Paragon

Remnants of the Great War [30]

PARAGON

Remnants of the Great War Arc [30]

Chapter 39 : Eye of the Storm

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Land of Rota - Southeast of Cameran Palace

Ash's chest burned as he ran through the forest beside Pikachu and Annihilape, and he exhaled loudly as he stuffed his hand in his pocket. Trying not to slow down, he pulled out his ringing phone and answered it, pressing it against his sweaty face.

"Ash," Sylvester said sternly on the other end.

"Sylvester! Sorry...I didn't have time to call you" Ash panted.

"No matter. I saw the news that Rota is under attack. I presume you haven't found AZ yet since you were able to answer this call?"

"Not...yet. He's close to the Palace now and I'm on my way there."

"Well, then I'll make it quick. I'm on my way to Rota now, but expect to see Cynthia there shortly."

Ash frowned in surprise, and his pokémon glanced over at him. "Cynthia?"

"Yes. Immediately after I told her about the attack, I passed out and woke up several minutes later, and she was gone from the island. Darkrai's work, I assume, blasted thing. With Spiritomb's help, she may already be there."

"Why would she come here if she wanted us out in the first place?"

"I couldn't tell you. She's said nothing this past month, but I'm certain she wouldn't return to Rota just to try and pull Paragon out again. It's too late for that. I assume she teleported to Sabrina or Anabel if you haven't seen her, Anabel if I had to guess. In any case, I was just on the phone with N, but he cut out before we could finish our conversation. He and Zinnia were ambushed by AZ's forces in Kalos as well, but he was able to break through and was heading underground when he cut off. I tried calling Zinnia, but no response, so I can only hope she's also underground en route to AZ's hideout."

"Anything else you can tell me?" Ash asked. "Is the International Police on their way?"

"No, they're not. I confess I don't really know who wears the pants in the relationship between Cynthia and Interpol, but at the very least, it seems they're following through with her hands-off directive. Why, what's the situation looking like over there?"

"I don't really know. The town south of the Palace was already overrun with AZ's men when we joined the battle, and Sabrina split off to take care of the psychic portal we told you about. My Guardian friend Riley went to go protect Anabel, and I just took out a whole group of AZ's men along with his Aegislash."

"His Aegislash?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure how many pokémon AZ has personally, but if they're all about the same level, then we could be in trouble. And that's not even the worst of it. I'm pretty sure Sabrina, Anabel, and Riley could handle AZ's pokémon if they came across them, but it's AZ's men that are the real problem. They're veterans of battle, way stronger than the grunts of any other evil organization I encountered in the past. I handled them just fine, but I think even the Guardians may struggle against them if they don't have much experience in battle. Plus, they somehow have the numbers advantage. I can't believe AZ was able to amass such a powerful army so quickly."

"Hmm, we'd assumed the Guardians could easily handle whatever the basic unit of AZ's force ended up being, but if they're matching the Guardians man to man, or beating them outright in some cases, that will greatly shift the tide of the attack. It seems Paragon and the World Champion both underestimated the speed at which AZ would be ready for war."