章 1124: The Boy and the Black Leader’s Death
Six Aegislash formed a ring around the Primordial Suicune, not launching any attacks but purely using their shield form to defense. No matter how hard Suicune tried, it couldn't break through their defense.
The Aegislash were originally master-level Pokémon, and although their abilities had diminished somewhat after being cloned, they remained formidable. Even though Suicune was a legendary beast, defeating them in a short amount of time would be no easy feat.
Watching Suicune trapped within the Aegislash's encirclement, the Black Leader hesitated. He knew it was only a matter of time before Suicune broke through their defenses, especially given the short lifespan of the cloned Aegislash.
But should he flee? And what about the mission to the Temple of the Sea if he ran away?
The Black Leader glanced at the bounded Shep family and May, then at the unconscious Manaphy in his hands. Gritting his teeth, he thought, I'll just take Manaphy and the girl. Forget the others!
After monitoring the Marina Group for so long, the Black Leader already knew everything he needed. Since he couldn't take everyone, he would focus on the key targets.
With that in mind, the Black Leader approached May, reaching out to grab her.
"What are you doing?"
May backed away in fear, but the Black Leader yanked her toward him. Jack tried to intervene, but the Black Leader kicked him aside, and the tied-up Shep family could do nothing to help.
After grabbing May, the Black Leader released a Skarmory and, with both May and the unconscious Manaphy in tow, mounted the bird. After Walrein had been defeated by Jack, Skarmory was the only usable Pokémon he had left.
"Where are you taking me? Let me go!" May struggled, refusing to get on the bird. Annoyed, the Black Leader grew frustrated.
"Shut up!"
Without patience, he knocked her out with a sharp blow, and May slumped weakly onto Skarmory's back.
"Sis! Sis! You bad guy, what did you do to my sister?" Max sobbed as he watched May collapse.
"Without us, you won't find the Temple of the Sea, even if you take May and Manaphy!" Shep called out, trying to stop the Black Leader.
"Hmph!" The Black Leader scoffed, completely disregarding Shep's words. To be safe, he also confiscated Jack's Capture Styler. With few Pokémon left at his disposal, a tool to control wild Pokémon would be invaluable out at sea.
As Skarmory took flight with the Black Leader and May, Gon, riding on Suicune, observed the scene and alerted Suicune. "Suicune, I'll use Teleport with Alakazam to help you break through the encirclement. You stop that man from escaping with the hostages!"
As soon as Gon finished speaking, Suicune, Alakazam, and Gon vanished, reappearing in front of the Black Leader. Without hesitation, Suicune unleashed a Hydro Pump toward Skarmory.
Skarmory narrowly dodged the attack, and just as Suicune prepared to strike again, the Black Leader grabbed the unconscious May and shouted, "One more move, and I'll snap this girl's neck!"
Hearing this, Suicune hesitated, the attack it had been charging dissipating. It had no qualms about striking down evildoers, but it couldn't bring itself to risk the life of an innocent human.
"Despicable!" Gon growled in anger.
The Black Leader wasn't fazed by Gon's insult. He eyed Gon and Alakazam with hostility, feeling they were the ones preventing his escape. If not for them, he'd be long gone by now.
In just a few moments, the six Aegislash closed in again, trapping Suicune within their circle once more. Seeing this, the Black Leader was about to order Skarmory to leave.
Just at that moment, the Black Leader suddenly felt himself bound by an invisible force. Skarmory flapped its wings but couldn't manage to fly away.
Turning around, he saw that Gon and Alakazam's eyes were glowing with intense purple light—it was their psychic powers holding him in place!
"You again, kid!"
The Black Leader, enraged, pulled out a black Poké Ball, releasing his final ace: the cloned Suicune. He had been reluctant to use it, knowing how difficult it would be to clone another, but now he had no choice.
As soon as the cloned Suicune appeared, it joined the battle between the original Suicune and the Aegislash. The Aegislash handled defense while the cloned Suicune focused on offense.
"Suicune, I suggest you stop resisting, or I'll really have to harm this girl! And you, brat, let go of me right now!" The Black Leader tightened his grip on May's neck, threatening the original Suicune.
Hearing this, Gon and Alakazam reluctantly withdrew their psychic powers. A hint of fury flickered in Suicune's normally calm eyes.
Under the Black Leader's hostage threat, Suicune found itself increasingly hampered in the fight. Eventually, it was gravely injured by a Psychic attack reflected back by the cloned Suicune's Mirror Coat.
Mirror Coat reflects special attacks with double the force, meaning Suicune had been struck by its own full-power attack at twice the strength.
"Suicune! Are you alright?"
Seeing Suicune injured, Gon anxiously asked.
Suicune gave Gon a reassuring look before continuing to fight against the six Aegislash and the cloned Suicune, despite its severe injuries.
Watching Suicune wounded, the Black Leader sensed it was time to make his escape. If he waited until the cloned Suicune and Aegislash's lifespans ran out, he wasn't sure if he could flee with just his Skarmory.
Due to the Black Leader's threats, Gon couldn't make a move against him. He could only assist Suicune with Alakazam in fending off the cloned Suicune's attacks. However, with limited strength, their efforts had little effect on the outcome of the battle.
Seeing the Black Leader preparing to leave again, Suicune shot a glance at Gon, signaling him to stop worrying about it and escape with Alakazam.
But Gon misinterpreted Suicune's intent, thinking it wanted him to track the Black Leader. So, he and Alakazam used Teleport to break free from the encirclement and pursued the Black Leader as he fled.
Due to repeatedly using Teleport and assisting Suicune in its battle with the cloned Suicune, Gon and Alakazam's psychic powers were severely drained. Unlike before, they couldn't mask their presence as they tracked Suicune, and they were quickly spotted by the Black Leader.
"You little brat! I may not be able to handle Suicune, but I can certainly take care of you!" The Black Leader ordered Skarmory to attack Gon, truly enraged by him.
Fully aware of the Black Leader's strength, Gon knew that even though the man only had Skarmory left, he couldn't afford to be careless. He released all of his Pokémon: Alakazam, Xatu, Raichu, Gallade, Metagross, and Espeon. Together, they surrounded the Black Leader and Skarmory.
With Gon's psychic powers enhancing his six Psychic-type Pokémon, their combined mental pressure weighed heavily on the Black Leader and Skarmory, as if they had been caught in a swamp.
"Skarmory... Skarmory..."
Skarmory let out an unpleasant screech, struggling violently. Its excessive movements flung both the Black Leader and May off its back and into the sea.
Now free from the burden of the Black Leader and May, Skarmory began to counterattack, pushing back against Gon and the six Psychic-type Pokémon's mental pressure.
"Skarmory Skarmory … Skarmory…"
With all its strength, Skarmory flapped its wings, releasing beams of silver light that shot toward the six Psychic-type Pokémon surrounding it. Skarmory, being at a higher level than Gon's Pokémon and resistant to Psychic-type moves, successfully broke free from their mental restraints using Flash Cannon.
Already mentally exhausted, Gon felt an intense headache from Skarmory's counterattack. The strain of linking his mind with six Pokémon at once was already overwhelming, and now, suffering backlash, his psychic power spiraled out of control, sending him plummeting from the sky toward the ocean.
As luck would have it, Gon landed directly on the Black Leader's head, who was already struggling in the water. The impact knocked the Black Leader out, causing his black mask to fall off his face.
The psychic backlash rendered Gon unconscious as well.
However, in the moment before he passed out, a red flame mark suddenly appeared on Gon's once unmarked forehead. It was identical to the one Ho-oh had left there long ago.
Back then, the flame mark had vanished after Ho-oh restored Gon's psychic abilities, but now it had reappeared!
Due to the psychic backlash, the six Pokémon linked to Gon were also affected, causing them to falter under Skarmory's assault. The strongest among them, Gallade, took the brunt of the attack.
One by one, Gon's six Pokémon were defeated by Skarmory. But Skarmory didn't escape unscathed either—its steel body was covered in wounds.
Fortunately for Skarmory, it wasn't a cloned Pokémon, or it would have suffered the same fate as the cloned Aegislash from before.
Exhausted, Skarmory picked up the unconscious May, Black Leader, and Manaphy, then decided to grab Gon as well. With them all secured on its back, it flew away, leaving the unconscious Pokémon floating on the ocean surface.
The six Pokémon drifted along, with Metagross slowly sinking into the depths. Just then, a passing Wailord came by and, out of kindness, lifted them onto its back, even rescuing the sinking Metagross.
After some time, the six Pokémon woke up on Wailord's back, realizing that it had saved them. They expressed their gratitude to Wailord.
After some discussion, the Pokémon decided that Alakazam would return to Lilycove City to seek help from Hill, while the other five stayed behind to search for the Black Leader and Gon.
Meanwhile, the badly injured original Suicune had managed to outlast the six Aegislash and the cloned Suicune, eventually defeating them and rescuing the tied-up Shep's family and Jack.
However, just after saving them, Suicune collapsed, and Jack hurried to administer first aid.
As Skarmory flew over the ocean with the Black Leader, May, Gon, and Manaphy, it grew increasingly weary. It flew for an unknown amount of time before finally spotting a small island. The moment it landed on the island, Skarmory passed out.
On the flat sandy beach, a Skarmory, a middle-aged man, a young monk, a girl, and a Manaphy lay silently as the waves lapped at the shore, wetting their bodies.
The island was desolate, with no signs of life except for the occasional Krabby scuttling across the sand.
After some time, a rustling sound came from the nearby bushes, followed by the appearance of a young boy, shirtless and wearing nothing but a grass skirt around his waist, accompanied by a Croagunk.
Seeing the people and Pokémon lying on the beach, the boy and Croagunk were both shocked. After exchanging glances, they dragged everyone to shore.
Before this, the island had only been home to the boy and Croagunk, with no other living beings. The boy himself hadn't been on the island for long.
The boy didn't know who he was or where he came from. Occasionally, strange images flashed in his mind, but he wasn't sure if they were his memories or not.
He had washed ashore on the island atop some unknown object, and it was Croagunk who woke him up. Croagunk had lived alone on the island, longing for companionship, so it quickly became friends with the boy.
After dragging the three people and two Pokémon to the shelter he shared with Croagunk, the boy sat down on the ground, panting. He looked at the unconscious middle-aged man nearby and felt like he should know him because the man's face sometimes appeared in the flashes of memory in his head.
Croagunk also examined the middle-aged man, noting how strikingly similar he looked to the boy—one youthful, the other aged.
At that moment, the unconscious Black Leader suddenly opened his eyes. His expression was confused at first, but as soon as he got a clear look at the boy's face, terror filled his eyes.
He pointed at the boy in disbelief and asked, "Who... who are you?" Why do you look exactly like me when I was young?
Before he could finish the last part of his question, the Black Leader clutched his head in agony, howling in pain. The sight of the boy's face had caused his memories to spiral into chaos.
The Black Leader's memories all stemmed from a chip implanted in his brain. The boy's appearance had thrown the chip into disarray, triggering memories that the White Leader had once erased.
"Ahhh…"
The Black Leader writhed on the ground, clutching his head in pain.
"Who am I? Who are you? This can't be… this can't be happening!"
The Black Leader's wails grew louder and louder, frightening the boy, who instinctively stepped back. But just as the boy tried to retreat, the Black Leader suddenly fixed him with a murderous glare.
Ceasing his wailing, the Black Leader lunged at the boy, gripping his throat and shouting, "You shouldn't exist! You must die! ... No, no, I shouldn't exist either…"
The boy's face turned blue from lack of oxygen as the Black Leader squeezed his neck.
To save his friend, Croagunk came up behind the Black Leader and struck him on the back of the head with a chop.
Unbeknownst to Croagunk, its chop landed precisely where the memory chip had been implanted in the Black Leader's brain. Already malfunctioning, the chip was completely disconnected by the blow, and the Black Leader died instantly.
He was dead!
"Cough cough… Is he… is he dead?" the boy asked, gasping for air, his voice filled with fear.
Croagunk didn't know what had happened either. It hadn't even used much force—so how could this person be dead?
At the moment of the Black Leader's death, far away at the headquarters of the Heaven Organization, the White Leader's face suddenly changed dramatically. On the instrument panel in front of him, the light representing the Black Leader abruptly dimmed.
Thirteen was dead?
The White Leader didn't really care whether Thirteen lived or died. If necessary, he could always activate Fourteen. But the memory chip inside Thirteen couldn't be lost. Without it, wouldn't his brother be lost forever?
He could clone his brother's body, but there was only one set of his memories!
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