FicWad

Having fled the scene and with no trace of anyone following him, Lucario finally slowed down to a jog so that he wouldn’t burn through all his stamina at once. Hardly ten minutes had passed since his encounter with Suicune before he suddenly was hit in the face by the first snowflake of the evening.

“No bloody way…” Lucario groaned in disbelief, wondering how any sort of ecosystem could function with such a rapidly changing weather. It started snowing harder and harder, making it go from a minor annoyance in the form of a fine powder covering the ground to a thick sludge hindering his every step. He trudged through the white sea, the cold creeping between his unprotected toes and splashing up his legs. In his misery he noticed another mountain range in the distance in front of him. His hope was regained as he thought about reaching it where he could hide himself.

It was then that Lucario once again sensed the aura of Suicune, not very far away. Lucario did not have time to ponder on how it could track him so accurately, as he noticed that it was moving a lot faster than he was. Seems it wasn’t hindered by the snow even the slightest.

“Damn it…” Lucario cursed to himself, knowing that he would not be able to outrun it anymore, and he was definitively not ready to fight it. Realizing that he would be forced to anyway, he stopped running so that he could catch his breath before the encounter. Desperately trying to come up with a battle plan, the best thing he could think of was digging a pit and covering it with snow as a clever trap… But even he knew that would not work.

“My final battle…” Lucario chortled to himself, stretching his arms and legs, “Yeah, right… Who needs a plan? I’ll just beat the shit out of ‘em…” He remembered that he had been in unfavorable situations many times before and come out standing with nothing but his guts and limitless battle spirit to thank for it.

Suicune came running very fast, moving on top of the bed of snow and not leaving a single footprint behind it. Even as it instantly stopped itself the snow around it lay still, completely unaffected by its velocity.

“Impressive…” Lucario couldn’t help but whisper as an annoying cackle once more filled his ears. Brendan was laughing heartily as he scanned the area around them.

“What? You don’t have any more Piplup for me?” he asked jokingly while looking at Lucario, who did not even know that the penguin from earlier had been a Piplup.

“One’s plenty, I guess… Wouldn’t it be delightful if I had the two of you fight each other right now?” Brendan smiled as he held the purple Pokeball from earlier into the air, “… But I had to soften it up a little, so I don’t think it’s ready to fight quite yet…”

“Hey! Blue one!” Lucario shouted as Brendan was busy with another one of his monologues, “I know that guy on top of you can’t understand me, but I think you can!” Suicune looked at him, remaining silent.

“Why are you chasing me? Why are you listening to his orders!?” Lucario continued, in a last ditch effort of disrupting the duo’s teamwork. However, Suicune remained as quiet as ever, understanding what Lucario had just said but obviously not caring.

“Have it your way, then…” Lucario continued, knocking his fists together as he braced himself for the long, difficult fight ahead of him.

“Now, Suicune!” Brendan shouted as he pointed down to the ground, “Chilling Grip!” Lucario instinctively dodged to the side, only to notice that something held on to his feet. This made him lose his balance, but as something had a very tight grip on his feet he somehow remained standing. He couldn’t move his feet even the slightest!

“Your best chance of winning was fighting against us in the sun…” Brendan said in a disappointed way as Lucario stared down at his legs with a confused look on his face, “Not even Suicune can directly freeze the water covering you, because of your body heat…” His feet were covered in snow, so Lucario could not see what had happened, but started getting a bad feeling.

“With all this snow around, that’s no longer a problem!” Brendan continued as he started sounding a bit more cheerful, “Your body melts the snow, and Suicune here freezes the water! While resisting us was a foolish idea right from the start, fighting us in the snow is downright retarded!”

“Shit!” Lucario exclaimed as he bended over to smash the ice covering his feet. It was tough, but cracked after a few blows from both his fists.

“Hah!” Lucario chortled successfully, before he ran towards Suicune and suddenly tripped as something grabbed a hold of his right foot.

“EYA HA HA HA! The snow is our jurisdiction!” Brendan cackled madly as Lucario lay face down in the snow, “And it’s all around you! So our jurisdiction is also all around you! Let me show you what I mean… Suicune, use Chilling Makeup!” Lucario tried to scream out in horror as he felt the snow harden around his face, creating a gripping mask of ice. Not being able to breathe or say anything, he braced himself as he smashed his face down on the ground, shattering the mask.

“No… No way…” he mumbled weakly as he rubbed his sore head, “Damn, that’s unfair…”

“Can you fight us without ever touching the snow?” Brendan asked, almost immediately answering his own question, “No. No you can’t. So, YOU LOOOOOSE!”

Lucario growled angrily as he tried to free himself without using his hands. He realized that he was barely a match for this thing in a normal environment; if he could not even touch the ground without getting caught he truly had no chance of winning. This was it. After all he’s been through; he wouldn’t even get to go down fighting in a blaze of glory… Even so, he remained steadfast and stared viciously at the insane trainer.

“Or, rather…” Brendan suddenly said in an unusually calm voice as Suicune moved closer to Lucario, “All is not yet lost…”

“You’ve got that right…” Lucario replied hastily, “It’s not over ‘til it’s over!”

“See, my orders are to either kill you, or catch you!” Brendan snickered in a sugar coated voice, almost giggling with the last few words, “That way, you can be my Pokémon! You teach me and I’ll teach you as we travel across the land!”

“Shut up!” Lucario shouted back, realizing that is he was able to reach the madman in front of him, he would never stop punching him.

“… But honestly?” Brendan sighed out loud as he looked up into the sky, “I don’t think I can control a wilder like you… And I have a new method of execution that I have just been DYING to try out… So, let’s do it like this - Either you bow in submission, and you will serve as my Pokémon and my Pokémon only… Or you die, right here.”

Normally Lucario would at least consider his options, but somewhere between being chased down like a dog, being treated like a weak fool and being forced to listen to yet another one of Brendan’s monologues he had lost all sense of reason.

“FUCK YOU!“ Lucario bellowed defiantly, not lowering his eyes even for a second.

“Hmpf…” Brendan muttered disappointedly as the Lucario stood tall, “Did you mishear me? I said ‘bow’, not ‘bark’…”

“You and that azure cocksucker can rot in hell!” Lucario continued, unable to comprehend the fact that his death was at hand, “I’ll be there waiting for you, and I’ll kick your ass every day!”

“I hope you don’t mind that I take that as a ‘no’” Brendan said, not understanding a single thing Lucario had just said, “Just so you know, this suits me just fine!” He patted Suicne’s head, making it jump back to create some distance between them and Lucario.

“Ice Totem!” Brendan yelled as Suicune shot water at Lucario’s feet, causing a thick pillar of ice to protrude under him and push him upwards. Lucario struggled to get free as he rose higher and higher into the sky.

“Ice Crescent!” Brendan shouted, causing the Ice Totem to stop rising in height and instead form a half moon on the top, covering Lucario’s sides.

“Once more!” Brendan kept shouting, another crescent forming to cover Lucario’s front and back. Surrounded by bended ice in every direction, he had a strong feeling that he was already screwed. He stopped trying to free himself and instead closed his eyes, preparing himself for the worst.

“DO IT!” Brendan bellowed, “Icicle Maiden Bloody Fountain Piercing Stab of Death!”

Silence. Lucario opened his eyes slowly and looked around him, as if time itself had stopped. Had the attack already passed, or…

“… Deltoid” Brendan suddenly whispered with a big smile on his face. Immediately a sharp spike formed in the crescent to his right and cut into Lucario’s right shoulder, making him yell out in pain.

“… Trapezius” Brendan continued, another spike appearing as Lucario heard a crashing sound beneath him. Suddenly, needles shot out from everywhere to pierce him, but as the pillar he was standing on crumbled he fell down to the ground instead.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Brendan howled in both anger and anguish, “Who dares!?”

A strange figure in a brown cloak was standing in the snow between Suicune and Lucario. The cloak was covering its entire body from head to toe, and Lucario could not even tell if it was human or not. As the cloak tugged in the wind, he saw that it at the very least had a humanoid form. The only thing that could be seen apart from the cloak were several blades sticking out from where its arms appeared to be, slightly frosted from all the snow.

“Are you alright?” a surprisingly feminine voice sounded as the creature turned around, Lucario seeing nothing but darkness below the hood.

“Not really, but I’ll take any help I can get!” Lucario responded, tightly clutching his right shoulder as warm blood poured down his arm.

“The legendary Suicune, in my own backyard…” the mysterious figure spoke loudly as it seemed to finally notice Brendan, “… With a human rider, getting ready to execute someone? What is going on here?”

“You…!” Brendan growled angrily, grabbing a tight hold of Suicune’s mane, “You’ll pay for ruining my triumphant moment!”

“Huh? No!” the cloaked being burst out in shock, “I just want to know what’s happening!”

“… Apparently, you’re gonna pay for ruining his triumphant moment…” Lucario said sarcastically as the open wound nipped in the cold, “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“No, I just…” the feminine creature said, before sighing and raising her voice, “Hey! Suicune! I mean you no harm! I just want to know-”

“Chilling Grip!” Brendan interrupted, as Lucario gasped and the new arrival stopped herself. They all stood quiet for a few moments before Suicune gave off a strange whine that was unintelligible to both human and Pokémon.

“Oh?” Brendan exclaimed, leaning forward and staring at the creature in the cloak, “Quite interesting…” Lucario looked at her too, wondering what all the fuzz was about. He tried to see if her feet had been frozen, but couldn’t see anything since the cloak reached all the way down to the snow. He did notice that there were no footprints of her anywhere…

“Quite interesting, indeed!” Brendan finally burst out, “Fine, I’ve had it with being the nice guy here! Time to erase you! If you survive this maybe I’ll catch you, if not then it’s still a job well done! Yeah, let’s do this the old fashioned way! Blizzard!” Suicune leaned its head back for a moment before spitting out a vertical twister at the two of them.

“Look out!” Lucario shouted as he threw himself to the side, landing in the freezing snow. A loud cracking noise was heard behind him as he looked back and saw a massive formation of ice where he had just been standing.

“Yes! Perfect!” Brendan howled as Suicune ran up to the large formation, “Now, you die! Tidal Wave!” The huge chunk of ice began to soften as Suicune twisted itself in a whipping motion, hitting it and sending the whole mountain up into the air.

“Surf! Ride it, baby!” Brendan laughed, making Suicune jump up into the newly formed mass of water, turning it into two giant waves splitting off in two directions, aimed at Lucario and the cloaked being.

“Oh, shit!” Lucario exclaimed as the massive wave loomed over him. It was so large that he knew he would be crushed like a bug if hit by it. Sadly, he also realized that he had no chance of dodging it. Again his only plan amounting to digging a hole to somehow escape, he defended himself and awaited the mighty tsunami.

But instead of washing him away like a sick plankton, the tsunami turned into ice. Lucario was certain that this was just another stage of Suicune’s viscous attack, but changed his mind when he heard Brendan cursing loudly on top of the frozen waves.

“Stop that!” he yelled while flailing his arms around, “I’m warning you!” Lucario finally saw what had happened - A strange white cloud was coming out of the creature in the cloak, presumably extremely cold wind freezing the waves in midair. Lucario felt relieved, but remembered Suicune’s ability to easily make it all water again. A nasty thought hit him as he decided to run around the waves, over to the cloaked creature.

“Alright, you fucking asked for it!” Brendan howled madly as he reached down his belt and pulled out two Pokeballs. Throwing them into the air, they opened up and shot out two beams of red light to his sides, creating very intimidating creatures on top of the wave.

Meanwhile, the being in the cloak was busy exhaling freezing air as she stared at the rapidly approaching Lucario, not sure what to think. She knew that if she stopped blowing wind the waves would unfreeze and they would both be dead, and had no choice but to stand her ground and continue.

“Keep at it!” Lucario yelled as he ran around her to avoid getting hit by the blizzard and then grabbed a hold of her waist, almost making her choke on her own ice. Then, he started running as fast as he could in the opposite direction, as the waves were still being kept in check.

“I figured you couldn’t move while doing that” Lucario said while running and holding her behind him, “So, I’ll be your legs!”

“Idiot! Let go!” the thing in the cloak yelled as the giant blocks of ice slowly lost their consistency, “I’m too far away now, I can’t keep them frozen!”

“You…” Lucario stammered before hearing a loud crashing noise behind him, “… You what?”

“Ahh! Here it comes!” the cloaked being screamed, “Run like you mean it!” A deep sloshing sound raged behind them as the water flowed in their direction. While not a lethal threat anymore, Lucario knew all too well what would happen if his feet were covered in water… Suddenly he began wondering why the Suicune hadn’t just locked him into the snow again.

“Alright, alright, you can stop…” the cloaked being said in an annoyed tone as Lucario stopped and instantly dropped her. He looked back and saw that the waves were gone, and that some of his blood had smudged itself on her cloak.

“Listen, this thing has been chasing me for days, and I have no idea why…” Lucario said with exhaustion in his voice, “I can’t move around at all in this snow… Can you beat it on your own?”

“… That’s a legendary, you know” she replied depressingly, “Honestly? I don’t think we stand a chance.”

“Damn…” Lucario muttered, “… I’m sorry I got you into this.” The being in the cloak wanted to respond, but was interrupted as Suicune came running at them, carrying a furious trainer on its back.

“Assholes!” Brendan roared in rage, “You just made me knock out two of my favorite Pokémon!” Lucario stifled a laugh, imagining the two intimidating creatures from earlier almost drowning in the tidal wave.

“I want to take my time torturing both of you! Don’t you DARE self-destruct on me!” Brendan cackled madly. At the sound of this, the creature in the brown cloak seemed to enter her own world for a moment as she lowered her head.

“I see…” she whispered to herself before looking over at Lucario, “That’s it. I’m out of here. Do you need a rescue?”

“Pfft! Me? Rescue!?” Lucario scoffed, as every fiber of his being fought against him as he felt like hurling at what he was about to say.

“… Yes” he whimpered shamefully, feeling like a little girl.

“Alright, grab on!” she shouted, as she suddenly dashed towards Lucario who threw his hands up in surprise. The next thing he knew, he was being spun around in a flurry of snow. Disoriented and dazzled, he felt something in front of him, and grabbed on to it as instructed. It was soft, but very cold and gave him an odd sensation. The moment his arms found their target, he felt himself being pulled forward by a strange force. As his eyes got used to the whirl of snow around him he looked down and expected something really cool to be happening, such as him riding on the wind or something. He was very disappointed when and saw that the cloaked creature was just carrying him on her back and running away.

“You’re lighter than you look!” she snickered, moving gracefully on top of the snow.

“W-What’s going on!?” Lucario stammered as a path of blood from his wounded shoulder trickled behind them.

“I’m using my ultimate attack, the Stormy Wind of a Thousand Breezes!” she responded, trying to sound serious.

“R-Really!?” Lucario asked in a rather childish manner.

“No, we’re running away like little bitches” the creature in the cloak laughed, “But it sure beats dying, doesn’t it?”

Lucario held on to her in shameful silence. He noticed that the strange sensation came from the cloak he was holding on to, which appeared to be made out of a different material than leather. However, the cold he felt actually seemed to be emanating from underneath it… He was now rather curious as to what was hiding underneath the cloak.

“Like, thanks and all…” Lucario mumbled in his best attempt to sound grateful, “… But what’s your name?”

“Me?” the being under the cloak asked before giving off a short laugh, “Call me Zerobi!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I refuse."

"What?"

"I will not do it. Find someone else."

"… You'd abandon humanity in its time of need?"

"Hmpf… Don't bother. I know the situation. Your kind will not be satisfied until the corpse of every strong Pokémon lay strewn across the globe."

"You could always just catch them all, of course… A term you should be more than familiar with…"

"…"

"See, after the cataclysm of Deoxys, people have been asking themselves… 'Where was Master Red?' 'Where was the eternal champion?' 'Where was the one trainer that we could always count on to protect us?'"

"… I am… Too old. I can no longer battle like I used to. You must put your hopes in the new generation…"

"You know that no trainer alive matches your expertise! The world is facing a crisis like never before!"

"…"

"Please! I am begging you… No, all life on this planet is begging you… Only you can prevent this catastrophe!"

"… What would you have me do? Chase down Mewtwo again?"

"No, not a legendary… Only one specific target that you have to el- I mean, subdue."

"… Is that so? What kind of Pokémon is it?"

"... A Lucario..."