Inner Strength part 21

Inner Strength part 21

Ash quickly looked around for a door knob or a door handle of some kind on the door. However, all he could find was a flat-panel-looking object right in the center of the door.
Ash looked at the panel a bit more. . .then raised up his paw and tried to place it over the panel, but because of his height, Ash had to ask Bayleef to lift him up a bit higher so he could reach the panel.
When his paw was on it, the panel began to glow blue. A straight, thin, blue line went over Ash’s paw, moving from the top and down to the bottom. After only a few seconds, the panel stopped glowing and the line disappeared, then a soft, negative-sounding beep was heard.
Ash told Bayleef to let him back down. “It must be a hand scanner,” he said. Well. . .what do I do now? I can’t open the door, my paw doesn’t have the right hand print.
“Ash!” urged Bayleef from behind, forcing Ash away from his thoughts. “I don’t want to be just standing here when we know that we are being chased! Come on, lets go!”
“Just. . .hold on a second,” said Ash. “I need to do this. Some friends of mine are in there.”
“Who? How do you know that?”
“My friend Misty and Misty II,” explained Ash, still looking up and down the door, trying to find some other way of opening it. “I know they have to be here because this is where they put me when I was here.”
Now a bunch of questions welled up inside of Bayleef. “You where here before? When? What happened? Were you hurt? Are you a part of these people? Do you mean your old friend, Misty, is in there?”
Ash turned around, annoyed at her. “Yes! Misty is in there, along with another friend of mine! Now, if you will please help me find a way to open this door, Bayleef!”
Ash had not realized how loud he brought his voice up. Apparently, the tone and annoyance in his voice scarred Bayleef. . .She was giving him those same exact eyes that she had when he defeated that whole group of thugs and their Pokémon. The poor gal was even taking a few steps away from her trainer.
Ash saw this and tried to calm himself down, he didn’t want to scare away his friend. . .especially not now when he needs her the most. “Bayleef. . .I’m sorry. . .I didn’t mean to. . .”
Bayleef blinked and looked away. “It’s okay. . .You’re worried about your friends. . .that’s all.” She tightened the vines a bit around Xander’s small body, just to make sure that he wouldn’t have the slightest chance of falling off of her, but also making sure that the Pichu is still comfortable.
Ash sighed. There’s no use. Might as well just hurry up and open this door. He turned around and faced the door again. He could try force. . .
With paws clenched, Ash pulled all of the little strength he had left from inside of himself. . .then threw his small, yellow fist straight at the door. There was a soft CLUNK as flesh and metal slammed against each other. . .but nothing happened. The door didn’t magically open and not even a dent was to be seen from where Ash had just punched.
Ash dropped down to one knee, grasping his now throbbing paw, and yelled from the pain. Bayleef just shook her head. “I swear, Ash. Every single day, you just get even more clumsy and stupid. What are you expecting to do here? Break down the door?”
Ash tried to sustain his yell, but was only able to force it down into a loud groan. “M-maybe.” Ash groaned again. “I fought all of those Team Aqua guys all by myself over there. . .so, I thought, maybe. . .I could do this.”
Bayleef shook her head again. “I’m not sure why you thought you could do that. Look Ash, it’s a metal door and probably is a machine, even I know that machines start acting weird if you just shock it.”
“Shock it?” asked Ash.
“Yeah. You are a Pikachu now. How you became one, I don’t know, but that’s not the point. You should be able to use electricity, right?” suggested Bayleef.
Ash scratched the back of his head and looked away. This made Bayleef frown.
“Don’t tell me. . .”
Ash sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know how to use electricity. I’ve tried and tried again, but nothing seems to work! I just can’t do it!”
Bayleef eyed Ash for a bit, then looked back at the door. She still had a hard time trying to believe that any electric type Pokémon had difficulty using electricity, even if it was Ash.
Well, if Ash can’t do anything, then maybe she can. Bayleef unwrapped one of the vines that was around Xander and held it over her head, getting ready to slam it down.
But before she did. . .she quickly asked herself, Should I do this? I mean, Ash’s girlfriend is in there. As much as Misty was a friend to me, she still keeps Ash away from me. Then again, she is a friend. . .a close friend, both to me and Ash.
Before Bayleef could ponder it anymore, she slammed her vine against the metal door.
THUD.
Again, nothing happened. The door remained still. Bayleef sighed and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Ash. . .there’s nothing I can really do. . .”
Ash didn’t know what else to do either, but he just would not let himself leave Misty and Misty II.
“There’s gotta be something!” said Ash, raising his voice.
Bayleef just stayed quiet.
Ash tried to think. What could he do to break down that door? Maybe he just needed some more force. Before Ash knew it, his paw was fingering the button on his forehead.
No! Ash told himself. You remember what Bob said! You’ve just about used all your’s up!
This was just getting Ash frustrated. He knew that there’s got to be some way, but why can he not find it? In his frustration, Ash charged at the door once last time, his paw curled up into a fist.

The humans in the back screamed at the top of their lungs as the vehicle hit the water. However, the vehicle kept going, and it was going into the water at just about the same speed. It was almost as if it wanted to go into the river with everyone in it.
It did not take long for the vehicle to submerge itself. Once it did, no water leaked in and no air floated out.
Lucario looked out the widow, which immediately was covered with some red energy, sealing the break Lucario made to steal the vehicle. Outside as they sank into the water, the vehicle seemed to transform before Lucario’s eyes as he watched it change into a submarine-like machine.
The humans stopped their screaming in the back once they finally realized that it was okay. However, it took the female a bit longer to find her breath to speak again.
“Wow!” she exclaimed. “How did you know that this car could do this?”
Lucario almost chuckled to himself. “I didn’t.”
That seamed to freak the female out a bit.
“What?! You mean that you just drove into the water without knowing that we could all drown?” screamed the female.
Lucario looked over his shoulder and at the scared child.
“Well. . .it worked, didn’t it?”
The female stared into Lucario’s eyes, as if trying to look inside him.
“I swear. . .you remind me of—”
BANG! BOOM!
Lucario spun his head away from the frightened female and looked around the vehicle through the windows. More vehicles, similar to his own, were also diving into the water all around them.
The battle up on the surface must’ve noticed this, for as soon as those vehicles came into the river, they were pursued by other machines of war, but blue. Along with these other machines, as if the river floor was mad at all of them, great beams of blue light were fired at them.
Lucario turned the steering over to it’s side, moving their vehicle away from some of the death-beams. The hell battle that he saw outside was now coming down here.
“What are these things?” shouted Lucario as he spun the steering wheel again to avoid yet another blue beam.
“It’s Team Aqua and Team Magma,” explained the smallest child behind Lucario. “They’ve always been fighting each other, but this is the biggest battle I’ve seen!”
The red vehicles in the water were scurrying about like little Rattata trying to find food. One vehicle ran right in front of Lucario just as another beam was fired. The beam slammed against the vehicle and tore it to pieces, causing the vehicle to explode right in front of Lucario and cover his vision with black, smoky water.
The black water stuck onto all of the windows of Lucario’s vehicle. He couldn’t see anything! He was blinded in the middle of the battle field! The three humans in the back reminded him of that.
“What to do, what to do, what to do?” Lucario said to himself, trying to stay calm.
“You’re gonna crash!” shouted the female.
“We’re not going to make it!” screamed the small child.
The oldest male just kept screaming.
Lucario held the steering wheel straight and slammed the gas pedal to the floor with his foot. Then, he pressed the red button again.
The vehicle lurched forward, going who-knows-how-fast. The inky water covering up the windows were slowly being wiped away from such speed underwater, but it still wasn’t enough for Lucario or anyone else to see clearly.
BOOM! BANG!
The vehicle shook every time an explosion was let off somewhere outside them. Lucario had trouble keeping the vehicle straight.
BANG! BANG! POW!
The humans in the back were holding onto each other now, expecting to die.
Lucario looked over on the passenger seat. So used to was he seeing Delia’s face looking back at him. She would be helping him up right now, she would be the one giving him strength, just like all of the times they spent together. Lucario had to fight himself to not let go of the steering wheel just to crawl over to the passenger seat. . .for there was no one there.
“Come on, you dumb dog!” shouted Lucario at himself. “This is your time! You can do this!”
BANG!
Either something hit them, or they hit something, but whichever happened, they got hit hard and it shook the whole vehicle drastically.
Lucario blacked out.

BANG!
It seemed that the whole place shook from a massive impact. Ash’s charge at the door was quickly interrupted from this, causing him to trip. The impact even shook Bayleef a bit and caused her to stagger around.
Slowly, the shaking went to small vibrations, and then to stillness.
Ash got back up to his feet after his trip. He looked back up at the door he originally was charging at.
It was open. Not completely open, but a small portion that could be seen had slid to the side.
Ash’s eyes widened. Whatever hit this place must’ve shook it so hard that the door opened! He ran over to the door and gripped the opening. Ash pulled and pulled and pulled, but it still would not move. “Bayleef!” he shouted. “Help me!”
Bayleef came over to his side, not saying a word, and unwrapped two vines that were around the oh-so-quiet Xander, and used them to assist in pulling open the door.
“On three, okay?” said Ash, still with both of his paws on the door. “One. . .two. . .three!”
Ash pulled with all of his might as did Bayleef. Slowly the door slid open, squeaking and screeching as it was forced to do something. As soon as the opening was big enough for Ash to fit his Pikachu body through, he ran into the room.
There, at the very end of the room, was Misty. She was sitting down, bruises and red bumps all over her, and watching Ash as if he were a dream. Parts of her Team Aqua uniform was torn and ripped up.
In Misty’s lap was Misty II. She was still chained up and the poor Pikachu had wires and tubes and everything inserted into her, along with some bandage that was wrapped around where she was shot. Besides the bandage, Misty II did not look beaten up, as the human Misty did that held her, but she still looked to be in great pain and could hardly open her eyes.
Ash ran right up to the two of them. “Misty?”
It took Misty awhile, but then her eyes lit up and she reached over, grabbed Ash, and embraced him in a very tight hug.
“Oh Ash!” sighed Misty. “It’s you! It’s really you!”
Ash tried to say something, but her hug cut off his breathing and did not allow his words to come out of his mouth.
BANG!
Again, the whole place shook under everyone’s feet. Bayleef staggered around a bit, but quickly regained her footing. Misty had to let go of Ash with one of her arms so she could post it out to her side, that way so she wouldn’t fall with both Ash and the sick female Pikachu..
Now that Mist had to let him go, Ash finally spoke. “Misty, we have to get out of here! Now!”
Ash tried to jump off of Misty, but then felt another hand grasp him. He looked down at Misty’s lap and saw Misty II. She had her paw on him, her eyes opened wide and staring. “Pika. . .Pika pikachu pi pikachu chu pi. . .”
“Of course I did,” said Ash. “I came for both of you. . .”
Ash’s ears perked up, as did Misty II’s. There was heavy footsteps coming this way. . . and they were running.
Ash looked back at the door. Bayleef still didn’t get inside the room. “Bayleef bay!” she shouted at Ash. The opening wasn’t big enough for her.
“Bayleef, just run!” Ash shouted back. “They’re after me, they wont follow you! Just run! Now!”
Bayleef looked at Ash’s eyes for a little longer. . .then nodded, wrapped one more vine around Xander, and ran away from the approaching footsteps.
Ash leaped off of Misty’s lap and was about to go out of the room when he noticed that Misty II’s paw was still on him. “What? Not now!” he shouted.
But the female had to ask him something. In her own Pokémon tongue: “Wait! Where is our son?”
“Don’t worry, he’s okay! He’s with my friend, Bayleef,” reassured Ash. “Now lets go!”
“But. . .is he here? Is he in here?” asked Misty II desperately.
Ash paused. “Yes. . .but he’s okay. He’s with my friend that I can trust. Besides, they’re after me not—”
“Ash! Don’t you get it?” Misty II pleaded, leaning up and fighting the pain. “They’re not after you! They’re after him! Our son!”

Lucario slowly opened his eyes. All was fuzzy around him, nothing was clear to see. Moving his body was just out of the question for his mind, so he stayed where he was.
There was a voice. A soft, feminine voice far off in the distance. What was it saying? Was it calling his name?
“Delia?” asked Lucario, trying to find out who the voice belonged to. Now he can make out words coming from the voice. It was calling his name, but far off, almost as if down a long alleyway.
Lucario’s vision was slowly coming to him. He could make out a few features around him, but not much.
The voice still called his name. Lucario still tried to call back and ask, “Delia?” The voice did not answer his question, but rambled on about something. . .going somewhere. . .getting out of someplace. . .then went back to calling his name again.
Finally, Lucario’s vision was just about back to him. He could make out the face of a young girl in front of him. It wasn’t Delia, but it was the girl that he had found when he was driving the vehicle he stole.
Lucario watched the human’s mouth move, saying something to him. Was the voice this human girl?
The girl seemed to be getting annoyed at him. . .either that or panic-struck took in. She raised her hand in the air, then slapped it hard across Lucario’s face. He felt that blow, and as soon as it was dealt, all of his senses came rushing back.
“Come on! Get up, Lucario! We have to get out of here!” shouted the female.
Lucario looked around himself. He was still inside the vehicle, but everything looked damaged and torn. Sparks were flying everywhere from the circuitry and the glass in the windows looked completely gone.
Lucario looked down and saw that water was rushing in from the back of the vehicle. The back was almost completely filled as the front was filled just about to Lucario’s waist.
“Lucario!” shouted the female again, urging him to hurry.
Lucario looked up at her and saw where she had come from. The right front door of the vehicle was open. That must’ve been how she was in here to help him.
Lucario got out of his seat and crawled over to where the female was. She grabbed his paw and pulled him out of the vehicle. Lucario fell down to the floor of something. He quickly got up and looked back behind him.
The vehicle had pierced a hole into some metal structure that they now stood on. Water was rushing in through the vehicle and into the metal hallway Lucario found himself in. The older male and younger male stood next to the female, away from the vehicle.
“Lucario, we need to go now!” said the female again. “This place is filling up by the minute!”
Lucario looked down. Sure enough, the water was rushing in quickly. Already it was up to his ankles. He looked around for some sort of exit.
Behind him, he found what resembled a door at the end of this “hallway”. Lucario didn’t even turn to check on the humans and ran over to the door. Just as he has thought, the humans stayed close to his side and ran to the door right behind him.
Once they had reached the door, Lucario looked for some sort of way to open it. There was a lever in the middle of it. Lucario grabbed a hold of it and turned it with all of his might. It turned to the side and the door swung open easily.
“Quickly, everyone in!” Lucario urged.
No one stopped to question. Each of the three humans charged out the door, not taking a second thought for anything. Lucario was surprised that they didn’t fight to get out.

“Sir! They’re beginning to breach the outside hull!” said one assistant, reading what was going on from the computer in front of him.
“How much damage was taken?” asked Bob.
The assistant, along with the many other white coats in the parameter, checked and rechecked their monitors. Bob waited in the center of the room for the results.
BANG! The whole place shook. Bob tried to regain his footing as his assistants held on to whatever they could.
“What the hell was that?” demanded Bob.
The assistant directly in front of Bob answered. “It was another breach, sir! They’re trying to get inside!”
“Sir!” shouted another. “We’re taking in a lot of water from the southern hull!”
“Disengage! If one part of this building is messed up, it’ll effect the whole thing,” said Bob. The white coats nodded their heads and did as they were told. “And where the hell are my turrets?!”
“Armed and ready, sir!”
“What are you waiting for? Activate them now!” demanded Bob. “And I want our shields up and running! Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!”
One white coat typed a few keys into his computer, then touched a few things on his monitor, then said, “Disengaging sequence has now started. T-minus ten seconds, sir.”

As soon as everyone got passed the door, Lucario reached over to close it behind them, but another hard, steel door slid down and covered the whole. Lucario had to retract his paw so that this new steel door wouldn’t cut it off.
“T-minus ten seconds till disengage.”
Lucario looked around him. The voice seemed to be coming from the ceiling, but no one was there. It didn’t sound like it came from a human nor a Pokémon and it didn’t even sound like it had any emotion at all.
Never mind that, there’s not enough time. Lucario turned around and urged the other humans to follow him. He was just starting his mid-sprint when he heard the same voice count down from ten. “Ten, nine, eight, seven. . .”
The humans were trying to catch up to Lucario’s jog, but even that proved to be too fast for them. There’s got to be a way to speed this up, thought Lucario. But how? I could carry some of them over my shoulder, but not all three and still be able to run.
“Six, five, four, three. . .”
“Something’s happening!” shouted the little male.
Lucario stopped his running and turned towards a wall that he guessed was on more of the inside of this place then towards the water outside. He got in his stance, placing his paws about a foot away from each other on his side. From in-between Lucario’s paws erupted a small, blue orb that slowly grew to the size of approximately one foot in diameter. Once his aura sphere was charged enough, Lucario threw it against the wall with great force.
The orb hit hard, sending smoke everywhere in the room they stood in. Lucario covered his eyes so the smoke wouldn’t blind him and saw that the orb penetrated the wall, showing a large opening that led deeper into whatever this place is.
“Quickly!” urged Lucario to the humans, pointing to the hole in the wall. The smoke cleared quickly, so the humans were able to see what he was talking about and ran towards the hole.
First, the female climbed through the hole, then the young male, then the older male. Lucario was last to join them, but just as he leaped through the hole, a sheet of new metal slid over the hole, covering it up. Lucario was barely able to make it out with his tail still intact.
“Disengaging,” said the voice from nowhere.
An odd sound erupted along with a giant shake that nearly knocked over Lucario and all of the other humans.

“They what?” asked Ash in shock.
Misty II took in a deep breath and looked up into Ash’s eyes. “I and this human holding me overheard one of their grunts talking. They talked about trying to flood the world or something like that, but they needed something that was part human and part Pokémon. I then heard them talking about a Pikachu’s child being the one they needed. I don’t know why they think our child is the key, but right now that doesn’t matter!” Misty II took another deep breath.
Ash realized now. It all made sense! Bob said that they needed something that was part human and part Pokémon, but he thought they were talking about him! Xander has his blood and Misty II’s, so he fits! They weren’t looking for Ash, but for Xander! Ash just sent Bayleef on a suicide run!
Misty II already seemed exhausted. “You need to go find our son and keep him safe.”
“But,” started Ash, protesting. “What about you? And what about my friend, Misty, the one that’s holding you?”
Misty, still sitting down, heard what Ash said and answered his question for the female Pikachu. “I’ll be fine, Ash. I know this place better than you do and I know that I can take care of myself.”
“And I will stay with her,” said the Pikachu in her own language. “She has taken care of me since she was also thrown in here.”
“But. . .” Ash wanted to find a reason, just one simple reason for them to get out of here and be safe, but it seemed that no matter what he would say would make any difference to their choice in the matter. He sighed and nodded his head. Now was not the time to argue.
Out in the hallway, they could hear a feminine voice from an intercom somewhere saying, “Disengaging.” The floor shook violently, toppling Ash to his side and shaking both of the Misty’s down to the bone.
Soon, the place stopped shaking and Ash got back up to his feet. “I think that’s our sign to leave now,” he said.
Misty nodded her head and began pulling out the different tubes and wires all along Misty II’s body.
BAM! Again, the floor shook, but not like last time when the computer voice said something. They’re still fighting outside, thought Ash.
Ash heard the heavy footsteps continue to run his way. He turned and looked back at the Mistys. Misty was still trying to get Misty II out of her chains and everything, they can’t fight right now. If they wont let me help them get out of here, then maybe I can help protect them this once.
Ash stepped out of The Room. Immediately he was greeted by three large Aqua grunts.
The grunts paused in front of Ash. They knew this was Experiment 102, but a war was going outside. Should they stop and try to capture 102 or continue on their way?
Ash answered for them and leaped forward, his claws outstretched and his teeth bared.

Lucario short-punched one grunt in the gut, forcing him to lean forward and clutch himself. Lucario rolled over the bent grunt’s back, dodging a very slow kick from a very big human, and landed on the other side.
Lucario side-kicked the bent grunt, pushing him into the bigger human. He charged an Aura Sphere in one paw and leaped towards the bigger human.
The bigger human was hit low from the hurt grunt, but the attack didn’t cause any harm to the human so he just tried to push the grunt away, not looking up. When the human did look up, Lucario was already face-to-face with the human as he planted his Aura Sphere into the man’s head.
The Goliath fell down hard, a large dent in his forehead.
Lucario landed perfectly on his two feet and calmly looked back at his companions.
“Lets keep going,” he said and jogged off.
The female and two males followed closely behind Lucario, awaiting for him to lead them to their destination. . .wherever that may be. However, Lucario himself had no idea where he was going. He was simply. . .going. He didn’t have a plan for this, but it just made him feel better if they continued to move forward.
“Hey! What’s that?” asked the female, slowing her jog to a fast-walk.
Lucario looked and saw that there was a entry to a room up ahead. He sped up and entered the room.
Then he stopped.
The other humans tried to catch up, and when they did they noticed the sudden discontinue. “Lucario? What’s wrong?”
Lucario didn’t answer, but gazed forward.
The female followed his gaze and gasped at what she saw. The room they had now entered was relatively small in width, but quite big in length. It resembled a hallway in a way, only there were a couple monitors hanging on the walls and metal stations with odd assortments on them. However, it wasn’t the room itself that the female and Lucario were looking at, but at the other Lucario at the end of this “hallway”.
This Lucario, unlike most Lucarios, had yellow and black fur, a extremely rare trait for a Lucario to have. The shiny Lucario had its back to the group and seemed to be looking at something in a large, blue container in the middle of the room.
“Took you long enough,” said the shiny Lucario. He smiled.
The female looked at the Lucario next to her and noticed that he did not smile back. . .but bared his teeth. “Go. . .”
The female paused, confused. “What, Lucario?”
Lucario didn’t look over at her nor the other two males, but repeated what he said: “Go. . .”
“But, why? We need to stick together if we’re going to find Ash and get out of here—”
Lucario cut in. “He wont let us leave.”
That seemed to have made the shiny Lucario laugh. He turned around and faced the blue Lucario. “I do believe he is right. If you three will not let us resolve our sibling rivalry, I’m afraid that I cannot allow anyone to leave here,” said the shiny Lucario.
“‘Sibling rivalry’?” said the littlest male. “Does that mean. . .?”
“You are no brother of mine!” shouted Lucario, baring even more of his teeth. “What are you doing here? Why are you with these evil clan of humans? Did you join them?”
The shiny Lucario chuckled a bit then leaned against the glass, relaxing. “They found me. That’s all there really is to it. Team Aqua found me, tried to capture me, couldn’t, then asked if I wished to become one of their group. And I did.”
“Why?”
The shiny Lucario pushed himself up off of the glass and looked straight at his brother. “They promised me power. They told me of this terribly god-like energy call ‘Inner Strength’ and taught me how to use it at will and how to harness it at will.” He turned around and walked towards one of the monitors, looking at it out of curiosity. “Because of the species I am, I already had many advantages over this Inner Strength. It’s really not that different than our Aura, just more deeper and much more powerful.”
“Inner Strength?” said Lucario. “I ‘ve heard of such a thing, but only through legends. It is forbidden energy, you will die if you use too much!”
The shiny Lucario smiled and looked back at his brother over his shoulder. “Is that a hint of worry I hear, brother?”
Lucario bared his teeth again. “You wont hear any sympathy from me! Not after what you tried to do to me and Delia!”
Shiny Lucario laughed again. “Oh, now that was fun!”
Lucario had enough. He lunged forward, Aura Sphere already ready in his paw, and jabbed the blue sphere straight at his brother’s face.
The shiny Lucario dodged to the side easily and grabbed Lucario’s arm. With amazing speed, he pushed his shoulder into Lucario’s armpit and pulled the rest of his arm down, flinging Lucario onto his back on the floor.
“Ah, brother, brother, brother. What will I ever do with you?” said the shiny Lucario, looking down at Lucario. “Still as slow and weak as ever. Nothing has changed.”
Lucario looked up at his forbidden brother and spat in his face. The shiny Lucario made a disgusted face and whipped off the saliva, then smiled again.
Lucario quickly got back up to his feet and got in his stance. He had managed to move right next to the blue tank and couldn’t help but to look at what was in it. . .
“Lugia?!” exclaimed Lucario. Then, he started thinking about what his brother had said. “Wait. . .when you said that Inner Strength is not so different than Aura, what exactly can you do with Inner Strength that you can with Aura?”
The shiny Lucario laughed some more. “Finally putting the pieces together, are we?”
“You led Team Aqua to Lugia,” answered Lucario to himself. “You used our Sight using Inner Strength to lead these humans to whoever they wanted.”
“Bingo,” said the shiny Lucario. “Now that I can use Inner Strength, I can see everyone’s Inner Strength and with much more clarity and with much more of a distance than we ever could with our Aura. Team Aqua tells me who or what to look for and I do it. That’s how I knew you were coming.”
“Who else have you led them to?” demanded Lucario, still in his stance.
“Hm. . .no one really important. Just Lugia and two other guys.”
“What ‘two other guys’?”
“I don’t know. Some freak show of a Pokémon with these psychic powers and some Pikachu.”
The female human gasped and whispered something under her breath.
“All of you. Leave. . .now. . .” ordered Lucario.
“But we can help—”
“I said NOW! Go find Ash while I deal with this one.”
The female looked over at the older male. He nodded to her and ran out of the room. The youngest one was soon to follow, but the female took a little longer to decide, then finally left.
“Ah, this will be fun, eh brother? Just like good old times!” said the shiny Lucario.
“The only time I recall is when you tried to hurt Delia!” shouted Lucario.
The shiny Lucario waved his paw around. “Delia, Delia, Delia, Delia! Is she all you talk about? If you ask me, I think you two were a little bit close for a trainer and Pokémon.”
Lucario roared and lunged forward. He threw his paw forward, aiming for his brother’s head, but the shiny Lucario’s speed was amazing and he quickly dodged the attack. Lucario spun around and launched another jab, then a thrust, then a short punch, another jab, reverse punch, thrust, but his brother was able to dodge each and everyone of his moves.
The shiny Lucario grabbed Lucario’s arm and twisted it behind his back, pushing it up to bring in more pain.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt your feelings, brother? Maybe if I said that your trainer was one hot slut of a woman it might make you feel better.”
Lucario roared again. He slammed the back of his head into the shiny Lucario’s face.
The stunned shiny Lucario let go of Lucario’s arm and staggered back, gripping his nose. Lucario took this moment and grabbed the shiny Lucario’s head and slammed it into his knee cap. From there, Lucario punched his brother into the gut, then round house kicked him into the side of his head, then finishing off with a spinning side kick directly at the shiny Lucario’s chest.
The last kick had much more power in it and threw the shiny Lucario across the room, slamming his body against the wall. Monitors that once hung there were now destroyed and broken thanks to the shiny Lucario’s body clashing against them.
Lucario returned to his stance and charged after his fallen enemy’s body. However, the shiny Lucario lifted up his paw and charged up, not a blue sphere, but a yellow sphere and shot it at Lucario.
Lucario had blocked many Aura Spheres before back in the day. While still running, Lucario raised up his paw to block the upcoming shot, but somehow the yellow sphere went completely through his block, knocking his body backwards. The whole world seemed to be spinning around as Lucario fell right back to his back.
The shiny Lucario got back up to his feet.
“See the power, brother? Almost undefendable when fired upon that all cower before it!”
Lucario jumped back up to his feet, readying two Aura Spheres while he did so. “Two can play at this!”
Lucario fired the two Aura Spheres at the shiny Lucario. With a swift motion of his arm, the shiny Lucario not only blocked the two shots, but deflected them straight back at his brother. Lucario remembered such a move and copied it himself, deflecting it back towards his enemy.
The two continued to deflect the two Auras with one another, but each time the spheres were deflected, they would move slightly faster towards whoever the next target was. Soon, Lucario began having trouble keeping up, so he thought that adding one more sphere would mess up his brother. So, with lighting speed, Lucario deflected the two spheres once more and threw another sphere at his brother.
The shiny Lucario didn’t deflect the spheres this time, but moved his body to the side, dodging the first two, and caught hold of the third one. He threw it straight back while shooting off three yellow Inner Strength spheres right behind it.
Lucario blocked his sphere and dodged the first yellow sphere, but was hit hard by the other two. The shiny Lucario quickly followed up this attack and drove his shoulder into his brother’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. The shiny Lucario caught hold of his brother by the neck and threw him at the blue tank across them. . .the tank holding the legendary Lugia.
The tank cracked and Lucario slid down off of it. He looked back up at his brother, anger deep in his eyes.
“This will take awhile. . .”
The shiny Lucario smiled down at him and stood in his stance, urging his brother to come.
Lucario jumped up to his feet and launched a glowing paw at the shiny Lucario, aiming towards his nose. The shiny Lucario swept the attack away with a simple stroke of his left arm and countered with his right elbow on Lucario’s stomach.
The attack hit Lucario hard, forcing him to stagger back.
How can I beat him? Somehow he’s gotten much faster and stronger than before. Every time I lay a paw on him, he’s already two steps ahead of me! Thought Lucario.
Lucario roared and attacked again. He swung his now glowing paw toward the side of the shiny Lucario’s head, which was just as easily blocked. Lucario expected this and followed up with a powerful round house kick toward the side of the shiny Lucario’s stomach.
This attack finally hit, flinging the shiny Lucario back to another wall, destroying other random computers and monitors alike.
The shiny Lucario smiled and got back up. “Very good, brother. You used a distraction! It looks like you just might have learned something after all these years after all!” He sneered. “But remember: such a move only works once against a good opponent. Now, lets see if you can keep up with this!”
The shiny Lucario flashed out of sight. Lucario gasped and quickly looked around, trying to find his evil brother.
Suddenly, Lucario felt something enormously hard slam against his cheek, causing him to spin. Then the same invisible force hit him again on the ribs, then on his stomach, then into his back, and then straight onto his nose.
Lucario fell forward to the ground, trying to stay up on his arms. The invisible force came again, this time kicking him high into the air. Then, in the air, the shiny Lucario flashed back into sight and kneed Lucario while he was suspended, sending him flying back to the wall that held the blue tank.
Lucario crashed into some mechanical equipment, piercing his skin and tearing his fur. He slowly got back up to his feet.
He’s using Extreme Speed on me! Realized Lucario. The only way to see him and possibly counter his attacks are to match his speed, but I don’t know if I can go that fast for so long in this condition.
The shiny Lucario smiled and flashed out of sight again. Lucario quickly used Extreme Speed as well and also flashed out of sight.
For a whole two seconds, the room seemed to be empty. If someone where to look in the room, they wouldn’t have even guessed that two Lucarios where in it at that point.
Then. . .CLASH!
The two Lucarios reappeared, attacking each other at the same time and velocity. Then, just as soon as they had reappeared, they had disappeared. Again, another clash as the two hit, then they were gone, then back again hitting each other harder than before, again they left, and again they attacked.
Lucario filled up his paws with his aura while he attacked. The shiny Lucario blocked and tried to counter such powerful attacks by filling his paws with Inner Strength, trying to out power his brother.
Now, with the two filling themselves up with aura and Inner Strength, whenever they reappeared and clashed, a flash of blue and yellow would explode, leaving a wisp of green smoke behind in their wake.
Lucario finally laid his aura-filled paw on his evil brother’s chest and followed up with another direct hit into his cheek. The two attacks pushed the shiny Lucario out of his speed,  returning him to visibility.
Lucario slammed the heel of his foot onto his evil brother’s chest, flinging him to the ground. Lucario jumped on top of his brother, putting his brother’s body between his legs and continuously began to slam punch after punch over his face.
The shiny Lucario wasn’t getting up anytime soon with all of these blows. Lucario kept slamming more aura filled paws on his brother’s face, making him bleed badly and bruise everywhere. A left hit forced his face to turn violently to the side, spilling blood onto some nearby broken computer monitors.
But this just got the shiny Lucario angry. He roared loudly and opened his mouth before Lucario could land another punch and shot out a yellow beam of Inner Strength straight at Lucario’s head above him. Lucario was barely able to get out of the way, but had to let go of his brother.
The shiny Lucario jumped up to his feet, all bloodied up and got back in his stance.
“Brother! You hurt me! You’ll pay now!” shouted the shiny Lucario, already glowing yellow. Lucario noticed how his emotion completely changed from sure and cheerful to determined and angry.
Lucario looked at the shiny Lucario before him. . .He was bleeding everywhere, spots on his yellow fur were now pink. He defiantly was bruised and hurt everywhere and who knows if there’s a broken bone somewhere. . .This was his brother, and he was killing him! They’ll either kill each other or only one of them will die. . .Now Lucario felt pity on his brother and pushed aside all of his hate. They were family no matter what the shiny Lucario had done in his past.
“No! Stop! If you continue this, you will only kill yourself!” shouted back Lucario. “I may not know much about this ‘Inner Strength’ but I do know that it’s power was never meant to be used so often!”
Lucario got out of his stance and looked at his beaten brother. “All energy has to come from somewhere, including aura. Aura is much more abundant, though, and was made to be used, but this Inner Strength was not!”
“Oh so now you worry about me?” said the shiny Lucario. “Now you worry about little brother? Took you this long, huh? It really took you this damn long to finally care about me?!”
The shiny Lucario turned his back on Lucario and stared at the wall ahead of him. “Do you know what happened when you left us?”
Lucario stood still, so his brother turned back to face him.
“Well? Do you?!”
“No, no I don’t know what happened.”
“Of course you don’t! Remember how Dad wanted you to lead the herd? He wanted you to be the new leader, wanted you to get the best female, wanted you to choose where the herd should go next, wanted you to do and to get everything! And what did you do? You left! You ran away from all of us! You refused to pick a female, you refused where to take everyone, and you refused to be the leader and left! And did Dad choose for me to take your place? No!”
The shiny Lucario threw a yellow ball of energy towards Lucario. He dodged the ball easily and stayed where he was at. “None of those females were for me! They wanted me not for who I was but for what I was, they only liked my physical appearance and my would-be title, and I was never meant to be the leader of the herd. Dad wanted me to be the leader even when I told him that I didn’t want it—”
“Shut up!” Another yellow ball was thrown at him, more lazily this time. “You wanted it, but you wanted to look cool! Wanted to look all macho and everything!” The shiny Lucario began to glow brighter this time and he advanced a step. “When you left and Dad still needed to pick a new leader, he chose someone else not of our family! He ignored my pleas for a female and my pleas to become the leader. It’s in my blood too to become the leader!”
Lucario shook his head. “You proved your leadership when you persuaded me to fight those Alakazams when we were just Riolu.” Lucario narrowed his eyes. “And when you tried to hurt my trainer. Dad saw it in your eyes of what you would become. . .and look at what you have become.”
The shiny Lucario looked at his brother. At first, it seemed that he was about to become mad with fiery, but instead he laughed and shook his head. “All a leader needs. . .is power.” He charged another yellow ball in his paws. “And I have all of that!”
The shiny Lucario lunged forward with his amazing speed and thrust forward the ball of Inner Strength. Lucario tried to block it, but his brother was too quick and slammed it in his chest. Lucario took the blow, staggering back a few steps. and quickly recoiled with his own Aura and slammed it back on the shiny Lucario who also just took the hit.
Then, they both began to glow. Lucario was blue while his brother became yellow.
He’s still too fast! Thought Lucario. How can I slow him down? Come on, think! When was he slowing down for you?
Then Lucario remembered when he was able to first hit his brother. He was holding onto me. . .so he couldn’t move much! And when I pinned him to the ground, he couldn’t move then either! Lucario also remembered how his brother’s Inner Strength spheres were getting lazy. The more he uses that energy, the weaker he must be getting.
The shiny Lucario was the first to move, his yellow glowing body becoming a blur with his speed coming into play. Lucario waited for his brother to come. . .and he did. . .with his foot to his face. But Lucario knew this was coming and grabbed the shiny Lucario’s foot as soon as it landed and swung it around, swinging his brother around as well. The shiny Lucario can’t move now that his leg was being held onto.
Lucario swung around twice more, then threw the shiny Lucario at the wall. He hit it hard, making a large dent in the wall, more monitors and other equipment falling to the floor. Lucario lunged forward before his brother could get back up and threw a few Aura-filled fists at his face. The shiny Lucario opened his mouth again and launched out a large yellow blast of Inner Strength at Lucario, pushing him off of him.
Lucario was also slammed back to a wall. That blast took a toll on him. He quickly got off of the wall and tried to get back to his feet, but as soon as he put his foot down, he heard a snap and fell down to his knees. His ribs hurt. . .probably broken as well. . .and his nose was bleeding badly.
The shiny Lucario slowly pushed himself off of the wall, but then fall straight down to his stomach. Lucario watched as his brother struggled to get back up.
What have I done? Thought Lucario. This is my brother. . .we’re just going to kill each other if we keep this up.
“Brother, stop!” said Lucario, breathing hard.
The shiny Lucario eventually got back up to his feet, then looked at his brother. “I’m done taking orders from you, big brother. Now. . .now I can tell myself what to do. . .and I say that you will die!” The shiny Lucario sprinted forward, much slower than before, but still very fast.
Lucario got up to his feet, getting ready to defend himself. His brother kept running forward, charging up yet another sphere of yellow Inner Strength in his paws. . .only much bigger this time. He leapt up into the air, yelling at the top of his lungs. . .
Then a large blue beam of light came out of the blue tank and hit the shiny Lucario, sending him through the wall across from the tank, creating quite a large hole in the metal.
Lucario jumped back as he saw his brother disappear. Water began to pour out of the tank where the mysterious beam came out of.
And Lugia stepped his massive body out of it.
At first, Lugia took awhile to open his eyes, but when he did, he took a full sweep of the room with only his neck and stopped when he saw Lucario.
Who has awoken me? Said Lugia, projecting his thoughts to Lucario.
Lucario stood there, frozen in fear. . .and pointed at himself.
“I-It was an accident,” said Lucario.
Lugia took one step closer to Lucario, but because his body was so big that one step brought him face-to-face with the scared Lucario. The room that they stood in was much too small for the mighty Pokémon, so he hunched over, tucking his huge wings in tightly, but even then he was still cramped.
Then, Lugia bent his head towards the frozen Lucario. . .and used his huge tongue to lick the side of Lucario’s face. Lucario winced in pain and from disgust. . .Lugia’s tongue was very moist with saliva.
I thank you for freeing me, said Lugia.
Lucario wiped his face of the saliva and painfully nodded his bloodied up head. “You’re welcome. . .”
Then, Lucario painfully walked over to the large hole Lugia had made. . .and looked out of it. There was a much larger room leading out there, but the room that they stood in currently was very high above the floor of the large room leading out. It was quite a drop from here to there. . .that along with the beam of energy from Lugia would’ve been impossible to survive from.
“Farewell, my brother,” said Lucario. He turned around and walked away from the hole.
You look hurt, said Lugia. Let me heal you.
Lugia reached his wings over towards Lucario. It took him awhile to actually stretch them out, but eventually he covered Lucario with his wings, then started to glow. After a few seconds, Lugia stopped glowing and uncovered Lucario, showing that his broken bones were healed and his bloodied up face was blood free.
Lucario looked himself over to see if he was truly healed. Nothing hurt, no weird sounds when he moved, he can move everything freely. Everything seemed better now.
“Thank you,” said Lucario.
Lugia nodded, then asked, You wouldn’t happen to know where I am exactly, would you?
Lucario looked behind him. He could hear nearby footsteps. . .and there were many of them.
“Um, to be honest, I’m not too sure myself, but can we talk while we go?”

Ash slammed his tail onto the Vaporeon’s head. The water Pokémon fell down for the count, it was the last one.
Ash got to his feet, panting hard and sweating, but still determined and bared his teeth at the final grunt still standing.
The grunt was all out of Pokémon and all of his comrades around him either ran ahead or were knocked out. Fear gripped the grunt and he ran away, leaving his Pokémon behind.
Ash took a deep breath and fell down to a knee, trying to rest. He was able to hold back the grunts just long enough for both Misty and Misty II to get away. However, fighting three large grunts along with their Pokémon took a heavy toll on him.
He was still surprised that he actually took all three of them by himself. Yeah, he got really beat up from them and everything, but still. . .
Ash looked down at his arm that got scratched in the battle. . .or that was scratched. The once bloody cut was now completely gone, as if it was never there! Ash looked for his other bruises and cuts, but he could not find any that he had remembered gaining!
And that was when Ash remembered. He remembered when he first was here and they experimented on him. He remembered that all of his wounds that Team Aqua forced upon him healed quickly. Could this be an ability that he has had all this time?
But even with this ability, he was still very tired. This new Inner Strength that he was given is nowhere near as strong and as friendly as his original was. He has noticed that he was moving slower, that doing anything requires a little more energy, and that simple moves seem to be even more complex than they really are.
Ash took one more deep breath, then stood back up. Maybe those men that he just fought were just bad at battling. Maybe they were simply the lower branch in this organization. If so, then Ash just had luck on his side for that moment.
He looked around. Misty II told him not to worry about her, but he still did. He still wanted to run to wherever the girls went, but he knew that he had a new objective now: find Xander before Team Aqua did.
Ash started a slow run in a random direction. He didn’t know which way to go, so he guessed. He noticed that the large shaking stopped, but the distant sounds of war still echoed outside of the base.

“Sir! We now have our turrets online and running along with our shields!” said one assistant, hunched over a touch monitor screen.
“Good,” said Bob, clutching his arm. No blood was coming out of it, but it still hurt. “Keep them away for as long as you can. What is the update on the experiment’s location?”
“Still unknown, sir,” said another assistant. “It’s positioning unit seems to be damaged somehow. Either that or we can’t track it because of all of the metal in our own base.”
“Very well,” said Bob, siting down. “What about our key? Do we know if it is still with the experiment?”
“Still unknown, sir.”
“Fine. Command all units that aren’t engaged in the battle to go search for the key, forget about the experiment.”
“Already done, sir. Everyone is out and moving.”

Ash stopped to rest. He didn’t know how long he has been running for, but he hasn’t found Xander yet. He did come by a couple grunts along the way. Luckily, he was able to get around them without being seen, but there seems to be more and more of them by the minuet.
Ash took one last breath, then slowly ran forward. He eventually ran into an enormously large room. It’s walls were all made out of metal, of course, and there didn’t seem to be much in it, just space.
Ash saw a door at the very end of the room and ran over to it. Took some time to get across the width of such a huge place, but he eventually did and opened the door. He entered the room, closed the door behind him. . .and gasped at what he saw.
The room he now stood in was much, much smaller than the one he just exited from. It had enough room for only a small handful of people. There were monitors, buttons, lights, switches, and other stuff that one would see on a science fiction film everywhere. But what caught Ash’s eyes wasn’t the equipment. . .but a large glass tube.
At the back of the room, almost taking up half of the space with all of the mechanical equipment surrounding it, was a tall tube filled with some sort of clear liquid inside of it.
And resting inside of it. . .
Was Ash’s old powerful friend. . .
Mewtwo slept within the liquid filled glass tube.