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Hero's Path

Firebrand

Indomitable
No, this trip to Hoenn is nearly over. Cole will be traveling around the world for a while, though he may make one more trip to Hoenn, so I can squeeze in a little scene I want.
 

DarknessInZero

<- Es mío! MÍO!
This fic is great. A bit sadic, but great.
 

DarknessInZero

<- Es mío! MÍO!
That is a point.
 

Firebrand

Indomitable
Hero Rising

Kain looked at all the assembled leaders of the resistance. “Listen my friends, I have done as I said. I have been to their lines, I have counted each man. I’ll tell what I can.” He took a deep breath. “Better be warned, they have armies to spare, the danger is real. We will need all our cunning to bring them to heel.”

“Have faith,” John murmured. “If we know what their movements are we’ll spoil their game.”

The Firebrand nodded. “There are ways that a people can rise. We will overcome their power.” He absently stroked Athena’s head.

Sin noted that ever since Cole had returned, he had been very distant. He described his imprisonment in short, one sentence phrases, brusquely relaying that he had been chained in a cell in the basement of Jasper’s garrison, and an explosion in the fighting had freed him. He had met up with Athena and Scathatch, who had escaped initial capture, and retrieved the stolen pokemon. He dismissed any questions they had, saying the details were unimportant.

Kain chewed his lower lip. “I have overheard their plans. There will be no attack tonight. They intend to starve us out before they start a proper fight. Then concentrate their force… hit us from the… right…”

“Liar!” Garret, the small boy who had shared their barracks, sauntered over to the command table.

The Firebrand glared at him quizzically, and Lisana cocked her head to the side. Garret strode up to Kain and doffed an imaginary cap. “Good morning dear inspector, lovely morning, my dear.” He turned to the commanders. “My friends I know this man, his name’s Captain Kain. So don’t believe a word he says, ‘cause none of it’s true.” Then he turned back to Kain. “This only goes to show what little people can do.”

John and Marcus immediately grabbed Kain’s arms. “You little runt!” Kain roared. Any doubts as to what Garret had said were absolved. Kain tried to break free of the powerful hold, but to no avail. Garret’s Torchic and Zigzagoon glanced up from their position at their trainer’s heels.

Garret crossed his arms. “Never kick the dog because he’s just a pup.”

“I’ll show you!” Kain lashed out with his feet, and caught Garret in the chest. The boy fell back into Julia’s arms with an oof.

His Torchic puffed up its feathers and began chirping angrily at Kain. The man smirked and kicked it too. Zigzagoon ran to Garret’s side, but Torchic trembled with anger. “Tor, tor, torchiiiii!”

It glowed with a brilliant white light. Sin gasped. “It’s evolving! Oh, Kain, you’re screwed now!”

The light cleared after a final brilliant flash, and it revealed… nothing. Torchic was gone. Then, there was a flash of red and yellow as Combusken slammed it’s claws into Kain’s abdomen. Kain crumpled in John’s grasp. Combusken turned and haughtily stalked away. It knelt by Garret and helped him to his feet.

Marcus and John dragged Kain’s limp form up the palisade. “Hey Jasper!” John shouted, only half caring that the man probably couldn’t hear him. “Take your damn spy back!”

They threw Kain over the edge, and watched as his body fell, fell, fell to the scarred ground below. There was a crunch, and then all was still. The Firebrand surveyed the broken form. “Dead, probably. Severe trauma at least.”

Athena gazed up at him. “But… but…”

“He was a bad man, Athena. He got what he deserved.”

The Victini stared up at him. “You’re different now.”

The Firebrand nodded. “I have to be. To get these people through. I have to embrace what I have tried so hard to repress. I’m sorry, Athena. Come on, let’s go check up on the Rockets.”

He slid down the ladder and called Thor out. He leapt onto the Zebstrika bare-back. “Find James.” Thor nodded brusquely and cantered through the slightly open gates of the barricade.

They galloped through the trees for some time. The Firebrand cocked his head, sensing something amiss. It took a little thinking to realize just what it was.
The forest was silent.

Even when they had been laboring out here, there had been at least some noise of wild pokemon, or even a breeze through the branches. But now, there was nothing.

Absolute silence. It was as if the entire world was holding its breath.

They found Jessie, James and Meowth shoveling with a crew of the less-injured workers. “All right, this one’s done!” James called. “Let those fools come and we’ll have some fun!”

The Firebrand smiled, remembering the tearful reunion that morning when Meowth had been reunited with the two former Rocket agents. There had been hugging and crying enough to last for years. The feline glanced up as Thor approached. “Hey there, twerp.”

“I’m hardly a twerp anymore, Meowth. I’m not the naive little kid I was six years ago. Not to mention I tower over you now.”

“Ah, old habits die hard kid.”

The Firebrand smiled. “Don’t I know it. What are you doing here again?”

Jessie looked up. “Why, Firebrand! It’s our specialty! Pitfall traps!”

The young man chewed his lip. “I don’t know… What if one of our allies falls into them? Or if we’re trying to retreat and we all fall? Then we would have serious problems.”

Julia appeared out of the forest, riding sidesaddle on her Tauros, named Orrin. She brushed some of the bull’s mane in a manner quite unlike the hardened woman the Firebrand had come to know. “There won’t be any retreating this time,” she said softly. “This last battle will be a fight to the end. We have our pokemon back, so now we’re on the same ground as Magma and Aqua.”

The Firebrand nodded. “I see. So these pitfalls, they’re just a precaution, in case they attack first?”

“Yes.”

Julia motioned for him to follow her, so the Firebrand got on Thor’s back once again. They rode to the fringes of the forest, where Jasper was marshalling his troops.

“More arrived about an hour ago,” Julia reported. Orrin shook out his mane and pawed at the ground. His three tails whipped through the air angrily as he glared at the people who had separated him from his trainer.

“Some came by truck, and others flew in,” Julia continued. “It seems Jasper has overcome his arrogance to realize that he needed the help.”

The Firebrand nodded curtly. “Well, they may have the numbers advantage. But you fought them before and won. Now we have pokemon to aid us. I don’t think the circumstances have changed too much since last night.”

“Well, someone needs to report that to John. What do you think, Cole? Are we going to attack again soon?”

“I think so. Sundown is what I’ve heard.”

Julia turned Orrin around. “Well, we’d best get some rest then. I haven’t slept since the revolution began.”

On their way back to the Palisade, they met with Lisana and Kelrick, her Arcanine. She nodded to them, and reported that the pokemon of those who went away the night before to the fortified cave had arrived safely. They had set up a hospital for anyone who was severely injured, and some of the stronger pokemon were taking fighters there now. Winona was in charge of that.

The Firebrand led them back to the gates, and they slipped inside. The Palisade itself was built in the apex of a ravine, so that it was impossible to get around it. One would have to scale a sheer rock face to get level with the wall, or trek two miles around through dangerously open territory, where the rebels could pick off the opposition at their leisure. It was a well-fortified post, and the rebels could hold up here for a time, if only they didn’t have such a desperate need of food.

For too long they had been subsisting on a bare minimum of food given to them by the camp wardens. Now that they had escaped, it was only what they could scavenge. The wild pokemon had vanished from the forest, so they could not even hunt. John and Marcus had, after much consternation, ordered that all returned pokemon would have to fend for themselves if they needed food. There simply was not enough to go around.

Pokeballs had some measure of life-support, but it was no substitute for proper nutrition. Many pokemon had been kept locked up for some time, and they were starting to show the signs of malnourishment. The Firebrand had seen this in his own pokemon, and it pained him. But there was nothing he could do.

John and his Machoke met them as they entered. His Alakazam waited nearby, along with his Noctowl. He tied a letter to the leg of his Starly, and then threw it into the air. The little bird winged away to the northeast.

“A letter to Colette,” he said with a smile. “I worry about her, even though she has her Umbreon and Kirlia to protect her now.”

“A father’s compassion is nothing to be ashamed of,” Julia said.

The Firebrand cringed at the word ‘father’. But no one knew… he had no reason to feel shame. And he would never tell anyone.

“How is everyone holding up?” he asked John. “Are they sleeping in shifts like I ordered?”

“Yes, they needed the rest. Julia, Lisana, you should go now. Your duties are done, and I’ll need you at sundown.” He smiled as the two women left, then his expression grew weary. “Cole, I haven’t slept in… I don’t know how long. And even then, I haven’t slept for more than two hours straight since I arrived here at this blasted camp.”

“Get some sleep, John. You’ve earned it.”

“You’re one to talk!” the man growled affectionately. “You’ve worked harder than I have today, and you had to deal with worse hunger than us, locked up like you were.”

The Firebrand shook his head. “I still have… I’ve got… plenty of… energy… Get some… some sleep John. I’ll handle things… Sin… and I…”

Then, he pitched forward. Thor cried out in alarm, and Athena shrieked, “Cole!”

John and his Machoke caught him before he crashed into the ground. “Poor boy,” John murmured. “He’s run himself into the ground. Machoke, go let Sin know he’s in charge until Marcus reports back. You know the hand signal? Good. I’ll take our Firebrand here to the bunks.”

***

He woke some hours later with Athena jabbing his arm. “Come on! Come on! It’s almost sundown! John was up hours ago, and everybody’s looking to you for orders. Let’s go!”

The Firebrand nodded, and turned to Thor. The Zebstrika had slept beside his sleeping pad at the base of one of the cliffs, but the equine creature was now fully alert. The Firebrand swung up onto his back, foregoing a harness in case he and Thor got separated in the fighting. Such equipment would only hold the electric-type back.

As he rode, he called out his other pokemon. Charizard soared over his head, while Scathatch, Maeve and Masamune loped alongside. They reached the ladder on the Palisade, and James motioned for him to climb up.

In the dying light, the Firebrand saw the rebel prisoners marshaled outside the wall; their pokemon crouched at their sides, ready to attack. In the distance, the enemy host loomed like a malevolent shadow.

Marcus looked at John and then at the Firebrand. John smiled. “Well? Why don’t you do the honors? I got to last night.”

The Firebrand nodded curtly, and raised his right fist. “My brothers! My sisters! Hear me now! It’s a good day to die! Charge!”

Charizard swooped through the open gates, and the Firebrand jumped from the Palisade onto his back. The dragon roared and flew off to the coming battle, their army running just below.



The bit at the beginning, with Kain and Garret, is loosely based off of "Javert at the Barricade".


And just when it's starting to get really good, I think I'll be taking a week off to build up a buffer, stay on track with running, and deal with the start of school. Yup, I'm a black-hearted evil scoundrel.
 
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Firebrand

Indomitable
Revolution

Charizard flew over the chaos as the two lines met. Pokemon shouted out an echo to the human battle cries. The Firebrand shouted out orders that were only half-heeded. Below, Maeve and Masamune fought with physical attacks as Scathatch and Thor darted by.

Athena jumped into the air and summoned an electrical charge, sweeping through the enemy ranks with Fusion Bolt. Charizard ducked low so that she could return to the Firebrand’s shoulder. As they came in for the pass, Sin shouted, “Firebrand! Catch!”

He threw up a steel rod that tapered to a sharp point on the end. The Firebrand caught it and smiled. It was no Excalibur, but it would service well enough for a makeshift sword. He battered at a flock of Pelliper who came to intercept Charizard, and Winona on her Skarmory finished them off.

As Charizard came down low again, the Firebrand leapt from his back and slammed his ‘sword’ onto the collarbone of a Magma grunt. He rolled along the ground to recover, and fell in line with Sin and Lisana.

They fought in stoic silence for some time. Maeve fought side-by-side with Damin, the Gallade’s twin arm blades flashing in the dying light. Dusty the Typhlosion bathed Kelrick in intense fire, igniting the Arcanine’s Flash Fire ability. Thalia the Froslass drifted serenely through the crowds of people and pokemon, chilling them to the bone with icy blasts. Anjaru swooped through the skies above, protecting his mistress with talons, wings and beak.

John, his Machoke and his Alakazam charged past them, hurling their foes aside with telekinetic and physical force. His Noctowl swooped overhead, launching psychic pulses from its eyes.

The muscular older man bellowed a charge, and the rebels drove forward. The Firebrand ran a quick calculation in his head. “No. John, no!”

“What?!”

“John, they’re too strong! We shouldn’t have done this! We could have fought them from the barricade! We’ll all die if we continue to press!”

“We can do!” John roared back. “We just need to clear the gate!”

The Firebrand fought his way to John’s side. “And go where? Fortree is occupied! Lilycove is too! And what about Colette? And the others back at the cave? How will they get out?”

John’s shoulders dropped. His face seemed to age five years. “Firebrand… it’s pointless for me to keep this charade up any longer. I’m going to die here. Somehow, I know this. But I’m going to make as big a difference as I can before my time comes.”

“No!” the Firebrand shouted. “John, don’t talk like that!”

“It’s true, my friend. This is my final chapter.”

“We can re-write it! Come on John! We can get through this!”

“Did you not just tell me we would lose?”

Suddenly, the Firebrand didn’t feel heroic at all. He just wanted to fly far, far away from all of this. No more war, no more fighting, just him and Charizard and the open sky.
Cole wanted to run away from a fight, for the first time in his life.

A loud boom resounded through the early night air. Atop a hill not far away, a section of the fence exploded. A large cloud of dust rose up into the clouds, and it was drawing closer. A brilliant light shot from the front of the column, illuminating an old man in a long white robe. He carried an ash staff in his right hand, and he held it aloft like a beacon. He rode atop a majestic Rapidash whose mane glowed blue and gray. Next to him an Abra, the source of the Flash attack, glided through the air with telekinetic force.

“Magnus!” Cole cried. “You came!”

“Jasper!” Magnus roared in a voice that seemed to shake the earth itself. “Begone!”

“I’ll destroy you, you foolish old man!” the camp warden screamed back. “Charge!” A fraction of his army broke off and rushed at Magnus.

“Thou… shall… not… pass!”

As Magnus said the words, trainers erupted from the dust cloud. Seven led the charge against the Magma and Aqua ranks. They led their opposing forces into the fray, calling out pokemon as they did so. Cole began to laugh like a crazed man when he recognized the trainers.

Nick whirled amidst the fires conjured byFlayme, his Flareon, an Infernape and a Houndoom, twin lengths of iron flashing in his hands. His eyes seemed to glow gold as he flitted from foe to foe as though possessed by a demon.

Anna seemed to be controlling the water issued by her Vaporeon, Gyrados, Blastoise, Empoleon and Floatzel. Her Gyrados twined around her before lashing out, like a giant construct made entirely of water.

The very ground beneath Seithios’s feet seemed to tremble with every step he took, resonating with an internal power. His Garchomp and Rhyperior advanced steadily behind him, and a Gliscor wheeled above his head. He held a large hammer aloft and bellowed out a savage battle cry.

Nearby, Lexa seemed to glow with holy light. Her Ampharos, Pikachu and Electvire created salvo after salvo of brilliant electrical attacks, felling opponents left and right. The lightning seemed to arch from the stunning beauty’s fingertips as she directed her pokemon’s strikes.

Her twin brother Lucian fought side-by-side with his own dark types, the shiny Umbreon, a Mightyena, a Sableye and a Bisharp. A Honchkrow shrieked above his head. His blindness was no handicap here as his Mightyena and Umbreon directed his attacks by pressing their bodies against him. It was an elaborate system, but it was obviously a practiced and effective one.

Zephyr darted through the air on the backs of his avian pokemon, leaping from them and going into freefall only to be caught by another. Cole realized that his Staraptor, Pidgeot, Skarmory and Braviary were flying in a close formation around him, and alternating snagging him from the air. It was a risky tactic, but it put Zephyr at a definite advantage over his flying foes, because it gave him a great degree of unpredictability as he battered them with a lead pipe and his bare fists.

Kim stood directing the troops that Magnus had brought, about forty other trainers. She had a composite bow in her hands, standard issue from a sporting goods store, and had two quivers strapped to her back, and two more on her belt. She launched these shafts into the droves of her opponents, as her Lucario and Gardevior stood alongside, alternately protecting her and attacking enemies.

There was a colossal boom, and a great bellow from the forest. “Shiiiiiftreeeeee!”

It was answered by hundreds more calls.

“Nuuuuuzleeeeaf!”

“Trooooooo!”

“Pikaaaaaa! Piiiiii!”

“Raaaaiiii!”

“Swellow! Swell!”

“Teynaaaaaa!”

“Zangooooose!”

“Skarm!”

“Sal! Mence!”

“Roserade!”

The noise was deafening. The forest itself seemed to seethe with life and energy as the pokemon of the Safari Zone revealed themselves. An old Shiftry, whose fans were as broad as Cole’s waist, led them. Atop his head sat a purple ball of fur.

“Chifumi!” Sin cried.

Shiftry gestured, and a great swell of pokemon poured from the forest, screaming and howling at the interloping grunts. Tropius, Skarmory, Swellow and Salamence swarmed in the skies above. Packs of Nuzleaf led Roselia and Roserade, who struck with powerful Petal Dances and Leaf Storms. Pikachu and Raichu rode on the backs of Salamence, shooting down volleys of electricity. A Snorlax lumbered from the brush and fell onto a group of grunts that tried to flee, trapping them in its bulk.

There was another boom, this time from somewhere in the distance. It was followed by a muted roar. And then the screams started. A group of the wild pokemon had targeted the dam Jasper had ordered built against the river that surged through the Safari Zone. The water now returned with a vengeance. People and pokemon dove out of the way as a current of Swampert, Marshtomp, Carvanha, Tentacool and Quagsire swam past.

Athena laughed, and Cole looked at her. “What?”

“It’s Isengard and Helm’s Deep rolled into one!”

Cole laughed too. It was indeed! In the Lord of the Rings, two battles were fought simultaneously, one at Sauraman’s Tower in Isengard by the Ents, and another by the Riders of Rohan at Helm’s Deep.

Cole motioned towards the Shiftry. “We even have our very own Ents!”

Masamune crashed through a Golem with his shell swords. “Enough of this chatter! Onwards!”

Cole nodded and whistled to Maeve, Scathatch and Thor. Together, they charged forward, hope surging in their breasts.

***

On a different part of the battlefield, Marcus fought side-by-side with his Nidoking, Zangoose and Mienshao. They struck out with different styles, and were constantly surrounded by grunts that tried to subdue them. None succeeded.

His token from Colette was still knotted around his arm. He fought for her, he reminded himself. Always for her. So that she could get out of this hellhole.
It took him a few minutes to realize that someone fought beside him. A Delcatty and Mawile leapt around their trainer as she clumsily battered at foes with a pipe. A Pidgeot flew over their heads, lashing out with its beak.

“Who are…? Arceus, Epiny, the things you do…”

The young woman smiled at him. “I know this is no place for me, still I would rather be with you.”

“Get out before the trouble starts. C’mon Epiny, you might get hurt.”

“I’ve got you worried, now I have! That shows you like me quite a lot.”

Marcus smiled. “There is a way that you can help! You are the answer to a prayer! Please, take a message to Colette, tell her that things fare well here.”
Epiny blinked back tears of rage. “Little you know… little you care!”

Marcus returned to fighting, keeping a snapping, snarling Mightyena away from his throat. He wrestled the beast away only to hear Epiny shout, “Marcus!”
The young man whirled about, and saw Registeel looming before them. It glowed, and then shot a brilliant pulse of orange and white light, the most powerful Hyper Beam Marcus had ever witnessed.

Epiny ran in front of it, and took the full force of the blast. She crumpled before Marcus. “No!” he screamed, and ran to catch her.

His Nidoking and Zangoose set upon the behemoth, driving it away as it tried to recover. Several other revolutionaries saw what had transpired, and circled up around Marcus to prevent him from being hurt as he said his farewells.

The burns from the attack were severe. There was no hope for Epiny, even if she was immediately brought to medical attention. Marcus felt raindrops slowly trickling down his face, mingling with his tears. “Epiny… just relax. Take deep breaths. Nice and easy. There… just hang on, okay, Epiny?” He knelt over her to prevent the rain from falling in her wounds.

“Don’t you fret, Marcus,” Epiny said softly. “I don’t feel any pain. A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now.” She fumbled with her left hand, and placed it over Marcus’s. “You’re here, that’s all I need to know. You will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. And this rain will make the flowers grow.”

“But you will live Epiny!” Marcus cried. Some of the rebels turned away, unable to bear this any longer. It was too heartbreaking. “Arceus above! If I could close your wounds with words of love!”

Epiny shook her head. “Just hold me now… and let it be. Shelter me, comfort me.”

Marcus was trembling now, tears dripping from the bridge of his proud nose. “You would live a hundred years, if I could show you how… I won’t desert you now.”

“This rain won’t hurt me now. The rain will wash away the past. And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. I’ll sleep… in your embrace… at last.” She smiled; the smile of someone so beyond pain that there was only joy. “So don’t you fret, my friend Marcus. I don’t feel any pain. A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now…”

Marcus bent over her further, his voice quaking. “I’ll stay with you ‘till you are sleeping.”

Epiny clutched his hand with the last of her strength. “And rain…”

“Will make the flowers…”

“…Grow…”

And then, she was at peace. Marcus kissed her brow and closed her unseeing eyes. He lifted her head off of his lap and placed it on the ground.

Cole, Sin and James ran to his side. “We’ll fight on in her name!” James promised.

“She will not die in vain!” Sin added, wiping away tears.

Cole helped Marcus to his feet. “She met death unafraid. She was very, very brave. There will be songs about her courage.”

Marcus nodded. “I lost my sword. May I?”

One of the rebels passed him a lead pipe silently. Marcus held it aloft. “By this, Epiny, you will be avenged! I won’t betray your spirit!” He lowered it and pointed the shaft at the hulking silver behemoth that lumbered across the battlefield. “Registeel, I shall destroy you!”

He ran off before anyone could stop him. James turned to those that had protected him as he said farewell. “Go with him. He must be kept safe.”

They nodded and took off. The former Rocket agent turned to Cole and Sin. “Jessie, Meowth and I… we have a plan, how to get out of here, far away, and try to find help. Cole, remember back in the good old days how we were… uh… accident prone?”

Cole beamed. “You’re going to…?”

“Yes. And we’re going to do it in style. We’ll need your Charizard to help.”

Cole whistled, and the dragon descended from the heavens. They ran off into the fray. Sin joined Lisana and her faithful pokemon, and together they began a two-pronged assault on their oppressors.

As the fighting wore on, Sin sensed the presence of another fighter near them. He checked his peripheral vision, and saw the young man who seemed to bend fire with his will, the golden-eyed demon, the master of the twin blades, Nick, fighting by his side.

Nick grinned at him. “So you’re the one John was telling me about. Heads up.”

In Sin’s experience, heads up generally meant heads down, so he ducked. Flayme the Charizard clone rocketed over his head, grappling with an enemy Salamence. The fire type slammed it with its tail, and the dragon fell to the ground unconscious.

“How many is that, Flayme? Thirty six?”

The Charizard growled four times while raising its head upwards. “Forty?” Nick whistled. “Not bad. But you’re falling behind! I’m at fifty two!” He brought one of his swords down on an Aqua grunt’s skull. “Make that fifty three!”

A Steelix sliced through the rebel lines, scattering them. Sin dragged Lisana out of the way, but Nick stood strong. “Don’t worry! My buddy can handle this, easy!”

Flayme swooped in close, and unleashed a scathing Overheat, followed by three quick Dragon Claws to vital chinks in the Steelix’s armor. The behemoth roared and then crashed to the ground, it’s nose mere inches from Nick’s feet.

Flayme roared in triumph, flying circles above the fallen snake. Nick glared up at him. “I don’t care how big it is! It still only counts as one!”



Epiny's death is "A Little Fall of Rain". And surprisingly enough, I found one to link to where the female vocalist doesn't make me want to cringe.
Also, Gandalf's signature line. Had to do it.
 
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Emeraldfan

Well-Known Member
Srlsy? Nick quoting Gimli? Awesome! I thought this chapter was a whole lot of fun with all those referances, a whole lot of fun, looking forward to the next chapters! Couldn't find any mistakes, so I think I'm not that much of a help in that department. Also, about Gandalf's one liner: click
 
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Firebrand

Indomitable
Last Stand

Cole stood before Jessie, James, Meowth, Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. “You want me to do what?!” the young man asked.

“It’s not complicated, twerp,” Meowth grumbled. “Draw the fire. Sheesh, you kids…”

“And then what?”

Jessie folded her arms. “What we do best.”

“I thought pitfall traps were what you do best.”

“Those are our specialty. This is what we do best.”

James rolled his eyes. “You’re not getting anything done by standing around here. Go!”

Cole swung up onto Charizard’s back and waved his arms as the dragon lifted off. “Hey! Jasper! Jasper! Come and get me!”

The camp warden growled as he saw the Firebrand mocking him. He snapped his fingers at a group of subordinates. “Send some Camerupt on the right flank. Walrien on the left. Aggron on the fore, and I’ll follow up with Registeel.”

The grunts nodded and charged off. Jasper signaled to Registeel, or rather, his Porygon-Z that was inside Registeel. The behemoth swept away the rebels that swarmed it with a wave of its hand, and turned towards the Charizard looping in the sky.

Its facial pattern lit up and its entire body began to glow as it charged a Zap Cannon. It would be the last element of the chemical explosion that blasted the Firebrand from the sky.

Jasper saw his troops move into position. “Ready? Fire!”

At a command from the grunts, the Camerupt let loose with Fire Blast, the Walrien with Blizzard, and the Aggron with Hyper Beam. Registeel followed it up by launching a Zap Cannon in tandem with Lock-On. Charizard dove low to the ground, and the attacks followed in its path.

“It’s time!” James shouted. “Firebrand, get out of here!”

With a tap from Cole, Charizard angled his body sharply and shot up in a ninety-degree turn, driving straight up into the air. The salvo of attacks now arched towards Team Rocket. Jessie cackled. “Wobbuffet! Mirror Coat!”

“Mimic, Mime Jr.!”

The attacks hit the giant blue punching bag and the small harlequin, and ricocheted back at their attackers. A giant semicircle of white light erupted on the ground beneath them, for the energy of the attack was too much to transfer. The earth began to break apart, and the resulting explosion launched Team Rocket high into the air.

“Some things never change!” Meowth shouted.

“But we’ll always be together!” Jessie shot back.

James smiled. “And it’s nice to know that no matter where we go, we’ll always be…”

In unison they chorused: “Blasting off again!”

Cole watched as they vanished into the night sky. He raced back to the fray, and could not help but cringe as he was once again thrust into war. People and pokemon were killing each other around him. The ground was pooled with blood.

He saw Magnus using his staff to fend off attacks from Gregor, one of the camp’s admins and a definite sadist. He would pull prisoners aside and lash them for the sheer thrill of it, or experiment with new methods of torture on them.

Cole changed his trajectory, overcome with desire to feel nothing but Gregor’s bones snapping in his hands and see the panicked look on the man’s face as the life left his eyes, and he slowly died in a pool of his own blood…

Cole stopped, shaking his head rapidly. No! He had killed Ghetsis, and that still haunted him. He couldn’t kill any more. He was a vegetarian, for Arceus’s sake! He hated hurting things, even if Gregor rightfully deserved it!

Cole was pulled forcibly from his reflections as the ground beneath his feet splintered and cracked. A Camerupt in blind panic had used Fissure, and Cole was in the line of fire.

The young man leapt to the side, dodging the gigantic, deep crevice that spread across the packed earth. A Shiftry was caught under a chunk of flying debris. It cried out to Cole as the ground crumbled beneath it. The young man pushed at the rock, but he could not move it. The Shiftry must have broken its legs.

It took Cole a moment to realize that this Shiftry was the one who led the charge of wild pokemon. The one with gigantic fans. It was old, but powerful and wise. It looked up at him and shook his head, telling Cole to give up, to leave it to die.

“I’m not giving up,” Cole hissed back. “Hold still.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pokéball. He had slipped it in the night before, just in case something like this were to happen. He tapped it against the Shiftry’s head, and watched as it shook once, twice, three times. The ball locked with a slight ding, and then vanished in a flash of light, teleported to Oak’s Lab in Kanto.

At least Cole had been able to save one.

Magnus and Gregor still fought on oblivious to all of this, despite the fact that the fissure ran right under their feet. The ground yawned open, and the two dueling men began to fall. “Magnus!” Cole shouted, and darted forward. His hand wrapped around the older man’s wrist, saving him from being dashed on the rocks some sixty feet below.

There was a sudden tug as Gregor cracked his whip. The cord wrapped around Magnus’s leg three times, securing a grip. Cole was jerked down by the force of it. He tried to haul himself and Magnus up, but it was too heavy.

“Magnus, I’m slipping!”

“Just let go, boy!”

“No! You saved me! I owe you!”

“You owe me nothing, fool! Just let go!”

Cole shook his head. “I can’t just sit back and let someone die!”

“Cole, you’re being stupid!”

“I don’t care!” Cole shouted back. He lurched forward again, dragged down by the two weights. His arm was shaking. Slowly, he pushed himself up to a crouch, and then tried to drag Magnus up as he got to his feet.

He staggered and fell forward, seeing the giant pit yawn in front of him. He closed his eyes, ready to tumble into the darkest pits of hell.

And stopped. Four steady arms wrapped around him, two around his abdomen and two under his arms. “We got you,” Nick hissed in his ear.

“You won’t fall with us by your side,” Sin added.

“No matter how far you’ve gone, no matter what happens, we’re always with you,” Nick said softly.

Cole heard more than saw Sin smiling. “We’ll never let you fall.”

The two boys dragged Cole backwards, and with him, Magnus, and finally Gregor. As the Magma admin rose, he cackled. “Ha, you fools! By saving yourselves, you’ve saved me! And now I’ll kill you… all…?”

A black shadow darted by, and there was a flash of white and silver. The whip severed with a sharp crack, and Gregor began to scream. It was all over in less than an instant. Maeve glanced at Cole and nodded curtly. “Weave.”

“Good girl,” Cole gasped.

Magnus dusted off his white cloak. “Well then. Boys, has anyone ever taught you the easy way to remember Hamlet?”

Nick blinked. “I hardly think this is the time for Shakespeare…”

Sin cocked his head to the side. “Is that the Scottish guy or…?”

Magnus grinned. “Dane went insane and everybody gets slain.”

He drew a pokéball with a flourish. “Come on out Hamlet, and use Outrage!” A Druddigon emerged from the white light, and immediately began savaging nearby enemies with teeth and claws. Magnus’s smile grew wider. “Good night, sweet prince.”

Then, he drew two more capsules. “Caliban, Macbeth! Get out here!”

An Ursaring and Whimsicott appeared at their trainer’s side. “Macbeth!” Sin cried. “That’s the Scottish one!”

Magnus snapped his fingers at the crowd, and the two pokemon took off without further need of command. Finally, Magnus whistled for his shiny Rapidash, and swung up in one fluid motion. “Onward, Shadowfax!”

Cole rolled his eyes. “You named it Shadowfax? Really?”

But Magnus was gone, riding off into the fray. Nick glanced at Cole. “Come. Lisana is already fighting alongside my friends. Together, we can end this.”

“But Marcus…”

“We will make our way to Registeel.”

Cole nodded, and followed Nick and Sin. They soon joined up with Lisana and the other members of Nick’s Seven. Zephyr wheeled in the air on his Staraptor’s back. All of Cole’s pokemon were already waiting there.

Kim smiled. “You ready, heroes?”

Cole’s hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword. “Let’s go.”

He jumped onto Thor’s back. “For freedom!”

“For justice!” Sin roared beside him.

“For power!” Nick shouted.

Together all nine of them, plus their pokemon, surged forward. Enemies fled before their might, recognizing them as truly a powerful force, one that swept them aside in a torrent of righteous fury and passion. Cole’s steel length, his sword, became an extension of his arm. Beside him, Nick’s twin blades reflected the moonlight and shattered it into shimmering refractions, as Sin wrapped both his hands around his own three-foot length, broadsword style.

Seithios used his hammer to clear a path as Lucian surged through, three Dark Pulses echoing behind him. Kim shot arrows into the legs of foes, bringing them down as Nick, Anna and Lexa charged onwards. Zephyr dove through the air with his flying pokemon, making a veritable screen above their heads.

Sin and Lisana fought back-to-back, covering each other as only two best friends could. Each strike echoed the other’s perfectly, and their pokemon were a cloud of power just behind them, lashing out at anything they missed.

Cole rode Thor, with Masamune beside him, the Samurott’s shell blades glinting. Maeve and Scathatch fought just to their left and right. Charizard and Athena flew overhead, just five feet away, bathing enemies in fire.

They pressed onwards, getting closer and closer to Registeel, and Marcus.

An Aqua admin whistled, and no less than ten Graveler simultaneously Self-destructed. The explosion shook the very earth beneath the group’s feet, and sent them spiraling like leaves in a hurricane.

Cole saw Nick and Anna sprawled next to him. From the way they were lying, it looked as though Nick had thrown himself over the water trainer to protect her from the blast. Seithios struggled so that he was resting on his arms, and then fell back to the ground.

“What… what happened?” Lucian gasped. The black scarf he wore over his eyes had fallen off, revealing his milky white cataracts. “What was that noise?”

Sin groaned from where he had fallen. “I’m okay… I think. I banged a few ribs. Lisana… might have a concussion.”

The blonde young woman was sprawled on the packed dirt, and only the slight stirring of the hair in front of her mouth betrayed that she was still breathing.

Using his sword as a crutch, Cole hauled himself to his feet. Registeel stomped closer. Jasper strode confidently along beside it. Everywhere, Magma and Aqua were pushing the rebels and their pokemon back.

The one-time Firebrand grimaced as he felt his abdomen. Severe bruising, at least. A line of blood trickled into his left eye. Nothing was broken, but everything hurt. He didn’t feel like a hero.

“Masamune,” he whispered to his injured Samurott. “I think we’ve lost.”

Masamune climbed slowly to a standing position. Jasper was bearing down on them. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small length of black metal. Cole hissed in a breath. A gun.

Guns were a rarity, banned from use decades ago. Cole detested the very idea of them. And to see one here… pointed at him... it all just seemed so unfair.

“Don’t move,” Jasper hissed. “We’ve finished you, Firebrand. Your rebellion has ended.”

Cole’s grip loosened on his sword. “I’m not the Firebrand anymore. The Firebrand was a hero. And heroes don’t let people down.”

Jasper clicked back the safety on the gun. “Just stand still and it will all be over in a moment. I’m a very good shot.”

Only Cole’s index finger was keeping his sword from falling to the ground. A single tear rolled down his right cheek. Or maybe it was sweat, or a drop of blood. Perhaps dying wasn’t such a bad thing. He wouldn’t feel pain anymore. He’d been good, right? So if there was an afterlife, he’d go to the good one, right? N would be there. He could see N.

“Masamune… I’m sorry. I give up.”

“Cole, if there’s one thing you have taught me in our travels…”

Maeve darted out from behind him. She drove her ice-encrusted fist into Jasper before the vile man even had a chance to respond. She hissed. “It’s to never…”

Jasper fell forward, and Thor bolted forward, crashing into him with a Wild Charge. Jasper flew over Registeel’s body and crashed into the ground some distance away. “Ever!”

Scathatch appeared next to Cole, her arms glowing indigo. “Give up hope!” She released the Night Daze attack, sending a field of dark energy into the surrounding area, temporarily blinding all the grunts.

Athena jumped up onto his shoulder. “So come on!”

Cole nodded, overcome with emotion that three of his partners could now speak to him, and that at last he could understand. He grasped his sword, and drove it forward into Registeel’s center oculus. “Lacho calad! Drego morn! By fire’s light! Flee night!”

The eyepiece sparked and flashed, and Registeel gave off an unearthly hum. “Regiiiiiiiiiii!”

There was a small crackle of static, the sound of something engaging within Registeel’s body, and then a massive explosion of light that sent Cole flying backwards, into Charizard’s protective embrace.

When Cole regained sight, Registeel was lying on the ground deactivated, and Jasper’s Porygon-Z was unconscious atop it. It let off a strange crackling noise, and Jasper got to his feet. He drew a pokéball, and returned the creature that had made a pawn of Registeel.

“It’s you and me now, Jasper.” Cole raised his sword and surveyed the catatonic fighters all around him. It seemed that only he, his pokemon, and Jasper were conscious within a two hundred yard radius. Many had fled when they saw Registeel explode, and stood in shocked silence on the nearby hilltops. Cole smiled, feeling his heroic spirit rise once again. “I do not fear death. Let us finish this.”

“It’s not over yet, Firebrand!” Jasper tossed out another pokéball, which revealed itself to be a Hydreigon. “Mephistoles! To Mt. Pyre!” As the black dragon flew away, he shouted down to his remaining troops. “All of you, retreat! Archibald and Maximillian will defend us with their divine might!”

Cole waited until the last grunt disappeared from sight before falling forward, unconscious before he even touched the ground.




The Blazing Heart characters are total badasses.
 
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DarknessInZero

<- Es mío! MÍO!
Great chapter. Just Great.
 

SSBB Master

is NCS in disguise
Fantastic chapter, but I spotted one flaw: Jasper couldn't have named his Hydreigon Mephistoles - it breaks the 10 character limit :) Sorry if I sound like a geek for spotting that.
 

Firebrand

Indomitable
Fantastic chapter, but I spotted one flaw: Jasper couldn't have named his Hydreigon Mephistoles - it breaks the 10 character limit :) Sorry if I sound like a geek for spotting that.

I wondered if anyone would pick that up! I was really bummed in game when I ha to condense my Hydreigon's name down to Mephisto, the short version of Mephistoles, the fallen angel from Faust.

But here, theres no such limit, and c'mon, you know Mephistoles sounds soooo much cooler.
 

SSBB Master

is NCS in disguise
But here, theres no such limit, and c'mon, you know Mephistoles sounds soooo much cooler.

OK fair enough
 

Firebrand

Indomitable
Final Call

“He’s awake.”

Cole’s eyes flicked open. Anna, Maeve, Scathatch and Lexa were standing over him. Maeve grinned. “’Bout time, sleepyhead.”

It took Cole a moment to realize that yes; his Weavile was speaking to him. He smiled, reached up and scratched behind the crest on her head. Anna and Lexa helped him sit up. “You were very brave,” Anna said.

“I just… it’s what I do,” Cole replied with a smile. Then, he lowered his gaze. “What were our losses?”

“Twenty eight humans dead. Quite a few pokemon too. We don’t know the exact numbers, because the wild pokemon took theirs away. Almost everyone is injured.”
“What about them?”

It was Scathatch who answered. “Heavier losses than us.”

Anna and Lexa went to reply, but Cole held up a hand. “Scathatch already told me.”

He got to his feet with a groan. He was back behind the palisade, against one of the cliffs. Julia and Winona walked past with their pokemon, and gave him a smile.

Cole waved back, and found Thor, Athena, Masamune and Charizard nearby. Thor inclined his head and said nothing, but Cole knew that should the Zebstrika wish to speak, he could hear it.

Charizard growled out a greeting, and Cole’s heart nearly broke. “No…” he muttered. “It’s not fair.”

Charizard realized what was wrong. He tried to say something more, but all Cole heard was the normal growls and snarls. Why was it that the pokemon he had been with the most, his most loyal companion, could not speak to him? It wasn’t fair!

Magnus appeared at Cole’s side. He was soon joined by Marcus and John. The younger man wore several bandages around his forehead. Magnus nodded slowly. “We have much to discuss.”

“The hell we do,” Cole replied. “I didn’t think of it last night, but what the hell are you doing here? And how’d you find all those trainers? The Seven, especially?”

Magnus smiled. “I knew you would need help. So I teleported to Hearthome City where I knew a tournament was being held, and invited all of the combatants to assist me. Once I told them the Firebrand was in trouble, all of them were very eager to lend a hand. Newton teleported us back, and here we are.”

“You could’ve gotten them killed!” Cole shouted.

“And you would have been killed without them,” Magnus replied.

Marcus held up a hand. “Cole, he did what he had to. Just let it go.”

John crossed his arms. “We move on Mount Pyre shortly. We must be ready.”

“Shortly?” Cole cried. “Look at us! We’re hurt! We’re broken, and battered, and in no shape to fight!”

John sighed. “Three days. We have three days to move against them. If we haven’t moved in that time, the chances that Magma and Aqua will return are very high.”

“Besides,” Magnus added, “Mount Pyre is where you have to go, Cole. The best way to help these people is to get out and send aid.”

Marcus clasped Cole’s shoulder. “The plan is to get you to this Gate thing that Magnus told us about. We’ll fight off Magma and Aqua while you make a break for it. Then, once you’re through, we’ll finish our strike and pull back to Fortree City. According to Magnus, the hold there has weakened since the trouble started here. A concentrated attack could end with us reclaiming the city. We’d have a fortress, and outpost for resistance.”

“You should go there immediately,” Cole shot back. “I’ll get through Mount Pyre myself.”

“Cole, that’s stupid. The place is probably crawling with grunts. And besides, we want our vengeance too. This time, we have the upper hand. We can use hit and run tactics, make glancing wounds. We get to be on the offensive this time. They need to defend that mountain.

“The shrine at the top is what gives the Orbs their powers. If Maxie and Archie lose that, then their hold on the Weather Trio becomes a lot weaker.”

“I can’t stop any of you, can I?”

“Nope,” Seithios chuckled. “We’re here to kick some evil ***.”

***

Cole walked with Masamune and John through the camp. Many of the rebels were laying out in the shade, nursing their wounds or tending to their pokemon. A few who were less injured were painting bed sheets.

“What are these for?” John asked.

“Well, we need to show them we’re serious,” a young woman replied. “So we’re making banners.”

Winona waved them over. “I painted this one!” She showed them a bare-bones representation of a bird.

“Is that a Pelliper?” Cole asked.

John shook his head. “No, no, it’s a Mandibuzz.”

“It’s a Swellow!” Winona snapped. “I know, I’m not the best artist.”

John laughed. “Oh, I suppose I can make it out a little now.”

Winona shrugged. “I’m putting it on a sharpened pole. It doesn’t really matter how well it’s drawn, so long as I can stick some of those bastards with it.”

***

Three days later, the camouflaged rebel force waited on the plain before Mount Pyre. A stretch of water separated them from the graveyard’s slopes. Under cover of darkness, Cole watched as the fighters under his command slid into position.

Colette had insisted on accompanying them, boldly declaring she would fight alongside her father and the man she loved. Cole gave Nick a signal, who passed it along to Kim. A ripple passed through the lines, before reaching back to the hill Magnus stood upon. He would be the trigger. Any moment now…

The old man leapt to his feet, throwing his cloak aside as Newton released a brilliant Flash. “Maximillian! Archibald! The time has come to repent for your crimes!”

The rest of the force stood up, revealing lanterns, torches and luminescent pokemon. To anyone watching from the mountain slopes, it would have appeared as though an army appeared literally out of nowhere.

Cole ran forward, calling out Charizard. He leapt onto the dragon’s back, and watched as many other fighters did likewise with their own flying pokemon. Others swam across the small stretch on aquatic pokemon, and those that owned neither were helped by wild ones from the Safari Zone who had agreed to help.

Sin was on the back of a wild Swampert, holding aloft a banner that read, “F uck you Archie!” Cole smiled at that.

Lisana and Zephyr darted next to him, the young woman on Anjaru, the boy on his Staraptor. Nick was just behind on Flayme. Kim sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his waist.

Seithios flew lower to the water on his Garchomp, just before Anna’s Gyrados. She, Lexa and Lucian all sat upon it’s back. Magnus flew with psychic power issued by Newton, drifting lazily along the surface of the lake, twirling his staff and seemingly whistling.

Soon, all of the rebels surged up onto the shores of Mount Pyre. John stood and addressed them. “Remember! Our goal here is to inflict as much damage as possible! We want them afraid! We do not need to conquer this mountain! We merely need to show them that we can strike back!”

The Seven took up positions around Cole. “We’ll protect you,” Lexa whispered. “Get you and the old man where you have to go.”

Sin and Lisana stepped over. “Us too. We want to be there to say goodbye.”

Cole could only nod. “You may not make it. So if you’re going to back down, do it now.”

Nick grinned. “We never back down. Never.”

Cole raised his steel rod over his head. “Charge!”

The cries of pokemon filled the slopes. Homebrewed rebel fire bombs detonated with concussive booms. People shouted orders. Cole and his troop raced up the rocky mountain face.

***

At the very peak, at a shrine erected in honor of the Weather Trio’s Orbs, Jasper groveled before Maxie and Archie. “I’m sorry,” he gasped. “We could not repel them. They have invaded.”

Archie tapped his fingers together. “Well then. I suppose it’s time we started to play a role in this, eh, Maxie?”

“Indeed,” the Magma leader replied. “I doubt I’ll even need Groudon. Camerupt… let us go greet my prodigal son.”



Dun, dun, duuuuuun
 
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Firebrand

Indomitable
Falling Stars

An earthquake shook the ground Cole stood on. “Get to cover!” the young man cried. His allies ducked out of the way. Cole vaulted over the growing chasm and called out Scathatch. “I need an illusion. Of me. Divert them.”

“Of course,” Scathatch hissed. Cole still could not get used to her voice, halfway between a purr and a rasp. It set him on edge. But true to her word, she created a doppelganger of Cole out of residual water vapor in the air, and the slightly hazy construct sprinted off on the slopes.

Cole pushed onward, Masamune and Charizard at his side. The orange dragon fought with ranged strikes, while Masamune dispatched any foe that dared draw close. To Cole, this was very symbolic.

This was what Magma and Aqua should have been in the first place. Fire and water working together towards a noble goal.

“Get behind me!” Masamune thundered.

Without even thinking, Cole and Charizard complied. Seithios and his ground types stepped up beside the Samurott, as did Anna and her Empoleon and Lexa and her Electvire. “All together now!” Masamune cried out to the pokemon.

With several physical attacks, they dispatched a coming landslide. Some of the boulders were cleaved into smaller pieces, others were flung to other parts of the barren slopes. The Magma grunts who prompted the avalanche shouted curses, which were quickly cut off by Nick and Cole’s pokemon charging up to them.

Cole leapt onto Thor’s back. Though the Zebstrika was born in the grassy flats of southern Unova, he had shown a great proficiency for rocky slopes in their travels. The equine beast vaulted over the ledges beneath them, and Athena launched a Searing Shot from Cole’s shoulder.

Sin and Lisana scrambled alongside them, as Maeve clawed her way up the face. The whole troop reached a long, flat outcropping, where Cole held up a hand.

The Seven paused to regroup, helping Sin and Lisana the last few feet. Kim glanced at Cole. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m checking our progress,” Cole replied. He surveyed the mountain, with all its many conflicts. Rebels were trying to make their way into the mausoleum and break the hold there. Others fought for purchase on the slopes, trying to secure an avenue for their comrades. It seemed as though the rest of the fighters simply did not have the pure blasting power Cole’s band did.

“Seithios, Zephyr,” Cole said sharply. “Down there, they need your help retaining a position by some boulders. Your strength should cut it.”

Seithios glanced at the Firebrand. “Are… are you sure? We…”

“Go.”

The tone in Cole’s voice begged no argument. The two young men raced back down. Then, Cole turned to Nick and Anna. “You two are perhaps the best assets we have. You are very strong, and together, I’ve seen what you’re capable of. Go and support the fighters at the main mausoleum entrance.”

Again, he had fallen into his 'commander voice'. The two young heroes left without comment, but not without scowling. Cole turned on Magnus, Lucian and Lexa. “You three go to the secondary entrance. It’s less guarded than the first. Help the rebels break through there, and then rendezvous with Nick and Anna on the ground floor. Magnus, meet me back here when you’ve done that.”

Again, the three group members peeled off.

Kim crossed her arms. “You’re sending us away on purpose.”

“Necessary,” Cole replied sharply. “You need to go where the fighting is hardest. I can take care of myself. Kim, see that bluff there?” He pointed to a place some ways down the slope. “There’s no ledges above that. Use it as an archery point. Get there and provide cover from above.”

Kim sighed with exasperation and left. They had all recognized Cole as their commander, and had to listen to him.

“We’re staying with you, right?” Lisana asked.

Cole solemnly shook his head. “For the next hour I need you to be everywhere you can. You know the rebels, and the rebels know you. If, in an hour, we haven’t retreated, meet me back here with Magnus. Until then, do the most good.”

“What if the most good is being here with you?” Sin demanded.

“It’s not.”

“But…”
“Sin. Lisana. Just go. I’ll be all right.”

Both young rebels started to protest, but Cole waved them off. “Go. That’s an order.”

He turned away and listened to the sound of their shoes against the rocks, until it faded away. Cole's fist clenched at his side. On his shoulder, Athena leaned closer. “You sent them away on purpose. Kim was right. Why’d you do it?”

“Because there is business I must take care of alone.”

As he finished saying this, a section of wall some ways down the plateau crumbled, and three figures strode forth. One was a hulking beast of a pokemon; smoke spiraling up from the twin rocky cones on it’s back. The other two were men, both rather tall.

“So,” the first one spoke, stroking his black goatee in a very stereotypically villain-like manner. “This is your brat, Maxie?”

“He’s my son, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Aye.” The man with the goatee whirled on Cole. “You look familiar. Have I threatened you before?”

“Pirates?” Cole asked. “Really? Didn’t you have anything better to do in prison than watch movies? It must have rotted your brain, because I helped put you there in the first place.”

“Oh, yes, I remember now.” He nodded to a Panpour on his shoulder. The blue monkey reached down to Archie’s belt. “I guess it’s time I had my vengeance and all that, then.” The Panpour tossed up a pokéball. “Why thank you Jack.”

“Oh, come on!” Cole shouted. “Did you learn to be evil from movies?”

Archie stalked forward and jabbed a finger into Cole’s chest. “If you aren’t planning on quieting down, I’ll tie cinderblocks to your shoelaces and make you walk the plank!”

Cole blinked. “All right, first off, it’s ‘cannonballs to my bootstraps.’ I’m even wearing boots! The reference would have worked! And second off…” He lunged forward and slammed his fist into Archie’s face. “I’m calling for a rewrite!”

Maxie, silent through all this, finally raised his eyes. “Cole. I propose a battle. Archie and I will work as a team, against two of your pokemon. Do you accept?”

Cole folded his arms. “What are the stakes?”

“Depends on who strikes the final blow. If Archie is the last one standing, then he’ll chop off your head and put it on a spike.”

The Aqua leader cleared his throat. “Or hang you. Or make you walk the plank. Anything sufficiently keeping with my image.”

“You really are just trying to infuriate me, aren’t you?” Cole growled. “And if you win, Maxie?”

“You reconsider my offer.”

“By reconsider, I assume you mean accept.”

Maxie nodded slowly. “Yes. Or I’ll incarcerate you once more.”

“And if I win?”

“You won’t,” Archie sneered.

Cole clenched his fists. “I said… what happens if I win?”

Maxie sighed. “We surrender Fortree.”

Cole stared hard at the two villainous men. “And you both agree to these terms? You swear by the Pirate Code?” Hopefully, Archie wouldn’t break character now.

“Aye,” the Aqua leader replied, fingering a coin. Probably, he considered it one of the ‘nine pieces o’ eight’. Maxie merely nodded in silent assent.

The two men drew their pokeballs. “Walrien, have at ‘em!” Archie shouted.

“Aggron, go.”

The two enemy pokemon emerged before Cole. Walrien bellowed as the Aggron roared. The melding of the sounds made Cole wince, but he had a plan.

The former gym leader reached for Scathatch and Charizard’s pokeballs, but before he touched them, two bolts of energy shot from his belt. When the light cleared, Masamune and Thor stood before him. “Allow us,” the Zebstrika said in his minimalist manner. The horse never said more than was absolutely necessary.

Masamune drew his shell blades. “We will handle this quickly. Have no fear.”

Cole nodded. “All right. Masamune, Waterfall on Aggron. Thor, Agility.”

The Zebstrika relaxed his muscles, and inhaled slowly. He shuffled his feet, ready to run and dart about the battlefield. Masamune roared and surged forward, crashing into the monstrous Aggron. The steel behemoth tried to counter with an Iron Head, and sent both combatants sprawling back. Walrien bellowed up at the heavens and summoned a hailstorm.

Cole signaled to his pokemon. “Thor, Thunderbolt on that Walrien. It’s no real threat to our typing, but we need to eliminate Archie quickly. Masamune, try a Hydro Pump this time.”

The Zebstrika moved first, summoning a massive lightning bolt from its mane that slammed into Walrien. Despite the impressiveness of the attack, the Thunderbolt did less damage than Cole hoped, likely do to Thor’s less than ideal Special Attack. However, after Aggron’s counter, Cole didn’t want either of his battlers getting too close.

Then, Masamune unleashed a torrent of water into Aggron. The beast roared in anger as it tried to regain it’s footing. Archie ordered his Walrien onto the offensive. “Blizzard! Give ‘em a tempest they won’t soon forget! Yar!”

Maxie rolled his eyes. “The ‘yar’ was not necessary.”

But Cole paid this no mind. He was too busy focusing on the Blizzard bearing down on his heroic pokemon. He and his friends had a bad history with that attack. Becca’s Charizard, Dracoburn, had been blinded by one fired from Red’s Lapras, and Cole’s own Charizard had nearly been killed the same way.

But both Masamune and Thor were in good health, unlike the two fiery dragons had been. They managed to recover from the freezing cold winds and ice. Cole tossed Thor a Sitrus berry, and the Zebstrika caught it in midair, chomping it down.

“Wild Charge. Masamune, Waterfall.”

The two pokemon slammed into their weakened adversaries, and the opponents crumbled before them. Masamune planted his feet and roared, daring the next pokemon to challenge him. Thor merely tossed his mane.

Archie angrily returned Walrien, and threw out a Tentacruel. Maxie flicked his wrist, summoning a Mightyena. “Masamune,” Cole hissed. “These two look fast, be careful.”

Thor stepped forward. “I’m faster.”

Before Cole could order him otherwise, the Zebstrika shot forward, slamming into Tentacruel with a Wild Charge. The equine beast winced at the recoil. Tentacruel should have succumbed before this, but it had hidden a Waccan Berry in its tentacles.

Archie grinned. “Poison jab!”

The Tentacruel darted past Thor and brought its tentacles down on Masamune. The Samurott winced as the poison leeched into his body. Cole cringed. “Just hang in there, we’ll finish this up! Megahorn on Mightyena!”

The Mightyena responded to a mere gesture from Maxie, darting out of the way of Masamune’s strike and clamping down on the water-type’s neck with a Crunch. Masamune staggered back to stand before Cole, his sides heaving.

“I’ll… manage. Just need… to work… harder…”

“You’re hurt! Let me substitute you in!”

“No,” Masamune growled. “Aragorn never gave up. Neither did Arthur. Or Hercules, or Perseus. Gilgamesh fought to the very end. I will as well.”

Archie snapped his fingers at Tentacruel. “Keelhaul ‘em.” Then, the Aqua leader turned to Maxie. “You use your mutt to finish off that horse. I’ll hold it.”

The cephalopod slid forward towards Thor, and as the Zebstrika tried to dart away, a tentacle lashed out, grabbing for his leg. Masamune barreled into Thor, knocking him out of the way as Tentacruel Wrapped itself around him. Mightyena, too late to change its trajectory, chomped down on the large, brave water type, before darting away.

Masamune struggled against Tentacruel’s grip, and then started to glow. “I swore I would never again be driven by vengeance,” the Samurott growled. “But sometimes, it is the greatest fuel!”

He used his forelegs to shove the Tentacruel away, with a mighty Revenge attack. Then, using his Torrent-boosted abilities, unleashed a brutal Hydro Pump on the infernal creature. Tentacruel slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Archie stamped his foot, and threw out his last pokemon, his signature Sharpedo. The shark hovered two feet off the ground, in the mysterious way some water types could. Cole vaguely recalled Professor Oak attributing that to a strange electromagnetic field that they put out, similar to the ones Probopass and Magnezone use for propulsion.

The crazed man laughed. “Well, it was a good run, but you’re finished, Firebrand! Just think, for what little remains of your miserable life, you will always remember this as the day that you almost beat Captain Archibald Stern!”

“Really?” Cole muttered. “Did you really just say that?”

“Thor,” Masamune gasped, the poison making his voice weak. “Finish this. Discharge.”

The Zebstrika shook his head. “You’re injured! I’ll hit you too!”

“I know. But you must… save Cole. Please! As a final favor to me. Partner…”

Thor scuffed the ground with his hoof. “I do not like it.”

“You don’t have to. Just see it gets done.”

Thor glanced at Cole, awaiting orders. Cole glanced around helplessly. “There’s a chance he'll make it through a Discharge. I'll call him back as soon as it's over. But Archie and Maxie are targeting him. And they’ll fight to kill.”

Utterly torn, the Zebstrika cried out. Electricity crackled through his mane, before spreading down through his flanks. Soon, a brilliant halo of energy surrounded Thor. It was released with a thunderclap, striking down Sharpedo and Mightyena as they advanced on Masamune, silvery teeth glinting in the moonlight.

When the light cleared, both adversaries had fallen. Masamune knelt on the ground, using a sword as a crutch. “You did it, comrade!” And then he pitched forward, his strength giving out.

Thor darted to his friend’s side, Cole just behind him. “It’s all right,” the trainer consoled. “You did it. We won. Fortree is ours.”

“The battle isn’t over,” Maxie said calmly. “Did you forget? I still have Camerupt left.” The orange beast lumbered in front of the Magma leader and lowed. Maxie held up a hand. “However, I will give you a way out. Cole, if you join me now, I can save your pokemon. Your friends do not need to die here. They can join our army. We can make a better world.”

Cole shook his head. “I won’t rule over a world won by death and conquest. I’m sorry, Father. With all due disrespect, I decline.”

“Father?” Masamune and Thor hissed in unison.

“Yes, this black-hearted demon is my father.” Cole rose, and pointed at Maxie. “My father you may be, but I’m no son of yours!”

Maxie folded his arms. “I see. And truly, my son, I am sorry for what I must do. But I cannot afford to keep you alive.” A Trapinch crawled out from behind Cole’s father, and began to bob its head up and down. The ground beneath Cole’s feet began to turn to sand, and the one-time gym leader felt himself sliding in. Sand Tomb.

He reached down to his belt, and threw out Charizard, Maeve and Scathatch. He hurled Athena into Scathatch’s arms. “Go! Get away from here!”

“Rock Slide,” Maxie commanded his Camerupt. Hundreds of boulders rained down the mountain slopes, directly towards Cole. “Go!” Cole shouted again. “That’s an order!” None of his pokemon moved. “I command you to leave! Now! If you stay, you’ll die! Go!”

“But…” Maeve muttered.

“Warn the rebels!” Cole said. “Get them to pull away! Go!”

Maeve, Thor and Athena hurried down the slopes, to try and signal a retreat. Scathatch tried to help Masamune to his feet, but he shook his mate away. “Go with the others. I wouldn’t make it far. I’d only slow you down.”

Scathatch placed her muzzle against his. “So long, my love.”

“Farewell.”

And then, Scathatch was gone, wrapped in an illusion that made her invisible. The boulders thundered closer. Cole closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate. Truly, what he had spoken to Jasper was no lie. He no longer feared death.

There was a crash as the first boulder came close. Cole opened his eyes, and saw Charizard flinging them away with his tail, and melting them with scathing hot breath. “Charizard, get away from here!” The orange dragon shook his head and growled a response. He continued striking the boulders away. “There’s too many!” Cole shouted. By now, the quicksand was up to his waist, and too dense to wade through. He was effectively trapped.

Masamune hauled himself to his feet, and took his swords in hand. He began slashing at the rocks that drew too close to Cole and Charizard, despite every movement sending pain lancing though every fiber of his being. The poison pumped through his arteries with every step.

Maxie glanced at his comrade. “Our work here is finished. Eventually, they will tire. And they will fall with their precious Firebrand.” The two men strode away.

The rocks began to fall faster and in larger concentrations. Charizard and Masamune were forced into the sandpit with Cole, the fire type holding his tail flame aloft as a beacon in the night. Cole continued to try to convince them to run, but they were adamant.

In a short break in the falls, Charizard and Masamune tapped forelegs, their equivalent of a fist bump. “This is where we fall, my friend,” Masamune growled. Charizard nodded, and roared with all the strength he could muster.

The rocks tumbled down again, faster and heavier than ever before. There was no way Charizard and Masamune could fend off all of them. Eventually, they would be overrun.

Cole felt the air growing stale as their rocky tomb encased them. He was going to be buried alive with two of the bravest warriors ever to walk the earth.

Masamune fell forward, finally succumbing to poison. “The stars… they are so beautiful…” Charizard’s head lowered, blood from many lacerations tainting the sand around him bright red. The dragon nodded in assent, and turned to look at the fading celestial diamonds.

In moments, they were eclipsed by falling rocks, plunging the three into darkness, into oblivion.




This arc is nearly over. Just one more chapter left...
Oh, and Archie talks a bit like a blend between Jack Sparrow and Barbossa, accent-wise.
 
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SSBB Master

is NCS in disguise
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's all I really have to say.
 

SSBB Master

is NCS in disguise
Um, no offense but it's been 10 days since the last chapter went up. OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THAT U R SO EVIL THEY CAN'T HAVE REALLY DIED CAN THEY?!?!?!?!?


Sorry :)
 

Firebrand

Indomitable
Final Farewells

John finished off his last opponent with a blow to the cranium. The young Magma operative sank to his knees with a groan, and then collapsed into the dusty mountain soil.

Marcus, fighting nearby, disengaged to allow his Nidoking, Rex, to dispatch the savage young woman he fought. His right arm hung limply at his side, damaged in the fighting. “Is that all of them?” John’s future son-in-law called.

“I think so,” John replied. He surveyed the mountain. The rebel fighters had managed to push most of the Magma and Aqua troops back, forcing some to flee all the way to Lilycove. Most of the rest had taken refuge on the upper floors of the mausoleum, or were massing around the shrine at the summit, hoping that the rebels would leave it alone.

Already, John had ordered a sizable piece of their force back down the mountain to wait at the water’s edge. Soon, all the rebels would be in retreat, back to reclaim Fortree City.

A red and yellow streak leapt from the rocks to John’s left. “Vic! Victini! Tini! Tini!”

“Athena?” Marcus gasped. “What are you doing here? Where’s Cole?”

The small pokemon madly gesticulated up the mountain. “Is he in trouble?” Athena nodded furiously. “Where are his other pokemon?”

Athena said a long string of words before realizing that the humans couldn’t understand her like Cole could. John knelt down, ignoring his protesting muscles. “Are they getting the others to help?” Athena nodded. “Then take us to Cole.”

Athena bounded up the slope, using psychic energy to leap much higher than her physiology would allow. John, Marcus, and their pokemon ran behind her as fast as their tired bodies would allow.

They were soon joined by Cole’s companion, Magnus. The old man seemed to show no sign of fatigue, easily keeping pace with the racing Scathatch. They reached an odd pile of boulders at the same time as Sin, Lisana and the Seven, who were led by Thor and Maeve, respectively.

“Where’s Cole?” Sin asked.

Maeve pointed to the boulders. “You mean…?” Nick gasped. The Weavile nodded. “How long has he been under there? Since we left?”

Maeve glanced up at the setting moon, and scratched out a few letters in the dirt. T-W-O H-O-U-R-S. Seithios balled his fists. “There might still be hope! Rhyperior, Garchomp, Excadrill! Start moving those boulders!”

All of the other trainers likewise gave the order. Even in their exhausted states, they tried to shift the rocks in any way they could. Cole’s pokemon, while overall not having much physical strength, pushed against boulders with sheer body mass and willpower. After watching for a handful of minutes, John cried out.

“This isn’t fast enough!” He raced to his Machamp’s side and began to try and haul boulders away himself with his nearly inhuman strength. Despite being old and tired, he made a valiant effort, and inspired all the others to try likewise.

They cleared the giant pile of stones until their knuckles bled, and their arms ached from the endeavor. After an eternity of struggle, they cleared away enough boulders to reveal Charizard and Masamune buried up to their midriffs in a pit of sand.

“Where’s Cole?” Julia murmured.

“That can wait!” Kim replied. “We have to get them out of there!”

Seithios’s ground types waded into the sand and drew Charizard and Masamune out. Both were unconscious, and barely alive. Charizard had major skin lacerations from the boulders falling, while Masamune seemed to have more intentional wounds. Lexa, Colette and Cole’s other pokemon immediately surrounded them, trying to offer medical attention.

Maybe it was John’s eyesight failing him, but he thought he glimpsed Nick’s eyes flashing gold. “Look there!” the young man cried, and pointed to a point in the middle of the sand pit. On inspection, John could faintly make out a hand and a very pale outline of a face.

Once again, Garchomp waded out into the sand, and drew out the Firebrand. He was barely breathing, and his pulse was faint. The dragon deposited him lightly in John’s arms. The muscular man knelt, and cradled Cole’s head in his hands.

(A/N: Remember how several chapters ago I linked to a Les Mis song mid chapter because it would help with the flow? I'm doing it again, because the following song song is very powerful, and must be done justice)

“Arceus on high, hear my prayer.” Tears formed in his eyes as he looked down on Cole’s broken body. “In my need, you have always been there.” He brushed Cole’s long, dark hair from his eyes. “He is young, he was afraid. Let him rest, heaven blessed.”

John raised his eyes to the heavens and cried out. “Bring him home, bring him home!” He bent over Cole’s body again, his voice breaking. “Bring… him… home.”
Clasping Cole’s limp hand in his, John went on. “He’s like the son I might have known… if You had granted me a son. The sons must die, one by one! How soon they fly, on and on! And I am old… and will be gone…”

Slowly, Cole’s friends gathered closer, drawn in by John’s seemingly magical song. Oblivious to this, John continued in his hymn. “Bring him peace, bring him joy. He was young… he was only a boy. You can take, You can give.”

Again, John looked up at the stars. “Let him be! Let him live! Bring him home, bring him home…” Tears fell from John’s face, leaving tracks in the dirt and grime. They fell onto Cole’s peaceful, pale visage, and pooled there. “Bring… him… home…”

Cole gasped a shaky, rasping breath. Everyone drew closer, awaiting the Firebrand’s revival. However, the breath died off, and his pulse faded away to nothing.

***

Cole didn’t feel pain anymore. He wasn’t tired, his muscles didn’t ache. He was drifting through an endless darkness that was strangely comforting. He was warm, and safe. If this was death, then he couldn’t really say he minded too much.

“Who can say… if I’ve been changed… for the better?”

Cole did not say that. It came from nowhere, it came from everywhere. The voice continued. “I’m limited. Look at me. I’m limited.”

The words were heart wrenchingly familiar, but he could not place them. “Now it’s up to you…” the voice murmured. “For both of us. Now it’s up to you.”

Cole tried to call out, to demand this strange presence reveal itself. But he found he could not speak. The Presence seemed to draw nearer. “Who can say… if I’ve been changed for the better? I do believe I have been changed for the better.”

A glowing figure appeared before Cole, seeming to take the shape of a human. “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? But because I knew you… I have been changed… for… good.”

Suddenly, all the pieces fell into place. Cole forced one sound, one letter from his throat. “N.” That song… those were N’s last words, as he lay dying in Cole’s arms at the climax of the Omega War.

The figure before Cole flashed brightly, and revealed the green-haired youth. He hadn’t aged a day, but there was a significant change. N’s eyes, once haunted by the atrocities he had seen, and the damage he had caused, were clear. They were the eyes of an innocent child. His mouth was turned up in a warm smile.

N beckoned to Cole, and began to drift away, into a giant circle of bright light somewhere in the distance. Cole found he could move his legs, and sprinted after his deceased friend.

Everyone said that you saw a light when you died, and if you went towards the light, that was it. The end. You were in the afterlife, or maybe reincarnated, or just gone, a part of the infinite cosmos. It didn’t matter. N was leading him to it, so Cole would follow. He would leave his broken mortal shell behind, and pass on to the next existence.

He entered the light, and saw N vanish. “You have work to do,” the young man whispered. “We’ll meet again someday. But not now. You still have work to do.”

***

All Cole could feel was pain, everywhere. Not an inch of his body wasn’t screaming in mortal agony. A drop fell onto his face, and Cole felt a warm weight on his right hand.

“J-John?” he rasped, trying to take in the hazy figure above him.

“Cole? Cole!” John embraced him, gently but firmly. “You were dead! But my prayers… they were answered!”

Cole glanced around at all his friends. Magnus helped him to his feet. “It’s time to move on Cole. The Gate is not far from here.”
“Was… was I really dead? Did we win?”

Marcus nodded, then winced as his hand sent a twinge of pain up through his body. “To the second question, yes. We held them off, and pushed them up to the top of the mountain. To the first… yeah. You were dead.”

Sin placed a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “You stopped breathing for ten minutes. Your pulse was gone.”

Cole placed a hand over his heart, and felt the steady beat of the organ. The fact that he had died lay heavily upon him. It was only by the intercession of a higher power that he was here now. Or maybe it was N’s intercession, and Arceus had nothing to do with it.

Then, he noticed Charizard and Masamune. Ignoring the pain in his legs, he ran to their side. “Masamune… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you do this…” He looked beseechingly at Lexa. “Will he live?”

The young woman shrugged. “It’s touch and go, at the moment. I can’t make any guarantees. He’ll need specialized care. If you get through the Gate, and come out somewhere near a pokemon center, then probably. But he’ll bear the scars for a long time, and he might never get back to full strength again, not without proper rehabilitation.”

“What about Charizard?”

Colette rubbed the dragon’s side. “He sustained some major cuts, but if you take steps to stave off infection, Charizard will live with minimal damage. His chance of survival is much higher than Masamune’s.”

“Can I return them to their pokeballs? Are they stable enough?”

Lexa nodded. “Just be careful with Masamune.”

With two flashes of red light, the large pokemon vanished. Maeve took Cole’s hand in her claw, being very gentle. “We need to go.”

Cole scratched her behind her crest. “I know. All right. Let’s move on, Magnus.”

The old man led the entire group two hundred yards up the mountain. On a ledge, there was a large, obsidian Gate set into the mountainside. From the way all of his friends looked past it, Cole was certain only he, Magnus, and their pokemon could see it.

“Marcus, Lexa, Colette, come with me. We can get treatment for your arm, Marcus, while Lexa and Colette get medical supplies. And give me any injured pokemon, I’ll take those too.” He looked around. “Julia, you need to get that cut looked at, it’s deep. Winona, that burn might fester. And Lucian, your left leg isn’t looking good…”

“They can’t come with you,” Magnus said flatly.

“What?” Cole cried. “But they need help!”

“The Gates are one way, they could not return. And they have not been recognized as worthy. No, only you and I can pass through the Gates.”

Nick and Anna hugged Cole. “Don’t worry about us,” the young woman whispered. “We’ll be all right. We can handle this. We’ll win.”

“But… this isn’t fair!” Cole murmured. “I can’t just leave you all here! Magnus, I’m staying!”

“No, you’re not,” John said firmly. “We need you to get out. Send aid. That’s the best you can do. Besides, Masamune needs medical care we simply cannot provide, even with the Fortree Pokemon Center. You’re a powerful figure in the world, Cole. If anyone can bring help, it’s you.”

“I won’t leave you like this!” Cole moaned. He sounded like a petulant child, but he didn’t care.

Julia began to sing softly, her hands running through Orrin’s fur. “Do you hear the people sing, lost in the valley of the night? It is a music of a people who are climbing to the light.”

Cole recognized the tune from one of their work songs, but the words were different. Marcus and Colette joined her. “All you wretched of the earth, there is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise.”

John and Winona added their voices. “We will live again in freedom in the Gardens of Origin. We will put away the sword. The chain will be broken the righteous will have their reward!”

“Will you join in our crusade?” Sin sang.

“Who will be strong and stand with me?” Lisana echoed.

In unison, the members of Cole’s work group and the Seven all broke into song. Tears ran down Cole’s face, the salt stinging the still-fresh wounds. “Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drum? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!”

The song started again, this time with more power and energy. Cole wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. On his shoulder, Athena heaved with silent sobs. Maeve used her claw to hide her own sorrow.

“I hear them,” Cole whispered. “I hear the world in song.”

The Gate opened with a flash of light, and Mount Pyre vanished.

***

Cole fell to the ground. The late evening sun warmed the back of his neck. With his right hand, he felt the soft blades of grass that he lay upon. He heard Scathatch, Thor and Maeve rising next to him. The soft songs of Pidgey resounded sleepily in the trees.

Cole pushed himself to his feet, feeling every bone, ever fiber of his being ache. Slowly, he took in his surroundings. This familiar hill. That familiar pond. The houses in the distance. The dirt lane that sliced through the grass. He knew this place.

He staggered down the road, searching for the one place he knew he had to go. The Gates and whatever mysterious force governed them had brought him here for a reason.

After walking for ten minutes, and nearly collapsing with exhaustion, he slumped against a door. He rapped his knuckles against the wood, painted a deep scarlet.

He knew someone would open it, and he would be welcome. Because this was Pallet Town. He was home. Finally, finally, home.

The door slid open, and Cole fell into the arms of a woman several years older than him. “Lisa… I’m back.”


This is the last Les Mis tie-in for... a while. I have a few more numbers I'd like to include.
The songs this chapter were Bring Him Home, and the reprise of Do You Hear the People Sing? in the Finale.
Either way, this trip to Hoenn is over. A new arc starts next chapter.
 
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Jonah the Slaking

Couch-bound Warrior
I've read both of your stories all the way through. Nice work! I like how one of Cole's Pokemon is a Victini...and her eccentric personality. I actually named my Treecko in Emerald Shiva because of this. Keep up the great work!
 

Firebrand

Indomitable
Hero's Home

Cole sat on the edge of his bed in his old room. He stared mutely at the LCD screen of Lisa’s laptop, absently refreshing the page, hoping for a reply to any of the emails he had sent. He couldn’t click to the homepage. All the news was about the crisis in Hoenn.

Gingerly, he placed the laptop on the nightstand, and slumped into his pillow, burying his face. Maeve, who had been sitting next to him, slunk over to the bookshelf in the corner and pulled out one of the Magic Treehouse Books Cole had never gotten rid of. Anything more complex was out of her reading level, but such elementary storybooks were just right for her.

“I like Annie,” she remarked. Cole grunted something intelligible in reply. It wasn’t right, for him to be here like this, while his friends fought and died in Hoenn. He shouldn’t have gone through the Gate with Magnus.

Magnus. The old man was gone. He hadn’t been there when Cole emerged. Probably for the best. Cole couldn’t have faced him anyway. Turning his head slightly, Cole saw Thor and Scathatch walking slowly in the backyard. Professor Oak had them on a rehabilitation program that would not only help keep their strength up, but also help them recover from malnutrition.

Athena scampered into the room and took in the scene. She blinked her wide eyes up at Maeve. “Want to go out and play with the pokemon at the lab?”

Maeve glanced at Athena and her book, and whispered the words, “And then everything was still. Absolutely still.” Satisfied that the first chapter was over, the Weavile nodded and stood slowly. She brushed the base of her claws over Cole’s face, closing his eyes. The young man heard her leave with Athena, the door closing behind them.

Cole wished his mother was there. She would be able to help, somehow. In the three days since Cole had arrived back home, he hadn’t seen Charizard and Masamune once. Oak had them under twenty-four hour surveillance. The one-time Firebrand had been spending hours at Oak’s lab, playing with the baby pokemon and waiting anxiously for news. According to one of the aides, Charizard had regained consciousness yesterday, but was sedated soon after to help cope with the pain.

Cole certainly owed Oak a debt. Another debt. One more debt in a long list of previous debts. The old professor had taken Cole and Lisa in when their mother died years ago, holding their house in trust for them, so it wasn’t repossessed. The mortgage had been paid, so there was no risk of foreclosure.

He had given Cole that Serious little Charmander who had become his best friend. The Professor had ensured Cole got off to a good start on his journey when Lisa reached eighteen, and was accepted into Celadon University on a full scholarship.

He had taken care of all Cole’s stored pokemon until Cole set up at the Flare Gym, and still looked after many of them. He had taught Cole how to be a healer, and introduced him to Mr. Pokemon and the Kimono Girls, helping him become the Guardian of Legends.

Maxie may be Cole’s biological father, but Professor Oak was the only father figure Cole would ever need. Blue, the Viridian Gym Leader, was like an older brother, or at least a very close cousin. He had been so proud when Cole fought by his side in the Rocket Incident.

Cole must have dozed off, because when he woke up, the smell of food was emanating from downstairs. He slowly got to his feet, and trudged down to the kitchen table. Lisa stood at the stove, over a large pot.

“Pasta with red sauce,” she told him. “No meat.”

Cole smiled. “Thanks, sis.”

“It’ll be ready in five minutes. I was going to send Athena to wake you up. Can you bring out their food?”

Cole crossed his arms. “Why can’t my pokemon eat in here? Yours do.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “The kitchen isn’t big enough, and I just scrubbed the floors. Plus, Thor doesn’t like to be inside. It’s warm outside, and… tell you what. I’ll leave the window open, so you can see them.”

Cole nodded in deference to his older sister. He picked up the berry parfaits for Athena and Scathatch, the hard-boiled Pidgey eggs for Maeve, and the garden salad for Thor. He opened the screen door to the backyard with his foot, and set the bowls down on the small patio. “Dig in, everyone.”

The four pokemon ceased their game of tag, which Thor was easily winning, and walked over. As they ate, Cole knelt next to Scathatch. “Do we know how Charizard and Masamune are doing?”

The Zoroark sighed. “Charizard may be stable by morning. Masamune…”

Cole hugged her and buried his face in her fur. “I’m sorry. I should have stopped him…”

“My beloved is very stubborn,” Scathatch replied. “I doubt you could have dissuaded him. He would do anything to protect you.”

“And I always figured him wise…”

Scathatch turned to him, pulling her lips back to bear her fangs. “He did nothing less than what any of us would have done. We shouldn’t have fled.”

Cole tried to say something, but the words caught in his throat. He stood with a nod, and went back to the screen door. Thor stopped him with a snort. “Dragonair said to thank you.”

“Huh?”

Maeve nodded. “Remember? That Dragonair we saved back before the Temple? We saw her today.”

Athena looked up from her parfait. “Oh, and we saw Treebeard, too! He wants to meet you tomorrow.”

“Treebeard?”

“That Shiftry from the Safari Zone. The one you caught when a rock fell on him.”

Cole nodded, remembering. “Oh. Um, all right. I’ll go visit tomorrow.” He shook his head as he walked away. "Son of a... Athena must have talked to him. Naming himself after the Ent from the Two Towers..."

He went back inside, and sat down at one end of the table, Lisa at the other. He went to put a mouthful of pasta in his mouth, but paused. “It’s been four years.”

Lisa glanced up. “What?”

“Four years. It’s been four years since I last sat at this table. When I beat Cynthia in the Sinnoh League.”

Lisa blinked. “Right. The next day, you left and never came back. You spent a lot of time at the Bell Tower, and in the mountains outside of Blackthorn. Then, you went off to Unova.”

They ate in silence for a while, neither sibling knowing what to say. “I missed this,” Cole finally confessed. “Sitting here with you. And… Mom.”

Lisa smiled softly. “You were so little when she died.”

“I was seven.

“And I was fourteen. That was still too early. We were just kids… with no one but the Professor.”

“The Professor was all we needed!" Cole realized he had raised his voice. Quieting down, he stated, You didn’t go back out on your journey. You stayed and took care of me. Star was restless.”

Lisa smiled as her Arcanine glanced up from her place by the fireplace. “She’s got plenty to do now with all the baby pokemon,” Lisa laughed. “So does Flora, and Rai, and Saura.”

The Ivysaur and Bellosom looked up from where they were watering Lisa’s berry plants, and Rai the imaginatively named Raichu tumbled into the kitchen hoping for scraps. He, Athena and Maeve had definitely hit it off.

“And of course, Clara and Damien, but they stay at the lab now, since they don’t fit inside the house anymore!”

Cole grinned. The Kingdra and Scyther were the de facto enforcers on Oak’s Ranch now. Occasionally, one of Cole’s stronger pokemon would help them out if they were getting some rest and relaxation, but the two were perfectly competent on their own.

Cole laughed. “Yeah. Still, I feel bad. You never got to go to Sinnoh, or Hoenn or Unova, like I did.”

“I don’t mind. I was thinking of going for a cruise on the Royal Unova this autumn, if Locke and I can get time off work.”

Cole tried to keep his face impassive as Lisa mentioned her boyfriend. They had been together for a two years now, so it wasn’t like it was anything new to him, but he still couldn’t get used to the man. Sure, he and Cole got along well enough the few times they’d met, but the man was far too clever for Cole to trust easily.

He had made a name for himself as an explorer of ancient structures and artifacts. He was now working at Oak’s lab as an aide, just like Lisa, but Cole knew about his dubious past as a “treasure hunter”.

They were silent again before Cole found the courage to ask his next question. “Lisa… I have a question about our father. He left right after I was born, so you remember him, right?”

“Cole, I don’t really…”

The Firebrand stood up. “He was Maxie, wasn’t he?”

“You found out?”

“He told me himself. So it’s true, then?”

Lisa was quiet for a little while. “Yes.”

Cole shrugged, successfully hiding his inner turmoil from his sister. “I just wanted to know if he was telling the truth.”

Apparently, he hadn’t buried it as well as he thought, because Lisana bumped his leg with her foot. “Remember Cole, in the end it doesn’t matter who a man’s father is. He is who he is because he made himself that way. Just because Maxie is our father doesn’t mean we’re doomed to end up like him. It can be our family’s secret. No one will ever associate us with him.”

Cole nodded solemnly. “Right. No one in the rebels knew it. I haven’t told anyone but my pokemon, and they swore to keep it a secret.”

Lisa led him to the video phone. “Speaking of your pokemon, I think it’s time you checked in with them. The ones in Unova.”

Cole smiled, and mentally did a time check. Since it was seven in the evening here in Kanto, it would be about eight in the morning by Unova Standard Time, which he assumed the Flare Gym was on.

He dialed his number, and waited as the feed connected. A blue canine face filled the screen, and let out a joyful bark. “Kami!” Cole cried. “It’s been too long!”

“We missed you!”

Cole blinked, and then smiled. “Kami, I can understand you now!”

The Lucario cried out with joy. Several of Cole’s other pokemon crowded around the terminal, and added their voices to the chorus. Sadly, Cole couldn’t understand any of them yet, save for his oldest Swampert, the one who had been with him in Hoenn.

Cole relayed what had happened in the interim since he left, while Kami and Swampert delivered what news they had gathered. The Journeymen, Cole’s league, was in a state of upheaval. Several leaders had dropped out, and the positions needed to be filled. Raj had graciously held Cole’s position in trust, waiting for his return. However, as it stood, Mozzeh had been promoted to Champion in Raj’s stead, and the only remaining gym leaders were himself, and Ammy. The others had taken their leave for various reasons.

Because of this, the league wasn’t taking any challengers. The pokemon of Cole’s gym were left mostly to their own devices, and had been keeping up their training regimen. Taylor, Cole’s proxy, came by once every so often to check up on them.

They had stopped a flood in a nearby river, and the water types had prevented a forest fire when a lightning bolt struck a dead tree. News from the outside world was scarce, because Taylor was their only source, and he was rarely up to date on current events. If it wasn’t on the front page of a newspaper, he likely didn’t know about it. They only knew about the Hoenn problem because Hades had finally found the long-lost TV remote, though reception that far out was spotty at best, despite Cole's best efforts to rig up a satellite dish.

After a time, Cole switched the conversation to Lisa’s Xtransceiver, so that his traveling companions outside could chat with their friends back home for a little while. It might be a long time before they had the opportunity to do that again.

At about nine o’clock, Cole took Athena and Maeve upstairs to his room, while Scathatch and Thor went back to Oak’s Ranch. They preferred sleeping out to the cramped household.

Cole showered quickly and collapsed into bed. Not for the first time, he savored the feeling of the feather mattress, and drifted to sleep with the soft calling of Hoothoot outside the window.


No Les Mis song? Blasphemy!
I've got the next couple chapters written, but I'm using them as a buffer. Life's a little busy now, and I'm also writing the climax of Scattered Sparks. Hero's Path is taking the backseat.
 
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Firebrand

Indomitable
Guilty Conscience

He was running, sprinting through an unfamiliar forest. His muscles ached, and every wound he had ever endured seemed to be fresh on his body. His trail was marked with fresh drops of blood. The sticky red liquid made his clothes cling to his body.

He could feel himself dying.

An unseen, unknown pursuer chased him, crashing through the dense trees. He couldn’t afford to look back; he would lose his momentum and be caught. If he continued, he would die from blood loss. If he stopped, he’d be killed by his pursuer. Bleeding out seemed an easier way to go, so he pushed onward.

The trees opened up around him, and he raced down a small stretch of packed earth, onto a wooden dock. The dock extended a hundred meters into a pristine blue lake. He paused at the end, blood from the cuts on his face dissipating into the water. The planks behind him were stained red.

His right hand moved of it’s own volition, sweeping upward in a diagonal arc. A strange rush of wind blew past his face, and swept out towards the horizon. The water in the lake rippled, and the trees bent away. Then, without him moving an inch, he was somewhere utterly different.

The lake wasn’t a lake; it was a wide plaza in a city. The trees weren’t trees, they were people. And they weren’t bending away, they were bowing to him. He dimly realized that his wounds had healed. In fact, there was no mark upon his body at all. He was dressed in rich clothes, made of very fine material. Atop his head was a plain, unadorned golden circlet.

He was a king.

In the plaza below, a large crowd knelt before a marble coffin. It was open, and from his vantage point on high, he saw that it was Maxie who lay at rest, his face pale in death. His hands were folded serenely over his breastbone.

Everywhere, people he knew knelt before him. They looked to him with respect, but also fear. Near him, Scathatch hid Athena behind her paw. Protecting the Victini from him. Charizard and Masamune had bowed their heads in submission. Maeve and Thor were trembling.

Raj and Becca, along with the other members of the Journeymen, knelt before him on the platform. Raj’s eyes were distant, looking at the palace behind him. He mouthed the word Why?

The Seven stood silently behind him, his own personal guard. Sin and Lisana were at his right hand, Colette and Marcus on his left. He watched as a marble slab was lowered onto Maxie’s tomb.

“The king is dead!” the cowed people in the plaza chorused. “Long live the king!”

He shook his head. No! No! This isn’t right! I rejected this! This future isn’t mine! I left it on a different path!

And just like that, he was alone. Back at the lake. His pursuer was drawing closer. He could hear it coming even now. He gazed into the lake. Pain lanced through his body, making him stagger. His only hope is to jump.

The water is cold, shockingly cold. Colder than ice. For some reason, he couldn't swim. The water is turning red. Red with blood. He isn’t drowning, but he can’t swim. The strength is leaving him as the red fingers dance up towards the surface.

He was dying.

Cole sat bolt upright in bed, his bare chest soaked with sweat. His sheets were in a knot on the floor. He panted heavily, grasping the area just over his heart, noticing how tightly the skin clung to the bone and muscle.

“Only a dream,” he muttered. “Only a dream...”

He stared down at his abdomen, willing his pulse to return to normal.

***

Lisa awoke to voices downstairs. The clock on her nightstand read 2:48 am. A blue light flickered against the white walls of the hallways. She slipped into her robe and crept out of her bedroom.

She stopped at the base of the stairs, and saw Cole sitting in the living room, glaring at the television. He wore nothing but a pair of black nylon running shorts. Lisa noted how she could count all his ribs, but also how his entire body was composed of lean muscle. The six weeks in the work camp had pushed her brother to the very edge of his endurance.

She silently walked behind the couch. Cole was flipping between CNN and MSNBC. Both networks were showing satellite and helicopter footage of Hoenn. CNN was looping a clip of a rebel war band charging on a troop of Aqua grunts in Petalburg. The Aqua grunts called out their Carvanha, Sharpedo and Tentacruel to attack. The clip cut away before anyone started bleeding.

MSNBC had an image of Hoenn that the anchor was zooming in and out on, showing where clashes had taken place, and high-res images of urban destruction. Then, a shot of a burning forest, pokemon running for their lives. The crew, who had been shooting from a helicopter, could do nothing to save them.

“No FOX?” Lisa asked.

“They’ve been skewing the facts, as usual. Arceus, if they have to come out and say they’re fair and unbiased, there’s something wrong.” Cole glanced up at Lisa. “I should be there…”

Lisa placed a hand on his bare shoulder. “You have your mission. You have to get help.”

“I’m trying.” He opened up her laptop and showed her the email he had received. Lisa read it silently.

“Dear Cole, we are overjoyed to hear you are safe. While the situation in Hoenn troubles us greatly, it is beyond the scope of the Unova League. We cannot commit ourselves to a conflict like this. I am afraid that this burden must fall on others. -Alder”

Cole shook his head. “It’s despicable. When Omega was attacking, everybody came to fight, because they were operating all over the world. But when it’s confined to Hoenn, nobody wants to help. Don’t they see that it’s only a matter of time before Archie starts attacking the other regions?”

“Well, what about the Journeymen?”

Cole silently clicked open another email, this one from Raj. “Cole, where are you? We’ve had some complications. X is working on it. We need the Firebrand back.”

“You’re not telling him where you are, are you?”

“No. The Firebrand has done all he can. At least Cynthia is helping out.”

“Oh, good! Sinnoh has some really powerful trainers.”

“Yeah. But all Hoenn’s getting is Cynthia.”

Lisa patted Cole on his protruding shoulder blades. “You’ve done all you can.”

“I promised to do more.”

“Sometimes we have to accept things are what they are. Neither of us wanted Mom to pass, but we had to let her go. You have a purpose elsewhere. No one person can fix all the world’s problems.”

Cole was quiet for a long time. “I have to at least try.”

He made no attempt to move, only staring blankly ahead at the flickering images on the TV screen. Lisa sighed and pulled a blanket out from the linen closet. She draped it over Cole’s shoulders, and went back to bed.
 
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