Wally sat at the edge of the pond, only allowing the tips of his toes to touch the cool water. A ripple shook the entire water body like an earthquake. He sat alone; he liked the calm feeling of isolation. He could let his mind and eyes wander like never before. It wasn't safe to be on his own, he knew this- so he stayed close enough for the patrol team to hear him.
The group had made camp after two continuous days and one night of travel, and Wally understood that the oncoming battle required energy they needed to conserve right now. He had two patrol teams circling the large camp at all times, also in charge of ensuring that no camper gave their position away with an excessive use of sound or light. It was about three in the morning, so the shift would have changed, and now Wally had no idea which team was patrolling the area close to him.
Isolation made him alert to the sounds of everything, and isolation made him hear the first one crawl up the hill towards him. He heard a low rustling, and after straining his ears, ascertained several different pairs of feet padding as silently as possible towards him. Quickly, keeping his back to his oncoming attackers, he reached for his belt and withdrew a Pokeball, making sure no one behind him could see the minimal arm movement. He released Crobat in his arms to hide him from the intruders- luckily, the reflection of the flashing light in the pond was visible to only him. He whispered softly to Crobat and watched the Pokemon glide gracefully into the darkness. No one noticed; if they had, the attack would have begun.
Wally loosened his belt a little more, and he had three Pokeballs in his grasp now. He had waited for this moment- the chance to truly let his team loose. After years and years of mentally training his Pokemon for a day like this, he would not let himself down. If stealth was the name of the game, there was no pair like Gardevoir and Crobat.
A soft plop had Kabutops almost fully submerged in the water in front of Wally. The frightening Pokemon gazed at Wally, seemed to understand the intent look given to him along with a finger to the lips, and disappeared underwater.
After an almost exact time of two minutes, Wally was all set, and ready for an ambush. Kabutops lay silently below the surface of the lake, biding his time until Wally called on him. Crobat had sneakily flown away to alert the nearby patrol group that his trainer might require assistance, and inches above Wally's head, Gengar floated, invisible in the darkness. The footsteps had become considerably louder by then; as if the ambushers had decided they had Wally good and cornered. Ruffling his hair, Wally stood, turned, and straightened his shirt. He raised his eyebrows in surprise at the group before him.
Standing at the periphery were three trainers, none of whom Wally recognized- two women and one young man. They were very familiar- wearing clothes that resembled Ash's old getup, in the traditional Pokemon trainer color combination, gear and all, but Wally could not place they names. But he saw in them the fear they had probably expected in him. They feared him, Wally realized, but there was something else about them, perhaps an ulterior motive- they kept looking around furtively, frowning as if something were wrong. Had Wally's planned counter-ambush become just too quiet? Had the silence given his plan away? That was when Wally noticed the man standing in front of the group, dressed a leather jacket, black tee shirt, and a pair of ripped and faded blue jeans. Blaine looked the most tense of the lot. A Pokeball was clutched in his clenched fist. Blaine looked left and right, ascertained that Wally was alone, and frowned.
"Where's Ash Ketchum?" he asked.
Wally was taken aback.
"Well, that's a little offensive. You're not here looking for me?"
"Shut up" snarled Blaine. "Where is he?!"
"What if I don't want to tell you?"
Blaine spun around, as if Ash might be hiding somewhere in the shadows, perhaps perched on a tree like a patient Beedrill ready to strike.
"He's not here." Wally said bluntly. Blaine looked at him seriously, attempting to associate constant eye contact with honesty. Wally began walking slowly, cautiously, away from the lake behind him. He did not want to fall in, not when he knew it was ice-cold and probably very deep. Blaine and the three trainers began mimicking Wally, and soon the group moved in a circle, until Wally's ambush squad found itself backed to the lake. Wally smiled. Blaine laughed.
"There's nothing to smile about, kid. Where are you going to run?" Blaine was right. Wally had nowhere to run. But then again, he had no intention to do anything of the sort. Hands went to Pokeballs in a flash, and the grass was lit up as beams of light brought out various Pokemon. The standoff was complete- Wally's Gardevoir levitated silently, intimidatingly, in front of four Pokemon Wally needed to take very seriously. Sparks flew from Electabuzz's skin, singing the grass, and the ground quaked every time Golem stomped. Seviper hissed dangerously, shockingly violet venom dripping from its fangs, and Scyther's electric green wings fluttered in the night. Blaine's Electabuzz resembled him in its open mouth leer; Blaine had clearly foreseen Wally's defeat and imminent death. Four on one, and there was something else Wally could see Blaine store his confidence in. Something seemed to be hidden, not externally, but in some other way. The Pokemon Wally saw before him were very different.
After years and years of training alongside each other, Wally and his Pokemon had achieved what Ash and Gary had years before him. Wally recalled his first battle with Ash. Gardevoir statistically had the upper hand undoubtedly, but minutes into the battle, Wally understood the advantage Ash had over him. There was a strange tension in the air every time Ash and his Pokemon stood on the battlefield. It stopped being a Pokemon battle- it always seemed like Ash took part in and felt the pain as much as his Pokemon did, and that gave off a scintillating aura, an aura of energy that seemed to make Ash look almost mystical to opponents. Trainers looked at Ash and were hit with a blast of pure confidence and power, something that Wally had achieved after many years of understanding his Pokemon and developing what Ash called the 'mind connection'. But these Pokemon…these Pokemon were on a completely different level; the sheer energy that seemed to emanate from them made Wally's confidence waver, and almost dulled Gardevoir's magical glow. But the energy seemed evil; almost forced, almost full of darkness. Electabuzz was larger than the type usually grows, he observed, and Seviper's savage tail seemed to curl and shimmer much more than usual. Was this what Ash meant when he talked about the manipulation of Pokemon souls?
If so, Wally had to keep his wits together. If Blaine and his crew had full command of their artificially strengthened Pokemon, there was no telling what could happen. Neither side moved. Blaine simply sneered as he watched Wally's face tighten in anticipation. Suddenly, with no warning, Wally screamed.
"NOW!"
The unbroken surface of the lake exploded as Kabutops leaped out, blade-like forearms glinting in the moonlight. The Pokemon's velocity had him crashing into the coiled body of Seviper, forcing the serpent to dash away, only after receiving several nasty slashes to its underbelly. At that moment, Golem moved, curling into a ball and spinning like a wheel towards Gardevoir, who only dodged the attack by inches. At Wally's word, she hurled her Psychic energy at the spinning rock, but could not penetrate its armor. Electabuzz turned and did exactly what Wally predicted- directed an earth-shattering thunderbolt at Kabutops.
It had gone exactly as Wally had planned. Milliseconds before the jolt hit Kabutops, the dark mist settled over the entire hill, dark mist Wally knew could only come from Gengar. In the darkness, Wally could see nothing except irregular flashes of electricity and the rapid movement of Scyther and Golem attempting to fan the mist away. Behind Wally, Seviper and Kabutops writhed around, fangs and claws swirling into a tornado of streaming blood and sliced earth. Kabutops' hard exoskeleton was hardly penetrated by Seviper's incessant slashing, but the ancient Pokemon could not do more than scratch through the serpent's hard scales.
There was a muffled boom and Wally knew Gengar had unleashed his Shadow Ball attack within the cloud of dark mist. Wally flinched as he heard a yelp from Electabuzz. Gengar seemed to understand Wally's hesitation, and materialized beside his trainer, waiting for the next plan of action. Even though he knew the enemy would not think before cutting him and his Pokemon down, he still felt some level of compassion, except that the moment he thought this, he realized how wrong he was. He couldn't afford to show any mercy now, he re-concluded. Just as he was about to send Gengar back into the fray, the darkness cleared, revealing Scyther spinning like an electric green top, using it's large claws to cut through the dark. Seviper slithered back into position beside her trainer.
Wally, panting, watched as the seven Pokemon squared off yet again. With wary eyes, he realized that while his Pokemon were absolutely fine, the same applied to the enemy as well. This battle would be one he could not afford to waste time on, not when they had a real battle to fight soon. He wondered where Crobat was, and if help was coming. The group went at it again, claws, fangs, and psychic energy flying everywhere; more than once, the grass caught fire out of sheer friction. Gardevoir glided sideways, dodging the continuous poison sting thrown at her by Seviper, who managed to neatly evade every blast of Psychic energy thrown at her.
Electabuzz had all of Blaine's persistence, showering electric energy everywhere, and striking its target more than once. Wally's three were occupied, and none could devote time to clearing the field of Electabuzz, who was more than happy to send surges of electricity arching into his opponents from afar. Soon, Wally's Pokemon had their backs to the lake, and the four opponents closed in menacingly. Scyther suddenly moved very fast, feinting left and right and then charging at Kabutops at appalling speed. As Wally watched, Electabuzz delivered a bright burning bolt of electricity straight to Gardevoir, and Golem and Seviper, like a ball and chain, leapt at Gengar, who, in panic, began hurling Shadow Balls in every direction. Wally could not think. He needed time, he needed space, he needed a little less to concentrate on. The moment before his Pokemon would get hit went by like minutes for Wally, as he tried to think up a strategy to avoid this. He seemed to watch sparks of electricity move in slow motion towards Gardevoir, and he seemed to see Scyther's claws coming down at almost quarter the speed.
There was a furious roar out of the forest, and after a slight rustling of trees, a red blur emerged. Like a flaming wheel moving out of control, the blur shattered into Scyther, sending the Pokemon flying, headfirst into the hard trunk of a tree. Wally sighed as he watched Scyther's eyes go out of focus from afar. Flames roared as Blaziken aimed a burning Blaze Kick at Electabuzz, who could do nothing to avoid an attack at such speed. Wally shook himself out of his reverie, even as May appeared by his side.
"Now! Gengar!"
Gengar's Shadow Punch came out of nowhere, sending Golem soaring into the lake, whose surface exploded as the heavy Pokemon submerged. Wally thought he heard a muffled scream of anguish from Blaine, but he couldn't hear it over the sound of Blaziken double-kicking Seviper into the ground while Crobat's Fury Cutter sliced through its scales. In a matter of seconds, the battle was done, and Blaziken, Crobat, Gengar, Gardevoir, and Kabutops stood in a circle around the shaking figures of Blaine and his crew.
"Pokeballs, on the ground." Wally commanded. Reluctantly, they undid their belts and let their Pokeballs roll onto the grass. May bent quickly and retrieved all of them. Just as she did, a beam of light flashed onto them and the patrol team leapt into the scene.
"Is anybody hurt?" one asked.
"No one except them. Keep these Pokeballs, Sandy." Wally said.
"What do we do with them?" Sandy asked, pointing to Blaine and the others kneeling on the ground.
"Take off all their gear, check them for weapons." May said, her soft voice breaking the night for the first time.
After Sandy and the others checked Blaine and his team, and then proceeded to push them into the forests below the hill. Weaponless, without equipment, and not a single Pokemon accompanying them, Wally was sure they'd have a good time in the forest. It was the most merciful thing he could do, he felt.
The next day began only a few hours after the incident on the hill. Day broke over the camp, and trainers rose grumpily, pack their things, and get ready to depart. Wally saw yawns still etched on their faces as the first group began moving towards the exit the scouts had charted out for the trainers. Wally rethought that, as he watched the massive troop of trainers walking out of the valley and into the pass. This was no 'group'. May seemed to be pondering just the thing, because he saw in her, as she stood beside him, an expression of awe.
This is an army.
An army it might have been, but Wally was afraid for them, at least for the next few days. It would take them about three days' constant movement to get them to Lavaridge, and most of that path involved the expansive desert between Fortree and Mount Chimney. He envied Brock, Misty, and the Rangers- he imagined the Rangers would travel in style. He remembered hearing from a group of hungry Rangers, a few years ago, an elaborate explanation of how important and wealthy conservationists and philanthropists constantly offer to fund the Rangers out of good will. The offers are usually refused, unless the particular group of Rangers requires something of importance. Those particular Rangers had taken the financial help offered them on one count- to build a special set of sheds beside a river for Pokemon that were affected by natural disasters. To get across regions to Hoenn, Brock and his friends would have to fly- unless they could somehow attain a ship, which would ensure that they joined the battle weeks too late. He wondered if the 'funds' the Rangers spoke about were that impressive.
He was frightened to death about the oncoming desert. He had been to this particular desert just once, when he passed through Fallarbor Town. Vicious swirling sands, scorching heat, and the blinding glow of the sun, matched with numerous Pokemon waiting to attack. The difference here would be a lack of Pokemon along with a complete lack of hikers waiting to challenge a person to a battle. In fact, there would be no Pokemon at all, he realized. The toll the current situation was taking on the environment in Hoenn was frightening, because Sven's base lay here at Pyre. Pokemon in the wild was an unheard of concept at the moment, with all the Pokemon either in hiding along with Rangers or hibernating, waiting for this to pass.
He hoped they might be able to take shelter in the ruins, a place Wally himself had slept at through an entire night. The freezing temperature was easier to deal with when you had walls on four sides, even if they were walls with cracks and holes. Assuming the ruins still stood. Wally swept his green hair out of his face and sighed. May intertwined her fingers with his; she looked as anxious as he did.