Chapter 25: Into the Badlands
It was just way to hot, and it wouldn't do well for Stephen to send out any Pokemon. Corporal Mirror, Swift Gale, and High Marks had removed their heavier metal armor parts, leaving on hardened leather that covered most of their bodies and allowed for more mobility. Stephen tied his outer button-down shirt on the top of his head in a makeshift hat to keep it cool. The process had been slow going, but they eventually found themselves approaching an artificial hill that appeared to be made out of black glass.
"That's chitin and spit," Mirror clarified. "Give it a few hours under the sun to dry and it becomes a very formidable defense."
"Gross." Stephen commented. Mirror glared in response to the comment. "Kidding, Mirror. There's plenty more disturbing things from my world with weirder living habits."
"Really wish we had some time today for you to show us that." Swift Gale commented.
"If you children behave, then we can have show-and-tell by the campfire tonight." High Marks snorted irritably. "Now get serious. We're heading into very dangerous territory."
"This isn't the Chrysalis hive," Mirror galloped ahead. "But if there is anything we can salvage, or anyling to save, it doesn't hurt to take a look through there."
"Sounds like a plan, Corporal." Marks said. With that, the four travelers delved into the hive.
~~~~~
The moment they reached what Mirror clarified as 'the main floor' of the hive, Stephen could notice something was wrong. Well, they could all tell what was wrong. At the sight of the troupe, Changelings instantly swarmed them. However, they didn't attack them. Rather, roughly thirty or so Changelings did their best to hide behind them.
"Help us, please!" One changeling cried. "Whoever you are, please help!"
"What's wrong?" Mirror asked them.
"A-a monster!" It replied. "It just showed up out of nowhere and starting attacking us. "We haven't slept for days because of it!"
Haven't slept? Stephen tried to recall what monster they were talking. If Corruption had brought legendary Pokemon to this world, Stephen had to properly strategize for each one.
"Here it comes!" Another Changeling yelled, pointing to a corridor's entrance. It wasn't a large monster, like the ponies and Changeling had thought, but something that appeared to float in the air. It's black body levitated above the ground, and a light blue eye gazed menacingly through them, and at the Changelings behind the group. It had a collar of red spikes and a plume of white hair that flowed like smoke in a non-existent wind.
"Darkrai!" Stephen called out as he stepped forward. He looked back to High Marks and said, "Keep them all back as best as you can. This could get messy." High Marks nodded and, with Mirror and Swift Gale's help, pushed the group of Changelings back into a far corner. "Go, Patrician!" Darkrai had very low Defenses and low Attack, but was still very fast and had a rather high Special Attack. Arcanine's mixed move pool and all-around stats would do well to take Darkrai down in due time.
"Patrician, ExtremeSpeed!" Stephen said, and the Arcanine charged at supersonic speeds at... nothing. Darkrai shifted to the left and blasted back with a Dark Pulse that managed to push Patrician back. Mirror, along with the rest of the Changelings, shivered as a result. Dark Pulse is imbued with dark thoughts, Stephen recalled from talking to Chrysalis at some point. It would make sense that a strong wave of negativity would harm them. "Alright, create some space, Patrician, with Flamethrower!"
A plume of fire flew from the Fire-type's mouth toward the quickly advancing Darkrai, hitting it directly. However, the Darkrai wasn't finished. It took the brunt of the hit and responded by putting both hands together to create and black and red ball before launching it at Patrician. It hit square on her snout, and appeared as a gigantic hypnotizing swirl before her, promptly putting her to sleep.
"Damn it, that's Dark Void!" Stephen cursed, watching as a few dozen light particles rose from Patrician and went to Darkrai. The former twitched with a pained look on her face. "And Dream Eater!" Stephen swung his backpack around and rummaged around as Darkrai charged up another Dark Pulse, pushing the sleeping Arcanine's body back, along with causing some harm to the Changelings again. Stephen finally pulled out a yellow spray bottle; he sprayed the Full Heal on Patrician and the Pokemon stood up almost immediately and shook off the remains of sleepiness before growling at the Legendary. "Flamethrower, once more!" Another plume of flames burst at the Darkrai, who charged through the fire again, however, the Trainer had something for it this time. Now that it's taken damage again, it would do well to try to take it out now. Stephen had a plan; if he just weakened it enough, but not enough to make it faint, it still had a chance to escape.
"Close Combat!" Stephen commanded, and the large firey canine burst forward, a red aura coming about it and lashing out at the Darkrai with a barrage of slashes, bites, and bucks that visibly hurt the Pitch-Black Pokemon. When Patrician was done, The Darkrai didn't appear to be shaken at all, but was charging up another Dark Void projectile. "No way, Darkrai! ExtremeSpeed, now!" Patrician rushed again at supersonic speeds, this time slamming the Darkrai into solid black wall. It slid down to the ground, cold blue eye still open, but making no attempts to move.
"Stay wary, Patrician," Stephen warned. "I'm going to try something." Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a black and green Pokeball; it seemed appropriate for both the location and the Pokemon, in a way. "Let's go, Dusk Ball!"
The Pokeball opened with a shadowy aura to encapsulate the Legendary Darkrai. It landed on the ground with one...
Two...
Stephen gritted his teeth at the familiar sight.
Three...
BOOM! The Dusk Ball opened with a violent blast, and the Pokemon was standing ready to continue battle, albeit a little dizzy.
"Let's finish this Patrician, Flare Blitz!" Stephen yelled, as a great flame completely covered the Arcanine as it charged headlong into the still somewhat dazed Legendary Pokemon, and sent it careening into the wall again. However, the Pokemon didn't fall over and faint as expected.
Instead, Darkrai fell onto the ground and began to dissolve, causing Stephen to panic and rush forward to the Dark-type. His hands tried to grab the Pokemon, but instead pushed through what felt like dense fog. That wasn't how Darkrai supposedly teleported, and sure as hell not how it fainted. Soon, there was nothing in his hands.
"D-did you kill it?" A changeling from the crowd asked; it sounded rather young. "Is the m-monster dead?" At first Stephen said nothing, then turned to the crowd.
"Yes..." Stephen's solemn answer was answered with cheers and smiles.
~~~~~
"What's wrong, Stephen?" Swift Galed softly poked at the human's arm. "Isn't this supposed to be a celebration?"
"I'm... not so sure." Stephen looked from the Changelings departing for Canterlot to the hive's entrance, wherein Darkrai was. "That's not how Pokemon faint when defeated in battle. That was almost... death-like."
"You've seen them die?" The pegasus mare asked, sitting down to listen. High Marks and Mirror were making their ways back to them. "How?"
"Only a few." Stephen answered, somewhat bitterly. "But the way Darkrai disappeared was similar to how the Ghost/Dark-type Pokemon I met died." That Spiritomb was a very mischievous one, but did not deserve the end with received at the hands of Team Galactic. it was tortured endlessly by cruel experiments that tried to convert the hundreds of souls within it into dark energy to raise Giratina. That plan failed thanks to Stephen and Sinnoh Champion Cynthia. Stephen's fists shook with a silent rage he refused to lash out with. "Whatever Corruption has done to these Legendaries, he might as well be killing them."
"How bad is that?" Swift asked, genuinely curious. Stephen was intensely passionate about this sudden development.
"Each Legendary, no matter how good or bad their intentions may seem," Stephen said. "They all have a role to play in keeping my world in balance. If Corruption brought the real Legendaries into this world, my world may already be undergoing great chaos at the moment. If they are killed upon my defeating them, then I end up contributing the absolute destruction of the foundations of my world."
"That sounds... very bad." Swift Gale said, taking this news in. High Marks and Mirror had finally caught up to them, and Swift turned to them with a very serious expression. She gestured to Stephen saying, "Boys, we have some bad news."
"I'll spill at the campfire tonight," Stephen said, waving off the gesture. "All you need to know is that I have a plan."
"For these Legendaries?" High Marks asked. "And what is it?" Stephen looked down for a second in silent contemplation before finally answering with a determined nod.
"I'm gonna catch them all."
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Normally I can't bring myself to read stories with such i nfrequent updates but this one has piqued my interest and Ima give it a shot. Here's to hoping.
7546315 It actually was a Cancelled fic until about an hour ago. Go figure, huh?
This was my favorite story to work on out of the three I left on here to kinda... rot? idk.
I decided to at least do my favorite one justice by writing until a fitting end.
7546322 Hm I like Pokemon and their are so few crossovers on this site let alone quality ones. It seems that this is a fairly good quality judging by the like/dislike numbers and the fact that you got featured with just a single update. I'd like to read this but I'm sorry if I come off as mean? Maybe? But how many more chapters do you have planed for this?
I know you brought this back but still. Would it be worth my time to read? It's really anoying and disappointing to have read a story 1/2 way through and then have it dropped and never picked back up again.
So basically how dedicated are you to finishing this?
I want to know if it's worth my time and energy.
I'm sorry if I came off as mean or some other bad thing but I've been burned before by dropped stories. I'd like to prevent that if ever possible.
And if I came off as mean please forgive me.
-BFBL
7546432 I'm currently in college, so my FF stories are getting slower updates as well, don't expect daily updates from this story like it used to when I started it. Like I said before, this was my favorite story to write when I was still an active writer in the fandom. Now, I'm just want to make sure this story doesn't just die without being given a proper finish. I'm giving this a 7.5/10 on the determination scale, seeing as I do wanna pass my classes this semester, though. Trust me, this story will be getting worked on; I still spent a lot of time reading on here when I was inactive as a writer.
7546484 Okay. I think I'll just let this sit in my read it later section and read this when its complete.
7546624 Thanks for giving the story a chance, then. I appreciate it either way.
7546484
Glad to see a message like this. I will also hop on the gyarados and give this a read.
Because not-abandoned stories are treasures the like of which it sometimes seems to take Rarity's spell to find...
7584852 Thanks for giving the story a chance! It had a decent following before I "left the fandom." However,I felt pretty bad about leaving said audience without any closure on the story, which I had seen in some of my old favorite stories on here for a long time.
Hope you enjoy reading!
7587002
I appreciate the criticism, thank you. I'll try working on that.
7589115 please let me know when u upload more chapters for this story I'll b waiting
8311109
pbs.twimg.com/media/DFOm_pEXUAA19e3.jpg
that comment was over two years old and already had two replies correcting me. All you're really doing here is reminding me that this story existed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯