Chapter 24: Anna Vs Captain Duke Part 1.

The feline creature hovers over a straight pathway, his face bathed in formality. He floats past a ton of orange colored trees, all oozing out orange substance from their leaves. He reaches at the end of the pathway, sitting down on a hill and staring across a huge town far from his location.

Mewtwo ponders at the site, his chin leaning against his palm. It's only a few days left until the town celebrates Ho-Oh's birthday again...Everyone there is preparing for it... He thinks to himself. I've lied to them before about Ho-Oh feeling ill and not wanting to be seen. Mewtwo looks down and shakes his head, gripping his fist. How long can I keep this lie intact? Until Iris finally gets her revenge? He then sighs heavily, looking back at the town. Admittedly, it was my idea to help Iris get her revenge. Ho-Oh's behavior has gone too far. And someone other than myself has to teach him a lesson...Maybe Iris would just put him in an unconscious state, right?

"U-Um, Mewtwo." A calm voice says behind Mewtwo. The feline blinks curiously and turns around, seeing a red vest Simisear. The Simisear walks towards him, looking at the feline with concern. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away." Mewtwo replies softly.

"Is Lord Ho-Oh still under his deadly sickness?" The Simisear asks, holding his hands together.

Mewtwo nods his head. "Unfortunately so. From the looks of it, he's not ready to come out of the tower for a long time..."

"Oh...I..." Tears begin to form from the Simisear's eyes. "I-I see..." The ape grips his fist, frustrated by the answer given to him. "I-I should've expected the same answer from you...I...I miss our ruler." He tears up, closing his eyes in sorrow. "I miss the days where he was his kind and noble self. Where any dark hours such as these he would bestow us with light. With hope. He was everyone's inspiration to continue trying their best in this world we're living in."

Mewtwo folds his arms, looking off to the side with his face being filled with guilt. "Indeed...I apologize for telling you this news for the tenth time, Harrison."

Harrison, the Simisear, shakes his head after wiping away his tears. "Don't be. You were only doing your job to help a close friend of yours. After all...Ho-Oh will come back to his senses and things will get better..." He weakly smiles at the feline. "...R-Right?"

The two Pokemon stare at each other for a moment, the wind blowing the leaves around swiftly to occupy the quietness. Eventually, Mewtwo turns back towards the distant town and nods. "I hope so, too." He replies, gazing ahead of him. "Return back to the other guards at the Unbound Tower, alright?" The Simisear nods and walks away from Mewtwo. Mewtwo glances at the town, gripping his arms. ...The sadness on Harrison's face continues to affect me over and over again. Him and everyone else in the residence of Maple Town...Am I making the right decision here?

. . .

Anna and Duke circle around each other, exchanging glances here and there. The Nuzleafs and Shiftrys yelp and shout in excitement, rooting for their captain. Iris and her crew do the same for Anna, the gang standing beside the crowd of Ravage Shiftleafs within the middle of the Seaport Bay.

"Kick her ass, Captain!" One of the Nuzleafs screams in a energetic, young tone.

"BURN HIM TO CRISPS, MATE!" Lucas shouts, his paws hovering over his mouth. Iris, Mark, Ashen, and Natalie raise their brow at the Furret.

"Whoa whoa, there. And I thought Claire was dark!" Natalie exclaims.

"Since when did you have a malice for Duke?" Ashen asks Lucas with uncomfort flowing throughout his body. Lucas looks at him and sticks his tongue out playfully.

"I just wanted to see some crazy action, okay?" He replies, chuckling afterwards. "Let a fella have some fun, will ya?"

"I approve of his taste." Claire joins the conversation, chuckling along with the Furret.

Natalie sweatdrops. "Uh, can you not, Claire?" She says, feeling uncomfortable along with Mark. Soon, everyone sees Anna forming flames around her mouth as Duke gets in a battle pose. Everyone is away from the two to give them some free space.

"Show me what ye got, young lass." The red bandana Shiftry says, beckoning his leaf-like finger.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Anna shouts before releasing a large stream of fire from her mouth. Duke pushes his hands forward and uses Protect, forming a clear shield around him as the Flamethrower attack hits it.

After the attack ends, Duke forms a glowing green sphere in between his hands. He then positions it to the side and fires the sphere at Anna, multiple leaves swirling around it: Leaf Storm. Anna sees the attack and counters it with Flamethrower, the two moves hit each other to create black smoke. As the smoke slowly fades away, the sky begins to shine brightly.

"Hey. Is it me or is the sky starting to become more brighter than usual?" Jimmy asks, scratching the side of his head confusedly. Everyone sees the sun's rays glaring from all kinds of directions, making it difficult for others to see.

"Yeah. You're right about the sky being brighter." Draven replies. "He's the cause of it." He points his big claw at Duke, everyone turning their attention towards the Shiftry. Duke's eyes are glowing white as orange beams shoot outward from his leaf-like hands, the sky emitting a large amount of light: Sunny Day.

Duke soon lowers his arms, the glow in his eyes stopping as he looks at Anna. The Ninetales chuckles at the Shiftry, shaking her head in disbelief. "Thanks for making this fight easier for me, idiot." She says, grinning at the Shiftry.

Everyone squints their eyes at the two, the brightness affecting their way of seeing the battle. "Ugh. I can barely see the two with this sunlight glaring at my eyes constantly." Iris groans, folding her arms.

Anna blinks curiously, her ear twitching to what the blue, crystalline necklace Dragonite said. "Well I can see perfectly despite the Sunny Day." She says before shrugging. "Must be a Fire-type thing or something." She then prepares another Flamethrower, looking ahead only to see the Shiftry in front of her. "What the hell!?" Duke immediately throws sand at the Ninetales' eyes, leading her to whimper and backs away. "Ugh! It feels so irritating and rough!"

As Anna proceeds to rubbing her eyes, Duke lifts his hands to summon several giant rocks from the ground. He then fires the rocks at Anna, the rocks hitting her and sending her flying across the sandy fields. Everyone gasps at the Ninetales getting hurt as the Shiftleafs cheer wildly for their captain. "Anna!" The crew yells, feeling worried for their companion.

Anna slides against the ground and stops, slowly getting up afterwards. "G-Grr..." She looks up, growling at the Shiftry. "That was pretty dirty of you, Duke." She says in an annoyed tone.

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"Argh, just doing me job of teaching a foolish lass such as yourself." Duke replies, wiping off the leftover bits of sand from his hand.

"Lass? I believe that you're quite dumb yourself for thinking that I'm young. I may not look it but I'm actually a mature adult."

"Eh!? You are!?" Lucas says shockingly.

Anna turns towards the Furret with a bland look on her face. "Yes. Thought you knew about my age, Lucas..."

Lucas strokes his chest and leans against Ashen, putting his other paw over his head. "Oh brother! I've been shipping you with an old hag this whole time!"

Ashen raises his brow at Lucas before Anna snarls and shouts. "HEY! I'M NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING CONSIDERED A ELDER YET, DUMBASS!"

"Dumb what now, mate?" Lucas says, folding his arms.

Anna rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Nothing, Lucas." The Furret, in response, chuckled quite confidently.

"Argh! Ye better pay attention to yer opponent!" Duke exclaims, Anna looking to her side to see Duke running towards her. The Shiftry's speed is drastically quick, leading the Ninetales to gasp and proceed to using another Flamethrower, moving her head back before firing the attack. The Shiftry uses Protect while running, the shield causing the flames to spread around it. He then slaps Anna's face, causing her to fall to the ground and slide across it.

"Ugh...How are you moving this fast? Last that I recalled, you didn't move this fast earlier." She says, groaning uncomfortably.

"Ah yes. It's the power of me ability that allows me to move faster than ye: Chlorophyll." Duke explains in a deep, pirate tone.

"Chlorophyll?" Anna tilts her head confusedly.

"All of the Seedot line can be born with such a buried treasure of an ability, argh." Duke grins as he points at the brightly lit sky. "I used Sunny Day to trigger me ability, which relies on the harsh sunlight. I use the move despite yer typing so that I can have more advantage over ye with speed."

"Huh...I see then." The Ninetales slowly gets up and growls, proceeding to form flames around her mouth. "That doesn't change the fact that you'll still lose because of our type matchups! Thanks for making my Fire-type attack stronger, loser!" She blasts her move towards the Shiftry, her fiery flames swirling around furiously. Duke grins and dodges the Flamethrower instantly, sliding his feet across the sand before rushing his way to Anna. "Huh!?"

Duke kicks the Ninetales to the side, sending her sprawling all over the ground. Anna groans in pain, gripping the sands beneath her paws due to the hard kick. The Shiftry walks towards her casually, shaking his head as the crowd of wild Shiftleafs cheer him on in excitement. "I also forgot to mention," He pauses for a moment to squat down, having his arms over his knees. "I can dodge moves that normally hits the target with no fail, thanks to me being faster in the sunlight." Duke then begins to chuckle to himself, leading Anna to look up at him in confusion.

"What's so funny?" She asks.

"Ye. Being worthy as a challenge, to me. When an opponent struggles to harm someone they're super effective against, ye know they're a failure to their own type. Right, lass?" He replies, chuckling more as he teases the Ninetales.

Anna glares at him, gritting her teeth furiously. "Shut up!" She yells before forming flames in her mouth once more. She then tries to fire her Flamethrower attack before having sand in her mouth, leading the flames to distinguish and her to cough.

Duke gets up and brushes the sands off from his hands, turning to face the group as the Shiftleafs leap in joy. "WOOHOO, CAPTAIN!" One of the Shiftrys shouts.

"YOU SHOWED HER WHO'S BOSS!" Another Shiftry says, giving a fellow Nuzleaf next to him a high five.

"Oh dear...Things aren't looking too swell for our friend Anna here." Jimmy says, feeling quite concerned about the Ninetales.

The harsh sunlight soon fades away as Duke walks towards the group, the crew beginning to spread worry across their faces. "Dang it! I was hoping that I'd see Anna be cool and kick some butt, today! But nope, she just had to lose so soon!" Lucas exclaims, sighing heavily.

Iris looks down at the Furret. "Did you not see her fight against those guards at the Cloyster Kingdom?" She says.

"I did. And she did half of the fighting compared to what we've done."

The Dragonite squints her eyes at him. "Really? We'll just ignore the amount of times she had to use Flamethrower on those guards and willing to shield someone she cares?"

Lucas waves his hand around. "Oh those were just good lucks. And besides," The Furret folds his arms, glaring at the Dragonite. "Can't believe that out of everyone saying that to me, it'll come from the lady that almost killed us with her selfishness."

Iris frowns at the eye-patched Furret. "I said I was sorry, for crying out loud!"

"Like I'll believe that anytime soon, mate! Until I'm convinced otherwise, you're not receiving an acceptance from me."

Iris stares at Lucas for a brief moment before looking at the battle, folding her arms and sighing heavily. "Sure, whatever you say..."

Everyone sees Duke get close to Draven, the Clawitzer glancing at him as he gets in front of Udep. Duke sighs in relief, smirking at him. "I suppose I'll be taking my leave, for now. This fight was so embarrassing that I'll let you off the hook because of it." Duke says, putting his hands by his hips. He then looks at his crewmates, giving them a thumbs up. "Let's venture out of here, mateys!"

"Yeah!" The Ravage Shiftleafs yell, all joining up with their boss while passing by the group. One of them knocks Mark and Natalie to the side, leading the two to fall.

"Whoa!" The two yell before Natalie lands on her back and Mark landing right on top of her. The Riolu's nose touches the Zorua's, leading the two to blush heavily. Awkwardness begins to form between the two for a brief moment, nervousness building up in their bodies. This is awkward! The two thinks, getting off from each other and brushing each other off. "Sorry." The two say to each other at the same time, both looking away as if nothing has happened.

Claire snarls at the group passing by. "Watch where you going, you savage fools!" She exclaims, getting closer to Natalie afterwards. "You almost ran over my mistress, here!" She then looks at the Zorua. "Are you alright, mistress?"

Natalie looks back and nods. "Yeah. No broken bones being felt from all of that, as far as I know."

"DUKE!" An eerie female voice shouts, loud enough for everyone to stop everything they're doing. Udep jumps and hides behind Draven due to the voice terrifying him.

"Eeek! Where did that voice come from!?" The Clauncher says, shaking in fear.

Duke blinks curiously. "What in the name of Davy Jones' Locker was that?" He says, finding the voice disturbing to hear out of the blue. He and everyone else begin to turn towards the voice's location, seeing Anna slowly getting up on her feet. The Ninetales' body is surrounded by corrupted red aura, her panting gradually before looking up at the Shiftry.

"All I did was cough from the sand you threw at me. And that is considered a win to you?" Anna says in a corrupted tone, glaring at Duke. "That's more pathetic than me losing to someone that has a type disadvantage."

Duke glares back at the Ninetales, he and his crew feeling quite displeased by what she said. Draven and Udep look at the Ninetales, suspense beginning to spread throughout their faces. "What's going on with her body!?" Draven asks, looking quite uneasy from the auras.

"Anna is using her Mythical Power..." Iris answers.

Draven looks at her. "Mythical Power? You mean those things you heard of from books?"

Iris nods. "Yeah."

"That...can't be. I thought Mythical Powers were fake and filled with false evidence that was too ridiculous to believe!" Draven sweatdrops, beginning to pull a book out from his big claw's mouth. The book is colored dark red and has the words 'The History Behind Mythical Powers' labeled at the top.

"Well, um, that...book wasn't lying. At least from what I know of..." Iris shrugs. "Also, you Clawitzers can hold onto things inside of that big claw!? And where did you get that book from!?" Iris' eyes widen at the book being in Draven's other claw.

"Yes. I can hold about two or three things in there because of how big it is." Draven answers. "Also, I got this book delivered to me by my brother a couple of months ago." He looks at the book, scratching the side of his head. "Don't know why I kept it for so long before realizing that it's not false..."

"I see." Iris notices that the book doesn't have the author's name written on it, leading her to think to herself. Huh...I wonder who wrote that book... "Anyways, all I know is that Anna is using her Mythical Power right now. So things may get...chaotic."

Draven and Udep slowly stare at the Dragonite. "Cha...otic?" The two say in a hesitate tone.

"Yeah...Hide if things gets worse..." She shrugs uneasily as the two Pokemon gulp.

Duke looks at his crewmates and sighs heavily. "Looks like I will have to deal with this a little longer, mateys." He says, cracking his fists before glaring at the Ninetales. He moves towards an open spot, everyone staring at him and Anna in anticipation.

"Alright, Anna! Show him what you made of!" Lucas shouts, cheering the Ninetales on.

"Argh, it seems like yer serious." Duke positions himself, getting in a fighting stance. "If that's the case, then I will be serious as well."

"Earlier was a warmup. And now this time is for real?" Anna says before snickering, preparing herself as well. "How generous of you." Flames beginning to form within her mouth. "Too bad you're going to lose right here, right now!" She begins to dash towards the Shiftry as he embraces the incoming attack.

To be continued...

End of Chapter 24.