AN: Welcome to my first submission to the Pokémon section. I have been looking forward to uploading this story for quite some time. This was actually a lenghty one-shot, but I've decided to divide it in two smaller chapters for faster revision and uploadind; the next one will be up in a week or so :D
Comments and reviews will be greatly appreciated, I would like to know what you think, if you spotted any error etc. Thanks for reading and without further ado enjoy!
The forest leaves rustled under the feet of a frightened man, a frightened prey of the Soul Eaters. Brushing away the branches that blocked his way, the man ran. The sound of his ragged, uneven breathing was the only thing he could hear.
His pursuers moved smoothly through the forest without making any noise. After all, they could levitate, they had the advantage over him. It wasn't fair. And yet, even if the man couldn't hear nor see his pursuers, he could almost feel them; he could feel their obscure aura hungry of his soul.
With his legs still moving automatically as fast as they could, the man risked a glimpsed above his shoulders. They were over him.
A scream filled the forest but before anyone could hear him, it died down.
Inside a wooden house under the moonlight and in the center of the dining room, Nox found himself with the sole light of a lonely candle which its flame twitched back and forth at the rhythm of the movements of his hand.
If he flicked his hand to the left, the flame followed him; if he flicked his hand to the right the flame followed him with its shadow dancing alongside it.
He closed his hand in a swift motion and the flame of the candle extinguished instantly. Surrounded by darkness was the easiest way of concentrating and detect, and hence he sat upright in the chair, ready.
With his hands planted on the table in front of him, he focused and tried to pinpoint the location from where the Pokémonwas approaching.
The "sensation" of the approaching Pokémon increased. He was behind Nox, outside the house… inside a bush? No, behind a tree. Nox could "feel" him perfectly now. He could follow each one of his movements. That didn't take much time.
Nox snapped his fingersand the flame revived above the candle, and with the other hand he pointed outside through the window that was behind him and where the Pokémon was. The light of the candle was absorbed and redirected to reveal his hiding spot.
A pair of bright, red eyes came into view. Beautiful yellow rings came to life with the reflection of the light as Nox's Umbreon walked out of his hiding spot.
"I found you, Sombra."
The people from the towns Nox visited; the people that contracted his skills and saw his psychic powers in action thought its best use was making stuff levitate, communicating mentally, or flinging stuff without touching it, but they were wrong.
The most important use of psychic powers was to do something nobody else could: protect oneself from the Soul Eaters: the title the people from the region had given to the Ghost Type Pokémon whose time was dedicated to steal and attack humans and Pokémon's souls and life force. Pokémon like Litwick, Lampent, Dusclops, Gengar, they were all deadly.
In the local region these Pokémon were widely known to behave in a more violent manner toward all living things. Unlike other places like Kanto or Sinnoh where Ghost Types were feared because of their unknown nature the inhabitants of this region knew the Ghost Pokémon too well. It used to be common to hear the tales about the wife, the son or the friend of somebody whose soul was cruelly taken away. The cases were accumulating quickly and the night turned into a time when fear reigned. People living in dangerous zones locked themselves in their houses praying not to be found by these reapers.
Even a few of those who were determined to fight the problem with their own Pokémon lost… they would lose their soul and their Pokémon's. The Soul Eaters were not mindless, they always took the trainer's life first and rejoiced how the trainer's Pokémon turned confused and desperate before their lives were taken.
With hope disappearing as fast as the people's souls, psychic trainers showed up as the saviors after discovering that within their powers resided the ability to protect their lives from the Ghost Pokémon and fight back.
From there, psychic trainers were hired all around the region to deal with a variety of issues regarding Soul Eaters.
And I, after having coped with them and cleansed various towns from their grasp, still remember perfectly the first time I heard a story about a person whose soul was taken by a Pokémon.
Nox sat in front of a villager whose close friend had been taken by a Lampent in an expedition to an abandoned factory.
This was not the first case of Soul Eaters in that town, but it was uncommon, and thus they never expected what could happen to them.
The girl from the two men's closest friend had gone to that factory and hadn't return after several hours. Unfortunately for her father, as brave and worried as he was, he couldn't walk, and given the difficult terrain that they had to cross to get to the factory, the man telling Nox the story and his friend (Richard and Michael) offered to search for the girl.
The two men went off to the factory accompanied by a Sawsbuck and the ignorance of the grim events about to occur.
"We wandered across the factory for at least half an hour," Richard told Nox, with no signs of the missing girl.
The only light was the one coming from the windows near the roof of the factory and the men's flashlights. It stayed that way until, at the distance disappearing into a corner, Michael thought he saw something blue. Like a flame.
He said he wasn't sure of the logic behind a blue flame in an abandoned factory; the thought of seeing an illusion or something without reason in a place like that sent a shiver down his spine.
He looked around in search of the blue flame, hoping it was some weird coincidence. Then, at the worst moment, in the middle of the dark, a memory emerged: hadn't he heard about how Ghost Pokémon had been attacking people…?He shook his head trying to forget the fearful idea, but went back to it, theorizing that a ghost Pokémon shouldn't be seen so easily. A blue flame wasn't a trait he recalled in any Pokémon. No name popped up no matter how hard he was thinking. Maybe it was something else.
"There it is again!" said Michael, this time sure of what he saw.
Richard snapped out of his thought and could only see Michael bolting toward the hallway.
"Wait!" called Richard. He was about to follow when he heard something hit the ground. It was his Sawsbuck's Pokéball.
In the couple seconds he bent down to look for the Pokéball in the darkness, he had lost sign of his friend.
The Ghost Pokémon image came back. His heart sped up as he did toward the hallway releasing the Pokémon of his own. The Sawsbuck just followed–no noises or words exchanged.
The next room divided into three hallways so he called for his friend a couple of times; a few seconds later he got a response.
"I'm here, Rich!" the voice resonated from his right. "I think I know where the girl is."
Richard and Sawsbuck followed the voice and entered another long hallway that ended in a huge, oval room. At the distance he spotted his friend following a Lampent–the blue flame he had seen.
Michael looked over his shoulder and told Richard, "I asked this Lampent if he had seen the girl, so he's taking me there." With a thumb up he continued.
Richard let out a sigh of relief, there was no need to worry or hurry. He walked alongside Sawsbuck through the hallway, not losing sight of Richard.
Michael and the Lampent stopped in the center of the room at the end of the hallway. Michael looked around and said something to the Lampent.
From afar Richard squinted to get a better look.
A blue flame came to life behind Michael, then another, and another. They lighted up like haunted candles and in a matter of seconds filled the room. At the sight of this, Richard, in the middle of the hallway, couldn't help but freeze.
The hundreds of Lampent illuminated the room with blue light that embarrassed the flashlight's tiny light.
Michael spun in place looking for a spot in the room that hadn't been covered by Lampent; he found none.
The Lampent started levitating toward the center; toward Michael.
Richard's eyes went wide as he lost sight of his friend amidst the mass of blue flames surrounding him. A terrifying ghostly scream that died down rather quickly was his signal to run.
He wanted to stay and fight but he couldn't.
His shaky legs barely responded and with clumsy steps he started to run away.
After finishing with Michael, the mass of Lampent's new objective was Richard. A combined blast of fire was shot across the hallway.
"S-Sawsbuck, Protect!"
The instant shield the Pokémon created held barely held the attack.
Richard and Sawsbuck took this time to escape through the many hallways they came from. With his heart hammering his chest like never before, several possible scenarios of what happened to his friend ran through his head.
Vanished, burned to death, devoured. Not only it broke his heart but terrified him to the point that even on the run he could imagine his possible future death.
He looked over his shoulder, the Lampent were scary but not very fast. He got to the area where the stairs that he and his friend crossed minutes ago.
He saw something moving below the stairs in the other side of the room. He begged for it not to be another ghost. He pointed the flashlight at the figure. It was the girl. He went down the stairs two steps at a time.
"Hey!" he shouted, his voice and lips trembling in fear.
"Richard!" the girl called back, clearly frightened, maybe even more than he was.
As the two of them and the Sawsbuck were getting closer to each other, a blue light began to illuminate the whole room as if a blue sun was rising inside the building.
"Come on, come on," Richard said and pulled the girl by the hand. Sunlight still entered the building through the door he and Michael left agape when they entered. Ghost Pokémon are known for not being very fond of the sunlight.
He heard something whizzing from behind them. He glanced back to catch a glimpse of a fireball that struck his Sawsbuck. A fireball that would have hit them if it wasn't for his Pokémon.
"Argh!" Michael roared as they exited the haunted building. They didn't stop outside. They didn't stop for the Sawsbuck, Michael knew it was dead. "Run, girl, run."
Michael's story that could have passed as no more than a great horror story suddenly came to Nox's mind. Why? He wondered for a moment. Maybe because he was about to visit a town who he had heard was under siege by ghosts.
Word had it that the area surrounding the forsaken town had been completely deserted. No people, no Pokémon; everyone had escaped or had been devoured–the latter one the common belief.
If this was true, not only meant that Nox was in the correct path to get an amazing pay, but it could also meant he was about to witness an infestation of Ghost Pokémon like no one he had seen before.
He looked down at his cute and extremely deadly Sombra walking beside him. Dark Pokémon didn't have the best reputation around the world–which was quite stupid considering it was because of misinformation, Nox constantly said–and yet in this region they were widely accepted and loved for their essential role in the community. This type was with no doubt the best companion for those in his trade. And still, with a carefully crafted party of Pokémon suited for these jobs, Nox couldn't help but feel he could have used the help of another trainer like him–a Hexer.
There were none like him around, anyway. The town he had come from before was in a state of panic for the same reason. Treeside was a peaceful town, the Pokémon that inhabited there were commonly used for work and thus they had few options to defend themselves from any wandering Soul Eaters or worse.
In fact, the entrance facing the path toward Balmora (the town currently targeted by the Ghost Types) was guarded by a few trainers with the "strongest" Pokémon only one of them being a Dark Type. Nox knew for sure that if that town was to be attacked it would fall.
The road to Balmora was quiet. Towering trees bordering the paved path protected Nox from the intense sun and concealed the Ghost Types as well. He had to stay in Treeside one extra night so he could leave toward Balmora at first light. It was general knowledge that ghost Pokémon despised sunlight, but that didn't mean he was completely saved from any attacks. Shadows moved in the areas of the forest the sunlight couldn't reach.
Nox decided to look for any ghosts nearby. He took out a Pokéball and released his Starmie, the only Psychic type he would ever had. Nox's ability to feel the presence of other Pokémon was well trained (a trait that came along his psychic powers); however, Ghost Pokémon had the ability to hide themselves from Nox's detection. Therefore, Starmie served as a booster for Nox's detection as well as a wide user of utility moves for Nox's varied assignments.
Starmie was a great fighter, no doubt about that, but Nox summoned her sparingly when it came to battling Ghost Pokémon, always aware of the risk of sending her against an opponent that had the advantage. Nonetheless, she was a very valuable part of the team.
Starmie appeared in front of Nox and turned to look at him. She extended one of her arms which Nox reached out to hold. With that he focused on his surroundings searching for any Pokémon.
He countless Ghost Types around lurking in the forest not brave enough to venture into the furious sunlight the noon came with. An extended check on the area led him to find out he was being followed from behind, though. When he detected the Ghost Pokémon, it was already coming for him.
It was a Mismagius. They were fast and tended to teleport; Nox had already handled quite a few of them. They were not Soul Eaters so this battle would fall on his Pokémon only.
The wild Pokémon was charging toward Sombra silently with its levitation. "It's going to teleport," Nox told his Pokémon.
And indeed, once a mere meters away, the Mismagius teleported behind Sombra. The Umbreon, however was quick to react turning around instantly. The Mismagius failed to strike with Phantom Force leaving an opportunity to counterattack.
"Now, Payback!"
Sombra attacked and the Mismagius swiftly fell to the ground with no sound.
Sombra, as usual, stood beside the downed Pokémon as if asking Nox if he should finish it off. "Leave it there."
Starmie was returned to her Pokéball and Nox resumed his trip alongside Sombra.
Strange… Though not a Soul Eater, Ghost Pokémon are known to be annoying but not violent; beside, they rarely appear during the day. Is this massive occupation of Ghost Pokémon turning them violent? Nox thought and glanced back at the Mismagius. It was gone.
If Nox was right, they were already halfway through the road to Balmora. He began to walk faster.
Balmora was in sight. The first thing that Nox noticed from this supposedly "vivid and exciting" town was its lack of people near the entrance.
Though a town with a hundreds of persons the place was seemingly empty. One could have mistaken it by a ghost town.
From the entrance, Nox could see the town hall in the center of the city–hopefully there was people there.
Nox didn't have to wait until he arrived to the town hall to see people around. Once inside Balmora there were a lot of people. The rumors about Balmora said that the life of its inhabitants was horrible and the town was a chaos. This was not true fortunately–it brought certain calm to him.
However, as active as Balmora seemed, its inhabitants were not fine. The people with which Nox crossed paths had huge eye bags, some others walked dragging their feet and hunched on their backs. These persons had taken the mental–and maybe physical–toll of practically living together with a bunch of Ghost Pokémon. Other people seemed too erratic, going from here and there with hurried and strange expressions on their faces.
These people had been trying to continue with their lives despite being harassed constantly by their attackers.
They haven't surrendered yet. That's good. We will take back Balmora.
As usual, Nox made a quick tour through the city to assess the situation. He overheard the ghosts mainly resided in an abandoned hospital near the edge of the town, but there were also houses and stores that had been taken over by the Pokémon. Though he didn't know at first it was easy to know where the hospital was since even Sombra pointed at it when it was in sight. The surrounding area was desolated with the windows of the surrounding buildings smashed, and thrash littering the street.
At last, once Nox had seen the town he knew where to go for information and rehydrate: the local tavern. He pushed the doors open and waited for Sombra to come in before examining the place: there was quite a few people (a bit surprising considering it was not even evening), and still it didn't feel like a tavern, but a library. Everyone was nearly silent, only chatting with those nearby them. They were in their own world.
Sombra lied down in a warm spot under Nox.
He had a drink at the bar and chatted with the bartender, who inspected Nox up and down: black leather jacket and denim pants, boots, dark hair that reached just above his eyebrows and a mysterious fellow overall. That and the Umbreon that followed made him deduce he was a Hexer and agreed to explain him about the problem the town suffered.
The man told him the Soul Eaters had been harassing the town for more than two months already. At first, the people considered it normal. A few Ghost Pokémon here and there; after all, this was why this region was known for: their viciousness. A few trainers who owned Dark Pokémon offered to battle the ghosts. The Ghost Pokémon started appearing in the borders of the town, mainly near the then-active hospital. Back then, a quick patrol was enough to scare away two or three ghosts…
"And then there was a huge fire in the hospital," the man finished the sentence with difficulty–it was easy to notice the sorrow in his voice.
"The fire extended wildly throughout the hospital, but no more than that. Everyone would have been confused if it wasn't because…" The bartender stopped and looked down regretting he was reviving those memories.
"Take your time," said Nox.
The man breathed in and out and continued, "Nobody took notice of the fire's weird properties because everyone inside the hospital was dying. From outside everything you could hear were screams."
"And the firefighters?"
"They took no time to arrive, their Pokémon were ready to start working, but then the ghosts attacked," the man finished with gritted teeth.
"As the fire consumed the hospital… and the people died, Soul Eaters came down from the shadows and started attacking everyone. The trainers tried to fight back and they did beat several of those demons but eventually they were overrun. More trainers came while some others attempted to save the hospital. It was all lost at this point. You could see the ghostly shapes above your head while they flew and searched for more persons."
The man grew silent, which Nox took as a cue to ask something, "If you were losing against them, how, how–"
"How am I still here talking to you? How this town is still standing?"
Nox nodded and let the man answer, "One of your Hexer comrades showed up. I have never been more grateful in my life; that man saved the town and my daughter."
"What happened to him?" Though the words came out with confidence from Nox's mouth, he feared the answer–and already knew it.
"He died," the bartender sighed. So that rumor was true, Nox pondered, after hearing that on Treeside he only hoped that wasn't real.
"He showed up with the most frightening Pokémon team I have ever seen: a Tyranitar, a Krookodile, and a Bisharp. What happened to the rest? That I don't know, but he fought heroically. His Pokémon were an impenetrable wall while he commanded them beautifully. There were dozens! Dozens of those monsters and he took down most of them. It was too much for him, though. After two of his Pokémon were downed, a Soul Eater… shot a Fire Blast at him and he... was turned to ashes in the middle of the street. Just horrible. At the end the Bisharp was the last one standing and he took care of the remaining Pokémon."
"After the longest night this town has ever lived the sun was finally rising. The ghosts destroyed most sources of light during the battle, therefore the first rays of sunlight revealed the damage. The fire was extinguished during the night but most of the people inside perished; there were dozens inside, Nox, dozens; and in the outside bodies laid on the street, humans and Pokémon alike, so much of them. It was horrible. The deaths scaled to more than forty." The bartender seemed to have finished. He planted both hands on the bar searching for balance, looking paler than when Nox first talked to him.
Around them a small crowd conformed of the clients had gathered to listen to the retelling of that night. Even Sombra raised his ears to join the listeners.
Nox also learned that there are still groups of people ready to fight back but they haven't had any chance yet. He planned to resort to them when the moment arrived. He asked which Ghost Pokémon had been seen to which the common answer was: all of them.
Before Nox could gather further information, a bell rang.
It rang several times and time seemed to freeze inside the tavern. Then, chaos arose: the clients were quick to leave their drinks–empty and full–, leave money and bolted out. Some turned violent, because they all wanted to go through the single exit. A man threw a punch that let the victim on the floor. When the tavern was empty, tables were flipped, two chairs were broken, and a man lied barely conscious on the floor.
Nox looked at the bartender with widened eyes that expressed a clear confusion.
"The bells of evening. Ten bells mark the last ten seconds before sundown. You better go and prepare yourself. There's new moon tonight and when there is no moonlight there are ghosts…" the bartender trailed off. "Leave."
"Thank you for everything," said Nox and left some money on the bar.
He exited the tavern and saw the real face of the town under the last rays of sunlight: total chaos.
He stood in front of someone, curious of her reaction, "What's happening?"
"The night is coming!" she shouted while looking around almost psychotic. "Get out of my way."
Nox watched the woman run off toward a building.
Suddenly lights of all kind started turning on. Lamp posts, bulbs, flashlights and some reflectors in the rooftops of buildings.
It was not evening anymore in Balmora, but an artificial midday.
And yet with that entire lighting, there barely were people in the main area of the town.
Nox and Sombra looked to spot two dozen persons near the town hall which was found in the center of the town surrounded by streets and bordered by buildings–one of them being the tavern across the street.
He approached one of the men and asked him what was happening. The man, who didn't seem very nice, responded they were the ones who defended of Balmora in nights like these.
The citizens tended to seek shelter near the town hall since it was the best protected zone. When the town hall was filled with people the houses and buildings nearby where taken. The defenders made small squads to benefit from their small numbers.
They hardly had any Dark Type, though. The man Nox was talking to had a Bisharp–which he wondered if it was his fellow Hexer's–but from the other twenty something persons there were two or three more Dark Types in total.
When Nox warned them about their shortage of useful Pokémon, the man glared at him and almost responded shouting to the Hexer, "Don't you think I know that? Somebody has to protect the town. These men and I will defend the town. We are determined, Hexer.
"It's Nox. Okay, you will need as much people as possible. Let me see if someone else needs support for when they arrive."
Nox and Sombra were about to walk away when the man called again, "Nox."
"Yes?"
"Protect the light sources, it's the first thing they attack. If they leave us in the dark we are truly lost then."
Nox stood outside of a house alongside a young lad who Nox calculated to be seventeen at most. The boy only had a Charmeleon with him. According to what he told Nox, his family consisted of his mother and three sisters who didn't own a single Pokémon. Even worse, one of the sisters was sick with something contagious so joining the rest of the refugees was not an option. Unfortunately for the boy, the number of trainers tonight was scarce. There were no spare persons to help him defend his house and thus Nox decided to stay with him as long as he could.
Of the five Dark Pokémon Nox brought with him, he decided to lend two of them to other trainers. He gave Sombra and Pangoro to trainers who desperately needed a better Pokémon and as much as it hurt Nox to separate from his Pokémon in a situation this risky, Sombra and Pangoro were highly obedient and easy to command for the strangers.
He only had Disaster, his Absol, outside his Pokéball for now. He was tempted to use Starmie given the amount of Pokémon that they were to possibly face but it was that same reason why he decided not to risk his Pokémon. It was not worth it.
The time went by without any disturbance until the bell atop the town hall rang. "They have sighted ghosts!" the boy's body stiffened with the information.
It was true; the defending trainers began shouting commands and warnings. A stray fireball flew across the street and hit a building in a fiery mess. The start of the battle came from the other side from which Nox was. He couldn't do anything yet.
He didn't have to wait much, though.
Ghost Pokémon appeared atop a rooftop. The four ghosts saw Nox and the boy and charged faster than he expected. The boy tried to call a command for his Charmeleon, but he could only stutter the first letters. Nox put a hand in front of him meaning he was going to take over and fight the incoming ghosts.
The ghosts tried surrounding them. Two approached from the right and the others from the left.
A Shedinja was the first to attack from the right. Nox knew Disaster could act on his own and he did. Disaster sidestepped and used Bite to take the Ghost type down.
A Drifloom was behind the downed Pokémon. Nox saw the ghost prepare something. "Use Taunt!" he shouted and as the Absol obeyed, Drifloom forgot to use his Will-o-Wisp and Disaster used Bite to put it out of combat.
In the other side Nox noticed the Froslass about to attack him. He pulled the boy and they both evaded an Ice Beam. Nox was quick to position himself behind the Froslass and the other Ghost Type and push them with telekinesis. They ended up in front of Disaster who instinctively used Dark Pulse to beat the ghosts.
The four Ghost types laid on the ground fainted. Disaster growled at them expecting a command. "Do it," said Nox.
With a roar, the Absol released a Dark Pulse that finished off the four Pokémon.
"Wow, he's powerful," said the boy, looking with awe at Disaster.
"Yeah, he is. Now–"
"Behind you!"
Nox spun around in time to see a Cofagrigus about to attack him. It threw a Shadow Ball at Nox to which, without command, Disaster jumped in the middle of the attack and cancelled it with an attack of his own. He was about to say his orders when he heard the boy gasp.
A Jellicent was facing the boy and his Charmeleon. The boy's Pokémon stood in front of him ready to attack–which was the worst option.
Without thinking he took out a Pokéball and threw it between the Jellicent and the Charmeleon.
A Weavile materialized from the white light of the Poké ball. "Go!" Nox shouted and the Weavile instantly attacked. It threw a few swipes at the Jellicent. The ghost received them and retreated a bit. Weavile didn't wait, though. He attacked again, viciously. He jumped above the Jellicent and landed on him with a Knock Off straight to the face.
The Jellicent plunged to the ground whimpering after the last attack. Weavile jumped again and pinned down the Jellicent. Nox knew he had to react fast and commanded Weavile to finish the Pokémon off. With a precise and powerful swipe the Jellicent didn't move again.
With the Cofagrigus defeated, Nox took a few minutes to explain some quick tips to the boy. Ghost Pokémon continued to come in small packs. At some point Charmeleon even took down a pair of enemy Pokémon. Weavile also stayed out fighting alongside Disaster. Their opponents were easy and quickly dispatched.
Time passed and midnight was upon them. The new moon, almost invisible in the dark sky, was on top of them. Disaster and Weavile were showing signs of exhaustion. They fought as hard as when they faced the first Pokémon, and yet after each Pokémon defeated, they needed more time to catch up their breath. Nox was amazed by the amount of Pokémon that had attacked. He counted more than forty after five hours. That was only his numbers. He had seen how other ghosts attacked the other defenders. He even got a glimpse of his Pangoro being commanded by a citizen. They seemed to be doing well.
The night was going better than Nox expected until he heard an explosion of glass. Three houses to his left, ghosts invaded a rooftop and destroyed a couple of reflectors mounted atop.
The light disappeared in that side of the street. Right after that, the light also disappeared from the corner of Nox's eye. He looked at the opposite side of the street. There, too, Soul Eaters were destroying any light source. After a brief minute (in which some of the defenders attempted to fight the Ghost Pokémon) the side Nox and the boy were was shrouded by darkness. Only half of the light sources remained. From the town hall and beyond the reflectors and lamp posts still stood unharmed.
Nox was aware that Soul Eaters were more sensitive to light than most other Ghost Types and thus he expected to be attacked by them from now on–something that hadn't happened so far.
"Eh, Nox?" the boy stuttered. He observed with horrified eyes at the aligned houses that bordered one side of the street.
Above them ghosts flooded the street like a tidal wave. There were more than Nox had ever fought against.
"Crap," muttered Nox before he addressed Weavile, "Go with the others and bring Sombra and Pangoro." Weavile nodded with his cry and ran off.
Nox took out the Dusk ball of his last Dark Type: Hydreigon.
"Hydreigon, Dark Pulse!" Nox pointed at the right, and then at the left. "Disaster, Sucker Punch!"
Three Ghost Types were hit by Hydreigon, while Disaster caught a Haunter about to attack him. "Fire Blast!" Nox gave the command for both Pokémon.
Two Phantump succumbed under the embracing flames, and in the other side a Gourgeist almost resisted the attack.
Hydreigon was hit by surprise by a Honedge for which she responded with Assurance taking down the Pokémon.
"Help!" a young girl called. The lamp posts in front of her house as well as her Pokémon had fallen. She was backing away from the Soul Eaters that were slowly advancing toward her, feasting on her fear and desperation.
Where are Sombra and Pangoro?
Nox didn't see his other Pokémon. He had to do something. "Hydreigon, help the girl over there." He grabbed the boy by his shoulder. "Come, quickly. Your family hid in the other house as I told you?"
"Y-Yes." The Charmeleon followed closely
"Good, go the backyard and hide with Charmeleon," he threw the door open of the house behind them and pushed the boy inside. "Disaster, come on, over here!"
The Absol ran and stood in front of his trainer. The Ghost Pokémon gathered like a furious crowd in front of Nox and Disaster.
"Blizzard!" A powerful gale of ice wind struck nearly every Ghost Type, which stopped them in their tracks.
Nox noticed a Pokémon . "Pangoro, charge and tackle every ghost in your path!"
The huge Daunting Pokémon attacked from the flank and opened his way viciously through the mob of Ghost Types.
A sound above Nox's head, on the rooftop, distracted him. In a gray blur a Shadow Punch landed on Disaster. The Absol hit the ground as a Dusclops appeared in front of him. The Soul Eater grabbed Disaster before he could do anything and flung it away. Dusclops locked eyes with Nox–his next target.
The Dusclops slowly advanced toward Nox, who wanted to call for his Pokémon. At the same time, outside the house, the mob of Ghost Types increased and blocked the view to the street. The light inside the house was minimum, almost none. Nox snapped his fingers of both hands and the bulbs in the house's living room turned on. With a better vision now Nox knew he was not getting around the advancing Dusclops.
He hurried further inside the house.
The backyard was not an option, the boy was there. Nox ran upstairs and searched for a place to hide–luckily the second floor was rather big. He turned as many lights on as he could.
There were five rooms in the second floor. Nox entered the farthest from the stairs and closed the wooden door behind him. It was the games room; it had a pool table, an air hockey, among another things. There were two smaller rooms inside–
Nox heard the steps of Dusclops approaching. The light he had used extinguished. He took out his Pokédex to illuminate his path and went inside the closest room he had: a bathroom. He closed the bathroom door and turned off his Pokédex. The sound of wood creaking was the only thing he could hear besides his breathing.
He put his back against the wall facing the door, preparing for the worst. He used his psychic abilities to see where Dusclops was. It was looking around the room until finally locking its gaze on the bathroom door.
Nox exhaled and opened the door.
The Dusclops seemed surprised and threw a punch at Nox. He ducked and tumbled. Dusclops reached out to touch Nox. If it grabbed him it was the end–as Dusclops kind was known to absorb anything that fell in its grasp and never come back out from its body. Nox put to use the skills that made him a Hexer and charged his hands with psychic energy and engulfed his arms in a shield that he used to swat away the Soul Eater's giant hand at the same time it protected him from the Pokémon's fearsome abilities.
He stood up and kept running toward the glass window that faced the street. In the few moments he had to think before jumping through the second-floor window he detected his Weavile almost directly under him.
He covered his face with his arm as he went through the window with a shower of glass announced his actions.
"Whirlpool!" his voice broke, but Weavile understood.
The Pokémon left himself vulnerable for a second and created a water whirlpool to catch his trainer. Once Nox's fall was cushioned by the move, Weavile disappeared the Whirlpool.
A Golett crept behind Weavile, too focused on Nox to notice it, and buried him under a Rock Tomb. The muffled whimper of Weavile was the only thing heard under the four massive rocks.
"Weavile!" Nox cried. He wanted to help, but he found himself surrounded by Ghost Types: Ghastly, Trevenant, Phantump, Litwick, Golett, Doublade and more.
Nox's Pokémon were nowhere to be seen. He jerked his head from side to side, searching for an exit out of this ghastly mob.
Out of the ghosts crowd a Haunter jumped out of nowhere and threatened to lick Nox in order to steal his life away. He barely reacted in time reusing his psychic energy to block the Soul Eater's tongue twice until he got a chance to push the Hunter away with a blast of telekinesis.
Then a dark blue beam roasted the area–and Pokémon–around Nox. Dragon Pulse, he noticed. He looked above, confused, and barely spotted his Hydreigon's obscure body. She descended beside Nox, ready to be ridden. He hopped on her back and they hurried over to the rocks that buried Weavile. Hydreigon used his other heads to move the rocks apart. Once Weavile body was in sight, Nox used his psychic power to pick up Weavile and lay him on Hydreigon's back.
Hydreigon rose to the air as the rest of Ghost Types approached and flew away from them.
Nox descended Hydreigon near the town hall, his breathing still uneven and Weavile in his arms. He looked about. Most ghosts had been defeated and the mob of Ghost Types was mostly roasted by Hydreigon's attack. There were only a few more to scare away before finishing, though.
Sombra cried appearing behind the Hexer and rubbed his head on Nox's leg. "Buddy, you are fine."
"Defenders!" Nox shouted to the trainers. "Let's get rid of these few ghosts left." The men and women in the street responded with a cry and a fist that rose in the air.
Weavile was returned to his Pokéball. "Rest well, we'll check you soon."
"Moonlight," said Nox and in response Sombra's yellow rings began to glow and he reflected the light to the darkened zone where the Soul Eaters attacked. Sombra's lighting was as strong as the reflectors and lamp posts that had illuminated the streets for the first hours of the night.
The few Ghost Types left knew what was coming; some stayed to fight, others fled back to the forest and the forsaken hospital. Nox had given Balmora one more day to live.