Okay, we're back on track in terms of the storyline, so let's get 
started!  My vacation set me back about a week, but by the time I got 
back I had already written most of it in my head, so I managed to 
finish the rest of it fairly quickly.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------


The Battle Royale


"What the hell are you doing?" Jen said in annoyance.  "We're supposed
to be low-profile, remember?"

Aaron didn't even look at her.  "Fuck that, I want Sean."  He looked
at the crowd of people gathering near the food court.  "You hear that,
Sean?!" he shouted, "I want your blood!  Get over here now, or this
bitch dies!!"

Pikachu was starting to get very frightened.  Until now, the two had 
never shown any real signs of agression, but now they were taking 
hostages and pointing guns at people.  Very scary.

Across the mall at the gun store, Sean's mind was working overtime, 
trying to figure out the best course of action.  Make a move now, and
Aaron would shoot Jenny in a heartbeat, but if he waited, he might just
do it anyway.  What to do...

"Okay, Sean, I guess you're too fucking chicken to fight," Aaron 
jeered.  "I guess I'll just take care of Miss Officer like I took care
of that nurse bitch in Cerulean!"

"What?!" a voice said from behind them.  Aaron kept his eyes on Jenny,
but Jen turned and saw another Nurse Joy with an expression on her face
that was half anger and half fear.  "That was my second-cousin's third
sister, you murderer!  I'll kill you!!"

She rushed him, but Aaron calmly moved his arm behind him, keeping his
eyes on Jenny, then fired a single shot at Joy's chest, stopping her 
heart and killing her.  She dropped to the ground with a slight crash.
"That's two Joys," he said as he returned the gun's direction to 
Jenny's head.  "Oh, well, Sean, you don't want to fight, fine.  But 
this one dies!"

In the gun shop, Sean opened the gym bag and dug past all the money to
a small device sitting at the bottom.  It was a small remote with three
buttons: an up and a down arrow, and a small red button.  At the top
was a small two-digit backlit screen, much like a small calculator.  He
pressed the up arrow till the number on the screen was up to sixty,
then pressed the red button.  Instantly, everything around him started
moving slower, then finally stopped.  He had sixty seconds to get 
everything done.

He ran across the mall at high speed, reached the food court, then 
checked the remote.  Fifty-five seconds.  Pikachu was sitting at the
table, Jenny was standing in front of Aaron, and Aaron...damn, the
asshole already fired the gun.  The plasma bolt was hanging in midair,
just barely sticking out of the gun.  He moved Jenny out of the way,
then saw that it would hit someone else if it kept going.  He gritted
his teeth, then slowly moved his hand onto the plasma, frying his hand
and making him groan in pain.  When he pulled his hand away, it had 
been completely charred.  Oh well, it would heal soon enough.

Forty seconds.  He grabbed Pikachu by his head, stopped to throw a 
right cross at Aaron, then picked up Jenny by the waist and ran back
across the mall.  Thirty seconds.  The extra weight was dragging him
down.  He had to find a place to hide, at least till he had a better
plan of action.  He looked around, then noticed that this mall had 
about five floors.  Unfortunately, since time was stopped, the elevator
wouldn't work, but flying would.

Twenty-five seconds.  He leapt into the air and floated up to the fifth
floor, still being dragged down by the extra weight from Pikachu and
Jenny.  Ten seconds.  He set them down, then drew his gun and the
stolen Athame.  By the time he got into position, everything had 
started moving again.

"Oowww!!!"  In the food court, Aaron felt like he had been punched by
a giant.  Sean's strength had been magnified by the fact that time had
stopped.  He was knocked over a table, causing it to collapse.  
"Damn...that hurt."  He growled, scaring the children around him, then
got up and drew his dagger.  "Sean!!" he screamed, "Get the fuck down
here!  I know you're still here, you son-of-a-bitch!!!"  Faster than
anyone could see, he grabbed a little girl, about eight years old, and
put the blade of his dagger to her throat.  "Come out, come out, 
wherever you are, dickhead!"

Sean peeked over the railing of the fifth floor and saw just what was
happening.  "Shit."  He turned back to Pikachu and Jenny.  "Okay, 
here's how it's gonna work."  He looked at Pikachu.  "First, you've got
to give me back that translator."  He reached over to the pokŽmon's 
neck and pulled off the small metal chip.

"Pika?"

"Now you've got to go home."  Sean pointed to nothing in particular, 
and a rift in space opened up.  Pikachu protested, but Sean picked him
up by his head and hurled him into the rift, which swiftly closed.  One
more issue to address.  He turned to Jenny.  "Listen, you've got to get
these people out of here.  If you don't, there's going to be a lot of
bloodshed, you got it?"

"Got it," Jenny said very seriously.

"Good."  He smiled at her, then glanced back at Aaron.  "Once you get
everyone out, you either get out yourself, or get a bigger gun."

"Right!"  She ran off to start evacuating the patrons of the mall.


"Come on, Sean, you can't hide forever!"  Aaron was getting impatient.
He pressed the blade harder against the girl's neck, just enough to 
draw blood.  "Show yourself now, or this one dies!"

"I'm right here!" a voice from the fifth floor said.  Sean vaulted over
the railing and quickly fell down to the ground floor and hit the 
ground walking.  "Put her down.  This is between us."  He figured his
dagger would be worthless here, so he put it away and pointed his gun
at Aaron's head.

"Eh."  Aaron tossed the girl aside like she was a rag doll, then put
away his own dagger and pointed his own gun at Sean.  "You can't beat
us both, you know."

"We'll see."

There was an almost unbearable silence, then all of a sudden, it 
started.  Aaron fired first, and Sean fired a nanosecond after him.
They each ran from the incoming blasts, Sean making sure not to hit
anyone accidentally, Aaron doing the exact opposite.  The two finally 
ducked behind a raised tiled square, then traded off shots for a few
minutes.

By this time anyone who wasn't shot had fled the mall with the help of
Jenny and the other policemen.  Some small children had stuck around
to see the fight, much to the distress of their parents.  "Shit, they
would have to get in the middle of this."  Sean stayed behind the 
square and let Aaron take a few potshots at him, then took aim and 
pulled the trigger.

Click.

It took a few seconds for the sound to register in Sean's mind.  It 
took less time for Aaron.  Upon hearing the sound, he proceeded to fire
a barrage of plasma bolts at Sean.  Most of them bounced off the square
and the walls, but a couple came dangerously close to frying his hair,
as well as the top of his head.

"Sean, catch!"  Both Aaron and Sean looked up at the voice, and saw it
was coming from Maggie, who had somehow managed to get up to the fifth
floor without them knowing.  She held out Jerry's gun over the railing,
then tossed it down to Sean.  Aaron tried to shoot it out of the sky,
but his aim was less than perfect.  Sean caught it easily, then fired
a salvo of plasma at Aaron, who took shelter behind his square.

From the fifth floor, Maggie watched the fight below with great 
interest.  From her left, she thought she heard footsteps, then a voice
followed them.

"Heh heh, look who's here.  The bitch."  Jen.  Apparently, she had 
taken the elevator across the mall and had snuck over to her side.

"That's Ms. Bitch to you, you fucking cunt!"  She tried to draw her 
gun, but Jen rushed her and slapped it away.

Jen quickly grabbed her throat and easily lifted her into the air.
"You and your little boy-toy are going down, and Aaron's gonna make 
sure it's painful."

"I look forward to it," she gasped.  Jen had almost completely cut off
her air supply.

Jen smiled.  "Good.  You know, I don't want to bother Aaron right now.
Why don't I just take care of you myself?"

"Fuck you."

"Hmm.  I think I might enjoy that.  Maybe later."  She swung her arm
over the railing, holding Maggie up above the five-story drop by only
her neck.  "Bye, bitch."  With blinding speed, she threw Maggie down
to the floor, straight at the mall fountain.

"Maggie!!"  Sean watched in horror as Maggie plummeted down.  She 
quickly passed two floors, but as she dropped down below the third 
floor, Sean noticed something strange.  It was as if her body had
become out of phase for an instant, then brought back.  He didn't have 
much time to dwell on it, however, because in the next instant, 
Maggie's head smashed onto the side of the fountain, splitting her 
skull open and pouring her brains into and around the fountain.

Jen just looked at the mess below and smiled.  "Well, well.  Ding dong,
the bitch is dead."

Sean felt something inside him that he hadn't felt in a long time.  He
was pissed.  "You're dead, bitch!!!"  With renewed strength, he leapt
into the air and flew up faster than she could react.  He didn't even
slow down to go over the railing, and instead broke right through,
crashing into Jen and knocking her on her ass.

"My, but you're forceful," Jen said with a wide grin.

"Shut the fuck up!"  He picked her up by her neck, then, to her great 
surprise, he took a flying leap off the floor and down to the fountain 
where Maggie's remains lay.

"Bastard!  You'll kill us both!!"

Two seconds after the last word left her lips, her head exploded like
a ripe melon on the cold stone.  "Nope," Sean said grimly, "Just you."

Aaron just sat stock still, amazed by what had just happened.  Sean 
took the brief period of quiet to take stock of his situation.  He 
felt a sharp pain in his foot and realized his left ankle was broken in
two, no, three places.  Two of his toes were broken, and his knee was
dislocated.  Basically, he had landed in the most wrong way possible.
He looked up and saw that he had managed to lay out Jen just to the 
right of Maggie's final resting place.  Good aim on his part, but it
was still a very gruesome scene.

"You son-of-a-bitch!!!"  Aaron had finally regained his senses, but he
wasn't shooting anymore.  Instead, he got up and ran over to Sean, past
him, then returned to kick him in the ribs, hard enough to send him 
flying.  He landed with a thud, but it wasn't on the floor.  Aaron had
zoomed across the floor and let Sean land on his knee, definitely 
breaking a rib or two.  He finally let Sean fall to the floor, but he
wasn't finished.  He kicked him in the side, then pulled him up by his
hair.  "I'm never gonna let you die, Sean."  Aaron drew his dagger and
held it in front of Sean's face.  "I'm gonna keep you alive and show
you a hell the demons would fear!"  He pointed the tip of the dagger
straight at Sean's eye and tried to puncture it, but he managed to put
a hand up and hold it back.

"You're not leaving this planet alive, Aaron," Sean said desperately.

"Brave talk for a guy who's gonna need an eyepatch in about three 
seconds!!"  The dagger came closer...

Sean's right eye was filled with a view of the dagger, but his left eye
had a half-glanced view of the ground beneath him.  It was close to 
two p.m., and the sun was shining through the skylight, so bright...
except for that growing shadow near them...what was that?

"Give up, Sean," Aaron said triumphantly.  "You can't win.  There's no
one to save you."

At that moment, they heard a crash from above.  Both snapped their 
heads up and saw a large form break through the skylight and fall 
towards them.  The figure quickly passed the distance between them and
landed in front of them with a loud crash, causing the floor to 
collapse beneath its weight.

"You called?"  There was a note of irritation in it's voice.

Sean looked up as much as he could without putting out his eye.  "Yeah,
I could use a little help."

Aaron managed to catch a glimpse at the creature's face.  "So, the
legendary Mewtwo, here at last."

Mewtwo didn't respond.  He just stared at the two Agents with a slight
annoyance.  Aaron growled at him, then sent a wave of psychic energy
at the giant pokŽmon.  Before it could hit, Mewtwo countered with his
own attack.

It was like a Beetle playing chicken with a Mach truck.  The dagger was
knocked from Aaron's grasp as he was slammed back by a massive psychic
attack.  The wave of energy sent him flying backward across the mall,
digging a hole in the tiled ground as it went.  Aaron finally stopped
just short of the entrance, barely concious.  He could tell his ribs
were slightly cracked, and he had a stomach ache.

Sean looked in surprise and relief at Aaron's prone form.  Then he 
turned to Mewtwo.  "What the hell took you so long?!" he almost 
shouted.

Mewtwo just looked at him.  "I did not want to be spotted, so I had to
take a few...detours."  He snorted in contempt.  "You're lucky I'm here
at all, you know."

"Ah, hell, I knew you wouldn't stay in that cave for long.  Wait, is
Mew still down there?"

Mewtwo didn't answer right away.  "She...left, before I received your
message.  Perhaps she anticipated these events."

"Based on all the information about her, I wouldn't be surprised."

At that moment they both heard a pained groan coming from the entrance
to the mall.  Aaron was slowly making his way to his feet, and Sean 
knew there wasn't any time to spare.  The gun store was nearby, and so
was his bag.  Carefully, slowly, he made his way to the gun store.  His
broken ankle hindered his progress, of course, but he was determined 
to get out of the mall alive.

"This thing better work..."  He collapsed to his knees in front of the
black gym bag and began rooting through the packs of money, tossing 
them aside as if they were absolutely worthless.  To him, that was 
true, since what he wanted was at the bottom of the bag.

At the entrance to the mall, Aaron had already made it to his feet and
repaired most of his injuries.  All that was left was killing Mewtwo
and finishing off Sean.  He lumbered down the deep trench that Mewtwo's
psychic attack had left in the floor, then started to pick up speed.


Mewtwo watched with great interest as Sean pulled a very large silver
weapon out of the bag.  He determined it to be a gun by it's design,
but it didn't look like any gun he ever saw.  It was covered in a 
silverish metal and had a barrel that was at least two and a half feet
long and two inches wide.  It looked extremely dangerous.  In Sean's
hands, however, it was little more than a paperweight.  There was no
way he could get up to fire this thing, let alone aim it properly.  He
quickly turned around on his kneecaps and tossed the weapon to Mewtwo.

"Here, catch!"  It was a little low, but Mewtwo caught it anyway.

The psychic pokŽmon looked at it curiously.  He noticed there was no
quarter-circle of metal protecting the trigger, which meant that even
someone without fingers could pull it.  Good news for him.  "What do I 
do with it?"

Sean groaned in pain, then motioned at the ever-advancing Aaron.
"Point it at him...AND PULL THE FUCKING TRIGGER!!!"

By now Aaron had broken into a dead run, but Mewtwo had already swung
the gun around and pointed it at his torso.

"Oh, shit!"  Aaron tried to stop, but he had built up far too much
momentum.  "This is gonna hurt..."

Mewtwo actually grinned, something that both scared and surprised Aaron
at the same time.  Then he extracted a claw and pulled back the 
trigger.

It was like shooting an exploding stick of dynamite.  Mewtwo was thrown
back and to the ground, but he got a good view of what happened.  A
number of purplish lightning bolts shot through the air, straight at
Aaron.  Just before they hit, the bolts came together in one spot, 
concentrating their energies into one spot, right on Aaron's chest.  

If Mewtwo's attack cracked his ribs, then this blast shattered them
completely.  Again Aaron was thrown back, carried on the energy of the
blast, past the front doors and out into the street.  The evacuated 
people gasped in surprise as the Agent collapsed on the street.  Most
of them started running far, far away.

Inside the mall, Sean was feeling very pleased with himself.  The gun
worked better than he had originally expected.  He pulled himself up
to his feet and limped over to Mewtwo.  "We need to get out of here."

"Hmph."  Mewtwo glanced at the mess at the fountain.  "I would say so."

Both made tiny hops into the air, then flew up and out of the mall 
through the broken skylight.  "Where to?" Mewtwo asked.

Sean looked around for a few moments.  It didn't matter where they 
went, Aaron would find them wherever they went as long as he lived.  
With that reasoning, one direction was as good as any.  "This way."  He
flew off in a western direction with Mewtwo close behind.


Back at the mall, Aaron was waking up to a headache, two punctured 
lungs, and probably some internal bleeding.  He focused his energies on
his lungs first.  Everything else could wait for a few minutes.
"Urraghh..."  He felt his ribs piecing themselves back together and the
tiny holes in his lungs seal themselves.  After he felt strong enough
not to fall down again, he made his way to his feet, then slowly walked
back into the mall.

Sean and Mewtwo were gone, that much he knew.  Jen and Maggie were 
dead, and he still didn't have enough strength to defeat both Sean and
Mewtwo.  Then he remembered an ancient Agent technique that wasn't used
very often, but it was regarded as a very powerful and questionable
power.  He made his way to the fountain and placed a hand on what 
remained of Jen's forehead, then closed his eyes and concentrated.  It
took a few seconds, but he felt the cool energy flow into him, healing
his excess wounds and filling him with power...power he would put to
good use.  "Sean...I'll make sure everyone on the Homeworld hears your
screams!!"  He leapt into the air in a burst of light and energy, 
soared through the skylight and flew west.  He didn't notice that Jen's
body slowly turned gray, then disintegrated completely.

***

Two minutes after he left, a lone figure walked into the mall through
a back exit, surveyed the scene, then proceeded to make a call on a 
cell phone.

"Yeah, they just left."

"I don't know, a couple of minutes ago."

"Yeah, the clone placement was right on time.  I don't think they
suspect anything."

"They're headed west, just like you predicted."

"Right, they'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"Good, you take care of it, and I'll be there when you're done."

"Great.  Bye."

The figure put away the cell phone, then scooped up a bit of grey 
matter with two fingers.  "Now that...is really gross."  He/she/it 
threw away the slimy gray...stuff, and walked out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that's one more cliffhanger under my belt.  Oh yeah, I also 
wanted to plug a lemon I was writing.  It's called 'Sacrifice,' which
won't mean a thing to anyone except me till I finish this fanfic.  It's
got Mewtwo in it, but it doesn't star him, or maybe it does...ah hell, 
it depends on your perception of the story, and a few other things 
that'll be answered later.  Stay tuned!


The Master of Eternal Darkness,

Shadow