Chapter 18: How to Fight Against Yourself!

1/3/20

12:20 am

Darkness Headquarters 2F

*1 Hour Remaining*

I was kinda wondering when the first sign of us being spotted would happen, and my question would be responded with an alarm echoing throughout the halls and some of the lights turning red. I could hear Chris groaning from the blaring alarm that deafened our ears. "Please tell me that's the 'don't come in this area' alarm and not the 'oh shit, someone figured out we're here' alarm," I said while the three of us were quickly trying to find the stairs. To be honest, this place felt like its own mystery dungeon—if the layout for each floor would be the same every time you walk in it.

"I would want to believe it's the first option," Chris said trying to yell over the alarm, "but we can't do that now! Let's just hope we don't run into anyone."

He turned right and stopped himself from moving because a group of Pokémon with fire eyes were staring right at the three of us. "There they are!" one yelled. "Charge!"

'He just had to jinx it, didn't he?' Fighting obviously was a bad idea because we were highly outnumbered, so we only had one option left for us.

"Run!" Abby yelled. All of us turned the other direction and started to follow Abby's instruction with a bit of urgency...

I guess you could say this next part is gonna be a bit comical. You know how sometimes when protagonists go to another pathway and the people chasing them take the same hallway the protagonist were going—even though they saw the person change direction?

Following Abby, she tried her best going through multiple hallways in the seemingly huge floor, causing her to open a random room door and she pulled us in there. Soon after, the same thing I just mentioned earlier happened. "How did..." I questioned pointing outside the door. I eventually sighed of defeat. "Never mind..."

"Alright," Chris said trying his best to break my and Abby's silence, "how are we going to find the stairs now?"

"Well..." Abby started looking around the room. The room somehow looked like a traditional Japanese room, with the floor, inside doors, and the walls being bamboo. "We can take some items from here, I guess."

The three of us started moving around the room, scouring for items. There were two closet doors, which I decided to take the right one, while Chris took the left closet. Inside my closet was a Reviver Orb, Sleep Seed, and two Oran Berries.

The stairs somehow fit inside the closet leading to the next floor. "Alright!" I turned to Abby and Chris. "Guys I found the—." I immediately paused myself to look at the area where Chris opened to. There weren't any beds in the other room here, which made me think that this was like a "employees lounge" or something like that. As it turned out, Chris opened a door to a bedroom, not another closet.

In there was the Swampert we all faced in Idle Island, wide awake.

Chris—who was still in front of the Swampert—cursed silently. "Get out of here, Lucas!" he yelled.

I didn't know why, but I decided to activate Turbo Boost. Not for fighting, of course—I know I would be in a disadvantage—but for an unconventional reason. An idea somehow popped on my head, so I decided to do it by approaching Abby. I kneeled to her height and used both my paws to transfer my energy and deposit my energy to and from Abby. Her eyes turned blue and she started blinking momentarily after.

"What the?" She said confused. Abby looked down to her brown paws, which was showing bits of electric sparks. "How is this happening?" Her eyes started to look at mine.

"I needed to talk to you privately, and I guess this idea worked..." I paused myself to figure out what I was going to say next. "I... h-have." Damn it, why can't I say it?! "I lo—."

"Lucas, stop." Abby paused me from finishing my sentence when she interrupted me. "I kinda figured it out back in Misty Mountain..."

I sighed in defeat. 'Looks like I'm going to get friend-zoned now...'

"When we get out of here—and I know we will—let's talk about this, okay?" Abby tried her best to give me a smile.

I couldn't really do anything about it now, I got back to my height. "Alright," I nodded. "I wish you luck!"

I let go of Abby—who froze back into time—and started going up the stairs.

You know, I just realized right now how I was able to get through the eleven floors without even stopping for a break...

Abby gave me hope.

And just until recently have I used hope to fight my way up.

***

Meanwhile:

12:42 am

Council Meeting Room

The lights were dim, a human projector was somehow playing towards a wall, and a digital map was being shown in the middle of the room.

Yup, the Council—including Jirachi—were having what looked like a movie night. "Oh, come on!" Jirachi yelled. "You guys are hoarding all the popcorn!" A red bowl about twenty times a human height was filled with popcorn, and multiple piles of popcorn was being pulled out to be eaten by Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. Jirachi meanwhile already finished eating his popcorn bag, but never got any refills like the Council did.

And coincidentally, Harmony teleported right in front of the projector, causing a large groan from the audience. "What the?" She floated from the projector's view to see a certain Pikachu fighting a group of Darkness soldiers...

"Welcome back, Harmony!" Jirachi shouted. Dialga suddenly cleared his throat, and slightly pointed at Arceus—who was staring right at him. "Oh—right. Ahem, Mew. Welcome back, Mew... What took you so long to get here?"

Harmony started thinking to what she was going to say, because what she really did was the option no one wanted to hear. "I-I got sidetracked... Never mind that! Why are you guys watching Lucas like some form of entertainment?"

"Serves him right for watching us as 'entertainment,'" Arceus grumbled.

Palkia quickly looked at Harmony. "What he meant was that we actually wanted to watch the current situation that was going on... And I guess we're enjoying it as well."

Giratina showed Harmony the map they were looking at while starting to eat the popcorn again. "The thirteenth floor has two strange Pokémon that I'm pretty sure you would know... The first one is giving off electrical and psychic energy from that floor."

Harmony thought for a second. "An Electric and Psychic type... Wait, Cord's the only one who has those two together!"

"Yeah," Dialga interrupted, "it's Cord. However, I fear that he may have succumbed to become one of those Darkness soldiers again... Anyway, we can't really figure out who's the second object. He or she is really hiding their energy."

"It has to be Darkrai, right?" Harmony said looking at everyone.

"Nope." Jirachi said. "Darkrai wouldn't hide his energy. He's boastful that way..." All the Council looked at each other, feeling that they know something. "Um... Is something wrong?"

Arceus looked at the two of us. "I think we know who it is."

***

12:50 am

Darkness Headquarters 13F

*30 Minutes Remaining*

I sighed as I passed by fainted Pokémon who decided to take the sacrifice of battling me but lost. "This is getting ridiculous. How many Pokémon are going to face me before I find Bisharp or Darkrai?" I find myself pausing at a door because of something calling to me.

Anyone...

"Cord." I mumbled to myself. After slightly opening the door next to me, I see Bisharp sitting on a chair, listening to a report coming from a soldier. And if you're wondering about Cord...

Why don't you talk to him in the corner of the room, while his eyes were on fire?

"The Eevee are being persistent, as they fended off some of our fighters and Swampert." What do you know! Abby and Chris are doing as well as I am! "As for Lucas, he somehow got rid of 45% of our forces here..."

'Either that Pokémon is lying, or damn, I'm doing good now!'

Bisharp, however, grumbled. "Tell the surrounding areas there's been a breach in the building, and to send reinforcements." Before the Pokémon left the call, Bisharp slammed his hand on the arm of the chair. "Leave Lucas to me!"

A sound effect from the communicator meant that the call finished, and Bisharp looked at Cord. I closed the door before anyone noticed and I sat on the floor. "What am I going to do now..."

You could enter the door to see both of us.

I immediately groaned after realizing that was Cord. 'Looks like Bisharp got complete control of him.' After a few seconds of breathing, I stood up from the floor to get my grip on the doorknob... 'Just in case.'

I formed an Electro Ball on my hand and threw it when I opened the door. As it turned out, Cord already knew what was going to happen, so he blocked the Electro Ball from hitting anywhere. If that weren't worse, Cord immediately used Psychic so I couldn't move anywhere they wouldn't want me to go.

Bisharp afterward smirked. "I think you can enter now..."

After a moment of me cursing silently, I slowly started walking into the room, where it automatically shut itself shut. Let's see... Cord's Psychic felt more powerful than the time he used it in Weird Woods. So either it had to be the growth of level for him or...

'Cord has something that upgrades his special attack.'

I finally stopped moving and looked at him. "Why do I think you're not surprised to run into me again?" I said with a smirk. Bisharp didn't respond with a single word. "What? You're giving me the silent treatment?"

"He's not talking because I'm talking for him..." Cord said behind me. "Personally, I actually wanted to meet you because we didn't finish that fight earlier." He started walking around me giving a slight chuckle. "However with you and Cord being here, I think a special idea just came up." I started snickering a bit. "Something wrong?"

I almost started laughing, but slowly stopped because of the two staring at me. "Sorry," I said chuckling a bit, "It sounded like Cord was referring himself to the third person." The laugh I made after slowly diminished again because of the seriousness in the room. So much for me pointing out illeism...

A few moments later, Bisharp jumped out of his chair and nodded at Cord. "This was the idea."

Cord immediately charged at me and punched me in the gut area from Weird Woods, sending me flying to the somehow hard wall. "Same spot... Same effectiveness." I said groaning after. After me shaking my head to focus, I took a deep breath and started using Quick Attack.

Bisharp and controlled Cord just stood in the middle, waiting for me to stop circling them. I eventually decided to attack Bisharp first with an Iron Tail, but Cord blocked Bisharp's attack for him and used Psychic to pin me on a closet door.

To make things worse for me, Cord's eyes glowed for a second dark, making his Psychic even stronger than the last time. "Cord..." I said while my voice was straining. "If Dark type moves get inserted to possessed, Cord has Nasty Plot, right?"

Bisharp or Cord didn't listen to me, and they decided run into me breaking the closet like door and revealing Bisharp's bedroom.

In a way, it was kinda normal like mine, only having a few items lying around on the floor or shelves. The closet doors were opened, having broken restrains on it. Probably what kept Cord from escaping...

As I groaned back up, my very first sight was a seed that had a certain glow upon it... My mind immediately called it a Sleep Seed.

Cord started putting me in a chokehold and raised me in the air. "The Cord you know is gone... So are you, and eventually those two Eevee." With a few seconds of this physical attack, I started becoming in and out of being unconscious, with me barely keeping my eyes open.

"Don't..." I squeaked out hardly, "You... Touch her..." A terrible idea came upon me as I slowly started moving my fist to Cord's chest, causing him to laugh. He started to move his other paw to catch it from going anywhere. "L-Leavo!" I blurted out. Everything started moving in slow motion again, making me finally have the chance to simply touch Cord's soft belly with my fist.

Cord gave the expression of him being launched in the air, and slowly let me go from his grip, causing me to drop and gasp for air. Bisharp's eyes widened as Cord slowly made the motion of cringing forward while starting to move back.

I, meanwhile, was still getting my air back. "Okay..." I said coughing after, "Get the Sleep Seed." Grabbing the seed, I jumped into the air with Turbo Boost still activated and make him swallow the Seed still in midair... I couldn't do anything with Bisharp, because he somehow can reach my speed even with Turbo Boost.

I dropped to the floor when I deactivated Turbo Boost, causing Bisharp to turn in my decision. "What the hell did you just do?" it asked. I knew Bisharp wasn't about Turbo Boost, since he saw that a few days ago...

I looked at the area where Cord landed, and noticed a tiny bubble near Cord's nose, inflating and deflating with every breath he takes. A chuckle came out of my mouth when I realized Cord was fast asleep. "Looks like until Cord wakes up, it's gonna be you versus—." A large sting happened in my arm which made me groan in pain. When I looked at it, Bisharp's hand was there with some type of syringe on my body. "What did you..." I said with slow and slurred speech.

My body forced me to collapse on the floor, barely making myself awake. "Say goodnight, Lucas..." Bisharp said.

Soon after, my entire body went unconscious.

***

Meanwhile:

12:55 am

Council Meeting Room

"No!!!" Harmony screamed while tossing her popcorn bag in the air. "Bisharp just killed Lucas!"

"Oh, please," Dialga responded sarcastically. "Lucas's too important of a Pokémon to be killed by an injection... Camera!" A few buzzing sounds went in Morse Code, confused of what Dialga was going to ask. "I need you to move to Pocket Universe 5467, section A-62." The camera started moving out of the building and zooming out the world.

Arceus looked at Dialga extremely confused. "What's the Grey Area have to do with this?" he asked.

"Grey Area?" Jirachi said floating over to the Council. "There's nothing in the Library called the Grey Area."

"That's because it's supposed to be top secret, Jirachi." Harmony said to him. "Then again, I haven't heard anything about it..."

Dialga sighed. "It's a long explanation... I think Cord should tell you."

The camera finally zoomed in a grey scenery with some sparks showing out in the distance. When the camera moved forward, an Alolan Raichu was fighting something while a Pikachu was asleep. "Cord's alive?!" Harmony yelled.

"Not exactly."

***

12:56 am

???

*24 Minutes Remaining*

'Am... Am I dead?'

No, that doesn't make any sense, Lucas. How are you talking to yourself then?

I let out a large groan towards the air before slowly waking myself up. The scenery everywhere was grey. The sun was grey, the sky was grey...

Hell, even the Pikachu with fire eyes looking straight at me was grey!

"...Why did I have to think about that?" I asked myself before looking behind me. Two Alolan Raichu—one entire grey as well and one normal—were fighting against each other, exchanging punches. A faint curse coming from the regular one, made me quickly realize who it was. "Cord!!" I yelled.

Cord blocked the attack from the other Alolan Raichu and looked at me. "Lucas!" Cord yelled.
"What are you doing here?"

"I should ask the same question to you." My ears twitched, causing me to duck toward the floor. The other Pikachu fired an Electro Ball at me and was about to launch another one again. "Hold on!" I charged at the other Pikachu to give it an Iron Tail swipe just to give a distraction. Soon after, I launched a Thunderbolt to keep it away from me. "What the heck is this?"

"Bisharp injected you, right?" Cord said turning his head before attacking again. When he peeked again, I gave him a slow nod, which made him sigh. "The Pikachu over there... is yourself if you turn yourself in to the Darkness."

I took a closer look at the Pikachu to see if it matches me, when I suddenly realized grey sparks was coming out of its paws. "Shit. Leavo!" Turbo Boost was immediately activated, and I moved backwards to dodge the punch coming from shadow me... Yeah, I said it. We spent forty seconds doing what looked like an MMA match, before I decided to drop kick my other, which froze him in time now. I went to Cord to mimic Turbo Boost on him. "Explanation. Now." I said to him when his eyes turned blue.

Cord looked around for a few seconds before turning to me. "This place is called the Grey Area. I don't know how they got here, but I at least know this is the place where the Darkness makes the soldier's you were probably facing."

My expression from that became neutral since I didn't know how to feel. "You're telling me... The way they make fighters is by facing yourself?"

Cord nodded. "Yeah... The fighter would lose against himself, and that makes a Darkness Graduate become a soldier." Cord gulped soon after. "My shadow self is too strong now... I think I only have one move left."

The feeling I got from Cord's statement wasn't pretty. "I thought you said if you got yourself killed here your darkness side takes over."

"Not if I kill it at the same time!"

I made a solemn expression. 'It's too risky...'

Trust me, Lucas... No fear.

Judging from Cord time in doing this, I must fight both my shadow and Cord's shadow for about a minute.

"No fear!"

Turbo Boost was deactivated while my shadow was rolling down to the ground, still having felt the same kick I gave about a second ago. Cord started collecting his energy while I charged at his shadow, giving him an Electro Ball to thrust at its chest. Somehow, it got the reaction to grab the Electro Ball and use his Nasty Plot-powered Psychic to launch me to my shadow self. A large amount of pain was released from me when my other used Iron Tail to smack me on the floor.

After a quick tussle, I launched shadow me with a Thunderbolt before quickly using Turbo Boost to get on Cord's side. What happened next was a back and forth movement as I deflected each attack coming from both shadows, praying at the same time this entire defense would go smoothly...

And yet, I kept on repeating to myself "no fear" ranging from a mumble to a shout.

The Pikachu and Raichu finally caught on to what me and Cord was doing and decided to coordinate in one final attack. Both charged at me, sending a fear of something bad was going to happen. I decided to use both my arms to block the burning sensations, coming from the Electro Ball from my shadow, and the close-range Volt Tackle coming from Cord's shadow. I didn't know how long they were planning on keeping the pain, but it was really working.

"Now, Lucas! Final Explosion!"

I barely broke through as Cord's explosion started, making me run for my life. After a few seconds, I suddenly realized something stupid. "Why didn't I use Turbo Boost?" I said quickly. "Why didn't I use Turbo Boost? Why didn't I use—?!"

My vision went black as just before Cord's explosion hit me.

*Game File Saved*

A/N: Sorry this took so long to make, I was busy with other stuff.