Child of Thorns - A Pokemon Sinnoh Reimagining

Mt. Coronet's peak was a warzone. Barely anything could be seen or heard amidst the chaos and the sounds of battle. Screams echoed, explosions boomed through the air and pieces of the ground itself exploded everywhere as attacks connected or went astray, bodies of Pokemon littering the battlefield all over. Whenever one would go down, another would take its place, throwing itself at their enemy with renewed ferocity. They fought like beasts possessed, the beating of their hearts echoing as one like the drums of war.

The air was thick with flames and electricity and bursts of dark energy, leaving little space for M3 to move around in. And yet it did. Like smoke filtering through one's fingers, it zipped about at lightning speed in between attacks with more and more difficulty each time.

A bolt of electricity shot through the air, forcing M3 to veer down to avoid it and sending it straight into the path of Aggron's punch. Swiftly, it spun around in mid air and stopped it with its bare hand. As the sheer weight and momentum of the punch exploded around them, a pair of thick vines cut through the air at M3's left, closing around its left leg and arm.

"Now!" a scream rung through the air.

Three massive figures broke through the thick cloud of dust, and M3 found itself surrounded. It instinctively tried to raise a barrier around itself but a quick Brick Break from a bloodied Electivire shattered it into a hundred little slivers. Crimson eyes beset it from the right and left, and it barely had time to look as Steelix and Gyarados opened their maws and shot dual Hyper Beams at point blank.

The attacks collided, and light and force burned through the thick cloud of dust that had risen, dispelling it in an instant with a shockwave that not even the gigantic serpent-like beasts could endure. As they were thrown back by the strength of their own attacks, the light from the clash started to dissipate. All trainers looked up with bated breath, hoping.

"Did…?" Roark squinted through the blinding light as he and Aerodactyl flew back a bit. "Did we get i–?"

His question was answered quickly, with a blink of purple light that burst inches from him. M3 materialized, and Roark soon found himself face to face with the creature, a sudden, piercing fear falling down his throat to his stomach.

"W-wh–!"

M3 raised its hand toward him, but a blur of light and motion crashed against it from the side, earning a pained grunt from the creature. The beam only touched it for a moment before it blinked out of existence again, but that moment was all Roark and Aerodactyl needed to fly away, their sudden brush with death sending shivers down their spine. Gulping, Roark looked to the side, toward his savior. Gardenia kneeled atop her Jumpluff, whose cottony puffs were still glowing from firing that Solar Beam.

"Eyes up, knucklehead," she teased. "I'm not having any of my coworkers die today, got it?"

Despite the shock and panic still wracking through him, Roark found himself smiling.

"Heh… yeah, sorry about that," he said, looking toward the opposite end of the battlefield, where M3 had materialized. "Guess it's time I start pulling my weight here."

"Ha! Look at you, acting all responsible in front of a lady!"

His father's voice, as usual, echoed loudly. He and Gardenia turned around as Byron and his trusty Skarmory joined them in the sky, the man choosing to stand atop him instead of sitting like a normal person would. And, of course, he still had that god-forsaken shovel hoisted over his shoulder.

"Can't believe that's my own son I'm hearing," the man joked. "And to think you're the one that never wanted to be a Gym leader to begin with."

"What can I say? Guess I'm feeling a bit self-conscious," Roark shrugged. "It'll be bad PR for Oreburgh if I don't go all out here."

In unison, father and son grabbed their last Pokeball and opened it, the dual flash of light materializing into a Kabutops and a Magnezone, the former standing atop the latter.

"We came up here to provide air support, so I reckon it's 'bout time we do that," said Byron. "Missy, have that bean of yours ready to tangle that thing with vines! Magnezone will zap it as soon as tries to teleport!"

"Right!" Gardenia roared. "Let's go!"

The four flying Pokemon shot through the air in dizzying, zigzagging trails as they dodged the volley of attacks shooting up and disappearing into the distance. Roark winced at the sudden speed, trying to keep tabs on their enemy. There, not too far from them, M3 blinked out and reappeared back behind them, near Wake and Volkner. Gyarados and Jolteon immediately shot up to intercept it, but M3 was much faster. With a single swipe of its hand, it released a psychic shockwave that sent both Pokemon flying away as though they were made of paper. They crashed against the snow, half buried in it, and did not move again.

"Shit! Luxray!" Volkner cried out. "Use–!"

A Hydropump and a Psybeam were shot by Wake and Fantina's Pokemon, and Luxray chose that moment to jump and attack as well, its black fur gleaming with electricity. M3, however, was too quick. It blinked out just as the two attacks converged, and the force and steam were enough to momentarily blind Luxray.

M3 appeared inches from Volkner's face, hand raised. It brought it down against him a–

"Thunderbolt!"

Magnezone's attack clashed against what seemed like solid air and arced off in all directions, M3 having been quick enough to put a barrier around itself. That'd have to be fixed, Roark decided.

"Rampardos!" he cried out. "Head Smash!"

Far below, a roar echoed through the ground itself as the massive Pokemon stampeded straight for M3, its head down, ready to strike.

The impact was enough to shatter the barrier, but only barely. With most of its momentum stopped by it, M3 took advantage and shot itself forward, slamming a half-formed ball of psychic energy straight onto Rampardos' face. The explosion threw his massive weight back and blew off one of its horns and a part of the rocky shell protecting its head, earning a growl of pain from the Rampardos.

M3 was not done, however. Not wasting an instant, it threw itself on top of the collapsed Pokemon and started battering its chest with a barrage of machine-gun punches, each one echoing like a boulder cracking as more and more pieces of Rampardos' rocky exterior started flying off, accompanied by small spurts of blood the deeper M3 went.

"Stop!" Roark yelled, furious. "Get away from h–!"

He got M3's attention. With a slight look over its shoulder, the creature blinked out and then reappeared high up in the air, facing the three airborne Gym leaders and their Pokemon just as another pair of attacks converged in his previous location. Roark found himself grimacing. That'd been the second time now that this fucking lab experiment had pierced through his Pokemon's defenses. He couldn't let that stand.

Instinctively, all four of them shot forward but in different directions, hoping to overwhelm their opponent.

"Fan out!" Byron yelled. "We have t–"

It was instantaneous. M3 simply raised its hand and waved it lazily, and the three Gym leaders heard… something in the air. A sudden echoing. As though something invisible had appeared before them.

By the time they saw the shimmer in the air and realized it was a barrier, it was too late. They were flying too quickly.

"Shit! Sto–!"

Multiple sounds of crashing and cracking echoed through the air, loud and visceral. Aerodactyl was the only one fast enough to avoid slamming into the barrier, and it'd taken a veer so strong and sudden that Roark had almost flown off his back and onto the ground below.

His vision swam, a spiral of white and black and orange that made his lunch rise up to his throat. He swallowed it down somehow, and looked around in a panicked haze. Was M3… no, it wasn't flying straight for him. He could hear sounds, screams and attacks, but what had… where were his dad and Gardenia? Where–

He finally saw them down below, next to what he first assumed were snow banks, but must have been actually formed by the force of the impact. His heart sank. Jumpluff and Skarmory lay unconscious, crackles of psychic energy arching off their bodies, as though they'd crashed into a giant bug zapper. Gardenia was collapsed against her Pokemon, nose broken, lips and chin soaked with blood. Byron lay on his back, coughing up mouthfuls of dirt and snow. His right arm was bent unnaturally behind him, the bone shattered.

"D-dad…"

An explosion rung behind him. Still only barely hanging onto his Aerodactyl, Roark glanced over his shoulder and paled at the sight of Wake's Gyarados falling on top of the man himself, crushing him. M3 turned around and caught a Shadow Ball from Gengar with its bare hand, then threw it back at the ghost's face with enough strength to vaporize a third of her body. Fantina screamed something in horror. Not missing a beat, the creature blinked in and out of existence, reforming high in the middle of the battlefield, surveying it for its next prey.

Its gaze fell on Byron and Gardenia. Roark's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to scream but M3 was already moving, flying through the air with a ball of pulsing energy in each hand.

"DAD!"

Aerodactyl needed no further orders. The fastest of his Pokemon by far, it actually closed the distance quicker than M3 could, ready to intercept it mid-flight, maw open and brimming with dark energy.

"Get away from him!" Roark yelled, completely out of himself. "Don't you dare to–!"

The change of movement was sudden, almost instinctual. M3 stopped its flight completely and snapped to look at Roark with a speed that would've surely hurt its neck. Not that the Gym leader had much time to consider that, because a second after the creature had blinked out and right in front of them.

"Wh–!"

Thin, boney fingers closed around Roark's collar, lifting him up as though he weighed nothing. Aerodactyl started a screech of protest, but it was swiftly interrupted. A simple wave of its free hand and M3 sent it down with the speed of a cannonball, making him go splat against the ground.

"A-Aer…Agh!"

Roark strained his sight, but it was getting blurrier with every moment that passed, the sheer unbridled pressure M3 exuded too much for him. He couldn't hear anything. Why weren't the others attacking? Were they all already…?

M3's grip tightened. Not on his collar, but all throughout Roark's body. It felt like an invisible force pressing against every single atom in his body, stealing his breath and making the edges of his vision start to blacken. He gasped and looked down, his gaze meeting that of the creature. Red, cold, thoughtless. And most likely, the last thing he would ever see.

D-dammit… is this how it…?

His vision, darkened and blurry as it was, caught something far and behind M3. A figure. A massive creature, slowly approaching. It was a silhouette he had no trouble recognizing.

Despite the feeling of his entire body being squished, Roark found himself smiling.

"Ghk… ha… you know…"

M3 relaxed its grip for a moment, the act of hearing its victim speak confusing it. It looked up at Roark, and saw a pained smile across his lips.

"I don't often get a chance to s-show off… being the lowest-ranked Gym leader and all…" The words were strained, but he forced them out, his smile exacerbating. "So I guess I should thank you."

He looked down, past M3, and bellowed.

"Night Slash!"

He heard the jump from below, and knew that his prayer was answered. A blur whistled through the air, a streak of brown and silver that M3 was too distracted to react to. It was only an instant. Roark saw the Kabutops' scythe as it made an arc upwards, slashing through the creature's arm.

For the shortest instant, nothing happened. Then, with a 'Pop!', the hand holding Roark came off at the wrist, falling alongside the Gym leader while a spurt of pale yellow blood came out of the gaping wound. M3 looked down at it with genuine confusion, yet strangely no pain.

Then, it felt eyes on its back. A massive, powerful presence.

In the short second before Roark landed, he looked up with squinted eyes and chuckled to himself, giving one last order before consciousness left him.

"Light him up."

M3 turned around sharply, but all it saw was a pair of massive crimson eyes and the vague outline of the Tyranitar it had thought defeated, covered entirely by the blinding light exuding from within its maw.

Then, white. Tyranitar opened his mouth and fired a Hyper Beam point blank at M3.

There was no escape, no time to raise a barrier. M3 was swallowed by a pillar of white that easily dwarfed it in size, burning through its body with every last ounce of power and might left inside its opponent. The boom and roar of the attack shook the sky itself, and after a single moment nothing could be seen of the creature within except for a vague black silhouette.

The light vanished quickly, suddenly, like a candle's flame going out after its strongest burst, leaving behind only a charred, smoking silhouette, mired in the stench of burnt flesh. M3 hung in the air for an instant that felt eternal, then began to fall.

Looking from below, the few Gym leaders that remained conscious sprung to action. Instinctively, fueled by nothing but panic. Their screams cut through that short-lived silence and their Pokemon rose to answer that call, wounded and bloodied as they were, putting what little strength they had into one last assault.

"Constrict!" Byron yelled, barely conscious, flat against the ground.

Steelix erupted from within the ground and slithered in a circle below the falling M3. Right before it touched the ground, the steel serpent closed the noose, coiling around the body with enough force to shatter bones, preventing it from escaping. Immediately, two other screams rung out.

"Thunder!"

"Shadow Ball!"

Dusknoir and Electivire shot toward Steelix from opposite directions, arms extended forward. Hemmed in shadows and thunder, the two Pokemon slammed their hands against the front and back of M3's face and released every ounce of energy left in them, creating a swirling pillar of light and darkness that exploded off the point of impact like a hurricane, swallowing M3 completely.

Despite being caught in the attack as well, Steelix did not give way. Inhaling deep, the Pokemon threw its maw down and spat a massive torrent of flames point-blank at M3's head, adding to the already stunning cyclone of power. It burst into a massive explosion, arcs of black and yellow and red dancing amidst each other as they climbed up and up, past the clouds and even higher, like a tower of pure light falling from the heavens.

Fantina, Volkner and Byron were almost thrown back by the force of the explosion, and when the light finally faded what they saw was barely a figure, barely a round, scorched mass that was M3's head, surrounded on all sides by Pokemon that were now utterly spent of power, yet still held it in place as though their lives depended on it.

Then, a familiar voice rang through the air.

"And now down you go, bastard."

Candice shot up from the shadow Steelix cast over its own body, one hand raised, holding Lucas' needle-like device. She spared M3 only as glance before bringing it down with all her strength.

But it never pierced its target. It was only a small crack in between two of Steelix' body segments, only a moment of the beast relaxing its grip from pain and exhaustion, yet it was still enough room for M3 to move its one remaining arm. It shot up like a bullet, sharp and precise. The charred fingers closed tightly around Candice's wrist, stopping it in place before she could inject it.

Then M3 looked up and to the side, its skin and muscles flaking off into ash, its eyes smoking and bubbling as they melted inside their own sockets. Yet they still saw, and they still focused on Candice's face.

In that moment, despite being bonded with two legends, Candice felt true fear grip at her heart.

A light shone. It filtered through the mountain of bodies around M3, arching off in little rays that grew and grew, until the light was so bright and potent that little else could be seen. It was like a miniature sun had suddenly appeared in between them.

Then the light became a storm, an explosion of motion and force that tore through the entirety of the mountain's peak like fire burning through paper, swallowing every human and Pokemon in its path.

By the time Fantina opened her eyes again, all she could see was smoke and dust and… light?

She coughed, and the blood splattered against the ground inches from her face. Slowly, painfully, she pushed herself until she was on her hands and knees, and looked up.

"Wh… Sanbica?"

Her daughter stood in front of her, hands raised as though to shield against the previous attack. She… no, not only she but Fantina as well, they were both… surrounded by what almost looked like a creature made out of starlight, a glowing shell of a figure. A…

"S-shield?"

Sanbica let go of the breath she'd been holding, and immediately fell, all strength gone from her limbs. Fantina shot up and caught her, almost falling herself in the process. Mother and daughter held each other on their knees, breathing heavily, covered in dust and grime and blood.

"Was that…" Fantina swallowed. "Was that your Guardian Star?"

A sound halfway between a chuckle and a cough left Sanbica's lips. Blood began running down her chin.

"It's… all I could do," she whispered. "Told you… I can't have you die. You still…"

Sanbica's shaking fingers pressed against her hand, against the thin golden ring around her finger. A ring that wasn't there the last time they'd seen each other.

"You still got a promise to keep. Someone to come back to," Sanbica smiled. "Me, though… ha. Think I might've bitten more than I could chew with this one."

Fantina swallowed, then glanced up at everything around her.

"You're not the only one."

Even through the expansive cloud of smoke covering it all, Fantina could see that no one had escaped unscathed, not even Mt. Coronet itself. A deep, smoking crater now lay under the Pokemon and Gym leaders alike, each one with the exception of Fantina laying scattered across its surface, limp and unmoving, soaked in their own blood. She didn't want to confirm it by looking, but a few of them might not have been breathing anymore.

And there, floating above the center of the crater, was their enemy. Not unscathed, but definitely still alive.

"Y-you can't be serious…"

M3's body was covered in a pale, gentle glow, one that Fantina recognized too well. Its severed hand was slowly starting to regrow, and she could've sworn she saw its charred skin flaking off one speck at a time, revealing another healed layer below.

"It's healing itself," she whispered, all hope gone from her voice. "It's…"

But she couldn't finish speaking. Partly because the words wouldn't come, partly because just then M3 turned to look at them, noticing that they were still alive. Still conscious.

It didn't rush to attack. Instead, it simply raised its remaining hand above its head, and a black sphere of energy began to form above its palm. She could tell this was different from the ones before. It was smaller, yet it beat powerfully as though it were the sky's heartbeat, exuding an incredible pressure.

It silenced all around it, stealing breath and sound and light, until only it could be heard. Seeing it, Fantina knew. There would be no blocking, no escaping from this one. If it touched the ground they stood on, it would mean death.

Fantina breathed out, tired. She looked down at her daughter, then closed her eyes tight and simply waited for the impact.

But it didn't come. Instead, a distant yet powerful voice broke through the unnatural silence and pressure, slicing through them like a knife on paper.

"Heed my call…"

Fantina's eyes shot open to the sight of a white, furious flame cutting through the air toward M3.

"…Moltres, the Flame of Cinnabar!"

The impact threw the creature off-balance, and the sphere of energy went flying off into the distance, travelling like a bullet and exploding a couple miles down the mountain. Even from so far, the ground still shook under their feet and a massive current of wind clashed against the clearing they were in, dispelling the smoke and dust in a flash.

And what she saw there, Fantina could hardly believe. Reiko stood in the center of the crater, dancing white and blue and red flames around her, wings of light exuding from her back. But she was not alone. Four figures, four people stood on the edges of the crater around her, looking up at the startled, weakened M3.

Fantina laughed, deep, wholeheartedly.

"What the hell took you so long?"

Lucian smiled, but he did not take his eyes off their enemy. Neither did Bertha, Flint or Aaron.

"I apologize for our tardiness. We had a… hitchhiker of sorts to pick up on the way," he said, glancing down at Reiko. "But worry not. The situation is in our hands now."

In unison, the Elite Four threw their Pokeballs up in the air, and the massive flash of light was enough to even momentarily blind M3. As a small army materialized around them, other distant sounds could be heard. Wings beating. The whirr of propeller blades. A second after, a multitude of helicopters and flying Pokemon shot up through the clouds, forming a protective circle around Mt. Coronet's peak.

"Squads one through five, retrieve all wounded and take them to safety!" Lucian yelled out, extending one hand forward. "Squads six through ten, have those dark Pokemon break the barrier separating us from Spear Pillar! Reiko, Bertha, Aaron and Flint…!"

Lucian's eyes, previously hidden by the glint of his glasses, came into view as he glared down at the confused M3 without a hint of mercy.

"...Dispose of the target."