Pokemon: Arceus' Champion

"RUN!" I shouted as the next swarm of Beedrill, accompanied by the seven remaining Alphas, came right at us.

The girls didn't need to be told twice as we all dashed off through the trees, Misty and May in the lead, Dawn right behind them, and me in the rear with the Pokemon in case we needed to fight. This position also worked for me since the running was aggravating the wound on my chest, but the girls weren't able to see.

Pidgeot meanwhile was following us from the sky above even the Beedrill swarm, ready to swoop in the second we needed it. He was ready to attack now, but I kept having to tell him to stay away so he wouldn't get swarmed. I had no doubts about his strength, but as evident with Vespiquen, numbers could overwhelm even an Alpha.

"Over there!" I stated while shifting my direction towards a particularly thick copse of trees, which I hoped would discourage the swarm from chasing us.

*CRASH!*

The sound of numerous heavy impacts made me look back at the swarm, only to see the Alpha Beedrill literally drilling their way trough the trees in their path to get to us.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!!!" I exclaimed in frustration.

"What?!" May asked from in front, not daring to look back herself.

"You don't want to know." I told her grimly as we kept running.

And as we ran my chest felt as if it were on fire, wet and sticky fire, but fire nonetheless. It wasn't too hard to reach the conclusion that I couldn't keep going like this, as the constant movement would only ensure the blood covering my wound wouldn't dry, and would only continue bleeding.

"Ri?"

"Yeah. We're probably gonna have to fight..." I answered my partner as he asked how I was doing.

Even as I decided to fight I had to try and force myself to remain as calm as possible, as if my heart rate increased any more then it could become incredibly dangerous.

"Up there! There's a clearing ahead!" I cried out to the girls ahead of me.

*CRASH!*

"WAAAAAAAA!!!" Misty screamed as another tree came down beside us, prompting her and the others to increase their pace even more.

The second they cleared the tree line though, one of the Alpha Beedrill appeared before them and lunged at us with its stingers.

"RIOLU!" I cried to my partner, who moved faster than any is us could follow to appear between the girls and the Beedrill.

"RI!" Riolu cried out as he used the move Quick Guard to minimize the damage he'd take, right before the Beedrill's stinger impacted him right in the middle of his chest.

It was testament to the amount time Riolu had spent training that, even with an Alpha as an opponent, he didn't even flinch from the attack. Instead, Riolu began pushing BACK against the Beedrill before using the move Counter to send it flying.

"RI!" Riolu declared challengingly, before the sound of several blasts echoed through the air as something broke the sound barrier.

"PIDGEOT!" Roared a giant mass of feathers, as my trusty bird swooped in at such speeds that he practically obliterated the same Beedrill that Riolu had just used Counter against.

Immediately the attention of all six remaining Alphas were on the two of them, who were obviously the two most dangerous amongst us. Normally I'd count myself with them, but the current state of my chest stated otherwise.

"Riolu, Pidgeot, lure the Alphas into the skies to take care of them! We'll handle the rest down here!" I ordered the two of them, both of which directed looks at me that said they could handle them on their own, but neither said anything when they saw the look on my face.

"Ri!" Riolu exclaimed, before hopping up into Pidgeot's back right as the giant bird took off, with the remaining Alpha Beedrill following them.

And while the remaining Beedrill were stunned from seeing one of their powerful Alphas being defeated so easily, I quickly grabbed all of my Pokeballs, with the exception of Combee's, and tossed them up into the air.

"Come out everyone!" I shouted, before Squirtle, Treecko, Miltank, Sharpedo, Exeggcute, and Charmander made their appearance.

"Squirtle!"

"K-KOOO!"

"TANK!"

"Sharrrrrr."

""Ex!"" ""Egg!" ""Cute!""

"Char!"

All my Pokemon cried out their readiness to do battle against the Beedrill army, while behind me I could hear the cries of the Pokemon belonging to the girls as they made their appearance. Torchic, Tropius, Spheal, Baltoy, Skitty, Swablu, Piplup, Shinx, Budew, Glameow, Silcoon, Chatot all ready to fight, alongside Misty's Starmie, Poliwag, Psyduck, and Krabby.

"Go get them you guys!" Dawn cried out encouragingly.

"Get em! Get em! Get em!" May shrieked with fear.

"Squash all those nasty bugs!" Misty yelled with obvious malice.

I looked at my team as they all similarly looked at me in case I wanted to say anything to encourage them.

"Whoever defeats the most Beedrill will get to pick out the next TM I buy, along with their choice of carry item."

"""!!!"""

The effect of my words was instantaneous as my Pokemon immediately leapt into battle with relish, leaving the girls Pokemon in the dust and catching the still stunned Beedrill by surprise at their ferocity.

Leading the charge was Sharpedo, who shot forward by using Aqua Jet with her razor sharp teeth bared, and tore through any Beedrill unfortunate enough to get caught in her path. Even if they tried to protect themselves by using the move Harden, or tried to attack her back, they were still ripped to shreds by either her teeth, or the water coating her body along with her rough skin.

Right behind her was Miltank with a Rollout, which turned the usually docile dairy cow into a dangerous ball of razor sharp rock that only grew more dangerous as she continued rolling. The Beedrill tried to respond by flinging blobs of poisonous sludge in her path, but all it did was stick to the layer of rock covering her as it grew thicker and deadlier with each second.

Behind them Treecko powered himself up wth the moves Agility and Swords Dance, and was leaping from tree to tree. He was putting his ability to cling to them to use as he delivered numerous Pound and Quick Attacks from every direction, herding the Beedrill into a tight formation before unleashing a good Thunder Punch on them. I'm so glad I bought the reusable TMs.

Squirtle meanwhile had barely moved from his original position, and was instead filling the air with bubbles as he used the move Bubble Beam on the Beedrill. While not as 'drastic' as the others methods, he was still making them drop left and right as their paper-thin wings became saturated with water, rendering them unusable.

A short distant away Charmander was fighting back to back with Torchic, as both fire type starters peppered the surrounding Beedrill with their Ember attacks. Though a fairly weak fire type move, it still had a drastic effect on the Beedrill due to the fire type's advantage over the bug type.

Another one of my Pokemon with the type advantage was Exeggcute, who's psychic typing gave it an edge over the Beedrill's secondary type of poison. The small egg-like seeds were alternating between using the moves Hypnosis, which would put the Beedrill to sleep, and Confusion, which was a weak telekinetic attack that damaged the unconscious enemies.

"Keep it up!" I barked at them with a sharp voice, even as I created an aura barrier to protect Charmander from a particularly vicious looking Poison Jab.

As much as I wanted to go out there and join them in fighting the army of Beedrill, the wound on my chest prevented that. So, I had to be content with using my aura to protect my Pokemon when they needed it, letting them rampage more without having to worry about defense.

"Shinx, use Thunder Shock!" I heard Dawn cry as her electric type shocked a few dozen Beedrill after they'd been soaked from numerous water type attacks.

"Way to go Shinx!" Dawn cheered for her Pokemon, before Shinx was suddenly enveloped in a bright light. And when light faded Shinx had grown larger, and it's fur had become noticeably thicker.

"LUXOOOOOOO!" The newly evolved Luxio cried out in challenge, it's Intimidate ability activating as the Beedrill's will to fight lessened.

On the other side a similar commotion was taking place, as May's Torchic torched several Beedrill with its Ember.

"CHIC!!!" Torchic roared challengingly, before it too was enveloped in a bright light that faded to reveal that it had grown nearly three times in hight, and had longer wings that ended in pronounced claws.

"COMBUSKEEEEEEEEEEN!!!" The newly evolved Combusken cried out before launching itself forward as flames erupted over its entire body, which then exploded as it tackled one of the Beedrill, engulfing several of them in flames as well.

"ALRIGHT!" I heard May exclaim excitedly from seeing her starter evolve, and even I had to whistle lowly in appreciation as the newly evolved fire type started decimating the Beedrill numbers. I then said to my team,

"Let's go guys and gals! We can't lose to them!"

My team was fired up by my words and the two rapid evolutions as they started fighting as if their very lives depended on it, until we heard another squeal from Misty's direction.

"WHIRL!" The newly evolved Poliwhirl cried before shooting a powerful stream of bubbles at his opponents as Misty jumped up and down excitedly beside him.

Now they were REALLY fired up at yet another evolution, showing a ferocity and tenacity that I had never seen from them before, even when they all sparred with Riolu.

"SHARPEDO!" My tsundere shark roared as a mass of ice type energy formed near her mouth, before shooting it in a ray that froze everything it touched.

*crash!*

Numerous blocks of Beedrill encased within ice began falling to the ground with a thud. The Ice Beam didn't come without a cost though, as Sharpedo was practically running on fumes from having to constantly propel herself with her water jets, using up significantly more energy than she usually would. The fact that she was still mastering the move made it even worse.

She wasn't the only one.

Though they had made a lot of progress in last few days, many members of my team were already showing signs of exhaustion along with the girl's Pokemon. After all, a typical Pokemon battle was usually only one on one, or occasionally two on two. They weren't used to fighting a literal army like this.

Treecko was becoming increasingly tired from his rapid ninja-like movements, Squirtle was panting after spraying bubble streams nearly nonstop, Miltank ended her prolonged Rollout only to stagger unsteadily on her hooves, Exeggcute was straining after using their psychic abilities so much, and numerous cracks had begun spiderwebbing across their 'shells'.

The worst off was Charmander though, as he was only a few days old, and built nothing like a fighting type. While fighting types like Riolu were able to immediately test their limits even moments after birth, like he had against the Houndour, normal Pokemon usually took days or weeks to even come to grips with their abilities.

I could see my starter panting as his little arms and tail drooped slightly from exhaustion, the flame at the tip of his tail flickering slightly. It was nowhere enough to be an actual cause for concern, but I was still ready to return him to his Pokeball before I suddenly became light headed.

"Woah....." I groaned while trying to keep my balance, and spots danced before my eyes.

I immediately blamed the wound given to me by Vespiquen since I hadn't been able to treat it at all, instead being forced to leave it open to bleed at its leisure. And I'm pretty sure the exertion of running away from the army of Beedrill, coupled with the overuse of my aura, wasn't doing me any favors.

"Ace?" Dawn uttered with a worried tone.

"I'm alright..." I said while looking up at her.

"LOOK OUT!" I cried while forming a barrier of aura before the three Beedrill behind her could attack, stopping them in their tracks, but draining me further to the point where my vision started to blur.

"Squirtle!"

"Char!"

"KO!"

""""""EGG!""""""

"SHAR!"

"MILK!"

I heard my Pokemon cry out in alarm as they felt my condition through our link, while I could also feel Riolu and Pidgeot's concern despite their current distance.

"I'm ok..." I uttered even as I started stumbling slightly.

"I'm...." I tried to say as I fell to the ground, my aura barrier vanishing entirely as the Beedrill made a beeline right past Dawn, and rushed me.

My vision darkened as I heard numerous voices crying out my name, but they all sounded so distant while the Beedrill only got closer. But before everything went black, I saw what appeared to be a flash of light, followed by a roar.

"EXEGGUTOOOOOOOOOR!!!"

***

*Ring ring!*

"Pardon me for a second. Yes?" A well dressed man drawled as he answered his communication device.

"Boss. All the Vespiquen trackers have gone dark, and our projections say that the hive has been sufficiently weakened. We are moving on the True Alpha now with a team and the Omega weapon!" A smile appeared on the man's face when he heard the report, and he replied,

"Good good. I await news of your success!" And with that he ended the call, and placed the device back into his pocket as the elderly man sitting across from him asked,

"Good news I take it Giovanni?"

Giovanni looked back up at the older man and explained,

"One of my investments seems as if it's about to pay off." The older man nodded in contemplation as he said,

"Well that's good. Now, where were we again?"

"I believe you were about to ask me for more money President Silph." Giovanni reminded him with a dry tone, making the older man chuckle wryly.

"That may be the case, but please don't mistake me for a beggar Giovanni. I do wish to ask if you'd be willing to increase your investment into Silph Co, but not without good reason."

"Oh? And what reason is that? What are you working that requires you to shamelessly ask for more money mister president?"

The older man glanced around shiftily at the question, before leaning in close as if to avoid being overheard, piquing Giovanni's curiosity.

"We can't spread the details, lest those despicable Rockets hear about the project, but I believe it's safe to tell you Giovanni. We are working on a pokeball that, if our calculations are correct, will even be able to capture Legendary Pokemon!"

Giovanni's expression sharpened as he gave the president his utmost attention, and said, "Tell me more."