Chapter 5 - Terror in the Plaza

Since Sora didn't have breakfast when she left the house, Sho opted to let her eat something before they went on to investigate the shadow Lugia some more. Though if one were to ask him, they really should've just left the entire case to officer Jenny or someone as capable as her. He just didn't feel like he should've been snooping around the way he did, because he feared they may get into something quite dangerous.

Which was why he steeled himself to tell Sora that he wasn't going to accompany her on her mission and longer. In his mind, he was just as lost, if not even more lost than the idol was since at least she grasped the situation and seemed to know what she was doing. He was just there for the ride.

Returning to their current situation, Sho and Sora stopped by a cafe to let Sora have some breakfast. A sandwich and some coffee later, the girl was fully energised and ready to eat, no all she had to do was finish a cupcake she bought.

"Alright, after this I have to tell her I can't help her. As much as this has been an interesting string of events, I really don't want to stick my nose where it doesn't belong."

The boy said to himself.

Across him, Sora was grinning ear to ear as she eyed the caramel cupcake in her hand.

"Come to mama."

Sora opened her mouth to take a bite, but a flash of blue then lept across her and the next thing she knew she was biting air and her teeth rather than a soft, sweet, scrumptious cupcake that was about to melt her very bones from its deliciousness.

Noticing the lack of food in her hand, Sora immediately darted around in search for whatever took her food.

"Who in the-?"

She then locked eyes with a Riolu who was gazing back at her with a fierce glare. It then jumped from table to table, snatching food from others before darting back into the alley it came from.

Sora and Sho were completely stunned at what just happened. But a couple of seconds later, Sora bolted out of the cafe and went chasing after the Riolu, fuming and shouting for it to return her cupcake.

Sho would shortly follow suit, but he first made sure to place some money down for their food before chasing after the girl.

He found her in an alley, snapping her head between two paths while grinding her teeth together.

"Wow she must've really wanted that cupcake?"

Sho thought, making sure that he kept that thought to himself as it sounded like he was calling her petty for chasing after a wild pokemon for a cupcake.

"Looks like he got you good huh?"

"That little rat, I'll find it and get my cupcake back."

"Yeah but, which way do we go?"

"You go one way I go the other."

Sora said before running down the path to her right, leaving Sho behind who just sighed in defeat before heading down the left path. His opinion of the idol has changed over the course of the past few days, rather than this pure, ever-smiling girl he instead witnessed a tough, forceful and a bit narrow-minded individual.

"Gosh this would be such a shocker to her fans."

Sho eventually reached the end of his path, which was an old warehouse. There, he found the Rio who stole Sora's cupcakes. He was about to confront it but stopped when he saw it was feeding the stolen food to some baby pokemon.

The little ones were all chirping and crying out in glee at the sight of a cupcake.

Seeing them munching down on what were essentially crumbs so gleefully made it difficult for Sho to try and grab the food back, not that he could at that point. Eventually, he just shut his eyes and turned tail, he just didn't have it in him.

At that moment, Sho's footsteps were heard by the Riolu who turned back to the entrance, only to see nothing there.

"I'll make it up to you Sora."

Sho returned to the crossroad and there he met up with a still, grumpy Sora.

She was sat on top of a dumpster, pouting with her arms folded.

"Uh Sora?"

"Oh, did you find it?"

"No, I didn't."

Lies, he most likely didn't need to, but considering how mad she looked earlier, Sho thought it wouldn't hurt to give a white lie.

However, with the loss of her cupcake, Sora was on the verge of crying as they walked down the city streets. Sho kind of felt bad so he proposed they go to a dessert shop in the plaza to buy something sweet there.

"Hmm, but I don't think I brought that much money with me."

That was baffling, she's an international idol who sold thousands of tickets to fans, yet only brought enough money for a single meal.

"I'll treat you."

Sho offered, considering she had no money left, plus the fact he felt a little guilty for letting the Riolu keep the cupcake for the babies.

"Really?!"

"Yeah, no problem."

They then reached the central plaza where several people were clumped together, then from the front, a voice was booming out but neither Sho nor Sora could make out what they were saying.

"Wonder what that's about?"

"Who knows, but that's not important right now. I still need to get vengeance for my lack of cupcake."

Seeing how determined she was for a piece of pastry, Sho decided to take Sora to the nearby bakery he thought had the best pastries in the city. There, he allowed her to choose from their collection of cupcakes before he paid for it.

"Are you sure this is ok?"

"Yeah, I promised after all, plus feel bad that you lost your food so why not let me treat you?"

Sora could feel her heart skip a beat at his generosity, completely oblivious to the fact he was doing this to ease the knot in his stomach that was eating away at him.

"You… you really don't have to."

She said with her eyes fluttering back and forth from her side to the boy.

"I insist."

He responded, desperate to get rid of the guilt he had held in.

"Here."

Sho gave Sora her cupcake and the brunette shyly accepted it with a little bow of thanks.

The two then went walking through the plaza in silence while Sora busily munched on her cupcake while also looking too deeply into Sho's gesture. Meanwhile, Sho himself had his thoughts on how he was going to tell Sora that he could no longer help her in her search.

However both of their thoughts were snapped when they heard the booming voice of the preaching man as they passed by the crowd they saw earlier.

"This is our way of repentance, we must return this world to the Pokemon who are the rightful owners of these lands. In truth, we are the lesser beings!"

Sora and Sho stopped dead in their tracks and turned to the man. He was a middle-aged man, with a rather withered face and eyes that looked unsettlingly possessed of sorts. He was wearing a white and red set of robes and stood on a small stage with two speakers behind him. Beside him, also wearing similar apparel were two other people, but they had hoods on, shrouding their faces in the shadows.

The man preached about how humans were lesser beings to pokemon and how they should be willing to give their everything to Pokemon.

As the two continued to listen the more they felt disgusted by the man's words. At first, it sounded somewhat philosophical, but it only got more and more deranged as he continued to talk.

"Yes, we must all repent and to do that we must give everything to the Pokemon. Our, homes, our souls and our bodies all belong to them! Come all of you, strip yourselves of your material possessions and become one with Pokemon!"

The speech ended and the entire crowd were whispering with some slight disgust.

"That sure is some speech huh?"

"Yeah, it's rather sickening, to be honest."

The two were about to leave, but what was kept in place when the man started to talk again, this time full of rage.

"You all dare ignore my message?! I am here as an emissary of Arceus, to save us all from doom!"

When no one listened and just started to walk away, the man became furious. He then took out a pokeball and sneered maniacally from the stand.

"Very well, if you will not listen to the message. You all deserve to be wiped out!"

The man tossed the ball high into the air, it opened and what came out made both Sora and Sho's eyes widen with horror.

With its blackened wings and crimson eyes, the pokemon they thought Sora had defeated was once again in front of them.

The crowd panicked at the sight of the shadow Lugia, everyone scattered all over trying to get away from the area as quickly as they could.

"You all run because you all know your sins!"

The man screamed, he then pointed at the crowd and with a maniacal grin, ordered Lugia to strike everyone in the plaza.

Following its orders, Lugia then began to fire several hyper beams at the surrounding area, its blast powerful enough to act like bombs and shake the earth beneath everyone's feet.

"Get them, get them all Lugia!"

The man screamed as he kept on ordering Lugia to attack everyone.

Hiding behind some crates Sora and Sho watched as the Lugia raged on in the plaza. Sora, wanting to protect the people and stop the Lugia, reached for Xerneas' pokeball to try and fight it, however before she could toss her pokeball to fight Sho stopped her.

"What are you doing?"

She asked surprised.

Sho didn't say a word, he just pointed to something. Sora looked over to where he was pointing and saw Kronii and Sana rushing into the middle of the blasts, pokeballs on hand.

"Who are they?"

The two girls then let out two pokemon and challenged the shadow Lugia, much to the preacher's dismay.

"What are you two doing?! This is retribution for these fools who do not follow the law we have placed on them."

"I don't see no law, just you terrorising this place!"

Sana exclaimed before ordering her Gyarados to fire a hyper beam at the shadow Lugia.

"No!"

Acting quickly, the shadow Lugia used ancient power to lift several boulders to act as a shield. A small explosion then blasted from the contact, but the boulders held on and protected the pokemon, with an opening available the Lugia quickly struck back with a powerful hydro pump that knocked Gyarados to the floor.

While it was down Lugia quickly tried to strike it again with a powerful dragon rush move, enveloping its body in energy that formed into a winged-serpent dragon rushing straight for Gyarados.

"Milotic use dragon tail."

Kronii ordered.

Kronii's Milotic covered its tail in a bluish-green aura and charged straight for Lugia, when it was close, Milotic then flipped its body over and struck the legendary on its head, sending it to the floor instead of Gyarados.

Seeing her friend's save, Sana gave Kronii a thumbs up, something the latter reciprocated with her own thumbs up.

"Ok then, let's get our revenge Gyarados."

Hearing its trainer's voice, Gyarados lifted itself up and let out a mighty roar, making Sana grin with energy.

"Use hyper beam again!"

Gyarados reared its head back, gathering energy before shooting forwards and firing an orange beam at the fallen Lugia. A small explosion blanketed the area, and a gust of wind swept the dust and ash off the floor, creating a small cloud of black soot. Milotic wrapped its body around the two girls to shield them while the robed people merely used their arms to shield their eyes.

After the smoke subsided, everyone took a look at the battlefield and there still holding their heads high were Gyarados and Lugia. Both, locked onto each other, ready to brawl again.

Sana prepared to give an order, but she stopped herself when she saw that Lugia slowly started to fall forwards.

Once on the floor, everyone stood there in silence, their eyes just fixated on the Lugia on the floor. Gyarados then let out a victorious roar, making Sana and Kronii cheer in pride and happiness as they high-fived each other. On the other hand, the robed individuals started to drag the preacher away from the scene while he tried to run to Lugia while shouting that he could still fight.

From the back still hiding behind the crates, Sora and Sho watched in awe at the power displayed by the two. Sora was even more astonished as she fought that same Lugia and could barely handle it with a legendary by her side, yet those two took it out with so much ease.

"That was amazing."

Sora whispered.

However, the time to gawk around was cut short when an explosion happened in the mountainous forest.

"What was that?"

Sana asked, becoming concerned by the sudden black cloud that rose in the distance.

Following the explosion, Sana's and Kronii's phones then began to ring and when they picked them up, they were greeted with the sounds of explosions and roars.

"Girls are you there?"

Fauna said over the line.

"Fau-fau, is everything alright?"

"Kind of, I found out what that signal was. It was a Lugia that was prowling around here?"

"A Lugia?"

Sana turned to Kronii who shared the look of confusion she had.

"Is something wrong?"

"Me and Kronii just fought a Lugia."

"What? Well, I'm a bit busy at the moment, get over here and we'll discuss what we know."

"Ok."

The call ended and Sana told Kronii what Fauna told her before they both recalled their pokemon and went running to head to where Fauna was.

Sora saw the two girls heading off and a bright idea came into her mind. She shot up to her feet and looked at Sho with a toothy grin a starlit eyes.

"Come on Sho, let's go!"

"Go? Go where?"

"To where they're going."

Sho then shot to his feet and stared at Sora with a gaping mouth.

"What why?"

"I feel like they know something about that shadow Lugia, so let's go-"

"I can't."

Sho cut in, he found that, while not the perfect time and place to do it, he needed to put his foot down and tell it to her straight. So he cut her off and told her, he just couldn't do it anymore, he was never interested in the shadow Lugia and was only there out of pure coincidence.

He never wanted to be a part of the world Sora was in.

Silence then fell on the two, Sora just stared at Sho with this bewildered look, before she then began to just chuckle nervously. She then mumbled how Sho was right and that it was silly of her to have just pulled him around like some sort of ragdoll.

"I'm so sorry for not considering your own stance on the matter."

"No it's fine, I should've said something sooner."

"You shouldn't apologise, it's my fault. See you."

Sora ran off and Sho tried to reach out to her, but she managed to get some distance away from him, making it hard for him to get a word in.

Left alone, Sho decided to just let it be and head home, hoping that he could put all of this behind him.