"Listen to my Pokémon's heart?"
Looking at N's earnest expression, Lucius immediately understood—he was being challenged to a battle.
"I'm sorry, Mr. N," Lucius replied coolly. "But my Pokémon aren't interested in sharing their hearts with you." Without sparing him another glance, he walked past the new Champion of Unova, utterly disinterested.
You want a battle, and I'm just supposed to go along with it? Please...
Lucius had already accomplished what he came for after his meeting with Goodshow. As for N, Lucius had no interest in playing into his idealistic theatrics.
Truth be told, N wasn't even on his level anymore.
...
On a flight leaving Unova, en route back to Kanto.
Lucius could already sense that the two Deoxys he'd dispatched to the Sevii Islands and the Whirl Islands had nearly completed their task. The virus was spreading rapidly across the archipelagos.
Given the isolation of those islands, the limited water sources, and Team Rocket's covert facilitation, the infection had taken hold with terrifying efficiency.
For now, Lucius was focused solely on transmission—not mutation—which meant the operation hadn't drawn much attention.
Ah... the ingenuity of a Plague Inc. player...
Suddenly, the plane jolted violently. A drink nearly toppled off the tray in front of him.
Outside the window, dark thunderclouds loomed ominously. Arcs of golden and blue lightning slithered through the sky, clawing across the heavens with divine fury.
"Mr. Volkner, it looks like we've hit a thunderburst!" the flight attendant said, her voice tinged with panic. Even for her, this wasn't a routine disturbance.
A thunderburst? Heh... how convenient.
Through the persistent tremors, Lucius could clearly feel the origin of the power surging through the storm.
"Just keep flying," he instructed calmly, before his body flickered—and vanished from the cabin in a flash of teleportation.
Strangely, the moment Volkner vanished, the plane's turbulence subsided. The black clouds ahead parted as if by command, revealing a sudden, tranquil sky.
"W-Was that... was it the work of Volkner, the Thunder Elite?" the flight attendant murmured, stunned.
...
Below, over the vast sea.
N stood silently atop the water, watching as Lucius reappeared before him in a shimmer of light.
Again. This kind of scene again...
Lucius glanced around. The endless ocean stretched in all directions. His plane had been intercepted—eerily reminiscent of that day long ago, when he'd been riding in Archer's body and Anabel came to kill him mid-flight.
But Lucius was no longer the same man.
"N... you seriously want to fight me?" Lucius asked, half-smirking.
A clash between Mythical Pokémon was no trivial matter. Even at sea, the scale of destruction could be catastrophic. And now that they were outside of Unova's borders, Lucius doubted that person could shield N any longer.
"I want to know... how your Pokémon view you—the one people call the source of the virus," N said, his expression unwavering. "I want to understand who you really are."
"Hahaha...!"
Lucius burst into laughter.
As he laughed, his body began to twist and writhe grotesquely.
What was once a human form stretched unnaturally. A wild, oppressive force surged outward. In moments, he had transformed into a Leviathan—a serpent-like titan stretching a hundred meters long, scales shimmering gold and crimson beneath the sun. Half his face was dominated by a massive maw, now parting to speak with a voice that echoed like thunder.
"Want to know who I am? Then just listen to my heart yourself."
"You're... you're a Pokémon?" N's usually emotionless face twisted in genuine shock at Lucius' monstrous new form.
Behind him, Zekrom—the black dragon of legends, whose very presence could warp the stratosphere—instinctively took a step forward. Unlike N, the Legendary Dragon could feel the sheer dread radiating from Lucius in this form.
"N... allow me," Zekrom rumbled, stepping between its Trainer and the Leviathan.
"Why?" N asked, staring at the creature before him—a fusion of dragon and serpent, brimming with malice. "Why can't I feel your heart...?"
Since the moment he'd awakened his gift, this was the first time N's ability had failed him.
Why?
Because Lucius wasn't a Pokémon. He was a sentient virus made flesh.
He had resumed his true Leviathan form—amplified to over a hundred meters tall using Protean Morph. It was purely to match Zekrom's scale; in truth, his power had already skyrocketed thanks to the countless infected hosts he controlled.
Zekrom swept its claw and summoned a field of lightning that enveloped N.
It was a protective gesture. No matter N's powers, he was still human. If Lucius attacked, even the aftershock could reduce him to ash.
Seeing this, Lucius let out a derisive snort.
He had no interest in N.
This so-called ability to communicate with Pokémon hearts? It was nothing more than Empatheia*—the legendary power to overcome.
In the Pokémon world, a rare few humans possessed gifts like Aura or Empatheia.
Aura-users could sense, communicate with, and even manipulate the same energy as Pokémon—using techniques like Aura Sphere, healing, and reconnaissance.
Those with Empatheia could resonate with a Pokémon's soul itself—like N did. This wasn't telepathy; it was true spiritual empathy.
But compared to Lucius, whose entire being was a hive of viral pheromones and psychic distortion?
N was laughably outmatched.
Lucius opened his gaping maw—and spewed forth a wave of searing, foul-smelling flame.
A basic move: Flamethrower.
But this wasn't ordinary fire—it was Toxic Flame, a virulent blaze infused with mutagenic heat.
Where it passed, even the sea recoiled, parting to reveal a deep, scorched trench across the water's surface.
Zekrom didn't flinch. With a beat of its wings, it shot into the sky.
The turbine on its tail spun like a drill, lightning arcing violently across its body. In its claw, energy gathered—until it formed a massive, 100-meter-long spear of blue-white electricity.
"Go," Zekrom said—and hurled the spear at the Leviathan.
The air howled.
Before the spear even landed, the sea split open beneath its path.
But Lucius's massive body suddenly shrank—vanishing from sight as the thunder spear plunged into the water, missing its mark entirely.
BOOM—!
It was as if a warhead had exploded at sea. A towering wall of water rose, surging over a kilometer high.
Amid the warped space left in the wake of the blast, a scaled figure—now barely a meter long—flickered into existence behind Zekrom.
From its jaws, a beam of frigid blue-white energy erupted.
Ice Beam.
The air itself crystallized in its wake, leaving frozen blossoms of frost hanging in midair.
Zekrom, being a Dragon-type, was especially vulnerable to Ice-type attacks. But with a flick of its tail, it twisted in midair, summoning an avalanche of stone from the void.
Ancient Power.
The summoned boulders formed a shield just in time, intercepting the beam and freezing solid.
But from behind that ice barrier, a blinding azure flash tore through the sky—an X-shaped bolt of lightning descending with godlike speed and power.
Zekrom's signature move—Bolt Strike.
Even before it hit, Lucius could feel the explosive force threatening to tear the scales from his body.
But this time, he didn't dodge.
------
T/N: Empatheia isn't the name given to N's ability in canon, but an original here.
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