A Spirit's Journey (Pokemon Watty Awards 2014 3rd Place Winner: Adventure)

Chapter 24: Electric Warden Rotom

                                 Part Four: Legendary Spirit

                           Chapter 24: Electric Warden Rotom

The first part of the battle was fairly easy.

Most of Giratina’s garrison had left with him to go meet whatever Mew had cooked up, so there was barely even a skeleton crew holding the fortress. The shades, led by Latios, swarmed over the lower levels like a flood, wiping out any guards by sheer strength of numbers. A few of the stronger ones, however, hung back to guard and guide us. Though, they weren’t really necessary since Seth was already leading us through the winding passageways up to one of the four main causeways. These ‘raised roads’, he explained, were positioned like the four points of the compass and would allow us the quickest route to the central tower, where Giratina’s throne room and the portal lay. Once we’d seized that, the various defense mechanisms installed in the fortress would be ours to control.

However, it was not going as well as we had planned. Though the shades were incapable of ‘dying’ in a literal sense, alone they were still no match for even the weakest Ghost. There were a few exceptions, of course. Latios’ legendary speed was still his and he used it to great effect, weaving in and out of the guards and slicing them in half with his wings, bombarding them from the sky, and often drawing large groups of them away from our other forces to be picked off one-by-one as he saw fit.

As for us, we were made good progress once we got to the Western Causeway. It was just that, a wide, stone causeway with tall, stone railings on either side that led straight to one of the four main gates to Giratina’s tower. I was in the lead, striking out with my darkness-charged blade at any Ghosts-types that got too close. I was very effective at destroying them, let me tell you. Rio has his eyes closed and his…dreadlocks floating in mid-air. Apparently, this was a form of ‘foresight’ that was called ‘Aura Vision’ and allowed him to strike the Ghosts with Fighting-type attacks. Psi rode on Syoran’s shoulders while Nine walked beside him, her red eyes glowing brightly as she sent ghosts flailing through the sky, faces contorted in agony.

“How is this only part of the garrison?” Lady Glacier shouted over the din of battle.

“They’re all concentrating on us…” Seth muttered, “Because we’re the biggest threat… However, the good news is that we caught them by surprise, so they aren’t very organized.”

It was true. The guards may have been focusing on us, but they couldn’t for the life (or un-life) of them form up and attack as s single unit. It wasn’t even much of a challenge to swat the ones that appeared, leaving a trail of them behind in out wake. One particular enterprising Ghost circled around and tried to attack from behind, but one of the shades guarding us, a Kabutops, tackled it and held it down while the others tore it to shreds. I shuddered. They tore it apart brutally, not sparing any pity on it. In fact, they seemed almost to be laughing at it.

Rio shook his head, temporarily disengaging his Aura Vision. “There’s a lot of hatred here…” he muttered.

“No kidding,” Pikablu said with a bit of sarcasm, not even bothering to look at the three enemies he was frying. If you were to take stock of our situation solely by his attitude, you’d think we were out for a stroll in the forest or a nice, pleasant hike up a mountain of sweets. “I see only tidings of comfort and joy. Like over there.” He pointed off to the left. “Watch as that Dusclops gets torn to shreds like the wrapping paper on a kit’s Naming Day present. There’s happiness everywhere you look, Rio.”