29Here it is: the final chapter, of this story. There will be others, I swear of it, and after all six individual stories are finished, there will be one to wrap it all up. Enjoy, as I hope you've all enjoyed already.
The three of them arrive at the Eclo Canyon, not long after they leave the abandoned lab. They reach the edge of it, stopping before continuing. Dawn gets out of the side car with Meowth in her arm and looks over the side of the canyon. All she sees is a long descent. She sighs before looking back at Paul who just waits; his unemotional look still on his face. Dawn scowls at this before setting Meowth down. She walks over to Paul and clutches his arm. He notices this, but only twitches, letting her hold on. Meowth makes a gagging motion as he leans over the canyon. He suddenly, silently, falls onto the canyon. He skids down the sides a good half minute before colliding with the ground, hard, knocking him out.
Paul turns his gaze so that it's facing the mountain.
"Oh Paul," Dawn manages to say.
Paul's eyes suddenly squint to focus, and notices a yellow object careening down the side of the mountain towards the canyon. He would normally go over to look, but with Dawn at his side, he doesn't move a muscle.
Eventually, Dawn lets go and pecks his cheek, causing a bid of red to form on them. Dawn's smile turns upside down when she follows Paul's gaze to the mountain.
"Should we help them?" Dawn asks.
Paul doesn't reply, he just stands there, stuck in thought. Should he help them, and waste time? Or let them go and continue on?
With a sigh, Paul hops into the motorcycle.
"Let's go, they'll be okay. If Meowth can survive, so can they," he says.
Dawn raises her right eyebrow at him before she looks back to see Meowth gone. Her eyes get a bit bigger, but she shrugs and hops into the sidecar.
"Hold on tight Dawn," Paul says.
He starts the cycle back up and drives over the side. Immediately after landing on the wall, it begins skidding down. With every other drag, it makes the cycle jump every other yard. With this rhythm, the cycle reaches the bottom in no time. Paul hits the breaks and turns the cycle, dragging rock, sand, and dust with him as he makes a sudden stop. He happens to land so that he's right in front of a knocked out Meowth.
"Found him," Dawn says.
Paul shrugs before reversing the cycle and driving farther into it.
"Hey Paul, do you know where we're going exactly?" Dawn asks.
"No, but I know where Mundo should be," Paul says.
Dawn raises an eyebrow, it obviously lost on the non-focusing Paul.
"How do you know?" she asks.
"Call it intuition, call it luck, call it brains, but there's one place in this entire world that nobody's ever checked: Snagem Hideout."
"Who?" she asks.
Paul's drive continues fast. He doesn't even begin to think about stopping, he just continues driving down to where he believes resides what he believes is Mundo's whereabouts.
"I once saw a news report. Apparently, some rogue trainer decided to turn good, so he betrayed his evil team, and blew up their base; that team was Team Snagem."
He quickly turns to avoid a rock and does a few sharp curves around the winding canyon before soon reaching a wider one, but more of a rock tower filled space. Paul's face is focused on the road ahead, as most drivers should be.
"Now, after looking through the past, through all the memories, through all of Celbi's visions, I've realized that Mundo is no man to mess with, he's somebody who plays his cards right, and tries to play on both sides, hoping to rise up as the sole survivor in the end."
Paul avoids a few towers before reaching another thin path. Dawn hasn't replied at all, but is listening closely to Paul. She's hearing well over the loud hum of the cycle's engine.
"He wouldn't stay out in the open for too long, and after I noticed him in the Seaking Hotel, he fled. Where, I didn't know, until I thought somebody like him would go somewhere secluded, somewhere..."
Dawn finishes his sentence for him. "…abandoned."
Paul looks over to her and nods. He looks back at the road ahead and soon reaches another large open space. Only in this one, Paul begins to slow down. Eventually, they reach a dead end where large rocks cover up what is visibly a hole. Soon, they reach a complete stop. Neither of them move, they just sit there and stare at what they hope is the correct place. With a sigh, Paul gets out of the cycle. He walks over and offers a hand, helping Dawn out. With a bit of a schoolgirl giggle, she accepts. He helps her out, and clutches her hand tight. He suddenly pushes her back into the sidecar, diving on her and covering his head. A swift of wind suddenly goes over Paul's head, narrowly missing his hand over his hair. Paul looks back and sees a long wire come back to a gun. On the end of the wire is a spike that could easily have killed Paul.
The wielder of the gun is…
J.
"J, what are you doing?" Dawn asks after Paul helps her back up.
All she does is snap her fingers, and Mossman rushes up next to her, holding up one of her holding jars. It's revealed that Meowth is encased in gold.
"Why?" Dawn asks.
Once again, J doesn't reply. She just puts her spike gun away and gets out another gun. She lowers the gold encasing on Meowth to reveal his head. J then puts the gun to the head of Meowth.
"Stop this!" Paul shouts.
J then looks over at Mossman. He nods and she moves her arm to allow Mossman to click on a button on her wristband. She raises it to her mouth and begins speaking.
"Crew, prepare to fire missiles. Do not fire until my or Mossman's command. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" a voice on the other side shouts.
J then uses her knee to unlatch the collar.
"Missiles?" Dawn screams.
"So Mundo is in there!" Paul shouts.
The unnerving hunter throws her collar far away before cocking the gun.
"Yes, Mundo is residing in the Snagem Hideout. But he will not make it out," she speaks to them.
"But missiles? What will that prove?" Dawn asks.
Hunter scoffs at them before looking over at Mossman. He then uses his left hand to sock Meowth's exposed face. His eyes open, waking him up in the process.
"Uh?" he asks.
He then looks left, then forward at Paul and Dawn, then right at the barrel of the gun. This causes him to shriek before J jams the gun farther into his head.
"Meowth, tell your 'twerps' here that unless they promise to not interfere, you will be shot and killed," J says.
With a sigh, Meowth accepts, looking over at the two.
"Listen, twerpette and emo kid, promise not to interfere or I will be shot and-WHAT! How is that a fair deal?" Meowth asks, screaming at the top of his cat lungs.
J jams the gun farther into his skull, placing his head at an awkward angle.
"Promise!" she shouts as well.
She refuses to take her eyes off of Dawn and Paul, and looking closely, her mouth, while straight, shows a tinge of quiver.
"Do not interfere!" her voice screams, echoing in the now silent canyon.
A tear forms on her right eye, but she doesn't move her face, or the gun.
"Sir…" Mossman says.
J then begins to cry, and, her arms trembling, she drops the gun, falling to her knees. Mossman drops Meowth to the ground, breaking the jar, setting him free. Mossman holds J in his arms, having her cry on his shoulders. Meowth gets up off the ground and wipes the dust off his face. Dawn looks over at Paul, who just takes her hand and holds it tight. Dawn holds it just as tight as him.
Mossman takes his crying boss's head set off, tossing it to the side. He then grabs the wristband she had taken off and presses a button.
"Call off the attack. I repeat, call off the attack," he commands.
"But sir-!"
"Is that understood?" he shouts.
There's a pause on the other end, but they reply.
"Yes sir."
Paul's shoulders fall a bit. Dawn obviously feels him and drags herself over, falling into him. He wraps his left arm around her, keeping her close. Mossman throws the collar to where he threw J's headset and looks up at the two.
"You two go on ahead. There should be a secret entrance on the top of the rocks that'll lead you inside. I would hurry, he has three of your friends," he says.
Dawn and Paul nod simultaneously. Up in the sky, a twinkle forms, almost like a star. Soon, three familiar bodies start falling. Meowth looks up and notices them.
"Hey, it's Jessie, and James, and Wobbuffet, and-" his expression suddenly turns opposite.
He starts to step away, but it doesn't work, as the three of them come colliding with Meowth. After the dust settles, they look up, shake their heads, and start a hug-fest, saying how they should never leave each other again, normal reunion stuff. Dawn smiles at this, but Paul sighs and turns around with Dawn. He begins to walk to the entrance until a voice stops him.
"Paul!" it says.
His eyes widen before he turns around to see Drew, bruised and beat up, over the shoulder of Paul.
"Drew?" he asks.
"Long time no see," Drew says.
Paul just looks at Drew with a mix of feelings: his usual unemotion, a tinge of missing him, a bit of anger, and a teensy tiny spot of guilt. He then starts walking over to Drew. When they meet face to face, they don't do anything. Drew gets off of May's shoulder.
"You two know each other?" May asks.
Neither of them answers, but Dawn looks at them with a raised eyebrow, curiosity taking over.
Drew holds out his arms for a hug. For a second, Paul looks like he's going to hug back, but he suddenly sucker punches Drew in the jaw. He hits the ground hard. May rushes to him, helping him to his feet.
"That was for LaRousse City!" he shouts.
With a smirk on his face, May gets Drew up. Drew lets May go and holds out his arms again. Paul then accepts it, giving them a man hug.
Dawn and May simply stare at their men, and sigh, giving up on trying to figure it out.
Finally, the last quotient makes his, or her, way down. Misty is seen rolling down the canyon wall. When she arrives, she lands on her butt, in pain. She stretches a bit before waving to the group.
"Hey," she says.
After everybody gets all cuddly wuddly with everybody else, and they're all reunited, they make their way inside the Snagem Hideout. J and Mossman stay outside, J still in her depressed mode. They found the secret entrance Mossman was talking about when they fell through a hole in the rocks. When they arrived, they had found themselves, all eight (Wobbuffet's now in his ball), in a darkened hallway, the only light being from outside. They all stood up, looking around.
"You know, a light might do this place good," Jessie states.
Just then, the entire hallway, the entire place, lights up.
"How ironic," May says.
Paul squints his eyes to May's comment.
"I'm thinking, more like planned," he says.
They make their way down the hall, Paul and Dawn leading. When they reach the end, they find a locked door.
"It's locked," Drew says.
"Whoops, guess we have to go back," James says.
"Oh darn," Meowth says right after.
Jessie grabs both of the back of their collars, restraining them from leaving.
"Oh no you don't, we're into this until the bitter end now," she says.
Just then, the locked door begins to unlock itself. Soon, the process is finished, and the door rolls open. None of them move, they just stand there.
"Oh yeah, definitely planned," Paul says.
The group of eight makes their way into what is a giant room. In front of them, is a giant machine. Looking to the left and right, they see cages. In them, are Ash, Brock, and…Misty.
"Ash!" May shouts.
"Brock!" Dawn shouts.
"Twerps!" Team Rocket shouts.
"Guys!" Ash and Brock shout.
Drew and Paul look over at Misty, who's lying in the cage, to Misty, who's residing with the group.
"Misty?" Drew asks.
With a growl, Misty in the cage stares at the Misty outside.
"That lying little blob!" she screams.
The group all "uh?" in unison, and are met with a quick answer when Misty outside gives off an evil smirk. She then turns bright white before moving, almost gelatinously over onto the machine. When the white arrives, it disappears into a Ditto, and it's sitting next to the legs of Mundo Kindo.
"And the gang is all here," he says.
He chuckles to the crowd a bit, his smirk not vanishing.
"Mundo!"
The entire good guy group says that simultaneously.
"Yes, me, or am I really Mundo?"
"No, you're not," Dawn says.
Paul takes his hand and folds it into Dawn's. They grab each other's hands tight, neither letting go.
"You're a fake," Ash says.
"A liar," Brock adds in.
"A phony," Misty also adds in.
Through all of this, the skull mask covering his eyes and nose seems insignificant. Only the mouth can tell the story. Another evil smirk forms, but wrinkles also become clear. Paul notices this, and can't help but think.
Ditto.
Cyrus.
"…to the galaxy…"
J.
Diana.
Celebi…
"You're not Mundo Kindo…" Paul says.
Mundo puts his hands to his ear, motioning his other hand towards him, telling Paul to bring it on.
"You're not Mundo Kindo…"
"Because you're Vicious."
Mundo then clutches his skull mask in his hand and tosses it to the side. It reveals a Caucasian man, with little wrinkles on his face due to the time period from his first time coming here. Unlike the last time, he has no goatee to show he's evil, adding more to his charade. As his top hat covering his air hits the ground with the skull mask, a black set of hair falls over face, never cut over the period of time he's lived in this time period. The muscles he once had have now disappeared to very little, but enough to catch somebody's eyes. The head of this man is unmistakable, despite the fact that the rest of his body is covered in an expensive suiting, adding more fauve.
This man is indeed Vicious.
"Yes…and remember the old saying?"
His voice has reverted back to his old one, resulting in even more lies.
"Revenge is such sweet sorrow."
A twist? A cliffhanger? A riot? Oh yeah, most definitely. As for the line in the middle, it was suppose to be for suspense.
Well that's it for this one. Like I said, there will be more shippings to follow, but until then, enjoy this one to start it off. And to think, it only took a year and a half. *sigh* After the other five shippings are completed, you will get a final story, telling you all how Vicious fails…or will he?
Find out. Also find out what happens with J and Mossman? Can you say, extra twists? I know I can.