But Brightclaw had seen the look in her eyes. Despite what her advisor had said to her, she wouldn't come without a fight. Brightclaw hated to kill a Pokémon with Umbreon's kind of skill set, but a clan leader has to do what a clan leader has to do sometimes.
She turned back around and walked to the opposite wall again, hoping that Moonlight hadn't found the altar to Darkrai. Or, even worse, the thin barrier between this world and the reverse world that stood behind it. When the Great Giratina created the reverse world to counter the physical one, patches of both could sometimes overlap, creating places where one could step through into the realm of Giratina. Simply walking in the reverse world could cause massive amounts of destruction in the physical world, and that's without mentioning the risk of incurring the wrath of the creator of antimatter herself. Giratina is known in all of the legends for being violent and vengeful. A careless Pokémon like Moonlight finding that overlap? The risk of calamity was great.
The Clan of Darkness had been founded to serve Darkrai, the legendary who kept watch over the rift between this world and the reverse world. He gave every member of Brightclaw's clan the knowledge of jumping dimensions with Phantom Force in exchange for them serving him and helping him protect the rift. Brightclaw had been the one to negotiate the deal. Great power, the support of a legendary, and the promise that anyone who defied her would face Darkrai's wrath? How could Brightclaw have said no?
She shook her head, bringing herself back into the present. Moonlight posed a large threat and would not walk away without a fight. Brightclaw had sent her best fighters on the extraction team for this reason, but something was still making the fur on the back of her neck stand up.
How had she even slipped past the guard she had posted anyway? There was only one entrance to the den, and she doubted that any Pokémon was that stealthy. Even if she had done that, she would have had to walk directly through the center of camp to get to the entrance to Dark Cave, then slip past Earthquake, the Tyranitar guarding the entrance, who was so large that he blocked the entire entrance. No Pokémon was that good.
Unless...
Brightclaw stopped pacing. It couldn't be possible. How would she know the Clan of Darkness's signature move? Unless someone had taught it directly to her, Brightclaw didn't think Moonlight was sharp enough to pick it up on her own. Brightclaw had instructed her clan not to use the move while these two foreigners were in their territory, but perhaps someone had used it and Moonlight had seen it. That was slightly plausible. If it was the case, then someone was going to be in very big trouble, but it didn't seem likely that Moonlight would have been able to figure out how to jump dimensions after only seeing it just the once. So, how could she have learned it?
The clan leader's gaze trailed back to Umbreon. She remembered an incident from several years ago that involved a recruitment in process suddenly vanishing after one of the more careless members had taught them about Phantom Force. If she recalled correctly, it was an Umbreon that had run away with the Clan's secret.
Could this be the same Umbreon? If so, had he passed on the move to his daughter? It didn't sound crazy... It could be. But that would mean that she would have to kill both him and Moonlight to protect her clan.
Oh well.
Moonlight opened her eyes, breathing heavily and rapidly. What had just happened? Darkrai had spoken to her, then put her to sleep... Moonlight shuddered as she remembered the nightmares that had followed. She felt like she was still on an adrenaline rush. How had that helped her?
The shouts of the team that Brightclaw had sent after her were just outside the room. Moonlight squared her stance on the altar, preparing to fight her way out. She felt the dark energy around her, giving her strength. She suddenly knew how to channel it. Was that what Darkrai had given her? Knowledge of how to properly use her Dark Type powers? It might not have been quite on the same level as Sunbeam being able to see the future, but hopefully, it would be enough to get her and Umbreon out of this.
The first three Pokémon burst into the room, a Krookodile, Drapion, and Hydreigon. Already, Moonlight's odds looked slim. She bared her fangs and stood firm as the Drapion hissed at her. "You are disssssressssspecting sssssacred groundssss, Umbreon."
The Hydreigon spoke with all three heads, each in turn. "You will-"
"-come with us-"
"-or die!"
Moonlight faced the impossible odds. "I won't go anywhere unless I want to," she said, managing to keep her voice steady. She drew more confidence from the dark energy around her. Was there this much of it when she had come in, or was there something else at work here?
The Krookodile snapped his jaws. "Death it is, then."
Time suddenly seemed to slow as all three moved to attack. Moonlight summoned every ounce of dark power that she could, resulting in an explosion of spectral energy forming around her. She crouched low, feeling more powerful than she even had before. Her three foes stumbled backwards, staring at her. She felt stronger, faster, and sharper than anything she had known before. She liked this feeling.
"I am not going down without a fight!" she snarled as she leaped off the altar and prepared to attack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Umbreon watched Brightclaw. She knew. He could see it in her eyes. She was probably going to try to either convince him and Moonlight to join the Clan of Darkness or just kill them on the spot. He tried to keep his expression and breathing neutral. What in the world was he supposed to do now?
Brightclaw turned back towards him, a hard glint in her eye. She considered him carefully before starting to speak in a quiet, cold voice. "You know, I almost didn't recognize you. Such a shame that an Umbreon with abilities like yours will-"
BOOOOOOOM!
Every Pokémon in the den jumped as a huge explosion went off nearby. All three paused to process what had just happened before racing to the entrance of the den. A portion of Dark Cave had exploded, collapsing in on itself and creating a large cloud of dust that rose into the air.
Fear sparked in Brightclaw's eyes. "...This can't mean..." she rounded on Umbreon. "Do you have any idea what your daughter has done? She's brought the wrath of the reverse world onto us!"
"What are you talking about?" Umbreon shouted back.
"Disaster, leave us. Go help anyone who was near that!" she barked. When the Absol hesitated, she glared at Umbreon. "I'll deal with him."
Disaster said nothing as he bounded silently out of the den. Umbreon steeled his resolve and prepared for a fight while trying to deny the inevitable. Moonlight had been inside the cave. There was no way she could have made it out in time.
Umbreon barely had time to finish this thought before Brightclaw leapt at him, fangs bared. He bounded away and into the shadow dimension just as she would have grabbed a purchase on his throat. He backed away from her as she, too, jumped into the same plane that he was on, landing with a Dark Pulse. Umbreon took it in stride and launched a charged-up Sludge Bomb that barely deterred her. The battle waged on, both opponents just as fast and powerful. Umbreon used a Dark Pulse that she easily avoided, followed quickly by her spraying poison at him with Toxic. Barely managing to dodge, he used Sludge Bomb again, already feeling the effects of being in the shadow dimension for so long, but he was not about to jump back and give her an opening to attack him without him being able to dodge. She took the full force of his attack, then used it against him with Payback.
Neither was gaining an edge. Both were perfectly matched in speed and ferocity. The battle continued, both Umbreons trading blow for blow and dodge for dodge. Brightclaw eventually managed to catch Umbreon with Toxic, something that his ability quickly spread to her. Now, both were being worn down by their existence in the shadow realm and the poison at the same time.
Finally, Brightclaw gained an edge. "I guess you are a terrible father! Helping Moonlight slip away to find my Clan's secret, only to die in a collapse at her own paws!"
The remark struck home. Umbreon paused at the exact wrong moment to have Brightclaw strike him dead in the shoulder with Payback, knocking him down. Umbreon tried to jump back to his paws, but Brightclaw was quicker, scoring him in the same place with her claws. Umbreon pulled a desperate ploy, rolling over to intercept her with bared claws and fangs, but she fired Dark Pulse while in the air, making him flinch as she aimed for his throat.
Suddenly, a glowing blur slammed full-force into Brightclaw, knocking her away and creating a shockwave of dark energy as the leader of the Clan of Darkness was thrown clear, falling through the wall of her own den with the force. Umbreon rolled back upright, staring at the third party battler. Black fur, a lithe build, black wisps of energy that spun off of their fur, and rings glowing so brilliantly blue it almost hurt to look at them in the dim lighting of the shadow dimension. She spun around, revealing eyes that were glowing just as brilliantly in a ghostly purple hue. "Dad, go! Get back into the real world before you have no energy to jump back!"
Umbreon stared in shock. "Moonlight!?"
"I said go!" she shouted back as Brightclaw jumped back through the wall, charging up a Dark Pulse and glaring daggers at Moonlight. Umbreon struggled to his paws and summoned what little strength he had left to make the jump as Moonlight leapt to dodge the attack, summoning all of the dark energy that floated around her and concentrating it into a glowing ball into front of her nose. She twisted her head around, hurling Shadow Ball in Brightclaw's general direction. Umbreon forced a hole open between the physical and shadowy worlds, landing just as the den was rocked by another explosion, much smaller than the first, but enough to bring down the half of the den that the two shiny Umbreons had been dueling in.
With no time to waste, Umbreon ripped open his berry pouch, swallowing a Pecha berry as soon as he could. He felt the poison dissipate as he anxiously watched the rubble. Both had been in the shadow dimension, so the rocks wouldn't have hurt them, but...
Finally, Moonlight jumped back into the real world. The dark energy that had returned to trailing wisps after her faded into the air as her eyes returned to their normal yellow color. "Dad! Are you ok?"
"I think so..." How had she done that? He had never seen anything so powerful.
"Brightclaw won't be a problem. I knocked her out..." she trailed off, suddenly swaying on her paws. Umbreon jumped up and tried to steady her.
Even with his help, her knees buckled and she collapsed on the floor of the den, yanked into a fitful sleep. "Moonlight?" Umbreon whispered to her, trying to wake her up. "MOONLIGHT!"
No comments:
Post a Comment