Categories > Anime/Manga > Pokemon > Loyalty
Loyalty
Chapter 15: Exorcism
One of the doors that led to the room of many statues was opened, granting passage to an old lady that looked far more harmless than she was. The ghost master slowly made her way towards the two young women who occupied the room other than herself and the hidden ghosts. "Laiki, come, child, if you insist in being here, you shall witness the trials along with me."
"Trials?" Laiki inquired with the raise of an eyebrow.
"What trials?" Pixel further questioned.
"I must test you," Agatha explained, leaving the statement purposely ambiguous.
Pixel huffed, "like I care. I know you're high ranked and all, but I couldn't care less about your approval unless it's an order from the boss. I'm sure Comet won't participate either."
"Indeed," surprisingly, Agatha smiled. "It is that resolve of loyalty that made me choose you for this, because I know there's one exception, yet at the same time there are none. You are like the knights of a kingdom loyal to the king... and to the prince as well."
"What about me?" Laiki protested. "I'm loyal to Team Rocket too!"
"I know," Agatha acknowledged, before her face turned serious and she shook her head slightly as she let out a breath. "But you're too easily distracted and trigger happy. This is an operation that most not be burdened with extreme emotions, it must be full of the purity of amused loyalty. Besides, there are only four cardinal points, to add a fifth would render the spell useless."
"So we're elements of a spell," Pixel concluded. "Care to elaborate?"
"It is an exorcism..." Agatha began to explain how the spell she had in mind would work, albeit she was only scratching in surface of its complexity.
xoxox xox xoxox
Just as Pixel and Laiki had run into each other while exploring Agatha's haunted mansion, Comet, Gary and Ash had inexplicably crossed paths as well. "Gary, Comet!" Ash rushed towards the center of the circular chamber with a dome-like roof of black stone, much like its walls and floor. "What are you guys doing in Agatha's basement?"
Before they could ask Ash if he knew about Agatha's true intentions, they were presented with the enigma of Ash's question. "Basement?" Gary echoed. "Weren't we upstairs?"
"We were," Comet confirmed. Running into Gary, who was also exploring the upper floors was not such a big surprise after the many twists and turns of the hallways, but he didn't remember heading down at any time.
"This is deep underground," Ash pointed out. It was a fact that he was certain of and neither Gary nor Comet was about to question his keen aura empowered senses. "I've been trying to find Misty, but I haven't been able to get to her. She's here, I just don't know where exactly. Aside from knowing that we're deep beneath the earth, I can sense little else and all these ghosts fogging my senses are giving me a headache. I was separated from Pikachu too, but somehow, I know he's alright, I think he's with Agatha."
Footsteps were heard as Pixel joined the others in the chamber. "Hey..."
A chorus of automatic, puzzled sounding "hey?" replied to her.
"What's with those looks of confusion, I'm not that late, am I?" Pixel observed their faces for a moment longer. "I take it this means Agatha didn't explain herself?"
"Did she tell you something?" Ash inquired with urgency.
"Yes and no, she wasn't exactly specific, but I got the basic idea," Pixel revealed. "We're performing an exorcism. Agatha has been researching the supernatural for many years. She tried to do this when it happened last time, but it didn't work. Tidus was consumed by the hatred of his ancestry and completely taken over. Agatha said the chances of success are much better now because the north can use aura."
"The north?" Ash questioned.
"I'm not sure about what she means, but it looks like we'll have to take our places soon." Not a second passed after Pixel spoke when various ghost pokemon faded into existence.
A Chandelure floated above and from the ghostly light it projected, Misty faded into existence as if the ghostly forces all around were strong enough to teleport her there. The Chandelure continued to float above, spinning in pace as Misty floated motionless in the center of the chamber as if in a trance. There was something malicious in the air... something malicious and tragic.
A Shuppet approved Comet, becoming a Banette as it got closer. Yet it was not evolving, it had been a Banette all along, the Shuppet was an image of the past that resonated in the haunted chamber. For a split second, a man who looked very much like Comet was seen standing on the western side of the chamber, which was somehow mysteriously devoid of doors or passages, completely sealed off as if it had been that way all along. Comet stepped forward; his father couldn't be there, could he?
The image faded into nothingness, leaving Comet to stand in the same place where his father stood years prior. Comet realized that he too was an image of the past. Luke had participated in the attempted exorcism that failed to free Tidus years ago. There was something in that spot where he stood, the feeling of a link of loyalty, it flowed from his father to the leader of Team Rocket, somehow, Comet knew. Then the flow of energy dissolved into nothingness and a new flow began. Perhaps he was beginning to understand.
xoxox xox xoxox
A few years prior... in one of the many training rooms of the Viridian Rocket base, Comet was training with his Gyarados and Scyther. "Alright you two, we have one less ally for now and the missions will only get harder from this point on, so let's get ready." There was no use in regretting the past, he just had to improve. Like his father had said, he had to make the best of what he still had.
The mission that almost ended Zangoose's life and left the pokemon in a long recovery was supposed to be a simple one that took an unexpected turn for the worse. Comet wasn't supposed to be expected, there wasn't supposed to be an ambush waiting for him. It was a simple one person job that a trained Rocket agent should be able to handle. A certain enemy of Giovanni who had been hindering his business, owned a villa in the middle of a valley. The picturesque little valley was at a low clearing between several mountains, next to which there was a large lake. The lake had grown with the passing of time, making it vital for the preservation of the villa that a dam was built to stop the water from flowing into the low plains of the valley.
Comet's mission was simple, he was to sneak in, plant a time bomb on the dam and sneak out, leaving it to blow up. The damage done to the dam's weakest point would be enough to summon a chain reaction causing it to give up under the pressure of the contained water and it would flow the villa next to it. The surrounding mountains would obstruct the flow of water, causing the valley to become a sort of extension to the lake and thus making all hopes of restoring the villa to its previous luxurious and dry state to be extremely difficult at best.
Things seemed to be going well in the beginning. Finding the place in the middle of the night and getting close to it was an easy task, almost too easy. At the time, agents didn't always have additional tech support when sneaking around, so they lacked that extra pair of eyes and ears that could see and hear things that those directly involved on the scene would not perceive in the same way. It was a time when the Rocket tech department was still growing and the importance of hackers and technological support was beginning to be truly recognized. For that mission, Comet was alone with his pokemon as his only available allies.
Since no one was supposed to be expecting his arrival, Comet didn't think there would be all that many guards; however, the lack of any guards at all made the situation seem very suspicious. Even if an attack wasn't expected, a place as important and valuable as this should at least have some vigilance. To make matters more suspicious, he didn't notice any lights from the villa when he saw it from afar. It was almost as if it had been deserted in advance as a safety measure for his arrival. That made no sense; there should be no suspicions and the information given to him by the executives had never been wrong before. Perhaps the villa's master was called out on urgent business and had to leave. None the less, his precious villa would be ruined all the same as a warning from Team Rocket that no one should ever anger the boss.
The cliffs next to the dam were extremely steep and the dam was quite strong around the edges. The weak spot was in the middle in the shape of a gigantic glass window. Of course the glass was specially reinforced to be very resistant, but the bomb was powerful enough to shatter it. The window view was actually composed of two windows parallel to each other with a narrow hallway in between, the view of the lake aquarium on one side and the villa on the other.
With no one to stop him, Comet headed for that hallway, ignoring the alarm of his instant telling him to turn back. It was a bad time to get too confident as he was ambushed before he could plant the bomb. Gyarados was too large to fight comfortably in the enclosed space between the two glass panels, leaving Comet to rely on Scyther and Zangoose, his only pokemon aside from Gyarados at the time. Very outnumbered and thus overpowered, the mission turned into a retreat that led him to the top of the dam.
He had lost the bomb in the fight and it was in enemy hands. Comet and his pokemon were both injured as a result of being so outnumbered. Yet he wouldn't give up. He wasn't going to fail his mission, he couldn't. "Gyarados!" Comet released the large pokemon into the side of the dam where the lake was. "Destroy the glass with hyper beams; keep hitting it until it shatters!" Gyarados obeyed, immediately going on a relentless attack. "Scyther, go on the other side and attack the other glass wall!" Scyther flew towards the dry side that was parallel to the villa, continuously attacking the glass on that side.
The situation left Comet with only Zangoose to aid him against the enemies. The lake's water splashed onto the narrow surface of the dam's top bridge, drenching him and his numerous opponents in cold water mixed with their own blood. Suddenly, a loud bang pierced the air. Comet wanted to look, but he was occupied with the thugs that were trying to restrain him, yet he knew that sound to be a gunshot and he knew it had to have been meant for him. He tried to put some distance between himself and his attackers. Then he saw Zangoose bleeding with a bullet wound.
"Zangoose!" Comet tried to recall the pokemon, but the pokeball was knocked out of his hand, rolling across the floor of the dam's bridge as it shook. What now? He could jump and have Scyther catch him, making a speedy get away through the air. Then he could recall Gyarados from there, make a temporary retreat and come back better prepared to finish his mission. But what about Zangoose?
"Thunderbolt!" The world was consumed by a yellow flash. Lightning was all around Comet and Zangoose, he could feel it stinging, but only lightly as the atmosphere was electrified. It wasn't a direct hit; somehow, everyone around him was being electrocuted but not him. The light cleared and a several pokemon stepped forward to fight under the command of Giovanni's son, Ash.
xoxox xox xoxox
In the present time, Comet closed his eyes and focused.
"That was a lot to take on alone." Ash's voice ran through his memories.
Then his own past reply followed. "I failed... For the first time I failed."
"The dam was destroyed, just like my father wanted," Ash had pointed out after the mission was over.
"With your help... But you're the boss' son; I'm supposed to fight for you, not you for me. What would Giovanni say?" Comet insisted in disappointment.
"He doesn't need to know," Ash assured. "In fact, I would prefer that he doesn't know I was there. Besides, you have something else to worry about, Zangoose needs medical attention. You should have retreated sooner, he could have been killed."
"If not for you, he would have been..." Comet frowned.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, just be careful next time." Ash tried to smile reassuringly, in a friendly way. "One more thing," he pointed out with importance. "It's true that I'm not supposed to fight for you... but you're not supposed to fight for me either, because we should fight together."
Comet mirrored Ash's grin, the faces were different but the expression was identical. He had a lot to think about, a lot to discover about working with his pokemon... and he would do it...
A Misdreavus floated towards Pixel, guiding her to the eastern side of the chamber where the image of Coral faintly flickered before disappearing. At the same time the Misdreavus became a Mismagius. It floated next to Pixel as she too closed her eyes and focused.
A Duskull approached Gary, guiding him to the southern area of the chamber, where he stood facing Ash. The image of Delia was there for a split second before it disappeared. Simultaneously, the Duskull became a Dusclops.
Ash watched as Gary took his position next to the Dusclops. His mother had been there years ago. She had participated in trying to free Tidus before his will was consumed and he was pushed towards betrayal. Finally, Ash looked towards the spot where he was to stand a little further towards the northern side of the chamber. The image that appeared like a forgotten specter for a split second was of his own father. "Dad... like always you know more than you let on. You wanted me to find an alternative because this method failed last time. But you realized that there was no time left... and no other choice..."
Ash stood on the northern side of the chamber where the image of Giovanni had been. Finally, his ghostly partner for the spell appeared, fading into existence with eerie silence. A vortex of shades of violet and purple levitated a stone as it floated next to Ash. The Spiritomb's green eyes and mouth became visible in the middle of the vortex, there was nothing more there aside from that. The green spheres that Ash expected to see spinning in the vortex were completely absent. Trusting in the exorcist, Agatha, Ash closed his eyes and focused. A compartment opened in the center of the dome's ceiling with a line of light appearing from it.
To be Continued
I know I said 15 chapters, but the last chapter grew into two. It's 16 chapters for sure. I already finished Chapter 16, I just need to type up the epilogue to post it along with the final chapter.
Chapter 15: Exorcism
One of the doors that led to the room of many statues was opened, granting passage to an old lady that looked far more harmless than she was. The ghost master slowly made her way towards the two young women who occupied the room other than herself and the hidden ghosts. "Laiki, come, child, if you insist in being here, you shall witness the trials along with me."
"Trials?" Laiki inquired with the raise of an eyebrow.
"What trials?" Pixel further questioned.
"I must test you," Agatha explained, leaving the statement purposely ambiguous.
Pixel huffed, "like I care. I know you're high ranked and all, but I couldn't care less about your approval unless it's an order from the boss. I'm sure Comet won't participate either."
"Indeed," surprisingly, Agatha smiled. "It is that resolve of loyalty that made me choose you for this, because I know there's one exception, yet at the same time there are none. You are like the knights of a kingdom loyal to the king... and to the prince as well."
"What about me?" Laiki protested. "I'm loyal to Team Rocket too!"
"I know," Agatha acknowledged, before her face turned serious and she shook her head slightly as she let out a breath. "But you're too easily distracted and trigger happy. This is an operation that most not be burdened with extreme emotions, it must be full of the purity of amused loyalty. Besides, there are only four cardinal points, to add a fifth would render the spell useless."
"So we're elements of a spell," Pixel concluded. "Care to elaborate?"
"It is an exorcism..." Agatha began to explain how the spell she had in mind would work, albeit she was only scratching in surface of its complexity.
xoxox xox xoxox
Just as Pixel and Laiki had run into each other while exploring Agatha's haunted mansion, Comet, Gary and Ash had inexplicably crossed paths as well. "Gary, Comet!" Ash rushed towards the center of the circular chamber with a dome-like roof of black stone, much like its walls and floor. "What are you guys doing in Agatha's basement?"
Before they could ask Ash if he knew about Agatha's true intentions, they were presented with the enigma of Ash's question. "Basement?" Gary echoed. "Weren't we upstairs?"
"We were," Comet confirmed. Running into Gary, who was also exploring the upper floors was not such a big surprise after the many twists and turns of the hallways, but he didn't remember heading down at any time.
"This is deep underground," Ash pointed out. It was a fact that he was certain of and neither Gary nor Comet was about to question his keen aura empowered senses. "I've been trying to find Misty, but I haven't been able to get to her. She's here, I just don't know where exactly. Aside from knowing that we're deep beneath the earth, I can sense little else and all these ghosts fogging my senses are giving me a headache. I was separated from Pikachu too, but somehow, I know he's alright, I think he's with Agatha."
Footsteps were heard as Pixel joined the others in the chamber. "Hey..."
A chorus of automatic, puzzled sounding "hey?" replied to her.
"What's with those looks of confusion, I'm not that late, am I?" Pixel observed their faces for a moment longer. "I take it this means Agatha didn't explain herself?"
"Did she tell you something?" Ash inquired with urgency.
"Yes and no, she wasn't exactly specific, but I got the basic idea," Pixel revealed. "We're performing an exorcism. Agatha has been researching the supernatural for many years. She tried to do this when it happened last time, but it didn't work. Tidus was consumed by the hatred of his ancestry and completely taken over. Agatha said the chances of success are much better now because the north can use aura."
"The north?" Ash questioned.
"I'm not sure about what she means, but it looks like we'll have to take our places soon." Not a second passed after Pixel spoke when various ghost pokemon faded into existence.
A Chandelure floated above and from the ghostly light it projected, Misty faded into existence as if the ghostly forces all around were strong enough to teleport her there. The Chandelure continued to float above, spinning in pace as Misty floated motionless in the center of the chamber as if in a trance. There was something malicious in the air... something malicious and tragic.
A Shuppet approved Comet, becoming a Banette as it got closer. Yet it was not evolving, it had been a Banette all along, the Shuppet was an image of the past that resonated in the haunted chamber. For a split second, a man who looked very much like Comet was seen standing on the western side of the chamber, which was somehow mysteriously devoid of doors or passages, completely sealed off as if it had been that way all along. Comet stepped forward; his father couldn't be there, could he?
The image faded into nothingness, leaving Comet to stand in the same place where his father stood years prior. Comet realized that he too was an image of the past. Luke had participated in the attempted exorcism that failed to free Tidus years ago. There was something in that spot where he stood, the feeling of a link of loyalty, it flowed from his father to the leader of Team Rocket, somehow, Comet knew. Then the flow of energy dissolved into nothingness and a new flow began. Perhaps he was beginning to understand.
xoxox xox xoxox
A few years prior... in one of the many training rooms of the Viridian Rocket base, Comet was training with his Gyarados and Scyther. "Alright you two, we have one less ally for now and the missions will only get harder from this point on, so let's get ready." There was no use in regretting the past, he just had to improve. Like his father had said, he had to make the best of what he still had.
The mission that almost ended Zangoose's life and left the pokemon in a long recovery was supposed to be a simple one that took an unexpected turn for the worse. Comet wasn't supposed to be expected, there wasn't supposed to be an ambush waiting for him. It was a simple one person job that a trained Rocket agent should be able to handle. A certain enemy of Giovanni who had been hindering his business, owned a villa in the middle of a valley. The picturesque little valley was at a low clearing between several mountains, next to which there was a large lake. The lake had grown with the passing of time, making it vital for the preservation of the villa that a dam was built to stop the water from flowing into the low plains of the valley.
Comet's mission was simple, he was to sneak in, plant a time bomb on the dam and sneak out, leaving it to blow up. The damage done to the dam's weakest point would be enough to summon a chain reaction causing it to give up under the pressure of the contained water and it would flow the villa next to it. The surrounding mountains would obstruct the flow of water, causing the valley to become a sort of extension to the lake and thus making all hopes of restoring the villa to its previous luxurious and dry state to be extremely difficult at best.
Things seemed to be going well in the beginning. Finding the place in the middle of the night and getting close to it was an easy task, almost too easy. At the time, agents didn't always have additional tech support when sneaking around, so they lacked that extra pair of eyes and ears that could see and hear things that those directly involved on the scene would not perceive in the same way. It was a time when the Rocket tech department was still growing and the importance of hackers and technological support was beginning to be truly recognized. For that mission, Comet was alone with his pokemon as his only available allies.
Since no one was supposed to be expecting his arrival, Comet didn't think there would be all that many guards; however, the lack of any guards at all made the situation seem very suspicious. Even if an attack wasn't expected, a place as important and valuable as this should at least have some vigilance. To make matters more suspicious, he didn't notice any lights from the villa when he saw it from afar. It was almost as if it had been deserted in advance as a safety measure for his arrival. That made no sense; there should be no suspicions and the information given to him by the executives had never been wrong before. Perhaps the villa's master was called out on urgent business and had to leave. None the less, his precious villa would be ruined all the same as a warning from Team Rocket that no one should ever anger the boss.
The cliffs next to the dam were extremely steep and the dam was quite strong around the edges. The weak spot was in the middle in the shape of a gigantic glass window. Of course the glass was specially reinforced to be very resistant, but the bomb was powerful enough to shatter it. The window view was actually composed of two windows parallel to each other with a narrow hallway in between, the view of the lake aquarium on one side and the villa on the other.
With no one to stop him, Comet headed for that hallway, ignoring the alarm of his instant telling him to turn back. It was a bad time to get too confident as he was ambushed before he could plant the bomb. Gyarados was too large to fight comfortably in the enclosed space between the two glass panels, leaving Comet to rely on Scyther and Zangoose, his only pokemon aside from Gyarados at the time. Very outnumbered and thus overpowered, the mission turned into a retreat that led him to the top of the dam.
He had lost the bomb in the fight and it was in enemy hands. Comet and his pokemon were both injured as a result of being so outnumbered. Yet he wouldn't give up. He wasn't going to fail his mission, he couldn't. "Gyarados!" Comet released the large pokemon into the side of the dam where the lake was. "Destroy the glass with hyper beams; keep hitting it until it shatters!" Gyarados obeyed, immediately going on a relentless attack. "Scyther, go on the other side and attack the other glass wall!" Scyther flew towards the dry side that was parallel to the villa, continuously attacking the glass on that side.
The situation left Comet with only Zangoose to aid him against the enemies. The lake's water splashed onto the narrow surface of the dam's top bridge, drenching him and his numerous opponents in cold water mixed with their own blood. Suddenly, a loud bang pierced the air. Comet wanted to look, but he was occupied with the thugs that were trying to restrain him, yet he knew that sound to be a gunshot and he knew it had to have been meant for him. He tried to put some distance between himself and his attackers. Then he saw Zangoose bleeding with a bullet wound.
"Zangoose!" Comet tried to recall the pokemon, but the pokeball was knocked out of his hand, rolling across the floor of the dam's bridge as it shook. What now? He could jump and have Scyther catch him, making a speedy get away through the air. Then he could recall Gyarados from there, make a temporary retreat and come back better prepared to finish his mission. But what about Zangoose?
"Thunderbolt!" The world was consumed by a yellow flash. Lightning was all around Comet and Zangoose, he could feel it stinging, but only lightly as the atmosphere was electrified. It wasn't a direct hit; somehow, everyone around him was being electrocuted but not him. The light cleared and a several pokemon stepped forward to fight under the command of Giovanni's son, Ash.
xoxox xox xoxox
In the present time, Comet closed his eyes and focused.
"That was a lot to take on alone." Ash's voice ran through his memories.
Then his own past reply followed. "I failed... For the first time I failed."
"The dam was destroyed, just like my father wanted," Ash had pointed out after the mission was over.
"With your help... But you're the boss' son; I'm supposed to fight for you, not you for me. What would Giovanni say?" Comet insisted in disappointment.
"He doesn't need to know," Ash assured. "In fact, I would prefer that he doesn't know I was there. Besides, you have something else to worry about, Zangoose needs medical attention. You should have retreated sooner, he could have been killed."
"If not for you, he would have been..." Comet frowned.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, just be careful next time." Ash tried to smile reassuringly, in a friendly way. "One more thing," he pointed out with importance. "It's true that I'm not supposed to fight for you... but you're not supposed to fight for me either, because we should fight together."
Comet mirrored Ash's grin, the faces were different but the expression was identical. He had a lot to think about, a lot to discover about working with his pokemon... and he would do it...
A Misdreavus floated towards Pixel, guiding her to the eastern side of the chamber where the image of Coral faintly flickered before disappearing. At the same time the Misdreavus became a Mismagius. It floated next to Pixel as she too closed her eyes and focused.
A Duskull approached Gary, guiding him to the southern area of the chamber, where he stood facing Ash. The image of Delia was there for a split second before it disappeared. Simultaneously, the Duskull became a Dusclops.
Ash watched as Gary took his position next to the Dusclops. His mother had been there years ago. She had participated in trying to free Tidus before his will was consumed and he was pushed towards betrayal. Finally, Ash looked towards the spot where he was to stand a little further towards the northern side of the chamber. The image that appeared like a forgotten specter for a split second was of his own father. "Dad... like always you know more than you let on. You wanted me to find an alternative because this method failed last time. But you realized that there was no time left... and no other choice..."
Ash stood on the northern side of the chamber where the image of Giovanni had been. Finally, his ghostly partner for the spell appeared, fading into existence with eerie silence. A vortex of shades of violet and purple levitated a stone as it floated next to Ash. The Spiritomb's green eyes and mouth became visible in the middle of the vortex, there was nothing more there aside from that. The green spheres that Ash expected to see spinning in the vortex were completely absent. Trusting in the exorcist, Agatha, Ash closed his eyes and focused. A compartment opened in the center of the dome's ceiling with a line of light appearing from it.
To be Continued
I know I said 15 chapters, but the last chapter grew into two. It's 16 chapters for sure. I already finished Chapter 16, I just need to type up the epilogue to post it along with the final chapter.
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