Chapter 208: Days like this

Chapter 208: Days like this

“Hyper Barrage! Full Broadside!” roared the Aqua Commander.

The full wave of pokemon rose up like a firing line from my past life.

Maws stretched wide as energy coalesced. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and something dark put its hand on my shoulder like it was half a step away from claiming me.

I knew without looking that I and the others with me were now staring death in the face.

A full barrage of Hyper Beams was a great opening move.

If this had been anyone else facing them, they would have probably won the battle then and there.

Sadly for them, we Guardians had veterans of the old wars and were wise to their tactics of full broadsides.

“Protection detail!” shouted Koga even as pokemon shifted about, moving with alacrity to where they needed to be in a heartbeat.

A heartbeat was all they had after all as within the next, the Hyperbeams were unleashed causing a roar that filled the room shaking it as powerful beams of energy came at us.

Our pokemon were up to the task however and they formed a blanket shield with Protect after Protect that led to an impenetrable wall.

The Beams slammed home against the impossibly strong Protects and caused a resounding boom that filled the room rattling and shaking everything around us.

One of the more delicate spires that rose up holding a light was cut through and toppled but the sound of it smashing into the ground was lost due to the onslaught of Hyper Beam.

Koga made a signal and we all nodded. From what he’d taught us, the ‘Broadside’ was a Team Aqua special that was practically their signature move when they grouped up. It was why it was always best to get them in small groups or attack them one on one. Usually, they only ever had one or two pokemon that could unleash a Hyper Beam.

When they got to six or more? Then things got as complicated as they could, if they were clever and well practised, rotate which of their pokemon were attacking us.

Hyper Beam after all had a recharge value while Protect had a failure risk after the second. It was unlikely that they’d get off more than three of any of their pokemon, but three wasn’t a number we could handle.

Even trying to absorb a second Broadside would be beyond suicidal.

We needed to counterattack and disrupt them.

Thankfully we had some of the best pokemon around for just that.

I stabbed my hand upwards and Don and Zephyr soared up taking the high ground as other pokemon ascended with them. From on high ghost, flying and psychic Pokemon unleashed their own attacks.

I saw beams and gusts of winds arc down only to be lost in the wave of flickering lights.

I felt the attack land as more rumbles rippled through the ground. I turned to Sanchez. “Any possibility of going under them?” I asked eying the hardened floor that looked like it had been made from a single piece of melted metal. That... could pose an issue for some of my pokemon.

Sadly my premonition regarding the floor proved correct as Sanchez stabbed a hand into it only to exert a lot of effort to drag his finger through a little of it.

“Go... lem,” he said sadly with a shake of his head.

I cursed. “Koga we’re not going to be able to tunnel under them unless we get them out of this building. The floor is made of something that is resistant to my pokemon digging through it.”

Koga merely nodded and I proceeded with my other options. “Sanchez thunder, launch it where they were last,” I said watching as the light show of the Hyper beams died away indicating that our pokemon up above were having some impact.

Sadly there was still a lot of smoke in the way, which made it tougher to line up a target directly. Once again, this was something we'd trained for.

“Sabrina! Call them out!” Agatha ordered as the Protect wall in front of us started to drop.

Sabrina’s eyes glowed as she connected with her Alakazam who paused in firing a Psybeam to instead act as a spotter for us.

Sabrina’s hands rose. “They’ve split into three clusters,” she said calmly, her hands stabbing in three directions. “The group on the left is about to unleash a barrage of Surf at us to buy themselves more time.”

I knew straight away what to do for that. I stabbed my hand forward. “Bertha! Tide! Ice Beam!” I roared. Both of my pokemon responded excellently; they unleashed cold blue energy where I’d indicated.

While I was doing that, Sabrina directed the others to line up on their own targets.

“Take down those hovering pokemon!” called a loud voice from beyond the smoke. I noted that it sounded like it was coming from the central most group which Karen and Sabrina were prioritising with a powerful pincher attack. Two Houndoom charged forward with an inferno encircling them just as Sabrina arced lightning up and over by using her Psychic pokemon to redirect the natural movement into something much more condensed and dangerous.

I gestured and Sanchez added his own spark into the forming lightning dragon that howled as it rose up and shot down.

It was loud, bright and very attention-grabbing.

Which made it the perfect distraction for Agatha’s ghost pokemon to slip into the Team Aqua lines and begin laying about themselves with cackling glee.

A flicker in the smoke was the only warning I got as a Sharpedo launched out of the smoke, fangs gnashing as it locked eyes on me.

Before it could devour me, Titan spun, his tail whipping about to slam down and pin the sharpdeo even as Shrek slid into position in front of me, his twin fists raised to punch out the threat.

This proved to be a very good call as a moment later a shimmer appeared and out of instinct more than any true understanding of what I was doing had me pointing at it. “Hydro Pump,” I called to Shrek and he unleashed, this causing a hidden Starmie to be revealed.

Hmmm, it seems we weren’t the only ones trying to slip daggers into our foes.

The smoke was starting to clear and I heard the Team Aqua commander once more speaking up. “Our boarding action is faltering! Shore up your lines!” he called.

Wonderful, nautical terms that obviously meant something to the Aqua members as they shifted and called orders to their pokemon, but might as well have been a second language to us.

When a Hitmonchan blurred across the gap towards my pokemon, Sabrina’s Farigiraf was suddenly in front of me, both heads smirking at the onrushing fighting type.

Hitmonchan still charged ahead however with both arms dropping back to run in what looked extremely uncoordinated. It reminded me of another anime where ninjas adopted a very odd running style.

I was about to turn away from the exchange when I felt dark energy building up around the hidden arms. I snapped my attention back and stabbed my hand forward.

“Selene! MB!” I called, knowing that Farigiraf was about to be Sucker Punched or take some form of Dark attack.

My prediction proved true, as Hitmonchan swung its arms up and charged through the Psybeam with its arms in a guard position, dark energy coating them. Then it leapt, one fist cocked back ready to punch out Farigiraf.

Selene intercepted it with a Moonblast that blew Hitmonchan out of the air, sending it skipping back to the Team Aqua lines.

That didn’t stop other pokemon from attacking us. Pelliper and Sharpedo launched themselves forward while other pokemon charged in. A Hitmontop spun towards Koga’s pokemon and I was surprised when I realised it was literally launching miniaturised Starmie and Stary with each spin like they were throwing stars.

That turned out to be a terrible decision though as Koga’s pokemon were more than up to the task of batting away the shrunken pokemon before launching a blistering combination of gas and fire to explode the battlefield in front of them.

Seeing all the pokemon charging in made me realise something.

The earlier order hadn’t been a ‘shore up the defences’ as I’d expected it to be, but rather an order to double down on attacking us.

A twang and a scream made me check to the side.

Annabelle had a small spear lodged in her shoulder and was on her knees as blood poured out. My eyes tracked along a small wire that led back to a smug-looking Aqua grunt with a speargun raised in her direction.

Annabelle’s team, responding to her cry of distress, doubled down and a wave of pokemon attacks blasted forward.

The smirking Grunt instantly paled and regretted his life choices as his pokemon and he were blown away. They slammed into the back wall with a sickening crack.

“Orderly! Orderly now!” roared the commander of the Team Aqua group. It struck me as a very odd shout as everything around them seemed more like chaos as pokemon moves were exchanged and blocked in turn with it being a riotous melee.

Koga appeared next to me. “Agatha! Karen Counter blow! Now!” he said, giving the order for our own version of a ‘full broadside’.

I didn’t say anything, merely spiked my aura with intent and fed it along to my pokemon. The only pokemon who didn’t realise what that meant was Empress but she knew enough to follow as Tide, Don, Shrek, Selene and other pokemon began to build up for their strongest attacks.

“Armour up!” roared the Aqua Commander as he realised what was happening and this time we unleashed upon them.

Unlike their attacks which relied heavily upon Hyper Beam. Other attacks such as Hydro Pump, Moon Blast, Psybeam, Shadow Ball and more were unleashed.

I mentally counted down in my head three seconds before spiking my intent again. The few pokemon I’d had using Hyper Beam stopped, once again with only Empress still disgorging her might.

I’d need to work with her on that. Power was good and all but I needed to apply when and where it was used. Especially in team situations like this.

Still, a single Hyper Beam that lasted longer than the others wasn’t enough to stop my next move.

“TITAN LEAD THEM IN!” I roared and Titan responded.

He rocketed forward having had time to prepare himself. At his side, Jorm and Knight followed all of them building up a corona of power as Giga Impact formed up and was unleashed with my pokemon acting like linebackers in a skirmish.

Or in this case, linebreakers. They cut a swathe through the Aqua team members trampling their defensive lines and emerging out the other side before slamming into the walls as they failed to dig in to stop themselves.

The impact caused a shake throughout the entire room and the pillars with lights on them tilted and crumbled. This caused the lights to smash and darkness to start claiming pockets of the room.

I flicked my eyes about for any falling debris that would hit me or the others but found nothing.

I turned my attention to my split-off pokemon and reached into the strained bond with Jorm. He was still close enough for me to feed energy to, so I prepared for the one-two of Giga Impact into Mega Evolution.

I was just pushing energy into the bond when a voice echoed out through the room.

“That, will be enough of that,” said a powerful voice that instantly had me looking around.

Sabrina shifted all of her focus from Team Aqua to looking around. “Mewtwo? We’re sorry about the damage that—” she started to say, only for something in the dark areas of the room to shift.

I saw movement and turned, eyes narrowing as I called up Dark energy. What had that—

“Pokeballs?” cried Karen in surprise having apparently already turned around herself.

I frowned, my mind lurching at the idea that Mewtwo was using... I felt a spike of fear run through me. The only pokeballs that Mewtwo used were dubbed as ‘Mewtwo ball or otherwise as clone balls’.

These had been notoriously powerful due to their ability to ignore that some pokemon were already housed in pokeballs. Worse, the pokemon didn’t even need to be out of their pokeballs. The movie had demonstrated that returning your pokemon wasn’t enough to stop them.

“Beware the pokeballs!” I shouted mind racing for a suitable excuse. “They might be explosives!” I said, ad-libbing a suitable excuse as black pokeballs with red eyes zipped forward.

She then turned back, her emotions spiking as she locked eyes with her hated foe.

Mewtwo scoffed. “I see, very well,” he said, lowering himself to the ground.

Through happenstance or fate, I wasn’t sure what to think, they were almost a perfect pokefield apart from each other.

I took another step back and swallowed down my worry/relief/fear all of which warred with each other in my stomach.

Empress stalked forward, claws flexing.

Mewtwo held his ground attention locked on Empress.

I heard a scuffle and the squeak of movement behind me only for a shout to sound out.

I didn’t turn my head to find out what was going on, I was too invested in this fight.

Empress continued to stalk forward, her tail grating along the metal floors and raising an unholy shriek of metal as she dug it into the ground.

Once more Mewtwo didn’t move.

I narrowed my eyes as a glint appeared about Empress’s form. Ah, she wasn’t just letting her rage control her. I felt at the link and found her emotions to be tightly controlled.

Tightly controlled and calculative. She was, in a way, beyond rage. She wanted to hurt Mewtwo, but she knew she had to be smart about it.

For the first time in my life I caught a glimpse as to why Empress, before any other pokemon. Had held the mountain top closest to Mt Silver where only the strongest could exist.

It wasn’t just that she was strong, but also smart.

With each step she took she built up her defences. Sadly I knew she would have to raise her Special defence for a fight against Mewtwo. I tried to nudge her in that direction with our bond only for her to pause and shot me an affronted look.

Right, she didn’t even want me subtly coaching her. I sighed and grimaced. Sabrina floated over and took my hand in hers.

Empress continued forward, but this time her energy was shifting in a different manner. She locked eyes with Mewtwo and loosened a Snarl. As she did so, spikes of Dark energy blasted out of her.

Mewtwo responded by raising a Light Screen in front of himself that the spikes hammered into and began to pierce resulting in him dodging to the side.

He narrowed his eyes in annoyance only to find Empress lunging at him with her fangs bared.

Mewtwo’s hand shot forward and for a heartbeat I hoped that his lack of visible Miracle eye would hamper him.

Sadly it didn’t, and pink psychic energy snared Empress in place before she began to be pushed back.

She snarled again, causing dark energy to tear through her binds and lance towards Mewtwo but once more he was up to the task of dodging her attack with a deft float up and to the side before drifting around her.

Empress turned her head, watching as he orbited her. “Is this what you desired?” he asked.

Empress growled at him, her fangs bared. Mewtwo merely observed her before shaking his head. “I cannot understand your feelings, nor your attempts at some farcical attempt at revenge. I was not aware of my actions back then. I will not have that man’s acts held against me!”

Empress roared at this and I shook my head. Mewtwo wasn’t equipped to understand the pain of loss, especially not on the level Empress experienced.

Still, I held out hope that by fighting her, he would glimpse and understand a fraction of her emotions.

A squeaking and slapping noise made me frown and Mewtwo twitch.

He flicked a hand to the side. “This... sideshow is a waste of my time,” he announced cupping his hands and forming a ball, unlike others that I had seen, was orange-brown in colouration. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I recognised what that was.

That was an Aura Sphere!

Empress opened her mouth and countered with a Hyper Beam.

Both attacks slammed into the other causing a detonation in the space between them and for smoke and dust to obscure Mewtwo. For a moment I held out hope as Empress poured on the power.

Only for Mewtwo to shift to the side, appearing with his hands cupped once more at Empress’ side.

Empress swept her beam around and I found myself levitated out of the path of the energy beam. Others hurled themselves to the ground.

She wasn’t quick enough though as once again Metwo unleashed an Aura Sphere and this time the attack slammed home into her flank causing her to buckle around the super effective attack. Empress was launched away and slammed into the wall.

Mewtwo shook himself slightly and sniffed. He glanced up at me. “Your Tyranitar is poorly trained.”

I clenched my jaw and felt a spike of hate run through me. How dare he dismiss Empress and her issues like that.

When I spoke, I did so by grounding the words out. “She isn’t poorly trained, you just don’t understand her,” I said.

I flicked my eyes to where she’d been launched and smirked as she emerged at a full tilt sprint, energy forming around her. Mewtwo whipped around, shocked that his attack hadn’t put her down.

She pounced on him with Giga Impact and I grinned. She really had been picking up some tricks from training with us and watching the others.

Mewtwo clenched his fist and a Protect snapped around him, making me grimace as the sneak Giga Impact failed to do anything.

Damn but Mewtwo was fast with his moves.

Instead of being repelled from the Protect, Empress continued to grind her face against it, urging the Protect to break and I was shocked when a sound like glass cracking echoed out about the room.

Mewtwo as well seemed stunned, but it lasted only for a moment as he shifted, standing up instead of crouching down. He once more formed an Aura sphere right as he dismissed his Protect. Empress strode in, claw swinging only to once more get blasted away.

She skipped across the battlefield and I reached for Titan’s greatball, agreement be damned.

Empress stabbed her claws into the metal and slowed herself down.

She looked up and for the second time in the fight, I felt her attention shift to me.

She shook her head slightly and admonished me, like a child that was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

I flexed my fingers on the ball, hating that she was being this expressive with me now of all times.

I stared into her eyes and let go of Titan’s ball.

She nodded and turned her attention back to Mewtwo.

She stood, slowly, blood trickling down her mouth.

He stared at her. “You should stay down, this is killing you,” he said, his head cocked to the side.

I grimaced, knowing that he was right. She was ignoring the urge to pass out and making this a fight of life and death.

She warbled something that I couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what had been said. I glanced at Sabrina, hoping for a translation.

Sadly Sabrina looked equally as lost.

Mewtwo seemed to understand as he tilted his head only to shake it.

“No, I can’t say I do,” he said.

Empress said something else only for Mewtwo to scoff once more and race to her side where he slammed a third Aura Sphere into her head. She rocked back only to take a hard step.

She didn’t take another step back.

Mewtwo hovered only to tilt his head as more blood poured from her mouth.

Ah, she’d succumbed and been knocked out due to the damage she’d sustained. Part of me felt relief at this but another feared just how injured she would be.

“You won,” I said, my voice echoing hollowly.

In a way, I knew this had always been the outcome that would occur. Mewtwo was too strong, too fast, too smart to be faced by a single pokemon alone. Not even a Pseudo Legendary of Empress’ strength could do more than close the gap.

Mewtwo considered me. “So I have,” he said, nodding slowly. “So I have.” After a moment’s consideration, he waved a hand.

The cloneball that had been threatening her shot in and I blanched. “Hey! That’s not what we agreed on!” I shouted, snatching up a piece of metal and hurling it at the ball. The ball was knocked aside but righted itself to slam into Empress’ side, taking her away.

Sabrina’s hand shot out and caught me as Mewtwo rounded on me. “I agreed to you returning your pokemon! You did not! Now! As the victor I decide what happens to her!” he snapped, his tail once more lashing out behind him.

He then shifted his gaze. “And stop attempting to run!” he snapped, flicking out his hand. I turned my head and spotted a trio of Team Aqua grunts being dragged back to their group. Their boots squeaked on the ground.

Ah, that was what had been going on behind me during the fight.

Mewtwo shook his head and looked back at me. “We had no agreement.. But I will see her cared for,” he said.

Then he looked around. “With that... sideshow handled now, I think it is now time that we talked.”

I worked my jaw, hating that Mewtwo was right.

Sabrina squeezed my hand. “We’ll get her, Don and the other pokemon back Brock.”

I nodded and exhaled, my eyes locked on Mewtwo.

I followed the others over to a still mostly intact set of tables and chairs, annoyed at how things were playing out.

This, this was really turning into a day where I wished I hadn’t gotten out of bed.

Still, it was now Mewtwo’s show, and if he wanted to talk, all the better.

But there was no way in Giratina’s realm I was leaving this island without my pokemon.