Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ The Forgotten Son ❯ Darkness ( Chapter 14 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The decoy rocket frowned. This kid was proving to be pretty tough. His gyarados was a powerful pokemon, and it seemed like his trainer had quite a few tricks up his sleeve; even when it seemed like he was finished he was able to rally two near-unconscious pokemon to pull off a brilliant counter-attack. And now the rocket had only one pokemon left to fight with, and it was at a type disadvantage.
 
But the rocket knew he could still win, for a few reasons. First off, this kid was naïve—there was no doubt that he had completely fallen for the rocket's ploy as the president and was caught off-guard by Explosion. Second, gyarados was still petty wounded just from that charge beam that had grazed it—electricity was its largest weak point. The third reason was Sunny Day.
 
With a howl, houndoom fired off a dense ball of intense flame that soared up into the sky, overlapping with the sun and giving off its own sunlight. Luke flinched at the maneuver, unsure of how to counter it or what it even was. The light turned harsh and hot; Luke wasn't familiar with this attack, but he still knew what was effective against houndoom.
 
“Gyarados, attack with Hydro Pump!”
 
Gyarados allowed himself a devilish grin before he unleashed a blast of water from its mouth; the ultra-powerful water type attack flew straight at houndoom, but as it moved it slowly shrank in the intense heat and the dark skeleton dog pokemon easily stepped out of the way. The water instead hit the hot cement, the puddle it left quickly disappearing.
 
“Houndoom, hit him with a solarbeam!”
 
Luke smirked. That one bad call was going to cost houndoom; it was a sitting duck for a finishing hydro pump, whether it was weakened in this sunlight or not. “Gyarados, quick! Intercept it with another hydro pump!”
 
Houndoom reared back, absorbing light as gyarados too began preparing its own attack. Under normal conditions, solarbeam was much faster and accurate, but it took far longer than hydro pump to charge; Luke knew this. What he didn't know was that in the intense sunlight the charge-up time shrank dramatically, and as a result an intense beam of light erupted from houndoom's mouth long before gyarados was ready. Luke only had time to utter a quick gasp before gyarados was struck by the beam of light, thrown back and landing belly up.
 
Luke looked back at his fallen pokemon, astonished. Had he really lost? How could that be, when he had come so close? He looked again at his opponent, beaten, as the rocket approached him with a cold sneer. Just then, the words of the red-haired kid rang inside Luke once more; You're pathetic. Floundering there hopelessly, not even worth pity. You make me sick. Learn some conviction!”
 
Luke's eyes regained their cold stare, his face cool and unemotional. How could he have forgotten his conviction so soon? He hadn't lost. He was incapable of losing; as long as he believed that he was better than anybody who faced him down.
 
The rocket stopped approaching and now stood face-to-face with Luke; he was close enough that Luke could see the whites of his eyes. The rocket stared at him, confident, while his houndoom watched Luke warily. “What's that look?” the rocket said. “You look like you think you're some tough guy. Huh? You think you're some badass kid, huh?”
 
“Shut up,” Luke retorted, seething with anger.
 
In a flash, the rocket cracked a solid punch right to Luke's face, the teenaged trainer stumbling back but staying on his feet, now standing beside the tail of his fallen gyarados. Luke was still looking at the rocket with his sharp, icy eyes.
 
The man snarled. “Houndoom!” He yelled out, “Take him down!”
 
Houndoom leapt forward as if suddenly unleashed, blazing with fire and fully prepared to kill. Luke stared back at it, not yielding for an instant. And just as it was about to sink its fiery teeth deep into Luke, the unthinkable happened.
 
With a boom, houndoom was knocked aside by gyarados' tail, which had suddenly sprung to life to defend its trainer. The dark hound was blasted with water from gyarados' tail; the powerful aqua tail attack had landed dead on. The dog flew back, landing on its side with a pained yelp; and before it could get back to its feet, a second aqua tail attack smashed down onto it, leaving it unconscious. Luke sneered as gyarados rose again, towering over the rocket once more as Sunny Day dimmed out. The rocket man stared up at it from under its shadow, his eyes wide and jaw dropped. Luke had not planned this, but to the rocket it looked like he had played right into Luke's hands.
 
“Tell me,” Luke said, his voice booming, “what is team rocket doing here?”
 
“I'm not telling you shit!” The rocket snapped back, his voice quivering.
 
Wrong answer. Gyarados' tail whipped out, but stopped just short of striking the rocket, who flinched. He realized that the enormous sea serpent pokemon could destroy him without a moment's hesitation. “Answer me, or I swear I'll make sure it hits next time.”
 
The rocket looked up into gyarados' eyes and briefly considered his options. There weren't many. “We hijacked the radio tower and we're sending out a broadcast to find our old leader.” He said, not taking his eyes off of gyarados. “I swear that's all it is.”
 
“Don't joke with me!” Luke yelled, “What else were you going to do?”
 
“Well…” the man said, his voice quivering again, “Once we found our boss I suppose we may have reproduced our experiment in Mahogany to cause global chaos. With that kind of power in our hands we could control all the neighboring regions…”
 
“And where's the real president?” Luke shouted at him.
 
“We took him down to the Goldenrod underground. Alright?”
 
Luke was done. “Finish him,” he mumbled to gyarados before turning around and picking up his fallen wooper.
 
“W-wait!” the rocket yelped, but before he knew it he'd been blown away by a hydro pump, going airborne a few yards before landing, unconscious, onto the cement below. Gyarados followed after Luke, gathering his other fallen pokemon with his teeth and gently placing them on his back. Luke had a feeling that this guy had been the head of this operation judging from his strength. It looked like Luke's next course of action would be to liberate the kidnapped president of the radio tower.
 
* * *
 
Luke used all of what money he had to buy medicines for his pokemon. It wasn't long before they were all fully healed again, but they weren't too happy. Even though they were physically fit to fight, they seemed worn-out and mentally exhausted. Luke really had been pushing them much harder than ever before. Even Kenshin was starting to show signs of slowing down.
 
“We have to see this through,” Luke said coldly to his team, lined up outside the pokemon store. “You look like you're starting to give up, but we can't quit yet. Get it together!”
 
They weren't overly enthusiastic, but it was all Luke could hope for. Now it was time to really prove his strength to everybody.
 
* * *
 
His pokemon followed him as he walked to the entrance to the underground; a seemingly simple building with a metallic staircase that took them to Goldenrod's underground tunnel system. It was dimly lit, the white tile floors polished and reflective with pale white walls. Normally it was a hangout for trainers and small business owners, but now it was deserted.
 
Luke followed the tunnel to a large black metal door which someone before him had carelessly left open. Through the door was yet another black metallic staircase that took him even deeper and deeper, where he was almost swallowed by the darkness.
 
Down in the bottommost layer of Goldenrod there was the constant dull hum of machinery; pipes were clearly visible running along all the walls and ceiling, and it was almost too dark to see. Luke knew he was getting close.
 
* * *
 
After following the dark, winding tunnel Luke finally came upon light; the tunnel opened up to a larger room. There were four bright lights hanging from the ceiling at the four corners of the room, lighting most of the room but making the shadows around them seem even darker. The white tile floor seemed to almost glow under the lights, the black pipes that covered the wall even more ominous when clearly visible.
 
And there, standing at the opposite end of the room, was the red-haired trainer. He was staring at the ground, his eyes shadowed.
 
“Hey,” Luke called out. “It's you again. I didn't expect to see you here.”
 
Slowly, the red-haired boy turned his head up and looked Luke straight in the eye. His normally cold, sharp eyes were not what they used to be; now he had with him a faint muddled, confused feeling that corrupted his once intimidating stare.
 
“What's going on?” Luke said, unwavering.
 
“That Ken kid just beat my pokemon,” he said. “No mater how hard I train them, he always seems to be a step ahead. But he does it all wrong! I can't stand to watch someone like him always win.”
 
Luke blinked. He began to remember Ken, the lively young trainer whose energetic love for pokemon reminded Luke of his long lost brother, Griffe. He never realized that Ken had been acquainted with the red-haired trainer whose appearance always meant trouble for Luke.
 
But now, standing before Luke, the red-haired boy didn't seem so intimidating or dangerous. He had no insult, no harsh words to give Luke this time. “You're being pretty pathetic right now,” Luke said.
 
“Oh, shut up,” the red-haired trainer said. “I don't need your approval.”
 
“Really,” Luke asserted, “You're being awfully pathetic. It's making me sick. Rather than stand there and mope around, can you please get out of my way? I came to save the radio tower president.”
 
“That's what Ken came to do, and me too,” the red-haired boy said sharply, “and there's no doubt that either one of us are much better fit for the job than you. Why don't you just go home and pity yourself like you used to do?”
 
“Because I used to be weak,” Luke said, “But I've seen my mistakes. I've become much more powerful, and I came to prove it.”
 
“You're not good enough to save the president, as far as I'm concerned,” the red-haired boy said, “I think you'll have enough trouble getting through me.” He snapped a pokeball off his belt, releasing his sneasel.
 
“I thought Ken already wrecked your team.”
 
“And I healed them. I've been looking forward to kicking your sorry ass for a long time, to be honest. You're as pathetic as God damn team rocket!”
 
“What is it with you and team rocket, anyway?” Luke asked as Kenshin stepped forward to meet the sneasel's challenge. “You always chase them around and you never shut up about them.”
 
“What is it with me and team rocket?” The red-haired boy repeated, clearly annoyed. “Don't even start that with me. My worthless dad worked in it.”
 
“Mine, too.” Luke said, coldly. “You're not so special.”
 
“My dad wasn't just some grunt, though,” the red-haired boy asserted, “He was the leader of team rocket. He went by the alias `Giovanni,' but everyone in rocket knew his real name was Merluzzi.”
 
And then in a wave of realization, Luke Merluzzi suddenly saw in that confused, muddled face of the red-haired boy his own face, his own genes, his own flesh and blood. He stood there for a few seconds, mouth agape. Finally, he had he courage to talk.
 
“…Griffe, is that you?”