I walked up the stairs. Endless stairs. By the time I reached the top, I was exhausted, and had to sit.
My ears perked up when I heard a thunderous crash. I entered the large palace-like building, to see N recalling his Zekrom as Alder recalled a fainted Volcarona.
N: "It's over! I win, you lose, na na na na naaa na!"
Alder: "How could this happen...?"
"Aww, what?!"
N: "And now that I've beaten you, uh..."
"Hmm?"
N: "...I don't know what's next. To tell the truth we never thought we'd get this far."
Alder: "Ah."
Cheren rushed in.
Cheren: "Hey, I know! Now that you're the strongest trainer you intend to command all trainers in the world to release their Pokemon, right?"
N: "Say, that's a great idea! Hey, wait a second! You have the Light Stone!"
"Yes, I do!"
N: "Ooh, this could be fun! But this isn't a good place for it. Team Plasmoron Super Castle of Fun! Rise!"
The ground began to shake as a massive castle rose up around the League, a large walkway ramming into the champion's chambers and squishing N.
N: "....Ow."
Alder lifted it off of him, and he scampered onto it.
N: "You must follow me into the castle, Anthony. There we will settle this once and for all!"
Cheren stood behind to assist Alder, and I ran up the stairs into the imposing castle.
As soon as I entered, the six sages stood before me, readying their Pokemon.
Giallo: "Those in accord with Fate are golden, and those who rebel against Fate perish."
Bronius: "Orange you aware that when the Way is forgotten, duty and justice appear?"
Ryoku: "One can lose the beautiful green forest for the green-leaved trees."
Gorm: "If you make a mistake and do not correct it, that is a second mistake, and you'll feel very blue about it for a long time."
Rood: "Superior men understand what is right. Inferior men understand what brings their profit out of the red. And why didn't I get any speaking lines until now?! It makes my face red with anger!"
Zinzolin: "There are not two ultra-violet-ray-casting suns in the sky, nor two sovereigns over the people."
They all marched forward toward me.
Giallo: "Well... We can't let you proceed any further. This is a golden opportunity for Lord N and Ghetsis! N may wish to face you, but the six of us will defeat you here!"
The ground suddenly shook, offsetting everyone and causing Zinzolin to fall over.
???: "Can ya manage that?"
The ground shook again, then again, as suddenly Clay burst in through the doorway, the explosion of marble and stone sending everyone back.
Clay: "Still standin', are ya, Anthony?"
"No..."
I pulled myself up off the ground as Clay walked forward toward Giallo.
Giallo: "What the-?! How did this thing get in!?"
Clay: "Oh, this'll be fun! There's more than just me!"
He lifted up one of his rolls of fat, and several other leaders spilled out.
Lenora: "THE GYM LEADERS PLASMORON OUTNUMBER IT."
Elesa: "LOL. L1K3 W3 WUR JU57 60NN4 517 4R0UND 4ND L37 PL45N00B5 D0 WH47 7H3Y W4N7"
Burgh: "I may still be injured, but my Pokemon are fine! Bianca called us all in!"
Brycen.exe: > KZZZZZT. PLEASE REBOOT brycen.exe. 01000100 01101111 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110011 01110011 00100000 01000111 01101111. A FATAL ERROR HAS OCCURED.
Skyla: "Hey, is someone gonna fix him? Anyway, this is gonna be fun!"
Iris: "Who needs Pokemon when I can just claw them apart on my own?"
Drayden: "Mmmmmmph!"
They all released their Pokemon, save for Iris who pounced onto Zinzolin and began trying to twist his neck and arms around. I ran past them, leaving them to fight.
Drayden: "Mmmmph mmm mmph mmmmph!"
Rood: "I've been waiting in the abyss for this day, bearded man! This is a red letter day for all of us!"
Brycen.exe: > FATAL EXCEPTION IN LINE 241. A VIRUS HAS BEEN DETECTED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAVE YOUR WORK AND QUIT?
Ryoku: "We can only do our best here. I must say, I'm green with envy at how strong your Pokemon are."
Elesa: "W0W WH47 4 5U(K-UP. B3773R 7H4N 7H3 FL4M3RZ 7HO."
Clay: "Let's clean up here. You tasty little morsels aren't stopping anyone!"
Giallo: "You're not going to literally eat us, are you? I mean, that's just a stupid joke, right? Haha, how funny. That was yellow laughter by the wa-"
Clay's Excadrill finished with his Pokemon and shoved him onto the ground.
Bronius: "Someone bring me my brown pants!"
Lenora: "CONGLATURATIONS. VICTORYS WITHIN REACH."
Burgh: "Uh, right! You guys are going to lose!"
Gorm: "Say that until you're blue in the face, it doesn't make a difference!"
Skyla: "Ooh, I want a blue face!"
Iris: "Say uncle!!"
Zinzolin: "Somebody get this brat off of me already?! I can't even see where I'm stumbling through her purple hair!"
I got to the other end of the hall, and proceeded up the stairs to the second floor. Several Plasmorons were celebrating the rise of the castle and the defeat of Alder in a dining hall. I walked past, but was intercepted by the Shadow Triad.
Shadow Triad #1: "......Come."
"I can walk by myself, thank you."
Shadow Triad #1: "We just wanted to help and have some significance in this story!!"
Shadow Triad #2: "But fiiine, let's see big bad Anthony find her way on her own!"
They left. I entered a room, where Anthena and Concordia, two important Plasmoron figures, were. Anthena healed my Pokemon and Concordia exposited on N, but none of that was really important aside from the healing. I also noticed that while half the grunts in the castle were reveling in success, the other half seemed bittersweet, as if they had grown close to their own Pokemon.
On the fourth floor, I entered a somewhat bizarre room filled with toys.
"Is this..."
Most of the toys seemed recently played with. The basketball hoop on the left was destroyed, showing signs of electrical damage. It appears N had played basketball with Zekrom before I got here.
I exited and headed up to the fifth and final floor. Right as I proceeded toward N's chosen arena, Dennis walked out.
Dennis: "So, the Moop makes it all the way here."
"Let me through."
Dennis: "Of course, of course. In this room lies the strongest trainer in the world. You will fight him and lose, and then Team Plasmoron shall create a world of my imagining! Where we will be the only ones to use Pokemon!"
"Move, Dennis."
He twitched somewhat at this, before smirking and letting me through.
Dennis: "Go on in and die now."
I stepped into the chamber. It consisted of a white marble pathway with a reflecting pool surrounding it. Up ahead, N sat on a throne.
N: "What I desire is a world for Pokemon and Pokemon and Pokemon and Pokemon alone. But you know all this already."
We both stepped forward.
N: "So Reshiram is still stuck in its imprisoned state. I guess you aren't a hero. Whelp, nothing says I can't still use Zekrom. I even gave it a nickname!"
"Oh, dear..."
N: "Come forth, Zappy!"
Zekrom's roar shook the room, and it broke in through the wall, discharging mass amounts of electricty and evaporating the reflecting pool.
N: "Well, let's-"
The Light Stone began to shake. I set it in front of us, and it began to glow from Zekrom's aura. Reshiram emerged from the stone, growing to match Zekrom's size and giving off enough heat to evaporate any water that hadn't already been claimed by Zekrom.
N: "Ooh! You should catch it and use it against me!"
"Sorry, no. I'll catch it, but I'm using my own team here."
N: "Fine, be that way."
Reshiram roared at me before scratching at an odd bite mark on its shoulder.
Legendary Pokemon battle!
Anthony vs. Reshiram
Mamoswine was immediately destroyed by Fusion Flare, and Omastar emerged to weaken Reshiram with Ancientpowers. Reshiram took it down with Dragonbreath, however, leaving me to switch in Honchkrow. Honchkrow incapacitated Reshiram with Thunder Wave, and then I began to throw Ultra Balls to try and catch it. I succeeded.
"That was pretty easy."
N: "Yeah, Zappy here wasn't very hard to catch either."
"So what was the point of that if I don't intend to use Reshiram?"
N: "...I don't know! Anyway, let me heal your Pokemon first. Then we fight!"
Final battle!
Anthony vs. N
N: "Trash 'em, Zappy!"
"Go, Mamoswine!"
Secure in immunizing myself to Zekrom's Fusion Bolt, I watched as it set up Light Screen while I just used Earthquake, taking off a huge amount of Zekrom's health. Zekrom then used Giga Impact, dealing heavy damage, but not enough. Zekrom fell to a second Earthquake.
N: "Huh. Zappy. Anyway, go, Blacky- I mean, Gigigigigigear!"
He sent out a Klinklang, which churned monotonously. Unexpectedly, it used Night Slash on Typhlosion.
Typhlosion: "That Klinklang's a spy!"
"Wait, since when can you speak?!"
Typhlosion simply grunted as it ususally did, instead of speaking. I then commanded it to use Brick Break on the exposed Zoroark, which also shattered the Light Screen Zekrom had set up. Typhlosion was defeated by Focus Blast, but Lucario entered attempted to defeat Zoroark with Force Palm. Sadly, N healed Zoroark and it defeated Lucario. Mamoswine re-entered the fray and stopped Zoroark cold with Ice Shard.
N: "Aww... Well, go, Mr. Turtle!"
I switched to Exeggutor, who took Carracosta down to near-death with one Leaf Storm. I then finished it off with Psyshock.
N: "Hmm... You're fighting quite well... I guess I'll have to use... Frosty!"
He sent out a Vanilluxe, and I kept Exeggutor out so that I could heal up Typhlosion. Vanilluxe defeated Exeggutor, and I switched out to Typhlosion. I spent some time healing up Lucario, while Vanilluxe dealt light damage to my Pokemon. Once I felt satisfied, I incinerated it with Lava Plume. At this, Typhlosion suddenly became able to learn Flamethrower. I replaced Lava Plume.
N: "Get him, Pretty Bird!"
A vicious and not-very-pretty Archeops emerged from the next Pokeball. It faced off against fellow fossil, Omastar. Omastar dodged the Archeops's Stone Edge, and took it out in one shot with Surf.
N: "Huh. Then I guess it's time for the real Gigigigigigear!"
I shifted to Lucario, who stared down the amalgamation of gears before it.
N: "This is it then!"
Lucario scored a crit with Force Palm.
N: "Hey, that's hax!"
"Calm down, it's still fighting."
Sure enough, Klinklang remained stable, and used another Thunderbolt as Lucario finished it off.
N: "So that's it... Everything's ruined..."
"Yep."
N: ".........Zappy and I were beaten."
"...Yep."
N: "I guess it isn't so bad if trainers can keep Pokemon... I guess we can both pursue what we believe in, no? Sorry for that."
"So then you'll dissolve Team Plasmoron, or at least kick out the jerks and reform it into protecting Pokemon, not just taking them from trainers?"
N: "Of course. As long as capable trainers such as yourself and Alder set the example of what a trainer should be, I see no reason why we need to separate. You win!"
Narrator: "And so, it was a happy ending. N and Anthony agreed to pursue their own ideals, now that N saw the truth that they weren't mutually exclusive. And everybody else was happy and the world carried on peacefully."
???: "NOT. SO. FAST!"
Me, N, and the Narrator: "Gasp!"
Dennis stormed into the room, fury and madness evident on his face.
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