Chapter 6

Misty and her guards face the horizon east of the city. Dozens of thunders rain down on the scenery at the far end, and the sound of it seems t get louder and louder. It's getting closer, Misty said. Zapdos is on the move. A while later, the massive legendary pokemon appeared on the horizon. Now a shadow of its former self, the signs of corruption were visible all over its body. MIsty swallowed and tried to keep her calm. Prepare yourselves, she yelled at everyone. You all take the flock, she said and pointed at the numerous pokemon following the electric pokemon. Leave Zapdos to me, she added in a lower and more decisive voice. The battle wasn't late to begin. Trainers all over fought with all they had, trying to overcome the electric pokemons' speed, but hardly. Cursed voltorbs and electrodes attacked and exploded all around the trainers' pokemon, hurting them little by little. Techniques like surf and earthquake proved useful to take out big numbers of cursed pokemon. When Zapdos finally arrived, a powerful howl filled the air around them, as Misty felt her body hair on edge due to the static created from the behemoth's electrical power.\*The battle continues, many trainers die\*. In the end it is Misty and Zapdos, Misty fights greatly, but in the end, an electivire charged with electricity reached sppeds that Misty's pokemon were unable to reach and took out a couple of them, saving Zapdos from certain defeat. After that, Zapdos' mighty thunderbolts fried misty's pokemon one by one, until she was the ony one left. Then, crying from losing all her companions, she found comfort that she bought Vergil and the rest of the group enough to reach the safety of Pewter. With her lat breath, she apologised to Vergil for not making it to him for his birthday. A powerful lightning tore the skies apart and landed on top of her, reducing the gym leader into a burning corpse instantly. Back in the pokemon center, Vergil heard the thunder and turned to look towards the direction of his hometown. Deeply worried about his mother and those who stayed behind, he took a moment ot collect his thoughts and push them in the back of his mind where they came from. He might have been an orphan, and with the death of his best friend, he might have stayed alone. Cerulean could be no more, he might have no home to go back into. He didn't make all these thoughts though. "Mom's gonna win", he thought. "She promised". In the lobby, Bill's grandfather, the eldest of the group now having assimilated a leadership role after Floyd fell unconsious, now tried to calm the group down. "We can stay here as long as we need", he said. "These cursed pokemon, whatever they are, and for whatever reason they have multiplied, came here. They won't look for people here soon. We have time". Regardless of whether this was true or not, people felt a little better. In the room tha tused to be the infirmary, it was cleaned and the wounded were laid down to look after. Floyd was still unconsious, but showed signs of recovering. Alicia, standing by his side, looks calm. "He seems to be having a vision of some kind", she notices. "Maybe all he needs is rest", she says. "Chances are Xatu did something to him, maybe showed him something. His human lesser mind needs time and rest to process all the information", she concludes and moves to other patients. Having had some training at the pokecenter on route 9, she proved to be an important member of the group at these times. A while later Floyd woke up sweaty.He explained that Xatu implanted a vision on his mind and explained everything. When it meditated, Xatu processed all different outcomes of the battle that took place at the moment. After that, it found that the best outcome for the battle was that it should sacrifice itself and cut off the attacking pokemon. That's what it did, and the vision activated upon Xatu's death. he says that Xatu was his first pokemon, and promises that they will reach Pewter, he won't let Xatu's sacrifice go in vain. Back in the lobby, a couple of figures appear at the entrance. Vergil and Grandpa Bill prepare to fight, fearing they are looking at cursed pokemon, but the sillouettes were revealed to be humans. "We are sorry, the man of the duo talked first. We didn't mean to startle you. Are you the refugees from Cerulean?", they asked. Vergil recognised the man as a trainer from his uncle's Gym. "Gym Leader Brock and a bigger group are already on their way", he added. Please follow us, and we will take proper care of you in Pewter. The group collected all supplies they could find, loaded the wounded on stretchers and pokemon, and made for the city of stone. A while later, Brock's group was seen ahead of them. Vergil ran ahead and hugged his uncle. When Brock asked where Misty was, Vergil responded she stayed behind to protect the city, and they needed t go to her soon. Brock said he would go to her immediatelly, as his steelix would be able to dig through the underground passage on mt moon and take him to Cerulean in half the time. His four men that were with him followed him, and Vergil and the cerulean group continued to Pewter. Shortly after, relatively without problems, they were inside the city. Vergil, along with his new friend Alicia helped carry a stretcher in the emergency room in the pokecenter. Daisy, Brock's wife and Misty's sister, waited for Vergil at the entrance. When she saw he was alive and well, she let out a sigh and hugged her nephew tightly. A couple people were already there, unlike the dozens of people brought by the group. Floyd was taken inside still having serious headaches and feeling dizzy. Knowing that he will be fine though soon, he sat on a chair, leaving the bed for someone else who needed it. Vergil and Daisy went inside the pokecenter to help, and Vergil asked how she Knew he was going there. Daisy smiled and pointed at one of the beds. "I got a surprise for you", she said. Vergil took a closer look at the boy laying in bed. His eyes widened full of surprise when he identified his friend laying, wounded but alive, in the bed. "Cole?", Vergil asked shocked

## Full story

Random Cerulean trainer's point of view:

Misty is on the wall, gazing east, where the trouble is coming from. The approaching thunderstorm is massive, with thunders lighting up the sky every second, turning the darkness into white, and Misty's form into a shadow. Suddenly, the Gym leader turns around to talk to us.

"There is no easy way to say this. What we feared since yesterday is true. The darkness ravaging our world, haunting us for so many years, now has one more victim. The legendary bird. Zapdos", she pauses. Small chatter is heard among the crowd, but vanishes within seconds. After all we all hang from her lips. If anyone can make this, this is Misty.

"You have all been very good colleagues and friends. Even those of you I only met recently, I would like to call you my family. Family is not only by blood, it is what you choose. And as family, I want to ask of you one last thing. You know me. You have seen me fight countless times. You have seen me train countless times. And you know I was offered a place at the elite four some years ago. So, what I want to ask of you, is to let me take care of Zapdos alone. YOu know most of you wouldn't even be able to touch it, and you would be in grave danger. Not to underestimate any of you, but you would only get in my way. So, fight the bastards Zapdos has brought with it, clear them out for me to take on Zapdos, and get the hell out of here. Run to Pewter, and don't look back. I will follow you, but won't take any chances and have you wait for me".

She is right. We *would* get in the way.

Vergil's point of view:

"We got to go back in there", I yell, tears dripping from my eyes, my whole body shaking. I think I am going to faint, and my breathing is hard. I fall on my knees, when i can faintly hear people coughing from inside the cave. I hurry to the entrance, as Floyd and Grandpa Bill appear from inside the dust, Floyd unconsious and carried by his Persian.

"Where is Cole?", I ask impatiently. The old man catches his breath and shakes his head. below the thick layer of dust on his face, I can see tears forming in both of his eyes.

"I am sorry, son", he says in regret.

Still processing what I just heard, another man comes and grabs me by the shoulders. Turning around, I see the familiar face of Nurse Joey. "Cole was badly poisoned. Even if he made it out here alive, there is no way he would have made it to Pewter", the nurse tells me, trying to convince me to not go after him.

"He drew a group of attacked pokemon away from the group. He saved us", the old man replied in tears. "We can't simly abandon him in there", he argues.

"The pokecenter here has been attacked, but we can possibly scavenge any remaining supplies. Let's take the wounded in there, and once Floyd is fine, we can come search

Misty's point of view:

A shadow of its former, marvelous self, the hideous enormous pokemon flew above our heads. A deformed morph, ugly and dark, emanating evil in every sight. Lots of pokemon followed it, ready to lay waste in our beautiful city.

"Charge", I ordered my trainers as the cursed pokemon took down the city walls. A few exposions cause dby voltorbs and electrodes, and the brick wall came flying on top of us. It never was the wall keeping this place safe. It was always us. Me, and the people fighting besides me. Despite the type disadvantage, my trainers show their skills by fully taking on the cursed electric type pokemon. Water guns, hydro pumps, and other non-water type attacks such as earthquake and blizzard overwhelm the attacking force, while a few quagsires are used to absorb their deadly attacks. The power plant has to be devastated. This many cursed pokemon; how many more could be living there? And now a flying wave appears too. Cursed fearows, murkrows, honchkrows, even pidgeys and pidgeots make a formidable force. It's time for me to join the fight as well, and I place my hand in my belt and grab a pokeball. As I throw it in the air, Azumarill materializes in front of me. While it isn't fast at all, this pokemon has deadly attack power and endurance. I have had it since it was an azurill, and trained it since then. Needless to say I rarely use it in gym battles, only against special opponents. The poor newcomers wouldn't stand a chance".

"Ok Azumarill, use aqua jet", I order it. Drawing water from the pond that has formed on the ground, the pokemon hurls beams of water quickly and acurately, taking down and pokemon it makes contact with. Zapdos, still flying over the city, emanates with power. Thunderbolts coming from the clouds hit it, making it glow bright, yet still grotesque. Some trainers' pokemon have already reached their limit. Right besides me, a poliwrath falls on the ground, hit by a pidgeot's wing attack. Donna calls it back, and focuses on her other pokemon.

"Donna", I call out to her. "Once this mess is taken care of, take every trainer here and run. I will fight it, and I don't need to worry about having someone get caught in the crossfire. This fight will only leave destruction behind". Donna nods and orders her clouster attack with pin missile. The attacking wave has subsided, with most of the cursed pokemon on the ground, either dead or severely injured. A couple trainers order their pokemon to attack Zapdos too, only to find imediate death. A Swanna and Pelipper going for a full scale attack fall on the ground, their flesh torched by Zapdos' attack.

"Azumarill, come back" I order my pokemon and wthdraw it inside the pokeball. "She did great and now it's time to rest for a bit. "Gyarados, your turn", I say and let out the massive flying water type. Gyarados lets out a cry that momentarily intimidates the enemy forces, giving courage to our allies. With the ground forces defeated, now only the flock remains until the big battle begins. We might just make it, I think to myself as I see Zapdos stopping midair. It has its wings open, and floats. Suddenly, I feel my body hair on edge, drawn by the electric power the legendary pokemon has collected. I widen my eyes, realising what is about to happen, but don't have the time to react. A bolt of thunder, stronger, brighter, more powerful than anything I have ever seen before, strikes the ground in the middle of the city, cracking it open in two and creating an earthquake. The shockwave is so intense, it throws me backwards. I land on a wall, shattering it. Or maybe the shockwave shattered it.

A while later, I regain my senses. It takes a while for my ears to stop jiggling and the blur in my vision to go away. Alla round me, countless dead, wounded and unconsious people and pokemon. Some have burns on their bodies, screaming in pain and agony. As I walk a few feet, I stumble across a burned corpse. I recognise the man from the gym. His face is half burned, and smoke comes out of the burning part. As I look up, I see Zapdos picking off any pokemon that still stand. The poor creatures have no chance against it, Zapdos completely obliterates one after another, burning them down to crisps. Despite the rain, fires have started all around me. A big part of the city is burning. Even the cursed pokemon Zapdos brought with it are mostly dead or fleeing. Nothing could stand against the force of the legendary pokemon. Well, almost nothing. As Zapdos hurls its thunderbolts, Gyarados appears and attacks it. One of my strongest pokemon, I knew it could evade the attack.