Starlight Aurate
Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
- Location
- Route 123
- Partners
-
Hi everyone! Apologies this is a day late--with Review Blitz, I've been falling behind on editing and rewriting chapters.
To everyone who has left reviews recently: I promise to get to them! I just want to keep up my weekly pace of uploading a chapter, and will reply to reviews once the Blitz is over and things have calmed down.
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 40
“OOF!”
The air was thrust out of her stomach as if she had been kicked. Colors danced behind her eyes as she blinked, the blurry forms of people materialized. She breathed hard, each breath a stabbing knife, when she realized dozens of Team Aqua members stared down at her. At the forefront, Matt stood, drenched from the rain and glaring at her with an ugly scowl on his face.
“I got her,” he said to someone Maressa couldn’t see.
“Good!”
Archie stepped into view, looking genuinely happy. He smiled down at Maressa.
“This is great! Now we have a vessel we can remotely control Kyogre from.”
Maressa turned numb.
“You three, hold her back—put her on knees, and get the hair out of her face. Mark, you got the tasers? All right, then, let’s see how this works!”
Maressa could say nothing as she felt multiple sets of hands grab her by the arms and force her to her knees. One person each held an arm while someone else grabbed her hair and forced her head back so she was looking straight into Archie’s icy blue eyes and overjoyed grin. Matt stood next to him. He wasn’t smiling.
Darting her eyes around, Maressa saw the familiar metal of a Team Aqua ship. Several grunts grouped behind Matt and Archie—Mark held a rod with hooks, looking very apprehensive. Others looked at her with a mixture of emotions: Oswald looked scared; Cloe looked like she would be sick; Sarah stared in dumb shock.
A grunt named Shannon brought a bag to Archie; he held it carefully and pulled back the sides to reveal the Blue Orb glinting dully. Maressa knew what was going to happen. Her eyes locked onto Matt’s and rage boiled over.
“I saved your life!” she shouted. “I stopped Tabitha from killing you, and this is what you do to me?”
Everyone stopped moving and stood in silence. Archie frowned and turned to Matt.
“Did she really?”
“If it wasn’t for me, Tabitha would have choked you—he wanted to!”
Matt glared at her lividly. He seemed unable to meet Archie’s gaze.
Maressa looked around at all the grunts.
“This is what all of you really want? This is why you joined Team Aqua? To watch a couple of maniacs use giant Pokemon to destroy the planet? Look outside! How can you believe this is good anymore?”
“Oh, but Maressa,” Archie said cordially as the team members muttered in dissent, “I’m not the maniac who’s going to be bonded with Kyogre. I don’t want to be possessed and lose my soul.”
The blood in Maressa’s veins turned to ice as she looked up at Archie.
“You know?”
He looked at the Orb in his hand, holding a cloth around it so as to avoid touching it directly.
“The last time I held this Orb, I slowly lost myself. I was trying so hard to take control of Kyogre that I could no longer tell where I ended and Kyogre began. Sounds like a dream, right? And in a way, it was. But I could no longer even think for myself. I was trapped. The scent of salt in my nostrils turned to that of decaying flesh. I no longer knew who was around me, or what I was doing. I was the ocean—but I had no control. All I could hear were the screams of those who had been lost at sea. And I slowly sank further into the watery embrace of Kyogre’s mind…”
His eyes lost focus for a moment and his gaze turned glassy. But he snapped out of it after a second and turned to Maressa.
“Fortunately, I got hit by a stray attack and it sent the Orb flying way out of my hand. I was myself again. And that’s where you come in! If Kyogre needs someone to bond with the Orb, then it should be someone disposable. And who would be better than you, who has betrayed us and scorned our generosity? You’ll be a great food source for him, I’m sure. This is all experimental, of course. But you’re a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Once you bond with the Orb, we’ll try shocking you and seeing if that keeps you—and by extension, Kyogre—under control. Sound good?”
That wide, cheery grin split his face again. He looked excited, like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. But horror rendered Maressa mute as she watched him hold the Orb up to her.
She jerked within the grasp of the grunts, trying to tear herself away. She had touched the Orb once—she saw what the other one did to Maxie—she couldn’t touch this again!
“No, no!” she screamed. “Please don’t do this—please! I don’t want to be possessed—no—no!”
As the Blue Orb touched the skin of her forehead, it was as if a chunk of glacial ice was pressed against her skull. She screamed in pain; the Orb was so cold that it must have given her frostbite. Her brain throbbed—she felt Kyogre’s fury—she saw through its eyes—
Groudon glared down at them, its yellow eyes burning.
She jerked her head, trying to peel away from the freezing sensation engulfing her—
Waters from the deep churned around them as the heavens opened and unleashed a deluge of rain.
“Stop it, let her go!” someone screamed. “Don’t do this!”
Sounds of people shouting, fighting, smacking each other—
They brought their flipper down on the water, a jolt reverberating through their body, sending a tidal wave towards the enemy.
She fought back—fought to retain control of her senses, of herself. She was so tired and felt so weak—but she had to fight—she had to—
The enemy lunged toward them with outstretched claws. They sank back into the ocean, evading its attack.
People around her shouted. Pokemon attacks shot back and forth. The scent of smoke filled the air. Then the metallic scent of blood—
Saltwater filled their nostrils as they descended into the depths. Sight was blocked out in the blackness of the ocean waters.
She jerked—at the same time feeling the grip of people on her, and of the waters churning around her body. The freezing sensation from the Orb became a burning one—it poured through her veins, down her arms and legs and into the tips of her fingers and toes. It flooded her core, filling her heart and lungs and circulating throughout her body. She tried to free herself from Kyogre’s mind—
But the harder they fought, the more they were drawn in together.
Ice burned within her. She screamed—it felt as if her skull split open and someone poured freezing water into her head cavity, letting it course throughout her body. She opened her eyes—
Nothing was visible in the darkness of the sea.
Her head throbbed—
The pressure of the ocean water was barely noticeable.
The scent of blood filled her nostrils—
From the countless lives lost at sea, still decaying on the ocean floor.
She heard shouting, screaming—
They lost their lives long ago but were denied the afterlife.
Sensation was gone. Everything turned black.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Derek slowly drank the bottle of Miltank milk that Breloom gave him. He felt energy return along with a strange itchy feeling. He knew it was his skin piecing itself back together. He tried to stand, but his muscles and bones were still tender, and he felt dizzy. Breloom looked up at him with concern.
“I’m okay, Breloom,” he said with a smile.
Golbat squeaked. What would they do now?
Derek surveyed the scene: the crater was falling apart on the western end as Kyogre pushed Groudon back. Rocks cascaded into the water, sending enormous waves that washed over Kyogre. But the Water-type regarded them as nothing and pushed onward. Groudon roared, and a plateau of rocks rose from the ocean depth, forming a platform—a platform that grew wider as he backed on to it. As Derek watched, the intense sunlight evaporated all the water on the platform. Clouds of steam rose from the rock, bathing Groudon in mist.
He furrowed his eyebrows and looked up. Just over Sootopolis, the sky looked bright above them, but the sunlight wasn’t particularly harsh. And Derek saw black clouds created by Kyogre, but they released no rain.
Why?
As his eyes scanned the crater, they fell on Rayquaza’s limp body lying along some rocks. The shard of ice that penetrated its scales stuck there, and the serpentine Pokemon lay unmoving.
Derek’s heartbeat quickened.
Rayquaza is still alive.
“Steven!” he called, but Steven didn’t turn to face him. Derek went up to the Champion and his heart dropped.
Steven didn’t look good. His eyes were unfocused; his skin was pale; and sweat dripped down the sides of his face. He tottered slightly on his feet. Derek grabbed his shoulders to steady him.
“You—you should sit down,” Derek told him.
Steven sat very stiffly, not taking his eyes off the fight. Derek glimpsed Regirock, Registeel and Regice flying in the distance, trying to prevent stray attacks from Groudon and Kyogre from launching far away where they could hit other parts of Hoenn. Regirock landed on the platform Groudon stood on and pummeled it, cracking it into pieces to send it back into the ocean. Regice froze the water around Kyogre in an attempt to prevent the waves raging too ferociously and turned the deluge of rain into hail. Registeel crackled with electricity and glowed, launching a zap cannon at Kyogre.
Steven’s eyes remained on the three of them; veins stuck out in his cold, clammy skin. The excitement Derek felt on realizing Rayquaza was alive began to fade.
“Steven—Steven, Rayquaza is still alive!”
No response.
“I’m going to try and see if I can heal it, then it can stop this fighting when the Orbs are destroyed.”
Still no response.
Derek took his shaking hands off Steven’s shoulders and looked at his Pokemon. Breloom chirruped: maybe Steven just needed to sleep?
Eyeing the slab in Steven’s hands, Derek said, “I don’t know if he can sleep. We should get help—Golbat, I need you to alert one of the other members of the Pokemon League!”
Golbat squeaked. Who did he want?
“Anyone—but someone needs to know he’s not doing well.”
Someone who knows what they’re doing, he thought reluctantly as he watched Golbat take off.
Groudon roared again—the three golems rammed into it from behind, sending it flying forward into the side of the crater with a deafening crack! The rocks crashed all around Groudon as they caved in from the impact of the giant beast.
Derek gasped—it was the same section of the crater that the Cave of Origin was in. The Cave faced inward the crater; Groudon was outside. As long as Groudon didn’t—
With another roar—higher-pitched and angrier—Groudon dug its massive claws into the crater’s side and ripped out a large chunk. The Ground-type swung around and released the large rock. Regice managed to evade, but Regirock and Registeel took the brunt of the blow.
Derek watched numbly as the entrance to the Cave of Origin collapsed beneath the uneven weight of the rocks above it. Groudon kept ripping apart the rocks and raising up new ones from the ocean depths, completely altering the crater formations—
And Maressa was still inside.
Derek couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t get rid of the mental image of the Cave entrance collapsing. And with everything else being torn up and shifted around…
“Derek?”
He looked up and saw Drake touch down from his Salamence. Dismounting the Pokemon, he walked over to Derek. The old sailor, who always struck Derek as brimming with energy, looked exhausted: the lines on his face were noticeable, his dark eyes drooped and he was soaked—probably from saltwater.
“Your Pokemon said Steven wasn’t well?”
Snapping back to the present, Derek went over to Steven. “Yeah, he—he isn’t really responding.”
Drake took a look at Steven and put a hand on Steven’s shoulder. “Steven? Sir?”
“He needs to get rest,” Derek informed him.
Standing up straight, Drake sighed and watched the destruction rage in front of him.
“He can’t. He told us that once he took hold of the slab and commanded the golems, there was no going back.”
“No going back? You mean…”
Drake nodded. “The slab—the ability to control those golems—is powered by a human’s life. Steven knew that, once he started controlling them, he wouldn’t be able to stop until the golems had finished what they set out to do.”
“So… It’ll keep draining his life away until then?”
Drake nodded again. “Victory or death. Whichever happens first.”
Derek didn’t know what to do. He didn’t really feel—how could this all be happening?
“And it looks like we need to prepare for when he can no longer hold out,” Drake said quietly. “Those golems—I expect they’ll vanish once Steven is done for. We won’t have a way to stop this chaos from reaching the rest of Hoenn…”
Derek forced himself to speak. “Rayquaza is still alive, though.”
Drake started. His eyes shone with disbelief. “How can you be so sure?”
“The weather here is still neutral—no harsh sun or rain.”
Glancing at the sky, Drake mused, “It’s still alive… Do we still have hope? You haven’t heard anything else about the Orbs, have you?”
Derek shook his head. “I did see the entrance to the Cave of Origin collapse, though. And I’m pretty sure Maressa is still inside.”
“The Cave of Origin—but it can’t be destroyed, can it?”
“What makes you say that?”
“We’re all still here—somehow, in the worst of conditions. But Phoebe said that if we destroy the Cave, we destroy life itself. Wouldn’t we know if that happened?”
Derek’s heartbeat quickened. Could that be true? If so, was Maressa still alive?
He was jerked out of his thoughts by a loud SNAP!
Looking over, he saw that Steven held two halves of the stone slab, one in each hand. The Champion was still for a moment, staring ahead blankly, before falling onto his back like a rag doll.
The blood in Derek’s veins ran cold. He looked into Steven’s slate-grey eyes that stared blankly at the sky. Derek heard a loud rumble: Steven’s Metagross crying aloud in agony.
As he raised his eyes, he saw that the three golems stopped moving. They hung suspended in the air. A sphere of energy that was glowing around Regirock faded. Regice lowered its hands and stopped its icy onslaught.
The three of them hung, motionless, before slowly rising into the air, higher and higher, and then flying off into different directions. In less than a second, they were no more than specks on the horizon—
And then they were gone.
Derek’s gaze switched from the horizon as he saw a large shadow pass over him—Metagross immediately flew to the body of his fallen trainer. Its four heavy feet crashed down on the rock as it let out a low, agonized groan.
Something touched Derek’s leg—he looked down and saw Breloom hugging him while looking sadly at Metagross and Steven.
Breloom chirped softly. He just wanted Derek to know that, whatever happened, he loved Derek.
Derek didn’t know how to respond—his brain didn’t seem to be properly working. He dumbly patted Breloom’s mushroom-head and looked over at Claydol and Golbat. Derek’s heart was flooded with worry, sadness, attachment—all feelings from Claydol that bled into him. Golbat was not very expressive, but Derek noticed that, from the eyes peeking above his folded wings, he looked upset, too.
Several more Pokemon from the Pokemon League came over. Derek had to back away to make room as Skarmory, Aggron, Armaldo, and another Claydol arrived. Altaria touched down and Winona and Wallace shakily got off her back to go over to Steven. Glacia floated over on a Glalie; Sidney phased through a rock with his Cacturne. People and Pokemon gathered around Steven.
They were talking, but Derek didn’t know what they said. He tore his eyes away from the lifeless leader and instead looked over at Groudon and Kyogre. The duo fought, just as before, with nobody to stop them. But overhead, the sun still shone faintly through wispy grey clouds.
Derek’s instinct told him to check Steven, to see if there was any possibility that it was all a fluke, that he could actually be revived—but if his psychic link with Metagross was broken, then there was no hope.
“Steven… told us to prepare for this,” Sidney said haltingly. He looked up and stared at Wallace. “What do we do from here?”
Everyone’s eyes fell on the Water-type Gym Leader. He looked back at them all with fear.
“You’re the new Champion,” Glacia said softly. “He passed it on to you.”
Wallace let out a shaky breath. Winona put a hand on his arm; he met her eyes and regained a sense of composure. Looking up at the rest of them, he said, “What do you all propose? We don’t have the golems, so this chaos will now spread to the rest of the land.”
“I think it already has,” Roxanne said softly as she looked at the sheets of rain pouring on the ocean in the distance.
Wallace nodded.
“So… It looks like Team Magma is gone, but their leader still has the Red Orb. Team Aqua is still here and they have the Blue Orb—”
“I don’t think so,” Winona mentioned. “Remember? My Altaria used sky attack on their leader, and the Blue Orb flew out of his hand.”
“Either way, they’re looking for it, and we don’t have it.”
“Phoebe and a few deserters from the Teams went into the Cave of Origin to see if they could make the Orbs destructible again,” Drake put in.
“Do we know if they were successful?”
“Where is the Cave?” Sidney asked.
“The entrance collapsed,” Drake said as people stared at him in terror. “But if what Phoebe said is true, then the inner Cave itself must still be intact.”
“How do we find out?”
“We keep trying to get the Orbs,” Wallace said firmly. “I know we’re all exhausted—but we have to try. We need to make that our priority.”
“What about the rest of Hoenn?” Norman asked.
“We’ll split up—half of you go to stop Kyogre and Groudon’s effects from reaching too far, and the other half target Maxie and Team Aqua. Communicate to the others if you or your Pokemon need a break.” He looked over at the raging beasts. “I wish I could give everyone a break now, after the hours of fighting, but we really can’t afford to leave them unattended.”
“How long have we been fighting?” Wattson asked.
Derek looked down at his watch—his heart skipped a beat.
3:11 AM
“I think my watch is broken,” he said out loud.
“Mine must be, too, then,” Sidney said. His eyes were wide.
“What time does it say?” Wallace asked.
“It’s just after 3 AM.”
Derek’s heart sank. He looked at the sky. The sun had not moved an inch in the hours they had spent fighting.
Drake voiced aloud the thought on everybody’s mind: “Groudon stopped the earth’s rotation.”
Everyone stared in mute horror for a few moments.
“All the more reason for us to hurry,” Wallace said firmly. As he split up the group and different members took off, Derek looked back over at Rayquaza. Everything still felt like too much to take in—if he focused on one thing, it was easier to deal with.
“What are you doing?”
Derek looked over and saw Wallace staring at him.
“You’re not part of the Pokemon League. Did Steven have a plan for you in mind?”
“No particularly, but I want to look at Rayquaza and see if I can help it recover.”
“I don’t think—”
“It’s still alive,” Derek said firmly. “Look at the weather—it should be burning hot or pouring rain, but it’s neither.”
Wallace blinked in surprise and looked up at the sky.
“I’m not really sure what all I can do right now, but I think that having Rayquaza awake might help—”
“Or it might add to the chaos.”
Derek sighed. “Yeah… But we can hope and hold out that Maressa and the others might have made the Orbs breakable. If that happened, then Rayquaza waking up should stop all this immediately.”
Wallace didn’t look entirely convinced, but said, “If you think so, then go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
Derek immediately bent down and, with Breloom’s help, sorted through their medical supplies. Potions, antidotes, freeze heal, burn heal… It was obvious that Rayquaza would need the ice shards removed, but he didn’t know what other damage had been done to him. After he packed what he thought he needed, he looked at Claydol. Before the words were on his lips, the familiar feeling of teleportation engulfed him, and he found himself standing on a ledge at the opposite side of the crater.
There was a loud, wet, hissing sound in his ear. Turning around, he saw Rayquaza’s head lying a few feet away from him.
“Ah!”
He jumped back in surprise and glared at Claydol.
“You didn’t have to put me right next to its face!”
Claydol shrugged.
Derek breathed apprehensively as he walked along the Pokemon’s motionless body, gazing at it in awe. Chills shot through him, and the hairs along his body stood up.
It was like seeing Jirachi again—only Jirachi could easily fit in his arms, whereas Rayquaza was as large as a train. The Dragon-type’s body gently rose and fell as it slowly breathed in and out.
It mostly seemed unhurt, though Derek didn’t know if it was only bruised beneath its glistening emerald scales, or if there was internal damage. He glanced up as he saw Golbat fly off to Rayquaza’s tail end, presumably to check for damage down there.
He heard whining and looked down to see Breloom quaking with fright. The Grass-type held Derek’s hand within both of his own. His beady black eyes looked along the Dragon-type with terror and he whimpered. He didn’t want to be anywhere near a Pokemon this huge and powerful!
Derek patted Breloom’s head. “I don’t, either,” he murmured. “But we’ve got to see what its injuries are like and if we can do anything about it.”
As they walked along, Derek saw the shards of ice that Kyogre created sticking out of Rayquaza’s hide. Lances of black dragon blood ran through the crystalline shards, giving them jet-black veins. Even after all those hours, the ice had hardly melted.
He looked up as Golbat flew over and squeaked. Rayquaza looked okay from the tail-end; there was some bruising, but the skin wasn’t broken.
Derek heard Claydol over their mental link: Rayquaza had a head injury and had bled out significantly. Probably from Groudon’s rock tomb attack, he figured.
Derek nodded. He had never worked on a Pokemon anywhere near that size, and the only Dragon-type he had ever seen to was a Vibrava—and later a Flygon—that Damien owned. But once he got over the magnitude of Rayquaza, it was less intimidating. See to the head wound, get the ice out of it, and patch him.
“I think we should do this in teams,” he said out loud. He looked Breloom. “Do you want to help Claydol with the head—”
No! Breloom squeaked with a vigorous shake of his head.
“… Okay.” He looked at Golbat. “Want to help Claydol with the head while Breloom and I take care of the ice?”
Golbat gave an affirming squeak and flew off to help Claydol.
“Okay, Breloom, looks like our first line of order is taking those chunks of ice out of Rayquaza. Can you hop up there and dislodge them?”
Breloom vehemently shook his head. He hugged Derek’s legs.
“Breloom, stop this! I’m still injured and in pain from Tabitha smashing me against a wall. You’re fine. Rayquaza is totally unconscious. It can’t do anything. Besides, Claydol and Golbat are at its head—if it wakes up, it’ll go after them first. If anyone is in danger, it’s them.”
Breloom chirped. But Claydol was just a hunk of rock and Golbat was teeny—they wouldn’t be any good for eating! What if Rayquaza was a vegetarian? Breloom would be absolutely delicious!
Derek had enough. Reaching down, he slipped his fingers between Breloom’s pincers and pressed the pressure points there. Breloom yelped and stopped hugging Derek’s leg. Picking him up, Derek through the protesting Breloom bodily threw the air at the ice chunks.
Breloom screamed bloody murder in the millisecond he was airborne. When he landed in the midst of the oversized ice shards, he clung to them, crying audibly.
“Breloom, you’re fine! Just dislodge those ice shards, and then you’ll be done with it!”
But Breloom kept crying. He couldn’t, he couldn’t! He was too scared! It was too hard! A Grass-type like himself shouldn’t be dealing with craters, and dragons, and ice!
“Fine, I’ll get Claydol down here to do it.”
Breloom snapped his head around and glared at Derek with beady eyes.
Claydol?! He was way better than Claydol! He was plenty capable of getting rid of some ice—after all, he was the Fighting-type on this team!
Derek watched impatiently—and with a degree of satisfaction—as Breloom shoved the large shards of ice out of Rayquaza’s body. If a chunk was too big, he would smash it into smaller bits to clear it away. He yelped the first time he touched Rayquaza’s blood, but at a glare from Derek and another threat to have Claydol do a proper job, he continued without complaint.
As the remains of ice lay on rocks, caked with Rayquaza’s blood, Derek sorted through his potions.
“We don’t have nearly enough bandages to bind those wounds,” he muttered. “But maybe Rayquaza needs warmth. We can try Freeze Heal. Claydol, how’s the head?”
Claydol affirmed that they were getting things patched up. Derek saw an image of Rayquaza’s head: Claydol was mixing various berries while Golbat applied a topical salve with his wings.
Not for the first time, Derek felt a surge of pride for his Pokemon. Claydol’s ability to assess Pokemon injuries was incredible—he had never failed, even when it came to legendary Pokemon.
“Amazing, you two! We’re going to start applying Freeze Heal down here to see if it helps.”
As Derek took out a few of the potions, he looked up to see Breloom staring dolefully up at him. Did he do an amazing job, too?
“Yes, Breloom, I’m very proud of you,” Derek said impatiently. “Now can you mash up those Rawst berries while I apply Freeze Heal?”
It was intimidating to get right up to Rayquaza’s side, but swallowing his uncertainty, Derek did so anyway and sprayed the warm liquid over Rayquaza’s scales.
Derek glanced uneasily at the scene behind him. A large portion of the crater was gone, and the plateau that Groudon created stood behind the crater ruins. Pokemon League members and their Pokemon flew around in the sky or swam about in the waters. Glalcia’s Pokemon froze a large chunk of ocean water, apparently trying to wall Kyogre in. Derek couldn’t see if it was effective—part of him really, really did not want to look.
And as he worked, his mind kept turning to Maressa—stuck inside the Cave of Origin with the entrance collapsed. If the entrance closed, how could she get out? What if Phoebe was wrong, and the Cave didn’t actually uphold life—could the entirety of it have collapsed, and they just didn’t know?
But to engage in those thoughts was to give in to hopelessness. As Derek dwelt on them, he just wanted to stop working and stop doing anything. But he couldn’t do that—he had to try. He had to hold on to hope—whatever of it was left.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Derek sighed as he settled into a crouch, wiping dragon blood off his hands. He looked up; Breloom had done an excellent job of dislodging the giant, never-melting ice shards from Rayquaza’s body. The wound in Rayquaza’s hide was a gaping, open hole, showcasing its dark pitch-black flesh beneath emerald-green scales.
Derek turned his head to survey the scene for a moment. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, so far as he could see. He couldn’t even see any people on the rocks.
He frowned. Wasn’t Team Aqua always out and about, doing something?
His eyes caught sight of a figure running along the bottom-most terrace; they had a wonky shape, as if they were carrying something. As Derek’s eyes focused on the strange figure, he saw it was a man holding someone else over his shoulder—someone with scarred, red skin and long blonde hair.
Maressa.
Derek gasped and stood up. Breloom was at his side in a flash.
What was it? What did he see?
“It’s Maressa—they’re taking her for something. And it can’t be good.” Tapping into the mental link he shared with Claydol, he told his Pokemon, I saw Team Aqua take Maressa into their submarine. Breloom and I are going after her. Keep tending to Rayquaza. I’ll let you know if I need you.
Looking down at Breloom, he said, “We need to go. Now!”
The two of them lost no time in jumping, climbing and sliding down the steep volcanic rocks.
Derek and Breloom headed to the submarine, hearts pounding, adrenaline coursing through their veins. As Derek ran, his mind kept playing out horrible scenarios of what could be happening to Maressa—
She was alive, at least. She had made it out of the Cave of Origin alive! Derek just had to save her—actually save her—before anything bad happened to her again.
He didn’t know how long it took him to make it down to the bottom-most terrace, but it was far too long. Once his feet touched solid ground, he and Breloom sprinted to the submarine door, which was locked shut.
“Breloom, get it open!”
Breloom was only too happy to oblige; springing into the air, he whipped his tail around and smacked it into the metal door. The door caved inward, breaking off its hinges and falling to the ground. Derek raced in—
Commotion was everywhere. Team Aqua members were locked in battle—with each other. The air was filled with jets of water, bursts of steam, sparks, spores, and blasts of energy. He looked around, trying to wrap his mind around what was happening—
“Ludicolo, use body slam!”
Derek and Breloom turned their heads just in time to see a massive yellow form spring out of nowhere and hurl itself towards Breloom. He sprung back and the Ludicolo crashed heavily into the floor. Derek looked forward and saw a tall woman with bushy red hair glaring at him.
“Where is Maressa?” he shouted over the din of Pokemon roaring and shrieking.
But the Team Aqua commander wasn’t interested in answering his question.
“Ludicolo, uproar!”
Getting to his feet, Ludicolo inhaled deeply—
“Spore!”
Breloom shook his tail right into Ludicolo’s gaping mouth. The Water-type inhaled several small green particles. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell back, snoring softly.
“Look outside!” Derek shouted to the Team Aqua commander, whose scarlet eyes were locked on her Ludicolo. “Kyogre and Groudon are out of control, and they’re going to destroy this planet if we let them continue on! This isn’t what either of our teams were about. Even Tabitha agrees! We need to stop this!”
“Traitor!” Shelly spat at him. “You were with Team Magma, but even you don’t understand what either of our teams ever really wanted. It was only when you had a conflict of interest that you decided to betray your team and abandon their goals.”
“Are you saying that because your leader hasn’t lost his mind, yet? The Orbs control whoever tries to use them! If we keep this up, they’ll take over our leaders and reduce them to nothing!”
She said nothing but took out another Pokeball.
But Derek wasn’t going to let her stop him.
“Breloom, let’s go!”
“Go, Vibrava!”
Her Pokeball opened and Vibrava came out, shaking dust from its sandy green wings. As it materialized, Brreloom sprung through the air, soaring over it and tackling the Team Aqua commander head on. She wailed as she fell flat on her back.
Turning around, Vibrava tackled Breloom, and the two Pokemon rolled on the floor in a scuffle.
Derek ran right past them and through a hallway just in time to see a Whiscash open its mouth and release a deluge of mud, coating the floor in a slick brown liquid.
Derek’s nose wrinkled against the smell of rotting fish and decaying organic matter as it filled the hallway up to his ankles. A Team Aqua grunt stood with his Whiscash at the end of the hallway.
“Keep it up, Whiscash!” he ordered his Pokemon. “More mud!”
The Pokemon opened its mouth and belched out more of the brown liquid—the muck made it difficult for Derek to pick his feet back up, and Breloom was still locked in battle behind him. But he had to keep going—he had to get to Maressa—
“Corsola, water gun!”
“Sealeo, you, too!”
Derek ducked, expecting two jets of water to hit him from behind—but instead they drenched the floor, watering down and washing away the mud created by Whiscash.
The Whiscash’s owner shouted, “What are you two doing? Are you betraying Team Aqua, too?”
Derek turned around—two women in Team Aqua uniforms with a Corsola and a Sealeo stood at the end of the hallway. Their eyes were red as if they’d been crying—and they were angry.
“This is Maressa we’re talking about, Mark!” the woman with dark skin shouted. “You’re going to stand up for Archie trying to kill her?”
“She’s a traitor!”
“She’s our friend!”
“Are you about to join her?” Mark said with a deadly glare. He took out a Pokeball and unleashed a Sealeo of his own. Derek glanced around—he did not want to be caught in the crossfire of a battle in a narrow hallway. There had to be a way—
He looked at Mark’s Pokemon and knew what Maressa would have done. Running straight at them, he threw himself into the air. Whiscash looked up at him, eyes dilated with fear, as he realized what Derek was doing—right before Derek slammed down on him, flattening him and knocking the air out of him.
Something growled—Derek looked up and saw Sealeo baring his fangs, collecting pale blue energy between his jaws. A burst of stinging nettles slammed into Sealeo’s side and he howled in pain. A moment later, a jet of water knocked into Mark, slamming him to the ground.
Getting off Whiscash, Derek looked at the two Team Aqua women.
“Thanks!” he called before he took off at a run.
Rounding a corner, the echoes of Pokemon battles faded and a woman’s piercing screams met his ears. He kept running, following the screams—
He saw the Team Aqua boss and male commander standing with two Manectric. Maressa was on the ground in front of them, the Blue Orb pressed to her forehead by Matt. Maressa’s scarred face was even redder than usual and streaked with tears as she wailed and screamed.
“NO! Please—please stop! I don’t want to be possessed! I don’t—no!”
The two Team Aqua members looked up as they saw Derek.
“Manectric, shock wave!” the boss shouted.
Electricity sparked around one of the Manectric; the temperature in the room shot up; the Pokemon let out a deep, growling howl as a burst of light filled the room—Derek was blinded—
And an instant later he was on the ground, reeling in pain as electricity burned through every vein in his body. It lasted for less than a second—but that second was excruciating. Derek’s veins were still filled with molten fire long after it ended and he lay on the ground, struggling to move. The spots that blinded him eventually faded away and his vision returned. He saw no one. Gritting his teeth, he tried to push himself up—
Maressa’s screams grew more distant.
As the pain and tingling left his body, he felt normal and able to move again. As he pushed himself up, Breloom was at his side in a flash. He beat that Vibrava! AND he knocked out that woman, and fought a Gorebyss while he was at it (it wasn’t very smart for a Gorebyss to fight on land), and he was so strong—
“Breloom, they’re taking Maressa! We have to follow them!”
The two of them took off down the hallway at a run—Derek glimpsed the Manectric with his teeth sunk into Maressa’s shoulder, sending a shockwave through her as he dragged her behind a large set of double doors.
Seeing the blood pour from Maressa’s shoulder and the abominable state she was in filled Derek with rage. He sprinted, but two hefty doors slammed shut in front of him.
“Breloom!”
The Fighting-type Pokemon sprung through the air with a cry, slamming his tail into the metal door—
But these doors held. They didn’t even dent when Breloom hit them. Breloom tried again—and again—he used his hands—he used his feet—
But the doors still stood.
Derek clutched his hair—an earsplitting scream emanated from just beyond the doors—Maressa was right there, closer than ever, and he couldn’t reach her!
Claydol, get down here!
Derek felt affirmation return from Claydol’s end. Maressa screamed—
“MARESSA!” he shouted. He banged his fist on the door. “MARESSA!”
Her screams rose in intensity. Fury burned through Derek—he couldn’t let Maressa go—he couldn’t fail again—he couldn’t let her be taken—she was so close!
Breloom chirped. Derek wheeled around and saw his Pokemon calmer than he had ever seen him. He stood perfectly still, his right arm held out slightly—
Breloom chirped again. They wouldn’t fail. They’d get through those doors and to Maressa.
Derek felt Claydol’s presence—close, and he was rapidly coming closer. Breloom felt it, too. At their command, Derek flattened himself against a wall—Claydol came into view, hurtling toward the doors at breakneck speed.
Breloom leaned back on his heels—at the same time, Claydol collided with the hefty doors while Breloom threw a focus punch at them. The door crumpled inward, nearly torn off its hinges.
Maressa’s screams were clearer now.
“MARESSA, WE’RE COMING!” he shouted.
Claydol and Breloom bounced back, repeatedly slamming into the metal doors until the hinge broke and the massive door crashed to the ground. Derek lost no time in leaping onto it, over it, and pelting down the hallway to where Maressa’s screams emanated.
He pelted down the hallway—
“Azumarill, waterfall!”
Derek saw a blue form shrouded in water hurtling at him before the two collided and he was thrust on his back. Azumarill grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and started slapping him across the face—and then Breloom smacked into her, sending her hurtling into the metal wall.
Derek got to his feet and saw Matt standing before him. Behind the Team Aqua commander, the door led to an open deck just above the water of the Sootopolis crater. Derek could just make out Archie, Maressa, and a Manectric on the deck.
“Maressa!” Derek shouted.
“Do you know any other words?” Matt asked. “Azumarill, sing!”
But his Pokemon didn’t even get the chance to catch her breath. Grabbing her by the scruff of her neck—or where a neck would normally be—Breloom repeatedly jabbed her upside the face in rage.
Don’t! Hurt! My! Trainer!
He punctuated each word with another jab, never giving Azumarill a chance to make a move.
Less than a second later, Claydol came hurtling around a corner, stopping in midair when he saw Matt. Claydol’s red eyes lit up—purple light surrounded Matt’s body, immobilizing him and lifting him into the air.
This lasted less than a second before a Crawdaunt scuttled past Matt and towards Claydol. Water dousing its enormous pincers, it began to beat Claydol’s underside. Claydol groaned angrily—it raised itself higher in the air before slamming its full weight down on Crawdaunt.
But Crawdaunt’s thick carapace protected him from the worst of the damage, and in doing so, Claydol’s concentration on Matt broke. Released from Claydol’s psychic power, Matt fell back to the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he glared at Derek—then spun around at the sound of splashing behind him.
Where Manectric stood on the deck, sending electric shockwaves into Maressa, a Lanturn jumped out of the water and flopped into him. Manectric yelped—he twisted his head around and sank his long fangs into the Lanturn, sending shockwaves through her body.
Lanturn cried as the white fangs pierced her flesh but the electricity seemed to have no effect on her. She wailed—Derek clamped his hands over his ears as Lanturn’s piercing shriek rang through the air.
Manectric let go and jumped back in surprise. Lanturn threw her full weight at him—knocking him to his side, and flopping up and down on him. Manectric yelped, sending out erratic bursts of sparks—but nothing effected the Water-type repeatedly beating him onto the deck.
A Seaking and a Sharpredo poked their heads out of the water. Upon seeing them, Matt took out a Pokeball and tossed it into the air.
“Huntail, stop them!”
A blue serpentine Pokemon bedecked with white spots slithered through the air and landed in the water—Seaking gave a cry as Huntail wrapped its jaws around him.
Matt ran to the edge of the deck, past the two Electic Pokemon—Manectric caught Lanturn’s flipper in his jaws and violently shook his head back and forth—and to the water, where the three Pokemon swarmed about.
“Huntail, to the depths!” he called.
Derek swiveled his head about—Maressa and Archie were gone.
Getting to his feet, he shouted, “Where is she?”
Matt turned away from the frothy white water and faced Derek.
“Still looking for that scumbag traitor, are you? A piece of crap like that actually matters to you? Takes one to know one, I suppose.”
As he spoke, the foam in the waters started to die down. But Derek noticed a dark shape break the water’s surface—
“She’s getting what she deserves—just like you will.”
Matt barely moved toward Derek when a Sharpedo jumped out of the water. Several hundred chondrichthyan pounds of flesh flew through the air, water streaming behind it like a liquid tail. Derek’s blood turned to ice—all he could do was stare in awestruck horror at the Pokemon’s gaping mouth—large enough to chomp off one’s torso—open wide, headed straight for the Team Aqua commander.
“AAAAGHHHH!”
A gurgling shriek escaped Matt’s mouth as Sharpedo chomped down on Matt’s shoulder, his two rows of teeth easily scissoring through bone, sinew, and flesh. Matt’s entire left arm disappeared into the Dark-type’s mouth. Blood poured from Matt’s torso, soaking the deck with a shiny red coat.
Matt fell to the ground. Sharpedo lay at an awkward angle, propped up by his anal and pectoral fins. Looking at Derek, the bloodlust in Sharpedo’s eyes died down and he growled.
Derek stared at the Sharpedo—his brain didn’t work for a moment. But his training had conditioned him to never let disasters like these keep him down. Recovering, he looked at Sharpedo and Lanturn—who released a stream of water from her mouth knocking Maectric off the deck and into the crater water.
“You’re Maressa’s Pokemon, aren’t you?”
Sharpedo growled and Lanturn chirped—Derek assumed they were both affirmations. Wheeling around, he saw his Pokemon still fighting in the hallway. Azumarill lay flat on the ground; Crawdaunt’s claws were held defensively before its face while Breloom and Claydol took turns beating him back.
Derek glanced at Matt—there was so much blood—but he couldn’t take time to examine him.
Where was Maressa?
He heard Breloom let out a horrible cry—Derek spun around to see a beam of ice slam into him, encasing him in a frosty shroud.
“Breloom!”
Derek sprinted over—what had happened?
“Breloom, are you okay?”
Ice crystals coated Breloom’s body—he tried to curl up, but his movements were restricted. Shivering, the Pokemon looked dolefully up at Derek.
Dol!
Derek whipped his head as Claydol cried. The Ground-type held up a light screen, tying to shield himself and Derek from another incoming ice beam.
Ducking his head, Derek saw a Walrein sitting before another door, sending out a flurry of ice crystals.
Archie.
Turning his head, he shouted to Maressa’s Pokemon, “I need your help!”
Sharpedo and Lanturn were already flopping over to him—agonizingly slow outside the water and breathing laboriously. They landed with wet squelches right in front of Claydol, taking the brunt of the ice beam attack—though they didn’t seem particularly bothered by it.
Sharpedo growled something—and Claydol immediately got down, pressing Derek and Breloom against the wall and shielding them completely. Sharpedo let out a burst of water—it did little more than douse the hallway and Walrein, But then Lanturn jumped right into the puddle and let out bursts of electricity. The Walrein cried in pain as electric energy coursed through her body.
As the electric sparks stopped and Walrein slumped forward, Derek got up and ran to the door—it was locked, but much smaller than the one they had come in through before.
“Breloom, I need you to knock this down!”
Guilt ate Derek’s heart as soon as he said the words when he saw Breloom curled up miserably, still covered in frosty crystals and barely able to move. Claydol didn’t look much better—at least only half of his body had an icy coat.
“Can someone take this door down? Anyone?”
Maybe Sharpedo normally could, but he lay there, gasping and unable to move—as was Lanturn.
Claydol rose with a groan, telling Derek to move.
Though he felt guilty, Derek obliged, and the Ground-type hurtled forward, busting the door wide open.
“Thank you,” Derek said before charging though the open doorway and up a staircase.
All he could do was move—he had no room to stop, to consider what he was doing or what might happen—all that mattered was that Maressa got out of this alive. It didn’t matter how or by what method—she just needed to live.
Before long, the doors opened to a deck high above the water. Derek had a millisecond to see Maressa, knees splayed out under her, Archie with one hand on her scalp, the other wrapped in a cloth and pressing the Blue Orb against Maressa’s skull. Tears streamed from Maressa’s red face—her eyes were rolled up into her head—her hands were on Archie’s wrist, weakly trying to prise it off of her.
Derek thew himself at Archie, knocking into him with his full body weight.
Archie fell to the floor with an oomph!
But a second later, Derek was lifted up and violently thrown to the ground. Sparks flew before his eyes as his skull collided with metal—as his vision cleared, he saw Archie’s ugly scowl. His nostrils were flared, his face was red, and his eyes were wide open—he looked truly insane.
Derek looked up—he saw an emerald lining on the cliffs just behind them.
“Golbat! We need your help!” he shouted.
Archie lifted him and slammed him into the metal. Derek’s head spun—he wasn’t strong enough to fight Archie—not nearly strong enough.
The Team Aqua boss lifted him again—Derek’s head throbbed and pounded—he couldn’t see—
“Golbat! HELP!”
Colored spots on a black background danced before Derek’s eyes—something pressed into his neck. As his vision cleared, he saw Archie’s face, contorted with rage. He had braced his forearm against Derek’s neck—trapped between Archie’s arm and the deck, the air drained out of Derek and he began to choke.
“Golbat, I NEED YOU!”
He shouted with the last of his fading strength, with everything he had left—but his vision continued to dim, and the life leeched out of him slowly…
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Golbat sorted out the different medicines Rayquaza would need, getting everything organized for when—if—Derek came back. Claydol floated just next to him, using his psychic power to levitate revival potions and pour them into Rayquaza’s open jaws.
As they worked, Claydol let out an alarming groan.
Derek needed him!
He vanished in an instant, leaving Golbat alone with the unconscious god.
Golbat picked up where Claydol left off, diligently attending to his wok. It was intimidating, for sure—no Pokemon ever expected to be near those who were considered higher beings, let alone tend to them. Yet here he was, by himself, mixing together Rawst berries for Rayquaza in an attempt to warm it and get its blood properly flowing again.
Golbat tried to not give it too much thought. He’d best just continue on while Derek and the others tried—and hopefully succeeded—to save Maressa.
As Golbat worked, the minutes felt agonizingly long. He didn’t like being the only one left out of the fighting. He made a point to never complain or whine, but he really detested being alone for extended periods of time. As of late, Derek had a habit of getting himself into trouble—life-threatening trouble. And Golbat didn’t feel good about not knowing whether the others were okay or not.
But he trusted Derek to know what was right, to lead them down the best path. And the most Golbat could do at the moment was to pick up that bowl of Rawst berry juice and pour it down Rayquaza’s throat.
Golbat awkwardly put his feet on the rim of the bowl—how was he supposed to carry it without spilling it over?
“Golbat, we need your help!”
Golbat wheeled around—that was Derek’s voice. He sounded scared and in pain.
In an instant, Golbat saw him—on a raised deck with two other humans. He immediately shot into the air, straining his wings to carry him as quickly as they possibly could.
Derek seemed to be pinned under another human wearing dark clothes—
“Golbat! HELP!”
Derek was in danger! Golbat had to make it! The others weren’t there—they had fallen, or got caught up—and Derek was stuck with a man much larger than him, being crushed beneath his weight—Golbat had to help, had to save him—he had to!
“Golbat, I NEED YOU!”
Derek needed him—he was going to die—Golbat wasn’t fast enough! He strained his wings to their limit, his heart racing as he saw Derek get crushed—Derek was dying because Golbat was failing. Golbat had to get to him—he had to save him—the one who had done everything for him—he had to!
He wasn’t fast enough!
With an agonizing cry, Golbat strained his wings to their limit—past their limit—his muscles felt like they were being torn apart—his heart felt like it would burst—his lungs seared—blood surged through his veins with a red-hot intensity. It was agony—it was awful—but he had to do go on—the only thing stronger than the pain of exertion was the pain of knowing Derek’s life was on the verge of expiration.
Golbat pushed himself harder than he ever had before—getting closer to Derek—always closer—until his wings stretched and split, his body narrowed and shrunk—and he sliced through the last hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
The Team Aqua boss didn’t even look up as Golbat hurtled into him, knocking him off Derek and flat onto his back. He sunk his fangs, dripping with toxins, into Archie’s neck—the Aqua boss let out a gargling scream, trying to pray the Poison-type off off him—
The human’s meaty hands wrapped around his body and pried Golbat off. He retreated, licking blood from his lips.
The Team Aqua boss sat upright but grit his teeth and put a hand to his neck, from which blood trickled out at an ever-quickening rate. His mouth slackened as his face gradually turned purple as Golbat’s toxins took effect—though they took effect much more quickly than he had expected. Archie slumped back onto the ground, unmoving, staring blankly at the sky.
“Go—Golbat?”
He turned around and saw Derek sitting up, looking at Golbat with eyes wide in shock. Golbat expected Derek would be more pleased than shocked to see him.
Golbat squeaked: Derek called, he answered.
“But you’re—you’re not Golbat anymore,” Derek said. His face broke into a smile.
Golbat ruffled all of his wings—
All of his wings?
As the rush of adrenaline died down and his body calmed, Golbat felt that his body was… different. He stretched his wings out to either side—
There were four of them!
He hopped up-and-down—his legs were shorter and his body was smaller, more compact and much more streamlined, better at cutting through the air.
Derek smiled at him. “Thank you so much, Gol—I mean, Crobat.” He glanced over and the smile vanished from his face. Leaping to his feet, he shouted, “Maressa! Are you okay?”
He dashed across Archie’s form, which still oozed blood, and was at Maressa’s side. The Blue Orb was nowhere to be seen.
She lay flat on her back—sort of. Convulsions wracked her body, causing horrible spasms. She gasped and choked—arcing her back, clenching all the muscles in her body in different spurts—and blue lines flashed all along her form, occasionally blocking out the amber of her eyes.
Derek got to his feet and held Maressa’s face in his hands.
“Maressa—Maressa, look at me!”
She took a sharp breath, sucking in air audibly and looked into Derek’s eyes—
And then she lashed out, slamming her arm over both of his, breaking his grip off of her with ease. Her eyes were a bright, unnatural, glowing blue. She jumped to her feet—tears leaking from her eyes.
Rushing over to her, Derek grabbed her hand—she lashed out again and screamed. Running to the edge of the deck, she launched herself over the railing, several meters above the water of the crater below—high enough that such a fall could kill.
“MARESSA, NO!”
Derek lunged too late—but Crobat wasn’t. He rushed forward, his little feet grabbing the neck of Maressa’s shirt. He wasn’t strong enough to lift her entire body, but straining his wings, he considerably slowed her descent.
Derek rushed through the open door and jumped down the stairs two at a time. He had to get to her—there had to be a way—
He saw Claydol and Breloom at the edge of the outside deck, the frost melted off of them and looking considerably more energetic. All three of Maressa’s Pokemon were in the water, looking up at her, their faces contorted with fear and panic.
As she and Crobat grew closer, Derek shouted, “Crobat, that’s okay! You can drop her now!”
Crobat obliged and Maressa landed in the water with a loud splash! Her Pokemon immediately swam towards her—
But none of them made it. A wall of swirling water rose around Maressa, forming a whirlpoo. Through the swirling torrent, Derek saw an anthropomorphic figure lit up with blue lines and two piercing, glowing eyes.
Maressa’s Pokemon tried to penetrate the wall of water, but they were swept up in its merciless current as the whirlpool began to move towards the chaos unfolding just outside the Sootopolis crater.
Derek stood there—he felt totally helpless. His mind went numb. After doing everything in his power to stop Maressa from absorbing the Blue Orb, all he could do was watch as she involuntarily moved through the turbulent waters towards the legendary Pokemon who stared back at her.
When he saw Groudon’s yellow eyes—small and beady from this distance—staring at Maressa, Derek’s blood ran cold. Groudon moved—it all happened too fast—
A bright green beam—of a far greater magnitude and travelling at a faster speed than Derek had ever seen—crashed into the waves, breaking up the whirlpool the Blue Orb had created. The beam traveled rapidly through the water, up the cliffsides, slicing through rock, raining debris all around them. The submarine tipped—Derek was thrust beneath the waves.
Panic engulfed him as the water swallowed him up. When he opened his eyes, everything moved in slow motion. Rocks crashed into the waves, trailing multitudes of bubbles as they slowly descended through the sea. Turning his head, he saw Breloom and Claydol flailing through the saltwater. Derek immediately took out their Pokeballs and withdrew them.
He saw several other people and Pokemon—primarily Water-types. Huntail and Gorebyss lithely dodged the falling rocks; Tentacruel shrugged them off as if their bodies were made of jello; Sealeo and Walrein dove deep to get their trainers, appearing surprisingly graceful for such massive creatures; Wailmer lifted their trainers back to the surface to get them breathing.
Derek’s lungs quickly drained of air and he kicked, heading to the surface as quickly as he could.
His head broke the surface and he gulped in air, gasping as he saw and heard splashes all around him—mostly from Pokemon and Team Aqua members coming up the surface. Crobat flapped his wings in the air above, squeaking. Was Derek okay?
Too out of breath to verbalize a response, Derek simply held out a thumbs up. He looked around.
With a simple beam, Groudon ripped through a part of the crater that had been untouched—and now was riven by a deep gash. Shales of rock had slid into the crater, creating foamy white water that was only beginning to calm down. Derek felt at least some relief when he saw that Groudon’s attack hadn’t touched Rayquaza—the dragon was lying where Crobat had left him.
But where was Maressa?
To everyone who has left reviews recently: I promise to get to them! I just want to keep up my weekly pace of uploading a chapter, and will reply to reviews once the Blitz is over and things have calmed down.
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 40
“OOF!”
The air was thrust out of her stomach as if she had been kicked. Colors danced behind her eyes as she blinked, the blurry forms of people materialized. She breathed hard, each breath a stabbing knife, when she realized dozens of Team Aqua members stared down at her. At the forefront, Matt stood, drenched from the rain and glaring at her with an ugly scowl on his face.
“I got her,” he said to someone Maressa couldn’t see.
“Good!”
Archie stepped into view, looking genuinely happy. He smiled down at Maressa.
“This is great! Now we have a vessel we can remotely control Kyogre from.”
Maressa turned numb.
“You three, hold her back—put her on knees, and get the hair out of her face. Mark, you got the tasers? All right, then, let’s see how this works!”
Maressa could say nothing as she felt multiple sets of hands grab her by the arms and force her to her knees. One person each held an arm while someone else grabbed her hair and forced her head back so she was looking straight into Archie’s icy blue eyes and overjoyed grin. Matt stood next to him. He wasn’t smiling.
Darting her eyes around, Maressa saw the familiar metal of a Team Aqua ship. Several grunts grouped behind Matt and Archie—Mark held a rod with hooks, looking very apprehensive. Others looked at her with a mixture of emotions: Oswald looked scared; Cloe looked like she would be sick; Sarah stared in dumb shock.
A grunt named Shannon brought a bag to Archie; he held it carefully and pulled back the sides to reveal the Blue Orb glinting dully. Maressa knew what was going to happen. Her eyes locked onto Matt’s and rage boiled over.
“I saved your life!” she shouted. “I stopped Tabitha from killing you, and this is what you do to me?”
Everyone stopped moving and stood in silence. Archie frowned and turned to Matt.
“Did she really?”
“If it wasn’t for me, Tabitha would have choked you—he wanted to!”
Matt glared at her lividly. He seemed unable to meet Archie’s gaze.
Maressa looked around at all the grunts.
“This is what all of you really want? This is why you joined Team Aqua? To watch a couple of maniacs use giant Pokemon to destroy the planet? Look outside! How can you believe this is good anymore?”
“Oh, but Maressa,” Archie said cordially as the team members muttered in dissent, “I’m not the maniac who’s going to be bonded with Kyogre. I don’t want to be possessed and lose my soul.”
The blood in Maressa’s veins turned to ice as she looked up at Archie.
“You know?”
He looked at the Orb in his hand, holding a cloth around it so as to avoid touching it directly.
“The last time I held this Orb, I slowly lost myself. I was trying so hard to take control of Kyogre that I could no longer tell where I ended and Kyogre began. Sounds like a dream, right? And in a way, it was. But I could no longer even think for myself. I was trapped. The scent of salt in my nostrils turned to that of decaying flesh. I no longer knew who was around me, or what I was doing. I was the ocean—but I had no control. All I could hear were the screams of those who had been lost at sea. And I slowly sank further into the watery embrace of Kyogre’s mind…”
His eyes lost focus for a moment and his gaze turned glassy. But he snapped out of it after a second and turned to Maressa.
“Fortunately, I got hit by a stray attack and it sent the Orb flying way out of my hand. I was myself again. And that’s where you come in! If Kyogre needs someone to bond with the Orb, then it should be someone disposable. And who would be better than you, who has betrayed us and scorned our generosity? You’ll be a great food source for him, I’m sure. This is all experimental, of course. But you’re a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Once you bond with the Orb, we’ll try shocking you and seeing if that keeps you—and by extension, Kyogre—under control. Sound good?”
That wide, cheery grin split his face again. He looked excited, like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. But horror rendered Maressa mute as she watched him hold the Orb up to her.
She jerked within the grasp of the grunts, trying to tear herself away. She had touched the Orb once—she saw what the other one did to Maxie—she couldn’t touch this again!
“No, no!” she screamed. “Please don’t do this—please! I don’t want to be possessed—no—no!”
As the Blue Orb touched the skin of her forehead, it was as if a chunk of glacial ice was pressed against her skull. She screamed in pain; the Orb was so cold that it must have given her frostbite. Her brain throbbed—she felt Kyogre’s fury—she saw through its eyes—
Groudon glared down at them, its yellow eyes burning.
She jerked her head, trying to peel away from the freezing sensation engulfing her—
Waters from the deep churned around them as the heavens opened and unleashed a deluge of rain.
“Stop it, let her go!” someone screamed. “Don’t do this!”
Sounds of people shouting, fighting, smacking each other—
They brought their flipper down on the water, a jolt reverberating through their body, sending a tidal wave towards the enemy.
She fought back—fought to retain control of her senses, of herself. She was so tired and felt so weak—but she had to fight—she had to—
The enemy lunged toward them with outstretched claws. They sank back into the ocean, evading its attack.
People around her shouted. Pokemon attacks shot back and forth. The scent of smoke filled the air. Then the metallic scent of blood—
Saltwater filled their nostrils as they descended into the depths. Sight was blocked out in the blackness of the ocean waters.
She jerked—at the same time feeling the grip of people on her, and of the waters churning around her body. The freezing sensation from the Orb became a burning one—it poured through her veins, down her arms and legs and into the tips of her fingers and toes. It flooded her core, filling her heart and lungs and circulating throughout her body. She tried to free herself from Kyogre’s mind—
But the harder they fought, the more they were drawn in together.
Ice burned within her. She screamed—it felt as if her skull split open and someone poured freezing water into her head cavity, letting it course throughout her body. She opened her eyes—
Nothing was visible in the darkness of the sea.
Her head throbbed—
The pressure of the ocean water was barely noticeable.
The scent of blood filled her nostrils—
From the countless lives lost at sea, still decaying on the ocean floor.
She heard shouting, screaming—
They lost their lives long ago but were denied the afterlife.
Sensation was gone. Everything turned black.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Derek slowly drank the bottle of Miltank milk that Breloom gave him. He felt energy return along with a strange itchy feeling. He knew it was his skin piecing itself back together. He tried to stand, but his muscles and bones were still tender, and he felt dizzy. Breloom looked up at him with concern.
“I’m okay, Breloom,” he said with a smile.
Golbat squeaked. What would they do now?
Derek surveyed the scene: the crater was falling apart on the western end as Kyogre pushed Groudon back. Rocks cascaded into the water, sending enormous waves that washed over Kyogre. But the Water-type regarded them as nothing and pushed onward. Groudon roared, and a plateau of rocks rose from the ocean depth, forming a platform—a platform that grew wider as he backed on to it. As Derek watched, the intense sunlight evaporated all the water on the platform. Clouds of steam rose from the rock, bathing Groudon in mist.
He furrowed his eyebrows and looked up. Just over Sootopolis, the sky looked bright above them, but the sunlight wasn’t particularly harsh. And Derek saw black clouds created by Kyogre, but they released no rain.
Why?
As his eyes scanned the crater, they fell on Rayquaza’s limp body lying along some rocks. The shard of ice that penetrated its scales stuck there, and the serpentine Pokemon lay unmoving.
Derek’s heartbeat quickened.
Rayquaza is still alive.
“Steven!” he called, but Steven didn’t turn to face him. Derek went up to the Champion and his heart dropped.
Steven didn’t look good. His eyes were unfocused; his skin was pale; and sweat dripped down the sides of his face. He tottered slightly on his feet. Derek grabbed his shoulders to steady him.
“You—you should sit down,” Derek told him.
Steven sat very stiffly, not taking his eyes off the fight. Derek glimpsed Regirock, Registeel and Regice flying in the distance, trying to prevent stray attacks from Groudon and Kyogre from launching far away where they could hit other parts of Hoenn. Regirock landed on the platform Groudon stood on and pummeled it, cracking it into pieces to send it back into the ocean. Regice froze the water around Kyogre in an attempt to prevent the waves raging too ferociously and turned the deluge of rain into hail. Registeel crackled with electricity and glowed, launching a zap cannon at Kyogre.
Steven’s eyes remained on the three of them; veins stuck out in his cold, clammy skin. The excitement Derek felt on realizing Rayquaza was alive began to fade.
“Steven—Steven, Rayquaza is still alive!”
No response.
“I’m going to try and see if I can heal it, then it can stop this fighting when the Orbs are destroyed.”
Still no response.
Derek took his shaking hands off Steven’s shoulders and looked at his Pokemon. Breloom chirruped: maybe Steven just needed to sleep?
Eyeing the slab in Steven’s hands, Derek said, “I don’t know if he can sleep. We should get help—Golbat, I need you to alert one of the other members of the Pokemon League!”
Golbat squeaked. Who did he want?
“Anyone—but someone needs to know he’s not doing well.”
Someone who knows what they’re doing, he thought reluctantly as he watched Golbat take off.
Groudon roared again—the three golems rammed into it from behind, sending it flying forward into the side of the crater with a deafening crack! The rocks crashed all around Groudon as they caved in from the impact of the giant beast.
Derek gasped—it was the same section of the crater that the Cave of Origin was in. The Cave faced inward the crater; Groudon was outside. As long as Groudon didn’t—
With another roar—higher-pitched and angrier—Groudon dug its massive claws into the crater’s side and ripped out a large chunk. The Ground-type swung around and released the large rock. Regice managed to evade, but Regirock and Registeel took the brunt of the blow.
Derek watched numbly as the entrance to the Cave of Origin collapsed beneath the uneven weight of the rocks above it. Groudon kept ripping apart the rocks and raising up new ones from the ocean depths, completely altering the crater formations—
And Maressa was still inside.
Derek couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t get rid of the mental image of the Cave entrance collapsing. And with everything else being torn up and shifted around…
“Derek?”
He looked up and saw Drake touch down from his Salamence. Dismounting the Pokemon, he walked over to Derek. The old sailor, who always struck Derek as brimming with energy, looked exhausted: the lines on his face were noticeable, his dark eyes drooped and he was soaked—probably from saltwater.
“Your Pokemon said Steven wasn’t well?”
Snapping back to the present, Derek went over to Steven. “Yeah, he—he isn’t really responding.”
Drake took a look at Steven and put a hand on Steven’s shoulder. “Steven? Sir?”
“He needs to get rest,” Derek informed him.
Standing up straight, Drake sighed and watched the destruction rage in front of him.
“He can’t. He told us that once he took hold of the slab and commanded the golems, there was no going back.”
“No going back? You mean…”
Drake nodded. “The slab—the ability to control those golems—is powered by a human’s life. Steven knew that, once he started controlling them, he wouldn’t be able to stop until the golems had finished what they set out to do.”
“So… It’ll keep draining his life away until then?”
Drake nodded again. “Victory or death. Whichever happens first.”
Derek didn’t know what to do. He didn’t really feel—how could this all be happening?
“And it looks like we need to prepare for when he can no longer hold out,” Drake said quietly. “Those golems—I expect they’ll vanish once Steven is done for. We won’t have a way to stop this chaos from reaching the rest of Hoenn…”
Derek forced himself to speak. “Rayquaza is still alive, though.”
Drake started. His eyes shone with disbelief. “How can you be so sure?”
“The weather here is still neutral—no harsh sun or rain.”
Glancing at the sky, Drake mused, “It’s still alive… Do we still have hope? You haven’t heard anything else about the Orbs, have you?”
Derek shook his head. “I did see the entrance to the Cave of Origin collapse, though. And I’m pretty sure Maressa is still inside.”
“The Cave of Origin—but it can’t be destroyed, can it?”
“What makes you say that?”
“We’re all still here—somehow, in the worst of conditions. But Phoebe said that if we destroy the Cave, we destroy life itself. Wouldn’t we know if that happened?”
Derek’s heartbeat quickened. Could that be true? If so, was Maressa still alive?
He was jerked out of his thoughts by a loud SNAP!
Looking over, he saw that Steven held two halves of the stone slab, one in each hand. The Champion was still for a moment, staring ahead blankly, before falling onto his back like a rag doll.
The blood in Derek’s veins ran cold. He looked into Steven’s slate-grey eyes that stared blankly at the sky. Derek heard a loud rumble: Steven’s Metagross crying aloud in agony.
As he raised his eyes, he saw that the three golems stopped moving. They hung suspended in the air. A sphere of energy that was glowing around Regirock faded. Regice lowered its hands and stopped its icy onslaught.
The three of them hung, motionless, before slowly rising into the air, higher and higher, and then flying off into different directions. In less than a second, they were no more than specks on the horizon—
And then they were gone.
Derek’s gaze switched from the horizon as he saw a large shadow pass over him—Metagross immediately flew to the body of his fallen trainer. Its four heavy feet crashed down on the rock as it let out a low, agonized groan.
Something touched Derek’s leg—he looked down and saw Breloom hugging him while looking sadly at Metagross and Steven.
Breloom chirped softly. He just wanted Derek to know that, whatever happened, he loved Derek.
Derek didn’t know how to respond—his brain didn’t seem to be properly working. He dumbly patted Breloom’s mushroom-head and looked over at Claydol and Golbat. Derek’s heart was flooded with worry, sadness, attachment—all feelings from Claydol that bled into him. Golbat was not very expressive, but Derek noticed that, from the eyes peeking above his folded wings, he looked upset, too.
Several more Pokemon from the Pokemon League came over. Derek had to back away to make room as Skarmory, Aggron, Armaldo, and another Claydol arrived. Altaria touched down and Winona and Wallace shakily got off her back to go over to Steven. Glacia floated over on a Glalie; Sidney phased through a rock with his Cacturne. People and Pokemon gathered around Steven.
They were talking, but Derek didn’t know what they said. He tore his eyes away from the lifeless leader and instead looked over at Groudon and Kyogre. The duo fought, just as before, with nobody to stop them. But overhead, the sun still shone faintly through wispy grey clouds.
Derek’s instinct told him to check Steven, to see if there was any possibility that it was all a fluke, that he could actually be revived—but if his psychic link with Metagross was broken, then there was no hope.
“Steven… told us to prepare for this,” Sidney said haltingly. He looked up and stared at Wallace. “What do we do from here?”
Everyone’s eyes fell on the Water-type Gym Leader. He looked back at them all with fear.
“You’re the new Champion,” Glacia said softly. “He passed it on to you.”
Wallace let out a shaky breath. Winona put a hand on his arm; he met her eyes and regained a sense of composure. Looking up at the rest of them, he said, “What do you all propose? We don’t have the golems, so this chaos will now spread to the rest of the land.”
“I think it already has,” Roxanne said softly as she looked at the sheets of rain pouring on the ocean in the distance.
Wallace nodded.
“So… It looks like Team Magma is gone, but their leader still has the Red Orb. Team Aqua is still here and they have the Blue Orb—”
“I don’t think so,” Winona mentioned. “Remember? My Altaria used sky attack on their leader, and the Blue Orb flew out of his hand.”
“Either way, they’re looking for it, and we don’t have it.”
“Phoebe and a few deserters from the Teams went into the Cave of Origin to see if they could make the Orbs destructible again,” Drake put in.
“Do we know if they were successful?”
“Where is the Cave?” Sidney asked.
“The entrance collapsed,” Drake said as people stared at him in terror. “But if what Phoebe said is true, then the inner Cave itself must still be intact.”
“How do we find out?”
“We keep trying to get the Orbs,” Wallace said firmly. “I know we’re all exhausted—but we have to try. We need to make that our priority.”
“What about the rest of Hoenn?” Norman asked.
“We’ll split up—half of you go to stop Kyogre and Groudon’s effects from reaching too far, and the other half target Maxie and Team Aqua. Communicate to the others if you or your Pokemon need a break.” He looked over at the raging beasts. “I wish I could give everyone a break now, after the hours of fighting, but we really can’t afford to leave them unattended.”
“How long have we been fighting?” Wattson asked.
Derek looked down at his watch—his heart skipped a beat.
3:11 AM
“I think my watch is broken,” he said out loud.
“Mine must be, too, then,” Sidney said. His eyes were wide.
“What time does it say?” Wallace asked.
“It’s just after 3 AM.”
Derek’s heart sank. He looked at the sky. The sun had not moved an inch in the hours they had spent fighting.
Drake voiced aloud the thought on everybody’s mind: “Groudon stopped the earth’s rotation.”
Everyone stared in mute horror for a few moments.
“All the more reason for us to hurry,” Wallace said firmly. As he split up the group and different members took off, Derek looked back over at Rayquaza. Everything still felt like too much to take in—if he focused on one thing, it was easier to deal with.
“What are you doing?”
Derek looked over and saw Wallace staring at him.
“You’re not part of the Pokemon League. Did Steven have a plan for you in mind?”
“No particularly, but I want to look at Rayquaza and see if I can help it recover.”
“I don’t think—”
“It’s still alive,” Derek said firmly. “Look at the weather—it should be burning hot or pouring rain, but it’s neither.”
Wallace blinked in surprise and looked up at the sky.
“I’m not really sure what all I can do right now, but I think that having Rayquaza awake might help—”
“Or it might add to the chaos.”
Derek sighed. “Yeah… But we can hope and hold out that Maressa and the others might have made the Orbs breakable. If that happened, then Rayquaza waking up should stop all this immediately.”
Wallace didn’t look entirely convinced, but said, “If you think so, then go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
Derek immediately bent down and, with Breloom’s help, sorted through their medical supplies. Potions, antidotes, freeze heal, burn heal… It was obvious that Rayquaza would need the ice shards removed, but he didn’t know what other damage had been done to him. After he packed what he thought he needed, he looked at Claydol. Before the words were on his lips, the familiar feeling of teleportation engulfed him, and he found himself standing on a ledge at the opposite side of the crater.
There was a loud, wet, hissing sound in his ear. Turning around, he saw Rayquaza’s head lying a few feet away from him.
“Ah!”
He jumped back in surprise and glared at Claydol.
“You didn’t have to put me right next to its face!”
Claydol shrugged.
Derek breathed apprehensively as he walked along the Pokemon’s motionless body, gazing at it in awe. Chills shot through him, and the hairs along his body stood up.
It was like seeing Jirachi again—only Jirachi could easily fit in his arms, whereas Rayquaza was as large as a train. The Dragon-type’s body gently rose and fell as it slowly breathed in and out.
It mostly seemed unhurt, though Derek didn’t know if it was only bruised beneath its glistening emerald scales, or if there was internal damage. He glanced up as he saw Golbat fly off to Rayquaza’s tail end, presumably to check for damage down there.
He heard whining and looked down to see Breloom quaking with fright. The Grass-type held Derek’s hand within both of his own. His beady black eyes looked along the Dragon-type with terror and he whimpered. He didn’t want to be anywhere near a Pokemon this huge and powerful!
Derek patted Breloom’s head. “I don’t, either,” he murmured. “But we’ve got to see what its injuries are like and if we can do anything about it.”
As they walked along, Derek saw the shards of ice that Kyogre created sticking out of Rayquaza’s hide. Lances of black dragon blood ran through the crystalline shards, giving them jet-black veins. Even after all those hours, the ice had hardly melted.
He looked up as Golbat flew over and squeaked. Rayquaza looked okay from the tail-end; there was some bruising, but the skin wasn’t broken.
Derek heard Claydol over their mental link: Rayquaza had a head injury and had bled out significantly. Probably from Groudon’s rock tomb attack, he figured.
Derek nodded. He had never worked on a Pokemon anywhere near that size, and the only Dragon-type he had ever seen to was a Vibrava—and later a Flygon—that Damien owned. But once he got over the magnitude of Rayquaza, it was less intimidating. See to the head wound, get the ice out of it, and patch him.
“I think we should do this in teams,” he said out loud. He looked Breloom. “Do you want to help Claydol with the head—”
No! Breloom squeaked with a vigorous shake of his head.
“… Okay.” He looked at Golbat. “Want to help Claydol with the head while Breloom and I take care of the ice?”
Golbat gave an affirming squeak and flew off to help Claydol.
“Okay, Breloom, looks like our first line of order is taking those chunks of ice out of Rayquaza. Can you hop up there and dislodge them?”
Breloom vehemently shook his head. He hugged Derek’s legs.
“Breloom, stop this! I’m still injured and in pain from Tabitha smashing me against a wall. You’re fine. Rayquaza is totally unconscious. It can’t do anything. Besides, Claydol and Golbat are at its head—if it wakes up, it’ll go after them first. If anyone is in danger, it’s them.”
Breloom chirped. But Claydol was just a hunk of rock and Golbat was teeny—they wouldn’t be any good for eating! What if Rayquaza was a vegetarian? Breloom would be absolutely delicious!
Derek had enough. Reaching down, he slipped his fingers between Breloom’s pincers and pressed the pressure points there. Breloom yelped and stopped hugging Derek’s leg. Picking him up, Derek through the protesting Breloom bodily threw the air at the ice chunks.
Breloom screamed bloody murder in the millisecond he was airborne. When he landed in the midst of the oversized ice shards, he clung to them, crying audibly.
“Breloom, you’re fine! Just dislodge those ice shards, and then you’ll be done with it!”
But Breloom kept crying. He couldn’t, he couldn’t! He was too scared! It was too hard! A Grass-type like himself shouldn’t be dealing with craters, and dragons, and ice!
“Fine, I’ll get Claydol down here to do it.”
Breloom snapped his head around and glared at Derek with beady eyes.
Claydol?! He was way better than Claydol! He was plenty capable of getting rid of some ice—after all, he was the Fighting-type on this team!
Derek watched impatiently—and with a degree of satisfaction—as Breloom shoved the large shards of ice out of Rayquaza’s body. If a chunk was too big, he would smash it into smaller bits to clear it away. He yelped the first time he touched Rayquaza’s blood, but at a glare from Derek and another threat to have Claydol do a proper job, he continued without complaint.
As the remains of ice lay on rocks, caked with Rayquaza’s blood, Derek sorted through his potions.
“We don’t have nearly enough bandages to bind those wounds,” he muttered. “But maybe Rayquaza needs warmth. We can try Freeze Heal. Claydol, how’s the head?”
Claydol affirmed that they were getting things patched up. Derek saw an image of Rayquaza’s head: Claydol was mixing various berries while Golbat applied a topical salve with his wings.
Not for the first time, Derek felt a surge of pride for his Pokemon. Claydol’s ability to assess Pokemon injuries was incredible—he had never failed, even when it came to legendary Pokemon.
“Amazing, you two! We’re going to start applying Freeze Heal down here to see if it helps.”
As Derek took out a few of the potions, he looked up to see Breloom staring dolefully up at him. Did he do an amazing job, too?
“Yes, Breloom, I’m very proud of you,” Derek said impatiently. “Now can you mash up those Rawst berries while I apply Freeze Heal?”
It was intimidating to get right up to Rayquaza’s side, but swallowing his uncertainty, Derek did so anyway and sprayed the warm liquid over Rayquaza’s scales.
Derek glanced uneasily at the scene behind him. A large portion of the crater was gone, and the plateau that Groudon created stood behind the crater ruins. Pokemon League members and their Pokemon flew around in the sky or swam about in the waters. Glalcia’s Pokemon froze a large chunk of ocean water, apparently trying to wall Kyogre in. Derek couldn’t see if it was effective—part of him really, really did not want to look.
And as he worked, his mind kept turning to Maressa—stuck inside the Cave of Origin with the entrance collapsed. If the entrance closed, how could she get out? What if Phoebe was wrong, and the Cave didn’t actually uphold life—could the entirety of it have collapsed, and they just didn’t know?
But to engage in those thoughts was to give in to hopelessness. As Derek dwelt on them, he just wanted to stop working and stop doing anything. But he couldn’t do that—he had to try. He had to hold on to hope—whatever of it was left.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Derek sighed as he settled into a crouch, wiping dragon blood off his hands. He looked up; Breloom had done an excellent job of dislodging the giant, never-melting ice shards from Rayquaza’s body. The wound in Rayquaza’s hide was a gaping, open hole, showcasing its dark pitch-black flesh beneath emerald-green scales.
Derek turned his head to survey the scene for a moment. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, so far as he could see. He couldn’t even see any people on the rocks.
He frowned. Wasn’t Team Aqua always out and about, doing something?
His eyes caught sight of a figure running along the bottom-most terrace; they had a wonky shape, as if they were carrying something. As Derek’s eyes focused on the strange figure, he saw it was a man holding someone else over his shoulder—someone with scarred, red skin and long blonde hair.
Maressa.
Derek gasped and stood up. Breloom was at his side in a flash.
What was it? What did he see?
“It’s Maressa—they’re taking her for something. And it can’t be good.” Tapping into the mental link he shared with Claydol, he told his Pokemon, I saw Team Aqua take Maressa into their submarine. Breloom and I are going after her. Keep tending to Rayquaza. I’ll let you know if I need you.
Looking down at Breloom, he said, “We need to go. Now!”
The two of them lost no time in jumping, climbing and sliding down the steep volcanic rocks.
Derek and Breloom headed to the submarine, hearts pounding, adrenaline coursing through their veins. As Derek ran, his mind kept playing out horrible scenarios of what could be happening to Maressa—
She was alive, at least. She had made it out of the Cave of Origin alive! Derek just had to save her—actually save her—before anything bad happened to her again.
He didn’t know how long it took him to make it down to the bottom-most terrace, but it was far too long. Once his feet touched solid ground, he and Breloom sprinted to the submarine door, which was locked shut.
“Breloom, get it open!”
Breloom was only too happy to oblige; springing into the air, he whipped his tail around and smacked it into the metal door. The door caved inward, breaking off its hinges and falling to the ground. Derek raced in—
Commotion was everywhere. Team Aqua members were locked in battle—with each other. The air was filled with jets of water, bursts of steam, sparks, spores, and blasts of energy. He looked around, trying to wrap his mind around what was happening—
“Ludicolo, use body slam!”
Derek and Breloom turned their heads just in time to see a massive yellow form spring out of nowhere and hurl itself towards Breloom. He sprung back and the Ludicolo crashed heavily into the floor. Derek looked forward and saw a tall woman with bushy red hair glaring at him.
“Where is Maressa?” he shouted over the din of Pokemon roaring and shrieking.
But the Team Aqua commander wasn’t interested in answering his question.
“Ludicolo, uproar!”
Getting to his feet, Ludicolo inhaled deeply—
“Spore!”
Breloom shook his tail right into Ludicolo’s gaping mouth. The Water-type inhaled several small green particles. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell back, snoring softly.
“Look outside!” Derek shouted to the Team Aqua commander, whose scarlet eyes were locked on her Ludicolo. “Kyogre and Groudon are out of control, and they’re going to destroy this planet if we let them continue on! This isn’t what either of our teams were about. Even Tabitha agrees! We need to stop this!”
“Traitor!” Shelly spat at him. “You were with Team Magma, but even you don’t understand what either of our teams ever really wanted. It was only when you had a conflict of interest that you decided to betray your team and abandon their goals.”
“Are you saying that because your leader hasn’t lost his mind, yet? The Orbs control whoever tries to use them! If we keep this up, they’ll take over our leaders and reduce them to nothing!”
She said nothing but took out another Pokeball.
But Derek wasn’t going to let her stop him.
“Breloom, let’s go!”
“Go, Vibrava!”
Her Pokeball opened and Vibrava came out, shaking dust from its sandy green wings. As it materialized, Brreloom sprung through the air, soaring over it and tackling the Team Aqua commander head on. She wailed as she fell flat on her back.
Turning around, Vibrava tackled Breloom, and the two Pokemon rolled on the floor in a scuffle.
Derek ran right past them and through a hallway just in time to see a Whiscash open its mouth and release a deluge of mud, coating the floor in a slick brown liquid.
Derek’s nose wrinkled against the smell of rotting fish and decaying organic matter as it filled the hallway up to his ankles. A Team Aqua grunt stood with his Whiscash at the end of the hallway.
“Keep it up, Whiscash!” he ordered his Pokemon. “More mud!”
The Pokemon opened its mouth and belched out more of the brown liquid—the muck made it difficult for Derek to pick his feet back up, and Breloom was still locked in battle behind him. But he had to keep going—he had to get to Maressa—
“Corsola, water gun!”
“Sealeo, you, too!”
Derek ducked, expecting two jets of water to hit him from behind—but instead they drenched the floor, watering down and washing away the mud created by Whiscash.
The Whiscash’s owner shouted, “What are you two doing? Are you betraying Team Aqua, too?”
Derek turned around—two women in Team Aqua uniforms with a Corsola and a Sealeo stood at the end of the hallway. Their eyes were red as if they’d been crying—and they were angry.
“This is Maressa we’re talking about, Mark!” the woman with dark skin shouted. “You’re going to stand up for Archie trying to kill her?”
“She’s a traitor!”
“She’s our friend!”
“Are you about to join her?” Mark said with a deadly glare. He took out a Pokeball and unleashed a Sealeo of his own. Derek glanced around—he did not want to be caught in the crossfire of a battle in a narrow hallway. There had to be a way—
He looked at Mark’s Pokemon and knew what Maressa would have done. Running straight at them, he threw himself into the air. Whiscash looked up at him, eyes dilated with fear, as he realized what Derek was doing—right before Derek slammed down on him, flattening him and knocking the air out of him.
Something growled—Derek looked up and saw Sealeo baring his fangs, collecting pale blue energy between his jaws. A burst of stinging nettles slammed into Sealeo’s side and he howled in pain. A moment later, a jet of water knocked into Mark, slamming him to the ground.
Getting off Whiscash, Derek looked at the two Team Aqua women.
“Thanks!” he called before he took off at a run.
Rounding a corner, the echoes of Pokemon battles faded and a woman’s piercing screams met his ears. He kept running, following the screams—
He saw the Team Aqua boss and male commander standing with two Manectric. Maressa was on the ground in front of them, the Blue Orb pressed to her forehead by Matt. Maressa’s scarred face was even redder than usual and streaked with tears as she wailed and screamed.
“NO! Please—please stop! I don’t want to be possessed! I don’t—no!”
The two Team Aqua members looked up as they saw Derek.
“Manectric, shock wave!” the boss shouted.
Electricity sparked around one of the Manectric; the temperature in the room shot up; the Pokemon let out a deep, growling howl as a burst of light filled the room—Derek was blinded—
And an instant later he was on the ground, reeling in pain as electricity burned through every vein in his body. It lasted for less than a second—but that second was excruciating. Derek’s veins were still filled with molten fire long after it ended and he lay on the ground, struggling to move. The spots that blinded him eventually faded away and his vision returned. He saw no one. Gritting his teeth, he tried to push himself up—
Maressa’s screams grew more distant.
As the pain and tingling left his body, he felt normal and able to move again. As he pushed himself up, Breloom was at his side in a flash. He beat that Vibrava! AND he knocked out that woman, and fought a Gorebyss while he was at it (it wasn’t very smart for a Gorebyss to fight on land), and he was so strong—
“Breloom, they’re taking Maressa! We have to follow them!”
The two of them took off down the hallway at a run—Derek glimpsed the Manectric with his teeth sunk into Maressa’s shoulder, sending a shockwave through her as he dragged her behind a large set of double doors.
Seeing the blood pour from Maressa’s shoulder and the abominable state she was in filled Derek with rage. He sprinted, but two hefty doors slammed shut in front of him.
“Breloom!”
The Fighting-type Pokemon sprung through the air with a cry, slamming his tail into the metal door—
But these doors held. They didn’t even dent when Breloom hit them. Breloom tried again—and again—he used his hands—he used his feet—
But the doors still stood.
Derek clutched his hair—an earsplitting scream emanated from just beyond the doors—Maressa was right there, closer than ever, and he couldn’t reach her!
Claydol, get down here!
Derek felt affirmation return from Claydol’s end. Maressa screamed—
“MARESSA!” he shouted. He banged his fist on the door. “MARESSA!”
Her screams rose in intensity. Fury burned through Derek—he couldn’t let Maressa go—he couldn’t fail again—he couldn’t let her be taken—she was so close!
Breloom chirped. Derek wheeled around and saw his Pokemon calmer than he had ever seen him. He stood perfectly still, his right arm held out slightly—
Breloom chirped again. They wouldn’t fail. They’d get through those doors and to Maressa.
Derek felt Claydol’s presence—close, and he was rapidly coming closer. Breloom felt it, too. At their command, Derek flattened himself against a wall—Claydol came into view, hurtling toward the doors at breakneck speed.
Breloom leaned back on his heels—at the same time, Claydol collided with the hefty doors while Breloom threw a focus punch at them. The door crumpled inward, nearly torn off its hinges.
Maressa’s screams were clearer now.
“MARESSA, WE’RE COMING!” he shouted.
Claydol and Breloom bounced back, repeatedly slamming into the metal doors until the hinge broke and the massive door crashed to the ground. Derek lost no time in leaping onto it, over it, and pelting down the hallway to where Maressa’s screams emanated.
He pelted down the hallway—
“Azumarill, waterfall!”
Derek saw a blue form shrouded in water hurtling at him before the two collided and he was thrust on his back. Azumarill grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and started slapping him across the face—and then Breloom smacked into her, sending her hurtling into the metal wall.
Derek got to his feet and saw Matt standing before him. Behind the Team Aqua commander, the door led to an open deck just above the water of the Sootopolis crater. Derek could just make out Archie, Maressa, and a Manectric on the deck.
“Maressa!” Derek shouted.
“Do you know any other words?” Matt asked. “Azumarill, sing!”
But his Pokemon didn’t even get the chance to catch her breath. Grabbing her by the scruff of her neck—or where a neck would normally be—Breloom repeatedly jabbed her upside the face in rage.
Don’t! Hurt! My! Trainer!
He punctuated each word with another jab, never giving Azumarill a chance to make a move.
Less than a second later, Claydol came hurtling around a corner, stopping in midair when he saw Matt. Claydol’s red eyes lit up—purple light surrounded Matt’s body, immobilizing him and lifting him into the air.
This lasted less than a second before a Crawdaunt scuttled past Matt and towards Claydol. Water dousing its enormous pincers, it began to beat Claydol’s underside. Claydol groaned angrily—it raised itself higher in the air before slamming its full weight down on Crawdaunt.
But Crawdaunt’s thick carapace protected him from the worst of the damage, and in doing so, Claydol’s concentration on Matt broke. Released from Claydol’s psychic power, Matt fell back to the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he glared at Derek—then spun around at the sound of splashing behind him.
Where Manectric stood on the deck, sending electric shockwaves into Maressa, a Lanturn jumped out of the water and flopped into him. Manectric yelped—he twisted his head around and sank his long fangs into the Lanturn, sending shockwaves through her body.
Lanturn cried as the white fangs pierced her flesh but the electricity seemed to have no effect on her. She wailed—Derek clamped his hands over his ears as Lanturn’s piercing shriek rang through the air.
Manectric let go and jumped back in surprise. Lanturn threw her full weight at him—knocking him to his side, and flopping up and down on him. Manectric yelped, sending out erratic bursts of sparks—but nothing effected the Water-type repeatedly beating him onto the deck.
A Seaking and a Sharpredo poked their heads out of the water. Upon seeing them, Matt took out a Pokeball and tossed it into the air.
“Huntail, stop them!”
A blue serpentine Pokemon bedecked with white spots slithered through the air and landed in the water—Seaking gave a cry as Huntail wrapped its jaws around him.
Matt ran to the edge of the deck, past the two Electic Pokemon—Manectric caught Lanturn’s flipper in his jaws and violently shook his head back and forth—and to the water, where the three Pokemon swarmed about.
“Huntail, to the depths!” he called.
Derek swiveled his head about—Maressa and Archie were gone.
Getting to his feet, he shouted, “Where is she?”
Matt turned away from the frothy white water and faced Derek.
“Still looking for that scumbag traitor, are you? A piece of crap like that actually matters to you? Takes one to know one, I suppose.”
As he spoke, the foam in the waters started to die down. But Derek noticed a dark shape break the water’s surface—
“She’s getting what she deserves—just like you will.”
Matt barely moved toward Derek when a Sharpedo jumped out of the water. Several hundred chondrichthyan pounds of flesh flew through the air, water streaming behind it like a liquid tail. Derek’s blood turned to ice—all he could do was stare in awestruck horror at the Pokemon’s gaping mouth—large enough to chomp off one’s torso—open wide, headed straight for the Team Aqua commander.
“AAAAGHHHH!”
A gurgling shriek escaped Matt’s mouth as Sharpedo chomped down on Matt’s shoulder, his two rows of teeth easily scissoring through bone, sinew, and flesh. Matt’s entire left arm disappeared into the Dark-type’s mouth. Blood poured from Matt’s torso, soaking the deck with a shiny red coat.
Matt fell to the ground. Sharpedo lay at an awkward angle, propped up by his anal and pectoral fins. Looking at Derek, the bloodlust in Sharpedo’s eyes died down and he growled.
Derek stared at the Sharpedo—his brain didn’t work for a moment. But his training had conditioned him to never let disasters like these keep him down. Recovering, he looked at Sharpedo and Lanturn—who released a stream of water from her mouth knocking Maectric off the deck and into the crater water.
“You’re Maressa’s Pokemon, aren’t you?”
Sharpedo growled and Lanturn chirped—Derek assumed they were both affirmations. Wheeling around, he saw his Pokemon still fighting in the hallway. Azumarill lay flat on the ground; Crawdaunt’s claws were held defensively before its face while Breloom and Claydol took turns beating him back.
Derek glanced at Matt—there was so much blood—but he couldn’t take time to examine him.
Where was Maressa?
He heard Breloom let out a horrible cry—Derek spun around to see a beam of ice slam into him, encasing him in a frosty shroud.
“Breloom!”
Derek sprinted over—what had happened?
“Breloom, are you okay?”
Ice crystals coated Breloom’s body—he tried to curl up, but his movements were restricted. Shivering, the Pokemon looked dolefully up at Derek.
Dol!
Derek whipped his head as Claydol cried. The Ground-type held up a light screen, tying to shield himself and Derek from another incoming ice beam.
Ducking his head, Derek saw a Walrein sitting before another door, sending out a flurry of ice crystals.
Archie.
Turning his head, he shouted to Maressa’s Pokemon, “I need your help!”
Sharpedo and Lanturn were already flopping over to him—agonizingly slow outside the water and breathing laboriously. They landed with wet squelches right in front of Claydol, taking the brunt of the ice beam attack—though they didn’t seem particularly bothered by it.
Sharpedo growled something—and Claydol immediately got down, pressing Derek and Breloom against the wall and shielding them completely. Sharpedo let out a burst of water—it did little more than douse the hallway and Walrein, But then Lanturn jumped right into the puddle and let out bursts of electricity. The Walrein cried in pain as electric energy coursed through her body.
As the electric sparks stopped and Walrein slumped forward, Derek got up and ran to the door—it was locked, but much smaller than the one they had come in through before.
“Breloom, I need you to knock this down!”
Guilt ate Derek’s heart as soon as he said the words when he saw Breloom curled up miserably, still covered in frosty crystals and barely able to move. Claydol didn’t look much better—at least only half of his body had an icy coat.
“Can someone take this door down? Anyone?”
Maybe Sharpedo normally could, but he lay there, gasping and unable to move—as was Lanturn.
Claydol rose with a groan, telling Derek to move.
Though he felt guilty, Derek obliged, and the Ground-type hurtled forward, busting the door wide open.
“Thank you,” Derek said before charging though the open doorway and up a staircase.
All he could do was move—he had no room to stop, to consider what he was doing or what might happen—all that mattered was that Maressa got out of this alive. It didn’t matter how or by what method—she just needed to live.
Before long, the doors opened to a deck high above the water. Derek had a millisecond to see Maressa, knees splayed out under her, Archie with one hand on her scalp, the other wrapped in a cloth and pressing the Blue Orb against Maressa’s skull. Tears streamed from Maressa’s red face—her eyes were rolled up into her head—her hands were on Archie’s wrist, weakly trying to prise it off of her.
Derek thew himself at Archie, knocking into him with his full body weight.
Archie fell to the floor with an oomph!
But a second later, Derek was lifted up and violently thrown to the ground. Sparks flew before his eyes as his skull collided with metal—as his vision cleared, he saw Archie’s ugly scowl. His nostrils were flared, his face was red, and his eyes were wide open—he looked truly insane.
Derek looked up—he saw an emerald lining on the cliffs just behind them.
“Golbat! We need your help!” he shouted.
Archie lifted him and slammed him into the metal. Derek’s head spun—he wasn’t strong enough to fight Archie—not nearly strong enough.
The Team Aqua boss lifted him again—Derek’s head throbbed and pounded—he couldn’t see—
“Golbat! HELP!”
Colored spots on a black background danced before Derek’s eyes—something pressed into his neck. As his vision cleared, he saw Archie’s face, contorted with rage. He had braced his forearm against Derek’s neck—trapped between Archie’s arm and the deck, the air drained out of Derek and he began to choke.
“Golbat, I NEED YOU!”
He shouted with the last of his fading strength, with everything he had left—but his vision continued to dim, and the life leeched out of him slowly…
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Golbat sorted out the different medicines Rayquaza would need, getting everything organized for when—if—Derek came back. Claydol floated just next to him, using his psychic power to levitate revival potions and pour them into Rayquaza’s open jaws.
As they worked, Claydol let out an alarming groan.
Derek needed him!
He vanished in an instant, leaving Golbat alone with the unconscious god.
Golbat picked up where Claydol left off, diligently attending to his wok. It was intimidating, for sure—no Pokemon ever expected to be near those who were considered higher beings, let alone tend to them. Yet here he was, by himself, mixing together Rawst berries for Rayquaza in an attempt to warm it and get its blood properly flowing again.
Golbat tried to not give it too much thought. He’d best just continue on while Derek and the others tried—and hopefully succeeded—to save Maressa.
As Golbat worked, the minutes felt agonizingly long. He didn’t like being the only one left out of the fighting. He made a point to never complain or whine, but he really detested being alone for extended periods of time. As of late, Derek had a habit of getting himself into trouble—life-threatening trouble. And Golbat didn’t feel good about not knowing whether the others were okay or not.
But he trusted Derek to know what was right, to lead them down the best path. And the most Golbat could do at the moment was to pick up that bowl of Rawst berry juice and pour it down Rayquaza’s throat.
Golbat awkwardly put his feet on the rim of the bowl—how was he supposed to carry it without spilling it over?
“Golbat, we need your help!”
Golbat wheeled around—that was Derek’s voice. He sounded scared and in pain.
In an instant, Golbat saw him—on a raised deck with two other humans. He immediately shot into the air, straining his wings to carry him as quickly as they possibly could.
Derek seemed to be pinned under another human wearing dark clothes—
“Golbat! HELP!”
Derek was in danger! Golbat had to make it! The others weren’t there—they had fallen, or got caught up—and Derek was stuck with a man much larger than him, being crushed beneath his weight—Golbat had to help, had to save him—he had to!
“Golbat, I NEED YOU!”
Derek needed him—he was going to die—Golbat wasn’t fast enough! He strained his wings to their limit, his heart racing as he saw Derek get crushed—Derek was dying because Golbat was failing. Golbat had to get to him—he had to save him—the one who had done everything for him—he had to!
He wasn’t fast enough!
With an agonizing cry, Golbat strained his wings to their limit—past their limit—his muscles felt like they were being torn apart—his heart felt like it would burst—his lungs seared—blood surged through his veins with a red-hot intensity. It was agony—it was awful—but he had to do go on—the only thing stronger than the pain of exertion was the pain of knowing Derek’s life was on the verge of expiration.
Golbat pushed himself harder than he ever had before—getting closer to Derek—always closer—until his wings stretched and split, his body narrowed and shrunk—and he sliced through the last hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
The Team Aqua boss didn’t even look up as Golbat hurtled into him, knocking him off Derek and flat onto his back. He sunk his fangs, dripping with toxins, into Archie’s neck—the Aqua boss let out a gargling scream, trying to pray the Poison-type off off him—
The human’s meaty hands wrapped around his body and pried Golbat off. He retreated, licking blood from his lips.
The Team Aqua boss sat upright but grit his teeth and put a hand to his neck, from which blood trickled out at an ever-quickening rate. His mouth slackened as his face gradually turned purple as Golbat’s toxins took effect—though they took effect much more quickly than he had expected. Archie slumped back onto the ground, unmoving, staring blankly at the sky.
“Go—Golbat?”
He turned around and saw Derek sitting up, looking at Golbat with eyes wide in shock. Golbat expected Derek would be more pleased than shocked to see him.
Golbat squeaked: Derek called, he answered.
“But you’re—you’re not Golbat anymore,” Derek said. His face broke into a smile.
Golbat ruffled all of his wings—
All of his wings?
As the rush of adrenaline died down and his body calmed, Golbat felt that his body was… different. He stretched his wings out to either side—
There were four of them!
He hopped up-and-down—his legs were shorter and his body was smaller, more compact and much more streamlined, better at cutting through the air.
Derek smiled at him. “Thank you so much, Gol—I mean, Crobat.” He glanced over and the smile vanished from his face. Leaping to his feet, he shouted, “Maressa! Are you okay?”
He dashed across Archie’s form, which still oozed blood, and was at Maressa’s side. The Blue Orb was nowhere to be seen.
She lay flat on her back—sort of. Convulsions wracked her body, causing horrible spasms. She gasped and choked—arcing her back, clenching all the muscles in her body in different spurts—and blue lines flashed all along her form, occasionally blocking out the amber of her eyes.
Derek got to his feet and held Maressa’s face in his hands.
“Maressa—Maressa, look at me!”
She took a sharp breath, sucking in air audibly and looked into Derek’s eyes—
And then she lashed out, slamming her arm over both of his, breaking his grip off of her with ease. Her eyes were a bright, unnatural, glowing blue. She jumped to her feet—tears leaking from her eyes.
Rushing over to her, Derek grabbed her hand—she lashed out again and screamed. Running to the edge of the deck, she launched herself over the railing, several meters above the water of the crater below—high enough that such a fall could kill.
“MARESSA, NO!”
Derek lunged too late—but Crobat wasn’t. He rushed forward, his little feet grabbing the neck of Maressa’s shirt. He wasn’t strong enough to lift her entire body, but straining his wings, he considerably slowed her descent.
Derek rushed through the open door and jumped down the stairs two at a time. He had to get to her—there had to be a way—
He saw Claydol and Breloom at the edge of the outside deck, the frost melted off of them and looking considerably more energetic. All three of Maressa’s Pokemon were in the water, looking up at her, their faces contorted with fear and panic.
As she and Crobat grew closer, Derek shouted, “Crobat, that’s okay! You can drop her now!”
Crobat obliged and Maressa landed in the water with a loud splash! Her Pokemon immediately swam towards her—
But none of them made it. A wall of swirling water rose around Maressa, forming a whirlpoo. Through the swirling torrent, Derek saw an anthropomorphic figure lit up with blue lines and two piercing, glowing eyes.
Maressa’s Pokemon tried to penetrate the wall of water, but they were swept up in its merciless current as the whirlpool began to move towards the chaos unfolding just outside the Sootopolis crater.
Derek stood there—he felt totally helpless. His mind went numb. After doing everything in his power to stop Maressa from absorbing the Blue Orb, all he could do was watch as she involuntarily moved through the turbulent waters towards the legendary Pokemon who stared back at her.
When he saw Groudon’s yellow eyes—small and beady from this distance—staring at Maressa, Derek’s blood ran cold. Groudon moved—it all happened too fast—
A bright green beam—of a far greater magnitude and travelling at a faster speed than Derek had ever seen—crashed into the waves, breaking up the whirlpool the Blue Orb had created. The beam traveled rapidly through the water, up the cliffsides, slicing through rock, raining debris all around them. The submarine tipped—Derek was thrust beneath the waves.
Panic engulfed him as the water swallowed him up. When he opened his eyes, everything moved in slow motion. Rocks crashed into the waves, trailing multitudes of bubbles as they slowly descended through the sea. Turning his head, he saw Breloom and Claydol flailing through the saltwater. Derek immediately took out their Pokeballs and withdrew them.
He saw several other people and Pokemon—primarily Water-types. Huntail and Gorebyss lithely dodged the falling rocks; Tentacruel shrugged them off as if their bodies were made of jello; Sealeo and Walrein dove deep to get their trainers, appearing surprisingly graceful for such massive creatures; Wailmer lifted their trainers back to the surface to get them breathing.
Derek’s lungs quickly drained of air and he kicked, heading to the surface as quickly as he could.
His head broke the surface and he gulped in air, gasping as he saw and heard splashes all around him—mostly from Pokemon and Team Aqua members coming up the surface. Crobat flapped his wings in the air above, squeaking. Was Derek okay?
Too out of breath to verbalize a response, Derek simply held out a thumbs up. He looked around.
With a simple beam, Groudon ripped through a part of the crater that had been untouched—and now was riven by a deep gash. Shales of rock had slid into the crater, creating foamy white water that was only beginning to calm down. Derek felt at least some relief when he saw that Groudon’s attack hadn’t touched Rayquaza—the dragon was lying where Crobat had left him.
But where was Maressa?