commented as the guard glared at them.

"Most of our Pokemon are poison-types and the only ranged attack we have is Poison Sting!" Jessie objected. "Unless you want us to poison everyone here?"

"Doing so would result in me ending your lives." the old man snapped. "I don't entirely agree on my lord's choices, but they're worthy enough."

That made all of the Rockets back away slowly.

"Why do you always think violence is the answer?" the Slowking caretaker asked the guard.

"Overcompensation for my failure to protect my last charge." the guard answered. "I have no intention of failing twice."

The Royal Pokemon nodded solemnly. "True. But consider other methods, please." he implored the Rotan commander.

"I make no promises."

Attacks continued to come from the Pokemon on the cliff, the only Pokemon not involved being the Tauros herd.

The ones Ash had were hard enough to coordinate.

Korijima - 2058 hours local time

Charizard soured through the caves, Ash clinging to his back as they sped towards the shrine.

"Char?" 'You went this way with the TRio last time?' Charizard asked.

Ash nodded. "They were the nicest I'd seen until then!" he answered before they exited the tunnel, arriving at the shrine, covered in ice. "Charizard, mind melting the ice? It's worse than last time, so-"

"Char!" 'Don't wanna slip saving the world? Got it!' Charizard said before inhaling and belching out a gentler flamethrower, slowly melting the ice, turning it into easier to manage water.

That was interrupted by the fall of a god. Literally, as Zapdos slammed into the lip of the crater, a black and purple scorpion-bat with red limbs falling to the ground as Zapdos just gave up the fight.

"Gliscor…" 'Ow… just… OW…' moaned the newly-evolved Fang Scorpion Pokemon.

"Char." 'Huh. Well, it is the middle of the night.' Charizard quipped, as Gligar could only evolve under two conditions: having a Razor Fang and after sunset. It was most definitely after sunset and Gligar had been holding onto a Razor Fang he had gotten his hands on at the lab.

"You did good, Gliscor." Ash said before returning the bat to a ball, then having Zero transfer him back to the Ranch. "Let's get this done." With that, he ran to the bird statue, gripping the ice orb and pulling it out, the faint glow proving it was real.

Then a super-powered bolt of plasma tore through the crater, making a massive hole, allowing something worse inside, as the head of XD-001 poked in, screaming at Ash.

Charizard got between him and the pissed off Legendary, roaring before gathering plasma in his mouth, preparing to Blast Burn the corrupted Pokemon before it could charge another Aeroblast, which they had no chance of dodging in the crater.

But charge it did, a ball of plasma forming in his maw, murderous intent in his eyes.

Then they all heard an angry cry coming from above. Angry and familiar.

"…eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHH!" came the murderous warcry of a Galaran Farfetch'd, Night Slash enveloping his leek as said leek smacked Shadow Lugia in the neck, wrenching his head skyward before the Aeroblast could fully form, the beam missing and simply going into the sky harmlessly.

The pissed off Galaran bird landed on the ice, leek on his shoulder like a bastard sword as he glared at Lugia. "Fetch." 'Go. I'll hold the abomination off.' Farfetch'd declared as he glared at the Shadow Lugia, who roared before a green and white form landed on its' head.

"Rowl." 'Hi.' Rowlet said before pecking the Shadow Legendary in the eye, which recoiled in pain and tried to get him off. Ash climbed onto Charizard's back, Pikachu using Thunderbolt once more on XD-001 for good measure.

"Pika!" 'Bastard just won't STAY DOWN!' the electric mouse yelled as Charizard took to the air.

XD-001finally shook Rowlet off before charging another Aeroblast, firing it at the grass owl, fully intent on incinerating the grass-type.

"ROWLET!" Ash yelled as Charizard headed back to Shamouti, Shadow Lugia roaring in triumph before grass grew through the ice, tying the abomination to the ground.

A much larger owl emerged from the smoke. "Dart." 'Not today.' said the owl before taking to the air. "DARTRIX!" 'NOT TODAY!'

"FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHH!" yelled Farfetch'd, rushing at the corrupted Lugia, veins in his eyes all but popping under his desire to beat the living shit out of the Shadow Legend.

Shore near the Temple of the Guardian, Shamouti Island - 2109 hours local time

Drapion collapsed as he dragged his mistress ashore, all but frozen solid.

The battle was nearing its' end, the Indigo limping her way back to port while the Titans of Shamouti were down for the count, having been knocked out by Ketchum's team and the Pokemon of his harem while XD-001 had been hit by everything short of one of the Indigo's tactical nukes and was fleeing like a scolded Meowth.

The hunter examined her state, the cold all but making feeling impossible as she tried moving her left arm, only to feel nothing move. She looked and noticed why.

Because the arm wasn't there, only a stump that was all but frozen through. Her legs also refused to respond.

"Down to just an arm." came the voice of someone she did not want to see. "How the mighty have fallen."

J looked up, seeing Kyoji Akamura with a Grotle, Staraptor, Infernape and Buizel all glaring at her, soon joined by Ketchum's Garchomp, carrying a tired Gliscor in his maw as he landed with a thud on the rocks.

"His… Sinnoh captures." she choked out. "You must be all so damn happy to see me like this."

"I'm pretty sure Ash would like you to live behind bars for the rest of your godforsaken life." Akamura said. "His Pokemon would rather you suffer, though. They take what you did really seriously."

The woman scoffed. "You weren't there. And I was clearly out of my mind." she said. "Seek vengeance and get it over with. I'm dead anyways."

"Not my call." Kyoji said before looking to the Pokemon gathered there. "Up to them."

Infernape snorted before turning his back on her, followed by Grotle and Buizel. Garchomp's eye narrowed before taking to the air, Staraptor just walking away.

"Slow and painful it is." Kyoji summed up before looking her in her one functioning eye. "May Arceus judge you and find you wanting." with that, he turned away, leaving her on the rocks.

Doomed to die alone. Well, her brother was dead for sure.

"Not alone," said a female voice as feet crunched on the snow, a woman in white kneeling to look at her. "You have done so much harm. Do you regret it?"

The crippled and dying hunter sobbed in pain. "Only that I killed everyone," she choked out. "I didn't… I thought…"

"You did what you did for greed. And for that, judgement shall be passed," the woman said sternly, but warmly. "But you did not seek the end of all life. For that, your punishment shall be lessened. But not revoked."

J looked at the woman, who seemingly had a glow to her. "Who…" she tried to ask.

"Pass into Giratina's embrace, child," the woman said, putting a single finger on J's forehead. "Pass, be judged, endure and know that your next life will be better."

Blackness took her, just as she heard the music of Lugia's Song.