83Last chapter was gonna be longer, but I was lazy. Heh heh... anyways shout out to LightningBlade49 for being the first review of the story. Although... I may have cheated and asked him to review... but you didn't see anything! For more info read AN at bottom.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Pokemon belongs to their respective owners.
Chapter 2
As the surrounding grunts stood waiting for Mars' command, Cynthia skillfully swung her daggers around her hands extremely fast, to the grunts it looked like a blur, before she grabbed the hilts as she swung herself into her combat stance. She was fully intent on killing every last one of them. The grunts didn't seem to be too affected, but Mars wasn't going to take any chances.
"Kill her!" she commanded firmly, and the grunts leaped into action. One holding a large mace charged her from behind, thinking he might catch her off guard. It failed, however, and she spun around him as he charged past her, and proceeded to run into another grunt, who instinctively flinched and brought up his axe in defense. The charging man couldn't control his momentum and he run face-first into the raised axe, cleaving his head in two and causing the man holding the axe to yell out a childish scream.
Cynthia released a small knife she had pulled out as she had dodged the man's attack and proceeded to throw it accurately in the chest of a grunt who was aiming a crossbow at her. She quickly dispatched two more grunts with swift, precise knife movements and spun around to meet the attack of another grunt. She pulled his body as he ran by, a small move but effective as it unbalanced him and turned her towards her remaining enemies, even as she hit him with the other hand in a backwards motion, her knife going through his chest from her reverse grip.
'They're going to get more aggressive now.' Cynthia thought as she looked over the three remaining enemies. 'They started out with eight, now there are three. They see the danger they're in. The longer this goes on, the more of them fall, the more I gain the advantage. They'll want to capitalize while they still have the numbers.' Cynthia kept her face expressionless through her analysis. She saw one of them pointing a loaded crossbow toward her and spurred into action. She quickly threw another small knife at the grunt and hit him right between the eyes, causing blood to gush out of the wound rapidly as his body went limp towards the ground. 'Two to go.' Cynthia noted in her own head, intent on finishing this quickly. They weren't the only ones who felt like there situation worsened the longer this took, although perhaps her feeling was more focused on the immediate future rather than in the moment.
Dashing between the two, she slammed the one on her right with an unarmed fist from her left hand, spinning and kicking the other one in the gut. She felt the impact reverberate satisfyingly throughout her whole body, and turned back to the other one and slammed the same fist into his temple, causing him to stumble to the side, stunned. She turned back to the other one only to have to immediately dodge his unarmed fist. She hadn't timed that correctly in her head. Her right hand still holding onto a knife, she quickly parries his next attack, pushing him back to unbalance him before striking his throat with a quick slash, so fast her arms looked like blurs of darkness under the black of her coat/dress. She turned back around to the last grunt, and Mars who was subsequently behind him.
She was directly behind the man that had rushed her earlier, who was still on his feet but dazed and unfocused as he tried to regain his bearings. She was about to finish him off by putting a knife through the back of his throat, but stopped when she saw Mars' facial expression. The redheaded commander looked dumbstruck, with her eyebrows raised and her mouth open in surprise. Cynthia couldn't help but recall the first lesson her mentor had taught her when she was younger.
"Always try and unnerve your opponent. Then they will end up making a mistake for you, and that is when you strike." her former mentor would say. Cynthia then noticed the position the dazed man in front of her was in, and couldn't help but think of the opportunity in front of her, ironic as it was.
'Well,' the Champion thought, 'I might as well. I have remained expressionless this entire time, maybe I can finish Mars before we even start fighting. The quicker she flees, the quicker she leads me back to Cyrus.' Cynthia jammed her foot into the back of the dazed grunt's knee, right below a pressure point. He gasped and fell forwards but managed to catch himself with his hands before landing face-first in the dirt. He slowly pushed himself back on his knees. The Sinnoh Champion stood directly behind him, and put one hand on his lower right chin, and put the other on the left side of his forehead. She made sure she was looking directly at Mars, who's eyes were wide open. 'Pause for effect...' Cynthia snapped his head sharply to the side. Too far to the side. Much too far.
Mars look became on of panic and shock as she witnessed the execution. Cynthia could see Mars going through calculations in her head, realizing that yes, she had just killed eight of them by herself and no, they hadn't hit her even once. She could nearly follow the other woman's thoughts just by seeing her facial expressions. Mars had apparently arrived at the conclusion that now might not be the best time to battle the Sinnoh Champion who stood in front of her, a face void of emotions, over the body of the grunt whose life she just ended.
'Yes. Now run away.' Cynthia urged, hoping she'd run back to Cyrus. 'The sooner this ends…' she blinked out of her thoughts, her eyes following Mars as she quickly turned and fled up the mountain towards the base it its peak. She had still kept an eye on Cynthia while she ran, clearly playing it safe. The last thing she wanted was to be blindsided. Cynthia let her go, keeping her eyes on her.
"Lucario." She contacted her faithful Pokemon, waiting until she got an affirmative before continuing. "Follow their commander. Follow her back to Cyrus, and if they aren't aware of your presence, kill Cyrus."she commanded. She knew it was more than longshot, but if there was even a slight chance she could end this before anyone else got hurt, she'd take it. "If you're discovered, retreat. Don't engage without me."
"Understood." Lucario responded, and only then did Cynthia take her eyes off Mars. Not noticing any enemies around her, she quickly surveyed the area for her allies. She was worried until she spotted them, and only then realized some of Team Galactic's troops were retreating towards the base towards the summit of the mountain. She spotted some of her Pokémon clearing the area of everything they could touch, retreating enemy grunts and Pokémon alike.
She was the farthest up the mountain of her makeshift strike force. She saw Barry and Lucas, who, while a bit south of her, had still been the closest. The seemed to be enjoying the Pokémon battles they were having, even if they know what's at stake. She spotted Brock, back to back with his Golem, swinging his machete at any attacking grunts. Cynthia could see focus and determination in his eyes, well, she assumed she did at least. She could never really tell if his eyes were open or closed. She pondered this as she made her way towards him, continuing to scan for the others. A little to his right were Ash and Dawn fighting off a greenish haired man's Pokémon.
"Saturn!" she realized with a snarl, and picked up her pace. She realized she wasn't needed as she saw Brock take off the head of a grunt with a swipe of his machete. 'Thank the Gods that Kanto has a law making it mandatory for Gym Leaders to take advanced combat lessons, and it's easy to see why when they had terrorist organizations like Team Rocket running around aiming for world domination.' She wished she didn't know as much about that situation as she did. She silently thanked Arceus that Team Rocket had no presence in Sinnoh (excluding those three idiots that ran around chasing Ash's Pikachu, but they really didn't count), Team Galactic was far more than bad enough.
The Sinnoh Champion was knocked out of her thoughts as a Pokémon was barrelled into her, knocking the wind out of her, and sending her rolling in the dust for about ten feet.
'That... really hurt.' she picked herself back up, noting that her trench coat/dress had a large tear in it on her shoulder. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there and underneath that a long (but luckily not too deep) cut was visible. She looked angrily to see what had hit her, and once she saw it a look of shock took over her face. 'I have to be more careful. Can't be taken out by something as tiny as Sneasel. I have a reputation to uphold, Steven would never let me live it down… not to mention… HIM.' she shook her head, quirking her lips upward and made her way over to where the Sneasel lay, which was still on the ground.
As she approached she sucked in a deep breath when she saw it was whimpering in pain, as it was impaled by a spear shaped rock that was thin but long, right through the chests. Cynthia sighed before a look of pity crossed her face, as all previous thoughts vanished. Nobody should have to suffer before they died. She knelt down and whispered soft and quiet words to the dark type as she slowly pulled out her knife and ended its misery. As she did so the sharp claw Pokémon let out a long, painful, final whimper which caused Cynthia to grit her teeth. She felt like a knife had just gone through her heart, seeing an innocent creature die. Pokemon were friends and treasured comrades, yet too often were used as this one had been, as a mere tool for their trainer's evil purposes. One more life Cyrus would have to answer for when she finally reached him. She stood up and decided to make her way back to the others.
Ash had always like battling, training, and all other things required to reach the top of the pyramid that was being a Pokémon Master. It was essentially his life, he never had felt better than he did when he was facing off against a strong opponent. This, however, was a much different experience. When Cynthia had explained the dire situation to them, Ash, of course, had leapt to agree to whatever she had to offer. It wasn't every day that the Sinnoh Champion calls for assistance of a 19-year-old and his friends. What had followed was a discussion about death and not to get caught up in the moment should he end up taking a life. He, however, wasn't as much of an idiot as he came across as. He had seen death before, hell, he technically had died right in front of his best friend on Mewtwo's Island all those years ago. He had played along, but it turns out that his world was much more violent than everyone when they were ten. People live and people die. He had learnt early on in his journey that he couldn't be the naive boy that the world thought him to be. He overhead Professor Oak telling his mom that Pallet Town had once been reduced to rubble by Team Rocket, which killed his two children and granddaughter.
Ash had taken awhile to recover from that shock, but with the help of his friends, he had managed to had managed to do so.
'Brock... Pikachu, my oldest friend... and of course, Dawn...' he smiled. His thoughts always seemed to turn towards the bluenette.
"Ash, focus!" She called out to him, somewhat playfully yet with a hint of urgency. Ash blinked out of his thoughts as he looked up at the enormous Ursaring he and Dawn were planning on taking down. He looked to his right to hear Dawn command Piplup to use whirlpool in a firm yet light voice. Piplup did so and launched the giant maelstrom at the Ursaring, effectively trapping it in the vortex. 'Now, it's our turn.' with a short nod towards his partner on his shoulder. He put his arm back and Pikachu jumped into it, he then threw Pikachu towards the titanic bear trapped in the whirlpool.
"Now use Thunderbolt, and give it your all!" said Ash as Pikachu was now high in the air.
"Pika...CHUUUUUUU!" exhaled the small rodent as he released an enormous bolt of lightning that went straight towards the Ursaring, which was still coated in Piplup's Whirlpool attack. The bear roared in pain as the vortex surrounding it supercharged with Pikachu's super effective Thunderbolt. After ten seconds of fighting the inevitable, the bear fell forward, completely unconscious or lifeless.
Ash and Dawn exchanged a high five, but Ash saw that the smile on Dawn's face was forced. He didn't mention it because he completely understood why. 'I don't like hurting Pokemon either.' He then realized that he hadn't released his hand from Dawn's. 'That's awkward.' he thought as he hastily did that. Smiling, he turned back to the battlefield and saw with relief that it was mostly empty as all the Galactic troops had retreated, were retreating, or were dead.
He spent a few minutes with Brock backtracking to find an area that was reasonably hidden from the mountaintop for them to make camp. It had been a long day. After securing a suitable site with Lucas, Ash turned and saw Cynthia walking up to where they were with a troubled look on her face, as if she were in deep thought about a bad decision. Ash let out a deep sigh and sat down, allowing the adrenaline fueling him to wear off.
Cynthia had seen the scene and couldn't help but smile as she saw Dawn and Ash high five, which ended up in Dawn blushing before Ash removed his hand. 'Ah young love. I remember feeling that when I was their age.' Truthfully the blonde woman was less than a decade older than them, but she felt far older than 28. She'd been fighting her whole life, from one conflict to another, and she couldn't help but take every moment she could to appreciate the calm that came before the storm.
Looking at the two of them, the Sinnoh Champion really wanted to root for them to work out, and a pang of guilt speared through her as she realized that neither would likely survive the inevitable fight with Cyrus. Luckily the realization that she had arrived at where Brock and Lucas had set up camp shook her from her thoughts.
Her Pokémon returned soon after, tired and weary, but in good condition overall. Cynthia apologized for not fighting beside them, and after a brief conversation with Lucario about where Mars had run off to, she returned all of them to their Poke Balls. All, that is, except for Garchomp, who didn't seem to be the least bit tired, in face it seemed as though she were still feeling the adrenaline.
'I wouldn't have let Garchomp loose on her own if it weren't for the dire circumstance U find us in.' The pseudo-legendary had come back covered with blood and looked eager for more fights. Cynthia knew that almost all that blood wasn't Garchomp' was examining an inpatient looking Garchomp for injuries, until Cynthia said she would do it.
'I probably should've warned them to stay away from Garchomp after big battles.' As if it could read her mind, Garchomp turned towards her trainer and let loose a sky-shattering roar., before trying to lick itself clean of blood. Everyone but Cynthia jumped in surprise, and Barry tripped over... probably his own foot. That kid was always moving.
"Cynthia, c-can you please return her to her poke ball... that thing is a complete monster!" said Lucas. The 'monster' then turned towards Lucas, stood up to its full height, and slowly tilted its head to the side. 'Oh congratulations, now you've done it Lucas.' Cynthia looked at the very pissed off Garchomp and the soon to be dead trainer who insulted it.
"Enough! Garchomp!" Cynthia demanded in a very serious and firm voice. Garchomp marched over towards her and looked down at the Sinnoh Champion. Cynthia just stared directly up into her eyes. The tension around the camp was so dense one could be mistaken for thinking they could feel it in the air. Cynthia could feel everyone's eyes on her.
'They're thinking 'Is the Sinnoh Champion's own Pokémon ACTUALLY going to attack her?!' Then Cynthia just smirked, her eyes never leaving Garchomp's. She held a hand out and patted Garchomp on the nose, before scratching her underneath her chin. Garchomp just nuzzled against her and flopped on her side, and now looked as cute as an innocent puppy. An 8 feet tall dragon puppy covered in blood, but to Cynthia, it was all the same. Cynthia smiled, sat down, and started stroking Garchomp's shoulders, causing the land-shark-dinosaur-dragon-thing to make a weird noise that everyone had to assume was an attempt at a purr... or as close as she could physically manage as Cynthia gave her soft coos over how adorable and precious she was.
Cynthia herself didn't understand the problem. Garchomp WAS adorable, and quite harmless really. The others who were looking at her were crazy. The others broke into their own conversations. About an hour later she noticed Dawn, Ash, and May were in a circle laughing and joking- wait May?
'Oh, that's right. Ash said he was calling someone else for help, I guess this is what he meant.'
Barry was babbling about ice cream flavors to Lucas, and although Cynthia had an urge to join the conversation, she restrained herself. She returned a snoring Garchomp to its Poke Ball and decided to lay down by the fire, exhausted from all the activity. She pulled her sleeping bag close to the war campfire, and soon she was just staring into the fire. Everything became background noise, and shortly it was just her and that warm, blurry, warm, fire. Eventually sleep reached out to her, and Cynthia embraced it with open arms.
AN/: So that's all for chapter two. Be sure to check out LightningBlade49's story "Ash's Unleashing", it's a 'what if?' scenario where Ash decides to play it smart and safe when he battles Tobias. It's really good so far. Anyway thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review if you enjoyed.
3/11/2021- Yikes. So, here I am almost six years later. Somehow, I went into this edit thinking my writing improved as I had written onward. Yet, when I was reading this and editing I noticed that it was actually worse than Chapter 1, and no amount of editing could make it better. I hope it gets better from here, and I'll continue to update.