It was a hot, humid night in Pastoria, and only the occasional Pokemon cry could be heard as the entire city slumbered, mostly undisturbed.
There was one exception. Near the edge of the dilapidated docks, in between two of the concrete hangars, a young blonde girl fell to her knees and closed her eyes tightly, her long curtain of hair falling over her face. She shook, pained, for a moment before grabbing the long needle-like projectile stuck in her arm and pulling it out alongside a violent spurt of blood.
"Hngh… this… t-this is how a coward fights."
Cutting off her only route of escape was a woman, tall and lanky, dressed in messy black garbs that wouldn't have looked out of place if worn by the grim reaper. Her face was pale and her cheeks hollow. Two Beedril furiously buzzed their wings beside her, and in between her and Cynthia stood a large feline creature coated in a terrible stench.
The woman formed a lopsided smile and shrugged. "I honestly didn't think you'd fall for it. And here I'd already come up with a couple contingency plans in case you didn't come to this little meeting."
Cynthia rose to her feet, the fire in her eyes cold and hungry. She held her bleeding arm with one hand, breathing fast, looking straight at the long strip of leather the woman held in her hands. Her belt. Every one of her Pokeballs, out of reach.
"I'd heard many rumors about Pastoria's Gym leader," Cynthia snarled. "But none of the insults that I heard flung at you could have possibly done you justice. You really are a Seviper in human form, Kayn."
The woman's smile exacerbated, amused. Cynthia knew she stood no chance of fighting or even fleeing, so all she could do was try to buy time. For what, she didn't know. But it was better than dying.
"I am nothing more than a concerned citizen, doing her job," Kayn said.
"Hah… right. L-luring a defenseless girl to an abandoned stop and attacking her… is that what a true Gym leader would do?"
"It is, in this Sinnoh that we live in," said Kayn. "Problems arise, and problems are dealt with. That's how politics work, right? And you, Cynthia… you've been causing more than a few problems for those who sign my checks."
Cynthia smiled proudly, not backing an inch. "Finally realized that the impossible challenge they put out might not be impossible after all?"
"You are an incredible trainer, I'll give you that. But you were careless, too eager to show yourself, to show off. And now, you pay for it." Once again, Kayn shrugged. "No hard feelings, of course."
Cynthia swallowed. She looked around, trying to find anything; an exit, a weapon, a way to slip through…
"If you kill me, it's your head next," she said, getting desperate. "The clan of lorekeepers will not take this lying down."
"What your family doesn't know won't hurt them," Kayn countered. "For a young, beautiful girl like you to be ambushed and attacked by a bunch of vagabonds as she roamed through the city at night… it's a tragedy, but an expected one in times of war. Your tale will be very, very sad, I'll make sure of that. I'm a great storyteller, you see."
Cynthia grit her teeth, fear and anger rising up her stomach to her throat. "Y-you piece of…"
"Shut your mouth," Kayn cut her off. "The dead have no need to speak. Now, Beedril, Skuntank… dispose of her."
The buzz of wings grew faster, louder, and the three pair of red eyes gleamed maliciously, set squarely on Cynthia. The young girl gasped and, despite her previous bravado, jumped back and almost hit her head on the concrete wall, forgetting she was trapped. Panic rose up her body, and tears began to well up in her eyes.
No… no, not like this! She screamed inside her mind. S-stop shaking! If I die then I'll do it on my feet, not… n-not cowering! I will not…!
But there was no time to think. In a flash the two flying bugs shot toward her, and the large feline soon followed, murder intent clear in their eyes. Cynthia wanted to run, to scream. But before she could try any of that, another sound broke through the night.
A scream. A familiar voice.
"Haze!"
First came the wind, then a massive cloud of pearly mist crashed against the Gym leader's back, rolling through the narrow hallway and rising up the sides in violent, curly mists. The Pokemon stopped their charge and looked around, confused. Unable to see their surroundings.
"What!?" Kayn turned around sharply, but had to raise a hand to protect against the mist. "Wh–who is ther–!"
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Cyrus' voice echoed like a storm, like a bomb going off. He sounded desperate, out of control, and as his silhouette became clear and cut through the mist at running speed, it was clear that the rest of him was the same way.
"What… w-wait, sto–!"
It all happened in an instant, to fast that neither Pokemon nor Gym leader nor Cynthia could react to it. Fueled by a fear that only came with the possibility of losing a loved one, Cyrus screamed at the top of his lungs and threw himself at Kayn, slamming his fists onto the woman's stomach.
There was a wet, visceral sound, and it took both the Gym leader and the girl behind her longer than it should to realize Cyrus hadn't attacked with empty hands.
Kayn stumbled back a few feet, and with wide, disbelieving eyes looked down at the knife buried in her gut.
----------------------------------------
For a few short seconds that stretched out into an eternity, the peak of Mt. Coronet was deathly silent. None of the Gym leaders spoke or moved. All they could do was stare gormlessly at the thin, disfigured creature before them, standing in the middle of the air as though the laws of gravity didn't affect it in the slightest. Psychic energy flowed from its body like heat from the sun, sinking into their shoulders. Weighing them down. It was in and all around them, like pressure, like the feeling of being underwater, drowning in a lake's cold, icy grip.
It was like falling deep into a nightmare. This creature was power incarnate, and its Will was now that of their enemy.
"It… can't be…" Roark whispered, beside himself. His eyes were wide and unbelieving.
"What in the hell…?" Gardenia's expression was no different. She sounded angry, fearful.
"Ah… it is as I feared." Sanbica took a step back, a nervous smile forming on her lips. "This is what I get for interfering, I suppose."
The creature lowered its head, and its gaze fell on them. A current of something like electricity ran through their bodies, freezing them in place.
"Look at yourselves. The protectors of Sinnoh, shaking in fear like Caterpie." Cyrus' voice echoed with unnatural strength. "You… have lost."
Those three words brought them back to reality, back from that suffocating feeling. And with the weight of realization falling on them so strongly, there was nothing left to do but act.
"We'll see about that!"
Gardenia was the first to act, her scream echoing with the ferocity of a wild Pokemon struggling for its life. Two Ultraballs flew through the air. And before the flashes of light had vanished, she was already bellowing her orders.
"Leaf Storm!"
Standing side to side amidst the light that had materialized them, the Roserade and Torterra looked up at their opponent and obeyed without question, the pure and unfiltered energy of life flooding from the ground up through their bodies as they aimed, then fired.
And a storm it was. Almost as wild and all-encompassing as the blizzard from before, a torrent of knife-sharp leaves exploded forth from Roserade's hands and Torterra's back, swirling against each other and combining into a single barrage the size of a hurricane, easily ten times as wide as the creature it swallowed whole. There was a sound like that of thousands of knives scraping against metal, but it was drowned by the roar of the attack. For a few moments, no one could see anything. The force and volume of the swirling leaves filled their vision completely.
Then they dispersed, vanishing into the horizon, and what she saw made something sink in Gardenia's stomach.
"W-what…?"
A sphere of semi-transparent light protected the creature's body. Not a single crack or scratch mark could be seen across its surface. Equal looks of horror and confusion crossed the other Gym leaders' faces.
"That's… that's impossible," Gardenia muttered to herself. "A dual Leaf Storm should've... there's nothing that could've resisted it."
"I said so before, didn't I?" Cyrus' mocking voice echoed. "You've lost. There is no limit to the amount of power M3 can output. All of you could attack it over and over for as long as you wished, yet never leave a single scratch."
For a moment, the weight of those words seemed to sink into his enemies, shock and fear and hopelessness tinting their expressions. But one voice called out against it. Fantina's voice, echoing louder than it had any right to, broke them free of the spell.
"Do not listen to him!" she bellowed, raising a hand toward their enemy. "If this thing is like the original clone of Mew, then I know for a fact it can be defeated! Stand your ground!"
"She's right!" Candice followed, light and darkness starting to pool around her. "Besides, Lucian and the rest of the Elite Four and on their way! We have to fight!"
The shadows behind Fantina seemed to twist, then stretch into an enormous blanket of darkness as six creatures emerged from behind her. Two Gengar, two Mismagius, a Drifblim and a Dusknoir made a ring around their trainer as they looked up toward their opponent, expectant.
The sight of those powerful Pokemon was enough to return everyone else to their senses. With a 'Yeah!' that boomed like a gunshot, they threw their Pokeballs up in unison and a cacophony of light and motion momentarily blinded them as dozens of Pokemon materialized throughout the mountain's peak. Lucas, who still held on to the wounded professor and Saturn, who stood alongside him, were the only ones not to release their Pokemon.
"Never knew you fellas to give up so easily!" Byron's deep voice boomed. "It's just as the lady says; against all of us, that thing has to go down eventually."
"Damn right!" scoffed Crasher Wake, lifting his chin up proudly. "We're the eight swords of Sinnoh! This is what we're here for!"
"And there's no way in hell this botched experiment is going to get the better of us," Volkner muttered, eyes narrowed.
Cyrus and his thrall looked upon the small army that had formed before them, Pokemon of all shapes and sizes, each one no doubt powerful and with the training to match. Against such a sight, all he could do was smile.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"Very well… you might continue to struggle, if you wish," he said. "But it is time for me to take my leave. M3… keep them at bay, no matter what."
And with that, Cyrus turned its back on them. He knelt to grab the three vats containing the lake siblings, but they couldn't pay much attention to that as suddenly the creature behind him extended its arms to the side, and its eyes burst alight with unparalleled psychic energy. A wall of pure lit cut through the ground and sky and everything around it, separating them from the path leading to Spear Pillar..
"We've no time to waste," Fantina declared. "I doubt we have more than twenty minutes before he reaches Spear Pillar."
"Then we hurry," Candice clicked her tongue, then looked over her shoulder. "Saturn! Tell your Pokemon to keep Maylene and Rowan safe! Lucas…!" She glanced at the object in his hands, lips pursing. "Please tell me that is what I think it is."
Lucas swallowed nervously, then nodded. He lifted the needle-like device so all could see it.
"Y-yeah, it is," he said. "If we stick it into that thing, it should remove its psychic powers at least. But…"
They didn't need to be geniuses to understand the problem.
"But it's not going to be that easy," said Fantina. "We'll need to immobilize M3 first, if only for a second."
Roark laughed nervously. "Aren't' we getting a bit ahead of ourselves here? We have to break that barrier first."
"Then let's get to it!" yelled Byron, raising his shovel and pointing it at M3. "Lad, have that thing ready just in case. Everyone else… come on, in unison now!"
"YEAH!"
They yelled out their orders and their Pokemon moved swiftly, coordinated like parts of a well-oiled machine. First was a flash. In the moment it took the rest of them to catch up, a pair of yellow blurs cut through the air in an instant and materialized under M3, then jumped. Volkner's Jolteon landed atop their enemy's dome of energy, and with a proud roar it lit it up like a star, an burst of electricity exploding in all directions. Electivire didn't make himself wait, winding his arm back as he jumped, ready to cleave the barrier in twain.
"Brick Break!"
His fist came down, but the beast wasn't there anymore and both Pokemon shot past, hitting nothing but air. M3 had teleported past them, now surrounded by a ring of Pokemon.
"Hold it in place!" Gardenia yelled. "Vine whip!"
At least a dozen vines as thick as threes shot up from the ground in front of Roserade and Torterra, shooting up at lightning speed and coiling around the barrier, holding it firmly in place.
"Now!" Wake and Fantina yelled in unison.
"Give'im hell!" Byron followed.
Four more Pokemon immediately jumped to attack. Floatzel, Gengar, Dusknoir and Magnezone converged in a circle around the barrier and shot it point blank with an explosive combination, bolts of lightning and waves of dark energy sizzling against the pressurized water to create a cloud of steam that covered the sky for a moment. Even then, looking up from where she stood, Fantina could tell that hadn't been enough.
"More!" she yelled. "Gengar, Mismagius, shatter the barrier with Dark Pulse! Volkner, get ready to stun it with electricity! Roark, Byron, hit it with as much brute force as you can!"
"Got it!"
"You heard her, boy!"
The four Pokemon retreated and two massive ghosts appeared in their place, the dark outline of their bodies waving and shaking as though they were holding onto something uncontrollable. They saw right through the mist, past the vines and into the barrier itself. M3 was still there, still immobile. With that confirmed, the Gengar and Mismagius grinned to themselves and attacked. A dual shockwave of pure darkness slammed against the barrier from opposite sides, burning through the vines like paper and shattering the dome into a thousand tiny slivers.
Still in mid-air, M3 shivered and seemed to lose some of its balance, looking surprised. Its eyes shone and its body began to dissipate, but not fast enough. There was a flash, and then a bolt of lightning slammed against its back, interrupting its attempt to teleport.
Father and son raised their hands toward the sky in unison and gave their orders.
"Mega Punch!" yelled Roark.
"Heavy Slam!" Byron screamed.
Dark, titanic silhouettes appeared from within the cloud of mist, their eyes a pulsing crimson, their arms wound back as they threw themselves forward with the speed of a train and the size of a mountain. The Aggron and Tyranitar let out a roar that shook the skies and punched with all their strength, their fists easily dwarfing M3 as they slammed against it.
But there was no impact, no crunch of bones shattering. Their fists simply… stopped, all their momentum vanishing into the air. The two massive beasts froze in shock, and the trainers below were no different. At first they thought M3 had somehow stopped them with another quick barrier, but when the next gust of wind came and blew the mist away, the sight that met them sent shivers down their spines.
"T-that's…"
"Give me a fucking break," Roark breathed out, eyes wide.
Fantina swallowed. "How…?"
M3 had simply stopped both fists with its bare hands. Even though it should have been impossible, even though both beasts dwarfed it in size, the truth was clear as day. Its thin, stick-like arms shook slightly with the effort of holding both of them back, but other than that it didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
The shock that wracked through the group of trainers gave M3 all the time it needed. By the time Volkner, Roark and Fantina had come back to themselves, another pulse of energy had begun to grow from within the beast's chest. They heard it in the air, like a second heartbeat. The air shook, pulsed, and then M3's skin went from white to purple as a powerful light enveloped it whole.
Candice and Sanbica both gasped beside her. "Shit!"
"Quickly!" Fantina yelled, panicked. "Use Protec–!"
The light burst, like a bomb going off, like a second sun forming in front of them. Quicker than lightning, the crushing force of the shockwave slammed against the Pokemon first, and then the Gym leaders.
Their vision went black, and all they could feel was the sheer motion and vertigo as their bodies flew through the air like leaves in a storm. Deaf thumps and distant cracks were heard all throughout the mountain. The landing was rough, violent. Many of the Gym leaders were unable to move for a few seconds, half buried in dirt and snow and pieces of the ground itself. Their Pokemon lay all around them, collapsed and shaking, though not entirely out of the fight yet.
"H-hey! Is everyone…!?"
Lucas' concerned voice reached them from behind. He and Saturn had been far enough that the shockwave hadn't hit them so badly, same with the wounded Rowan and Maylene. For a few seconds, only pained coughs and mumbled insults came as answers. Fantina was the only one who could fully reply.
"I'm… w-we're fine," she said with effort.
She, Candice and Sanbica were the only ones that had escaped mostly unscathed from the shockwave, and as they pushed themselves back to their feet with great effort, the rest figured it had something to do with the wall of pure darkness that had risen in front of them. If the glow of her eyes and the shadows dancing at her feet were any indication, Candice had been responsible.
"I… I don't know if I can d-do that again," Candice breathed harshly, dropping the barrier and almost falling to her knees.
"A-agh… that pale-ass son of a bitch…" Gardenia's voice was heard.
"I-is everyone still standing?" Roark asked through the massive cloud of dust that had risen from the shockwave. "Are all the Pokemon…?"
But Roark couldn't finish his sentence, and soon the rest of the trainers saw why. As the dust cleared, the sight that met them was mostly what they'd expected; all of them and their Pokemon scattered in a big circle due to the shockwave. There was… one exception, however.
One of Roark's Pokemon hadn't been thrown back. In fact, it didn't seem as though he'd been affected in the slightest by that attack.
"Ty… Tyranitar?"
The titanic beast stood in the same spot as before, its fist still being held in place by M3's palm. Surprise was, most likely, the only reason he hadn't moved yet.
Realization dawned on Fantina and Volkner first, then on everyone else.
"Of course… Dark types are completely immune to psychic assaults." she whispered out loud. "
"We have to focus our offensive around Tyran–!"
Unfortunately, M3 seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because its gaze was soon turned to the beast itself, and its grip on his fist became firmer.
It was the work of an instant. With strength completely unthinkable for a creature of its size, M3 raised its hand and threw the Tyranitar up in the air like it was a rag-doll. The massive Pokemon groaned in shock as it was lifted, his body making an arc above M3. He was held there for only a short instant it slammed him against the ground with enough force to create a tremor.
Then, before Tyranitar had time to move, it happened again. And again. The only reason Fantina and the others didn't react right away was because what they were seeing was… impossible, unthinkable. Like a scene straight out of a nightmare. One of the heaviest, most powerful Pokemon species being thrown around and slammed against the ground repeatedly without an ounce on effort on their enemy's part…
The cracking was what finally brought them back to reality. It was a well-known fact that very few things could even put a dent in a Tyranitar's rocky shell, yet all of them saw and heard clearly as shards of him cracked and flew in all directions, their dark green tinted with blood.
"TYRANITAR!" Roark's scream echoed with fear and panic.
"Stop him!" Byron ordered. "Iron Tail!"
"Thunder Punch!" Volkner followed.
Electivire shot like a bullet from the right, and on the left the ground cracked and opened up, a massive Steelix emerging and coiling around itself before whipping at M3 with his tail.
M3 moved inhumanly fast. Reinforcing its muscles with psychic energy, it raised the Tyranitar high and spun it in a circle around itself, not only deflecting the iron tail but also slamming the behemoth against the electric blur as though it were hitting a baseball with a bat. The impact was brutal. A crack resonated throughout Electivire's body as he flew through the air, and yet another echoed when he hit the ground, half burying himself into the blanket of snow on the edge of the mountain, the bones on his left arm and shoulder shattered. Tyranitar landed not far from him, a multitude of cracks and bruises littered all throughout his blood-soaked body.
Byron could only swallow at the sight. "Dirty son of a bitch…"
"Tsk. Electivire, that better not have knocked you out!" Volkner yelled. "Wake, give me some backup, we have t–!"
But M3 was no longer there. It vanished in a blink, re-materializing only a few feet in front of Candice and Fantina, its hand raised forward, a ball of pulsing psychic energy forming in its palm. Aimed straight at them.
"Ah–!"
"NO!"
Candice stepped forward and slammed her shadow-hemmed hand against the ground, raising another black barrier in front of them. But it was only raised forward, nothing more than a wall. With a mere thought, M3 blinked out of existence and reappeared again, this time behind the two women and the small army of ghost Pokemon protecting their rear.
"Gengar, Dusknoir!" Fantina yelled, turning around sharply. "Protect!"
A double barrier formed in a dome around them, but it was but a formality to M3. The other leaders yelled orders to their Pokemon, but none were fast enough. Holding the glowing sphere between its hands, it dug its fingers into it and opened it up instead of throwing it forward. The energy that had previously been thickly condensed spilled forward like a flood of power, slamming against every inch of the barrier and burning it away in an instant. There was a flash, and then the impact.
Dust and snow exploded in a cloud, and beneath the ground itself shattered into thousands of shards that flew everywhere. Fantina threw herself on top of Candice and Sanbica, trying to protect them with her body. Using what little power she shared with her ghost companions, she cloaked her back in a mantle of darkness, but while it weakened the energy that slammed against them, it did little to stop the slivers of sharp rock that dug onto her legs and lower back, piercing her like arrows.
The three of them fell, and M3 jumped on the offensive once more, raising its hand to strike. But it was stopped in mid air. A pair of thick vines closed around the creature's wrist, stopping it in place, and not an instant later water and electricity shot from its left and right, converging against it.
M3 blinked out again, and the attacks crashed against empty air.
"Dammit!" Gardenia spat out. "Oi, Fantina! Candice, are you okay?"
Fantina's reply came in the form of a pained cough. She could only rise to her feet with Candice and her daughter's help, and even then it didn't feel like it'd last long. Pain shot up her legs to her back like needles of fire.
Candice clicked her tongue. "You… you shouldn't have."
"…Guess you still have some motherly tendencies left, huh," Sanbica muttered.
She smiled, despite herself. "I have to set up an example for my disrespectful daughter."
"Just try not to die in the process. There's someone waiting for your return," her daughter retorted. "Eyes up. Behind you."
She glanced over her shoulder, and gasped. Only two of her Pokemon, the sturdy Dusknoir and her strongest Gengar, had withstood the attack. The other four were sprawled out in a crater behind her, limp and unconscious.
An idea came to mind, and she didn't like it one bit.
"Wait," said Candice, realization clear in her voice. "It targeted us first, so…"
Fantina nodded, then turned toward the rest of the group as the dust and snow began to dissipate.
"It… it can think logically. It's targeting all of us who have a way to break through its psychic barrier!" she explained. "Volkner, we need a strategy here!"
The blond man looked up at the sky where M3 stood, looking down upon them, analyzing its next move. Unfortunately for the malformed creature, not even it was a quicker thinker than Volkner.
"We'll attack like this!" he exclaimed, raising his hand up at their enemy. "All Pokemon with dark-type attacks, make a cross formation! Stay close in case that barrier needs to be broken, but far apart enough that it can't take you all out in one blow! Gardenia, pair one of your Pokemon with each one of them! Be ready to hinder its movement if necessary!"
Gyarados, Gengar, Steelix and Luxray stood at exact opposite ends of a somewhat confused M3, whose gaze went from one to the other, unsure of what to do. Soon they were joined by one of Gardenia's Pokemon each, their vines whipping through the air, ready to shoot up at a moment's notice.
"Resistant Pokemon in the front, sweepers and heavy-hitters in the back!" Volkner yelled. "Those with flying-types, provide some aerial support. And Lucas!" He turned to look at the boy in the distance. "Whoever thinks they can stick that device into M3, give it to them!"
"I'll do it!"
Candice stepped in, raising an expectant hand toward Lucas. Her eyes shone pink and blue, and light and darkness pooled at her feet as power enveloped her. The boy didn't even hesitate. He gave her the device and she turned around once more, looking up at M3.
"I can travel through shadows," she said. "As long as you can immobilize it for a second…"
Volkner smiled. "That's what I like to hear."
All the remaining Pokemon rose up in a circle around M3, waiting for orders, ready to attack. Three of them joined in the sky. Breaking through the clouds of dust and snow rising up from the previous attack, a Jumpluff, a Skarmory and an Aerodactyl lifted their respective trainers on their back, raising them to their enemy's level.
M3 looked up at them, its eyes narrowing ever so slightly, power starting to flow outwardly from its body. Below, Volkner raised his hand one more time, and smiled.
"And here I thought with Cynthia's resignation that I wouldn't get to have some fun for a while," he whispered. "Guess I better get my fill of battle while I still can!"
The Gym leaders gave their orders, and their Pokemon echoed the ferocity in their voices with roars of their own as they threw themselves at their opponent.