Obtaining the ability of flight felt amazing. Now only did he get to move faster, but he wasn't turned away by the dangers of the terrain. Even with a Snorlax build up, he could of flown right over it, and he could of been down at Petropolis right now, if it wasn't for a couple factors. For one, Pan was still grounded with Fenrir and his new-found speed upon evolution, so she couldn't get around it as easily. As for two and three, those factors laid within Sabre, his Skarmory. If he wasn't tired from the weight he had to carry, he was forcing himself to crash, making sure Douken took most of the hit (didn't mean he didn't crash unintentionally). Sure, Douken keeps telling him that its good for his training (when used to the weight, he will feel lighter without Douken, making him faster and stronger), but he still has to believe what he hears. In due time, he'll know.
With Sabre hovering in the air, flapping his wings to keep steady, Douken watched from above as the storm came closer. "That looks nasty," he told himself before Pan whistled to him, telling him to land. Patting the Armored Bird's neck, he told him, "Alright, time for a rest. This time, don't nosedive the floor." Flapping less often, the bird lowered down to ground level, landing before Douken got off, retreating Sabre back to his Pokeball to rest up from the flight.
"Looks like it's coming pretty fast," he told Pan, staring at the sky before looking up at her. When she stated they had to take shelter, he could not help himself from looking at the city she was. Curious, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokegear, opening up into the Map section. After finding where they were, he traced down to where it was. "Lenolia, right?" he said, making sure that was the right place. "Doesn't look like a healthy history, but we still have a few miles before we hit Petropolis, and I don't think trusting luck on a cave down the way would be a good idea. Hopefully, they got a Center we can use. We can rest up 'til the storm passes, then be on our way." And by the bio he read, that would be on a good day. "So how about I hop on up there so we both get there quicker?"
As Justin and Nate walked together towards the exit of Arasam after a quick stop at a PokeMart in preparation for their long trip back to Petropolis to report that they failed their most recent mission, they were cut off by two women and a man. They were dressed fairly casually, but they did have a look of authority about them, even though they were only in their mid twenties. One of the women, a tall brunette, was in the center. Each of them had a few pokeballs on their belts.
"Going somewhere?" the woman asked.
"Uh, yeah," Justin nodded slowly, pointedly not asking for her permission to do so as he kept walking.
"You're gonna wanna take a few steps back, Mr. Smart,"
He stopped. She knew his name? "So, I take it you're-"
"Much higher up on the ladder than you," she continued. Justin nodded and took a step back so that there was some distance between him and his partner, and the other three. "The money?" she asked after a second.
"The money," Justin nodded, looking at the floor. "It's gone."
There was a tense silence. "Gone?" the woman asked. "Care to elaborate?" She did not look pleased.
"It was a trap," Justin said. "There were five men and each of them was armed with a pokemon. They took the package and refused to pay up. They threatened our lives."
The man to the woman's left spoke up, "Pen, isn't this the guy with the Hitmontop?"
"Yes," Pen, the brunette, nodded. "Your Hitmontop is supposed to be very powerful. How did you fail?"
"So you knew?" Nate asked, somewhat angry. "You knew they would try to betray us, and that's why you sent us, because you knew Justin had a strong pokemon? We could have been killed!"
"I'm not the ones making these decisions, Guzman," Pen shrugged. "In any case, you two just sit tight. I've got a phone call to make." She took a few steps back and allowed her companions to step forward and stand awkwardly in front of Justin and Nate as she pulled out a cell phone and dialed the number. After a few seconds of the phone to her ear, she spoke, "Penelope Costa, Unit 41. Thank you." A few more moments of silence. "Yes sir, he's right here. He failed. Okay. I-wh-" she seemed concerned and confused for a moment. "Yes sir. I'll get them there right away."
She hung up the phone and walked back up to Justin and Nate. "Seeing as how you're already the lowest unit we have to offer, a demotion just wouldn't cut it. I was thinking you'd just get expelled, but these guys want you on a different mission."
"What?" Justin asked.
"You're going to Lenoilia."
"That's, uh," Justin looked up as he tried to picture the map of Furoh. "South of here, right?"
"Yeah," Pen replied. "Your mission will be to scout out the town for a day and then a VIP will be flying in. After that, you'll be guarding him. I guess they figured being a bodyguard is perfectly suited to someone who is very strong but very incompetent."
"Hey screw you, lady,"
"Come on, you know it's true," Pen shrugged, unphased by Justin's intimidating size. "Anyway, he's arriving tomorrow, so you'll need to get started today."
"Um, we don't have a car."
"I'm well aware of that," Pen nodded. "You'll be taking helicopter."
"Heli-Are you serious?" Nate asked, trying way too hard to cover up his joy.
"Yes," Pen rolled her eyes. "You'll be there by noon."
A little before Noon
"We're gonna have to let you out here," the pilot said as the helicopter slowed down and dropped altitude. "There's a storm coming from the west and we need to get back to Arasam before it catches up."
"No problem!" Justin shouted back. It was very difficult to hear. And so, the chopper dropped the two off near a pond about a mile outside of Lenoilia. As it flew back north, Justin moved his hand from left to right on his belt, checking to make sure all of his pokeballs were there. Hitmontop, Nincada, Sudowoodo and...Pinsir. Unfortunately, all four were there.
"That place looks more polluted than Petropolis," Nate noted.
"Yeah," Justin agreed looking at the ominous city in front of them. Then he looked to the right to see the lake, apparently far enough away from the city to not be contaminated by its filth. There were pokemon of all types peacefully enjoying the water. "Enjoy this sight now while you still can," he sighed.
"Whoa!" Nate exclaimed, hitting Justin's shoulder repeatedly to get his attention.
"What?"
"Check it out, dude!" He pointed to a little Eevee within a pack of Poochyena who were all enjoying the cool water. In the pack was a single Mightyena, the alpha male, four Poochyena, the Eevee, a Growlithe and a Houndour. The eight pokemon were enjoying themselves under a tree just near the edge of the pond and it was clear they were all in the same pack because they were all welcome under the same shade. When an Ekans made the mistake of crossing the threshold into that darkness, the Mightyena stood up and growled, forcing it away. It was an adorable pack of puppy misfits and outcasts, though it was clear that Eevee was the misfit among them.
While Growlithe and Houndour were resting near each other, a fair distance away from the water, and all the Poochyena were chasing each other and wrestling around under the shade, Eevee was resting the furthest away from any of them, just looking at its own reflection in the water.
"Eevee are rare," Nate noted. "I'm gonna catch it."
"I wouldn't," Justin shook his head. "Look dude, it's part of that pack of dogs."
"Uhh, yeah, barely," Nate shrugged. "Like any of those badasses are gonna miss the dainty little eevee."
"They accepted it into their pack," Justin insisted, "Meaning you're not gonna get it without fighting all of them."
Nate sighed, but then shook his head. He walked over to the shade of the tree, but stayed outside the perimeter. Mightyena stood up and stared him down, territorially, but did not attack. Nate got down on his knees and made clicking sounds with his tongue. "Come here, Eevee. Come here,"
Eevee looked up from the pond and over to Nate, who was smiling gently at it. It seemed to enjoy the positive attention, and so began hopping over to where Nate was standing, outside the shade. As it started to do that, Mightyena jumped over the Poochyena, who had stopped wrestling to join their alpha in staring Nate down. The fully grown dog stood between Nate and Eevee.
Nate stood up immediately and took a few steps back. He pulled out Pinch's pokeball instinctively and as Mightyena approached him, even venturing to leave the shaded area, he decided it was going to erupt in a battle. Out came Pinch the Krabby.
Even still, Mightyena would not make the first move. It stood proud and intimidating, staring Pinch down and continuing to growl.
"Leave us," the Mightyena said to Pinch.
"You need to back away from my human," Pinch retorted, defiantly. "Then I'll leave."
"Your human wants to capture one of my pups,"
"Well then you better let him, because he's got three other very powerful pokemon. Any one of us could take you down."
"Me and you, Krabby. We fight. I'm sick of your lip."
Justin just rolled his eyes as the fight erupted. He walked over to the edge of the pond a fair distance away from that battle to enjoy all the less violent pokemon. He called out Nincada as he sat down, criss cross apple sauce, on the dirt and cringed as she crawled up his back and rested on his shoulder. He was used to it by now.
He watched as a Fearow, perched on a different tree, swooped in as a Remoraid leaped into the air from the water. It almost seemed like a taunt, though, as it made it back into the water before Fearow was able to strike. The bird flew back up into the air and hovered above the water for a bit, just looking down. It flew back towards the tree, but halfway there, it immediately turned back around and charged into the water again as what looked like the very same Remoraid made another taunting leap. This time, it was less successful.
Fearow gripped Remoraid in its sharp beak and began to fly back up to the tree with the fish squirming all about in its mouth. Justin just watched observantly with his eyebrows raised as a rock flew out of seemingly nowhere and knocked the Fearow on the head, causing it to drop the fish. It had managed to get a good distance, though, and so Remoraid landed, not in the water, but on the ground near it. Flopping about awkwardly, it was actually pushing itself further away from the water.
Once Fearow had flown away, giving up on the fish who was guarded by some sort of rock beast within the water, Justin decided to help the little guy out. He stood up and walked around the water and began pushing it with his right foot back towards the water. That was when another rock shot out from the water. Justin dodged it, but it hit Nincada square in the face, knocking her off her trainer. "No!" he yelled, angry at himself for letting that happen. "What the hell is that?"
He gave the Remoraid a solid kick, finally knocking it back into the water and went to kneel down near Nincada. "You okay, girl?"
"Cad...A," she said, slowly pulling herself to her weak little feet.
"It's okay, we'll get you healed up," he stood up and called her back into his pokeball. Whatever it was, its rock attacks wouldn't be very effective against Sudowoodo, a rock type himself, with particularly strong defense. Out came Brodowoodo, a nickname Justin had been seriously contemplating. "There's something in the water, bud," he said, pointing to where the rocks were coming from. "I don't know what it is, though."
As Sudowoodo prepared himself for a huge, scary monster, an orange sphere appeared near the edge of the water. As it moved closer towards the shore, more of the Octillery became visible until it was clear they were facing an Octillery. "Octillery can shoot rocks?" Justin asked, unaware. "Sudowoodo, use, um," he pulled out his brand new pokedex which he just bought to catch up on his pokemons' moves.
Apparently it recently learned the grass type move, Wood Hammer. Justin was no expert at pokemon, but he knew that grass beat water. "Wood Hammer, Sudowood-," he paused for a second as he watched Octillery shoot a fast paced beam of bubbles, pushing the rocky tree back many spaces and dealing significant damage to him. "Oh." He shook his head, determined. "Keep going, bro!"
Sudowoodo was trying so hard, walking forward slowly through the endless stream of bubbles, taking damage all the while. He was taking too much and dishing out so little, it wasn't going to work. He didn't want to call him back though. The dude needed a confidence booster. One good hit from Wood Hammer should be enough to knock this Octillery out, given that it was extremely powerful. It didn't happen, though. Justin's plan of boosting Sudowoodo's confidence backfired when he was actually knocked out completely. As Octillery turned its cannon mouth to Justin, anger happened. "You done fucked with the wrong trainer," he said, summoning Hitmontop.
"Fake Out!" he said, nodding. Before Octillery could use that stupid annoying Bubblebeam, Hitmontop charged forward and knocked it back just by clapping its feet in front of it. It actually did a really significant amount of damage given his apparent level advantage, on top of Technician. Hitmontop seemed ready to follow up with Mach Punch, as was Justin's staple starting strategy, but Justin just shook his head and pulled out one of the five pokeballs he recently bought in order to fill out the rest of his team (with a few extras just in case). He tossed it at Octillery, who was just pulling itself up to its eight tentacles as it went inside the ball.
Wiggle.
"Yes..."
Wiggle.
"Come on."
Wiggle.
"..."
Poof! The ball flew to the side, broken in half, revealing an angry looking Octillery, who shot a beam of bubbles at Hitmontop. Justin just shook his head as his boy took a minimal amount of damage and threw another ball.
Wiggle. Wiggle. Wiggle. Ding!
"Got you, you son of a bitch!" He walked over and picked up the ball, looking at it triumphantly. This was the second pokemon he'd caught himself. Hitmontop and Sudowoodo were gifts and Pinsir was...More like a curse, but he was given to him as well. Nincada was his first and only capture up until then. Smiling, he pulled out his pokedes again and scanned the ball.
"Octillery, the Jet Pokemon. This Octillery is male, level 30 and has the ability Suction Cups. Here is a list of his attacks:"
On the screen, there was a list, as promised.
Lock On - Normal
Gunk Shot - Poison
Rock Blast - Rock - The attack it was using to protect Remoraid.
Water Gun - Water
Constrict - Normal
Psybeam - Psychic
Aurora Beam - Ice
Bubblebeam - Water
Focus Energy - Normal
Octazooka - Water
Bullet Seed - Grass
"Wow," Justin scratched his head. "This thing knows a lot of moves."
"Got it!" Nate came running over. "After Pinch and Mightyena exchanged a few attacks, it sort of humbled down to me and allowed Eevee to join. Eevee didn't even try to fight it."
"Nice," Justin shrugged. "You gonna name it?"
"Yeah," Nate nodded. "Gonna name him Whip."
"Whip?" Justin asked.
"Yeah, his first move is Tail Whip, so there it is."
"Cool, man," Justin nodded. "Well I just caught me an Octillery. Gonna keep its name as Octillery. It's really cool, knows a shitton of moves."
"Nice!" Nate raised his hand to high five Justin, who reluctantly reciprocated. "We should probably get to the city."
"Yeah," Justin sighed, looking at the city in the distance. Stupid helicopter. Stupid storm.
“Hop on,” Pan said as Fenrir kneeled down. "Where to, Miss Daisy?"
She reached out to Douken’s hand to assist him up, the young trainer sitting behind her. Pan was more than happy to have Douken travel with her. He could have easily left her behind while he flew to Petropolis. Trainers were all about getting those badges, right? Maybe Douken liked having a constant human companion to travel with? They had been through a lot together; certainly there would be more adventures to be had. She was glad to make his travels a bit more interesting.
Of course, the risks involved in flying through a lightning on top of a giant metal bird probably played a role in sticking around with her. Perhaps, but Pan preferred to think it was more of the former. She returned her frightened cleffa back into her pokeball and Chi-Chi back to her vest before approaching Lenoilia.
As they rode upon the path toward Lenoilia, Pan and Douken crossed a “border”, a clear separation between living grass and the yellow turf poisoned by excess pollution. The path was downhill, meaning the living foliage was on a hill and less exposed to Lenoilia’s ground water. The two also passed by what appeared to be a large billboard. Judging from the condition of the wood poles, it appeared to have been set up not long after the city’s founding. It was rather difficult to decipher: years of graffiti had taken its toll.
“Welcome to Lenoilia,” Pan said after staring at the sign for a few seconds. The byline was even more obscured, though it appeared several residents made attempts to make it more…creative.
Finally, the team had arrived on the cobblestone streets of Lenoilia. If one looked past the grime and debris, one could tell this was once an artist’s paradise. Elaborate architecture depicted everything from foliage to angels to various bird pokemon. Each brick that made up the street had a carving of all sorts of scenes. These were as simple as stick figures walking together, or as elaborate as a crisp sunset set behind a magnificent pidgeot. It must have been a painstaking process to build the city, but the results must have been spectacular. Nowadays, those features were worn away, cracked, covered with graffiti, or in some other state of disrepair.
Artwork wasn’t currently on the mind of Pandora Gibbs, however.
People were heading back indoors at the roar of motorcycles echoed through the alleys. Fevered heckles followed soon after. A bike gang was raising trouble unchecked, throwing bricks at what remaining shops remained opened. Their rampage only stopped upon seeing the two visitors enter the city.
“Well well,” said the leader of the gang, “fresh blood.”
In reaction, Fenrir turned to the group and gave a mighty roar. Most of the riders jerked back at the mighty arcanine. One actually fell off his bike.
“That’s as far as you go,” Pan threatened, Turnip’s pokeball gripped in her hand. And here she was hoping to relax for once. However, it appeared her arrival in Lenoilia would begin with a heated battle.
The leader simply smirked as more motorcycles rushed onto the scene. There was no way Pan and Douken could take them all.
“You kids picked a bad time to visit. This is Burro’s city, and he loves to see new trainers. Why don’t we go meet him?”
“Sorry, gonna have to take a raincheck,” Pan responded before turning her head to Douken.
“Hang on Douken.”
That was the only warning the boy would get before Fenrir leaped over a pair of motorcyclists and dashed down the street. It wasn’t long before the gang revved into action, giving chase to the targets.
Douken watched on the back of the giant dog, staring down at the bikers in front. Clearly, this was far from the safest city. With all the pollution and graffiti, it was clear this place fit the current description: full of poisonous and shady types of beings, Pokemon and human alike, and this gang was no exception. With one hand keeping a firm grip as he watched, his other was hovered above Koldo's Pokeball, knowing the Croagunk could easily take advantage of such a situation.
With the leap above, Douken turned his head to watch the gang turn around and give chase. Normally, a good speedy move could escape them, but in a city like this, people had to be a bit concerned over what was around the other corner... unless it was your own people assisting in an ambush. With his free hand moving down his belt, he grabbed a different ball and held it out to the sky, saying, "Sabre, we need some help!" The ball bursting open in his hand, the armored bird flew right next to the dog. Sure, he promised him rest, but they needed to slow them down without effecting their own speed.
"Sabre, think you can give them a nice stall?" Nodding, the Skarmory turned around as his wings gave a slight glow at the fine lines of his wings before giving out a set of flaps, littering the floor with sharp metal Spikes for the bikers to run over, letting them get flats and hopefully get a pile up. With a good distraction set, Douken returned the bird back to his ball and turned back to Pan. "Alright, let's hit the Center before anyone else decides to intervene."
Justin and Nate were met with a very similar introduction when they finally made it into the city. For the middle of the day, it was awful dark. Their first destination was, naturally, the nearest pokemon center since Justin's pokemon had taken some damage. There was a bar near where they came in, so they decided to ask there. Suspiciously looking at all the bikes outside, they entered. Why there were a bunch of bikes outside a bar in the middle of the day they had no idea.
It was quite the intimidating sight when they entered, but ever since Hitmontop evolved, he found it hard to fear for his own safety. There were about a dozen large men in leather sitting at the bar and throughout the tables. They walked over to the bar to ask the bartender, who was clearly one of them as well. "Hey man," Justin raised his head to the guy, "We're looking for a pokemon center."
"Why's that?" the biker nearest him asked, turning around on his bar stool. "You got injured pokemon? New in town?"
Justin's hand went down to his belt to cup Hitmontop's pokeball. "I don't think I was talking to you," he said, aggressively.
"You got quite a lip on you, boy," the man stood up, garnering the attention of the rest of the bar. His size was impressive, though it wasn't all muscle. He was quite overweight. "So, how 'bout them pokemon? Are they strong?"
"Oh yeah," Justin nodded. "But they're not for sale."
"No problem," the guy smiled, "I ain't got any extra money anyway."
"Well, I guess that explains why you're drinking pisswater," Justin nodded his head towards the man's beer."
The man wasted no time. He swung at Justin's face. Justin pushed the slow moving attack to the side with his left arm and countered with a jab to the man's face. He grunted as he took a few steps back and the entire bar stood up, prepared to retaliate.
"Yo, Justin, I don't think we were supposed to come here to start a fight,"
"I don't think we could have avoided it, Nate," Justin shook his head. "These guys runt he town."
"You're damn straight we do!" the same man walked forward, holding the other bikers back as he pulled out a pokemon. "This one's mine, boys,"
To Justin's relief, the man insisted on a one on one battle. He pulled out Hitmontop's pokeball, naturally, and stood back, arms crossed, as the fighting pokemon spun around on his head. The biker's pokemon was a very angry looking Grumpig. "Hitmontop, Detect!" he yelled as his opponent shouted, "War Pig, Psybeam!"
As Hitmontop spun around the attack, Justin followed up immediately. "Hitmontop, Sucker Punch!" he yelled, entirely aware Hitmontop did not know this move. When the fighting pokemon looked at Justin, somewhat confused, Justin just nodded. As Hitmontop spun towards War Pig, oblivious as to what he was going to do when he got there, the biker cursed and held his pokeball to his pokeball, preparing to call him back to avoid the powerful dark attack. "Now! Pursuit!" Justin yelled.
As War Pig was engulfed in the pokeball's light, Hitmontop charged in a powerful and dark force, pulling him out of the pokeball and throwing him on the ground. "Quick Attack!" Justin yelled. Before the biker could even issue another command, Hitmontop spun around yet again and landed a very precise attack, finishing him off.
The biker was angry. Calling back War Pig, he sent out his next pokemon, a Roserade. "Sweet Leaf!" he shouted, "Use Extrasensory!" Justin, simultaneously, told Hitmontop to use Detect, so he dodged the powerful psychic attack. This was bad news. Extrasensory would do a lot to Hitmontop, but he didn't have any other pokemon he could really use. Sudowoodo was out, Nincada was weak and so was Octillery. There was Pinsir, though. He rubbed Pinsir's pokeball on his belt, shaking his head in thought. If it came to that, he would go there, but it wasn't there yet. "Close Combat!" he yelled as the biker yelled "Toxic Spikes."
The biker seemed confused as Hitmontop charged in, fists and feet wailing all over the Roserade, who threw a few poison spikes over where Justin was standing. Even though Close Combat a fighting move, was weak to poison, it still did a hell of a lot of damage, though at the cost of Hitmontop being so close to his enemy that any hit would do fairly intense damage. The biker seemed upset that Justin did not switch out Hitmontop, which would have certainly made his toxic spikes more useful. "Stun-" he began, but Justin was faster. "Quick Attack!" It was enough to knock Sweet Leaf out.
Next up was "Iron Man!" the Forretress. "Let's see your attacks do any damage to him," he smiled. Justin kept having Hitmontop use Close Combat while Forretress continued laying down layers upon layers of Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Of course, he was taking minimal damage from Hitmontop's attacks, but added up, it was still significant. Perhaps of most concern to Justin was Hitmontop's weakening defenses. After a substantial amount of spikes were placed on the ground, Justin smiled and said, "Rapid Spin,"
The biker's face dropped as Hitmontop moved back to where the spikes were and spun around, kicking and punching the spikes all over the bar, but away from Justin's side of the field. He called back Hitmontop and sent out Pinsir to finish the job and maybe take the hits he was afraid to let Hitmontop take.
"Stop!" another man walked out from behind the biker Justin was fighting. "That Pinsir,"
Justin and Nate looked at each other and then back over at the man. "Hm?"
"This battle's over," the man said, motioning for the other biker to call back Forretress. "These two men need to see Burro."
"Not after a trip to the pokemon center," Justin insisted, knowing that at least one biker knew who he worked with.
"Fine," the man nodded. "After that,"
"We go see Burro," Justin nodded, with absolutely no idea who this Burro was.
So Justin and Nate were escorted through town by three bikers, who seemed to be keeping some sort of peace in town, even if it meant through intimidation and fear. They weren't there to judge, though, so they just kept walking until they got to the pokemon center. They went inside and even Nurse Joy looked terribly frightened by the sight. The three bikers sat on one of the couches off to the side while Justin and Nate handed over their pokemon. As they turned around to go sit at the couches, though, they heard the sound of motorcycles approaching quickly. Not too surprising, but it sounded like a lot. Justin went to the window to see none other than Pandora Gibbs and Douken Sota riding her Arcanine, Fenrir, towards the pokemon center, followed by more than a few men on motorcycles.
He turned back to the biker he was with, who stopped the fight, and said, "I need you to call off the guys chasing that man and woman out there," He then went to the door and opened it, standing out in front of the pokemon center, watching as they charged him. Then, the other biker walked out and stood next to Justin, holding his hand up to the bikers chasing behind Pan and Douken, telling them to slow down.
Pan looked back to see the results of Sabre’s spikes. They had worked rather well: several of the bikes struck the obstacle, causing several bikers to tumble down to the ground. A few more of the gang members drove into the fallen bikes, quickly causing a pileup on the otherwise quiet road. Pan and Douken weren’t quite out of the woods yet: the leader of the group and two other bikers managed to bypass the spikes by traveling through the allies. Pan could see brief glimpses of the bikers as she quickly passed buildings.
She decided to listen to Douken and head for the pokemon center. Usually, it was the safest place in a city, filled with trainers willing to help each other out. But Lenoilia was not the usual city. For all they knew, the center doubled as a gang headquarters. They could be walking into a trap. Still, the two had no other options. Pan urged Fenrir to keep moving until they found the pokecenter.
The arcanine quickly rounded a corner in an attempt to lose his pursuers. It didn’t quite work, but the maneuver did force the remaining bikers onto the main street and within sight. The familiar pokeball logo of the pokecenter caught her eye. They were almost there! As they raced towards the building, two people emerged from the building. One clearly looked like a biker, perhaps a sign that the pokecenter was no longer a safe place. Her eyes darted towards the second person…Justin? What was he doing here? Determined to find out just what was going on, Pan urged her arcanine to stop behind the two men and watch. Sure enough, the remaining trio of bikers also stopped, though they weren’t particularly happy about this turn of events.
“What gives?!” scowled one of the chasers.
“Now now, these trainers had only just arrived in town. They probably just need to heal up at the pokemon center. Then, as this man said,” the biker patted Justin’s shoulder, “we can take them to the new mayor in town.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Pan angrily replied. After being chased by the gang, she had no intentions of going anywhere with these people. Once again, she grabbed Turnip’s pokeball, ready to fight if she had to.
“I’ve got a better idea,” the leader of the chasers began. “You kids are going to be waiting the storm out, right? You won’t be leaving till morning. Perhaps by then you’ll change your mind.”
The leader flashed a malicious smile as he looked back at the biker standing next to Justin. Seeing a nod of agreement from his comrade, the bikers mounted upon their bikes for departure.
“Until then,” said the leader as he and the rest of the crew drove away. The street was once again deserted, leaving Pan, Douken, and Justin alone.
As Pan dismounted from her arcanine, she finally confirmed her suspicions: Justin had indeed caught up to her. The last time they met, the two were in quite a cliffhanger. Their encounters in the Underground and Loch Ranch were blossoming into something more. Something Pan desired but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. Something she may not be ready to get into. All those thoughts started bubbling up in her head, clouding out even her encounter with the bikers. How was she supposed to talk to him now? Were they now expected to kiss every time they met? Should she say hello or something more? Why can’t she just act normal? Finally, Pan decided to bite the bullet and start talking. She recalled Fenrir (not paying attention to whether Douken dismounted or not) and approached Justin.
"G'day, sweet lips,"” she told Justin with the goofy smile of a drunken prom queen.
Immediately, Pan looked away to hide her blushing face. What the hell did she just say? The moment those words left her lips, Pan wanted to crawl into a corner and die. Specifically, the one next to the pokemon center. She spotted a convenient piece of glass that she could use to slit her wrists. It would certainly be less awkward than her actions moments ago.
In a final attempt to save face before committing to desperate measures, she quickly brought up Justin’s previous adventure.
“So…how was Arasam?”
Eyeing Justin, he could not help but question his appearance here. I could of swore he left for Arasam. Even with all of our blocks, there is no way he would be here before us. It was quite possible he had a flying Pokemon like Sabre, but without that info, he was left in the dark about his arrival. Still, he could not help but wonder how when he was hear before them, when he went in the complete opposite direction.
Though his attention was drawn as the conversation started, watching them react to be called off, seeing the one who stopped them pat Justin's shoulder, as if one of them. As the bikers drove off, Douken hopped down, brushing off the loose fur off his butt, when he heard Pan call to Justin, and just gave her such a blank face as she turned around to hide her blush (didn't help she turned to him).
Walking up to Justin, he went over and patted his back. "Yes, how was Arasam? Also, what was with you and biker guy? I am really curious on what happened while you were gone. Cmon, let's head on inside and hear your story as our teams get healed up, shall we?" Clearly, Douken had a right for his suspicions.
Justin opened his mouth to speak, but found that nothing could really follow "sweet lips," so he stood awkward for a few seconds, and smiled as Pan got really embarrassed at what she just said. Douken got all questiony before Justin and Pan got to have themselves a proper reunion and suggested they go inside to talk. Justin agreed, since it did actually make perfect sense.
When they walked back inside, Nate stood up and walked over. "Oh, guys, this is my friend, Nate,"
"Hey, good to met you," Nate nodded, shaking Douken's hand first, and then Pan's. After Pan and Douken handed over their pokemon to the nurse for some healage, the four went and took a seat on some comfy sofas in the waiting area. It was about time for Justin to spill the beans on what he'd been doing the past couple of days, why he was in Arasam and with whom he was now affiliated.
Or...
"So Nate and I met in Arasam," he said casually as Nate looked over at him, hoping he was about to make a lie which he could actually follow. "He's got a rich uncle living up there got some sort of business venture he wants to start here in Lenoilia. But, for obvious reasons, he can't. When I helped rescue Nate's numel at Mt. Carello, his uncle decided to hire me to figure out if there was a way to stop the biker gang."
"And he sent me along to make sure he didn't screw it up." Nate grinned, knowing Justin wouldn't dare call him out for fear of calling out his own lie.
"Yeah, that," Justin nodded. "Anyway, he sent us by helicopter, which is why we got here so fast. I take it you're here 'cause of the storm coming from the west. Figured it's better to stay in a city during a storm."
"Unfortunately," Nate interrupted. "Seems like this city is a storm," He seemed really proud of himself for coming up with that one, as was made clear by his smile and pause for effect.
"Yeah..." Justin sighed. "Anyway, I was just talking to the biker about what we would need to do to get his gang to leave town. Seems they're in it for more than the money. Not about to leave. I'm gonna have to figure something out. What about you, Sweet Lips?" He teased, "Anything eventful happen yesterday?"
As everyone went inside and healed their pokemon, Justin introduced his friend Nate, the nephew to a wealthy businessman back in Arasam. Evidently, Justin had taken an odd job of cleaning up Lenoilia of the bike gang plaguing the city. It was nice that he was helping people out, Pan thought. Not only was it quite noble, it would get him well-connected with all kinds of people, something that could be useful for Justin’s future in school. One of those people, Nate, seemed like a nice enough fellow. At least Justin wasn’t alone in his travels.
Pan grimaced as Justin proceeded to use her ill-conceived nickname on her. It was quite clear he was never going to let her forget that moment. Still, she retold the series of events that brought her and Douken to this very moment.
“Well, while we were heading for Petropolis, a clan of snorlax decided to take a nap on the main road. We had to take a detour, so yesterday was spent roaming the countryside. It’s quite beautiful out there: green fields that stretched across the horizon. Seems quite far compared to where we are now. The sooner this storm passes, the sooner we can get back on the road.”
“If you want my advice, you four would do well to make that trip very soon.”
The group was interrupted by the Nurse Joy, rolling a cart of their pokeballs towards them. She appeared as any of the nurses would, except she wasn’t smiling. The irony of an unhappy Joy seemed to come from her concern for the visitors.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,” she began. “Lenoilia is usually not the best place to stop, but these days, it’s worse than ever.”
“Is it because of the bikers?” Pan asked.
“A few weeks ago, this gang showed up in town. When bikers show up, they usually come and go, preferring the open road. But this group decided to stay. Their leader Burro had desires to rule over us. I did not witness what had happened, but he overpowered what little leadership we had in this town. He even drove the police forces out!” Joy was clearly distraught over the situation: her eyes were starting to water.
“But how?” Pan was now extremely curious as to how, after everything else that has happened in Lenoilia, this biker started an exodus of law enforcement out of the city.
“Rumor has it that Burro has a very powerful pokemon,” Joy continued. “He claims to be unbeatable with this pokemon, and with everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t doubt it. Nowadays, he claims to be gym leader of Lenoilia and won’t let any trainer leave without battling him. Those that lose remain in Lenoilia…forever. That pretty much includes everyone that’s passed through here the past few weeks. And when they do lose…they lose a lot.”
Joy then began to excuse herself, supposedly to do some other chore around the center. That was when Pan grabbed her shoulder to stop the nurse. The people of Lenoilia were practically being held hostage in their own city. There was no way Pan was going to leave this town without doing something.
“Maybe we- er, I could do something to help?” Pan was careful not to include the people beside her. This may be a bit too dangerous for their tastes.
“I would never ask any of you to take on such a challenge,” Joy objected. “We people of Lenoilia have learned to weather hardships. It’s our past, our present, and likely our future. We’ll live on just as always.”
"You two," he said, shaking Nate's hand before giving Nurse Joy his Pokemon before taking a seat with the others, needing to kill time as they recovered. What better what than to get an idea what was going on here. Seemed the game they met earlier felt like they ran the city because their boss was in charge, though not much further than that. Too many blanks to get an idea on the full situation, so Douken put those notes to the side of his mind as he let Pan explain what they had dealt with leading here. If it wasn't for those Snorlax, we could of been there by now when the storm ht. Though that thinking wasn't going to help change the past situation.
When Nurse Joy interrupted, he turned to look at her as she gave more details on the events, seeing how she was pretty much here to be part of it all. An unbeatable Pokemon? Sure, it was merely a rumor, but it could of been a detail to fill in some of the blanks. If the boss was considered unbeatable, then clearly his men felt invincible as well for siding with him.
"Sounds like you are on a road with a broken bridge," Douken said, getting up from his seat, gathering the Pokeballs from the cart, and adding them onto his belt. "Maxi Z. has always talked about 'path we have walkede', and to me, it seem like you think it's a dead end. What if it was only a broken bridge? I am sure we can find around it, or we can fix it." Placing his hand on the nurse's other shoulder, he told her, "Let us fix that bridge, and let you continue on with your life without fear. Anyone arrogant enough to call themselves a gym leader must be a fool." Pumping his hand, he finished off with, "I will find out how to beat this unbeatable Pokemon..."
An unbeatable pokemon. Something didn't sit right with Justin because he had the very distinct feeling that Team Deception might have been behind this. He looked over to Nate to see if he had similar suspicions, and it seemed he did since he looked back over to Justin with the same look. Then when Douken made quite the inspirational speech and insisted he would defeat this pokemon, Justin stood up next to him.
"You know," he said, "Those guys over there," Justin pointed to the three bikers who were sitting on the other side of the pokemon center, the ones who walked Justin and Nate over there and convinced the offensive bikers to leave. "Invited us to talk to their leader, Burro. We may have gotten into a fight at the bar, and I guess they were impressed by Hitmontop. Anyway, this could be a good chance to see what this unbeatable pokemon is like. Maybe give us a chance to get ready in case we gotta fight it. I'll go talk to them, see if you guys can't come along."
When Justin started walking over to the bikers, Nate caught up to him. "Justin, who are those two?" he asked. "I mean, they're not with us right?" By "us" he meant Team Deception. "Don't you think that getting them involved like this could be a bad thing?"
"Was it you or me, Nate, who told two people point blank about what we do?" Justin asked, stopping and facing his partner. "Really, 'cause I'm having a hard time remembering."
"It was, uh," Nate began, but then dropped his head. "Yeah. But dude, that doesn't mean it was okay. It doesn't mean we should go around telling everybody."
"Nate, if I wanted to tell Pan about this whole situation we got goin' on here," Justin said, "I would tell her, straight up. I'm not about to let the leader of the biker gang who took over this city to tell her for me."
"Pan?" Nate asked. "What about Douken?"
"Um, yeah, him too."
"You into her?" Justin didn't answer, just looked over to her, still talking with Douken and Joy and sighed. This was going to turn out exactly like it did with Tina. When she found out he was a professional criminal, she wouldn't want to have anything to do with him. Why would she? She deserved so much better than Justin. She was beautiful and smart and outgoing. Justin was just...Just Justin.
The problem was, there was no coming clean. If he told her point blank, she would bail. If she found out through some other way, she would bail. He needed to either keep this part of his life a secret from her forever, or leave it behind him. But the money was so good.
"Yeah," he nodded finally, "Yeah, I think I am."
"Oh shit," Nate grinned. "Well then, you're talkin' to the right guy. I'm a love machine, Justin."
"Shut up, Nate," Justin shook his head.
"What's up, guys?" the biker who walked them over walked over to them. "You kids ready to go see Burro?"
"Yeah," Justin nodded his head. "Um, we were wondering if we might be able to bring our friends along,"
"Yeah that sounds fine," the biker said, "But they'll have to fight him. Them's the rules, and if they lose, which they will..."
"I'll talk it over with 'em," Justin and Nate walked back across the pokemon center to Pan and Douken. "They'll let us in, but the guy's gonna make you fight him if you come along. Since they're saying the guy will take your pokemon if you lose, I don't think it's a risk worth taking when we don't even know what we're up against. What do you guys think?"
Pan was glad that her friends stood with her in helping out Lenoilia. Douken, playing the part of the white knight, comforted Nurse Joy with his vow to beat the unbeatable. Meanwhile, Justin and Nate took further initiative and went outside to negotiate with a waiting escort of bikers. As always, Pan could rely on her companions to work out a solution to the current sticky mess they were in.
Soon, Justin came back, bearing ill news. The bikers would take them to the self-proclaimed gym leader, but Pan and co. would have to fight in order to get him ousted. Even then, that likely wouldn’t be a guarantee. Furthermore, Pan agreed with Justin: they couldn’t walk in blindly and expect victory to fall in their laps.
“I’m still not ready to walk into a trap,” Pan replied to Justin. “We’ll let them sit outside while we figure out what’s going. Nurse, I’d like to talk to the defeated trainers and perhaps get some advice.”
Joy nodded and smiled at everyone’s willingness to help. They were so sympathetic to the city’s plight. Then again, so were the trainers before them…
“There’s a street called Dream’s End just north of here. There’s a substantial settlement with such trainers residing there. You can take the back door to remain unseen.”
The nurse quickly escorted the group to the back of the pokemon center, evading the bikers out front. She opened the door, revealing the dark contents of an alleyway. Light was dim in this particular alley, only enough to illuminate the lewd graffiti that covered the brick walls. As Pan stepped outside, the nurse gave them one last hesitant goodbye.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you changed your mind about helping us.”
“You don’t understand,” Pan replied back with a smirk. “We’re people of our word. Or we’re just really stubborn. I haven’t quite figured out which one.”
With that, the group was off to journey across the desolate city of Lenoilia. It was quite a long alleyway, covered in cuss words, rants, and caricatures of certain Petropolis politicians. A stray meowth scurried across their path, a Poke King burger wrapper firmly in its mouth. As they journeyed through the dark pathway, Pan decided it was time to get to know the newest member of their posse.
“So Nate,” Pan asked Justin’s sidekick, “What business does your uncle have in Lenoilia?”
Sure, Douken sounded very confident when speaking with Nurse Joy, but the whole idea was to give her hope. However, the goal was high up there, and the risk of what would happened if he failed pretty much would make him one of them: the people of Lenolia who has been held captive with no where else to go, all who now live on a street whose name fit their situation perfectly: Dream's End. Still, they were the best people to get help from, since he doubt the bikers would spoil any of the fun.
Being led out back, they were able to avoid the bikers and grab the missing information that would help Douken formulate a plan of attack, since it was him who said he was the one who was going to be the hero of the city for the day (or at least another issue came up while they were gone). There was only the burden of the entire city of Lenolia on his shoulders. No worries, right?
With instructions in hand on how to reach Dream's End, the team of four traveled down the dark alleyway of graffiti and tarnishment. Even though Pan was curious about Justin's new friend, Douken was more curious on the city, trying to look beyond the destruction to get an idea on how beautiful the city could of been. It could of been as magnificent as Arasam, or even more, if it wasn't as trashed.
As he looked up at a wrecked statue, he saw a Pokemon chuckling at them, and even with a family of breeders with numerous kinds of Pokemon coming in and out daily, it was something he had never seen before! Sure, the case of the Spiritomb was a similar case, but they were hard to come by as is. This one, however, he couldn't even recognize, even from his Dad's stories. It was a dark gray fox with red retails, such as "eyebrows", bangs, and paws, and around its neck was a black fur, swayed to one side{!}.
Watching it grit his teeth in a chuckle, the Pokemon's eyes glowed before vanishing, unannounced to the trainers that they had been locked inside an illusion, making that they see as a straight path become a loop of alleyways, as if to entertain itself as the group kept walking in a circle blindly. Snapping back from the sight of the vanishing Pokemon, he muttered, "Did anyone else see that?" before turning to see the others were already ahead of them, making him run over to the group, just to catch up.
“So Nate,” Pan asked Justin’s sidekick, “What business does your uncle have in Lenoilia?”
"Oh, um," Nate began, "I'm not really sure, actually. He doesn't tell me the ins and outs of his business."
"You probably wouldn't understand it anyway," Justin laughed.
"Shut up, yes I would."
"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Probably."
"Yeah," Nate continued. "Anyway, he's a good uncle. He helps my family out when they need it, and he already gave my two older brothers a job. So I guess it was only a matter of time for him to give me one. I'm just glad it had something to do with pokemon, you know? I love pokemon battling."
As Nate listed off lies about his fake uncle and amazing family and great job, Justin couldn't help but sigh. It was actually really sad hearing him get all excited about his story. He wanted to say something to let Nate know that he wasn't such a screwup. That he could still help his family out of their poverty. But, of course, that would blow their cover. Instead, he just smiled, patted his partner on his shoulder. "Sounds like a great guy, Nate,"
"Did anyone else see that?" Douken asked, catching up to them. Justin and Nate didn't even realized he had hung back for a few seconds.
"See, uh," Justin started looking around the alleyway, "See what?" Douken seemed taken aback, as if something out of the ordinary had just happened. "Do we- Did you see some bikers or what?" He moved his hand to his belt and gripped Hitmontop's pokeball, as he tended to do when he was nervous.
“Come on now!” Pan replied to Nate. “Surely you know something about what he does, what with him being able to support your family and all. He’s gotta be pretty successful in whatever he does. Maybe I’ve heard of him? Who is he?”
Obviously, Pan was just playing around with Nate. He seemed to be open to giving out more clues about his past, so she decided to lengthen the conversation a bit. Now, if only she could get Justin to do the same…
As soon as Douken caught up, the trainer seemed to express concern over something happening behind them. Justin looked on nervously; he was ready to unleash his pokemon at a moment’s notice. Pan too started to look around for signs of trouble, calling Chi-Chi out to help. The pachirisu crawled out of her human’s vest and rested on her head, looking around at the scenery for hints of bikers.
“I don’t see anyone, Douken,” Pan whispered cautiously, unsure if they were being watched. “Let’s keep going and see if anything happens. Just…act normal.”
Soon enough, the group exited the alleyway and found their way down a street. The street signs had disappeared long ago, though the decorations clearly gave the name away. Lamp posts were modeled after giant lollipops, their heads giving off a slight glow. Buildings were lined with a candy cane design, red and white stripes stretching along the rooftops. The walls of buildings were neon colored, likely to represent cotton candy or taffy. Another building had dull brown walls, but with a cookie texture. This was of course a gingerbread house, complete with frosted icing roof and gumdrop accents. The candy lane seemed to stretch on into the horizon, with no end in sight.
“Everything looks so delicious,” Pan remarked at the scenery. “I could really go for some cotton candy right about now.” As she reached for the cotton candy stand, the researcher couldn’t help but wonder about who designed all of this. The artists of Lenoilia had clearly outdone themselves with this design.
Or had they?
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Chi-Chi was very confused. She was not seeing anything like what Pan was observing. It was still the same dilapidated city. The confusing part however was that her human was walking around one building over and over again. While Pan believed she was walking along a straight candy-strewn road with no end in sight, she was in fact walking in circles. Nor was Pan reaching for cotton candy: it was actually a giant dirty hairball! The pachirisu immediately started slapping Pan’s arm, trying to get her to snap out of it.
“Chi-Chi!” Pan shouted angrily. “I promise, you’ll get a piece too.”
That did not encourage the pachirisu one bit.
Watching Pan reach out for something random, talking about cotton candy, he saw her reaching for an arm of a slot machine, as if the streets turned from the desolated city into a Game Corner, and as she talked about cotton candy, it was if his mind told him some of the images on the slots were cotton candy puffs. Checking the winnings chart, sure enough, it was right on there with a win bonus of 2.5 of payment, and each other symbol were circus themed.
Turning back around, the broken down alleyway vanished, and seemed to of been replaced by a large hallway of slot machines and video poker. The dusty floor was not a velvet red, and the darkened path was flooded with flashing lights and sounds. Turning back around, he saw Chi-Chi smack her away from the lever, with her reminding of getting a piece. Why would a Pokemon want a piece of the profit? This, however, didn't drop his suspicions. If he didn't see that chuckling black fox, he wouldn't of had any second thoughts and would of believed this was part of the city.
Going for his belt, he held his Pokeball out and bursting out of it, the red pup named Rufus gave a long stretch before letting out a bark. Kneeling in front of the pup, he whispered to the Growlithe, "Alright, this may seem odd, but I don't think everything is as it should be," as he scratched his collar to keep his attention (for the most part). "Now I want you to stay out and use Oder Sleuth every now and then. Keep your nose out for an unfamiliar smell. If it connects to a black fox, i want you to bark three times and go after it, got it boy?" With a bark let out in reassurance, Douken stood back up and looked back at the group, wondering if they were experiencing something similar.
Once the group found their way out of the alley and into the street, he immediately fell to his knees. What he saw could only be described as an orgy of light, color and visuality. He ceased to perceive the world and his fellow teammates as reality and attained a new one. Somehow this intense form of beauty was affecting him physically. He felt it in his arms and legs, his whole body. He never wanted it to stop. Every blink was devastating, but he kept solace in knowing that it would last less than a second and he could get maybe twenty to thirty more seconds of his eyes being open afterwards.
What he was feeling was different from happiness or from simple euphoria. He was experiencing a new beauty and the meaning of life and a new world. This new understand was manifesting itself physically. When he touched his face, he could feel it intensify. In fact, his whole body became hypersensitive to touch. As he felt around his face, focusing on his stubble, which was a whole different sort of amazing, he slowly moved his hands down so they were wrapped around his arms. It didn't take long for him to pull off his shirt, fall to the ground and spend the rest of the illusion feeling up his chest, his eyes wide open the whole time.
Nate had a different experience. He found himself on a rickety bridge between trees above a large fall into the jungle. He saw Pan walking around a tree to his left, on a set of wooden planks surrounding its trunk. Behind him, he saw Justin on his knees, crying, rubbing his hands all over his face. To his right, he saw Douken on a tree branch looking about the jungle with a wonderful eye. In front of him, as the bridge continued, and further down, one of the wooden planks to the bridge was gone and there was a girl hanging on for dear life, holding onto the bridge.
He had never seen her before. Indeed, her beauty was unreal. So unreal, in fact, that he could not physically describe her. Obviously, she wasn't actually there. She was just a figment, a manifestation of Nate's idea of beauty. He only even knew she was so beautiful because of how he felt when he saw her, dangling, begging to be rescued. All the others seemed preoccupied by something though. Why did no one else care about this woman about to die? What was wrong with them? "Justin, why don't-" He looked back to see Justin, shirtless, rolling around on the bridge, his own hands wandering all over his chest and stomach. "The hell?"
He didn't have time to ask. He ran down the bridge. He had to get to the girl. "Hold on!" He yelled as he sprinted, taking no mind of the fact that the bridge could give out beneath him at any moment.
After wrestling with Chi-Chi for the “cotton candy”, Pan saw the others enjoying the treats of Candy Lane. Justin was rolling around in a stream of white icing that rolled down the street like water after a heavy rainstorm. The sweet confection had apparently put him into a euphoric high: he was rolling around without his shirt, his hands rubbing against his naked chest. It was quite a steamy scene for the woman; she completely ignored the barking growlithe. That was why she quickly turned away to focus on Nate.
Nate was trying to grab a hold of a human-sized gingerbread woman. From the look on his face, it was a life or death situation: Nate had to get to the pastry person. Nate told the gingerbread woman to hang on, but the cookie remained static, an icing smile remaining on her face.
“Gee, he must really like gingerbread,” Pan thought to herself as she turned to Douken.
To Pan, Douken was acting strangest of all. He seemed completely indifferent to the fantastic scenery around him. In fact, he was almost suspicious of their location. He was more interested in his growlithe, who started sniffing around at seeming random places.
“Come on, Douken,” Pan smiled at her companion, “relax and have some fun for a change!” With that, Pan proceeded to bring the piece of cotton candy to her face, finally about to take a bite.
“PACHICHI!”
Immediately following the squirrel pokemon’s cry, a bright flash engulfed the area. After the Flash attack, Pan was quite shocked at what she saw. The paradise of sweets was replaced with the same broken streets that plagued the city. Her pachirisu was staring down a trio of black foxes, all blinded by the attack and thus disrupting the illusion. Finally, for some reason, she was holding a huge mat of hair from who knows where.
“What?” Pan asked in utter shock. She quickly tossed the furball aside in disgust, still very confused as to what happened. She looked around to see if her friends were having the same strange experience she was having.
As Rufus began sniffing around, Douken went and looked at the other two companions. Justin, seemed to of been rolling around in a pile of coins, as if he hit three jackpots in a row, his mind frying by the fact of all of his riches (that, or just completely stoned). Peering over to Nate, he seemed to of been trying to grab a lucky coin that rolled under a machine, scrambling as if a life mattered over a single coin (maybe he wanted to be as lucky as Justin).
Gazing back at Pan, he saw her about to eat a coin before a bright light filled the air around them, Chichi's Flash to protect her trainer from something, and with the walls beginning to fade back to where they were, the items around them changed as well: Pan about to eat a hairball, Justin still sitting there shirtless, and Nate trying to dig around for something. Glancing back forward, he saw three of those foxes from before, right next to the statue where he saw the first one. Looking back up there, the forth was also dazed, stumbling down the statue in front of the other three. "Never seen those Pokemon before, but I am sure they each were why we were surrounded by slots." Obviously, he didn't know they saw something else, with each Zorua placing them in their own illusions.
With Rufus hunched forward and growling, Douken pointed forward and said, "Before they do that again, use Flame Wheel!" With a bark, the Puppy Pokemon ran forward, paws blazing before curling up into a ball of flames, ready to play Zorua Bowling.
"No!" Justin shouted without thought when the illusion disbanded. "No! No! Why?" Suddenly, the beauty taking place outside of his eyes was made apparent to be just inside his head. Reality took over. Now he found himself shirtless on the disgusting pavement looking up at the unclear skies surrounded by rundown buildings. His breathing slowed and his sense of truth returned.
It was terrible.
Finally, he pulled himself to his feet, trying to figure out the situation. There was Nate, awkwardly pulling himself out of a garbage can, holding an empty beer can in his hand. The two made a confused sort of eye contact. He looked over at Pan, who tossed aside a ball of fluff from her pachirisu. Then there was Douken, who actually had some level of understanding of what was going on. His growlithe, Rufus, launched an offensive against four black fox type pokemon near him. Did they have something to do with his eyegasm?
He had to have one. He pulled out an empty pokeball and looked at it for a moment. If he had one of those things, he would have endless access to whatever it was he just experienced. He stifled a smile as he looked back up at the foxes, watching curiously as Rufus initiated combat. His heart was beating faster and faster as Nate joined the battle with Whip, his brand new eevee. Having access to that kind of euphoria, the kind that made him lose his mind, roll around on the ground shirtless, completely unknowing of the world outside of the drug. That's what it was. It was a drug. A drug to which he was already addicted.
His hands were shaking as he watched the battle intensify. He had to make his decision quickly. Did he want to catch one? Did he want to feed this addiction? At least he had the wherewithal to know it would be a terrible decision. And yet, there he was, unable to make the decision that would be so easy for any of us. "Don't do it," he said to himself as he pulled out one of his filled pokeballs. He didn't even pay attention to whose it was. "Don't do it," he said again as he tossed it out, summoning Nincada.
"Leech Life," he said as Nincada scurried towards one of the Zorua. "No," he whispered, to himself. "Don't let her do it." His hands ran through his hair as he scratched an imaginary itch underneath. As Nincada and Zorua exchanged a few blows, Justin looked down, again, to his empty pokeball. "Stop it. Don't." He insisted to himself, but his body did not pay heed. He threw the ball at the fox, pulling it inside. It didn't even wiggle before the creature burst forth. "That's good. It's a sign. Don't catch him," he said as he pulled out another pokeball. This was his second to last. After Nincada landed another Leech Life, he threw the second one, pulling the fox inside yet again. This time, it wiggled twice, but, again, he burst out.
"Don't!" He yelled to himself, finally audible to everyone. "Don't do it!" And yet, he found himself pulling out his final empty pokeball. His mind knew it was a terrible idea, but his body insisted. Nincada, realizing that Justin was having a breakdown, backed away from Zorua to help her trainer through these trying times. However, she somehow forgot about her battle. Zorua used Pursuit and knocked her on her back. As she wiggled her little legs, trying to get back onto her feet, Justin's attention was caught. "Nincada?" he asked.
Zorua landed various attacks on her defenseless body, but before Justin could throw his empty pokeball, he saw something particularly strange. Her body stopped moving. Even Zorua seemed confused. To make things worse, something impaled outwards from her stomach. It looked like a golden blade or claw of some sort. What was happening to her. "Nincada..." A second blade protruded now and then, finally, Ninjask burst forth from the shell. Something was different from the few other Ninjask he'd seen, though. Her colors were off. Or, maybe, they were more on than any of the others. She was golden. Her colors were gorgeous, her wings were shiny. This was nothing compared to the color euphoria he experienced minutes before, but it was reminiscent.
"Nin-" he began.
"Jask!" She finished as she flew directly towards him.
"You evolved," he cracked a smile. "You're beautiful."
He looked over to Zorua, though, still gripping the empty pokeball. It wasn't done with the empty shell, though. It knew something was still going on. After a few moments of sniffing, the shell pulled itself off the ground and hovered awkwardly in front of the fox. "The hell?" Justin asked. Zorua and Shedinja just looked at each other for a few seconds. Then, Shedinja looked over at Justin. "Shed...Inja?"
And in that moment, everything else was gone. Shedinja was his. It had to be his. It knew it was his. He knew it was his. The only problem was he didn't have a spare pokeball in which to carry it. Well, he did, but...He looked down at the final empty and then back up at Zorua. Then a little to the right at Shedinja. He threw the pokeball at his decision.
Wiggle. Wiggle. Wiggle. Ping.
He walked over to the ball, leaned over and picked it up. He looked at it for a second, not confident he had made the right decision. He sighed, just looking at this newly filled pokeball. This was his team. He now had six, meaning he did not have room for-
"Zor!" he heard from his left. He looked down at the black fox who was rearing to charge. As it did, it was cut off by Ninjask, who flew by with ridiculous speed and knocked it out. Then, she flew back to Justin and did a few laps around his head before resting on his shoulder.
"Yeah, I think I made the right choice too," he smiled.
As the shock of the transition from fantasy to reality wore off, Pan glanced over the dark pokemon as she quickly turned to Justin’s voice. Fortunately, his cries were not those of pain. Rather, he seemed to be very disappointed in leaving the illusion. Justin must have really liked bathing in icing. That wasn’t the case according to Douken however. He was under the impression that they were “surrounded by slots”.
“Slots?” Pan inquired. “I thought we were surrounded by candy…”
There was no time to delve into the mysteries of what they saw. The group had to deal with the present first. Pan turned back to the attacking pokemon. At first glance, she thought they were a group of very dirty vulpix. Upon closer examination, however, the researcher noticed that the black fur looked entirely natural. The characteristic multiple tails were replaced with one fluffy tail. It was quite clear that these were entirely different pokemon, the likes of which Pan had never seen before. Soon enough, one of the zorua went after the pachirisu, looking for an easy meal.
“Chi-Chi, use Electro Ball!”
The pachirisu faced off with the approaching enemy, gathering electricity upon the fur of her tail. The hair on her tail stood straight up as it gathered energy for the attack. Finally, Chi-Chi flung her tail like a catapult, raining down clusters of electricity upon her opponent. The zorua, shocked by the attack, quickly backed off as he thought of another strategy.
Pan looked back at Justin as he struggled with his own opponent. He was particularly angry that he couldn’t catch one of the dark pokemon, his pokeball failing to capture the target. Though it would have been nice to have an actual pokemon to study over, Pan wasn’t sure what would happen should the captured zorua turn on her. The illusions were quite strong; who knows what they were capable of? Rather than capture the creature herself, she would have to make do with the next best thing.
*CLICK CLICK CLICK*
Almost on reflex, Pan had her camera within her hands, immediately taking pictures of the pack of zorua. She made sure their other pokemon were within the pictures a well; they would provide good size references. This was when she witnessed Justin’s nincada transform into two separate creatures: ninjask and shedinja. It was an amazing sight to see, not to mention quite rare to catch it on film. Through her camera, she also realized that her own battle wasn’t quite over. The zorua struck once more, sneaking amongst the other battles before ambushing Chi-Chi. He swiped his paw at the squirrel in a fierce faint attack.
“Chi-Chi, try confusing him!” Pan commanded as the pachirisu lifted herself off the ground. She simply blew a sweet kiss towards the dark pokemon. The zorua twirled around with a drunken smirk on his face (not too different from the one Pan displayed earlier). The fox pokemon was waddling around, trying to muster some sort of attack.
it seemed each trainer took their own Zorua to take on, Douken's focus was the one he first saw that was on top of the roof, and even though he took some damage from the fall and Flame Wheel, he seemed to of been in some top shape. Clearly, this Pokemon he was facing had some decent stamina on him, and maybe a bit more strength than Rufus. Still, it wasn't going to stop Douken.
"Now, use Bite!" With fangs feeling sharper, the pup jumped at the fox and went for a powerful crunch at the small fox. Unfortunately, the Flame Wheel hit snapped him from reality form the fall and saw it coming, smoothing to the side, dodging the blow before striking back with a Faint Attack, a powerful blow that knocked back Growlithe. That's strange. Koldo knows that move as well, and both seem to feel about the same strength, but why does it seem like that hit was a lot bigger than his? Dad did talk about how Pokemon can use moves stronger than normal if it is the same type as the user...
"So does this mean they are Dark Types?" he muttered aloud as the Zorua went for his next attack. With claws extended a set of Fury Swipes were let out, each one smacking the Pup as he tried to get up and turn around, having trouble being pinned down, and Rufus having trouble.
"Counter with Reversal!" Using the window between the swipes, Rufus lifted out his feet and kicked the dark fox back, knocking it away to give the pup some room to get up and run back back at his trainer's side, letting out a howl, body glowing brightly to try to take in as much light as possible. "Morning Sun..."
Upset about the turn of events, a dark aura built up inside the Zorua's mouth, letting out a blast of dark rings as the Dark Pulse was aimed right at Rufus. Unfortunately, the Zorua had no control over it, nor to power to fight the recoil as it launched himself back and the attack upwards, striking Douken in the face! With the Zorua flying away form the attack, Douken was knocked back, followed by a couple of clanks on the floor.
Douken's glasses were busted into multiple pieces, An arm at one side, the bridge somewhere else, and both lenses laying on the floor. Recovering from the face blast, he held onto his head, looking down at the alley, seeing a pull wall of blur.
Four Zorua, four trainers. That seemed like the deal. So while Justin battled himself against who to capture, Pan focused on taking pictures and Douken battled another somewhat blinded, Nate was getting to know Whip, his new eevee, the hard way, which, incidentally, was the fun way and really the only way he knew how.
He knew Eevee wasn't a very strong pokemon, so he would have to find a way to bring Zorua down to his level. As it vanished into nothingness and appeared behind Whip for a perfect attack, Nate concluded that its attacks were physical based on how Whip reacted. That part didn't matter quite yet, though. A simple growl wouldn't weaken its attacks enough to make a difference. "Whip, use Sand Attack,"
As Zorua charged for what looked like a Pursuit attack, Whip whipped up a nice little stream of sand to block its opponent's vision. The tricky fox pokemon shook its head as it continued to run, not focusing on its direction. This allowed Whip to sidestep its attack, leading into Nate's next command. "Growl!"
"Veeeee!" Whip yelled as Zorua turned back around to face him. Its sight was still blurred and its inhibitions were heightened when it heard Whip's confident growl. Nate hoped the Sand Attack would weaken its accuracy, but Faint Attack could not be hindered as such.
"Quick Attack!" Nate shouted and, quite immediately, Whip charged, knocking Zorua back a slight bit, but before the fox could even flinch, he appeared behind Whip and attacked with, yet again, perfect accuracy. Sand Attack was ineffective and Faint Attack was not a weak move. Whip was breathing heavily as he looked back up at Nate, his big eyes full of fear, disappointment and even disbelief. Nate simply nodded and called him back inside the pokeball, next sending out his most powerful pokemon, Pinch the Krabby.
"Pinch, use Harden!" Nate shouted. As Pinch focused on somehow increasing the endurance of her shell armor, Zorua used another Faint Attack. Weakened by Whip's Growl and used against Pinch's Harden, the attack was not incredibly effective. "Good, now- What?"
What could it be that Nate was confused about? Why would he say "What?" before the end of his command? What could possibly- Yeah, that's pretty much it. Pinch began her quick evolution from Krabby to Kingler. Nate took advantage of Zorua's confusion and wasted no time. "Pinch, use Stomp!" Her incredibly powerful physical attack against Zorua's particularly weak defenses proved to be substantial. She lifted her massive claw and whacked Zorua onto its side. While down, she stomped with her tiny legs, though they had the wight of her massive body on top of them.
Before too much damage could be done, Zorua vanished, yet again, and appeared behind Pinch. Before she could turn around and knock him away again, he attacked. She did, however, turn around and knock him away, though she took even less damage than his previous attack. When he charged her again and disappeared, she anticipated it and turned around, holding her claws in front of her. Zorua knocked against her protected body and fell back. Before he could attack again, she stuck out her larger claw and gripped the little fox in a vice. She looked to Nate as if to see whether he would give a thumbs up or down. When Nate just shook his head, she tossed Zorua aside rather than obliterating him, which she knew she could do.
The fox managed to pull itself to its feet, but comprehended the mercy of Pinch. Rather than insisting on a fight, it lowered its front paws and bowed to the newly evolved Kingler before scurrying back off into the disgusting alleys from which it came.
"Congrats on your evolution," Justin smiled approaching his partner and patting him on the back. "How do you like your new body, Pinch?" Nate was pleased when Pinch seemed to smile at Justin. He was glad that his pokemon and his partner were getting along.
"I couldn't help but notice Nincada evolved too," Nate nodded, noting Ninjask still buzzing around all over the place. She was curious enough when she had tunnel vision and was locked to the ground. Now she was incredibly fast, had amazing eyesight and could fly. This was either going to stay cute forever or get old quick. "And you caught its shell?"
"Yeah, it calls itself Shedinja," Justin shrugged. "I haven't pokedexed it yet, but it seems pretty cool,"
"Shedinja is a weird pokemon," Nate smiled, "It's really really weak. One hit from anything will knock it out. Thing is, not much can hit it since it's barely even alive to begin with."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, it's part bug and part ghost. The only things that can even touch it are the things which are good against those. Fire, dark, stuff like that."
"Interesting."
"You think these two need some help?" Nate asked.
"Nah, they got it," Justin shook his head. "I've seen them battle. They're both- Oh," That's about when he noticed Douken's broken glasses on the ground and his look of utter confusion as he looked down the hallway at Zorua, who was injured pretty substantially as well. "You alright, Douken?" Justin asked, rushing over and putting his hand on the guy's right shoulder. He looked down at the glasses. "Those things are gone, man. Do you have any spare or anything?"
Meanwhile, Chi-Chi had gained an edge over her confused opponent. The zorua attempted to scratch at the pachirisu, but his paw simply struck the ground. The blow caused the opposite effect: claws against asphalt were quite the unpleasant feeling. While the dark fox was nursing his injured paw, he noticed that the rest of his pack was either defeated or headed in that direction. The zorua wasn’t quite sure where his teammates went; his confusion led him to run away from the battle. The fox chose a random street, its focus only set on escaping the superiorly trained pokemon.
With the battle over, Pan called Chi-Chi back to her vest and checked on the others. Justin and Nate seemed to be alright, both with freshly evolved pokemon. It was the best news they had so far on this trip to Lenoilia. Considering the trouble the group had gotten into so far, they could use the help of more evolved pokemon.
Douken, however, was holding his head as he faced the broken shards of his glasses. He was caught in the crossfire of the zorua’s attack, leaving his vision distorted. Pan was worried that the attack did more than break his glasses. She was more concerned about head injuries.
“Do you need to take a break?” Pan said with concern. She could see such an attack taking a lot out of a person.
"Don't worry about me,” Douken replied, trying to laugh off his teammates’ questions. “I'll be fine. Just got to find my glasses once my head stops spinning." However, when he found one of the pieces, he let off a sigh and muttered "Great. Pretty much going to be blind until I get a new pair." Clearly, he had no second.
“In the meantime, I think we should keep moving and rest somewhere a bit…safer.” Lenoilia was a very bad place to be blind and disoriented. They could no longer stay on the streets with Douken’s condition, especially since the afternoon was beginning its transformation into evening.
“Now, take my arm,” she said to her blinded friend, offering her bent arm. “We’ll be your eyes for a few days.”
She looked back to Justin and Nate, giving them a concerned look.
“Could you guys keep an eye out, just in case?” Strangely, the researcher wasn’t concerned of wandering through forest at night, but an urban environment was a completely different story.
“Hopefully, this Dream’s End isn’t too far. Maybe even a bit more welcoming…”
The group had travelled a good bit further north on their journey. They had passed by numerous little shops, though most of them were abandoned. Pan saw a closed down toy store, a few of the carved wooden toys still scattered on the floor. On the other end of the street, a baker was hard at work making several loaves of fresh bread. One wondered how a business such as this bakery could even function in a city like Lenoilia. Yet, that was exactly what was happening. Even here, life managed to cling on.
Finally, Pan and co. followed the road to the right, ending up in a blank field. According to a piece of flat rotting wood (the remains of a sign), this was once the city park. The researcher could imagine parents coming here with their children to have a picnic, or weekend sports games being held on the green. In the present, there was nothing green about this park. Whatever plant life that had once existed had deteriorated from the poisonous environment. All that remained was fallow dirt and a colony of ragged tents in the distance. The dreary environment was made more so by the gathering rain clouds in the sky.
“This must be it,” Pan remarked as they walked towards the miniature neighborhood that shared the same name as the street: Dream’s End.
Dream’s End consisted of dozens of makeshift homes made of poles and tarp. Within those tents were people adorned in dirty worn attire. These people appeared from all walks of life common to Furoh adventurers, be they trainer, coordinator, or pokeathlete. No matter what their dream was, they all had one thing in common: their ambitions were cut short.
As the group entered the area, a large man approached them. His brown hair matched the color of the messy beard that covered much of his face. Seriously, one could spot the remains of his turkey sandwich within the hairy labyrinth. His pair of faded black jeans had holes in his knees, while his red vest had bits of cotton sticking out like a porcupine. He rolled the long sleeves of his blue flannel shirt down his arms as he greeted the group.
“Well, hardy har har, lads and lass,” announced the surprisingly cheery homeless man. “The name’s Harvy, and you have the fortune of coming across the biggest gathering of trainers in all of Lenoilia. Or should I say…misfortune?”
((Douken Sota's part written by...Douken Sota.))
Accepting Pan's offer, he hoisted himself up, leaning a bit on her to let himself get his barrings. Sure, seeing without his glasses was not a first, but being blasted in the face and being in this town alone was. This meant even if he got comfortable enough, he couldn't tell the difference between anything since he had no mental map made. This is just going to make it harder to keep that promise, he thought, remember what he told Nurse Joy before holding his hand out, slowly moving it towards him until the blur came full vision... about a foot to his face.
Looking down at the noticeable blur of orange and red, he said, "Alright, Rufus. You had some police training on you. I want you to use that and help us keep a look out." Blurry vision didn't help him see the pup was staring at a Pidgey in the sky instead of Douken. Still, the group was once more back on the move.
The light dimmed around them, having the colors blend in easier and easier, wishing Chi-Chi would help provide light, however, with the area opening up, it was clear they were getting closer. Pulling out the shattered lens from his pocket, he closed his left eye and help it in front of his right, just to get a quick glance of the park area, trying to note the tents and dead trees before pocketing it away, the damage hurting his eyes more.
Hearing the voice, Douken let himself from Pan and turned to face the voice, staring at the blend of colors as he tested his balance. "Nice to meet you. I'm Douken. This here is Pan, Justin, and Nate," he said, pointing out each of them (though off their marks a bit) to say their hi's. "We are here about the biker situation. We understand they hold an unbeatable Pokemon, and are hear to gather information."
Imagining a place more gloomy than Lenoilia was difficult. It was as if the city itself were gray. Nate and Justin both grew up in rough urban neighborhoods in Petropolis, which he previously thought was bad, but Lenoilia at this point in time at least, was just so much worse. Surely the city must have been the true bottom of the barrel.
And then there was Dream's End, shanty town within a dump of a city. While it was true that these makeshift towns tended to have high rates of crime, drug abuse and other negative attributes, the first man to approach them actually seemed quite friendly. Justin and Nate, having grown up in an impoverished environment, were both reluctant to accept that this Harvey really was interested in helping out his fellow man. When they both instinctually put their hands on a pokeball, there was a brief moment of connection between the two where they both knew they would have to step up and be on guard. Just because the biker gang wasn't around didn't mean they were safe. It is true that those with the least to lose also have the most to gain at the expense of others. Harvey's friendliness probably put Pan and Douken at ease, but not the others.
"Hey," Justin said after Douken introduced him. He reached his right hand out to shake Harvey's hand but kept his left hand near his belt. Nate did the same. "So, the people here have had their pokemon stolen from them?" Justin asked to be sure. Were that the case, they had some level of assured safety. However, as mentioned, impoverished people have high incentives to turn towards crime. That's what happens when you live in a society that tells you what goals you need to have and how to reach them. If you can't do it, you either give up on the goals or you give up on the normalized means of obtaining them, meaning you make up your own means. Strain Theory was not something about which either Justin or Nate had learned formally. They just knew it.
“Oh…the bikers.” Harvey’s smile lowered a bit as he addressed Douken. “Well, er, no need to spoil your first visit to Dream’s End with our problems. How about a tour first?”
Pan looked to her companions for reactions. Clearly, Harvey wasn’t so eager to delve into the details of Lenoilia’s current situation. But why? Although the subject change was more than a little disconcerting, Pan decided to follow the man, if only to question him later about the bikers.
As they passed through the settlement, the group witnessed daily life amongst the fallen trainers. One trainer was polishing off his single gym badge: a round stone surrounded by green petals. A blond coordinator was trying to brush her unkempt mop on top of her head with a plastic fork. She hoped some rich and generous agent would take her out of these slums and back into the spotlight. Meanwhile, a guy dressed in a red tank top and jogger shorts, the attire for a pokeathlete, was examining the dirty cast upon his right foot. These were common scenes in the makeshift neighborhood of Dream’s End.
When Justin asked about pokemon stolen among the trainers, Harvey shook his head.
“Some of us are fortunate enough to have been able to keep a few friends during our stay.”
“Stay?” Pan asked. It sounded like he was talking about a hotel.
“Dream’s End is only a minor setback for us. We’ve suffered many fates: numerous losses, dried up loans, and more recently, run-ins with some…unsavory fellows. But Dream’s End is certainly not the end, not for me at least. See, I’ve already started my new team. Ta-da!”
Harvey quickly pulled out a pokeball from his vest and flashed it in front of Pan and the others, as if performing a magic trick. It was a standard pokeball, though a bit more grimy than usual. He seemed quite happy about his new beginning…and completely oblivious as to how jumpy Justin and Nate were.
“Let’s go, Mighty!” Harvey called out as he reached for the middle button.
Harvey's "Ta-Da" was quickly interpreted as nefarious by the already suspicious Justin and Nate. Before waiting for his pokeball to hit the ground, Justin threw out Hitmontop's ball. Hitmontop and Harvey's Rattata, Mighty, came out around the same time, but Justin didn't waste time waiting for Harvey to make the command first.
"Fake Out Mach Punch!" Justin yelled. Without waiting a second, Hitmontop jumped in front of Mighty, upside down of course, and clapped his feet in front of the dog. As the rat flinched from the loud noise, Hitmontop followed up with a ridiculously fast Mach Punch, effectively knocking Mighty a good few meters away and almost completely out.
"What the hell are you doing, kid?" Harvey shouted, turning and running over to Mighty, barely conscious, lying on the ground and whimpering. "You okay, boy?"
"He," Justin began. "I," He looked over to the others who seemed just as confused or disgusted as Harvey. He wanted to defend himself, to explain that poor areas were typically dangerous and that this man pulling out a pokeball so quickly was akin to pulling out a weapon. He was defending everyone, really! But he decided against it. To justify his actions would only make him seem like more of a dick.
"Dude," Nate nodded his head towards Harvey. He had half a smile since he was probably ready to do the same and was a little glad Justin was the one to do it. Still, he was right.
"Fine," Justin rolled his eyes and walked over to Harvey. "Stay back, buddy," he said to Hitmontop as he approached. "Hey, man," he said, reluctantly resting his hand on the man's broad right shoulder. "Sorry about that. I, um, I was just a little nervous, you know. You sort of, well, uh, anyway. I'm sorry. Are you okay, Mighty?"
"He'll be fine," Harvey stood up and called the Rattata back into his pokeball. "If you're gonna be running around with a pokemon that powerful, you need to be less trigger happy, Justin. You're bound to really hurt someone, you keep up this attitude."
"You're right," Justin nodded. "I'm sorry. I sort of grew up in an impoverished neighborhood. We were trained to be quick to fight. It was a respect thing. If you're scared to fight, it means you're weak, and if you're weak, you get beat up. So you gotta be tough, but more importantly, you gotta act tough. And that means when you suspect something, you act on it because it usually turns out to be true."
"It's alright, bud," Harvey smiled. "I was plannin' on robbin' you all anyway."
"What?" Justin asked. "Seriously?"
"Hah hah hah!" He laughed, redundantly, as he put his hand on Justin's shoulder. "Of course not! I just wanted to show you my pride. You kids are alright. And let me tell you, with that Hitmontop on your side, you'll do alright. So, you guys seriously aim to get rid of the bikers around here?"
Honestly, Justin and Nate weren't there to get rid of any bikers. In fact, Justin had this sneaking suspicion he was there for quite a contradictory reason. He looked over to Pan and then Douken, his eyebrows raised. Douken was determined, at least, to save this town. Maybe he had it all wrong, he thought as he looked at Sota. Maybe he wasn't the hero of the story.
Douken blinked as Justin jumped the gun with a straight forward attack on the Rattata, showing how much of a difference of power there was in the two. After a short scene, he got to understand why being so jumpy, but Harvey seemed to of taken things very lightly. Still, from the sounds from the mouse, he was able to endure the two powerful hits to stay conscious. During their talk and Harvey's joke, Douken removed the bag on his back and dug through it, pulling out two Sitris Berries and handing them to Harvey. "These here should give Mighty his energy back."
Getting back up, he told him, "Yeah, we are going to do it. Who knows, if our opponent is unbeatable for being very healthy, I think I got someone who can help even the odds," tapping Reep's Pokeball as he said it. "However, we are going to need more information for a full strategy."
With some barking in the air, Douken looked down at Rufus, who was baring at someone and turned to look over. Lifting the lens over his eye for the moment, he saw three people eying them wearily. "I think Rufus is telling us that those guys want to make sure we don't find out about anything. Maybe we should find some place more private to talk."
Pan was shocked as to how fast and the manner in which Justin reacted to Harvey’s pokemon. The neighborhood the group was in, combined with his past in Petropolis, had made him fairly jumpy around the inhabitants of Dream’s End. Pan could not relate to those feelings: she grew up in relative peace in and around Celadon City. Perhaps he was acting to protect everyone, to protect her.
But still, a rattata?
“Gee Justin, I think you got it,” Pan chuckled. “I thought that big mean rattata was going to know my toes off or something.” With Harvey maintaining his cheerful mood, Pan decided to poke fun at Justin’s error in judgment.
The light-hearted atmosphere dissipated once Douken’s growlithe pointed out three people who seemed a bit too interested in the group. Harvey turned towards the trio, his smile disappearing. He seemed to recognize the group and quickly returned Mighty to his pokeball.
“Come, we’ve attracted too much attention.”
Harvey was about to lead the group towards one of the larger tents when their way was blocked. One of the bikers stood before them, his arms folded to his chest. He was one of the older members of the gang, his dusty brown hair indicating his age. His weathered face stared at Harvey and his newfound friends.
“Er, afternoon, Grayson,” Harvey replied nervously. Pan moved for Turnip’s pokeball, but Grayson shot a glare at her.
“Don’t bother with that. We didn’t come here to fight but to warn.” Grayson remained still, but his voice was calm and stern.
“Then start warning,” Pan said back to him. “What pokemon are we up against?”
At this question, Grayson looked away from the group and back to the city of Lenoilia.
“Your first mistake is to assume that this is some pokemon battle. What Burro has is no pokemon. It is an abomination, a mish-mash of different creatures. A feral mutant that craves the battle. He has used this mutant to claim this city. Anyone who gets in his way, including his fellow bikers, pays a price.”
He proceeded to roll back the sleeve of his leather jacket, revealing a burnt hand. Pan’s eyes widened as she looked at the cracked, mangled skin, now knowing that this biker seemed to be on their side.
“But Grayson,” Harvey retorted, “These kids are pretty good.”
“Harvey…take them to see Timothy.”
“But-”
“They have come for information. It only makes sense for them to see Timothy. He’ll show them what’s at stake. If they can handle that, then perhaps they’ll have a chance.”
Harvey stared blankly at the old biker, then nodded in reluctant. He looked over to the group and started on a path away from the camp. Pan was quick to follow, very curious about the exchange between the two men.
“So who was that guy?” Pan asked Harvey.
“Grayson was once part of the Roadrazers, before Burro took over. He didn’t quite agree with the Lenoilia takeover and ended up here. He doesn’t like this anymore than we do, but he’s more pessimistic about the outcome.”
“And what about this Timothy?”
“Ah, Tim was the exact opposite. He believed he could accomplish anything. This was yet another challenge in his quest to become champion. Not only that, he truly cared about the people here. He could have escaped; we had a good getaway plan too. But Tim insisted on staying to get rid of Burro. Salt of the earth, that kid.”
“So…what happened to him?”
Harvy stopped walking and gave a sigh. Pan was confused: he was seemingly staring into nothingness. When she turned to what he was looking at, Pan gasped. She put both her hands in front of her mouth to suppress her shock. As Grayson said, it was all too clear what was as stake.
They were staring at a hastily sculpted tombstone, its dark surface shaped more like a circle than the traditional half oval. Faintly etched into the stone, the purpose of this marker made Lenoilia’s situation more dire than ever.
Timothy, Valued Friend, Fallen Hero
It was almost on cue, actually, when Rufus gave the warning, because they became blocked off by one of them who went by the name of Grayson. It was strange, though, cause even with him being a biker, he gave off the feeling he wasn't someone to drive them away from the truth. In fact, he gave what they were looking for, no matter how threatening the details. A Pokemon Chimera, eh? No wonder the others are sided with him. Try and face that, his thoughts paused as he eyed his arm, through still able to see the extent of the damage through the close, faint blur, and take that kind of damage.
As he thought about it, the name Timothy was thrown into the air, and that in itself seemed to of had a gloomy feel in it, and as Douken listened to Grayson's and Timothy's past, he stopped as he did, looking at the round blur that Pan gasped over. It was a gravestone dedicated to him. So, those that do try risk their lives on it, huh? he thought, walking to the stone and kneeling in front of it, running his fingers over the etched text. I lose, and this may as well be me.
Moving his hand away from the marking, he bit his thumb so hard, causing himself to bleed before placing his thumb back on the stone. With a diagonal move of the thumb, me smeared on a line of blood, heading down and to the right before continuing on to work on a circle, though not acting as it wasn't the pure top. When he got even with the circle, me made another straight, diagonal line, mirroring the one before it, looking like an open-ended pot before lifting his thumb and drawing a straight line down to above the center, lifting it away before using his index finger to trace the same line on his shoulder. If Pan remembered the tattoo he had, he would of been tracing the lines he had on that specific spot.
Standing back up, he told them, "This has to stop." His tone was serious as a speck of water hit the top of his head, the storm starting to come over the city. "No more lives should be taken." Turning around, he showed everyone how determined he was by saying, "I vow on my Amazonian bloodline that this madness will stop, even if it means I will die if I fail!" Another promise he will have trouble keeping, even if the meaning was the same.
Justin and Nate tagged along as Grayson appeared and they were introduced to the late Timothy. While Pan and Douken likely felt a mixture of sympathy, fear and a call to action, Justin felt a guilt boil in his stomach. No, he did not kill Timothy, but he was a member of Team Deception. Was he really supposed to believe some thug who led a gang of bikers legitimately got a hold of some abomination superpowerful pokemon? No, Team Deception was behind it in some way. Either he stole it from them, or worse, it was given to him.
Either way, they were there for a very specific reason, and it was clear at that point that Burro had something to do with it. Until they were given their orders, it was probably best not take this guy out when Team Deception clearly had plans for later. Supposedly, there was a VIP coming in the next morning, and that person was likely going to be making the real decisions.
Douken went ahead and made a death pact with himself, a vow to stop madness. "No need to get yourself killed tonight, Douken," he said, putting his hand on the guy's shoulder. "We still got a lot to learn about this pokemon. We should-" He stopped for a second to consider how he wanted to present his next idea. His actual job was to scout the town for dangers. The biggest danger, obviously, was Burro. He needed to talk to this man, and perhaps learn about this pokemon. "Let me talk to Burro. Worst case scenario, he takes my pokemon, but I might be able to learn something, right? Then maybe you guys could use that information to take him down, or something."
He really didn't expect that his pokemon would be taken. The bikers had shown some sort of respect for him, as though they knew who he was, or at least for whom he worked. They seemed eager to have him meet Burro. He just needed a chance to talk to him without Pan and Douken. Hell, it would probably be better to leave Nate outside too. The guy just tended to run his mouth too much, and he was also a little bit naive. "The bikers would take me to see Burro, I think." He added, for good measure.
Pan was used to having death-defying adventures. She had been chased by a beedril swarm, went toe-to-toe with a robotic drill, and even buried under an avalanche. This was the first time she had actually encountered a dead person on her journey. He was a trainer like every other kid that makes their journey to Furoh. Only at this moment had it dawned upon Pan how things could end, even on such a promising continent.
Rather than wallow in misery, Douken performed some sort of ritual, retracing the pattern on his shoulder onto the tombstone in blood. He announced that he wasn’t about to turn tail from this fight; he was going to “stop the madness”. She was right in picking him as a trusted ally. Douken was one of those people who wouldn’t bend his ideals for anyone. That, or he was incredibly stubborn. Either way, it filled Pan with the courage and confidence to stand with him.
Justin followed up by announcing his plan for investigating this mysterious pokemon: he would walk up to Burro’s lair and simply ask to see the creature. Pan had to do a double-take; the idea was complete lunacy. The worst-case scenario wasn’t losing pokemon; it was getting killed. And yet, he was going to do it without flinching. That made two men Pan could get behind.
“They’re right,” Pan started, turning to Harvey and an increasing crowd of onlookers. “If we leave, another trainer will have to face these bikers. He or she could get hurt…or worse.”
Pan turned back to Timothy’s grave, then to her audience. More and more members of Dream’s End were leaving their ragged tents to witness the quartet who vowed to help Lenoilia. Even with raindrops rapidly increasing, they still came.
“We’re not leaving until we kick these guys out of your city!”
The crowd erupted in applause as Pan issued her proclamation. The applause was short-lived: a loud clap of thunder announced the arrival of the feared storm. Though the rain hadn’t increased beyond a drizzle, it wouldn’t be long until people would be soaked to the bone.
“We’ll talk more about this in the morning,” Harvey told the group. “Get to some shelter, and quick!”
The residents of the tiny neighborhood scattered into their cramped tents, while Pan and the others were running out of the neighborhood. As they left, Pan saw Grayson watching the group before he regrouped with his allied bikers. The look on his face was not a smile: it was one of sorrow mixed with a tinge of hope. She hoped their odds would look a bit brighter tomorrow.
"And here I thought I was the only one on a suicide mission here," Douken said with a bit of a joke in his voice before taking a sip from the hot cocoa. Still, as he sat there wrapped in the blanket, looking at the fuzz of his friends as he wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts (his main clothes drying as well), he could not help but think about the risk he is taking. "I get the idea behind it, don't get me wrong. We get to see this chimera-type creation the leader has, but what makes you think he will just show you and let you walk back with the information?"
Letting out a sigh, he glanced back down at the table, eying his broken frame's pieces. Even if he could precisely weld the pieces together, the damage on the lenses could not be repaired so easily. Not only that, but if he did try to look through them, he would most likely get dizzy from it and have a hard time focusing. It was honestly the best case scenario that he didn't use them and got a new prescription at Petropolus.
"I understand that the best information comes from the source, but if he is currently ruling the city and you come to get info to stop him, I doubt he would give away such information so easily."
When they got back to the pokemon center, Pan and Douken both voiced their objections to Justin's plan. Sure, from their perspectives, it was really dumb. They didn't, and, moreover, couldn't, know all the intricacies, such as him being a member of Team Deception, and some of Burro's men knowing that. They didn't know that Team Deception had plans for this city. Hell, they probably didn't even know who Team Deception were. That was probably for the best. Justin didn't want Pan to hate him.
He walked through a timeline in his head. The next day, at about 9:00 in the morning, a Team Deception Admin was going to be arriving in town. Though the reason was officially undisclosed, he figured it had something to do with this monster pokemon. Justin and Nate were to meet the VIP at the Helicopter Pad on top of the pokemon center at 9:00 sharp. So, then, the question was simple. How were they going to get up there without Pan and Douken finding out about them? The answer was equally simple. They would leave before then. Talking to Burro was an excuse to split up, and they could easily sneak back onto the Pokemon Center after their meeting without the other two finding out. It was getting late, but it was still early enough to get to Burro's place.
"I'm not gonna die," Justin shrugged. He really wasn't worried about that. "I'm not gonna present myself as nearly as big of a threat as Timothy. I'll be curious, and docile." Of course, he knew he was going to come off as somewhat intimidating simply due to his stature, but Burro didn't want a fight anyway. Not with Team Deception. "Nate, you should come with me, but Pan and Douken, you two should stay here for the night. If we do get our pokemon confiscated, I'll need to know that you still have yours."
Nate was having a difficult time keeping up. He couldn't figure out who Justin's plan was going to be aiding. Were they really going to talk to Burro? When were they gonna meet the VIP? Still, he wasn't going to question it in front of the others.
"Douken," Justin said, holding out his hand to Sota. "It was good seeing you again." After they shook, he turned to Pan. He didn't say anything, but walked over and wrapped his arms around her body, holding her tight. As they hugged, he said, softly, "I'll see you soon, okay? This right here. This is gonna be too good a thing for me to walk away and get killed."
While they said goodbyes, Nate stood awkwardly to the side. He never really got to know Douken or Pan. Still, he approached Douken while Justin and Pan were hugging and held out his hand. "Good meeting you, man." He said.
Whether there was another way out of their predicament or not, Justin was dead set on seeing Burro. Though Nate would be going with him, Pan still didn’t like the idea. He was going straight into the hideout and poke around in his business. Poking around in the wrong place could land Justin and Nate in big trouble, no matter how innocent they acted. It was incredibly risky, but she couldn’t think of any other suggestions.
All those thoughts were wiped from Pan’s mind when Justin wrapped his arms tightly around her. His warmth and closeness soothed her feelings, at least for a few moments. Her face snuggled against his shoulder, able to take in his rain-soaked scent. It was a temporary respite from the storm they were about to face, one Pan wished would last much longer.
And then Justin started talking, which caused Pan to start thinking.
This thing he spoke of. What was it? It was one kiss, but Justin seemed to have felt it was something much more. Pan felt, even hoped, there was something between them. At the moment, the only thing they shared was physical attraction, hardly the basis of a working relationship. Once again, that nagging question popped in her mind: what was he expecting out of her?
“You better come back,” she replied to Justin. “We still have to talk about…stuff.”
Shaking Justin's hand then Nates, he took a moment to stare at the two, a bit of an awkward feeling in his gut. He never had a girlfriend, so watching them ave him an odd feeling about the situation. However, the two soon departed, waving them off and saying, "Do take care, you guys," before the door closed behind them.
With the two gone, the nurse walked up to them and told them, "Your clothes are almost done in the dryer, but you may not want to sit out here much longer. If you want, I can deliver your clothes to your rooms." She dug into her pockets and placed a pair of keys on the table, each with a different number on them as she told them, "Don't want any guests to sleep out here, and I am sure finding an inn wouldn't be the best idea."
Looking at the keys, Douken nodded and took one of them and nodded, saying, "Thank you," before holding the key to his face to read the room number. With that in mind, he turned back to Pan and told her, "Yeah, we should rest up."
"We'll get a chance," Justin replied to Pan's comment before he and Nate headed for the rain. As soon as they stepped outside, sure enough, they were pelted by water from above. They didn't quite begin their walk to Burro's place, primarily because they didn't know where it was.
"What's the plan, Smart?" Nate asked, having to speak loudly over the storm.
"We're gonna go see Burro," Justin replied, taking the lead and walking in a seemingly random direction, at least to Nate. "As promised."
"But what do we do there?" Nate asked, walking alongside his partner, "I don't think we were sent here to put an end to him. We're supposed to just be observing."
"As far as I'm concerned," Justin said, "Burro's reign poses an immediate threat to our superior who is coming tomorrow morning. I'm not planning on taking him out, I just want to figure out what the hell's going on. Did you hear that guy earlier? Some sort of mutant pokemon? Something's not right, man."
"This whole goddamn town is not right, Justin," Nate said. "But it's not our job to fix it."
"It's everyone's job to fix it," Justin said, very seriously, evens topping to talk. "If you see a guy getting mugged, you help him because you can."
"I don't," Nate said. "I'm not gonna get killed over some money, least of all someone else's. Would you really jump in and help someone if they were being mugged?"
It was a good point. Justin stopped for a second. "Probably, uh, probably not, actually."
"You gotta figure out where you stand, Justin," Nate shrugged, continuing walking even though he didn't know where they were going. Justin followed. "You wanna be a hero, but not if it's too dangerous, and not at the cost of the illegal fortune you're making. Is it Pan?"
"What?"
"Pan," Nate stated again, "She's why you're acting like such a dumbass."
"I always act like a dumbass."
"True," Nate smiled. "But seriously, you're different around her. You've always been a dick to me, and so I assumed you were just an asshole. Even around Tag and Raven. But here, you're being all chivalrous and sweet. So what's different? Our environment, sure, but I don't think Lenoilia has anything to do with you being more cheerful."
"Shut up, Nate."
"I mean, I guess it could be Douken,"
"Shut up, I'm seriously gonna punch you."
"She's not right for you, man," Nate finally made his point.
"What?" Justin seemed angry.
"I mean, she's cute, I guess. But dude, you're not even playing for the same team. Do you honestly think she's the type that could accept you being in Team Deception? Her moral compass isn't that loose. Look at her, man. She's a naive, preppy, snotty-"
"Shut the fuck up, Nate, I'm not kidding."
"Neither am I," Nate said. "It's not gonna work, dude. Tina broke up with you for what you do, right?"
"Don't even bring her into this."
"How long did you date Tina?" Nate asked. "Years, right? And she dumped you in a second. So, was she more or less naive than Pan?"
"I'm not talking about this."
"More or less, Justin?"
"Shut up."
"Will Pan stop caring about you if she finds out?"
"Yes!" Justin yelled. "Yes, she will! Of course she will!" They had stopped in the middle of the street, rain continuing to poor down on their soaked bodies in the middle of the night with no one around. "Why the hell would she stay with me if she knew? I'm a miserable piece of shit, Nate, and she's so much better than me. And yes, if she knew how miserable I was, she would forget about me. But I like her."
"Maybe," Nate said, putting his hand on Justin's shoulder. "But you don't love her. There's a lot of physical attraction, and maybe a little bit of envy of her naivety, but to me, it's just a crush. An unhealthy one, too, since everything you have with her is pretty much based on a lie, right?"
"What do I do, Nate?" Justin asked, staring at his shoes, trying not to cry. He only ever had one girlfriend, Tina, and things were so much different with her than with Pan. "Tell me what to do."
"Sleep with her," Nate said. "Sleep with her and you'll be able to see past the physical attraction part of the crush. If you're still into a girl after you sleep with her, then you know it's real. You'll see. Once you're done with Pan, you won't be into her anymore."
"And if I still am?"
"You won't be," Nate seemed confident. "Trust me. Once you get laid, you'll be able to realize how bad she is for you."
"I'm not some sex maniac, Nate," Justin said. "I want a relationship."
"You're in the wrong business, then," Nate said. "Either that or you picked the wrong girl. So either leave Team Deception or forget about Pan. The two aren't gonna both work out."
"You're right," Justin sighed, pulling himself back up. He brushed his hand through his hair, pulling some of the water from his face and nodded. "I'll sleep with her," he said. "Then I'll tell her about Team Deception. She'll either leave me and I'll deal with it, or she'll accept it, and we won't have a problem."
"Okay," Nate shrugged, knowing that, yes, she would leave him. "So," he continued, looking around. "Where are we going? We gonna get out of the rain any time soon?"
"We're going back to the bar," Justin said, walking again, "The bikers know where Burro is."
When they got to the bar to which they went when they first arrived in Lenoilia, there were about three big guys standing outside under the awning, smoking cigarettes. One of them put his down for a second when Justin and Nate approached. "What do we got here?"
"We wanna see Burro," Justin said, bluntly.
They all chuckled. "That's probably not gonna work out for you, bud,"
"We're with Deception," Justin said.
"What?"
"Burro will know what it means. Trust me, he's expecting us."
The three bikers looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously. "Alright. Go on in. Bartender's name is Ricky. Tell him what you just told us."
They did. And they did. Ricky got a guy named Pete to escort Justin and Nate up the stairs behind the bar. Pete confiscated their pokeballs before allowing them passage behind the locked door. He had them wait outside as he knocked and then went in. "Burro, some guys here say they're from Deception?"
Then, he turned to Justin and Nate. "Alright, you're in."
"You'll get these back on your way out," He was referring to the pokeballs. "Assuming everything goes well."
They nodded and walked into the room, shutting the door behind them. Burro was sitting in a comfortable looking chair in a surprisingly nice looking room. On his lap was an attractive woman in her late twenties and covered in tattoos, dressed in a low cut tank top and a short jean skirt. Not quite as covered as Burro was, but she had a sleeve on her left arm and what looked like writing on her chest. She was sipping a martini while Burro was smoking a cigar. Near them, a Flareon was lying comfortably on the ground, heat emanating from its body.
"Tracy," Burro said before acknowledging his two visitors. "Why don't you go grab us some gin from downstairs?"
"Sure thing, babe," Tracy smiled, hopping off the man's lap. He smacked her butt as she walked past Justin and Nate. They couldn't help but notice her rolling her eyes as he slapped her.
"So I'm told you boys are from Team Deception," Burro nodded. "Is that correct?"
"Yes sir," Justin said.
"Good! Please, come sit," Burro stood up and walked around his chair further to the back of his room where he had a desk. He sat down behind it and Justin and Nate took both of the chairs in front of it. "Steam! Come over here," The Flareon stood up, yawned, stretched and walked over to the desk, lying down under it near Burro's feet. "Nothing like warming up next to a fire on a stormy night, am I right, boys?"
"Yep," Justin nodded, hoping he was getting somewhere.
"Can I offer you guys a drink? Wait. You're eighteen, right?"
Justin and Nate looked at each other at the question. Really? "Nah, I'm just kiddin'. Here." He opened a drawer and pulled out three old fashioned glasses and a container of scotch. They knew it was scotch because Burro said, "Hope you like scotch."
They were kids. Of course they didn't like scotch. But they sipped at it anyway.
"So, what can I do for you, boys? Oh! Do you need a towel or something? You're awful wet"
"We're fine, thanks. We came to talk about your pokemon," Justin said. "See, as you can probably guess, we're not high ranking members of our organization. We're just kids."
"Eh, that doesn't mean much in the world of crime," Burro shrugged. "Starry eyed kids tryna make names for themselves, they usually get pretty far pretty fast. Anyway, if you're not here to talk business, what is it?"
"Well, we're here to talk business," Justin said, "Our VIP is coming in tomorrow, and we need to be sure he's safe. That being said, I'd like to know a little bit about your pokemon."
"Well," Burro nodded, "I'm not gonna show you yet. But I assure you, your VIP will be safe. My entire army of bikers will aim to protect him."
"See, I just need to-" Justin began.
"Do you not trust me?"
"It's not that."
"Why don't you trust me?"
"Because this is crime," Justin finally said. "You can't trust anybody. But trust me, at least, when I say this: If Team Deception pegs you as an enemy, you will go down. Don't cross us. Don't cross me. So I'll ask you again. Is there a threat to my boss?"
"Not anymore."
"What? Meaning, what? There was one?"
"Yeah," Burro nodded. "But you already know about it."
"What do you mean?"
"The two of you were with those kids who wanna take us down."
"The-We-What?"
"Pandora Gibbs and Douken Sota, right?"
"How do you-"
"I own this whole fucking town, Justin. I know everything. Like you said, you can't trust people in this business. That's why I'm not gonna spill all my secrets to you, because I'm not even sure where your allegiances are. I sent some men to capture the two of them, and they're on their way here. Prove your on my side and guard them tonight."
"You-" Justin began, holding back his anger. He had very little choice. He didn't have his pokemon with him. Perhaps he could just beat the guy down with his fists, but he probably had a gun or something. And even if he didn't, they weren't about to walk out of the bar with bloody fists and a beaten Burro. "Yes sir," he finally said.
Pan watched from the window as Justin and Nate disappeared into the stormy night, unaware of the conversation they were having. She hoped their plan would work; everything depended on it. Not to mention that the two would be in grave danger of getting beat up by the gang. Justin was tough, but not that tough.
“You go on ahead,” she told Douken. “I’m going to wait up for them.”
“With all due respect, Ms. Gibbs,” Joy replied to Pan, “but it really is unsafe in the lounge after hours. I will wake you when your companions have arrived. It’s the least I could do for what you’re doing for us.”
The nurse smiled, encouraging Pan to take a much-deserved rest before tomorrow. The researcher relented; she really was worn out from the day’s events. A nice warm bed was far too tempting, even if all she was going to do was think about Justin and Nate for much of the night (mostly Justin). And so, Pan nodded her thanks to Joy as she followed Douken upstairs to their rooms.
Pan put her things, her pokeballs included, onto her bed. The only pokemon she had out was Chi-Chi, who was running around the room like a hyperactive gerbil. The thunderstorm was still going strong, making it difficult to calm the pachirisu enough to sleep. Pan decided to visit Douken before he turned in for the night. Maybe with his daycare experience, he would know of something to help overactive pokemon sleep. If nothing else, it would take her mind off of current events for a little bit.
“Hey Douken,” Pan asked. “What can I do about Chi-Chi?” As she spoke, the pachirisu raced into Douken’s room and proceeded to jump up and down on his bed. The jumping seemed to increase in frequency just before a lightning strike.
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Not far away, many of the bikers were spending the night partying at their bar, lovingly called Burro’s Bar. Behind this facility was a giant warehouse filled with pieces of art. The artwork was abandoned long ago during the exodus from Lenoilia years ago. They included paintings, sculptures, vast collections of books, and even a few “art cars” that were more for style than function. Though most of the pieces were kept safe by the few residents left in Lenoilia, that changed when the bikers took over. And so, surrounded by paintings of Silver and sculptures of various pokemon, Burro sat at his desk, watching Justin and Nate react to the news of what he had planned for Pan and Douken.
Unlike most of the bikers, Burro was quite the fat slob. His leather jacket could no longer zip over his fading t-shirt, which depicted the logo of the popular Poke King fast food joint. An evil grin stretched across his face upon realizing that Justin and Nate weren’t quite on top of things.
“So you thought I was the threat?” Burro asked with a snort. “It was you guys who put me here in the first place. Your bosses apparently saw something in me, and set me on the path to become the first gym leader of Lenoilia. And it’s all thanks to Beast.”
Burro set a rather strange pokeball upon his desk. It appeared to be like a regular pokeball. The only exception was the small chains that wrapped around the sphere, interlocking over the button. Most disturbing of all, the pokeball was still shaking, as if the inhabitant was still trying to break free.
“Bugger can’t even stay in his pokeball! Won’t be long until the big reveal, when your ‘VIP’ gets to watch Beast rip into those kids. All of this in a gladiator-style match-up! You guys aren’t squeamish about bloodsport, are ya?”
At this, Burro started laughing, very excited to host his very own gladiator match. After he calmed himself for a bit, he came back to the subject of “threats”.
“But, if you still think I’m a ‘threat’, go ahead and make a call. Here, you can use my phone.”
Burro slid a pokegear over to Justin and Nate. It was a typical red model, though there were plenty of attempts to scratch out the name “Tim” off the top.
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“Alright boys. Make it clean, make it quick.”
Eight men stood across the street from the pokecenter. Though all they needed to grab were two people, none were sure if they would leave without a fight. They needed absolute success if they were to please Burro.
With his chest bare and about to head for the covers, the door opened up behind him, followed by the hyper squirrel's running and Pan's notice about Chichi, hyper as ever. Looknig at the squirrel, Douken thought about it and said, "He was acting like this when we saw the storm, right? He could just be getting a bit of a high with the static in the air. Who knows, if I let out Rusty, and he started doing the same thing, it would prove my point." However, one hyped up Pokemon was enough.
Still, it did not mean he didn't think of an answer. Taking his bag, he dug around the berries until he found what he was looking berry: a yellow, soft berry with a green stem. "Normally, Shuca Berries are used to absorb some of the impact of Ground Type moves, but maybe by having Chi-Chi nibble on it, it would help drain a bit of her energy." Handing the berry to the squirrel, hoping she took it, he said, "If she i still like this, then all she needs to do is release some more electricity to cool off."
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With the chucks of Pokeballs through the windows, the nurse looked over to see what was happening, watching a sudden swarm of Electrode sitting in the main call, each of them chattering their names before lighting up. Knowing what was to come, the nurse ducked down behind the counter as one by one, each of the Electrode exploded, filling the room with smoke and damaging most of the valuable equipment. If that wasn't enough, the door was kicked down large footsteps echoing into the room.
Now, not all of the Chansey were trained for recovery purposes only. One of them was actually trained specifically for Lenolia to protect the hospital from any harm, and she get's ticked off very easily. Holding her hands out, the chansey formed a ball of water in her hands and chucked it straight at the intruder, breaking the smoke away to reveal a Rhydon, and even though there was type weakness, it didn't do much but piss off the Drill Pokemon, letting one punch send her flying.
"Donna!" The Nurse called, running to the fallen Chansey before being taken by one of the men, holding her tight. "Let go of me,"she yelled, squirming around as she tried to break free, failing in the attempt.
"You guys, check every square inch of the place. We don't leave until we get those kids!"
With them all screaming, "Right!" the group broke into two teams, the smaller group of three heading for the back area and the bigger squad of four to the rooms.
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The shaking form the explosions caught Douken off guard and nearly fell over, hurrying over to grab his Pokeballs from the night stand as well as the right eye lens to peer out through the window. Although dark, he could make out the shapes of the bikes. "Damn it, it looks like they are raiding the Center," he told Pan, pocketing the lens and shrunken spheres. "Grab your Pokeballs. We may be seeing them sooner than we think."
Pan watched as Douken held out the shuca berry to Chi-Chi. She would have thought a berry that absorbed electric attacks would have been more effective, but she wasn’t the berry expert in the room. The pachirisu took the berry within her paws, sniffing the fruit to determine flavor. Chi-Chi was curious of the spicy-sweet smell and proceeded to nibble on the fruit.
Before Pan could thank Douken for his help, the explosions downstairs sent her into a jolt. Being so close to them, the lady had to use Douken’s bed to keep from falling over, leaning on the mattress for support. This certainly wasn’t another thunderstorm; even Chi-Chi was startled by the blast. Pan joined Douken in looking out the window. Sure enough, a group of bikers were moving into the center, and the fighting downstairs had already begun.
“Joy’s still down there!” Pan realized. She quickly ran out of the room and grabbed her belt of pokeballs from her nightstand. By the time she re-entered the hallway, however, the group of four bikers were there to meet them.
“Sorry to wake you up, but we just couldn’t wait till morning to see you guys! We wouldn’t want you to leave before attempting your gym match with Burro.”
Pan recognized the biker as part of the group that greeted them upon arrival into Lenoilia. His red mohawk glistened with raindrops, and his wicked grin stretched across his face as he revealed a pokeball.
“Now, we can avoid a messy battle and simply walk on over to see Burro,” the man asked in a calm but rather smug tone.
“Sorry, but we settled on morning, so we’re not leaving until then.” Pan replied angrily. This was the last thing she needed tonight.
Immediately, Chi-Chi stood in front of her human, ready to do battle. The pachirisu’s determined eyes watched as the biker revealed a small bipedal creature. This pokemon appeared to be a fan of the macabre: he wore a skull over his head and wielded another bone like a club. It was a rather uncommon cubone, a ground type. With the size of the hallway, switching with Turnip was out of the question. It was up to Chi-Chi to hold down the fort.
“Chi-Chi, get in a quick attack!”
The pachirisu immediately dashed forward, striking her opponent with a swift tackle. The cubone stepped back a bit, but his high defense kept it from taking too much damage. The biker responded by commanding a bone club attack. Luckily, Chi-Chi still had the shuca berry, quickly engulfing the rest of the fruit. The cubone successfully struck the pachirisu across her head, but the berry absorbed much of the hit. Still, the blow knocked the pachirisu on her bottom, rubbing the lump on her head.
“Let’s get past those defenses. Use Swift!”
The pachirisu complied, her fluffy tail launching star-shaped projectiles like a catapult (she didn’t even have to get up!). The ground type tried to avoid the attack, but the stars seemed to home in on the target. This attack proved a bit more effective: the cubone was wobbling. Once again, the biker ordered another bone club attack, bit the pachirisu was well aware of the power behind the move. She quickly jumped backwards to avoid a bigger lump on her head.
“Seed Bomb!”
In what was quickly becoming Chi-Chi’s favorite move, she threw three of the sxploive seeds towards the cubone. The opponent was engulfed in tiny explosions, and the botanical energy released proved too much for him to handle. The cubone fell to his side, lying motionless as the pachirisu started cheering.
“Enough of this,” the biker shouted. “Gloom, Sleep Powder!”
The biker released another pokemon, the stinky weed pokemon Gloom. With Chi-Chi distracted by her previous victory, the gloom unleashed a cloud of sleep powder towards the squirrel pokemon. However, the cloud harmlessly passed over the electric squirrel. Chi-Chi giggled at the ineffectiveness of the attack. The pachirisu stuck her tongue as she teased her opponent about the missed opportunity.
*THUMP*
As Chi-Chi looked behind her, it was quite clear that the sleep powder wasn’t meant for her. Pan was lying on her back in a deep sleep. Before the pachirisu could investigate, she was met with a boot. The biker had kicked Chi-Chi across the hall and into the wall. The electric squirrel was dazed and a bit confused, helpless as the other bikers moved in to remove Pan from the center.
It didn't take them long for the group to hurry upstairs to them, and when he heard their voices, he headed to the hallways, standing behind Pan, who was already taking in some combat, using Chi-Chi against a Cubone. Sure, no the best type advantage, but she still had the Shuca Berry, so some of the impact was absorbed during the fight. Still, part of him was tempted to reach into his pocket and pull out a Pokeball himself, joining in the fight, but there was jsut not enough room. Even with Reep being a ghost able to pass through walls, his gut told him that doing so would throw Chi-Chi off. Also, he had confidence in his friend.
That was where the unexpected came forth. “Gloom, Sleep Powder!” With the new Pokemon introduced, he thought that the plant was there to beat up a snoozing Pokemon, but instead, it was meant for the trainers. Pan took the hit, losing consciousness almost immediately, but it didn't help that he power was still shooting forward. Not even before he could get to his pockets, the remaining mist hit his face, and nearly immediately felt the effects from it. He could feel himself zone out, grow limp, and soon fall over, he too being out, the last sound he could hear being Chi-Chi being kicked across the hall.
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Laughing at the fall of the two trainers, the biker grinned and said, "Good work Gloom. We will get ourselves a nice reward for bringing these two in." Almost on cue, two of the bikers ran over and picked up the sleeping trainers, hefting them over there shoulders.
"What about that Pachirisu?" one of the bikers asked, looking at Chi-Chi in her weakened state.
"One less Pokemon to worry about the Beast. That squirrel should feel lucky. Now c'mon boys, let's take them back and cash in." Heading back to the destroyed floor center, the main one tossed away the Joy, calling back the others. With everyone back, they took them away, laying them on the bikes before revving up, driving away, laughing all the way, as if taunting anyone who knew of the two.
When the engines finally quieted down, they dragged the unconscious bodies from the bikes to the warehouse, throwing them onto steel chairs before beginning to tie them up. As that was going on, the head of the squad took to Burro's Bar. After some interactions, he was lead back to Burro, Justin, and Nate. "Sorry to interrupt your meeting, Boss," he said, taking a knee to him, "but I thought we should inform you we got the kids. We locked them up in Warehouse 16."
Justin looked at the pokegear Burro slid towards him, a reminder of the pain through which Tim had went. And now the man was threatening to do the same to Pan and Douken. Justin felt his fists clench up. He didn't touch the phone, but put his hands on the desk, stood up and looked down on Burro, a glare of hatred bursting from his eyes. "If you hurt them,"
"Then what?" Burro smiled, remarkably unintimidated. "You'll tell your boss-"
"I'll kill you," he said, to even his own surprise. "I will rip your face from your head and shove it up your ass."
"Big talk from a big guy," Burro said, "But I have my secret weapon."
"Whatever is inside that ball," Justin began, "I assure you. It's not loyal to you."
That was when the men came in. "Sorry to interrupt your meeting, Boss," he said, taking a knee to him, as Justin noted the nervous speech, "But I thought we should inform you we got the kids. We locked them up in Warehouse 16."
"Warehouse 16," Burro nodded. "That'll be all." The men nodded and left the room. "So looks like you boys got a choice to make."
"There's no choice here, Burro," Justin said. "If you're going to kill Pan, I'm not on your side. My affiliation doesn't mean I need to choose you over anyone else."
"I'm not going to lose what I have here," Burro insisted, standing up finally. "So I need you on my team. And if you cooperate with me, the girl will be fine."
Justin stopped for a second and looked over at Nate who was actively silent, then looked back to Burro. "What do you need us to do?"
"You're the scouts, right?" Burro asked. "Tell your boss you scouted. Things are under control and that I'm a capable leader."
"I say that," Justin said, "And you let them go?"
"It's the girl you care about right?" Burro asked. "I'll let her go."
"Douken too," Justin insisted.
"I gotta put on a show," Burro shrugged. "Show the people I mean business. I'm gonna kill one of them for their attempt to overthrow me. You can save one. I assumed you'd pick the girl."
"Both of them,"
"No. That's the offer, Justin. I think you already know I'm too stubborn to negotiate."
"And you know that I am too."
"I think when your girl's life is on the line, you'll compromise."
They eyed each other down for a good fifteen seconds before Justin crumbled. "Fine," he said. "Save Pan. But don't, uh, don't make it, like, my decision. Say you don't kill girls or something."
"I can do that," Burro smiled. "So you're welcome to go visit them at Warehouse 16. My guys'll show you how to get there. Don't expect to break them out though. I got a lot of guys."
"Yeah, I bet you do."
"If we're done here, I have some preparations to be made. Bye."
Justin rolled his eyes and led the speechless Nate out of the room. They asked to be escorted to Warehouse 16 and were. Once there, they walked inside and were led to where Douken and Pan were being held. They were awake by the time they got there. "Hey guys," Justin said, rubbing the back of his neck.
A weary Pan finally came to, blinking her eyes rapidly to rub the sleep from them. She tried to use her hands, but they were tied to the arms of the steel chair she was sitting in. Her legs were in the same situation, tied to the legs of the chair. Douken was tied up in the same fashion, unable to move around. The two were back to back in another warehouse full of art. Pan could see paintings detailing a fierce battle between two lucario, a framed aging map of Furoh, and a collection of beautiful gems of several different colors, among other items. Most of these pieces should belong to a museum, not rotting here in a decrepit warehouse. However, there were more important things to worry about. Standing in the room were Justin and Nate, looking rather awkward about the setup.
“You’re alright,” she replied, seeing the two unharmed. “Listen, we need to find our pokemon, so if you can get these ropes off, we can start looking.” Not surprisingly, Pan’s first concern wasn’t the impending match but her friends. Still, Justin and Nate had disappointed looks on their face.
“What’s wrong? Did they take your team too?”
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Another pair of weary eyes was finally coming to. Chi-Chi was still in the corner of the hallway. She was all alone in the pokemon center; even the nurse was gone. The pachirisu was still fairly weak from the battle, finding it very difficult to move around. She knew she had to find Pan. Who knew how much trouble she was in? And yet, it took all of her willpower just to keep from blacking out again.
Then, a light mist washed over her. Her body began healing, regaining her former strength. The pachirisu felt like she could take on a rhydon, maybe two rhydon! What happened? Did Pan come back for her?
Actually, it was the man with the messy beard, the one from Dream’s End.
“There there little one,” Harvey told the electric squirrel. “Me and Grayson are gathering some people up. Those kids are risking their necks for us; it’s time we pull our share of the work. We just need a bit of time…”
Immediately, Chi-Chi zoomed down the hallway and headed for the door. If they needed time, she would have to make time. The pachirisu would have to find Pan and hold off this strange pokemon the only way she knew how.
With a fistful of lightning in one paw and another of seed bombs.
A low groan came to Douken as he slow too, his vision slowly coming back as he tried to get up, failing in that attempt. When whatever vision came back, he looked at his wrists, tied down tightly and went to see if he could move. Nope, tied down too. Not too surprising. But where was Pan? Looknig around, he couldn't see anyone, but after straining himself, he turned his head to see an arm behind him in another chair. No doubt Pan, especially when she heard her voice.
Turning to look at the recipient, he could make out two human shapes, and by the way she spoke, it could of been Justin and Nate, which made him say, "Pan, don't you find it odd that they are standing there while we are tied up here?" Turning his head to the two, he asked straight up, "So what's the deal? I bet you got to talk to him. Why aren't you sitting here with us?"
"He took our pokemon," Justin said, beginning his epic string of lies with a truth. "So we're not a threat. He already beat us, so he doesn't care if we leave. He's keeping you tied up so you'll be forced to fight him tomorrow." He spoke, at first, to dispel the obvious suspicions Douken was having. "Now's the bad news," as if that weren't bad enough. "I'm so sorry."
Nate looked over at his partner, a look of worried concern on his face. "Justin?"
"Burro's not gonna show mercy," he said, "He's angry at me for asking about his secret pokemon, and he's gonna," He paused. "He's taking it out on you. I, um, I begged him not to. But he's- He's gonna kill you." Before they could freak out or otherwise react, he moved in close to them so the nearby guards couldn't hear. "I'm not gonna let it happen. We're gonna figure it out. We'll-We'll-We'll get the townspeople together. We'll figure out how to beat the pokemon. He's gonna give you your pokemon back for the fight, but me and Nate, we're gonna figure out how to beat it. Okay?"
He stood back up and took a few steps back. "I can't break you out right now, though. Too many guards around, we'll probably get caught and-" And he would probably lose the promise Burro gave him about sparing Pan's life. "And it's just too risky. But I promise. I'm not gonna let anything happen to either of you."
He put his hand on Douken's shoulder and then Pan's, on whose he lingered, and nodded. "We'll figure it out."
He led Nate outside of the warehouse, failing to notice all the valuables all around them. His mind was on a single track at that moment. "Justin," Nate began once they were outside. "How are we gonna help Douken? Pan's safe, right? But we don't know how to beat the thing. How are we gonna find out?"
"Our boss is coming tomorrow," Justin said. "He knows how to beat it. All we gotta do is get the info from him and then relay it to Pan and Douken. They can take it from there."
"But is he gonna tell us?"
Their next target was Dream's End. Justin walked with an intensity he had lacked for quite sometime. Finally, a mission about which he truly felt strongly. He was going to find Harvey, get the few people of Dream's End and whatever pokemon they had rallied up. If ever they had a chance of getting out from under Burro's thumb, it was now. They would rally. They would help.
"He's not gonna have a choice."
Before Pan could call out to Justin, he was already out the door. So, Burro intended to kill them just like the trainer currently buried at Dream’s End. That wasn’t much of a surprise considering the circumstances. It seemed Justin was already putting together a plan, even if he was putting it together as he walked out the door. Despite this, there was a stutter in his voice. He was nervous, afraid of what would happen to them. She wished she could have calmed him down before he ran off to save the day. The best she could do now was talk to Douken.
“What is this, the second time we’ve been taken hostage?” Pan asked Douken to lighten the mood. “We’ll get out of this too.” The last part she said in a bit of a whisper so as to no alert the guards. Luckily, they were a bit preoccupied with a portable television.
“But,” she continued, “if something happens to me, I need you to do me a favor. You’re going to take my pokemon and give them to a Darryn Kellor. You may have seen him at Castle Vonmoto. He’ll know what to do.”
As the conversation lingered, Pan couldn’t help but grow weary. She wished Douken a decent night’s rest (or whatever they could manage while strapped to steel chairs) and went to sleep, her head resting upon the head of her chair.
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The sun rose over Lenoilia once more. The storm had since passed, leaving the city with uncharacteristically clear skies. It was looking like a nice day for the dreary city. There was something else that was out of place in Lenoilia: the helicopter flying over the city. There wasn’t exactly a huge tourist industry for Lenoilia, much less people flying in. However, this was not a trip for pleasure; this was strictly business.
The helicopter made its landing on top of the pokemon center. Out of the passenger side emerged a tall lanky man dressed in a white dress shirt and black slacks. The man gave himself a last minute combing, streaking his greasy red hair back. His lab coat was still in the passenger area, folded in a neat bundle. He looked over the scenery as he adjusted his nametag reading “Dr. Mondo”.
Of course, Dr. Mondo was just a code name. Such precautions were necessary when working for an organization like Team Deception. That of course was the last thing on the scientist’s mind. From initial reports, his prototype was successful. His advanced shadowing technology was still in its infancy, but so far it has managed to give the biker Burro control of much of the city. If such a powerful creature can give an imbecile like Burro control of the city, he could only imagine what an army of the final product could do for Team Deception. Time would tell if this became one of his most successful experiments.
Mondo checked his watch. It would soon be time for the demonstration Burro had promised him days ago. All he was waiting on now was for his bodyguards to show up.
Sleep was hard to get when tied up to a steel chair when the container your in was a freezing from the storm, tied to a steel chair with no backing, and had no shirt. However, he had to try and get whatever sleep he could. Its not like he knew how much he got, but to him, it didn't really matter. Any amount of sleep would do, his mind still remembering the conversation. His mind heard her voice echo statements, hearing him echo back with things like, "Yeah, well trouble always does seem to follow you," and "And if something happens to me, please take mine to Fidona. Look for a home with a sleeping Scizor on the roof and a Kangaskhan at the door."
The creaking of the door woke him up as a pair of bikers walked in, Douken's eyes trying to focus as they walked up to him. "Don't try anything smart, alright?" he asked as the untied his arms from the chairs before tying hi arms to his back before undoing his legs. "That's right. Such an obedient hostage."
As they started to take him away, he turned and asked, "What about Pan?" curious to why she is left there.
"Our boss only needs one victim for the demonstration, so why waste it on such a cute face like hers? Now then, hope you have said your last goodbyes," he cackled as they threw Douken on a bike, driving them off into the food district of town.
The restaurant he was taken to was called Excalibur, and it used to be a big time cooperation. As the customers got to each their meat on the bones with their lands (because back then, what was a for or a knife), they got to watch Pokemon battles that historians believed back in the day in a deep pit, whether it be workers there for the performance, or trainers who had to go through a regulation of rules. However, today, this branch had been broken down for quite some time. The roof had caved in, and walls were broken down, though someone took the time to clear away most of the rubble as he was led inside through the back.
Arms untied again, he was kicked through the opening which lead into the pit area before the gate behind him closed, securing itself to make sure he couldn't leave. Looking around, he surveyed the area best he could before noticing a man in the chair that was meant for the King. Searching through his pocket, he pulled out his lens and peered through it, eying the fat slob and said, "I guess you are the one in control of this city?"
Nate and Justin, as per their orders, were waiting on top of the pokemon center when Dr. Mondo arrived, but they waited for the helicopter to power down a little bit before approaching, for fear of decapitation. "Doctor?" Justin asked, holding out his hand.
Mondo looked down at Justin's hand, purposefully left his hands at his sides and looked back up to his face. "Finally, you arrive. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting?"
"Yes, sir, I do," Justin said. "Won't happen again."
"Good," the doctor scoffed. "I have too much on my plate to worry about you two. I need to find Burro. I take it you met him?"
"We did," Justin said.
"Good. Take me to that idiot. Hopefully his show will be over soon so I can get out of this despicable town."
"Of course, Sir," Justin nodded, leading the man downstairs into the pokemon center. The three of them began walking through the city, Mondo barely paying attention to where they were walking as his face was buried in his notes the whole way.
"Did many people here know about Burro's pokemon?" He asked, not looking up as they walked.
"Um, yeah," Nate said. "Like everyone."
"And did anyone have sentiments of rising up?" Mondo asked.
"They were pretty defeated," Nate replied.
"Good."
"Question," Justin asked, stopping in the middle of the street. Dr. Mondo actually bumped into him and bounced back a little bit, he didn't even notice.
"I ask the questions, Smart, not you. Maybe when your brain lives up to your name, you can call the shots, okay?"
"Maybe when your body lives up to your head, you can treat me like shit," Justin said as Mondo looked up in shock. Did this kid really just talk to him like that?
"I'll give you five seconds to apologize."
"Save your five seconds, they're clearly too valuable," Justin said. "How do you beat Burro's pokemon?"
"That's what this is about?" Mondo laughed. "You can't beat it. It's unbeatable."
"Then why are you here?" Justin asked. "Why give away an unbeatable pokemon to an idiot like Burro? It was a test, right? So why test it?"
"Justin Smart, you need to stop," Mondo said. "You need to stop thinking. People who think have two job opportunities in this business. One of them is mine, and, sorry to say, the position is filled. The other one is in the ground. You don't want that one."
"Justin, shut up," Nate said. "Dr. Mondo. I'm sorry. Justin is frustrated because Burro kidnapped one of our friends and is planning on killing him for the show. That's why we want to know how to stop him."
"Is this friend Team Deception?"
"No."
"Then I don't care," Mondo shrugged. "I truly do not. Take me to the exhibition, or I'll have you killed. Those are the options, and, truly, I hope you pick correctly."
"Why's that, Doctor?" Justin asked. "Because you need your bodyguards?"
"I have pokemon," Mondo said, "Powerful ones. You think you're my bodyguards? You were the front lines! If Burro was planning on resisting us, or if the people here were to do so, you were to die over me. I don't need you anymore!"
Then, from around the corner, three men, including Harvey, all armed with pokeballs (the contents of which were either weak or empty, but Mondo had no way of knowing). "I might tell the boys how to take it down," Harvey said.
"What is this?" Mondo asked. From around another building, another few people emerged, and then a virtual flood of Dream's Enders overwhelmed the trio in the streets. They may not have been able to take down Burro's pet, but they could certainly take down whatever pokemon this Dr. Mondo had at his command.
In the halls of the abandoned Excalibur, droves of bikers, thugs, and general criminals gathered in the stands and tables to laugh and heckle at Douken. Many of them were wielding legs of smoked meat, some waving them maniacally at the challenger. Among those eating and watching the show was the de facto leader of the broken city, Burro. He was in the safety of the throne, located outside of the pit Douken was in. Consequently, Burro was able to speak with confidence, knowing that his opponent couldn’t come after him.
“Why yes, challenger,” he replied, “I am Burro, leader of Lenoilia as well as leader of this gym. You should be honored, for you are vying for possession of the one and only…Burro Badge!”
Burro’s greasy fingers latched upon his badge: a beer bottlecap with a red costume jewel glued upon it. It was by no means official, but Burro didn’t care. The pokemon he was about to unleash proved he was more powerful than any gym leader (in his mind).
“But before you battle, there is one rule…there are no rules!!!”
The crowd was roaring with fury as they waited for pokemon to be released. In response, Burro stood up from his throne (quite a feat itself given his size) and revealed his own pokeball. Unlike most, this pokeball had chains wrapped around it, meeting at a lock around the center button. One would think that these chains were for aesthetics if it weren’t for the fact that the pokeball was still shaking. This creature continued its struggle to get out, as if it were still a wild pokemon.
“I hope you’re ready for this, boy.”
While Burro was supposed to wait for a certain VIP to show up, he didn’t see the need to. He was the boss in this town, and if that guy couldn’t trouble himself to be on time, then too bad. Burro waited for no one. One simple press of the pokeball, and the battle began.
What emerged was a two story leviathan, the likes of which no one outside of Lenoilia had ever seen. It was not just one pokemon: it was an amalgamation of several. The appendages were a literal zoo: two flaming hooves of a rapidash, a right arm shaped like a meganium’s head and neck, and a left arm depicting a rhyhorn with an elongated neck. All of this was attached to the body of a snorlax. The head bore the flaming crown of an infernape, the long ears and blood red eyes of an umbreon, and the sharp jaws of a sharpedo. The chimera gave a mighty roar at the challenger as he raised his meganium-shaped arm into the air. The creature would not wait for Douken to call out his pokemon, his arm swooping downward towards the trainer.
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Dr. Mondo assessed the situation: twenty civilians had descended upon him and the two grunts. Judging from the behavior coming from Justin, it appeared at least one of those grunts was involved in the trap. Before responding, the scientist started writing notes once more. Even when he did manage to speak, Mondo continued to look through his notes.
“Very deceptive approach, Mr. Smart,” Mondo said, rather interested in the turn of events. “Though, I must say, pulling this on me is rather…unwise. Since you have forced my hand, it seems I will have to adjust my experiment. According to earlier reports, a trainer had fought this creature before, yes? I didn’t really want to do this, but we’re going to have to assume that trainer was the control.”
“Bastard! He was just a boy!” It took three allies to keep Harvey from pounding the scientist into the ground. Mondo simply kept writing as he continued talking.
“For the next stage, I will give you a hint on combatting this beast. Targeting the aberration on its skin will work wonders. Yes, that is all you are getting, and if you don’t take me to the fight, your friend will not even have that as guidance.”
And so, Justin and Nate led Mondo to the warehouse where Pan and Douken were held. The mob of citizens was following the trio…until a biker gang stormed out of an alleyway. The sudden increase in foot traffic had apparently gotten the attention of one of the roaming gangs. The bikers divided the mob from the trio and prepared to fight. Mondo continued walking and encouraged the grunts to do the same.
“Don’t worry about them, Mr. Smart. You’re in enough trouble as it is. Don’t let that be in vain.”
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“Aw man! The batteries are dead! Quick, I need to see what happens next time on ‘As the Pokeball Turns’!”
Back in the warehouse, the guards were frantic: the batteries on their portable TV had run out. Three of the guards began searching through the maze of boxes for supplies, while one was left to guard Pan. Whatever other guards present last night had left to watch the fight just down the street.
Pan was frustrated. They had taken Douken to fight who knows what, while Justin and Nate were MIA since last night. She could only hope they were in the process of rescuing Douken at that moment, but part of her wondered if it was already too late. She had to get out of here, if only to see the outcome of Justin’s plan. She couldn’t make any effort to escape, not with the sole guard keeping watch. Having no other options, Pan attempted to make the guard disappear with her mind, trying to force him to leave the building.
Seconds later, the guard seized up and collapsed to the ground.
“Oh no! I killed him!” Pan gasped. Did she really have that kind of power? The answer became clear just moments later as a pachirisu emerged from behind a column. The guard was only paralyzed, courtesy of a thunder wave attack.
“Pa!” cried Chi-Chi as she ran to Pan. She immediately started chewing off the ropes binding Pan’s hands. After that, the young woman was able to undo those on her legs. She embraced her pachirisu in a hug as she detailed their plan.
“No time to celebrate. We need to find the rest of the team. They’re somewhere in this warehouse. We need hurry up; Douken needs our help.”
Chi-Chi nodded and started sniffing around the warehouse, heading into the labyrinth. It made sense to her; Fenrir did it all the time. The question on the pachirisu’s mind: how did that work?
In contrast, Pan was using her eyes to find her pokemon. She saw a beautiful painting of a litter of sleeping vulpix piled on top of each other, a marble bust of the founder Silver, and a display case of a feather collection. Still no pokeballs. Pan decided to climb on top of a few boxes to get a better view. She was fairly high up, able to get a bird’s eye view of the warehouse layout. The collection of stuff was enormous, but what stood out the most was the collection of red-white spheres just a few yards away. She had found them!
“Hey you!”
In her attempt to retrieve her pokemon, Pan had forgotten that the other guards were still around. She quickly climbed down and rushed toward the pokeball area. There were pokeballs all over the place; how was she able to tell which ones were hers? Chi-Chi came to the rescue, dragging a belt of pokeballs behind her. These were the only ones here that came with a belt, specifically a brown leather one that Pan recognized as hers. She quickly fastened it around her waist and put Chi-Chi on her right shoulder. Pan rushed back through the maze, narrowly avoiding the arms of a hulking guard.
Due to the small space around her, she could not simply summon one of her larger pokemon. And as much as Chi-Chi liked using her seed bombs, there were a lot of historical items around. Yes, even when her safety was at risk, she could still think about the artifacts around her.
As soon as she came into the open space she reached for Fenrir’s pokeball. However, it was too late: the other two guards came at her, grabbing both her arms. Chi-Chi reacted by jumping onto one guard’s face, keeping him occupied. The third guard emerged from the maze and took the incapacitated guard’s position. Together, the two guards forced Pan face down on the ground. Still she struggled, trying to activate one of the pokeballs.
“Come on, just a little more…”
So this is the feared beast everyone has talked about here, Douken thought has his eyes glared at the monster before him. What kind of sick mind would create a being like this? he thought as he saw the arm being lifted in the air (he didn't need glasses to see what such a giant beast was doing). He could easily say he was the opening target!
Jumping back out of the way, he watched the giant arm slam into the floor, creating a dust cloud enough to cover Douken. Reaching into his pocket, he was able to feel the Pokeballs he had (They were stupid enough to not search him), and pulled out two. "Assist me," he whispered to them as the balls enlarged before tossing them to both sides of the giant, revealing Koldo and Maya. I need to stall to find his weakness, his Achilles Heel so to say. Don't want Swagger, cause he seems strong enough. "Maya, Aqua Ring. Koldo, Mud Bomb, rapid fire everywhere on him!"
With the Seel clapping her fins, she took the water in the air from the previous rain to form rings of water around her body before they layered themselves on her, all the while Croagunk opened up his mouth to let out a wild fire of mud balls at the juggernaut. Still, staying close was not going to be the smartest thing, so he began to run for the wall, giving himself distance before running along the circular wall.
After a little bit of exploring, with Mondo at their side, they came to the quick realization that Pan and Douken had been taken away. To where, though, was quite a mystery. They weren't tied up in their chairs anymore was for certain.
"Where is this display to be taking place?" Mondo asked. "I assume these chairs are where your friends sat?"
"We'll find them," Justin said. "Those bikers outside know,"
Mondo agreed and the three turned and walked outside of the warehouse, unknowing of what was going on elsewhere in the same warehouse (The whole Pan and Chi-Chi thing). As they opened the doors, though, Justin turned to Nate. "Our pokemon are somewhere in this warehouse," he said softly. "Can you find them?"
"Yeah," Nate nodded.
So as Nate turned back into the warehouse to find their captured pokemon, Justin and Mondo approached the battle between the bikers and citizens going on just outside the warehouse. He cautiously tapped the shoulder of one of the bikers, but to no avail, as he still immediately responded by turning with a punch. Justin ducked it, though, and came back up, calmly. "You got that out of your system?"
"What do you want?"
"Where are Pan and Douken?"
"Who?"
"The prisoners. Burro's prisoners."
"Oh, Burro's doing the demonstration now," the biker said. "Pretty sure that kid's gonna get hisself killed."
"Awesome," Justin sighed. "Where is it?"
"Excalibur,"
"Excellent!" Mondo exclaimed. "Well, Mr. Smart, this concludes our interactions for the day, as I know exactly where that is. Unless, of course, you'd prefer my company, as I assume you'll be heading in that direction as well? In which case, I recommend we walk together."
"Who the hell is this guy?" The biker asked.
"He's the guy who made Burro's Secret Weapon," Justin sighed. "Alright, Doctor, let's go."
Justin didn't know where Excalibur was, so he was basically following Mondo, who didn't seem to be in any particular hurry. "Can we move a little faster?" Justin asked.
"I'm still trying to figure out why you feel like you can order me around," Mondo pondered. "You realize I'm the boss, right? More importantly, I guess, is your blatant insubordination and borderline mutiny."
"I'm not opposed to Team Deception," Justin said, not entirely sure, "I don't want to be your enemy. And I don't think we are enemies. I just think that, in a very specific aspect, our goals are different. You know what I mean?"
"You want your girlfriend to live, and I don't care one way or the other," Mondo shrugged.
"If you don't care, then why all this hostility?"
"I'm not in charge of this town, Justin," Mondo said. "Burro is. Stupid and dimwitted as he may be, he's the boss, and if he wants to kill someone to display his power, it's not my business to stop him. My only concern is to ensure the efficacy of my creation."
"It's effic...ant!" Justin shouted.
"Effective?"
"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Yeah, that. He took over the town. These biker gangs, they all belong to him. The citizens have no pokemon to fight back with. They have like, little rattatas or whatever, but nothing strong. He owns this town, and it's because of your pokemon. Your trial run is proven true, right? So why don't you take it back and put Burro out of power before he completely destroys this town, and kills a bunch of people in the process?"
"Because, Justin, if I simply agree to save your girlfriend's life, I don't get to see you squirm."
"Really?" Justin asked. "I'm your motivation for being a dick? You want to piss me off? Why the hell am I worth pissing off?"
"Because I hate people like you," Mondo said. "I hate people who think that because their morals are different from mine that I lack them. I hate people with big muscles who think the only way to solve disputes is by fighting. I hate people who are willing to change who they are to get laid. Ignorance, Mr. Smart, is what I hate, and you embody it perfectly."
"I'm gonna save them," Justin said. "And you'll see that it does nothing to impede your mission."
"That's not what matters here, Justin. You've already proven quite well that your priorities are not with Team Deception."
"Are anyone's?" Justin asked. "Does anyone join a criminal organization because of how much they care for it? Everyone just loves doing crime, right? We care about ourselves and we care about the ones we love, but we don't care for who we work for. You don't give a shit."
"I have given my life to Team Deception," Mondo insisted. "All my best work goes to them."
"Well, keep in mind," Justin said. "That your best work may also be your worst if this creature backfires. I sure hope it doesn't get pissed off and target the man who created it."
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Nate began searching the darkened warehouse and, after a short amount of time, heard the muffled sounds of struggle not too far from him. When he moved a little further and turned the corner, he found Pan and Chi-Chi in a somewhat precarious position. Everyone involved was a bit too preoccupied to notice or, at least, to care about Nate's presence, so he decided to take the opportunity to grab the nearest weapon he could find - a crowbar, incidentally - to help things Pan out the way he wanted. Zing.
So he charged one of the men holding her down. "Pan, stay down!" He shouted, causing everyone (except, hopefully, Pan) to look up at him. While the men holding her down's heads were raised just slightly, he took the pressing opportunity to pound him in the face with the previously mentioned crowbar. Ouch.
At that point, Nate found himself quickly surrounded by strong bikers with his crowbar which didn't seem so little a minute earlier. In any case, at least Pan had a free hand to release Fenrir.
Mondo was enjoying the taunts towards the muscle Justin. Of course, this was all cover for his true motives. The fact was that the takeover of Lenoilia by Burro was not a side effect but the goal of the experiment. With the last minute adjustment, courtesy of Justin’s interference, his experiment would proceed to go under a “stress test”. By giving the trainer knowledge of the beast’s weakness, it would ultimately prove how powerful it truly was. That is, if they managed to get to the trainer in time…
Soon, Mondo and Justin had arrived at Excalibur, greeted by a mighty roar that emanated from the inside. The scientist walked into the castle-like structure as if he owned the place. He passed by bikers with impunity as he found his way into the stadium. Rather than make his way to Burro, Mondo simply seated himself in the back row. As Justin sat next to him, the scientist kept watching the battle before, a rare smile appearing on his face.
“Magnificent, yes?”
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Back in the arena, the chimera used his rhyhorn arm as a shield, blocking the onslaught with ease. He didn’t even flinch from the attack, as if he wasn’t even hurt. What was going on here?
While blocking one attack, the creature prepared another. He raised his meganium arm, a bright ball of energy forming within its mouth. All of a sudden, the beam erupted into a hyper beam that streaked across the room. Though the beam was initially aimed at Koldo and Maya, the creature kept moving his arm to chase Douken with the beam. Several bikers in the front row quickly moved up a few rows to avoid getting hit by the attack. The rest roared in excitement, including Burro, who was making no effort in commanding the creature.
Fortunately, the attack didn’t last too long before ceasing. As the creature was resting, his arms draped down his sides. At this point, the creature’s left leg grew somewhat darker than the rest of its body.
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It wasn’t hard for Pan to stay down. The confusion of the sudden action sequence alone kept her still so she could comprehend what was going on. When all was said and done, she saw Nate wielding a crowbar, about to face off against the three angry bikers. Considering they just took a crowbar to the head, chances were pretty good they would be able to handle anything Nate threw at them.
Luckily, Pan had pokemon to handle them.
With a simple press of a button, a large fiery canine appeared behind Nate. At the sight of the arcanine, the trio began to tremble, backing away slowly. Finally, Fenrir bellowed a mighty roar, sending the guards fleeing for their lives.
“Thanks, Nate,” Pan said as she stood up on her feet. She rubbed Fenrir on his shoulder as thanks for his assistance. She called out to Chi-Chi, who was having way too much fun using the fat gut of a second paralyzed biker as a trampoline. Only Pan’s voice stopped the pachirisu from jumping up and down upon her fallen foe.
“We need to hurry. They took Douken to the fight. I’m not sure where- wait, where’s Justin?” She turned her head, expecting him to pop up out of the shadows.
He still sees me as the target! he thought, running for his life as the Hyper Beam trailed behind him (Koldo jumping out of the way as Maya took a hit on her side). He could of taken the time to grab Saber and have him block it, but he feared doing so would have him slow down, and take the blast. No, he had to keep on running. Hyper Beam had to time out eventually. When the attack ceased, he was able to see the beasts arms drop, as if to rest from the blow. Now's my chance! he thought, as he began to charge at the beast, his mind flashing back as he did.
When Mondo took a seat near the back, Justin stayed standing, in an attempt to better see what was going on. What he saw surprised him. It seemed as though Mondo, surprisingly, kept his word. It was only Douken in that arena, fighting surprisingly valiantly. It was at that moment that he ran down through the crowd to get closer to the combat. He didn't have his pokemon, so he couldn't help very much physically, but he immediately saw precisely what Dr. Mondo had mentioned. The monstrous creature's left leg was just slightly darker, and that had to be the target.
"Douken!" He called out from the sidelines. "Douken! Target the leg! The dark part on the leg, target that!"
It would still be a difficult battle, but at least he would know how to go about it. Having Rhydons and Meganiums being tossed around and Hyper Beams flying all over the place wouldn't make targeting the imperfection on its leg an easy task, but Douken seemed to be the town's only hope at that moment. What else could be done? Moreover, where was Pan?
------
"Hey Pan, no problem," Nate said, breathing heavily, "Thanks for scaring those guys off. I prob'ly coulda taken 'em though. But thanks. Anyway, yeah, we need to go. Justin's on his way over there. We figured out how to beat the monster, so he's gonna tell Douken. We need to get the stolen pokemon back, though. If Douken beats the monster pokemon, we'll still have to worry about the bikers. Do you know where the balls are?"
When Pan pointed them out, Nate took a few minutes to find his and Justin's pokeballs. He ensured they were his and Justin's by summoning one pokemon from each belt. His was Ninja the Sneasel, and Justin's was Hitmontop, who immediately recognized that something was wrong. He knew Nate and Pan but was curious as to where Justin was.
"We gotta find Justin, Hitmontop," Nate said. "He might be in trouble and he needs our help. You down for that?"
Hitmontop didn't make a sound, but a determined look appeared on his face. He was most definitely down for that. And so they began their paced run through the city. It was a pretty good distance away, and so they couldn't sprint the whole way. Nate decided to leave Hitmontop out so he could move forward at his own pace, but he tended to stay back with Nate and Pan anyway. It seemed smarter that way.
As they walked in awkward silence, Nate pondered what he should say. He wanted to say something to her. As much as he hated to admit in, Justin was pretty much his best friend, and Pan was confusing the hell out of him. All this on top of the fact that Justin was clearly not over Tina, just based on how often he brought her up.
"Justin's a good guy," Nate finally said. "You already know that, I guess, but I just needed to tell you. I'm sure you're great and wouldn't do anything like this, but I just need to make sure he doesn't get hurt. He's quick to think he knows what he wants, if that makes sense, but he's really slow at actually knowing. I guess my point is, please don't start anything with him unless you know exactly what you want. And then make sure he wants the same thing."
He speech came off much more preachy than he had intended. Really, he just wanted to talk, but then came word vomit. "Sorry," he added. "I didn't mean to assume anything. If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine."
In light of the current situation they were in, Pan found it quite strange that Nate would bring up her relationship with Justin. It really wasn’t the subject she wanted to get into. She didn’t even know all the facts. Still, she took it in stride.
“You know, it’s kind of cute that you care for Justin like that, but we haven’t even been on one date. How about we wait for that to happen before delving too deep into the future?”
In reality, Pan was worrying over the new info that Nate provided. Was Justin just as confused about all of this as she was? Pan thought that he knew what he was doing, that she was the one being stupid over a kiss. What was she to think? In the matters of inexperienced teens dealing with a growing love life, the consequences could be heartbreaking. One of them would have to be the adult in their potential relationship.
And while Pan was thinking about all of that, Douken could be getting crushed like a pancake. Immediately, she refocused on the situation at hand, not giving Nate a chance for a proper rebuttal.
“Right, Douken and Justin need our help. It’s not going to do them any good if we keep strolling around talking about my life.”
With that, Pan climbed up on Fenrir, the arcanine bracing himself for further orders. She was prepared to charge the proverbial (and literal) castle to get her friends out of there.
“Now get up here, give me a direction, and hang on.”
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Though the beast took a kick to the eye, it was Koldo’s assault on the leg that proved most effective. By hitting the black aberration, the croagunk managed to hit the true foe in the match. The barrage of fists caused a fearsome looking zoroark to tumble out of the beast’s leg. The audience gasped as the giant creature (and Douken’s footing) disappeared into thin air, leaving only a fearsome illusion pokemon in its place. At this point, Burro stopped laughing. Even he was fooled by the illusion.
Mondo was smiling from ear to ear as Douken started falling two stories towards the ground and the zoroark’s waiting claws. He revealed his glee to the only audience he had: Justin.
“Behold! The beast is all but an illusion. The true master of this arena is this zoroark, enhanced by my shadowing technique. By selectively enhancing portions of its brain, it is able to use its abilities and moveset with increased ferocity. Instead of a lumbering beast, he faces a quick-witted assassin!”
The illusion fox watched his human opponent rapidly descended towards the ground. His fight was not with the pokemon but with the creatures who experimented on him. They took him from the wild, cut him open, and exposed him to the dark energy. The process was torturous. He no longer felt as other pokemon felt. The only things he felt were the constant pain from the experiment and the satisfaction he would get by getting vengeance.
The humans cut him up alive. The zoroark would take his revenge out on Douken and any human that crossed his path. He prepared to slash the falling human, just as the scientists did to him.
High up in the air, Douken watched the dark fox roll out, even though it merely looked like a black blur topped with red. What is that? he thought, as he suddenly felt the beast began to vanish. Don't tell me this is an illusion too! A fall like that would probably kill him. If not, the beast who was targeting would. Still, he was losing his floor, and had to react fast!
Slipping his hand into his pocket, he clutched a Pokeball as he started to fall and chucked it down to the floor. Bursting from it was Saber, but time was little. "SABER!" he cried out to catch his attention, and he saw what kind of trouble he was set for. The shadowed fox's claws were glowing, aimed at the human. If he let him get killed, he could be considered free, but then he would lose free daily meals. So, in a sudden burst of speed, the armored bird swooped down and intercepted the sharp claws and caught Douken on his decent, bringing him back into the air, leveled with Burro.
"Thanks Saber, that was close," he panted, eying the shadowed beast. "That was one solid illusion. Almost reminds me of yesterday," he muttered, looking down at his team. He was moved out of place, which meant his Pokemon were the closest targets unless the fox tried to climb out and attack him. Why he was the target, he just couldn't understand. "Koldo, Maya, we need to win in order to leave, but don't think it will be easy." Koldo let off a smirk cough, as if telling him, "So what? That's the way I like it," as Maya gave a nod, the water washing over her body, still cleaning her up. "Right. Let's do this! Mud Bomb! Aurora Beam!"
With th poison frog's cheek's puffing, he started to produce more glops of mud in his cheek before firing them at the much smaller opponent as Maya began charging up a rainbow-colored ball of light on her horn. However, before she could fire, her body was engulfed in light! "What the-" Douken watched as her body grew bigger, her fins larger, and her horn longer until the light faded and a new Pokemon stood in front of him. "DEWGONG-GONG-GONG!!" With her cry out, the size of the ball doubled on her horn and blasted at the shadow beast, showing how much more powerful the move got by evolving.
"Yeah," Nate shook his head, frustrated with himself for trying to have a real conversation during these times. "Okay, let's go." He hopped up and pointed in the direction he saw Justin and Mondo go after he went inside the warehouse. "They went that way."
---------
Justin nodded when Douken's Croagunk heard him call out and managed to hit the creature's weakspot. Indeed, it turned out it was all an illusion from what looked like an evolved from of the pokemon who screwed with his mind the day before. This illusion, though, was more powerful. It was real.
Mondo confirmed it. Like Pinsir, this Zoroark was a Shadow Pokemon. The thought occurred to him to use Pinsir to try and talk some sense into the other pokemon. Clearly he was under no one's command. He was just fighting. He was not Burro's or even Mondo's pokemon. He was his own. Maybe he could get Pinsir to convince him- No. Pinsir wouldn't help. Pinsir never helps.
Speaking of that asshole, though, where were his pokemon? Nate was supposed to be coming with them. And where was Pan? She was supposed to be at the stadium. Where was she? He watched as Douken's acrobatics and use of pokemon basically saved his life. It left him wondering if any of his pokemon were capable of such feats. Hitmontop, sure. But most of his other pokemon were pretty weak, and, aside from Ninjask, they didn't have very strong bonds.
He made his way back to where Mondo was standing and stood next to him.
"What brings you back here, Mr. Smart?" Mondo asked.
"Well, last I remember, you announced that you were the one who created this beast," Justin shrugged. "Seeing as how it's my job to protect you, I intend to do so from the mob you've surely created, especially now that they know it's just a regular sized pokemon."
"Interesting," Mondo nodded. "Your priorities are odd, Mr. Smart."
"Yeah, well."
"I'm not worried, though," he continued. "Look up there." Justin did so, to where Burro sat, who seemed to be issuing orders to some of his biker lieutenants. "Burro's not prepared to let his town be taken by a mob. You see, the Zoroark was already a success, even if your friend manages to defeat it. Burro owns this town. The illusion of a powerful pokemon became a reality actually worth fearing when he assimilated his biker gangs. Similar to how my shadow technology made Zoroark's illusions worthy of real fear. It really is somewhat poetic."
"I still want to get you out of here soon," Justin continued. "If there's gonna be a battle between bikers and citizens, I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire."
"And what are you gonna do to protect me without any pokemon?"
"I don't need any pokemon to pound face, Doctor," Justin rolled his eyes.
"Well, Mr. Guzman is returning with your pokemon, correct?" Mondo asked. "Let us wait for him to do so, then we can leave."
"We don't need to-"
"I'm much smarter than you, Justin," Mondo insisted. "I know what you're trying to do. Nate is going to side with the citizens of this town and you don't want me to see it. You don't want me to see him commanding his own and your pokemon to help the town reclaim itself. I get it. It's admirable. You clearly care about your partner, and your devotion to Team Deception is clear, even if our goals do clash somewhat in this specific regard."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm not sure yet. But I will continue to ponder how I feel about the two of you. Oh speaking of whom."
Justin followed Mondo's eyes as he saw the crowd of people seeming to rustle around. Something was coming, and apparently Mondo believed it was Nate. Looked bigger, though.
The zoroark snarled in anger as Douken safely flew over the arena. In order to enact his revenge, the illusion fox would have to dispatch his pokemon first. As the trainer began issuing commands, the zoroark looked back at the pair of pokemon on the ground. They were hurling attacks in his direction, one of the opponents evolving in the process. But the zoroark saw them coming and jumped straight up. He twirled in midair, his body between the balls and beams. The fox landed upon the sand, ready to make his own move.
The zoroark did something unheard of in his species. With a mighty howl, he reformed his illusion! Once again, Douken and his team faced the two story leviathan, more furious than before. This time however, the dark aberration was no longer on his leg. It had moved to his upper back on the right side of his body. It also took a clearer shape: the silhouette of a zoroark. Even so, hitting that mark would not be a simple task as before.
The leviathan elongated his arms and connected them, mouth to mouth. He then started spinning them vertically. His giant body jumped over the heads each time they passed, as if using his arms as a jump rope. What appeared to be silly looking turned into something quite terrifying once the creature started using agility. He was a giant moving turbine, moving across the arena at a dangerous speed. Sand was getting kicked up by the rotating arms. The audience cheered once more as the leviathan galloped towards the croagunk and dewgong. Burro was getting off his throne, taking a bow as if this was all his doing.
CRASH!
The audience looked to the back to see two people riding upon an arcanine. Pan looked around the audience briefly, but her attention quickly honed in on the behemoth in the arena. The creature was headed straight for Douken’s pokemon. She wasn’t going to stand by and just let it happen. She moved without thinking.
“Fenrir, we need to get in there!”
The arcanine obeyed without hesitation, charging through the seating area. Bikers were diving out of the way as the arcanine ran through the crowd. Fenrir cleared the separation wall and landed on all fours within the arena itself. They kept moving towards Douken’s crew as Pan unleashed one of her pokemon.
“Turnip, get them out of there!”
The venusaur appeared from his pokeball, given but seconds to react. Luckily, getting released in such situations was a bit of a common occurrence recently. Turnip used his vines to grab ahold of both pokemon and drag them out of the way. While the croagunk took little effort to carry off, the dewgong was a bit heavier than as a seel. The venusaur used three of his vines to wrap around the sausage-shaped body and fling her to Pan’s side. Though the pokemon were safe and sound, they had another problem. The leviathan was now charging them, racing towards the group with flailing arms. Nor was the creature happy to see the new arrivals. In fact, it was very much pissed.
“OK, now what?” Pan asked Nate, in a half-joking manner. Evidently, her short-sighted rescue plan did not include an exit strategy. She hoped Nate had some wicked pokemon to get them out of this mess.
Back in the stands, a scientist was fervently writing notes while taking in the action. He looked very pleased with how things were turning out. The addition of two more trainers (even Nate) would push the project further, just as he wanted.
“On second thought, Mr. Smart,” Mondo said to Justin as the events unfolded, “I think I’ll stay. Things have become much more interesting…”
Watching from the sky, he saw the black Pokemon take up his form again, watching his size grow immensely, but he knew the weakness now, thanks to Justin. However, watching him do jump rope with his arms in a form of Rollout did not look like a pretty site, seeing how it could also act like a shield as well as attack. Either way, the luggering beast at his height could easily knock him out of the air. "Saber, ascend!" With the height Fly can produce, he would be out of range for most ordeals (or so he hoped with this beast), so with the Skarmory's wings giving off a white hue, he burst himself higher into the air, above the ruined roof and looking down at the crowd,, pulling out his lens to check up on things clearer, which started off with a big red dog he was happy to see.
Pan and Nate were hitting the scene, and were able to act fast to get his Pokemon out of the beast's way. "Pan!" he called from the air, "It is a Real Illusion. Find a bruise and aim for it!" Easier said than done with his arms spinning around that rapidly... or was it? Taking another Pokeball from his pocket, he chucked it out to the floor, letting burst out Reep, who seemed to of been getting some very good uses lately. "Reep! Slow him down with Trick Room!" With the collected aura in hand, the broken down restaurant was taken in a blue hue, and the rapid spinning arms were moving in slow-motion.
"Let go of me!" Koldo complained as he fought against the vines. "Let me go! I will show him I am the better! He will provide me with a challenge!" Though pissed off, he figured he should take out the frustration on the giant mass, opening his mouth to shoot out a barrage of purple needle at whatever he could, though ineffective for the spot being on his back.
"Big Brother seems to be having fun," Maya chuckled, the water washing over her body. "Or is it Little Brother now. What do you say, flower buddy? Is he my big brother or little brother?" Her mind was going off course on that idea, just because she was able to evolve first. "Oh, you can let go now." Even as a Dewgong, she let her tongue stick out for that last part.
Justin breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Nate, Pan and Fenrir causing the ruckus in the crowd. They quickly bolted into action impressively, but the Shadow Zoroark was not quite finished. Though his illusion was found out, he could still cause real damage so long as he, himself, remained unreachable within the beast he created.
"Now what?" Nate asked in response to Pan's same question, ideas flowing through his mind. "Now this happens."
He pulled out Pinch's pokeball and summoned the newly evolved Kingler. The majestic crab looked up at the behemoth before her, but stood strong. "You ready, Pinch?" Nate asked as she looked back to him. "Use Wide Guard...Now!"
Even though Zoroark's illusion certainly had the power and capability of severely damaging everyone on the field of battle, Pinch managed to protect them all simply by holding out her massive pincers. The creature stopped in its tracks, being forced back awkwardly, causing a new danger of hitting the ground, potentially causing the ground to tremble enough to destroy the stands, possibly killing hundreds, but in the very least, it would leave the Zoroark at at least temporarily exposed until he pulled himself back up.
Justin began leaping through the stands, pushing his way past onlookers desperately. They had to defeat Zoroark before the bikers sprang into action to diffuse the situation. But, as he ran, he heard a calming familiarity. "Top!!" He turned around to see Hitmontop zooming through the crowd as well, spinning rapidly as he tended to do upside down, and stop in front of Justin. "Hey, bud," He said, a different idea formulating in his head. He ran to the edge of the stadium, close enough to be heard. "Nate!" He called.
"Dude, get your bitch ass down here!"
"I gotta make sure the bikers don't mess this up!" Justin called back. "I'm taking Hitmontop with me, but use the rest of my pokemon to take down this thing."
"Got it," Nate nodded. He had bigger fish to worry about at that particular moment, however. The creature was falling to the ground and going to make a big bang when it hit, and Nate had to make sure it didn't cause a bunch of people to die. "Da Bomb!" He shouted, sending out the Numel. "I need you to use Magnitude to neutralize the impact. I don't really know if you can-"
"Numel," Da Bomb seemed determined to prove himself. He could, after all, control the quakes beneath the ground with varying levels of Magnitude, so why couldn't he use it to minimize destruction as well? Sure enough, as the beast hit the ground, shockwaves of energy began trying to move through the dirt beneath them, but Da Bomb's Magnitude somehow kept them contained beneath the beast itself. It also had the added effect of doing a lot of extra damage because all that energy was exploding beneath the creature. Ultimately, however, that didn't matter, as it had exactly one weakspot, and the Magnitude wasn't hitting the Zoroark.
It was, however, low to the ground, trying desperately to move the abomination so it could gain altitude once more, but it was difficult to move such a lumbering beast with earth exploding beneath it.
-----
So, back through the crowds Justin and Hitmontop ran. It helped to have Hitmontop spinning wildly in front of him. People tended to get out of the way when they saw that headed in their direction. It didn't take long at all for them to get back up into the stands where Burro and his men were preparing to move. Burro was dumb, but he wasn't dumb enough to let a few kids defeat his superweapon and then just hand over the town. He needed to show that he didn't need Zoroark to rule these people.
When he got close, though, there was a group of bikers protecting Burro's place in the stands. It made sense, after all. "Go back, kid," one of them said. "Enjoy the show. This section's off limits."
Hitmontop had stopped spinning to eye down the man who spoke to Justin in such a condescending tone. "I think you already know I didn't just wander up here," Justin said. "I came for Burro. Let me through or I'll let myself through."
The bikers looked at each other and charged Justin and Hitmontop. Two of them summoned pokemon, but the other two deemed their fists effective enough, though they misjudged the situation clearly. The two bikers who approached Justin found themselves against a kid a little bit bigger than he seemed a second earlier. Justin wasn't much of a fighter, but he was certainly strong. He let loose punches wildly, but found that their four arms against his mere two were quite effective.
Hitmontop did not face such a problem. He spun around and toppled the four bikers whom approached him like bowling pins. The two who summoned pokemon let their impressively sized Armaldo and Charizard take the fight to Hitmontop while they turned their own attention towards Justin, whom was already outnumbered.
Hitmontop began his battle against these two pokemon like he tended to begin battles, with a shock. He spun around and clapped his feet together loudly, stunning and knocking back the Charizard and Armaldo. During their moment of confusion, he continued his relentless barrage of attacks by starting a Triple Kick against Armaldo, who took fair damage from each of the hits. Immediately after those hits, he followed up with a Quick Attack to Charizard's face. He moved too quickly for Charizard to land a successful fire attack and Armaldo was barely standing after the entirety of the Triple Kick combined with the Fake Out.
As Charizard turned to attack Hitmontop, he launched himself away, yet again, by attacking Armaldo with Mach Punch. The attack was so fast and precise that Armaldo fell to the floor before even being able to counter the hit. Afterwards, Hitmontop turned to continue engaging with Charizard, but turned headfirst into a fiery bite from the beastly pokemon. The hit hurt, admittedly, as the Charizard wasn't weak, but he continued by unleashing another Triple Kick. It was far less effective on the flying dragon than on Armaldo, but Hitmontop was still much stronger and his attacks still hurt like hell.
Their battle continued for not very long after. Charizard landed two more Fire Fangs, but Hitmontop's Triple Kicks, which continued rising in intensity, eventually did it in. He then turned his attention to Justin, who was basically getting his ass kicked by four very large bikers. The pounding didn't go on much longer, though, as he Rapid Spinned into them and knocked them away, one of them even falling off the stands, potentially injuring himself pretty badly. Neither seemed to care much, though.
Justin stood up, his face bleeding and beaten, but still mostly in tact. "Thanks, bud," he said sincerely, then looked at three bikers who began to stand up, angrily. "What are you guys doing?" he asked. "Can't you see Burro's creature is nothing more than an illusion? He's been playing you the whole damn time. He's nothing! He isn't powerful! Why are you putting your lives in danger, trying to run this town, after knowing what you know?"
"It's not that simple, kid," one of the bikers said. "Burro is powerful, even if that creature is a fake. He has a different kind of power. I'm not going to defy him, because then I'll get whacked."
"You've already seen that the people of this town are ready to push him and the biker gangs out," Justin said. "Do you really think Burro is more dangerous than them? Think about your allegiances. I know what it's like to be on the wrong side of the law, wondering whether or not what you're doing is right. I can assure you, you're in the wrong.
With that, Justin and Hitmontop moved into Burrow's stand, where he stood alone.
"Justin Smart," Burro said. "I'm impressed you got past my guards, even if they did do a number on your face."
"It's your face you should be worried about, Burro," Justin said, not ready to play any games. "I will straight up murder your ass, and you know it, if anything happens to any of those three down there, and your bitch ass army of bikers will do nothing, and clearly have done nothing, to stop me. You don't own this town anymore, so I suggest you call off your bikers while at least some of them still serve you. After they've seen your faulty display of power. After they see your secret weapon fall to three kids, they'll know you're nothing more than the piece of shit you really are."
"I'm sure we'll see about that, won't we?" Burro seemed confident.
Thank goodness for Trick Room.
Reep’s well-timed attack had turned the tide in our heroes’ favor. Slow was the new fast, so Nate’s kingler and numel were able to set up their attacks well before the beast could turn all of them into a smoothie. Pan was quite familiar with the attack from all her travels with Douken. Thus, she was able to use it to her advantage as well.
As soon as the venusaur let go of Douken’s pokemon, Pan jumped off of Fenrir and onto Turnip. Due to the effects of Trick Room, her fall was slowed, as if the girl was a feather floating softly towards the ground. This was in contrast to when she commanded the venusaur to circle their opponent. The grass pokemon took off like a race car. His stubby legs moved at blinding speed as Turnip ran to the backside of the leviathan. Thanks to Douken’s hint about the bruise, Pan took greater attention to the skin detail and spotted the zoroark-shaped aberration.
“Turnip, use Vine Whip on that spot.”
The venusaur obliged and stood his ground. The creature was too distracted with getting back on solid ground, so Turnip had no trouble using his vines to strike the target. The next few moments were set in bullet time (again, Trick Room). The vines wrapped around the illusion fox and pulled the pokemon out of his illusion’s back. The leviathan disappeared from existence while the zoroark was pulled to the venusaur. Turnip then proceeded to spin the pokemon around over his head, the slow motion effect of Trick Room still in effect. After several full rotations, the venusaur released the zoroark, sending him across the arena. Like a slow motion rocket, the illusion fox was helpless in controlling his flight as he passed by the other opponents.
“Fenrir, Flamethrower!”
The arcanine released a jet of flames in the path of the flying zoroark. The enemy flew right through the flames, the creature briefly engulfed in fire. With the help of Trick Room, the zoroark continued to stay in the air, setting up a perfect opportunity for a combo attack from the other pokemon in the arena.
He couldn't help but smile at the chain of reactions from the team that was brought out. Nate had two of his to knock back and reduce structural damage as Pan used the speed change to use the slow walking plant like a torpedo to his back, breaking the illusion. If it was a case of dumb luck that broke the illusion, it would of been a much harder fight, which now left the black blur hovering in mid-air of the attack. "Koldo, Reep, Maya, Saber, let's go!"
Saying that this was going to hurt was dead obvious, as it seemed like the group were doing their own form of Beat Up! As Fenrir blasted him with the Flamethrower, Douken's released party of four almost simultaneously launched a wave of raged attacked. Koldo, after puffing his cheeks, let out a wave of purple needles for his Poison Sting. Saber let out a set of S-shaped blades by flapping his wings for Air cutter. Reep's eye glowed as energy pulsed from her body with Night Shade. Maya decided it was New Move Debut time, showing off her newly learned Signal Beam from evolution by setting off another rainbow-colored wave of energy (unlike Aurora Beam, it was brighter, but not as steady-looking).
"Skarmory, time to land," he said, patting the armored Bird's neck, taking him down to the stands, and immediately walked up to Justin and Burro. He could easily cut the tension between the two with a butter knife. "Thanks for the save," he muttered as he stood next to Justin, his eyes laid on the pig the bikers called a leader. "You seem pretty comfy in that chair, Burro."
As Douken's entire team went to town on Zoroark, along with Fenrir and Turnip from Pan, Nate decided to seal the deal by summoning one of Justin's pokemon. Obviously, Hitmontop would have been preferred. His fighting attacks would decimate Zoroark, but that wasn't in the cards. Justin did have two (technically three, but Pinsir barely counted) bug pokemon. Nate, at least, had the sense to know that summoning another shadow pokemon would only serve to screw things up even more.
The other two were Ninjask and Shedinja. Shedinja was ghost type, though, and Nate knew this, and also knew how frail the poor thing was and how quickly it would get taken down by any of Zoroark's attacks. This isn't to say that Ninjask was capable of taking much punishment, but it wouldn't die from a hit, and it also had its own Bug type attack which would do a number on Zoroark.
Ninjask popped out of her pokeball, golden and glorious as she was. She immediately recognized that it was not Justin whom summoned her, and began flying around panicked, trying to find him. "Ninjask!" Nate yelled, and she focused what little attention she had on him. "Justin's fine. I need you to use Bug Bite on that black fox. Can you do that for me?" Rather than assessing the situation like Hitmontop did earlier, she freaked out. She began zipping through the air, trying to find her real trainer. Why did he abandon her? How could he? "Ninjask!" Nate called out. "Please! I need your help!"
She flew back down to his level and looked him straight in the face. "Justin will be fine. I promise." It seemed to be enough. She immediately turned around and charged Zoroark, who was being struck by all of Douken's simultaneous attacks and spun around behind him to bite down. She didn't do much damage compared to Douken's pokemon, sure, but she helped, and that was enough. Ultimately, the phantom pokemon fell. Hard. All of its illusions dissipated and it lost consciousness.
That was about the time Douken landed next to Justin and Burro. "Thanks for the save," he said as Justin nodded.
"No problem, man," he replied.
"You seem pretty comfy in that chair, Burro." Douken continued as Burro became clearly uncomfortable. His secret weapon had fall, as Justin warned him and none of his lackeys were around to protect him from these two men and their two very strong looking pokemon.
And so, the supposedly unbeatable pokemon crashed into the sand, defeated by three ordinary kids and their pokemon. The zoroark hated himself for being at the mercy of human oppressors once more. He lied upon the ground, waiting for the enemy to finish him off.
“Good work you guys,” Pan said to Turnip and Fenrir. As the effects of Trick Room dissipated, Pan dismounted and greeted her pokemon with strokes of gratitude. Chi-Chi, upon Pan’s shoulder the whole time, took a victory pose, performing a V-sign with her paw.
As they congratulated each other, the zoroark continued to watch from his defeated position, utterly confused by the events. The humans and pokemon were celebrating together, enjoying one’s company. The love shared between trainers and pokemon was a wonder to watch for the zoroark. He hadn’t felt loved by anyone in ages. Was he all wrong? Could he one day have a human friend that would treat him with the same respect and kindness as Pan and the others did? The thought of such a possibility made his shadow condition just a bit less powerful.
That was the last thing he ever saw.
The zoroark began convulsing violently, much to Pan’s horror. She ran towards creature, trying to keep the pokemon still as it shook and slobbered uncontrollably. This was not a result of the battle or from a long-term condition like epilepsy. It was the work of a quick-acting poison, one that did not intend to leave the pokemon alive to learn more about kindness.
“Nate, I need an antidote! Hurry before…oh no…”
Pan held her hands to her mouth as the zoroark was motionless, not even breathing. She wasn’t sure why she felt sad; the pokemon was trying to kill her and her friends just minutes ago. And yet, she felt that the illusion fox wasn’t in his right mind. There was something about him that made him different from normal pokemon. Pan’s pokemon watched in silence as she closed the eyes of their opponent. There was nothing more to be done.
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Mondo’s work was done. The test showed that, while one trainer was no match for the prototype, a group of trainers could take him down with relative ease. The shadow zoroark was not capable of handling the task. Though his initial excitement was gone, Mondo kept looking towards the horizon. He would find a new subject in order to create a truly unbeatable foe. But first, he had to get rid of the evidence.
With the aid of a trigger he kept on himself, Mondo was able to activate a cyanide pill embedded deep within the zoroark’s gut. It was a failsafe in case the pokemon proved too much to handle. It also would help cover the scientist’s tracks, as it was very difficult to detect evidence of shadowfication on a dead pokemon. While the audience looked on in confusion, Mondo simply walked out of the arena. He had much to report on…
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Burro was dumbfounded. As Justin and Douken confronted him, the audience became restless. Some booed at the battle’s outcome, while others were heading towards Burro to see what would happen next. Burro was not about to give up however. Even if he had lost his powerful leviathan, he still had his legion of bikers at his command.
“Kill ‘em! All of them!” Burro roared to his grunts. However, none of them went rushing to fulfill he deed. In fact, several bikers gathered behind Burro’s throne and pushed it over. The large man fell forward to the ground, turning to his cohorts in disbelief.
“You morons! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Don’t you get it? That pokemon was the only thing you had over us. A bunch of kids just defeated it, and you think you can keep bossing us around?”
The unnamed biker kicked Burro in the gut, causing the now former leader to topple over once more. The biker proceeded to make a bold claim, shouting as he talked over Burro’s whining.
“I think it’s time for some new leadership around here. And I think that man is me.”
“Like hell!” shouted another biker. “You couldn’t lead a snorlax to a buffet!”
“Hey, it’s harder than it sounds! Their eyes are closed!”
The arguing quickly grew more intense. Once someone threw a punch at a fellow biker, the entire audience erupted into a fistfight. Some grabbed seats and various food items to up the ante. Others were summoning pokemon to gain a clear advantage. In all of the chaos, Burro started to crawl away, keeping close to the ground in a desperate attempt to escape further bodily injury. He didn’t even bother to check on the zoroark that he admired for so long.
Seeing that the gang of bikers ignited into a sea of violence, Pan abandoned the illusion fox and climbed back onto Fenrir. Somewhere in the audience, Justin and Douken were likely avoiding injury themselves. She looked all around, but there were simply too many people. She raced around the edge of the arena upon her arcanine, calling out for her companions.
“Justin! Douken! Wherever you are, get out of there!”
Watching the panicked Burro try to convince the others to fight, Douken was about ready to give him a bit of a speech about what he felt was the role of the gym leader; not a way to throw around his power, but a way to test the limits of challengers and bring out their potential. Before he could preach to him, however, some of the men began to shove him down and begin to argue, trying to test their own strength against each other to become the new "king." Certainly not good up in the stands.
As items started to fly, Douken quickly hopped back on Skarmory's back, the bird almost instantly taking off. "Justin, Skarmory isn't big enough for two, but I am sure I can at least drop you off with Pan and Nate," he told him, looking at the Pokemon's claws. Surely, if he carried him out of the building, not only would the bird have to deal with the extra weight, but Justin would most likely nearly lose his arms. It was that, or Justin and Hitmontop having to fight their way through the mess of a crowd.
Still, he didn't seem to mind, so after waiting for Juston and Hitmontop getting ready, he flew the Skarmory over him ,taking his arms with his claws and flying him over to the fence back to where Pan and Nate was. "We meet up in front of the building," he told them, trying to set up a meeting place so no one would get lost. At this level, he was able to pull out the three Pokeballs and return his teammate before looking at the lifeless Zoroark. Tracing the tat once again, he did a quick prayer for the fox (even though he tried to kill Douken) before launching himself back into the air.
Looknig down, he watched the blurry trio go make their escape, but was more impressive was the blur that was outside the building...
Justin looked at Skarmory's claws and cringed for a moment, but realized it was, indeed, the only way out. He did wonder about Hitmontop, though, because he didn't have his pokeballs on hand to return him and make the trip that much lighter. "Hang in there, buddy," he said to Hitmontop. "Jump down when I get back to Nate, alright? I'll catch you before you land."
"Top!"
"Tight," Justin nodded. "Stay safe until then. Alright, Douken. Let's do this thing."
Once Skarmory lifted off the floor, Douken on its back, it grabbed Justin's shoulders, forcing a grunt out of the man, whose muscles were being pretty severely penetrated. "Let's do it quick, alright?" His shoulders were used to claws. When Ninjask was just a little Nincada, she used to climb up and down his back and sink her tiny claws into his body all the damn time. None of that, though, compared to Skarmory, who didn't seem to care at all for Justin's well being except what Douken told him.
Once Skarmory released him and he hit the ground, Douken was off to scout for them. "Justin!" Nate called. "Glad you're okay, man!"
"My pokeballs, I need them, now!"
"Uh, right. Yeah, here." Nate tossed Justin his belt. As he caught it, he saw Ninjask flying straight towards him. He ducked as she flew right past his head. She probably would have decapitated him if he didn't. She just forgot how freakishly fast she recently became is all. He was going to assume that at least. While she tried to turn around, Justin found Hitmontop's ball and pulled it off. He looked up at the balcony where Burro stood, previously, and saw Hitmontop falling gracefully towards the ground. Justin held up his ball and pulled the pokemon from midair.
"Pan," he turned to her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. She almost died, and a lot of that was his fault. Maybe it wasn't but it certainly felt like it. He still betrayed her, and she still almost died. "I'm glad you're okay." He pulled his right hand off of her shoulder and brushed it through her hair, pulling her bangs out of her face. They had been through a lot in the past few hours and it had been a while since any of them had a proper shower. Still, she was so beautiful. "We should go," he snapped out of it. "Things are getting kinda crazy in here."
He looked to his left as Ninjask flew towards him, much slower this time. "Hey pretty girl, don't kill me this time, alright?" He said, pulling out her ball and summoning her back. He noted her happy sounding buzz as she was recalled. He then looked over to Nate, whom called back Da Bomb and Pinch. "I don't suppose Fenrir's got room for three?" He asked Pan.
As soon as Justin landed into the arena, Pan dismounted off her arcanine and ran out to greet him. The rough sand was a little uncomfortable on her bare feet, but that was nothing compared to what Justin had endured. In addition to his shoulders, his face was an utter mess of cuts and bruises.
“Your face!” exclaimed Pan, shocked at the beating he took. Justin then caressed her hair, with no concern over his own injuries. Once again, Pan was filled with those warm yet confusing feelings. Amidst all the chaos, the first thing Justin did was check on Pan. Not even the fact that she was garbed in dirty sleepwear stopped him from admiring her like a piece of art.
“I’m glad you’re OK too,” Pan replied. “Well, relatively of course.”
Before they could talk further however, Justin pointed out that the group still needed to find a way out. Pan looked around for a safe exit. Scaling the arena walls was out of the question, as there were still plenty of bikers causing trouble up there. She soon spotted a gate, the same opening that Douken entered through. Even though it was closed, that was no trouble for a strong venusaur.
“Turnip, take out that gate!”
The venusaur lumbered over to the gate and began releasing several vines. Each vine wrapped around the bottom section, pushing upward in unison. The pokemon’s strength was enough to force the gate upward, destroying the locking mechanism. Turnip held the gate up with ease, allowing everyone to pass through. Once everyone was on the other side, Pan recalled all of her pokemon. The gate closed behind them, ensuring that no one would follow them. Not that that was too much of a problem; the biers were too busy fighting amongst themselves to notice the group walking off.
“I think we’re safe for now,” Pan said to Justin and Nate. “No need for Fenrir. We can make it on foot.”
And so, Pan, Justin, and Nate headed down the deserted hall to the exit, avoiding the bikers that were fighting above them.
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The fighting spilled out of the dilapidated restaurant and into the streets. It was hard to tell which side of the coup was winning as each individual biker was only loyal to themselves. Noticeably absent was Burro, who was too busy trying to make a daring escape before the other bikers realized he was still around. This was still a good sized city. He could find a nice place to hide while this whole situation blew over.
Just then, Burro was stopped in his tracks by rumbling noise. Even all the fighting ceased as the bikers started looking around. It sounded like a stampede. The gang soon found that it was a stampede, not one of pokemon but of angry people. Indeed, it was a sea of people, perhaps thousands by some counts. They wielded a random assortment of pitchforks, baseball bats, and other items for causing major pain. Leading the charge was a young teenage boy riding upon a rapidash. Though his face was hidden by an oversized Viking helmet, his wild battlecry echoed through the city as he pointed his katana towards the bikers. They had no idea there were this many people in this part of the city. How was this possible?
The bikers did not stick around to find out. The gang scattered in a mad dash to get to their bikes. Others simply ran straight out of the city in a desperate attempt to avoid getting trampled. The roar of motorcycles signaled that the bikers were on the move. As they too headed out of Lenoilia, it appeared that they were no longer interested in running the city.
“I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those kids and their pokemon!” Burro cried as he sped out of Lenoilia with the rest of the bikers.
When Pan, Justin, and Nate exited the restaurant, they saw a very different picture. The bikers were being chased not by angry Lenoilians but by a quartet of zorua. The little foxes yipped and yapped as the bikers retreated, finally howling as the last of the bikers disappeared over the horizon. They were quickly joined by 20 Dream Enders in celebration. They had won the day.
“I knew you guys wouldn’t let us down!” shouted Harvey to the group. “We found these little foxes a bit worse for wear while we were recruiting. A few of us made a capture, and with a little help from Joy, we were able to work out something to scare these guys out of town.”
The man put his large arms around the four visitors, his messy beard tickling Pan’s nose.
“Who’s hungry?”
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That afternoon, the pokemon center was alive with activity. People from around the area were congregating for a buffet of barbeque and cake. The air was no longer filled with doom and gloom. People were sharing tales of victory, most notably the daring battle with the “Lopsided Leviathan”. Others were talking about revitalizing Lenoilia; the victory over the bikers inspired many to begin bringing Lenoilia back to its former glory.
On one of the couches, Pan was applying a piece of Nevermelt Ice to Justin’s face, hoping to reduce the swelling. Luckily, it was wrapped in a cloth towel, so the stinging wouldn’t be so bad. Still, she enjoyed watching him squirm every time she came close with the ice.
“Hold still, hero,” Pan said with a smile as she sat next to Justin. This was after she had showered and changed into her usual outfit of purple vest, black long-sleeved shirt, and shorts. She remained barefoot, often choosing to do so when indoors. Meanwhile, Chi-Chi was racing around the center on top of a zorua, playing with other small pokemon.
In a place like Lenoilia, this was the happiest place in Furoh.
After the stream of bikes reeving off into the distance, Douken figured it as best to find a place to land, having the steel bird land next to the trio who helped him out. Pulling out his lens again, he took a glimpse around, and the crowd he saw outside was gone, but the four Zorua were hopping around excited. With Harvey popping up with 19 more citizens, he heard they were a bit worn out when they were found, which made Douken take another look at them. He met the gaze of another, who let off a familiar snicker... Were they the same four?
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The Pokemon Center was not in the best shape, considering the Electrode from last night, but it seemed some time was taken to fixing the place up to be manageable. The medical machine was still in critical condition, so as the citizens and guests relaxed, Nurse Joy had to tend to the Pokemon one at a time with it. Still, it was probably the liveliest and most joyous the center has ever been in a long time.
As everyone talked, Douken (back in his full clothing) was taking his time, telling some of the people his side of the story of the Leviathan battle, calling the beast a Juggernaut more than a Leviathan. He even got interrupted to hear that it was their help that he got the information, so he took the moment to thank the crowd listening. As he took a bite from the burger had had in hand, another man walked up and looked at him, before calling out to him in a calm, stern voice. "Hey Kid." Looking up, he was able to see the blur he recognized as Grayson before something came flying at him.. Catching it in midair, he looked at what he got.
It was a biker's patch that had a Wailord shooting out a giant Pokeball from his blowhole. Before he could ask about it, he said, "My way of saying thanks. I'm sure Tim would of done the same. Now, if you excuse me, I got some to hand out to your friends as well," he told him before heading off to the others. Douken, taking a bite from the burger, couldn't help but just look at the patch.
Justin didn't realize how much his face hurt until they got out of the chaos. All of a sudden, he could feel it swelling up as it happened and the pain was damn near unbearable. But it all seemed okay when they were back at the pokemon center and he finally got to be with Pan.
It was just the two of them sitting on that couch. Lots of people were in the pokemon center, doing their things, no one else really mattered at that moment. He just looked at Pan as she put the ice on his face, trying to help, but it still hurt. "It's so cold," he laughed, squirming away from it.
"Hold still, hero," she laughed back, forcing the ice.
Hero. No, that wasn't it at all. He thought it was great that she thought that of him, but at the end of the day, the only reason he was able to help at all was because he was part of a criminal organization, the very same one which caused the problem in the first place. Moreover, his recent acts of "heroism" probably did a number on his reputation within Team Deception. It was hard to tell what Dr. Mondo would do about his and Nate's fairly blatant insubordination, but he actually seemed okay towards the end of the day.
Maybe it was just that he was with Pan that he was so optimistic. On the one hand, he wouldn't get in trouble. Good. He could keep getting paid. On the other hand, he might get in a lot of trouble and get kicked out of Team Deception. Even better. He could go back to a real job in Petropolis and finally get a chance to figure things out with Pan.
"Thank you, Pan," he said, trying so hard to hide his goofy smile, the goofiness of it amplified by his swollen face. He wanted to say something else, but that was really the only thing that made sense. He thought back to Nate's stupid advice about sleeping with her. Honestly, the idea sounded fantastic, but he wasn't sure it sounded good for the right reasons. He wanted more than just a rebound, but if they had sex and then he had to go off on another mission, what would that mean for them? Maybe he should just talk to her?
"So," he began, awkwardly. He looked at her big green eyes which were looking straight back at him with a sort of cute curiosity. "When we get back to Petropolis, we should-" Get dinner. He didn't get to say it, though, because his phone rang, ushering a sigh from Justin. "Sorry," he said, pulling out his cell phone. An unidentified number meant it was one of his bosses. He had to answer it. Instead, he put it away and rejected the call. Once his hand was free, he let it wander to hers and gently touched it. "I want to get dinner with you. I want a chance to be with you without having to fight for our lives. I just-"
"Justin!" Nate's voice came from nearby as he made his way through the crows to find them. "Did you get the call?" Justin just looked up at Nate, a look of pure annoyance on his face. "We have to go, Justin." Rather than answering, Justin sat there, looking at Nate, rage building in his face. "I'm sorry. We're in a hurry."
He stayed silent for a moment, thinking about the consequences of just quitting right then and there. This wasn't a normal job, though. He couldn't quit after screwing up as badly as he did, not knowing what he knew about Team Deception. They would come after him, find some way of clearing themselves, even if it meant killing him. They weren't above that. Dr. Mondo even knew about his feelings for Pan, and he certainly wasn't above going after her.
"Pan," he said, looking back at her, trying not to cry. "Pan, I'm so sorry." He was beginning to think things would never work with her. His affiliation and her goodness were far too conflicting. She would never be with him if she knew, but he couldn't hide this from her forever. What was he going to tell her about why he had to keep traveling around Furoh? What if she wanted to play the hero again while he was the villain? "I have to go."
He let go of her hand and stood up, looking away from her immediately, trying to hide his pathetically weepy face. He didn't pay attention to anything except getting to the front counter to gather his pokemon. When he got to Nurse Joy, she raised an eyebrow at him. "You should put some ice on your face, hun," she said.
"I'm fine," he said. "I need my pokemon back. I'm Justin Smart."
"I'm Nate Guzman," Nate added, nodding politely at her.
"Smart and Guzman," she said, looking under the counter. "Your pokemon aren't healed yet. It's taking longer than usual because our systems are down. I'm sorry."
"We don't have time to wait," Nate shook his head. "They're healthy enough to get us to where we need to go."
She seemed surprised. "Okay. Um. Sure. Hold on a sec." She went to the back and came out a few seconds later with eleven pokeballs. She handed six to Justin and five to Nate, both of whom immediately attached their respective pokeballs to their belts. "Have a safe trip, guys,"
"Thanks," Nate said, "Good luck with the rest of the healing."
She smiled. "Thanks, cutie. Make sure your friend puts some ice on his face, alright?"
"Yes, ma'am," Nate nodded.
Justin turned around and began walking towards the door, making sure to shoulder check Nate as he did so. Once he got to the front door, he punched the wall, which did not break. It hurt his fist quite a bit, in fact, but that didn't bother him. He walked outside of the pokemon center to see a crowd outside as well. Nate was behind him. "Justin, I'm sorry you didn't get to-"
"Shut up, Nate," Justin shook his head. "Just shut up."
"Okay," Nate nodded. "Sorry."
"Where are we going?"
"I thought you wanted-" Justin turned his head and glared at his partner. "Gigarte."
As Justin touched Pan’s hand, she knew what was happening. Justin was finally asking her out. He offered her dinner in Petropolis, but that would only be the beginning of the evening. Perhaps they could walk in a park, lie on the grass, and talk until they were whisked to sleep. Who knew what could happen?
And then he left. Without an explanation, without looking back, and without a good-bye.
Pan was very confused. Justin seemed to look forward to finally getting together without all the fighting. And before he could set everything up, Nate called him up. Pan could only guess that his uncle was expecting them back, but couldn’t Justin have waited to at least finish up their conversation? She didn’t even know when they would see each other again.
It began to dawn on her that perhaps Nate wasn’t pulling Justin away but “providing cover”. Maybe Justin was trying to get out of there, away from Pan. Perhaps he wasn’t serious about getting closer. He just wanted to be friends, and when he saw Pan’s face give a hint of excitement, he dashed away. To Pan, this was the most likely series of events. This wasn’t the first time she bombed at dating; it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
As Pan sat on the couch feeling sorry for herself, Chi-Chi ran up onto her lap. The pachirisu had a package of nuts she grabbed from the buffet table. She began feeding the nuts to the girl, grabbing each nut and pressing it against Pan’s lips. The electric squirrel was a constant reminder that Pan would never be alone. She had five pokemon as constant companions, ones that wouldn’t abandon her like the series of dates in her life. Of course, Douken was around as long as she kept heading for major cities with gyms. These thoughts quickly dulled the pain of Justin’s departure.
Besides, she still needed to get to Petropolis. Professor Stone waited…
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“Take care, Ms. Gibbs and Mr. Sota. You won’t be forgotten anytime soon around here.”
“Give my regards to the young fellows. Too bad they left so soon.”
“You kids sure are something special.”
Dozens of well-wishers were saying their good-byes to Pan and Douken. The two were getting ready to depart once more for the city of Petropolis. Pan was brushing her arcanine with her fingers, prepping him for another long journey. Lima was already seated behind Fenrir’s neck. The cleffa was tugging on his mane, as if to take off without Pan. Pan smiled as Lima was shouting “fa fa fa” at the arcanine. Such good spirits were most appropriate for the beautiful blue skies overhead. Storms would no longer stop their journey.
As a gift, Joy allowed Pan to keep the nevermelt ice for future first aid treatment. This paled in comparison to seeing the dozens of people working together to begin work on reviving Lenoilia. With the bikers gone, people began to challenge the notion that Lenoilia was a lost cause. Even the trainers of Dream’s End, having abandoned their dreams to live in squalor, were starting to train again. Within the gloom of the city, a bright light had emerged.
“Hey Douken,” Pan asked her friend, “ready for take two?” The girl swiftly climbed on top of Fenrir, puling Lima closer to her lap. Chi-Chi had peeked out of Pan’s vest to wave good-bye to the small crowd, who was waving back at their heroes.
They would leave Lenoilia a brighter place.
With the Skarmory stretching out his wings, Douken took in a deep breath, staring at the mass of blue sky. The storm, had past, and from the looks of it, they would not run into another. If everything ran smoothly, they would arrive to Petropolis in maybe about two or three days. His mind wandered, thinknig of what Petropolis was like, adding in some details he would o there at least. Top of the list was obviously the new glasses, but afterwords, there would be what Pan has to do there, as well as the Gym. Other than that, there was not much known. He was certainly no fortune teller, and even if he was, he would probably not use it: spoil the fun and all.
Watching the impatient Lima, he couldn't help but smile. Saber wasn't as big as Fenrir, so he couldn't handle as man passengers. In fact, probably the only one he could carry would be Rusty, but he was sure Saber would not be a happy camper with the magnets sticking to his belly. Reep was too slow, so he could complain about he needing to catch up as well. Ah well.
Hopping on the bird's back, he patted his neck. With some strong flaps, Saber took off and began to hover in the air. Giving one last wave to the citizens, he told the Skarmory, "Make sure you follow Fenrir, alright?" before looking down to Pan and giving her a thumbs up. "Let's go!"
And with that, the duo took off, their exit with the crowd seeming to make a picture perfect moment.
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