Battle for Shellder Town: Disaster

"S-Stem?" Bud whimpered to his Team Leader.

The shaking bellossom turned to the venonat. "Y-yeah, Bud?"

"I'm really scared. I want to go home now."

"We're explorers..."

Ago thought that an excellent way to describe the situation: scary. Apparently, the furret hadn't been nearly as precise as she could have been; there was definitely a tyranitar and riolu in front, but they did not come alone. The entire feral army lied in wait, their tamers flanking them and ready to give the command to attack. To think that nearly all of Shellder Town was peacefully sleeping through it was awe-inspiring. Ago cursed their luck- when they had sneaked by them earlier in the night in order to reach Shellder Town, they were all asleep. Why wake up and confront the guild at the crack of dawn?

If he squinted, Ago could see a sliver of sunrise peeking out from behind a tall grey mountain. If Lugum gained enough influence in the army, then why didn't she try to stop this? And what in Arceus's name led up to this adoption, anyway? Even from a distance, she looked neither victimized nor tortured- in fact, she almost appeared pleased.

According to reports on the army's numbers, the odds currently stood at fifty bandits versus eight explorers- and three of that eight owned no battle experience, and the three pokémon they needed the most were busy searching for the bastard's son. Their only hope was to find what the tyranitar desired, and time started to tick away as the sun rose and Lugum started yelling out and waving to the pikachu.

Lugum tripped in the middle of her gleeful skip, yet rolled out of the tumble and continued on. "Hey, Ago!" She shouted, "I'm okay!" The closer she ran towards them, the more on guard Dyne got. Each step only exacerbated the tension in the air. The explorer probably held no reservations when it came to attacking her the moment she posed a threat. Luckily, Tamerflame dashed forward and scooped her up before any real damage could ensue. "Lemme go!" Lugum whined to her new father, "my team is probably worried sick about me!"

Tamerflame didn't think highly of these antics, so he resolved the problem by tossing her off to the side like a doll. She landed on her feet, but the sheer gall of the tyranitar to throw around Ago's teammate was ridiculous and infuriating. "Hey!" He shouted at the bandit king, "don't toss her around like a fucking toy!" A fight with a pokémon who could unleash a hyper beam a third of a mile long should have been something to avoid, but if Ago backed down now, Tamerflame would come into town thinking he could get whatever he wanted. With master-rank explorers on their side, Ago felt certain that the giant could be taken down if he tried to attack.

Yet he only became more amused by the pikachu's anger. "Haha, I've learned a lot of things about your Team Leader. For one, she is mighty durable. Secondly, she is absolutely ready to inherent the empire I am building. She isn't your teammate any longer, you tough-talking piece of shit." Lugum jumped forward and whispered something to the tyranitar. "I mean... you tough-talking silly mouse."

"Pardon me for interrupting this... reunion," the Town Elder scoffed, "but I would like to have you clearing out immediately. We do not have your son, Tamerflame. You best be on your way."

"You see," Tamerflame told the parasect as he shifted forward, "that's shit and I know it. A scout of mine found someone who seemed very much like my son in your town. So you go and retrieve him... or I'll do it. Trust me on this: after I'm done with this place, no one will consider this shit hole a place of peace as long as it stands- which probably wouldn't be very long. I mean, it's just a single street? All I have to do is move a bit to the side, and I can level most of your buildings with a single, fucking attack. In fact, I think-"

"Hehe," Lugum chuckled nervously, "I think that's a little overboard, Flor- Tamerflame!" Things became brighter as the sun entered onto the scene, and it lit up the tyranitar towering over the Town Elder quite well. The pacifistic pokémon quaked, as all of his scruples, all of the 'what if's of avoiding violence, became his only defense.

He was suddenly very unsure of his previous assertions. "P-please, give us a description... anything we may go on- we can't work off the bits and pieces you have given us."

"We kill them now?" Came a yell from the army of ferals. They were getting fairly impatient with the parley. Up close, Ago could see which ones- the rowdiest, he presumed- had to be tied up to ropes and held by the tamers. Tamerflame held up a claw, asking for more time, and Ago sighed with relief. If the time came where the ferals attacked without Flightly, Chivarly and Pervádere, Ago knew his priority was to save Team Reapers while Dyne held them off.

Tamerflame nodded. "Okay, you're right! Probably should have started with that... I really need some sleep." They could all use a good nap, Ago admitted to himself. "He's a fraxure. That should be a pretty big fucking bit, right?" A fraxure... the Town Elder's assistant? In a way, Ago could see reason in his running away... but in terms of ideals his choice of town showed a total 180 degree shift.

The parasect backed up a bit, appalled. "My assistant Cistus is no son of yours! He is the most peaceable, agreeable, non-violent being to ever enter this town! He has solved more disputes using his words in a few weeks than any of my assistants in the past could handle in months! Cistus is a natural-born diplomat-"

"If you keep telling me my son is a pansy," Tamerflame growled, "I'm going to make you regret it." The parasect shrunk away under the threat. "If he isn't my son, why is he hiding? Where is your 'assistant' now, you old shit?" Once again, Lugum quietly spoke to the tyranitar. "A-hem. You old not-warmongering creep."

Ago's eyes widened as he noticed that, in fact, Cistus ran off and hid. "He sent that furret to get us, too," Ago pointed out to Dyne, "instead of getting us himself." At the mention of the furret, she suddenly emerged from a nearby alleyway between a restaurant and an old flower shop. Dyne had told her to stay at the other side of the town, but it seemed like she couldn't stay away, for whatever reason. Weren't pokémon in this town supposed to abhor violence?

She wiped her open eye with the scarf covering the other, her face covered with distress. The scarf now wrapped itself tightly around her left leg- probably so that she could run away without tripping on it. "I am Cistus's love, Lilith!" She asserted. For discovering that your love is the son of a bandit king, her voice still remained incredibly refined and harmonious. "You lie, filthy lord of vermin! My Cistus loves me too much to be your son!"

Tamerflame snorted. "Tell that to his mother, who died just months ago, from the long-lasting implications of his birth," he told her. "Your little pretty face will never be enough to reverse that love, you bitch." Lugum let the vulgar insult go on uncorrected, and the tyranitar appeared legitimately frustrated and upset. "Is it because your loss of an eye has stolen your depth-perception... that you can't even see how shallow you truly are?"

That insult made most of the members attendant at the parley flinch. Even Dyne put out a sympathetic ooh. Lilith clutched her scarf tightly. "I... I didn't know that," she responded, shame ruining the perfect tone of her voice. Ago never even considered that the scarf was covering an injured eye, but now that she used it to create a curtain between her and Tamerflame, it became more apparent. "I'm sorry. But... but I'm not shallow." Lilith rebounded, her voice regaining its soothing edge.

"I lost my eye, Tamerflame, on my father's farm, which grew quickweed- hard nourishment for explorers. Before my incident, I was known as the 'Princess of Quickweed'... I was so beautiful, and gaining popularity with many powerful pokémon." Lilith rubbed her paw across the pink scarf slowly and regretfully. "The scruples of this town seemed so wonderful; my beauty bloomed under the peace, each representing the other. That is, until I became an embarrassment, all due to a simple missed step. Walking back after a day of hard work uprooting quickweed, I accidentally planted one of my feet on the end of a farming tool, sending its shaft towards my eye. The splinters of the resulting fracture stabbed and blinded me permanently in my left eye, as you have commented upon."

She wiped away a tear with her scarf again. "The exploration teams that came to purchase quickweed... they would always ask. A-and when I told them, they all laughed at me! They thought the mundane circumstances of my injury invalidated my worth as a pokémon. Without a history of battles with which to excuse my scars, I became an embarrassment to all of my suitors. If I had only been more violent... they would still love me."

"Do not speak such blasphemous words!" The Town Elder warned, "I will have you exiled for wishing such things!"

"You are a silly little pokémon," she noted calmly. "But I am silly too. When I said that Cistus is my love, its authenticity faltered. Truly, I was only seeking a way out. And to know that this fraxure is the son of a bandit king... he disappoints me with his passivity when I sought for his aggression! We are all violent, violent creatures. Bloody and messy, only the gloriously wounded will attract the worthy suitors. My fall has taught me a single thing. Even princesses... are forced to kill for their dreams!" Throwing a paw into the folds of her long pink scarf, she withdrew a long, skinny blade. Lilith pointed it back and held it against her body. Falling to all fours, she kept her balance with her left paw, while the right stayed poised and ready.

The Town Elder was obviously not pleased. "Blasphemer! How dare you expose such a violent tool in the streets of our town? I hereby command you to exile!"

A gentle laugh came from the furret. "Thank you, it is all I have ever wished for from you, old coot. Ago's mind worked furiously, trying to comprehend what he was witnessing.

Tamerflame laughed heartily. "Ha!" He roared, pointing at the furret. "Do you come from the East, Lilith? The way you have compromised for your inability to properly swing a straight-sword is purely Altasan! It's a shame that we're mutually disappointed in Cistus, or else I'd give you my blessing in a heartbeat!"

This caused the furret to erupt into manic laughter. "See? See Town Elder?" She cried out, rising back up to her feet so that she could point at Tamerflame. "I become dangerous and they all love me! They want to see me get bloody!"

"You're nothing but a whore for the evil that is violence!" The parasect retorted. "You've performed a dark Sabbath with that devilish blade, and now your mind is corrupted!"

Lugum took a step forward. "Stop being so intolerant!" She reprimanded. "I think she looks very pretty holding the sword like that. It all flows very well." Leave it to the Team Leader to completely miss the fact that the furret was having a total breakdown. Ago was probably going to be next, at this rate; an imminent battle in a town full of pacifists approached; Lugum adopted as the daughter of Tamerflame, the newest bandit lord; a furret accused of being possessed by a sword; Daté proposed as serious candidate for the leadership of the Wigglytuff Guild. Nothing made sense anymore, and it boiled his mind.

As for the oddity at hand, even Dyne sided with the tyranitar. "This helps even the odds, in the case that we do battle. Why complain, if you are unwilling to volunteer yourself?"

The poor parasect, only trying to uphold what had been taught to him by his ancestors, found himself cornered. "She could be my second daughter that I adopt! Ha, with these two following me around, I won't even need an army! Would you mind having a sister, Lugum?"

"That sounds great!"

"No-oo-o!" Came a long-winded shout. Ago was sure that he had finally lost his wits; Gastro, leashed to a tamer, snapped through the rope and began to sprint towards Lugum. "I know that this is a delicate situation," he roared, "but that riolu has always been like a daughter to me!"

Lugum stared at the mightyena, unable to believe her eyes. "What? Gastro? How in Orchidia did you end up inside the feral army?!"

Ago respected the amount of bravery it took to push himself between Lugum and Tamerflame. "You forgot your lunch that I packed for you," he answered. "I told you not to get too excited and leave early, and then you did so anyway! Do you even listen to half the stuff I say? I think it is pretty important that you at least try, because I'm your boss, you know."

The riolu looked down guiltily. "I'm sorry, sir."

"You better be! I saw that you got yourself captured, so I infiltrated their ranks by acting like a stray feral, ripe for capture. It only took me putting out my tongue and acting extremely stupid to sell the act." Ago knew it to be a good thing that Flightly wasn't around to hear that. "You left with him during the nighttime, so I followed. And then he started swaying you with all this talk about how he really doesn't want to lead the army, and that all he wants is the world is to be responsible and save his son. He doesn't need help to crush his own army, so I think this little trick with making you his daughter is so greedy, because he already has a child-"

Lugum leaped over and covered the mightyena's mouth. "No, Gastro, no!" Tamerflame's confident expression turned to horror as murmurs started rising up in his ranks. Ago didn't know armies very well, but it sounded like this one just received the perfect excuse to pose a mutiny.

In a final, desperate attempt to keep control, Tamerflame began roaring orders at his army. "They are lying, don't you see? Stand ready, do not attack!"

But the ferals were too bloodthirsty, and the tamers too impatient for a chance to seize his position. "Now we see his true colors," a politoed shouted out. "Attack the traitorous bandit king! Slay all of these pokémon for the sake of our conquests!"

One by one, the tamers let go of their leashes. The ferals not attached to rope charged forward by the droves. And all the while, Flightly and the others were nowhere to be found. The situation had hit absolute zero. As the small group slowly retreated, Ago mustered the only word he knew to describe this kind of situation:

"Fuck."