Thanks to Zarrelion his help on the chapter.


August 17


A veritable river of crimson poured out from the woods. As if ordered by an unseen force, the halo of stones over Johanna's house froze in place, aimed, and launched across the field. Roark and the ariados quickly learned that even a tiny bit of pressure in the right place could spell big problems. Stealth Rock was meant to be an entry hazard, but now it acted more like Stone Edge. The stony points speared through the ariados' delicate exoskeletons and slipped into the earth beneath them.

Another row of ariados crawled over the corpses of their fallen brethren. They advanced about a foot before the stones that had slain the first row of ariados rocketed upwards from the ground, tearing apart the next procession of ariados. The stones returned to their original formation — a lethal halo over Johanna's house. Each stone dripped with gore, gleaming like a morbid beacon and daring the swarm to proceed.

The remaining ariados took the hint and paused. Only to raise their heads in unison and unleash a volley of poisoned flak. Roark's Onix immediately coiled around his trainer. The metallic ringing of hundreds of needles deflecting off stone echoed in Roark's ears. The distant hum of the aircraft gave him a small sense of comfort until the sound of the needles abruptly changed pitch.

A burst of light caught the swarm's attention. Some continued firing at the rising aircraft while those that faced the burst of light met crimson eyes and a torrent of flame. At the first sight of flames the swarm scattered; many of them taking refuge in the vacant homes of Twinleaf Town. Following their wisdom, Roark retreated back into Johanna's house with Geodude floating at his heels.

The house shuddered as he slammed the door behind him. He stopped momentarily to consider if locking it would buy him some extra time. The answer came in the form of loud thunks against the wood as a number of glowing needles protruded halfway through.

Roark leapt away just as his Geodude rushed ahead and placed himself between his trainer and the door.

Despite the added barriers, Roark felt no safer on the first floor than he did outside. Occasionally the house and ground would shake. A sign that Onix or Rampardos were doing their best to keep the swarm from approaching. Roark looked around, noting the lack of windows to give him a vantage point through which to check on the aircraft and retaliate against the swarm's moves.

"I could make for the tunnel!" The thought entered his mind as he made his way up the stairs. "Do I really have wait for them to be gone before I can escape?" Roark shook his head halfway up the steps. "No. I owe them for getting me out of the deathtrap that my city became. I'm not gonna abandon them like I did my town. I have to see this through. I'm not going to be like him."


"Is he inside?" Onix asked over the constant stream of hisses that filled the air.

"Looks like it," Rampardos replied. "Why are we still here?"

"Roark doesn't want to leave until that giant metal thing is out of here. We have to keep him safe and make sure that thing leaves this place."

"So we can let loose?" Rampardos didn't bother to hide the excitement in his voice.

"Long as we don't hit the house Roark's in or the flying metal thing. Oh, and don't get caught again, Roark won't be here to save you."

Onix coiled his body like a tight spring before lunging towards the closest house. Over four hundred pounds of airborne stone pulverized the walls on contact and set the ground trembling

"Show off," Rampardos said beneath his breath as he shifted his gaze to the aircraft the other humans were on. Several strands of silk soared through the air and latched onto its metal underbelly as it steadily rose higher into the sky. Rampardos doubted the Ariados had enough strength or weight to keep the ship from moving but that fact didn't seem to stop them from trying.


At first, everything seemed to be going well. When Roark had leapt off the aircraft with his last words, the Rocket Trio immediately began to lift off. Protocols that dictated each and every instrument be checked and rechecked before liftoff were passed over in favor of a cursory inspection.

Indeed, Brock, Dawn and Ash didn't even have time to fasten their seatbelts as the tilt-rotor lurched and began to climb upwards at an agonizingly slow rate. It was the trade-off they had made: rate of climb had been sacrificed for VTOL capability.

It was when the aircraft shuddered under a massive impact that Brock dared to look out the window to see what the problem was.

He immediately wished he hadn't. A swarm of ariados poured out of the surrounding dusk-lit woods and began ravaging the town. It was then he noticed the aircraft had stopped ascending and a shrill alarm began to sound.

"James! What's the hold up!?" Jessie snapped from her position in the copilot's seat.

James opened the throttle even further but the altimeter showed no signs of changing. "We're caught on something."

"Well get us uncaught den!" Meowth yelled from behind them. "Or dem ariados will be pickin' dere teeth wit our bones!"

The blue-haired Rocket operative looked at the fuel gauge. He was stuck with a sadistic choice, use up the fuel to try and break free —and risk the Zarrel ion battery failing in a spectacular explosion that would most certainly kill all those aboard or conserve the fuel and not break free — and risk letting the ariados eat them alive.

He weighed his options and slammed the tilt-rotor's throttle past the maximum safe limit. The aircraft shuddered and the roar of the engines became deafening as the aircraft began to rise.


If Rampardos were honest with himself, what the ariados were doing amused him. It was like watching a wurmple trying to wrangle an angry aggron. One ariados was being dragged across the grass as fought it to keep the craft from moving with nothing more than the strength of its spindly limbs. Rampardos allowed himself a hearty laugh at the sight and would've continued had the rest of the swarm not learned from their comrade's mistake. The tilt-rotor had gained enough altitude that it started to fly east, making it a few meters before being forcibly halted in its tracks.

The craft's twin thrusters flared to life, throwing out long tails of blue fire that stood out sharply against the rapidly dark sky. The aircraft moved a few inches as it strained against the silken restraints.

Concrete walls cracked and crumbled; patches of earth were torn from the ground as the pilot tried to break free. But for every strand that snapped from the strain, another three were quick to reconnect and reinforce the broken ends that anchored the ship to the surrounding houses.

Rampardos watched the pilot try a new tactic. Reversing abruptly and spinning the craft around only to fly full-throttle in the opposite direction. Despite his efforts the strands still held strong and kept the craft in place.

Another salvo of strands soared through the air, missing the rotor blades by a few inches as the pilot moved the only safe direction still left to them: upwards.

Poisoned needles and silk strands flew, faltered and arched back down to the ground as the aircraft flew as high as the strands allowed.

Groups of Ariados were already starting to make the climb up the strands by the time Rampardos moved to stop them. A flash of light and a rushing wave of warmth were quick reminders to the swarm that there were still threats around them. The Head Butt Pokémon did the first thing that came naturally to him and charged like a lithic battering ram, spraying cones of fire as he went.

His opponents proved themselves to be quick learners when Roark's ace felt something catch his ankles in the midst of his charge. The ground quickly rose to meet Rampardos' face. The force of the subsequent collision created a sizable scorched crater beneath him. Attempts at lifting himself off the ground with his arms served as a painful reminder of how weak and stubby they really were.

Efforts to move his legs proved fruitless with what he imagined was another well-placed String Shot binding his ankles. Without a second thought he spewed fire at his feet and came to regret it with the pain that surfaced immediately after. Through the white fog of agony he felt the hold around his legs loosen as the webbing burned away.

A small group of ariados were starting to converge on him. Only to meet their demise when their supposed prey slammed his head against the earth.

The neighboring houses shivered from the blow that managed to catapult Rampardos into the air and few meters back from the crater. The remains of the ariados that had gotten too close to him were still raining over the neighborhood when Onix's body erupted out from one of the houses, sending a spray of debris and bits of ariados into the air.

"Let me guess..." Onix began, looking at the newly formed crater and the blackened ankles of his teammate.

Rampardos shot Onix a glare as hot as his Flamethrower. "Don't start. Not all of us can dig and avoid their damned silk."

"I think I just might have something for that." The stone snake looked up at the aircraft for a few seconds and nodded. The stones that comprised his upper body started to spin and dirt from the ground around them started lifting into the air as the wind picked up. The lithic serpent opened his maw and unleashed a column of sand that joined the maelstrom that now swirled around the neighborhood.

Shifting swaths of brown and gold filled his vision. It wasn't thick enough to obscure his view of the neighborhood but he could constantly feel the grains of sand wash over him in waves.

"There, that should make it impossible for their silk to reach us and harder for their shots to hit us."

"What about the flying metal thing?" Rampardos asked.

"I made sure to keep the sandstorm low. As long as they stay where they are the sand shouldn't bother them."

"Looks like we won't be alone." Rampardos motioned with his head towards the aircraft. Onix looked up and was surprised to see something gliding gracefully through the maelstrom of sand. Gliscor crossed his pale indigo claws and rapidly swung them apart, launching his X-Scissor at the silk strands beneath the ship. The vacuum blades slammed into the strands but the silk cord remained undamaged

"Let's go help him out!" Onix roared, launching himself deeper into the battlefield.


Roark backed away from the window and closed it, watching the glass rattle against the wind and sand. The sound of the granules washing over Johanna's home created a constant drone that filled the entire house with white noise. Making out what was going on outside became an impossible task as long as the sandstorm raged, but that was a small degree of comfort for him. If he couldn't see through it, then hopefully neither could the ariados.

One of the window panes suddenly cracked, making Roark flinch and slowly inch away. He turned and eyed his Geodude who had his back to him and was busy guarding the entrance of his room. The presence of his first Pokémon offered him some respite, but it wasn't enough to stop him from feeling vulnerable.

"I need a weapon," Roark mumbled to himself as he glanced around the bedroom. His Geodude took the hint and moved out of his way and into the hallway outside.

"Or do I?" Roark stopped himself in mid-step. Scenes of the carnage in Oreburgh flashed through his mind.

"I guess I only feel like I need a weapon. Having one makes me feel safer…but it doesn't actually make me any safer. The soldiers… they had training, tactics, armor, more advanced weapons and even a fucking tank! What do I have that they don't?"

He watched Geodude swivel back and forth as he made sure nothing could sneak up on him and his trainer. The animate rock smiled, and gave him a thumbs up.

"I know what Pokémon are capable of and I won't underestimate them." Roark mentally replied to his earlier question. He nodded to himself, as if satisfied with his answer and made his way back downstairs, letting Geodude take the lead. Sand sprayed into the room in bursts through the broken window he and Brock had come through.

Without even being told, Geodude moved towards the breach and held his position. If the waves of sand splashing over his face and open eyes bothered him, then he didn't show it.

"I doubt Johanna has a gun, which is fine. I doubt I'd be comfortable even using one and I'd rather not bring any more attention to myself; those things can get pretty loud."

Roark's busied himself in the kitchen, flinging drawers and cabinets open in a desperate attempt to search for something to arm himself. Forks and knives might as well have been toys. Johanna's expensive knife set seemed like a marginally better option. Roark pulled the biggest and longest knife he found out of the block and did a few practice thrusts and slashes before he let his arm fall to the side with a sigh.

"These ariados have ranged attacks. I'll be dead before I even got close enough to cut them."

Something from the battle outside shook the house again, causing anything still remaining on the shelves to finally fall. Roark crouched behind the counter for cover as he waited for the tremors to dissipate. His fingers wrapped around the hardwood handle of the knife as he readied himself for battle.

The lights in the house flickered and died, leaving Roark in the dark with only his meager weapon. Seconds ticked by without incident before he found the switch on his helmet and activated the light. Another few heartbeats went by before he lowered his knife to the wooden floor and grabbed the metal knob that was apparently in front of his face.

Several metal pans were stacked within the cupboard. He entertained the thought of donning them as armor like some post-apocalyptic knight. But the pots and pans promised him even less protection than the armor that the soldiers of Oreburgh wore. His eyes did notice a cast iron skillet among the ensemble, but lifting it quickly reminded him how heavy and unwieldy it felt in his grip.

"Wish I'd brought a pickaxe with me," Roark muttered as he put the skillet away. He made his way across the room. The beam of light from his helmet flitted across the room, revealing books and contest trophies knocked from fancy bookcases and scattered around the sandy floor.

Geodude kept to his post, the floor around him slowly disappearing beneath the invading sands. Just outside the whirling sands, he could see Johanna's garden — or its remains being torn apart and swept up in the storm.

Roark looked around the kitchen before he had a sudden flash of insight. "Her garden!"

"Geodude," Roark began, waiting until the rock Pokémon turned to face him. "I need you to go out and see if Johanna has a shed. I think I saw one connected to the side of the house. Bring me something from there I can use as a weapon."

The sound of stone scraping stone reached Roark's ears as Geodude crossed his arms and gave him a withering stare.

"Don't give me that look. You can go out there safely and it's just around the corner. It'll take you a few seconds if you hurry!" Roark ordered but didn't see the glowering stone move. After a few seconds of hard staring, the stone Pokémon grumbled his name and launched himself through the window and disappeared into the quartz maelstrom.

Roark began to feel as though he were in an hourglass as the seconds passed and sand continued to pour through the shattered windows. Aside from counting the seconds, the miner had no idea how much time had elapsed and whether he should start to be worried at Geodude's prolonged absence.

His answer came in the form of an ariados bursting through the shattered window. A mixture of blood and sand flowed from a wound on its thorax that Roark guessed to be from the Stealth Rock.

"But it didn't finish the job." The dark thought that shadowed Roark's observation breached the surface of his thoughts.

The ariados froze upon seeing him. Its mandibles clicked as it studied him without moving an inch. Roark's heart was beating painfully against his chest, every shaky breath sounding obnoxiously loud in the silence. Why the ariados wasn't attacking was beyond him. And with no immediate cover to hide behind, it had a clear shot at him.

The moment of unnatural stillness ended when the ariados slowly dipped its thorax down and pressed it to the floorboards of Johanna's home. Upon lifting it back, Roark noticed a stringy residue still clinging to the long leg Pokémon's spinneret. One of its hind legs slid back and pressed against something that caught the light of Roark's helmet light.

He noticed the thin sliver shift back and forth with the movements of the ariados' leg. All the while the red arachnid stared at him. The strand went still until something tugged at the other end and the ariados replied with a single tug in return. By the time Roark put together what was happening, it was already dead.

The spray of sand from the storm outside made him wince and close his eyes as the room was filled with the sound of something sinking into the wooden floorboards. When the spray of sand subsided somewhat, he opened his eyes and saw that the ariados was still there in the same spot. Yet, there was something about it that didn't seem quite right. It wasn't until its legs buckled and the body toppled forward that he noticed the shovel now separating the ariados's head from the rest of its body.

Geodude harrumphed and crossed his arms, everything about his posture and expression growling, "I told you so."

"Okay, okay! You were right, I was wrong. Thanks for the save, and getting the shovel by the way," Roark said, cautiously making his way over to the spade. The ariados was still, but Roark couldn't get over the idea that it could come alive at any second and attack him. His hesitation must've bothered his first Pokémon because he moved over, yanked the shovel out of the corpse and handed it to him.

Roark took it and felt the weight, immediately feeling more comfortable with this item than he would with any gun or knife. It wasn't his pickaxe but it was close enough that it was practically an extension of him. Shovels were always a bit of a bittersweet tool for him; they reminded him of his father, given that they were his signature tools. Roark watched the dark ichor flow along the blade and drip onto the floor by his boots. A pang of sadness that such an essential tool in his line of work had been used to take a life.

Dark mist started to ebb from the shadowy corners of the room; a fact that Roark and Geodude were quick to notice. Out from the shadows burst another Ariados only to be intercepted by another stone dagger that smashed through the ceiling. The ariados immediately angled itself to the side. That action turned a direct hit into a mere graze.

Geodude took the brunt of the Shadow Sneak attack, using his arm to block the ariados' body while it tried to sink its mandibles into his stony arm. By the time the bug realized it would make no progress with its tactic, it was already too late. Geodude's fist slammed through its horn and into its face, causing its head to explode.

Roark brought his arm up to shield himself from the splinters and bits of roof that filled the air. By the time he lowered his arm the fight had already concluded, or so he had hoped until more shadows began to materialize in the dark corners of the room. Geodude rolled back at Roark's feet with his arms raised and ready to take any blow meant for Roark.

The Ariados sprung at them from the shadows. Too many for Geodude to block and too fast for either he or Roark to follow — which would've been a problem, had a salvo of stones not rained down through the ceiling, cutting their aerial tackles short. Geodude struck without hesitation, manifesting stones in his hands and throwing them at the downed Ariados like knives. By the time the Stealth Rock slipped out of its target, another stone quickly replaced it.

Four ariados remained and despite all the fear that told him to run away to safety, Roark lunged at one of the fallen spiders and swung the shovel down on its head as hard as he could. The fear and hesitation dissolved upon knowing he would only be safe once he killed every ariados in the room. Roark felt the exoskeleton crack and crunch beneath his swing. A flicker of superiority and satisfaction ignited in his core.

Wasting no time, Roark ripped the shovel out from the creature's lifeless body. The lack of screams telling him everything he needed to know. He ran across the room where the other ariados was already getting up. Roark brought his shovel down like a knight's battleaxe, only to lodge his weapon into Johanna's wooden floor when his target moved its head slightly. The Oreburgh miner reacted quickly, shifting his weight onto the shovel and slamming it against the creature's head just as it launched a length of silk from its mouth.

Roark felt the attack rush by him, the sound reminding him how one hit would immobilize him and spell his doom should he make a single mistake. The miner moved on instinct, jumping onto the nearest ariados and slamming his boot onto the arachnid's open wound. The result was a screech that shook the gym leader to his bones.

The spider's legs buckled beneath the pain and Roark's weight. Its spindly legs frantically slashed at the floorboards as it tried to throw Roark off. Roark lifted his shovel back into the air and swung. All the while he was grinding his boot into the bubbling wound. The ariados's screaming and upturned head never saw or felt the shovel's edge cut into its throat. Roark watched the head bounce along the floor until he remembered there were still more ariados to fight and turned to find one already taking aim at him.

Roark reflexively dove to the side behind Johanna's couch, hoping his meager excuse for cover would buy him enough time to consider his next move. Before Roark could even scramble away he heard something spatter against the wall and replace the sound of raining needles.

A frantic heartbeat later his Geodude rolled over to where he lied, offering him a hand which his trainer gratefully took. Once on his feet, Geodude motioned towards the stairs, a suggestion Roark didn't question as darkness began to bleed from the corners once more.

More ariados lunged at them, unaware of the entry hazard that awaited them as they infiltrated the house. Another shockwave from the battle outside rocked the foundations of Johanna's home, evoking creaks and groans that made Roark wonder how long his refuge from the sandstorm would last.

Steady streams of sand poured from the ceiling; each hole marking where Stealth Rock dove through to strike the newcomers. Holes pocked the second floor hallway. The fine dust of sand whistled in through the shattered windows of the house.

Roark realized that the ariados weren't entering Johanna's home to come to kill him. They were just trying to avoid staying in the sandstorm. That and the damage from the entry hazard were probably the only reasons he was able to survive this long. Let alone kill an ariados with his comparatively pathetic weapon. Another series of pained screeches from the first floor reminded him that death's hourglass still flowed.

Geodude swiveled around and readied himself for the oncoming swarm he was sure would come up the stairs. Another shard of stone speared through the attic and the floor between Roark's feet. It was a harsh reminder that while Stealth Rock was only supposed to go after the ariados, the stones didn't care whether he was in their path or not.

A chorus of hisses filtered through the floorboards from below, the sounds of a thousand scrapes and scratches filling the air and growing louder as the swarm drew closer and closer to the stairs. Roark gripped his shovel until his shaking hands were white. He swallowed and braced himself for what was to come. The fact that he was drawing more ariados away from Brock and the others had stopped being a comfort.


Onix's sandstorm was working perfectly as far as Gliscor was concerned. Any attempts to bind him with silk or scratch him with their poisoned needles were blown away before they even got anywhere near him. Anything that wanted to affect him would have to use those techniques at point-blank range. Assuming that the creature stayed alive long enough; an unlikely preposition.

The ariados swarm wasn't too keen on staying in the sandstorm and immediately broke ranks to scatter and seek refuge within the surrounding vacant houses. At least that was the case within the storm. Above the swirling sands was another story.

Several meters between the rushing sands and the aircraft was a small group of ariados steadily making their way up a thick silk strand. Every time Gliscor broke the surface of the storm, the ariados launched volleys of silken strands. Staravia had also been sent out to help him. While he couldn't safely enter the sandstorm like Gliscor, he could at least keep the ariados busy and slow their advancement. He did his best to keep some of them occupied, still others crawled up the thread.

Efforts to sever the strand with long-range attacks inside the storm had failed. No matter how much strength he put behind his X-Scissor, the thread withstood all his punishment without so much as a nick for all his trouble. There was the possibility that he could slice through it with his claws but he decided against touching the silk.

A few minutes earlier, a String Shot from one of the ariados above the sandstorm latched onto his tail. His attacker quickly realized it'd gotten more than it bargained for when Gliscor pulled the unlucky ariados into the storm. The idea of releasing the strand held between its mandibles lost its appeal when it saw how far away it was from the ground.

And so the ariados struggled to hold onto Gliscor while the flaying winds whipped it around like a kite in a hurricane. When the scouring winds didn't finish it off, the aeroscorp gave his tail a hard yank, reeling the ariados straight into the crushing embrace of his open claw.

Battered — and now beheaded — the body plummeted to the ground where it splattered, leaving Gliscor's claw with the crushed and dripping remains. Seconds into the kill, Gliscor realized he couldn't open up his claw to release the pulpy contents. As hard as he tried, he could only widen the gap by about a centimeter, revealing the silk strand in what was once in the ariados's mandibles.

The sand coated thread linked his stinger and claw, while it didn't limit his mobility; this wasn't the ideal moment for a handicap. Tearing it apart by the strength of his tail and arm only served to exhaust him further. While the silk was covered by a layer of sand carried on the winds; he didn't want to risk immobilizing himself even further by using his fangs or his other claw.

Gliscor eventually landed by Rampardos, who had just barreled through a house, removing one of the tilt-rotor's anchors.

"Can you help me get this thing off?" Gliscor yelled over the din of swirling sands. Rampardos turned to face him, the wreckage of the house falling off his body with every step.

A few seconds was all it took for the lithic battering ram to understand Gliscor's dilemma. "Don't move," he commanded. Puffs of smoke coiled out from his mouth as he spoke. Before Gliscor could voice his concerns, the flames had already sprung forth. The air between him shimmered and hissed as sand flitted through the focused inferno and became wispy strands of glass. By the time Gliscor had registered that attack and hopped away, it was over. With trepidation, he noted a scorched patch of earth between them.

Glancing down, he noticed the webbing that connected his stinger to his claw had been severed; each end was slowly being devoured by flames that inched up the adhesive thread, heedless of the raging storm. On reflex, the aeroscorp flitted about and eventually snuffed out the flames before they reached his carapace.

"A warning would've been nice," Gliscor said huffily.

"Would you have stayed still if I had told you?" Rampardos replied.

Gliscor opened his mouth as if to say something, thought about it for a second, then promptly closed it. "Point made."

"Thought so." Rampardos smirked.

"Wait, if you can just burn the webbing, why haven't you done it for the thing holding the ship?"

"I thought the same thing, but Onix"—the mention of the stone snake's name was punctuated by the explosion of another house in the distance—"said that the fire could end up doing more harm than good to that flying metal thing and the humans inside. He thinks that whatever makes their webs sticky also makes it burn really well."

"Guess that makes sense." Gliscor sighed, looking at the burnt strands from his claw.

"Speaking of…" Rampardos murmured, tilting his head to get a look at the central strand that anchored the aircraft, several strands extending from the central cord and linking it to the surrounding houses. "How's it going up there?"

"Not good! There's a group of ariados climbing up the strand to get on the ship. Staravia's doing his best but with so many attacking him, he can only dodge and make attacks that'll slow them down. Every time I come up to help they try and web me or knock me down with a wall of needles."

Rampardos nodded then looked around, watching Onix plow through another house that helped anchor the aircraft to the ground. "It won't be too much longer until we finish off these houses and all we'll have to deal with is that big strand. Onix plans on weakening the ground at the base of that web column and though they'll be carrying a lot of sand and silk, they'll able to fly away.

"This sandstorm won't be going for too much longer and the moment it ends, I'm sure these buggers are gonna hit us with every web and needle they've been holding before Onix can start a new one. Hopefully your group and mine will be gone by then."

"Here's hoping," Gliscor replied, trying to force some optimism into his voice.

"Tell you what; let me give you a boost."

"Thanks, but I can get back up there with my tail." The aeroscorp waved his claw.

"I know you can, but with all this wind and sand, you start slowing down before you actually breach the surface of the storm."

Gliscor's gaze traveled up the strand until he couldn't see it through the haze of sand before breathing out and closing his eyes.

"Okay what did you have in mind?"

Rampardos smiled. "Hold onto my head and get ready to jump."

Gliscor did as he was told, grabbing hold of Rampardos's horns and coiling against the hard surface of the Head Butt Pokémon's blue crown. The Head Butt Pokémon broke into a run that lasted a few seconds before slamming his tail into the ground and catapulting into the air. The aeroscorp was astonished at how high Rampardos's leap had carried them but he didn't have time to ponder the thoughts before Rampardos spoke.

"Now!" Rampardos roared. Gliscor took the hint and extended his tail with all of his strength. The aeroscorp rocketed through the air, feeling the sting of the sand as he flew faster than he had ever gone. The prickling passed once he burst through the sand cloud and saw the aircraft once more, but what he saw filled him with dread.

Staravia was plummeting towards the sandstorm.

While Gliscor had seen him do that a dozen times, only to shift the angle of his wings at the last second and fly back up with a sudden burst of speed, there was something off this time. Upon closer examination, the angle at which he fell was completely wrong.

Rave's wings hung at his sides, his head curled inward as his body slowly turned during his fall. Gliscor's vision shimmered then reddened as Staravia's body faced him and revealed a glowing purple needle embedded in his chest.

The ariados were now atop the aircraft, circling what looked like shards of ice. The aeroscorp thrust out his arms to slow his ascent, twirling through the air and screaming as he soared back towards the vessel.


A few moments earlier...

"Tell me again why we can't just hit them with our needles anymore?" Zukus demanded, jamming his foreleg into the seam of the top hatch on the aircraft's roof.

"When they dropped the eggsack holding your brood, did your egg break the fall? Honestly! It's because of you and your stupid group that we have to deal with those rock beasts and a fucking sandstorm!" Ilzbe hissed, pointing at the swirling sands below them.

"Don't get your web so tangled. I didn't lead the charge! Go hiss at Sniknej and Yoreel," Zukus snapped, glancing up from his work to keep an eye on the Staravia that darted around them.

"There's no point in yelling at them now because they're dead and it's all because those stupid silkspitters went and charged in headfirst and got slaughtered! I know your swarm recently joined ours, but this is what happens when you don't consult Kailob on how he wanted to do this! We could've done this quietly, stealthily!" Ilzbe continued to rant.

"Why does Kailob even want these humans alive anyway? My group captured plenty of humans from the town over." Zukus's voice strained as he struggled to find purchase along the seams.

"Because unlike you and your group, Kailob can think of the long-term goals. If you poison them with one of our stings then they liquefy, which is fine for a meal. If we just kill without poison, then once again that's only good for a meal or two. But if you keep them alive and drain'em a little bit at a time, then you can keep them for longer. All you need to do is give them a little water every day and they can last you a month."

"Don't we have enough?"

Ilzbe responded with a withering stare. "You know what, maybe you're right. Maybe we have all the food we need. Let's just spit our web at the spinning things that are keeping this thing above the ground, let it crash, burn, and kill all the potential food inside and head back to the forest. Then when we start dividing up the food amongst the swarm, I'll let Kailob know you didn't want extra food, so you and your brood can make do with less while the rest of us have an equal share."

"Okay, I get it!" Zukus growled, jamming his stinger into the seam.

"Maybe if it were just for us, then I might be inclined to agree with you. But some of us have offspring we need to feed and there's no telling how long it'll be before we find food again."

"It just a few humans and their warriors, we're losing a lot for getting so little back." Zukus worked his stinger back and forth as he tried to pry the hatch open.

"Kailob said every drop of blood counts," Ilzbe replied, to which the other ariados rolled their eyes. "Maybe look at it this way, the more we lose, the more food for the rest of us and our offspring." Ilzbe's piercing glare and clicking mandibles silenced the dissention within the ranks.

"Now when Zukus finally pries that damn thing open, remember what I told you."

"String shots only." Everyone groaned in unison.

"Excellent, now could somebody please tell the others to kill that thing." Ilzbe motioned with her head towards the darting figure of Staravia. A group of ariados further down the strand had been dedicated to keeping the flying Pokémon busy and at bay. Though if truth be told, their orders to avoid killing it were the only thing that had kept it alive.

"Thought you said every drop of blood counts," an Ariados echoed in a mocking tone.

"Those creatures have barely enough blood to be a decent snack and Kailob won't miss one bird. So could one of you kindly let the others know?" Ilzbe didn't mention that one of the Staravia's earlier attacks had nicked her face and anything that hindered her ability to mate with Kailob was a transgression that only death could fix. She let the question hang in the air and watched the group until one of them stepped forward and descended down to the others.

"Hey, I'm almost through!" Zukus announced. "The rest of you ready?" He looked back for confirmation.

The rest of their group nodded silently and braced themselves while their mandibles twitched in anticipation. Zukus nodded back and stabbed at newly formed gap in the metallic seam, wedging his stinger deeper before lifting with all his legs and popping the hatch off the aircraft. Luckily, half of his work had been done for him with several holes having already been punched through the ceiling.

Uza, one of the more hungry and eager ariados peeked his head in — only to immediately have his skull cleaved nearly in two by a silver blade at the end of a yellow creature from inside.

The creature darted back through the hole so quickly that no one was entirely sure what, if anything, had had happened. Their doubts were immediately dismissed when watery gurgles sounded in their midst. While a lethal blow, it hadn't instantly killed its target, leaving Uza to make wet screeches as his legs scrambled in place.

Ilzbe pushed him through the hatch where he crumpled onto the ground and elicited a few screams from inside. Uza's suffering was short-lived as only seconds after slamming into the ground he was blasted by a thin blue beam and frozen on the spot, an opening Zukus took to make his strike.

Peering inside, he could see three humans hugging the wall at the end of the room. The tallest one sported blue hair atop her head and cradled in her embrace was what he could only imagine was her offspring.

The other small human stood off to the side with the yellow creature that had brought about Uza's demise standing guard over him. The two made eye contact, Pikachu dared him to try and make any move against the human behind him. Zukus knew of electric types and considering the boost in power everyone had experienced, wanted no direct quarrel with that creature. Before the mother and child was a small, brown creature Zukus recognized as a Buneary currently in the process of freezing Uza's carcass..

"So it's between the short or tall one," Zukus mused for a moment before deciding to take the path of least resistance. By the time Buneary registered the adhesive thread, it was already too late. In a surprising feat of speed that even Zukus had to admire, Johanna shoved her daughter out of the String Shot's path and took her place.

Dawn had been his initial target, being smaller and therefore easier to reel out of the aircraft. But the promise of more meat was a prospect that Zukus wasn't about to pass up. Buneary's first instinct was to freeze the strand, but fear of flash-freezing anything — or in this case — anyone connected to it made her hesitate. Zukus leapt back, launching another String Shot from his spinneret onto another part of the aircraft and pulling himself back with his hind legs.


Pikachu's tail flashed into steel as he prepared to leap over and cut the strand. That was, until he saw the head of another ariados peek in through the hatch and take aim at his oldest friend. If he moved, it would leave Ash open to any attack the ariados threw at him. He froze, wondering which attacker to strike. He flashed back to the hateful words Piplup and the rest of Dawn's team had spat at him upon learning of Ambipom's death. No matter who he saved, he imagined cruel, cutting words from everyone aboard.

That moment's hesitation was all Zukus needed to pull Johanna up to the roof but she seemed to halt as if the ariados had second thoughts. At the last second, Johanna threw out her arms, grabbing one of the ceiling handholds installed in case of turbulence. Dawn's piercing scream threatened to deafen everyone in the room. The girl's arms were outstretched, as if to pull her mother back, but her body was frozen in place.

Johanna looked at her daughter's face, watched her screaming herself hoarse with tears pouring down her cheeks and a horrified expression that she had never seen in the decade of raising Dawn. That look of unadulterated fear wasn't the last image she wanted to have of her daughter but the forceful tug from the webbing on her back reminded her that harsh reality sought to make it so. Her hands were scrabbling across the ceiling for purchase, the strength of her limbs quickly waning beneath the tireless efforts of the ariados outside.

Another powerful yank nearly pulled her out of the hatch; her fingertips now the only things anchoring her to the interior. She looked to Ash and saw the shock in his eyes consumed by a fire of determination that compelled him to move. Bursting into motion, he ran across the room, vaulting the row of chairs and leaping at her, his hand reaching out towards her own.

One of the ariados took aim, only to watch the world spin when Pikachu's Iron Tail knocked its head off. A vicious pull reeled Johanna's left arm back with her right arm soon following. Ash was close enough to see the reflection in his eyes, his lips forming words that told her to grab his hand.

"Take care of my daughter."

Those were Johanna's last words before her hand gave out and her body soared out beyond Ash's reach. The boy from Pallet crashed back onto the rows of chairs as the sudden slack in his arm threw him backwards. He gritted his teeth as the awkward landing twisted his ankle, sending a white blanket of pain over everything except for Dawn's wails.


"Bun, seal it off, like you did with the windows!" Pikachu yelled as he landed atop one of the chairs.

Buneary stared at him blankly for a few precious seconds. "But she's out ther—"

"And she won't be the only one if you don't seal that opening with ice!" Pikachu yelled, hating himself for what he was forcing Buneary to do. He felt a shadow fall upon him; the presence of another entity registered. On reflex, he bounded off the chair and went into a spin, splitting the body of the ariados above him in two with the swipe of his metallic tail.

Pikachu was still twirling through the air when he noticed his victim's body falling around him. It was after his strike that he noticed another ariados had replaced the one he had killed. With no way to dodge whilst in midair, Pikachu wracked his brain for his next move.

Had he still possessed the connection to his element, he would've welcomed the attack; anything that came in contact with him would be dangerously electrified. Seeing as he no longer had command over his element, he would have to get creative.

Or he would've, if a rush of cold hadn't flood the room. The electric mouse landed on one of the front seats and turned to see a chandelier of ice crystals covering the hatch. Frozen in midair was the sticky thread aimed at him.

Pikachu lowered his gaze to see Buneary staring at him. Flickers of anger, sadness and pain were the most frequent, especially as the voice of her coordinator filled the room. She turned away from him to see Dawn dissolving into puddle of unintelligible whimpers. Brock slid the door open and exited the cockpit, leaving Croagunk to guard the hole in the windshield with Jessie and James.

"What ha—" Brock began before his voice faltered as he took in the scene. In the span of a few seconds, everything had changed and it wasn't hard for him to figure out what happened.

Pikachu watched Brock move past him and Ash before backpedaling to look at the fallen trainer. Ash waved him away, hisses of pain escaping as he grimaced and clutched his leg.

Brock took the hint and moved over to Dawn. He looked around the cabin one last time to assure himself that Johanna was no longer with them. A chorus of muffled screams filtered through the ice. Whether it was the Ariados, Johanna or a mixture was anyone's guess.

All the while Pikachu stared at the ice that covered the ceiling hatch. A single sentence repeated itself endlessly in his mind. "I saved the others, I saved the others, I saved the others, I sav…"


"I got one!" Zukus crowed, reeling the human in with his forelimbs but noting that she had gone strangely quiet and still. "A little tug like that couldn't have killed her?" he thought as he wrapped the strand around his forelimb and scuttled closer to her.

"And it looks like you're gonna be the only one," Yazeed, one of the other ariados, replied with a click of his mandibles.

"Why's th—oh!" Zukus lifted his gaze from his catch to see the spot where he'd pried the hatch open, now covered in a blossom of spiky icicles. More surprising than that was Ilzbe, who had launched her own String Shot into the interior. Whoever had sealed the hatch with ice had caught Ilzbe's attack in the process. As a result the ice traveled up its new vector and into Ilzbe's body. Her coloration was dull and dark. All moisture in her body had expanded and cracked her exoskeleton. A thin layer of frost coated her face as a pair of glassy and lifeless eyes staring back at him.

"I always pegged her as a frigid bitch, but that's just funny!" Yazeed cackled as he pointed at Ilzbe's frozen corpse.

Zukus threw him a look of somewhere between "Too soon," and "Seriously?" The look only lasted a few seconds before he sighed and nodded.

Yazeed continued, ignoring Zukus's glare. "How much you wanna bet this Kailob guy doesn't even notice she's gone?" The comment managed to get a chuckle out of Zukus before he stared at the ice crystals.

"So you wanna keep going for those humans?" His answer came in the form of Yazeed shaking his head.

"No thanks. I think I'm good. Now with Ilzbe gone, I say we pack it up and make for the woods. Word on the web says Kharzouz had himself a nice little cache. I'd say his share is more than enough to make up for whatever we're losing by leaving these humans alone."

Zukus couldn't disagree with that logic. Though he figured it didn't hurt that he'd already caught himself a human even at the cost of three other ariados.

"Got'em!" another ariados cried, catching the group's attention. Noticing everyone's stares, he pointed off into the distance where Staravia's body fell lifelessly into the sandstorm.

"Nice." The group murmured and nodded in approval until something burst out from the sandstorm and began to scream.

"Oh what now!?" Yazeed groaned as the dark figure hurtled towards the ship, barreling through river of Poison Stings. Two lights flashed around Yazeed; Gliscor's scream being the signal they needed to strike. Zukus was about to retaliate until something slammed into his head and knocked him back. Johanna's foot hung in the air for a few seconds until she scrambled back onto her feet behind Umbreon. Dark shadows misted off of Glameow's paw before swiped at Yazeed's head, slicing through his brain and throat with little effort.

Gliscor crashed into one of the ariados, clutching its head in his claws and crushing it. Another Ariados fired a String Shot at him from behind; thinking the aeroscorp's back was unguarded. In a blur of movement, Gliscor spun around and blocked the adhesive string with his beheaded shield. The ariados's head exploded in his purple claw; the rest of the body was tossed off the side of the ship.

By the time the ariados cut the line to avoid following the corpse down to the ground, Gliscor was already next to him. The ariados tried to dart away but Gliscor had already clamped onto his forelimbs. Before the ariados could even release any needles or silk, Gliscor ripped off the legs and stabbed them into the unfortunate arachnid's thorax in a single fluid motion.

Any screams that would've made it past his mandibles were forced back into his throat when Gliscor's tail slammed into his face and dropped him onto his back. Beaten and battered, the fallen ariados was far from hurting anyone for a long time; a fact that didn't seem to register with Gliscor as he continued to slam his tail into the arachnid's face, caving in its head deeper with every blow. Pieces of chitin flew into the air as he brought his claws into play; the mist around him grew denser with every spray of ichor.

"You bastards! Which one of you bastards killed him?" Gliscor roared, having no idea if the one he was pummeling into paste was responsible for Staravia's death, but in his rage, he couldn't care less. The gory display not only unnerved the existing ariados but Glameow and Umbreon as well. Zukus backed away slowly, Umbreon's yellow rings glowing in full force. Outmatched and outnumbered, Zukus looked over the edge of aircraft to the swirling sands below and decided to take his chances with the storm. At first, he lamented that he had given up his meal, but a brief glance at his forelimb reminded him that all was not lost.

He briefly planted his spinneret onto the aircraft's surface before leaping off and disappearing over the side. Johanna was about to allow herself a sigh of relief. Only to have it interrupted when the webbing on her back tightened and spun her around.

Glameow turned upon hearing her coordinator slam into the roof and slide towards the edge as if being dragged by some invisible force. By the time Umbreon registered what was happening, Johanna had already fallen away from view.

Both of them sprinted towards the edge to see the ariados hanging from a thread, hanging even lower was Johanna, dangling just above the vortex of shifting sands. Zukus quickly pulled his catch into his spindly embrace, Johanna screaming all the while.

"If he hurts a single hair on her head…" Umbreon seethed, every one of Johanna's cries another knife in her heart.

"He won't. He knows his life is forfeit otherwise. He's gonna hold her hostage until he can get away," Glameow said. She looked over the situation and added, "He's too high up to simply jump — assuming that sandstorm doesn't just tear him apart — and anything he could use to swing away from danger is too far away."

"Any attack I use would put Johanna at risk. If I cut him loose then Johanna follows him down. We don't even have a way to get down there to catch her or bring her back up here," Umbreon growled.

"There might still be a way to save her," Glameow replied before bounding away from the edge.

Umbreon turned her head towards Gliscor who was still in the process of pummeling the ariados corpses.

"Breaking them any more won't bring your friend back, darling. Right now my coordinator is about to die, and you're the only one here who can save her." Glameow motioned with a coiled tail over to where Umbreon stood. Gliscor held the ariados's lifeless husk in his claw for a few seconds, staring into its empty glossy eye before quietly nodding and tossing the head over the side to be consumed by the raging sands. He moved over to the edge with the dark Eeveelution and looked down.

"I can reach her, but I don't think I'd be able to cut through that silk," the aeroscorp replied after studying the situation for a few seconds.

"Let us handle that darling. Would you be strong enough to fly her back here?"

"I can't fly like…Staravia." The wince as he mentioned his dead teammate didn't go unnoticed by the duo. "I can glide down there and catch her, but getting back up here would require me to dip into the sandstorm to catch some air or go to ground and launch off my tail."

Glameow and Umbreon traded concerned looks for a moment.

"Rampardos said the storm should end any minute. I can keep her completely covered from the sand with my wings until then and jump back to meet you guys back here once it's done."

"That still doesn't solve our other problem. The second he sees you coming, he'll kill Johanna." Umbreon glared down at the Ariados who seemed content to calmly hang off the ship until the situation changed for his benefit.

"Couldn't we just go and get the others?" Gliscor offered.

"Two things: can you break that ice quickly without damaging the ship and do we have time? You said the sandstorm will be done soon. By the time we mobilize, he could be gone."

"I have an idea," Glameow interjected, causing the other two to look at her. "We just have to make sure he only sees our flying friend." She smirked


A solid minute passed until Johanna stopped screaming and sobbing. She noted that the ariados holding her hadn't tried to harm her in any way. She looked up to see her two pokémon and one of Ash's own peering over at her from the edge of the aircraft. The ariados was watching them too, hisses and clicks emanating from its mandible. A language unintelligible — at least to her human ears. All three pokémon suddenly disappeared from view.

At least for a few seconds until a dark figure darted across the sky.

The ariados glanced back and forth between the aircraft's edge and the Gliscor that veered back and flew at them. Atop Gliscor was her Umbreon, the golden rings of fur on her body glowing so intensely that they had turned from yellow to a blinding white. The Ariados hissed loudly at them and while the sound alone would've normally made her faint, Johanna steeled herself for what was to come.

Gliscor and Umbreon were only a few meters away when Glameow landed on ariados from above and swiped at his throat with a shadowy paw in one smooth motion. Johanna felt the arachnid's legs around her body loosen before she started to slip completely from his hold. The light around Umbreon's tail condensed into a series of searing stars and zipped ahead, effortlessly slicing through the ariados' adhesive strands connecting them. Gliscor rolled to face his belly towards the sky as he glided, signaling Umbreon to jump.

Johanna couldn't help but scream as she fell towards the sandstorm; the presence of her Glameow falling beside her providing little comfort. Gliscor dove down, tucking Umbreon into his left arm as he adjusted his descent to fall parallel to Johanna and Glameow. Their paths eventually crossed, with Glameow reeling herself into Johanna's embrace with her tail while Gliscor wrapped himself around Johanna's form.

Wind and grit battered Gliscor as he dove through the sandstorm, nearly throwing him off balance when he spun around to angle his tail towards the ground. The impact of the landing was surprisingly soft; enough that Johanna was pleasantly surprised that they had stopped moving. Gliscor slowly lowered himself onto the sand, coiling his tail to spring up at a moment's notice.

Just as Rampardos predicted, the storm didn't last much longer. The sand and winds settled down a minute after Gliscor's landing. The aeroscorp slowly unfurled his wings; Glameow and Umbreon darted out of the gap to take on any potential attackers while Johanna stumbled out of Gliscor's embrace to look at what was left of her town.

Johanna's gasp seemed to be the loudest thing on the planet in the all-encompassing silence that hung over the town. Umbreon and Glameow risked a glance back at their coordinator, watching her take in deep gulps of air as she advanced a few steps in one direction and then retreated in another.

The coordinator's memories filled in the smoldering ruins of her town. Like hazy ghosts, the houses reemerged whole in her mind's eye. Simulacra of friends and neighbors she had known for years and who had been there for her when she was raising Dawn wandered the streets. Craters and gouges became immaculate gardens and roads. To her, it seemed as if she were waking from a nightmare, but the bitter, burning bite of the smoke and sand-choked air reminded her that the Twinleaf she was seeing was but an illusion from her memories and that the real Twinleaf had been all but erased off the map by a horde of ariados.

She blinked as she took in the remains of her town and gaped silently as she surveyed the smoldering piles of rubble and the Ariados skittering over the wreckage. Johanna tried to wrap her head around the fact that in less than an hour, her daughter and herself had become the last survivors of Twinleaf Town and that all she knew had been burnt to the ground.

Her house exploding at that very moment did nothing to help her come to terms with the grim reality.


A few moments earlier...

Roark dove into Dawn's room and rolled until he hit the foot of her bed, every rotation giving him a glimpse of Geodude slamming the door behind them. A tiny part of him that wasn't utterly consumed with fear and survival was proud that he had held out against the swarm for as long as he had. His body ached from the continuous, abrupt and brutal movements he'd gone through; any energy he had left was nearly spent just getting up off the ground.

The sweat pouring out of every pore mixed with the mud that coated his skin and clothes. The mud was a last-second innovation from Geodude. For some reason the ariados were limiting themselves to String Shots when they aimed at him. Considering the rain of needles they'd unleashed against them in the beginning, Roark wouldn't have been surprised if they had simply run out of energy to keep producing that move.

Seeing as Geodude wouldn't be able to stop every attack from coming through and striking Roark, he decided to find a way to nullify it in the form of the move Mud Sport. The miner —accustomed to being showered with dust and debris from the mines — found little discomfort in being coated in a thin coat of mud, especially with the results that it provided.

Sticky strings that managed to land on him simply slipped off, the layer of wet mud giving them nothing solid to adhere to. Geodude had done the same to himself and so, in a perverse parody of a gym battle, trainer fought alongside Pokémon. The duo slaughtered a seemingly infinite swarm of ariados that stormed up to the second floor. Despite their best efforts, something was bound to give.

Geodude's punches were coming slower; Roark's slashes and strikes with his shovel grew clumsier. For every ariados they killed, another was ready to take its place. Over time, their numbers became too great and the duo were forced to retreat back into one of the rooms.

The animate geode was already piling furniture against the door but the ariados were already making their own entrances through the walls. The rock pokémon spun to face his trainer, giving him a good, long look and a tired smile. Roark's knees trembled as he pushed himself to his feet with Johanna's shovel, using it like an old man would his cane. Geodude's gaze drifted over to the window behind him and noticed that the air was free from sand.

Geodude rolled past Roark, smashed the window with his fist and quickly scanned the sandblasted base of the house and even climbed out to peer over at the roof before he swung back inside. He perched onto the windowsill and steadied himself with one hand and extended his free hand to Roark.

The gym leader got the memo and took the stony hand. He stumbled towards the window and his stomach fell upon seeing the long drop towards the sand covered ground. Roark looked back, seeing a pair of mandibles poking through the wood and decided that his chances outside were better. Geodude wrenched the shovel out of Roark's hands and threw it out the window. Roark watched it soar through the air until it sheathed itself into the sandy soil several meters away.

Before he could ask why his weapon had been thrown away Geodude grabbed him by the hand, yanked him through the window and held him aloft. Roark yelled from the sudden movement and gritted his teeth as he dangled a few meters from the ground. The rock Pokémon slowly lowered himself down from the windowsill until he was holding on with the tips of his stony fingers. By that point there was only meter between Roark's feet and the ground when Geodude let go.

Roark grunted and staggered back as the shock of the landing ran through his body but with Geodude's help, the fall hadn't been as bad as it could have been. The rock Pokémon grumbled his name and pointed at the gym leader. When Roark didn't move, Geodude lifted his finger and pointed repeatedly towards the shovel. Roark took the hint and made his way towards the tool. He was only halfway there when he decided to look back, expecting Geodude to close the distance and catch up with him.

What he didn't expect to see was an incandescent white sphere inside the window he had just escaped from. The miner put the pieces together and stopped in his tracks, taking a step back towards the house. Roark was about to scream out when a blinding white light filled his vision. A wall of force and sand then followed, slamming into him and hurling him along the sandy ground. He skidded a few meters before he came to a stop. His vision swam with black and purple dots. His stomach whirled as he threatened to spew the sand that he'd swallowed on his brief tumble.

All that was left of Johanna's house was a smoking pile of rubble. Chunks of burning rock and debris from Johanna's home rained across the ruined field of what was once Twinleaf. His balance warped and the strength in his arms spent, the act of lifting himself up with his own arms became next to impossible. Roark slumped back down to the ground and screamed.

But either it wasn't loud enough or he couldn't hear it over the ringing in his ears.


The earth rumbled as Onix erupted from the ground. He immediately noted the distinct lack of sand in the air. Rampardos trudged out from the remains of one of the last remaining houses that anchored the aircraft to the town.

"All that's left is the central one," Rampardos said, swinging his head over the yellow column of sand coated silk.

"I'm not sure any of my moves could cut through it, at least not without affecting the flying metal thing," the stone snake grumbled.

Rampardos was about to comment when the house where Roark and Geodude were holding out disappeared within a dome of sound and light. The sand beneath them shifted from the blast and the two were left gawking at the sight. Both of them bounded over, stopping several meters short of the actual house when they found Roark's body.

"Geo wouldn't have–" Rampardos began.

"—he would if it meant keeping Roark safe," Onix interjected, having known Geodude a lot longer than the resurrected fossil ever had.

"I hope he took all those bastards with him!"

"Not all of them!" an ariados, known by the swarm as Kailob, yelled as he burst out from the shadows and unleashed a black bolt of lightning from his horn. The tendril of Night Shade speared through Onix's stony midsection and continued into the distance. Glameow and Umbreon noticed the attack heading towards them and tackled Johanna to the ground as it slashed through where her head would have been an instant before.

The umbral bolt faded from sight by the time Umbreon looked up to see if any more attacks were coming. Rampardos retaliated on reflex, filling the field with a cone of flame that forced the ariados to retreat into the woods. Umbreon glanced back to see if Gliscor had moved out in time and felt her spirit plummet when the aeroscorp stared blankly back at her. A hole drilled through the center of his skull.

Onix and Gliscor's bodies fell at the same time and while Onix's body caused the earth to shudder, Gliscor's fall had the most impact on Johanna's aces. The time to grieve was cut short when a new choir of hisses erupted from the forest. More ariados started pouring out from the woods, launching volleys of silk as they scurried over.

Onix groaned, rolling onto what would've been considered his belly and began to rotate, only to stop when he realized Roark was not with them and had no cover from the sand. "Take Roark!" Onix coughed before his body sunk into the sand and disappeared from sight.

Rampardos moved over to the fallen gym leader, crouching slightly to pick him up as he turned and ran towards what appeared to be Gliscor, a human, and two other pokémon he hadn't seen before. Once he was close enough to them, he placed Roark on the ground and turned to face the second wave of ariados still scuttling to them.

"Any long range moves you have would be really useful right about now!" Rampardos exclaimed before using the last of his energy over the fire element to raise a wall of fire.


"Umbreon, Glameow, use Swift on that central strand. Aim for the base of it on the belly of the ship!" Johanna commanded, struggling to keep her voice calm. The two did as they were told, understanding the implications and the outcome and accepting them readily.

Stars flew from their tails, spinning through the air and slicing away at the thick trunk of webbing beneath the aircraft. Like a massive redwood, the tower of silk buckled and fell just as several thinner strands flew from the swarm to try and take its place. Another salvo of stars was quick to intercept the strands and keep them from reaching their target.

Roark pushed himself to a sitting position and watched as Team Rocket's aircraft moved away, gaining some distance with its newfound freedom. To his surprise, it was moving slower than he expected. He could only imagine the chaos going on inside, the conflict of emotions and interests. Or was it easy for them? To leave him and Johanna behind to save their skins? Part of him couldn't really blame them; he had done just the same with the people of Oreburgh. Another part of him couldn't help but be bitter that they were leaving him behind.

"I wasn't like you in the end," Roark muttered as he turned to see Johanna beside him. Her entire body was shaking as he gave orders, tears streaming down her face as she watched the aircraft disappear into the horizon. Rampardos's fire wall eventually died down and revealed the sea of spiders that had gathered there. Glameow and Umbreon redirected their efforts, summoning as many stars as they could muster.


Glameow targeted the actual ariados while Umbreon aimed at the adhesive threads being fired at them.

"Never thought it would end like this darling," Glameow said, doing her best to force some cheer into her voice.

"Same. Who would've figured I'd go down beside a cat," Umbreon replied, the poison sweat making her fur appear glossy and slick.

"How about beside a friend?"

Umbreon was quiet for a few heartbeats before allowing herself to do something she hadn't done in years.

Regardless all the chaos around them, despite the fact that their situation owed all their focus and attention, Glameow didn't miss Umbreon's smirk.

"Yeah, I could do that." The Moonlight Pokémon chuckled; the sound alone was enough to make Glameow redouble her efforts and light a tiny spark of hope that they might somehow make it through the night.


Johanna kept her focus off into the night sky; Team Rocket's ship having since disappeared from sight. She spoke the words she knew her daughter would never hear but hoped that she would always know in her heart.

"Go and be safe. You're going to have to be strong now. I love you. Momma loves you so much, sweetie." Johanna dropped to her knees and sobbed as Umbreon and Glameow inched backwards in response to the horde of arachnids. Rampardos wasn't doing much better. He was out of fire moves and having to make do with physical strikes. While one ariados was being killed, another took advantage of the opening and hit him with a String Shot.

The moment his thoroughly webbed Rampardos hit the ground, Roark had his pokéball at the ready. With his ace Pokémon gone, there wasn't much else to stand between him and the wave of ariados that realized their catch was now gone. Umbreon could only glare at the ariados that now surrounded them while those behind them were feasting on Gliscor's fallen body. Glameow risked a glance back at Johanna. Tears quietly poured down the coordinator's face as she stared blankly into the distance.

Seeing that opening, the Ariados lunged at their targets as one. In that moment, all Johanna, her Pokémon and Roark saw was darkness.