Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. If I did, I'd be rich. But I don't, and I'm not, so please don't sue me Nintendo.
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Grasping the Moon
Chapter 10 – And We All Burn Down
Part 2
The ice was starting to melt. It didn't matter how good an Ice Master you were, you couldn't keep an open-air fridge freezing cold in the middle of a burning city. The water was trickling from the frozen walls and pooling on the ice-slick street.
On the plus side, it was keeping Lorelei fairly still. Her ability to walk in high-heels was incredible, but there was no way she was going to risk slipping. Further on the plus side, the cool air was more comfortable for Lance in his current attire, and gave him a fresh feeling.
On the down side, Ice-Bitch had guns. Ducking underneath the windows of the clothing store, Lance considered his options. He didn't need to sneak a peek to see that Lorelei was keeping a solid vigil over his location while her Jynx kept a look out for Lance's surprisingly stealthy Dragonite.
Unfortunately, Crest-Holder's great halberd was not easy to slip around with unnoticed, and Lorelei must have seen a hint of it. She opened fire on his position mercilessly, causing the Resistance Leader to duck down and cover himself from the shower of ice.
Jynx darted her eyes over at the gunfire, distracting her for that millisecond Dragonite needed to fire a huge hyper beam through the building. The mass of golden energy withered the iced structure like straw and struck Jynx hard. The longhaired pokémon dug her feet in to resist, tearing up trenches in the ice as she was pushed back relentlessly.
While her pokémon was smashed hard, Lorelei stood unmoved, the beam missing her narrowly. She didn't even flinch, having absolute faith the attack wouldn't touch her. While the wind tunnel kicked up by the hyper beam whipped her purple hair wildly, Lorelei tucked one of her empty pistols back in its holster while she reloaded.
That was Lance's own chance. He burst clean through the wall halberd first, rocketing towards the Elite-Fourth, the tip of the weapon zeroing in at the centre of Lorelei's eyes.
Ice-Queen dropped her pistol and its clip to the ground to slip beside the long shaft and grab it. Without a trace of exertion, she pulled and swung, intending to launch Legend-Stalker like a hammer throw.
Lance refused to be thrown, and let go of the weapon, letting Frozen Maiden stumble. He capitalised and kicked her to the street. Snatching up his ornate pole arm to finish the job, the gaunt trainer turned only to get a face full of ice shards his opponent had snatched from the street.
No doubt Lorelei was going for the gun, and Lance wasn't sticking around for her to reload and blast him. Without fully recovering his vision, the Dragon Master sprinted wildly, tumbling through an open window just as bullets came slamming around him.
Hissing with anger, Lorelei kept her pistol trained on Lance's position, trying to reload the other one single-handed. She tried balancing the magazine on her chest, but it wasn't working.
Looking back at her pokémon, the Ice Queen saw that she had survived, lying exhausted before a huge trench melted into the frozen street. "Get up." Lorelei ordered coldly, and Jynx dragged herself to her feet, shaking. The yellow dragon had, like his master, decided not to stick around for return fire, and was doubtless circling them in the hidden backstreets.
Jynx took weak steps towards her master, who would only pay heed to the pokémon's pain when the viking started losing limbs. "Help me with this." Ice-Queen said, tossing the stout ice pokémon the magazine and pistol. She reloaded it in silence.
"Onix, Rock Throw!"
Neither bothered to look as they dived aside, a giant piece of concrete fell like a meteor where they had been standing, cracking ice and throwing up a snowstorm.
It was Brock, posing dramatically on top of a three-story house, his Onix hovering by his side. The glow of the surrounding inferno tossing smoke into the air like confetti framing the blue-white snow-field the street had become formed a surreal backdrop for Stone-Baron's entrance. He smiled down at the Elite-Fourth. "Well, this is pretty cool!"
He didn't even get a chance to enjoy his pun before Lorelei shot him in the chest. Brock fell backwards out of view, his Onix diving after him.
Distraction forgotten, Ice-Queen pointed at Lance's cover. "Jynx, Blizzard."
Grimacing her huge lips from pain, Jynx drew back and summoned up a barrage of ice shards to bombard the home.
-- --
Snarling and snapping, the two dogs wrestled violently, desperate to close their teeth over each other's jugular. Though outclassed in weight, Eevee proved strong and agile, too slippery for the wolfish Houndoom to catch in a straight lock. Breaking out of the mess of teeth, fur and claws, Eevee darted for high ground.
Without missing a beat, Houndoom opened its slobbering maw and roared forth fire. The flames spilled over the charred earth, clipping at Eevee's heels. The smaller dog stayed fast though, and made it up on top of a fallen chimney, a fence of fire at its base. Shutting up its fiery breath, the dark hound snarled up at the other pokémon.
Leaping greatly, the jet black pokémon cleared the flames and pounced at Eevee. The smaller dog rounded to the side as the larger landed, and nipped forward to tear off the tip of Houndoom's ear.
Pulling the flesh free, Eevee made a quick retreat, leaping over the flames and turning back to see if Houndoom would follow.
The wolf-hound glared down at Eevee with impossible malice. Its wounded ear didn't bleed, but steamed black like its master's wounds. Healing up, Houndoom rocked back and howled at the invisible moon hatefully, then trotted off the chimney and into the fire below.
Eevee backed up in surprise, watching as his opponent fell through the fire, as though descending directly into Hell itself. Eyes twitching, the astonished pokémon wondered where Houndoom could have disappeared.
"Ee?" He asked uncertainly.
Suddenly there was a demonic growl, and the wolf launched out of the blaze behind Eevee. The dog hardly dodged to the side. Houndoom recovered quickly and rolled over and pounded Eevee into the ground. Its savage claws tore across the dog's skin, but only lightly.
Rolling free, Eevee came to his feet and gasped for breath. Blood stained his fur. A monster-pokémon who could teleport through fire. In the middle of a burning city. This couldn't end well.
As the two dogs reengaged, Gary was finding his time even harder. He learnt quickly that mere bullets weren't going to stop Karen – every time they tore her to bits, she proved to be composed of darkness rather than blood and guts. She merely healed right up. Changing tact, Gary was now trying his sword, but with equally little effect.
Sweeping the blade right through the Elite-First's perfect stomach, Gary found the blade met no resistance. It passed through like through a shadow, leaving only a trail of dark smoke. Karen chuckled.
"Oh no no no!" Karen said with a smile, stepping down into a flickering shadow like a staircase. "That won't do at all!"
Gary swung his sword down, but Karen's white hair had already disappeared, leaving his blade to strike only fractured concrete. Knowing what was coming, he spun around with his weapon.
Karen was advancing from behind, but smiled invitingly as the blade passed harmlessly across her neck. Shooting him a kiss and a wink, she slipped back into the shadows. Things continued on in this fashion, Gym-Slayer navigating through an invisible network behind the shadows to appear from all sides, while Gary sliced her up incessantly.
Slashing ferociously, Gary managed to slice the woman into eight distinct pieces, a disturbing smile on her face as each eighth slid. Her whole body save her carved face went black, moulding itself like wispy clay back into her original form. Twirling her hair, she sunk into the ground.
"Well, screw this." Oak exclaimed, sheathing his sword. He shivered when a voice spoke huskily into his ear.
"I'd rather you'd sheathe your sword in me." It gasped. "It's much more fun."
Springing forward, Gary looked over his shoulder to see that Night-Whisper had been leaning into his ear. As he fled, looking for some weapon that could work against her, he saw her smile.
Nearby, he saw a fire and made a beeline for it, hoping she didn't decide to stop playing and attack.
-- --
Eevee was starting to catch the drift of Houndoom's attack scheme. While powerful, the wolfhound was too full of hate and rage to think straight, and fell back on instinctive patterns – attack from the fire, retreat, attack from another fire, and so on. As it came hissing from a nearby flame, Eevee ducked easily to the side.
Houndoom snapped viciously at Eevee, but the dog had been too smooth to take another blow since the scratch. The blood had even dried from that one. Giving himself some distance, Eevee wound up and shot forward too quick to see.
He struck the Houndoom in the jaw, causing the hound to fall back. Eevee overshot and skidded to a halt, turning to see the damage. The sinister canine's jaw was bubbling darkness, and there was pain in its freshly infuriated eyes. Having hoped for more, Eevee set his cute little jaw and sped forward again, faster this time.
The left side of the black dog's flank was shorn off, leaving a splash of dark mist. Without wasting a second, Eevee swept by again, taking off the hound's ear again. Another strike. Houndoom couldn't react. Another. The black wolf was thrown in the air. Another. Its back right leg was strike right off. Another. Another. Another.
Gary's lead pokémon kept striking again and again and again with further increasing speeds, blasting into the dark-type with insane force. He didn't stop until the evil thing was reduced to nothing more than a cloud of darkness.
Slidding to a halt, padded feet burning, Eevee turned his attention to the fog, noting as it pulled itself together to reform into the dreaded Houndoom. Spinning sleekly, he dragged his tail across the debris-strewn ground, kicking up a spray of sand that mingled with the dark cloud.
With the sand as interference, Houndoom didn't dare retake his corporeal form, and the mist cleared, moving off somewhere else. Seeing that the creature was gone, Eevee let himself fall on his behind, shaking his head in exhaustion.
"Eee-vee!" He muttered to himself.
-- --
As he ran, Gary made the mistake of glancing behind. Of course she wasn't there – she was in front of him, as he discovered, skidding and barely remaining upright.
Karen had a wicked smile and slashed out at him with her fingernails. Gary bounded back, but something dark was at work, and black tendrils spurted from her fingertips and sliced him across the chest.
Argh, my shirt! Gary thought unmindful of the pain and blood. He checked swiftly; fortunately she'd missed his necklace.
Seeing him holding the trinket, Karen suddenly was up in his face, fondling the ying-yang symbol in her hand.
"Hm, what an amusing bauble…" She mused.
Gary pulled away and ran, resuming his course.
Coming up to a mass of celebrating flames, Gary grabbed a suitable wooden beam. Lifting it up, he saw its end was still burning brightly. He had to be swift; the monster would be with him wherever he ran. With grim determination, Gary turned from the warm fire to see without surprise the cold vision of Karen standing painfully close.
Gripping the beam in both hands, he stabbed with the flaming tip, hoping that like the old heroes of the past, his monstrous foe could be sealed up with fire. It passed right through.
Karen looked down at the wooden stake buried into her chest, right where the heart should be. She had on her face a look of curiosity, as though no one else had ever tried something like that. She looked casually up at Gary, who slumped his shoulders in frustration.
"My my, novel." She said, licking her lips. "Whatever shall I do with you?"
Running his hand over his sweat slick forehead and into his dirty hair, Gary grunted in defeat.
"Fine, okay, you win." He said, approaching on Karen's tall form. "Let's do it."
Watching the trainer approach her caused Gym-Slayer some surprise. She let her body loosen so the wooden beam could fall to the ground with a clatter. "What do you mean?"
Gary waved his hand impatiently. "You know, get it on." He placed his hands on her hips, even though the feel of her firm body through the thin dress was strangely repulsive. "What the hell, lets do it here – by the fire under the night sky."
The Elite-First was dazed. No one had ever made advances on her before. She didn't even know what to do at this stage. She looked up into Gary's eyes, which were so beautiful and chocolately. It made her sick.
Through her hips, Gary could feel Unmentionable's confusion, and he took immediate advantage, lifting her light frame into the air. She squealed. She squealed even more when he spun and threw the both of them into the fire.
It was a desperate move. She screamed variously like a woman and a Rhyhorn and like the mourning stars. On top of the hideous woman, Gary could only guess the reason he wasn't burning to death was that the streams of mist erupting from Karen's back as she burned were offering him some sort of protection. She thrashed like a snake, trying to buck him off into the blaze.
All at once, she broke into bullets of black fog, projecting themselves out of the flames. Gary leapt back just quick enough to escape the fire with only singes. Swallowing air, he could only wonder at why that had worked when the fire earlier hadn't - until he realised that there were no shadows at the heart of a flame.
A chuckle from behind. Gary groaned – she was still alive. He turned, but the sound was disembodied.
"Amazing!" She praised, though there was mocking in her tone. "Amazing! My hate-lust for you has grown even stronger!"
Quite sick of all this talk, Gary rubbed his eyes. "Just get on with it." He muttered.
But the chuckling faded, and the dark feeling lifted. When Gary looked around, the place seemed somewhat lighter, despite being the middle of the night.
"Hn." He said, touching his chin. He looked again, and everything seemed normal. Eevee was bounding over to him, blood in his fur. The fires were still eating their fill of the greenery and scenery.
The weight of the situation came upon Gary suddenly – the city was burning! He needed to save people! Spinning to face where the fires were still burning the brightest, Gary put these dark events out of mind and went to make sure as many people as possible could see the light of day again.
-- --
Brock regained consciousness in a very dark place. Glowing red snake-lights coiled around him, and the enclosed space was hot as a kiln. Groaning, his hands instinctively went to the point of pain on his chest. The bullet, failing to penetrate the Kevlar vest he always wore, had struck right over the heart.
He had to laugh. Beautiful women always ended up shooting him through the heart.
Pushing himself upright, Brock peered at his mound-cell with narrow eyes. As he tried to piece together what it was, his cage uncoiled and spoke with a rumbling voice.
"Garoar."
Onix lifted itself high, looking down on his master with concern. Brock laughed again – Onix had protected him from the fires with his stone body.
"Onix, my main man!" He cheered, patting the snake's stone segments. This was a mistake, and he pulled his hand away immediately, blowing on the scolded skin. Onix was burning hot – the inferno had gotten pretty intense.
"Thanks Onix." Brock said to his pokémon, between cooling blows. As the pain faded, he looked around at the gutted remains of Celadon, shaking his palm. "This is getting pretty bad."
He considered returning to back Lance up again, but decided that would be a spectacular exercise in idiocy. Lorelei was practically put together to beat him. Deciding that Mr. Ex-League-Champion-And-Therefore-Better-Than-You-Peasants could handle himself, Brock looked to finding other survivors and fighting their way out of the City.
Looking up at his pokémon, he opened a hand as if to say 'after you'. There was no way he was going to ride the stone giant until it cooled down a bit. "Let's get this show on the road!"
-- --
"Um, a little help here?" Tracey yelled hesitantly. His blue Marill desperately sprayed water at an approaching Torkoal. The slow-moving turtle cried out in dumb pain, but stubbornly pressed forward against the stream. A Lost Gym-member with his face obscured by his red cloak barked orders in a Hoenn accent.
A foreigner, Tracey mused in horror. No wonder the fire-type was so strong against such a clear type advantage – to have fought his way all the way to Kanto and make Gym membership, this guy must be pretty tough.
In concern, the watcher glanced back into the burning home. Somewhere inside its black and red depths Melissa called back.
"Shut up, I'm almost there."
Eyes flitting between the advancing Torkoal and house he was guarding, Sketchit found his teeth clenching in anxiety. If Melissa didn't back out here soon, he'd have to do something drastic. The obvious thing to do would be to have Scyther dart around the side and skewer the trainer. Tracey's hand edged towards the appropriate pokéball, but…
But the Hoenn trainer himself had made no moves to fight. He had approached this like a pokémon battle, purely one on one. Tracey felt he couldn't disrespect that. Watching Torkoal close on his comparatively tiny Marill, the watcher could only frown. Damn my sentimental side.
Torkoal had been so cooled by the constant water gunning at his front that it couldn't build up the heat to fire, but was now within snapping range. Extending its long red neck, the stone turtle bit at Marill, only for the much faster water mouse to leap away. It worked out fine for Torkol, though, which was now free from the cascade of water.
Following the directions of its master, Torkoal reared back on its hind legs and drove down with its front legs, pounding the heat-cracked street. Again Marill slipped around, but was caught by a sudden follow-up as the large turtle barrelled into her.
Seeing his pokémon sent rolling, Tracey could see things were getting grim for the water mouse. His hand hovered indecisively over Scyther's pokéball. Torkol stood tall over Marill, his internal fire finally up to appropriate pressure. Steam trumpeted from its nostrils.
The house's broken door blew off its hinges, drawing all combatants' attention. Melissa exited, a young girl slung over her shoulders, with Golem by her side, two older boys tucked under his stout arms. Seeing the situation, she rolled her eyes and led the kids clear of the flames and set them gently on the street.
Eyes alight, the Hoenn trainer welcomed her arrival. "Ah, finally! A richer challenge!" Pulling his cloak hood free, he revealed himself to be… someone neither of them recognised. "I hail from Hoenn, the City of Lavaridge. I am known as-" At this point, Melissa shot him.
As one might expect, Torkoal was not too quick on the uptake. While the red turtle was still trying to process that its master was dead, Golem was upon him.
"Golem, Seismic Toss." Melissa ordered, already turning to tend to the unconscious children. The boulder turtle grabbed the fire one firmly by the shell, hoisting heftily over head. The inverted Torkoal struggled and moaned, but had no hope of breaking free. Golem threw the pokémon into a far home with a great crash, the flame-chewed structure burying the fire pokémon.
Tracey and Marill were shocked. Woah… they thought, amazed at how easily Melissa had defeated the League trainer. Snapping out of it, they darted over to the children.
Golem hung back, knowing his meaty hands would more likely harm the humans than help them, letting Melissa massage the smoke from the girl's lungs. Tracey ducked down and followed suit on her brother. The girl coughed but didn't wake.
"You think your Venonat could give us more specific directions next time?" Melissa snapped, moving on to the other boy. Marill nudged the girl with the spherical end of her tail. "They were hiding under a bed." She had found the two boys shielding their younger sister with their bodies, as testified by their blackened clothes.
Tracey spared her an annoyed glance, before looking up the street. He didn't see anyone except the red-garbed corpse. His Venonat was in its pokéball at his side – there was no way Tracey was sending the bug out to fight a Torkoal. "Be thankful he detected anyone at all. I'm surprised there's people alive at this point."
Coughs erupted from the chest of the boy Tracey was massaging. The Orange Islander lifted his fingers as the child opened his eyes.
"Wha…?" He said, disoriented. Fixing his bleary eyes on Tracey, he drawled. "Who…?"
"Shh," Tracey said with soft eyes, squeezing the boy's shoulder comfortingly. "It's alright, it's alright."
The boy drifted out of consciousness again. Marill's ears pricked up and looked up at her master nervously.
"Ma… marill." She said. Tracey looked to Melissa who set her jaw. The fires were growing, the smoke was filling the air and Lost Gym-members were scattering through the streets. Things were getting bad – they couldn't stumble around hoping to save whomever Venonat lucked out in detecting.
Melissa stood and indicated for Golem to pick up the boys, which he did without protest. "We need to get out of this city. It's all gone to hell."
Sketchit pulled the girl into a piggyback carry and stood up too. Marill scooted around his feet, as though she could catch the girl if Tracey dropped her. He nodded over at a tiny stretch of the horizon that wasn't blazing red.
"The fires don't seem so strong over there."
Melissa got her pistol at the ready in case they ran into more Leaguers and led the march. "It's our best bet. Let's bail."
-- --
Magmar punched a foundational column, keeling it over into a stonewall. The wall exploded, showering Vileplume below with debris. Vines cracking, she managed to sweep aside the worst of it, but left herself exposed in the process. The fire pokémon leapt from on high and landed heavily nearby, spewing flames.
Vileplume spun and rolled, but couldn't save one of her vines being burned off. Focussing her energy, the grass pokémon seemed to split into dozens. Surrounding Magmar in a circle, each painfully similar Vileplume had a look that suggested they would make a break for it at the first chance.
Sighing at yet another the use of the 'Double Team' technique, Magmar reached for a long fallen girder. Swinging the huge chunk of melting steel, he swept away a group of the illusions, failing to hit the real deal.
The point soon became moot, as a single Vileplume sprung back, spraying some sort of powder into the air. Magmar wasn't about to wait and see what type, and, dropping the girder, took a deep breath. He blew out fire like a fountain, igniting the airborne spores.
He averted his eyes from the bright flash and sharp sound, and turned back to see Vileplume already running. Snarling angrily, Magmar gave pursuit, passing by the two pokémon's battling masters.
Erika's strategy had turned to one of controlled retreat. All her techniques specifically developed to fight fire-types may have worked against a lesser Fire Master, but she was fighting with Blaine, Leader of the displaced Cinnabar Gym, condemned to burn through the land, consuming all in his path and leave only ruin. He couldn't be beaten by simple tricks, least of all by a Grass Master.
Stepping across a husk of a doorframe, Erika drew Blaine's flailing censor-weapon into wrapping around the frame. This bought the Green Knight precious moments to fall back several more steps while Quizmaster tugged to untangle his chain.
Not far now… she assured herself. She was bruised, burnt and exhausted, but she had a plan. She hadn't been so stupid as to let Rebels dump weapons in her city without monitoring where. Leaves and trees might wither before Blaine's heat, but a bullet through the head over-rode any type-advantage.
The weapon storehouse she had in mind was the next building over. Now all she needed to do was navigate the flames and not alert Kindler to her intentions. She took a step back and almost into the fire.
"Woah!" She cried, pulling her foot back sharply.
Blaine saw his chance and lashed out his flaming chain with a low attack.
"Advice: Eyes front!" He cried as the chain wrapped around her ankle and tripped her over. In some sort of miracle, Erika slammed a hand down on the ground, jarring her shoulder, and avoid the flames around her. With the other hand, she waved one of her sickles wildly, which prevented the levelheaded Blaine from following up.
Instead, he began to drag her slowly towards him. Erika tried to dig her sickles into the ground and fight back, but Blaine was too strong, causing the blades to drag trenches in the ruins.
"Recognition: The Green Knight," The tall moustached man said with a smile, dragging her ever closer. "Tea Warrior, Culler, Eden-Tender." A strange light struck his sunglasses. "Question: Where is your Eden now?"
She didn't want to think about it - instead, she plucked her sickles from the ground and jack-knifed to her feet. Before Quiz-Master could tug her from her feet again, Erika stomped down with her free foot and trapped the long chain. Digging the tips of her blades down the side of her leg, she pulled herself free and darted back to reclaim some of the ground she missed.
If this setback fazed Blaine, he didn't show it. He simply wound up his weapon and started swinging it again, ready for another attack.
Down in the cracked street, Vileplume darted around the piles of fire and rubble. He slipping in and out slowed her as the pursuing Magmar barged through all obstacles, unmindful of flame or pain. As the red frilled beast closed, Vileplume spun as she ran, flinging a set of razor-sharp leaves.
Magmar artfully dodged the attack while maintaining forward momentum, leaving the blade-leaves to cut perfectly through concrete and steel. Nozzle-mouth quirking in his version of a sneer, the fire-type crashed through a stack of blackened timbers, seeing Vileplume on the other side of a blazing flame. The leaf-haired pokémon had stopped to face him for some reason.
He found out when she blasted a cloud of Stun Spore at him – through the flames.
Covering his eyes to shield from the explosion, Magmar turned back. Vileplume was gone; in her stead was a hole, burrowed through the cracked concrete. Careening through the flames, Magmar grabbed futilely into the hole in hopes of latching onto a leafy appendage and dragging his foe out - but no such luck.
"Mag!" He cursed, standing up cautiously, serving the melting surroundings. He had no idea that Vileplume knew how to dig – now there was no way to know when she'll strike. Worse, she might have escaped, leaving him responsible for another weak grass type populating the world.
Stepping gently to minimise vibrations the subterranean plant might detect, Magmar slowly edged away from the hole. His eyes darted over every clear patch of ground. There was a chance…
A sudden rumble right beneath him shook the red pokémon's balance, and the street exploded as the round Vileplume burst up and head butted his jaw. Magmar recoiled in pain and blew fire wildly, leaving Vileplume the chance to bounce back down the hole and out of sight. Mastering the inferno streaming from his nose/mouth, Magmar rubbed his chin with a wince.
But he had a victorious glint in his eye. In that one shot, Vileplume had given away her weakness.
Circling softly again, Magmar kept his flaring excitement within in anticipation for the moment. It came faster this time – he felt the slowed shaking of the earth at his foot. The extra few moments Vileplume needed to sprout through the concrete was all he need to slip back. The grass-type shot up from underground right into his waiting arms.
With hardly a chance to discern what went wrong, Magmar spewed the fire within all over her frightened face. He didn't stop till she was nothing more than ashes in his hands.
-- --
It wasn't working. She was too tired, to beaten to make it back in time, not with Cinnabar's lost Gym-Leader dogging her every step. Erika had given up hope of making it into the weapons cache, not twenty metres behind her. Still unsure who was the traitor – him or her – The Green Knight decided to pitch forward with a final attack.
It's now or never, She thought, pulling a strand of sweat-heavy black hair from her eyes with the tip of her sickle. Goodbye, my dreams.
Spinning on her heel, she bent under a sweep of Blaine's flaming ball-and-chain, and lifted a melting sickle to meet the counter-swing Kindler folded into her. As the bronze links wrapped around the curved weapon, she pulled it down, drawing the chain taunt. Blaine instinctively pulled back, and Erika added the inertia to her own as she launched forward to ram the second sickle into the Fire Master's gut.
Unfortunately, Erika was a small woman, and Blaine was thirty kilograms and several feet her superior. He let go of his chain and used his longer reach to grab her attacking arm. Then he slammed a meteor-strike knee into the Celadon Gym-Leader's torso.
What followed was a savage outpouring of violence, of which the battered Erika could only discern blood, pain and stones. All the wildness that Blaine had kept pent up inside seemed to blaze free now, and where a man might have stopped, he continued on punching and grinding. Erika's body crumbled under his hunger to reduce her to nothing.
He tired, however, and stopped to look down at his victim. Amazingly, she was still alive, gargling blood and unable to move save to spasm. Eyes and mouth invisible beneath sunglasses and moustache, he raised his foot and silently drove it down on her throat.
Erika's body was too broken to even fight back properly. Her head forced back by the dirty boot, she saw the munitions dump so close, haloed in fire. Through the tears and black spots she could see her beautiful Celadon, her beautiful, hopeless play at paradise, burning down.
The League. The League did this… ran through her head.
"Why?" She choked out through the things clogging her throat. She was blind from tears or asphyxiation. "Why?"
This was one question Quizmaster did not to answer.
Blaine pressed until her pathetically struggling body twitched its last and fell to rest. During this time, his trusted Magmar returned, presumably having killed the woman's pokémon. Finished, Kindler turned to the fire-type.
"Orders: Proceed onto the rest of the city." He said levelly, the only hint of his previous barbarity the splashes of blood on his fists and face. "Warning: Watch for…"
Blaine knew fire - he spent so much time around it. He intimately loved every crackle, every snap of feeding flames. That was why, over the raining sound of the encasing inferno he could hear something that wasn't of fire – the clicking of a rifle.
He and his pokémon broke immediately for cover, narrowly missing a blast of heavy bullets into the ruins where they stood. Keeping low, he glanced around fallen bricks to identify his attacker.
On top of the near building, towards which the Green Knight had been falling back – it was a tall lithe man with a flaring head of brownish-red hair. He had a cut across his chest and an AK-47. A wounded Eevee was at his feet.
"Demand:" Blaine shouted, gathering up his chain-weapon. "Identify yourself!"
There was no answer, and after a stretch, Insatiable dared another look. The newcomer had descended and was now approaching Erika's corpse. The man was obviously distracted, but it was not yet time to attack – not when he had that rifle in hand. Blaine sent a signal to Magmar to sneak quietly into a stronger position.
Gary looked down at the hardly-recognisable body in front of him. He'd seen women abused horribly, but this was the image to crown them all. Something stirred in his stomach, a nauseous mix of anger and grief. They had only met once, but in that one time Erika had bared a piece of her frail soul to him, and that was a very valuable thing.
Tearing his eyes from Erika's body, he searched for that bastard Blaine. Anyone who did this to a woman was going to get it back in spades. Gary's eyes hovered over the pile of bricks that the Fire Master had dived behind, but he let them move off. He could be anywhere by now.
Eevee was sniffing at the body. The dog realised that she was dead and moaned, rubbing respectfully against her arm. Gary glanced at his pokémon.
"Hey Eevee, you're too injured to fight." He said, reaching for a pokéball. Eevee would need to be in top condition to fight this Magmar. "Make sure no one gets in the way."
The dog looked offended by the comment. He bounced on his feet a few times and thrashed his tail to prove he was still strong.
"Eee!"
"Argue later." Gary growled. He was pretty grilled up about what had happened to Erika. The dog grumbled and bounded off while his master opened a pokéball. Soon enough he had Nidoqueen lumbering over the other side of Erika.
"Question: Who are you?" Came a voice from Gary's left. He turned to answer.
"Gary Oak." He said simply.
Blaine's voice shot out from somewhere behind cover. There was a flash of a white coat and Gary's rifle flew to meet it – but Oak caught his finger before it fired the wasteful shot.
"Ahh, question then: do you think the League has been unaware of your movements?"
Oak nodded at Nidoqueen, who slammed her foot on the ground with such force that the rubble shook in a small earthquake. The cover fell; Blaine wasn't there.
Gary drew his sword and held his two weapons akimbo. He shouted into the circling flames. "Question: Do you think I care?"
--- -
This kid's getting heavy. Tracey mentally complained. Her oldest brother had woken up, and was now walking with the party, gripping onto Tracey's shirt like a kid half his age. The watcher wasn't sure how he felt about, between himself and Melissa, appearing the most mothering.
Marill was scouting ahead, making use of her small size to check around corners for League soldiers or blocked paths. Golem waddled casually behind with the other brother, content to follow his master.
"The fires are smaller around here." Melissa suddenly noted. Tracey looked and saw it too.
"Yeah. It's cooler too." Cool enough that he could feel the sweat caking his shirt and headband. The boy holding him looked up, and Tracey smiled down. "It looks like we're going to be alright."
A street-rumbling growl shook the concrete, and they all exchanged worried looks. Looking ahead to the clearer horizon, they saw the distinct shape of an Onix tower over the low buildings. It was fighting off some Charizards, which had started flocking to their destination.
Watching towers of water spurt up at the sky as a sort of aerial defence, Tracey's concern deepened.
"That's got to be our guys." He said, judging by the way the Lost Gym Charizards were attacking. "We need to help them!"
"It's definitely Brock's Onix. Let's move; double time!"
The boy was too frightened to leave, and they all hurried. The girl was making his arms and legs sore, but Tracey bit into the pain and kept pace. Not a League trainer was to be found, and this part of the city had been effectively hosed down, so progress was quick and smooth.
Coming to an open space, Tracey and Melissa saw a sweet sight – Brock and Misty, fighting both the League Charizards and the fire. What's more, they saw a Nurse Joy looking after the wounded and civilians.
The boy knew what to do immediately – he took his sister from Tracey (she was almost too heavy for the boy) and went with Golem and his brother to the small moving hospital. He turned over his shoulder with a silent look that said so much more than 'thanks' and continued on.
That done, Tracey and Melissa raced to their comrades' sides.
"Tracey? Mel?" Brock said, seeing the two of them take their places with the trainers who had rallied around the Rock and Water Masters.
"Still in the flesh, thankfully." Tracey said, pointing at a diving red dragon for Marill to blast.
"Mel, could you do me a favour and shoot those things?!" Misty yelled. She looked very stressed, so the Pewter trainer obliged and shot at the pokémon circling above. Tracey was handed a carbine and joined in.
Thankful for more ground support, Misty ran her hands through her orange hair and begun directing her entourage of pokémon.
"Seadra, Gyrados, Hydro Blast!" She yelled one way. "Starmie, Azurill, aim at the base of the fire!" She yelled the other. "Blastoise! Uh… just keep it up!"
The giant blue turtle seemed to take personal pleasure in blasting Charizards from the sky. He'd racked up quite a tally – at least six so far, all of which lay in a drowned heap across the field.
Brock shot off a few instructions too. Onix and Crobat were defending Nurse Joy's relief camp, while his other pokémon used their strength to pile dirt up on the flames. With the inferno slowly being choked, their problems were limited to the swarm of angry fire dragons.
Despite the relative ease at which things were on this front, everyone knew they couldn't keep it up forever. They had to edge out of the city, otherwise they'd tire or the fire would overwhelm them. There had to be a break-through.
Misty glanced instinctively into the flaming bowels of Celadon. There used to be a time when she attributed doing the impossible to only one man, but there was someone else now who could turn this nightmare into a dream.
"Gary, where are you?" she whispered, before noticing Azurill aiming too high and yelling at it.
-- --
Grunting with effort, Blaine manipulated his chain violently, swinging it hard at Gary. Instinctively, the tall target raised the guard of his sword, the fiery flail wrapping around the base of the blade securely. The bald Fire Master pulled hard to disarm his opponent, but Gary held his blade fast.
Seeing Gary raise his rifle, Blaine ducked behind remains of the corner of the brick ruins in which they were fighting. He used the structure to lever his pull, tugging the sword from Gary's hand, and swinging it wildly.
The sword-ended chain crossed in front of the Pallet trainer's face.
"Damn!" Gary cursed, rolling to avoid his own weapon. Hugging the ash and bricks, he kept his AK-47 trained carefully on Blaine's position in case a shot appeared.
Pushing into a low crouch, the burgundy-haired duellist tried to round on Quizmaster's hiding spot, but Blaine's seemingly random flinging proved anything but, and Gary had to spring behind a rock to avoid the edge of his European sword.
Over Erika's body, which acted as a sort of border between the two combats, Magmar and Nidoqueen fought hand-to-hand. A whistling roar blew from Blaine's red pokémon nozzle mouth as he burst forward. His fist ignited into flame as he aimed for Nidoqueen's throat.
His surprise was great when the large pokémon grabbed his fist, her stony skin impervious to the burning.
"Mag?" He uttered, before Nidoqueen pulled him and smashed him into a nearby concrete slab. The slab shattered like glass.
Nidoqueen, of a naturally aggressive breed, followed up without hesitation with a great pound, kicking up a cloud of grey concrete dust.
That attack kept the fiery pokémon in check for a moment, so Nidoqueen lifted her fist high and roared. Crème-coloured energy gathered into the gravely claw, and Nidoqueen slammed a mighty, glowing punch down into Magmar, driving the fire-type through the concrete into the ground.
Confident that she'd finished the smaller pokémon, Nidoqueen rocked back, looking down at her handiwork. The raining debris and flying dust settled, revealing the huge crater she'd forced into the earth. At the centre, Magmar was laying still.
Turning to go, Nidoqueen was caught flat-footed as the volcano-born pokémon jumped up and spat a huge fire blast into her face. She fell back, leaving Magmar the chance to spew a stream of flames over her hard body. The ground-type made a futile attempt at swiping the fire from the air, and Magmar advanced relentlessly, melting his foe's formidable defences.
Internally, he was laughing.
Mag! He thought. Mag-maar!
-- --
Eevee had circled his comrade's fights so as to keep an eye on their progress. He slipped over the burning rubble, searching for plundering Lost-Gymmers.
It wasn't fair. His injures weren't that bad. He totally could take that Magmar. Totally.
"Ee!" The fluffy little dog complained to the smoke. He kicked a stone in frustration – it flew clean through a wooden pylon.
Unfortunately for Eevee's entertainment, there were none of the Cinnibar Irregulars around. Even they weren't immune to the blaze, it seemed. The pokémon watched the fire suck at the ruins that were once Celadon's green streets. In fact, the only building still standing within view was that sturdy-looking one Erika had been backing towards.
Even though it was currently crowned with flames, Eevee decided to investigate what was inside. He bounded from rock to rock and came to the entrance. Nudging open the door with his nose, the dog glanced inside. What he saw shocked him.
This was apparently one of the Resistance weapon dumps. It was filled to the brim with guns, ammo and explosives. Gunpowder everywhere. Eevee's eyes went wide. This building, which was currently about to burn down…
Oh…
This was not good.
He galloped immediately towards Gary, crying out warnings.
"Eeee!" He screamed. "Eeeeeee!"
-- --
Gary had had just about enough of this. As Blaine swung his sword for another pass, he lashed out and snatched his sword up from the air. Gary could almost see the surprise on Blaine's face as he tugged at his chain, wondering why it wouldn't move, and took the chance to kick high and bring his foot down.
Insatiable was pulled unceremoniously from behind cover, leaving him wide open to be shot.
Gary plugged him a few, staining the tall moustached Gym Leader's white coat red. The bullets passed straight through, leaving the stunned Blaine to sag slowly to his knees. Gary approached, chewing on the situation.
Blaine of Cinnabar. When they had first met, Gary had not realised the island's Gym was still open at first, due to the old man's trickery. That deception had allowed Ash to grab the badge first – one of the two Ash won before him. It was the first time that fate had allowed his contemporary to pull ahead.
Looking at the dying old bastard now, Gary found one side of his brain beating this fact into him, while the other merely strung up a picture of Erika's purple and red body. He didn't even think when he raised the gun again.
He fired again, a long burst. The shots struck dirty this time, tearing flesh from Blaine's thin frame, sending the Quizmaster to the ground in a pool of red. Gary was about to shoot again, but his finger wouldn't let him. No wound on Blaine could heal any on Erika.
Gary didn't look when a set of crushing steps approached, but did when a red body was thrown near Kindler's. It was his Magmar – dead or whatever, it clearly wasn't getting up again.
Swearing to thank Nidoqueen later, when his jaw wasn't fused shut, Gary called his pokémon back into her pokéball. He was about to go look for Eevee when Blaine surprised him by spitting a fountain of blood up, invisible on his crimson shirt.
"Qu… Question:" The hardy old man forced out. There was a wry smile beneath his moustache. "Is there a life after death?"
Kindler went silent and still, leaving Gary to wonder what answer he got. Looking tiredly up at the black smoke, Gary lingered a soulful moment. There was no way for him to have known that from above, the circle of Celadon looked like a giant Volcano badge.
His reverie was clawed down when Eevee charged in, shouting and making a fuss.
"What?" Gary cried in alarm. He turned to see the walls of the weapon cache crack and fall down, allowing fire to pour in. "The guns!"
Blaine proved himself not dead yet by laughed uproariously, and Gary dived to cover Eevee.
"Get do-!"
He was cut off when the dump exploded in a huge fireball, cutting out the fire. Concrete and steel went flying, breaking up the surroundings. Gary saw pink.
-- --
Lorelei glanced to the side when she heard the huge explosion. Her eyes darted back as Lance took the opportunity to change cover, riding on his Dragonite. She fired, and so did Jynx, but it was pointless – ever since the Dragon Master reunited with his pokémon, the tides of battle had changed.
The street was now a shallow pool, small icebergs drifting down its weak current. Buildings had fallen, holes from loose hyper beams valleyed the street. Lorelei's expensive imported suit was soaked - she was starting to feel things were getting out of hand.
But I still have firearms. She reminded herself, remembering that it was Lance ducking from hiding spot to hiding spot with nothing better than a long stick to fight with. As long as I have ammunition, I hold the advantage.
Her musings were cut off by another explosion, closer. She looked up, suspicious. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the top of Lance's black hair twitch at the sound too.
Had the first explosion set off another? It would be bad for her if a chain reaction was set off…
Another blast. And another. Lorelei adjusted her glasses, and then turned to finish off Legend-Stalker. He had taken the opportunity to make good his escape. She snarled and looked down at a worried Jynx to scold it for letting the Rebel escape.
Then there were another four explosions in short succession. Lorelei decided to bail.
-- --
"What's going on?" Officer Jenny asked, watching the Charizards turn and flee. Apparently those closing detonations didn't sound good to them either.
Misty grabbed Brock, who was keen for 'victory celebrations' with the blue-haired Jenny, and looked at the huge following she had gathered. "I don't know, but I think we need to evacuate the city, now."
"How?" Protested Melissa. "That's seven miles through the fire. We've got to take it slow."
"There is no time for 'slow'." Sabrina declared, appearing suddenly behind Tracey. She had her stout, chitinous Alakazam with her. "Everyone join hands."
This was a weird request from an even weirder lady who had just teleported in the midst of them, so it was forgivable that most gathered didn't immediately comply. Misty knew a way out when she saw one, and clapped her hands with authority.
"Everyone join hands now!"
Hesitantly, everyone present and their pokémon reached out and touched each other. Sabrina and her Alakazam did so too, needing to combine their power to teleport so many people at once. As the two psychics gathered power, Misty leant over.
"What about Gary?" She asked from the corner of her mouth. "And Lance?"
"I don't know." Sabrina stated in a distant tone. Those words were doubly concerning coming from her lips. "But we are going!"
In a white flash, they were finally pulled from the belly of Celadon's hell.
-- --
Janine was on top of one of the largest skyscrapers in Saffron – so tall that it lanced through the canopy of fog to reveal the beautiful night sky and its glimmering full moon. Sitting over on the edge, dangling her feet over brown oblivion, she watched distant Celadon burn.
The ninja was resting, having spent her evening killing the appropriate witnesses to the Rebellion party that had passed through here a few days ago. None had proven any great challenge to kill, even the acting leader of Saffron, Kiyo the Fighting Master. He may have been a world-class martial artist with worshipful skill, but five different kinds of instant-death poisons administered from three different sources was not something one could punch away.
A few had skipped town, but if Lorelei proved that concerned, she'd order Janine to track them. For now, she could relax and gaze in the flickering orange on the horizon.
There was a white flash behind her, which made her heart jump, but she kept her cool and was determined not to be caught off-guard this time.
"You sure travel around a lot." She said, forcing a casual tone.
Will smiled that greasy smile of his and came up beside her. He was standing very close. "Well, they do call me Argonaut."
The strangest thing was happening to Janine. For some reason, she couldn't pull her purple eyes away from Will's jaw line, or the way his long wavy hair fell across it. Her eyes drifted and to note the academic tones to his skin, and the way his cheek folded when he smiled, and…
Her study of the psychic's appearance was cut short when the steadily burning Celadon exploded. Will and Janine watched enraptured as the city was torn apart by popping flares. It was beautiful at this distance, like fireworks.
Then all at once there was a huge, citywide blast, hurling debris high into the smoke. Almost feeling the heat where they were, the pair couldn't stop themselves leaning back in awe, unconsciously closer to each other. Then Celadon's flames seemed to collapse, perhaps because everything had been burnt up.
"Wow." Whispered Janine. "That was something else."
"It sure was." Said Will, who made no attempt to move out of their sudden proximity.
Little did either know that they were being watched by the only ninja in the world better than Janine. In the deep shadows, Koga forced his secretly chaperoning eye from the couple and on to the now black city, wondering if his quarry was dead.
Unlikely, he mused, keeping sharp eyes on Will's hands as he gave Koga's daughter a 'friendly' hug. The Heavens won't allow it.
-- --
The high-energy night was followed by a bleary morning. Celadon smouldered, black and dirty with ash. The smell of smoke and burnt flesh sat heavily over the ruins, and the scene looked to the scavenging Murkows like a giant dead camp fire.
Amid the rubble, some steel poles shifted, disturbing some of the black birds. The poles were sent tumbling down by a hard kick from the other side, revealing the blackened, weary form of Gary Oak. He staggered out with no strength in his legs, Eevee swaggering behind. The little dog looked around the red sunrise, wondering how they could have survived.
In the haunting silence there was an unnatural noise, and in a flash of white, Eevee saw Sabrina appear, still in her haggard pyjamas. The pokémon was the only living thing to see the look of relief on her normally impassive face when she saw them alive, and he couldn't help but smile weakly back.
The dog glanced behind to see Gary stumbling the opposite direction, blind to the world. Sabrina was about to announce her presence but saw the Pallet trainer's strange mood and stayed herself for the moment.
Gary could feel the ghosts crowd around him, their quiet, invisible glares asking 'why did he survive and not me?'. He swung his weak hands, tried to back them up, but they couldn't be touched by him.
I don't know, I don't know, he tried to say, tripping and hitting the black ash ground. It was just like Mount Moon… Bruno was there, his unseen, hulking mass standing silently over him. Agatha, frailly seated in her chair, was watching at a distance with a black smile on her crevassed lips – Gary could almost see her.
Looking up, Gary could see the full moon, still retreating down towards the horizon. Low like this, it was almost as if it had descended to eye-level with him, willing to match his raging glare.
His hands felt around, finally settling on a chipped piece of rock, or a fragment of cement. Pushing himself up with the last of his strength, he threw the rock pathetically at the moon before falling again.
"Is this so funny?!" he screamed at the pokémon beyond the stars. "Is this so damn funny?!"
-
-
Author's notes:
Sorry this took so long. I've had things to do – plus this got pretty darn long. Almost 15,000 words! I didn't want to break it up, but I had to…
I got kind of uncomfortable writing this – the idea of people burning to death does that to me. It's a horrible way to die. And serious burns suck big time.
I love the idea of Houndoom vs Eevee. It's a dog eat dog world!
I was going to make the Torkoal trainer a named character from the show, but in the end… meh.
Do you massage smoke from lungs? How did that explosion start all those other ones? I don't know – work with me people!