Chapter 7:
Just like that he was gone and Tim had no time to chase after them, he had to get back to his group before he missed the ambush. Whether or not they were ambushing fellow Nimbus soldiers, it didn't matter to him, whoever attacked the city needed to face justice.
He didn't have time to waste and let his Girafarig come out. His Staryu was K. so he was down to three pokemon for the ambush of the ambushers. Something was pestering him though and he finally realized what it was, who was controlling that Sableye, and the Ditto? I didn't hear any attacks called out so those pokemon must be highly trained, maybe more than we can handle, he shook the doubts out of his mind and jumped on the back of his yellow pokemon. "Go," he kicked the side and she started galloping towards the tree line.
He caught up with his group right before they got in position and his friend Chuck turned to him relieved. "What took you so long? I was afraid we were going to have to go in without you. It is your plan and all so you give the signal."
The man nodded and they scattered out, hiding in bushes and behind trees, They moved towards the edges of the valley where they suspected the enemy were hiding and just as Tim thought that maybe they had caught wind of the Nimbus' plan, he finally saw one of the Solars, if it even is a Solar.
He tried to stay focused but the nagging doubt in the back of his mind was making it difficult. The chances that Billy just saw someone that looked like Maxie's subordinate were low, especially if he was willing to tell someone about it. He also thought the chances that the kid was lying to him were even lower, the look on his face was a look of a boy who had just seen the truth and was broken.
He's never going to be able to trust anyone ever again, the thought flew into Tim's head but this time he was able to push it aside. The man in front of him leaned forwards and looked down into the ravine pass that leads out of Petalburg. They seemed to be getting impatient and if he waited any longer the enemy might get suspicious. Well, here goes, he shot the flare gun up into the air and at the same time sent his Girafarig to stomp the Solar.
Explosions and crashes were heard throughout the forest as the ambush commenced. After Tim's pokemon was stepping on the injured back of the Solar, the man ran forwards and snatched four pokeballs from around the red soldier's waist.
"Hey, give those," the man coughed as Girafarig stomped down harder into his back. The man with the glasses reached down and pulled out zip ties from his pocket, tying up the enemy's wrists and ankles together and then running off to help out his friends. Stay out of this war kids, it'll be over soon.
sc
Back on the other side of Petalburg, Billy and Jenny were at the edge of the city. They saw the road out of town and were planning on taking it but as they were about to leave, they saw dust clouds rising in the distance.
"Is it the Solars?" Jenny asked in fear.
The boy remembered the dust that flew up when Volt and his army of Tauroses charged Wyrville. "I don't know," it could be Nimbus reinforcements too, either way we need to get out of the way. They ran for the closest building which was the one closest to the entrance to the city.
As they watched the dust cloud approach they finally saw it was actually sand. The pokemon inside were running fast with trainers on their backs but a few of them kept using sandstorm to keep their numbers and formation hidden from the enemy. Right as they entered the city, Billy saw through the dust a man in an all black uniform with a red 'N' on the front of the left part of the chest.
"There," the kids heard a man shout and saw bird pokemon flying around in the sky. They looked up and watched as the birds dive-bombed the newly arriving Nimbus, making them scatter around the town. Explosions started ringing out again and the small house they were hiding in didn't seem to be sturdy enough to handle it.
Jenny popped her head up from her hiding spot to look out the window as a flaming horse sprinted by. Following right behind it was a small purple sphere with a haze around it and she dropped to the floor in fright.
The boy looked around as well and muttered, "They're everywhere," but as he said it, Billy saw his moment and picked up the fallen girl, "Now's our chance," he ran for the door and swung it open. There was no one between them and the path out of town. "Run!" he shouted and they started sprinting for the open path.
"Look out," Jenny shouted and stopped running. A Rhyhorn was charging after some faster pokemon and couldn't keep up but saw a new enemy to attack. Its master told it that everyone in the city was fair game so it raised a foot up over the little boy and started to bring it down hard in a stomp.
Billy looked up afraid as the rock beast's foot was coming down. I can't dodge in time, it's not over, I can't die here, a red light flashed from below his gaze and the foot coming down was halted as the monster was slammed by a ferocious blast of water right beneath it. The stream slammed into its underside and lifted the pokemon off the ground and it flipped in midair, landing on its back.
The twelve year old looked down and saw Croconaw standing there in front of him. The pokemon turned around and looked at his master, determining that he was safe. Croconaw turned back to his enemy as it rolled over and got back to its feet, now enraged at the blue and yellow pokemon.
"How did you," Jenny started, confused at how his pokemon came out on its own.
"I have no idea," Billy was even more confused. Croconaw had emerged without him telling his friend to do anything.
The two pokemon were glaring at each other now but before anything else could happen, a voice sounded in their ears louder than anything they'd ever heard before. The kids reached up and clasped their hands over their ears as the voice shouted, "Enough!"
All the explosions in the city seemed to stop at the same time. "This battle is happening too close to my home, leave now and I won't destroy your armies."
The voice got somewhat quieter and they all looked up to see where it was coming from. In the sky above the city was a dragon, Billy slid his pokedex out in awe and it showed him what was in the air, "Salamence," he whispered and looked to see what level it was before fumbling with his device and almost dropping it. Level 89! This is insanity, he tried to back away and grabbed onto Jenny's arm.
Croconaw followed his master's lead and jogged after him as they made for the path. The rock monster before them charged into Croconaw and hit him with his horn. Billy watched his friend get thrown into the tree on the right side of the start of the path.
"I said Enough!" the voice boomed over the city and Jenny looked around, realizing that the battles had not all stopped. Pokemon were still running wild with and without trainers, fires were breaking out all over.
Croconaw stumbled to its feet and glared back at the Rhyhorn who caught him off guard. "Croconaw, bite," the creature listened to Billy's command and charged, jumping to the side to avoid another hit from the horn and bit into the other pokemon's side.
The little girl next to Billy was looking around in fear, something was happening, something bad.
"You have brought this upon yourselves," the voice sounded out again, this time it seemed disappointed.
"Uhh, Billy," the girl tugged on his arm.
"Not now," he pointed at the enemy, "finish it with water gun!"
As his pokemon was starting the attack, Jenny screamed, "Billy turn around God damn it!" the boy was so shocked that the little girl would say those words let alone scream them that he did as she said and dropped his jaw.
A massive wave was getting bigger and rose above all the buildings in the city, spreading wider and wider as it covered the width of the town. What the Hell? he took a step backwards and fell down, staring in disbelief at the size of the tsunami before them.
Riding at the top of the giant wave was a blue pokemon with four legs and gray fins on top of its head. This time Billy recognized the pokemon from school without pulling out his pokedex. Swampert, he scrambled onto his feet and looked over to see his Croconaw staring up at the giant wave. His pokemon was standing next to the unconscious form of the Rhyhorn that couldn't handle the water gun from before.
"SURF!" the voice shouted and Billy looked up to see the Salamence flying in circles above their heads. He watched in absolute terror as the wave started pushing forwards and smashing through buildings. Oddly enough, the wave didn't break the buildings, water flowed into them and smashed some windows, drenching everything and everyone, but the force of the wave wasn't crushing anyone. It sucked them in and they reached for air but couldn't find any, stuck inside the massive wave.
"Let's go," Jenny was tugging his arm and he finally pried his eyes away from the wave.
"Yeah," she released his arm and they both started running out of town. As they were, the boy heard footsteps closing fast from behind him.
He turned around and looked up as a larger, more powerful version of the pokemon he was just fighting appeared. This one had a trainer on its back, the person was wearing a red uniform and he knew it wasn't really a Solar inside the costume. This pokemon had a larger horn and was much taller, standing on two legs so it towered above Billy.
The man on top of the monster shouted, "At least we can finish off one weakling before we retreat. Rhydon use horn drill," the horn on its head shone and started spinning.
Croconaw was leading the group and turned to see its master about to be attacked, he wasn't going to make it in time, "Croconaw," it shouted loudly and a red light appeared from Billy's belt.
The horn drill was a foot away from Billy's face but a purple body appeared between the monster and the kid. The twelve year old had his eyes clenched shut but as he opened them he didn't know what he was seeing. Nidorino was right in front of his face and flew back, slamming into Billy who tried to catch his friend but wound up getting thrown to the ground himself by the force of the hit.
Nidorino was already knocked out from the one hit, but Croconaw cared not about the danger and jumped in front of Billy who was holding his arms around his injured pokemon. It stuck its arms out to either side and growled at the Rhydon which was frowning. The kid looked up at the monster with the man on its head and realized that the Rhydon was not enjoying this, if anything it looked sorry about the hit on the Nidorino.
"Croconaw don't," Billy pulled off Nidorino's pokeball from his belt and recalled it. "Thank you friend," he whispered as he put it back, then he looked at Croconaw who was still facing the enemy, "you aren't strong enough, I don't want you getting hurt too." His friend clenched its teeth and growled, it didn't matter how strong Rhydon was, he would protect his master.
"Use it again," the masked figure on top of his pet commanded. Rhydon complied and its horn began spinning but before it could attack, a pillar of fire came down from the sky and engulfed the pokemon and its master.
Billy, Jenny, and Croconaw all stared at the spot the two enemies were before but as the flames disappeared they saw the man on top was underneath his unconscious giant pokemon that must've weighed over a ton. They were both covered in burn marks and the man's clothes were now charred black. What? the boy couldn't comprehend what had just happened, it was so fast. The flames descended from the sky as if God himself was smiting the man before him.
The nine year old girl looked up and saw where the flames really came from. A Salamence flew down from the sky and made Croconaw sweat just being in its presence. The light blue dragon with red wings bowed its head to the ground and allowed its master to walk over its back and down its neck to the grass.
"Who are you?" Billy asked trying not to let his voice quiver. Jenny got behind her friend and poked her head out to his right side, staring at the man who rides dragons. Despite its fear, Croconaw still stepped between Billy and the Salamence.
The man was taller than Billy, but as the boy looked closer he saw that it wasn't a man at all. He was a teenager, seventeen maybe eighteen years old. The teen had spiky white hair and a green bandana wrapped around his forehead. He was wearing a tight black shirt and the man was pretty muscular, but the things that caught Billy's eye were the amount of pokeballs he had on his waist. There were four on one side and three on the other, he was amazed at how powerful just one of this man's pokemon was, six more like it seemed impossible.
"My name is Brendan," the teenager responded to Billy's question and flashed a smile at the girl who had her head sticking out from behind him. The smile made Billy relax a little bit seeing as the man had also just saved them but as he was lowering his guard, the huge blue pokemon from on top of the wave dropped down next to the Salamence.
The kids didn't even see it coming but Brendan didn't turn in fright like they did. Instead he pulled off one of the balls on his waist, this one was white on the bottom and the top, it was unlike any pokeball the twelve year old had ever seen. A flash of red left the ball and surrounded Swampert, pulling it back into its home and Brendan reattached the ball at his waist. "You," he pointed at Billy and the boy gulped.
"W-what?" he asked standing firm.
"I was watching you from the sky," he looked down at Billy's waist and the boy instinctively put his hand in front of his pokeballs to protect them, "you didn't call out your Nidorino, yet it appeared anyway to save you. It sacrificed itself, I've never seen such loyalty in a pokemon, you must be close friends with it."
"I'm friends with all my pokemon," Billy responded. All the mayhem of the last few hours was catching up with him and he was holding back tears.
"What happened here?" the man asked him and he couldn't hold back anymore, even being in front of Jenny he couldn't hold back a few tears from watering out of his eyes.
"I don't know," he sniffled and rubbed a tear from his cheek. "The Nimbus are attacking the Solars, the Nimbus are fighting the Nimbus. Everyone keeps fighting and they don't even know who they're fighting against!" Brendan looked down at the kid thoughtfully. "Both sides have good reason to hate each other because both sides keep attacking cities, the problem is that no one knows that they're doing it. All the Solars here are actually Nimbus soldiers in disguise."
"What?" Brendan asked suddenly interrupting the kid.
"The men in the red uniforms, they aren't Solars. Everyone here is fighting each other and they don't even realize they're attacking their own friends. It has to stop," Billy was getting angry and the tears stopped flowing.
"Who do you side with?" Nimbus attacking Nimbus, Steven could you have really stooped so low to send your own men to fight each other just to make it look like the Solars were attacking? Or is it you, Maxie, the man grimaced thinking about the red head whom he fought so long ago.
"No one," the kid responded. "Both sides are wrong, which is why I'm going to keep training," he was on a rant now and didn't think before he said what was in his mind, "and when I'm strong enough I will end this war on my own since you decided to hide away in your home town." The twelve year old stopped and froze, a minute ago he realized who the man he was talking to was and he was angry. Brendan looked down pitying the boy but Billy wasn't finished, "Why?" he asked the taller man before him.
"Why what?" the Champ responded.
"Why haven't you ended this war already?" the kid asked.
The teenager closed his eyes, "Because I still don't know which side is right."
"Why does it matter who's right!?" Billy shouted surprising the older kid. He was furious, "You say you have the power to end this war if you want, but then why haven't you? It doesn't matter what the sides are fighting for, no one even knows, but while you sat around doing nothing, our parents were slaughtered!" Billy no longer cared that the man saved him from Rhydon, he was venting all the pent up anger he stored over the last month at this man who was so easy to blame.
Brendan looked down at his feet and in a low voice said, "I'm sorry about your parents. The reason I don't join in the war is because I was there when it started, I know what they're fighting to accomplish. Two of my closest friends are the leaders of the Solar and the Nimbus armies, I can't," he sighed and smiled at the kid before him. "Did you mean what you said about ending the war yourself?"
Jenny looked at her friend and saw determination like none other on his face, "Yes."
"Good, because I'm about to give you a choice," he reached behind him and unstrapped the bag he had on his back. "You can come with me back to Littleroot, ignore the fact that a war is tearing apart the region and live in peace with us," the girl behind him tensed up as the offer seemed too good to be true. "Or," Brendan continued, "you can take this and continue on your path." He held out his hand and a weird disk was sitting on it.
"What is it?" Jenny asked stepping out from behind her friend.
"It's called a Hidden Machine, or HM for short. This one contains surf," he looked at the boy's Croconaw. "It's a very useful move and you won't be able to navigate the entire region without it. HM's are very rare, but I'm willing to part with one of them as my pokemon have already been taught the move." Brendan held it out in front of Billy, "Your choice, safety, or…"
The kid reached out and grabbed the disk, "How do I use it?"
"Wait Billy, are you sure about this? We might be safer going with him," the little girl said looking at the giant blue and red dragon that destroyed the Rhydon like it was nothing.
Ignoring the girl Brendan explained, "I'll show you so that next time you find one you can use it on your own." Brendan held the disk out in front of Croconaw's chest and it glowed bright for a few seconds before flashing and making Croconaw's chest flash as well. "It's done, though if you are using a TM, which is similar to this, it will disappear after you use it so make sure its put to good use."
"Billy really we should talk about this," Jenny said to the boy and he turned to her. His face had a large smile on it and he shook his head slowly at her.
In a quiet voice he said, "It will be safer with him." He stepped towards her and wrapped her in a hug, "Which is exactly why you're not coming with me."
"What?!" she tried to pull away but he kept holding her close.
"I swore I'd protect you; to your parents, and to myself. The road I'm taking I don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise." He backed up a few feet and smiled at the girl, making eye contact as tears began welling up in her eyes, "I'm going to miss you." He slid the disk that Brendan handed back to him in his bag and put it on his back, pulling the strings shut tight.
"I want to come with you, you're all I have left," she sniffled between cries and Billy thought about changing his mind for a second but it was a passing thought. "Don't leave me."
"Whenever you feel afraid," he grabbed her hand and pressed it against the left side of her chest, "just remember that I will come back for you. I might be gone for a long time, but when I return we can finally get back to the way it was." He lifted up her chin and leaned forwards, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Now go," he gave her a light shove towards the dragon and she nodded.
As she walked past, Brendan hoisted her up and put her on top of Salamence's head. She walked down the neck to the body and waited for the pilot. The twelve year old stepped close to Brendan and whispered so Jenny wouldn't hear him, "If she gets hurt in any way," the teen looked down and made eye contact with the kid's cold dark eyes, "I will kill you."
Billy stepped back and smiled at the crying girl on the back of the pokemon. Brendan felt unnerved, even hearing the threat come from such a young child it sent shivers down his spine. As he backed away he called to the kid, "I didn't get involved, but I've heard rumors. Head to Fallabor, it's another city not owned by Solar or Nimbus, one of the only ones left. I believe you'll find some answers there." The kid nodded and looked at the back of the pokemon. Jenny waved to her friend and he waved back, not knowing when, or if he would ever see her again.
"Bye Jenny," he called out.
"Bye big bro," she shouted back and the Salamence took off and they were both gone. Billy looked down to Croconaw who was watching the dragon fly away, sad to see Jenny go. It made a sound like a whimper but saw Billy watching and changed the sound to a growl halfway through to keep up appearances. "It's okay buddy, I'm going to miss her too."
They looked back at Petalburg City, it was so quiet that it was hard to imagine that a giant battle was occurring only minutes before. Goodbye Sharon, Tim, thanks for everything. Billy turned down the path and started walking, Croconaw at his side.
A/n Hello again and thanks for reading. Leave a review and tell me what you think, I love hearing your feedback. This was kind of an end to part one I guess, I've already written a solid three more chapters and this seems like a good place to break before updating the next one. I hope you enjoyed!
