Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.
-------------------
As the genetic freak of nature Blaine had cooked up in his madness and the embodiment of Spring and Fire hung high above them, the oppressive Auras they so casually radiated pushing down on his team like gravity; more than anything else, Pryce felt old.
That wasn't new, necessarily. It was to be expected, even, seeing as he had just 'celebrated' his 84th birthday two months prior. Pryce was an old man, and what were old men meant to feel if not the weight of their years?
Yet, they never felt as heavy as when he was face to face with Blaine Heatmoore. The Blaze of Cinnabar, the Fire of Kanto.
The Ashmaker.
"YEEEEEES!" Blaine laughed, the fragile mask of sanity he'd put on for 42 years gone. The blazing storms that served as Fire's wings calmed, bright colored feathers forming from the flames as it perched on an outcropping on the far side of the volcano. Even then, the stone melted where the talons touched, clinging to the obsidian claws. "Yes! I knew you were waiting for me! Ever since our eyes met for the first time, I knew our destinies were intertwined! Come, Moltres! Join the Master of Fire, and together, we will claim what is rightfully ours, what should always have been ours! We will burn Indigo clean of the rebels, the traitors, the Johtonians, everyone who stands in our way!"
Because at the end of the day, Pryce knew he stood in a mess of his own making, one that sought to threaten the whole of Indigo.
He should have assassinated Blaine decades ago.
The Legendary Guardian of Mt. Ember opened its half-molten beak and let out another cry that dried the moisture in Pryce's mouth. Moltres was not a Psychic-Type, but it did not need to be. When a being had such understanding, when they grasped and embodied a fundamental Concept of reality to the highest degree, the petty tricks of lesser creatures were no great feat.
Everyone had Fire within them – even Pryce, for all that he had plumbed the depths of Winter – and that ember pulsed with the intent of its Master.
'Intruders. Leave.'
"WHAT!? No! I'm not an intruder! I'm your destined Trainer, the one you've been lying in slumber waiting for!" Rather than retreat like a sane person, or even stand his ground, Blaine stepped forward with his arms outstretched. "Do you not recognize me!? I-!"
"MCAAAAWWWWWW!" Moltres flared its wings to ignition again at being ignored, the miniature suns that served as its eyes staying locked on the armored abomination still hovering above.
'Intruders. My nest. Leave or die.'
Unheard-of levels of patience from an Incarnation, in Pryce's opinion. Neither Lightning nor Ice had been so kind.
Then again, they had not been worshiped by local humans for centuries, preferring seclusion before their metaphorical doors had been kicked in by a younger and more foolish Pryce.
"What!? No-I!" A lesser man would have laughed as Blaine's confidence was dashed. Pryce was not that lesser man, for he knew what inevitably followed Blaine's delusions being shattered.
"I WILL NOT BE TREATED IN SUCH A WAY!"
A tantrum. Like the wailing infant that he was.
"I will not be denied! Not here, not again! I am the Master of all Fire, and I will be obeyed, willingly or not! MEWTWO!"
The armored monster above then outstretched its hand at its master's call, a halo of energy surrounding it once more. Mewtwo. Even as a proud son of Johto, Pryce felt a shiver down his spine at the name. 'The DNA of Mew'. Such disrespect. Such callous disregard for the Guardian of Life, honored above all among Kantonians.
Except by Blaine. Except by mad, brilliant Blaine, mind broken by life.
Broken by Pryce.
He should have scoured Cinnabar, freezing its volcano and crumbling the whole island to dust.
"MMMCAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!" Fire squawked, bursting into full blaze again as it took a stumbling step back. It shook its great head, a minor Heat Wave generated with every swing as those smoldering eyes flickered pale blue.
"Obey! OBEY!" A cone of unrestrained flames poured from the beak, too unfocused to be called a Flamethrower. Yet the light blue stream sliced through rock as easily as Blaine's Nova Ray, carving off a large section of the platform and sending it falling into the magma below. Mewtwo outstretched its second hand, consumed by a headache-inducing, burning wreath of Psychic power as Moltres' struggles increased, the whole volcano quaking worse than when it awakened. "FULFILL MY DESTINY!"
Pryce tapped his cane against the ground. He had seen enough.
A shadowed Blizzard exploded from his feet, so saturated with Ghost-Type energy that it was nearly black as all seven Froslass he had brought to the battle – eight including the restructured Fubuki, who took the lead and grabbed the power her lessers released – rose towards the false Legend. The Psychic disengaged a hand from its mental assault on Moltres to flick it down at the storm, seizing the winds despite the Ominous Winds they bore and dispersing them in every direction, letting the whirlwind scatter the ghosts across the sky. It was the work of mere moments.
"MMMMNCCCAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!"
But a moment was all that was needed. Lava erupted in thick streams while Moltres screeched its wrath and defiance, Fire and Life unwilling to be chained. Mewtwo tried to reestablish the connection, becoming its own icy sun as its mental presence – massively powerful, insultingly uncontrolled – flooded the onlookers with strain and growing disbelief whilst Moltres threw off the attempted hypnosis once it knew it was coming. The great Flying-Type crouched, its plumage gone to blankets of pure fire as it flapped and launched itself at the abomination, leaving a crater of molten rock behind. Far faster than something of that size should be able to move, it shot at Mewtwo like a screeching star, an inferno carried behind it like a tail. Mewtwo swiftly abandoned its mental attack, repurposing the gathered energy into a thick shell and lurching sideways, just barely avoiding the edge of the sea of flames as it tore at the shield, burning away even Psychic power.
"No! NO! PRRYYYYYYYCEEEEE!" Blaine spun around to Pryce, eyes wild and bloodshot as once more, for the millionth time, the Johtonian ruined his plans. His dual Magmortars reacted to their Trainer's rage, stepping forward alongside him as Pryce did the same; the two rivals approached each other while above, the sky was torn asunder by power beyond mortal understanding.
Blaine tipped his hand by attacking Mahogany. If he had waited to unleash his distorted spluge of desecrated DNA, if he had accompanied his monster alongside his Gym Trainers and terrorist allies, things would have been different.
But Pryce had learned from that attack and knew Blaine would try again. Too impatient, too arrogant, too… hotheaded.
A tiny smirk twitched his lip.
"PRRYYYYYCEEEE! Damn you! Damn you to fucking Distortion!" In tandem, the Magmortars raised their cannons and took aim. Already empowered by the volcano, the two Fire-Types glowed with power in Moltres' presence, drawing strength from Fire Incarnate's proximity.
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
The first Nova Ray – from the larger Magmortar, a new one Pryce had not seen before – screamed through the air as it struck Glaceon's Sub-Zero Field; heat leached from it until it reduced to nothing, though it was a close call, the last ember striking the Eeveelution and leaving a fist-sized burn on her fragile skin. Close enough that Pryce reached down and tapped his oldest Acorn Ball, the capture device almost unusable after 11 decades of use.
Nadare emerged with an earth-shaking roar, frost trying to form and dying immediately in Moltres' domain; with a great beat of its wings, the horizon vanished in fire. The Mamoswine was still littered with first- and second-degree burns, but since the trap had finally snapped closed, Pryce's starter and strongest stopped holding back. Aqua Rings swirled around his enormous bulk under Dewgong and Walrein's control, freezing into a layer of glowing icy armor that soothed and healed the wounds, as Glaceon leapt to perch on his back and let herself be frozen in place.
Just in time for the second Fire-Type – Ignatius, Blaine's own starter – to slam both its own cannon arms together, the openings glowing a blue-tinted white.
THOOOOM!
The double Nova Ray howled, blowing Ignatius backwards and knocking him onto his back from his own power. Much of the energy leaked out in a great plume of white-hot fire that obscured the three figures and even ballooned out to hide the panting Rhyperior as the near-violet beam struck out from the center with untraceable speed. It was only the forewarning that allowed them to form an immense wall of stone and ice, Nadare's and Glaceon's Sub Fields layered within. It was a defensive technique that should have – and had – resisted nearly Blaine's entire team.
Ignatius ripped right through it, the lance that emerged on the other side still white-hot, just barely missing Nadare. Walrein's water-covered fin slapped it out of the air before it got close to Pryce, but even that bubbled and steamed.
Pryce clicked his tongue and scowled up at the greater battle. Moltres was like a Noctowl after a Yanma, diving, rising, and swooping around Mewtwo, the latter's telekinesis and smaller stature giving it greater mobility than even Moltres could boast. As he watched, Fire belched another river of fire that forced the experiment to bank hard toward where Moltres waited, another ocean of rolling waves of flame being born and swallowing the shell containing the clone. Pryce was too old and cynical to feel hope that it was over as the flames coalesced into a sphere, so there was little disappointment when – with a Psychic roar that echoed in their minds – a hurricane tore the ball of fire apart from the inside. Rage and wounded pride poured from Mewtwo as it glared at Moltres, flying towards the swooping Legendary rather than away, defense and mental tricks abandoned in favor of fighting back.
Above even them, the sun glared down, stronger than any Sunny Day Pryce had ever seen.
It would seem that, for the first time in their acquaintance, Blaine had gained the power advantage. Winter's Embrace would not help either; the contained Blizzard would be overwhelmed by Blaine's own inferno.
"I won't let you take this from me!" The lingering cloud of fire from the overpowered Nova Ray billowed as something large and fast ran from it. Burning hoof prints marred the ground from four long legs, a mane of white flame trailing in the wake of a large, muscular and scarred Rapidash. On the equine Pokémon's – Flammacurrus, another of Blaine's few remaining original Pokémon – back, Blaine clung to the short, cream colored pelt, the smoke that wafted from his nostrils becoming actual flames that burned and replaced his mustache, Moltres taking him closer to his element than he had ever managed on his own. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"
Ignatius, Rhyperior, and the second, likely Alpha Magmortar, followed Flammacurrus, the glowing Ground/Rock-Type roaring with both fury and pain as the insane temperatures melted its thick armor and forged them together again in a mockery of healing. Nadare and Rhyperior crashed together again, Giga Impact against Giga Impact, an explosion of steam dissipated by the shockwave. Both sets of armor cracked from the force, spiderwebs spreading through rock and ice, but Nadare's shifted and flowed back together under Glaceon's influence, Rhyperior grunting in surprise as it was instantly forced back under Nadare's true power.
Spikes extended and stabbed into the gaps in the plating, drawing a scream of true pain as flesh froze and then crumbled under Nadare's unrelenting charge. The old Mamoswine wrenched its mighty head; tusks dug under its foe as it heaved and threw the incredibly heavy Pokémon back, the spikes sticking in its flesh and bursting into flowers that left its torso and upper thighs encased in ice. Nadare went to follow up, glowing with Superpower as he prepared to finish the Rhyperior-
-an immense burst of Psychic power hurled the Mamoswine aside, the whole area cracking and cratering as Mewtwo interfered, forced to take a dive to the face in return, a snarl of pain growling through every mind. Taking advantage of the assistance, flame covered them from sight before Nadare even finished rolling as Ignatius diverted to help Rhyperior and unleashed an unfocused Blast Burn that engulfed half the platform. As it cleared, it revealed Nadare crouched within a Protect, healing armor creaking as it reformed from its half-melted state.
Pryce turned his attention to the rapidly approaching form of Blaine on Flammacurrus, with another quadrupedal Pokémon running next to them, long and agile. Like the Rapidash beside it, a billowing crest of fire poured from red spots on its dark green-blue neck, spreading down to cover its cream-colored body in a Flare Blitz. Behind Flammacurrus and the Typhlosion, the hulking Magmortar covered their approach, good arm propping up its injured one while dual Flamethrowers spewed out to single-handedly hold off Dewgong and Walrein's water attacks.
"This is for Aaron!" Another burning smokescreen let Flammacurrus and Blaine slip through Dewgong and Walrein's defensive line while Typhlosion and Magmortar kept their focus.
Aaron. Blaine's eldest son, 15. Pryce took his left arm the first time they met, and his life the second, the boy bleeding out in his father's arms.
Yuki and the secondary support Jynx barely managed to materialize in time to stop the charge with a wall of Psychic power. Yuki may still have been weakened from her hurried journey into young Perwinkle's mind – and that in and of itself would have been incredibly noteworthy in any other situation – but Mewtwo's bleeding power worked much in the same way Moltres' did to empower them.
A wave of molten rock splashed against the Barrier as Flammacurrus skirted around it, legs glowing with a building Agility. The Rapidash blurred faster and faster, blazing fire trailing behind it as Pryce and his two Jynx were surrounded by a monstrous Fire Spin tornado. Immediately, Pryce could feel the oxygen in the air being consumed for fuel.
"For Brutus!"
Brutus. The second-born at 12. He had escaped Pryce unharmed at first, retreating to let his uncle fight and die in his place. He died without a fight during the assault on Cinnabar, turned to ice by Fubuki's Ice Age.
Yuki, eyes glowing with slightly twitchy power, threw her hands out with a cry that made the Fire Spin bulge and burst into embers that swirled around them. Like Pryce had experienced a few times throughout his life, time seemed to slow without any temporal shenanigans from nearby Psychics as the dispersed Fire Spin revealed a lunging Houndoom, pitch-black flames covering its form and letting it pass right through the Barrier.
"For Julius! For every innocent man, woman, and child you've killed! For everything lost in your vainglorious war!"
Julius. The youngest. Seven years old. Died alongside his brother, Brutus, when Pryce and his forces snuck onto Cinnabar and announced themselves by turning the Heatmoore compound into a frozen wasteland of mist, snow, and crystallized blood.
Nearly all of Clan Heatmoore died that day, along with whatever bright future the young, promising scientist might have had after the war. Blaine had been called away, creeping out in the dead of night so as not to wake anyone, and returned to find his whole life gone. All that potential to improve humanity, consumed by grief and rage.
The ground glowed with white energy as Yuki prepared to rip it up and smash the Dark-Type aside, but the power burst apart with another flex of will from Mewtwo as it usurped the storm born from Moltres' wings, briefly engulfing it in a sphere of roaring wind. There was nothing to be done; Pryce was too slow to activate his last Ball, forced to watch those dark fangs come for his throat-
"Arrf!"
-and seeing its hateful eyes bulge out of its skull, bone armor cracking and splintering as something immense and on fire slammed into its side with a loud bark. The smaller canine flew through the air, bouncing off the ground with a series of pained yips while the massive yellow Arcanine landed heavily, immediately scrambling around and sprinting back the way it came from while Pryce and Blaine stared after it.
"RUUUUN! RUN DAMN YOU!" A voice rang out, higher-pitched than Pryce remembered and lightly shaky. Periwinkle, the young Trainer who had accompanied him to Mt. Ember and followed him up – the work of Brad, undoubtedly – reached out as his Fire-Type slowed near him and grabbed on, swinging up onto the Arcanine's back as it continued running. He had seemingly returned the rest of his team except the Arcanine, using it to evade the aftershocks and bursts of white flame that dropped from above.
"Who the fuck is that!?" Blaine demanded, to Pryce's confusion. The boy had been standing to the side for the last 10-ish minutes; had Blaine not seen him? "KILL HIM!" He pointed towards the fleeing child, and his Magmortar raised a cannon. Said appendage was instead forced to sustain a heatwave that evaporated the supersonic ice bullets Dewgong and Walrein tried to put through Blaine's skull.
"No," Pryce spoke his first word since the battle began, Mt. Ember and the very air itself trembling while the titans above them clashed again and again, Psychic power smothering flames while the fire ate it in turn as they danced around and towards each other, the whole sky their battleground.
"I HATE YOOOOUUUU!" Tears, actual tears, steamed on Blaine's cheeks as he vibrated with hatred, panting, heaving to catch a breath through his emotions. "You took everything from me! Why!? Why won't you just DIIIIIEEEEEEE!"
Pryce said nothing as he came again. He never responded to Blaine's accusations. Many of them were true, after all, and he could levy nearly as many back. Isabella, Pryce's wife, assassinated. Vermillion bombed and burned, civilians with it. Clan grounds assaulted in the dead of night to deny Johto the reinforcements; not even the nurseries spared. No words would change things, and even if Pryce felt compelled by a spurt of madness to apologize, it would fail.
It would ring hollow. Pryce had known the children were there. His only regret was missing the man who stood across from him.
If he could go back, he would kill even more for Johto's freedom.
"PRRYYYYYYYYYYCCEEEEEEEE!"
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
"Left! SOL, LEFT!"
What the hell was I doing!? I didn't even have a plan; I just saw the Houndoom and thought, 'well, that's bad'!
Pebbles and cooled slag sprayed as I yanked on the scruff of his neck to the side, the Arcanine almost laying down with how hard he turned. Ahead, the ground vanished in a wall of fire that scorched my skin and left a molten trench behind, the smaller Magmortar trying to pick us off before the Rhyperior getting its face smashed in – literally, a Rock Smash from the lumbering Mamoswine cracking off its nose horn and ripping open its remaining armor – demanded its attention back.
Not that the reprieve lasted long. After being forced to dip and maneuver around another firestorm nearly large enough to engulf a town the size of Viridian, Mewtwo stopped mid-air, arms outstretched and hands cupped before him. A ball of ethereal, kaleidoscopic light built in his grasp as Moltres sped towards him, the air igniting as it passed. With a grunt of effort that rang a little tinny in my head, the ball exploded into a dozen, then a hundred, Psybeams, each as thick as my wrist.
Moltres screeched another cone of fire larger and hotter than anything I'd ever seen, incinerating every strand of pulsing light that came near, but it wasn't enough. The Psybeams curved around the flood of flames, bending around to come at it from the sides, while Mewtwo simply accepted the edge of the pseudo-Flamethrower scorching him – his choked-off scream bouncing inside my head as he held it, Psybeams rattling from him like a gatling gun. Moltres was forced to break off and dive, twirling around itself to make its blazing wings into a whirlwind that incinerated the worst of the hammering Psybeams.
But for every two that hit, another one missed and descended on us like raindrops.
We were so dead!
BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOM!
Like artillery shells, the Psybeams exploded upon contact with the ground, leaving us running through a war zone. Boulder-sized holes were punched in the solid stone, shrapnel peppering us and tearing our skin.
BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOM!
One of the bomb-like Psybeams burst right in front of us, Sol moving too fast to avoid running straight into the resulting dust cloud. Sol disappeared from under me with a yip! as he tripped into the crater, sending me flying through the air and then bouncing across the ground once, twice, thrice, four times as the world kept exploding around me.
As I finally came to rest, breath knocked out of me and my right forearm weirdly warm yet numb, I lay there for a moment, watching Mewtwo forced to stop as Pryce's ghosts – keeping their distance and harassing it where they could, four of their numbers already gone – interrupted it and then fled again. Moltres swooped back up for the salty runback, beating the great wings to send a rain of flaming feathers, each burning as big as Betty, at Mewtwo while it approached with grasping talons at the ready. Moltres seemed stronger, but it wasn't trained. There were no techniques behind its attacks, just raw power and a natural grasp of fire that exceeded nearly anything else in the world. Mewtwo, meanwhile, was… horrifying, honestly. He was still wearing the suppressing armor that kept his Psychic power contained, and was still hanging with Moltres. On the back foot, sure, but that left me with serious concerns. If suppressed Mewtwo could twist me like a balloon animal, what the hell would unrestrained Mewtwo look like?
What a shitty day.
"Arrf!"
I groaned as I sat up, accepting Sol's concerned nuzzle. I reached up to briefly pat his head before getting back to it, but a sharp jolt of pain made me grit my teeth and look down at the arm. There was a bend in the middle of the forearm, already turning black and yellow around the tip of a protruding bone that pierced through the skin and leaked blood.
What a shitty, sucky day.
"I'm fine, buddy, it's just a scrat-" I choked on my words when I saw the limping Houndoom – armor and left-side horn basically gone after Sol's fire-enhanced Brick Break – stare us down with fire crackling in its maw. "HOLY SHIT!"
There was no time to do anything as the Flamethrower roared towards us, only the faintest tinge of black in the white-hot flames. Sol crouched over me for cover, but that wasn't how fire worked. I could only brace myself as I started to feel surprisingly cold, the colors fading even as the light grew-
-suddenly, I was elsewhere. Everything was oddly flat, like I was existing between two panes of glass pressed together. Above, grey fire bloomed in a cloud, swallowing Sol and where I'd just been. Beneath, darkness writhed, a thousand thousand shapes undulating beyond reality. Voices gnawed at my mind, slithering into my ears and burrowing into my brain as they beckoned, demanded, and threatened. Something was wrapped around me, two somethings, pulling me forward despite directions being more than a little odd. It felt like I was trapped between two worlds, solidity pulling from above while achingly familiar fluidity grasped from below, enticing me to return to that realm-
-I gasped again, falling onto my hands and knees as I left the shadow of the large piece of debris I was suddenly hidden behind. Doublade floated with me, waiting to see if I was alright after the Shadow Sneak. I did too, feeling my heart pound and expecting the consequences of traveling through the border between realms.
But nothing came.
"I see why people don't like that," I snarked, keeping my own opinion to myself. Doublade said nothing, predictably, and simply returned to my shadow, ready to pull my ass from the fire – literally – while I peeked around my corner.
The spot I'd left was nothing but slag, the flames still burning due to the speed of the Shadow Sneak. Houndoom panted as it turned around, confident it had got me.
A mistake, as it learned when a howling, snarling beast fell upon it. Dark-hued fire still clung to his pelt, searing through the yellow fur and burning his flesh for the first time in his life, but he didn't care. Moltres empowered him as much as it did Blaine's team, nearly white embers crawling across him, and he used his bulk to hold the Houndoom down as it bit and spat Denial flames everywhere.
It hurt to do, but I had faith in Sol to handle that, more than any other of my team at that moment. The Houndoom was already more than a little hurt and seemed to struggle with its Distortion under Moltres' power. So I left that battle to him – other than half an eye in case things turned – and focused on the wider battle.
Pryce was on the defensive against Blaine, backing away from the Rapidash, Typhlosion, and Magmortar. Dewgong and Walrein were having a hell of a time keeping their Trainer safe, whips of water tipped by razor-sharp ice lashing out before they evaporated into steam. Burns bubbled thick layers of fat and scorched muscles, bones peeking through as the two tanky Pokémon threw themselves in the way of attacks, Dewgong's tail a stump and one of Walrein's eyes popping in a splatter of instantly drying gore.
But he was holding his own, the second battle pulling enough of Blaine's attention that he couldn't close the deal. Rhyperior was a wreck of barely held-together stone, fused by the fire the smaller Magmortar was pouring over it as the Mamoswine-Glaceon combo decimated it. It was similar to their Trainer's battle, but reversed, with Pryce's Pokémon unable to finish it because of help from above.
As I watched, Mewtwo again had to leave himself open to Moltres' fury, his protective shell paper-thin and armor deforming from the heat. He waved a paw down at Mamoswine and the air warped. A net of interlocked, scything Psycho Cuts carved through the platform, sending neat squares dropping into Mt. Ember, but the attack went wide, and Mamoswine maneuvered around it despite its bulk and wounds.
That was kind of promising. I'd been content to leave it to Pryce when he was winning, but dual Legendaries meant all hands on deck.
Betty materialized beside me, her immense size unable to hide behind the rocks. Not that it mattered, since she immediately started powering up a Dragon Pulse, the sphere of green with a blue core growing slowly as, under my direction, she focused on condensing it, the speck of blue spreading throughout the ball.
Sol and Betty – plus maybe Doublade – were the only Pokémon I trusted to be strong enough not to die instantly from a glancing blow. Siren's water attacks might've been super-effective, but if Dewgong and Walrein were having trouble with it, then there was no way my pretty little Feebas was going to do anything other than be a target.
It was less than five seconds before the Dragon Pulse screamed across the battlefield, but that was already longer than I was comfortable with, so I didn't linger to see it hit before I recalled the Shelgon and sank into the shadow, wrapped in Doublade's twin ribbons-
-and was pulled through the shadows again, rushing across the volcano summit faster than most material matter could. The denizens of the Distorted Realm still whispered to me, luring through the thin barrier that separated us, but it was easier to ignore them knowing what to expect. I focused on not resisting Doublade instead, letting myself be pulled along-
-and emerging close to the staircase I'd entered from, thankfully not collapsed, and behind an outcropping. Letting Betty back out, I had a second to see the scarred, old Magmortar behind a Protect from one cannon, smoke still clinging to the crater in front of it, while it reduced my previous hiding spot to cinders.
Again, there were no noticeable consequences to the Shadow Sneak. I was a little cold, somehow, a chill of the spirit rather than body, and there was a feeling of almost… longing as I left, but that was it.
So I repeated the process. Another Dragon Pulse. Another Shadow Sneak. The return fire came quicker that time, and I barely had the time to slip it, so we returned to the first spot, where it didn't expect me, doubling back on myself and then going somewhere completely new. That internal sensation of cold grew alongside a deepeing headache, but it was tolerable. If nothing else, it distracted from the broken arm.
Rinse and repeat.
Magmortar's diverted attention made the difference. Torn between Betty's Dragon Pulses, too powerful to ignore, and its teammates losing the fight, it ultimately managed to deal with neither problem. Rhyperior, easily the most durable Pokémon I'd ever seen – except the Mamoswine pushing its shit in – groaned lowly as it fell to a knee, arm, tail, and essentially all of its armor gone. It panted as another of those laser beams Blaine's Magmortars were so fond of forced Mamoswine off for the last time, but it lacked the strength to rise. Magmortar roared as it charged itself, using its cannons as thrusters as it jumped, soaring on flames nearly as large as Moltres'-
-and for the second time, one of Blaine's Pokémon got intercepted mid-air by a flaming dog, Extreme Speed-enhanced jump sending Sol straight into the Magmortar. They slammed back down into the earth, rolling apart with groans and growls of pain while Mamoswine charged straight past Rhyperior, seeing the chance to deal with the much greater threat. Struggling to his feet, Sol panted heavily with his head hung low, and I grimaced at the results of my decision to leave him to fight alone. Most of the fur on his belly was gone, exposing yellow fat and grilled meat. His chest trembled with every breath; his skin cracked from the movement, fresh blood dripping to the ground and drying on contact. Bite marks littered his shoulders and the side of his neck, and I could see the bone shift as he stood.
But stand he did, lifting his head proudly and staring the Magmortar down as his tremors settled under a Moltres-powered Morning Sun, small flames spreading across him to heal his wounds. Where I left him, the limp body of Houndoom rested, its head nearly ripped from its shoulder by Sol's jaws around its neck. From behind the Magmortar, Mamoswine and Glaceon were picking up speed as the Blast Pokémon started glowing hot enough to melt the ground under its feet. It roared as it was engulfed in a conflagration, a contained inferno blooming around it as it prepared for its final fight, hoping to hold them off long enough that Blaine could finish Pryce-
'ENOUGH!'
The mental bellow made everyone flinch, human and Pokémon alike, as it was meant to. A wind picked up, screeching as it swirled this way and that, pushing against us. I threw my hand up over my face and leaned against it, but it was no use. Doublade rose with a Protect as I grabbed onto him, Sol pushing his way through the storm to stand in front of us, but that only resulted in all three of us sliding backwards. For a moment, I feared Mewtwo sought to push us over the edge, or into one of the holes that now specced the ruined platform.
Then it stopped.
Stepping out from behind my Pokémon – and taking the chance to tell Sol to focus on recovery, since he was still my best bet – I saw that it wasn't just me. Everyone, even Blaine himself, had been pushed apart by the squalls, everyone at least a hundred feet apart.
Above them, Mewtwo hung. His arms were limp at his sides and his thin chest heaving as he panted, Moltres flying around him in tightening circles. His exposed flesh was a bright pink from the heat, the tip of his tail scorched and a second-degree burn across his upper thigh. The armor had fared even worse, most of it little more than molten metal and plastic fused to his skin, the visor so bent and bubbly I was surprised that he could see out of it.
Apparently, the cloned Legendary agreed as he reached up with lightly shaking, three-fingered hands and gripped the helmet's edge.
My stomach dropped.
"NOOOO!" Blaine screamed, his face paling and turning to fear for the first time since the battle started. "DON'T TAKE IT OFF!"
But it was too late. The warped helmet had already cleared Mewtwo's antennae and came off his head to reveal his angular, bony face and violet eyes glowing with power as they opened to take us in unobstructed for the first time.
His Psychic presence surged.
Earlier, the mental pressure had been like a rubber glove, stretched around too much power. As Mewtwo removed his armor, that glove popped, unleashing his full Psychic might. The constant presence pushing against my mind swelled from a pressure to a push, and then to a mountain weighing against my mind, all without his direct attention. Anger, doubt, relief, and respect pulsed through me, all foreign, all belonging to someone else, as even Moltres chose to back off for a second, landing on a rocky peak to take in the sudden change.
But Mewtwo didn't engage. He didn't follow up on Moltres' hesitation, or take the chance to strike down Pryce and me. Instead, he stared. Just hovering there, pressing down on us all like gravity and staring at us.
'What…' The words echoed through my mind in a bellow, any tininess gone as they reverberated through my brain. Pryce's Jynx clutched its eyes shut, bright light leaking from under the clenched lids. 'What is this? What have you done!?'
No, I realized with a start. Not at us.
He was staring at the volcano. At the ground beneath us, and more importantly…
The Rocket base and laboratory hidden within, filled with captured and tortured Pokémon, treated like lab rats to advance Team Rocket's goals. With Blaine involved, I imagined there were a fair number of clones as well.
"That's not important right now!" Blaine tried to wave the words away while a horrible idea struck me. "Right now, we need to finish-!"
"They're experimenting on Pokémon!" My scream echoed as well in the sudden deadly silence. My heart hammered a million beats a second, but I didn't stop; I returned Sol and Duoblade to their Poké Balls and grabbed Herc's and Siren's as they shook, trying to get out. Insane idiots. "Team Rocket! They're kidnapping Pokémon, dissecting them, experimenting on them!"
"DON'T LISTEN TO THAT BRAT! KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL, I DEMAND IT!" Blaine seemed to be trying to drown out my words by volume alone, but that wouldn't work.
"LOOK!" I didn't know how to project my thoughts and memories to a Psychic. They'd always gone looking themselves. So I stared up at Mewtwo really hard while thinking about the first Sevii Lab, running through my memory of it in as much detail as possible for the first time since it happened. As I'd hoped, Mewtwo already being in my mind let him get a feel for the memory and he ignored Blaine to turn his full attention – like the Titan Dragonite at Bill's lighthouse, staring down at me and making me feel so very small – on me-
-the fake tree I saw the last time opened and two men stepped out, the red R lighting up like beacons in the night-
-A dozen corpses lay sprawled out over the hard-packed earth of the hideout-
-A pidgey mindlessly bashed its head against the bars of its cage, two wings beating furiously. The other pair of wings lay limply at its side, fresh stitches visible where they were attached below the natural ones. A Wurmple tried to crawl forward with the little space its size allowed, yet was constantly pulled back by the other head pulling in the opposite direction, the two Pokémon sawn in half and attached at the middle. Eggs cracked open, and the underdeveloped fetuses pulled out and dissected: Exeggutors with their lower bodies amputated and dozens of heads rotting all over their corpses, Pokémon without half their bodies, but five times the limbs, ones in the middle of decomposing yet still alive, a Golbat without wings or legs and its fangs removed. Every time I turned my head there were more, and I had to stop looking, focusing on the fight to try and block it out-
-I was on my knees when I came out, sweat dripping down from my forehead as I heaved for breath. Somehow, in the second that had passed, Pryce had reached my side and hauled me up with an arm under my shoulder.
"You battleworthy?" He grunted quietly. I groaned something that he took as confirmation. "What is happening?"
"Well," I said as Mewtwo slowly lowered down towards Blaine, "while we're probably still going to die, at least Blaine will be going with us."
Pryce thought for a second and then nodded. "I am okay with that."
Meanwhile, Mewtwo lightly landed in front of its creator.
'You did this? What he showed me, that other base. That was you?'
"Bah!" Blaine spat to the side, flame mustache twitching. Shooting a scowl my way, he apparently decided that the Meowth was out of the bag and went for his usual attitude. "So what if I did, eh? When has anything ever been done without breaking a few eggs!? You certainly haven't complained, benefiting from my other creations! Now stop your whining and listen when I tell you something! Kill Pry-!"
'Your… your creations? Like these… these creatures, these wretches? This… this is how you learned? I… I am born… build on the back of… of…'
"On the back of progress!" The madman roared, getting in Mewtwo's face and actually making the Psychic step backward as the Fire-Master jabbed him in the chest. "On the back of brilliance the likes of which this world has never seen! Build on the back of MY work, every strand of your DNA exactly as I wanted it, ten thousand failures in the making, AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS! YOU WILL OBEY YOUR CREATOR!"
'I AM NO ONE'S SLAVE!' My left eye clenched shut at the mental roar, a needle of pain jammed into it with the potency of the rage and disgust. Based on the fact that Pryce flinched and grabbed his head, he probably got it worse.
"YES YOU ARE!" Blaine screamed, spit landing on Mewtwo's face as he tried to take another step, but Mewtwo didn't move, leaving creator and creation face-to-face. "YOU SERVE ME! YOU BELONG TO ME! I AM YOUR MAKER AND YOU WILL-!"
CRUNCH!
Blood joined the spit across the feline face as Blaine's head imploded, grey matter and viscera covering Mewtwo's front as he crushed his creator's head. For a moment, the Clan Head of Clan Heatmoore's headless body remained on its feet, crimson spurting from the neck in great gushes. Then it fell to its knees and further to its side, the Ashmaker of Kanto coming to a rest in a pool of his own blood.
A terrible scream of horror ripped from the old Magmortar as it lifted its cannons to kill its Trainer's murderer, but before it could, the Acorn Balls on the dead man's belt glowed blue. They lifted, recalling not just Magmortar, but the charging Rapidash, bigger Magmortar, and Typhlosion as well. They came to slowly circle Mewtwo as he stared down at Blaine, then at his hands. The mental presence flickered and wavered, regret, vindication, pain, pleasure, doubt, confusion, disgust, fear, and so, so much more ripping through it as his head lifted.
Our eyes met.
Then, with another screech of reality-tearing spacial distortion and blinding flash, he vanished, taking Blaine's body and PokéBalls with him.
Silence reigned over Mt. Ember as it all ended suddenly and without warning. Pryce stood, as still as the Typing he trained, staring at the point where his nemesis had died and then been taken from him. I didn't know how long they'd known each other, but the Johto Rebellion was 40 years ago, and Pryce and Blaine had been at the forefront. It probably felt incredibly anticlimactic.
Sucked that I had to ruin it even more by tugging on his sleeve and whispering out of the side of my mouth.
"Uh, Pryce?"
I got nothing; the Gym Leader lost in his own head. I tugged harder and jabbed him with my elbow.
"Pryce."
A small swat of his hand was my only answer as he approached the already dried pool of blood, oblivious to what I was trying to tell him, forcing me to grab him by the shoulder and swing him around.
"Pryce!"
"WHAT!" He barked furiously, any veneer of calm long gone. In response to his anger, I gripped him by the head and forcibly turned it.
To the very much not having a great time Moltres, who, after its enemy randomly decided to team-kill and concede the match, was bereft of any other targets other than us.
It flared its wings.
"SHADOW SNEAK!" I screamed, and Pryce and I both disappeared in a slithering shadow that darted for the stairs as the area we were standing in vanished in a conflagration the size of an apartment complex, a triumphant screech audible even within the shadow.
'Victory'.
—-----------
Pokémon name translations:
Pryce:
Froslass/Fubuki= Snowstorm.
Mamoswine/Nadare = Avalanche.
Jynx/Yuki = Snow.
Blaine:
Ignatius = Fire/Fiery.
Flammacurrus = Fire Chariot.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY liked it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.