Gray
Waking up tired had almost become a daily ritual at this point. It was already the fifth day of my training with Al Psy. The days and nights were blurred due to the constant battling followed up by the open floodgate of memories that were unleashed in my dreams. However, all of them related to my time with Rocket. I had yet to have a memory before my time with them. They were being selected by darkrai and so I had asked if there were earlier memories to be seen. He had been completely noncommittal.
On the bright side, the memories I had and the War Games I observed were helping me immensely. Taking two groups of pokémon, I was able to formulate a winning strategy and even predict different tactics before they were employed. Al constantly quizzed and corrected me, making the process even easier. However, not everything was going so splendidly.
"Gray, it's time for breakfast… Alder, Ellie and Latias all went ahead," Sarin whispered. Alder was the name Sarin had picked for treecko which she came up with after a day of deliberating. I thought her picking the name would help build her confidence in herself, but so far there was no visual results.
"Alright. Last two days here, huh?" I started gathering the few notebooks I had been using to record War Game tactics. Al had felt it necessary for me to draw up entire plans as soon as the teams were revealed and then compare my idea to what actually occurred. I also made sure to grab the Rocket knife. Having seen some of my past missions, it was painfully obvious how useful and necessary this knife was.
"…Yeah. I'm sorry for holding us back… I just don't mesh well with Ellie and Alder." While the observations were going well, my team couldn't fight without hurting each other. Al continued to not allow Shedinja to participate, forcing Ellie, Alder and Sarin to be my only partners. Ellie's earthquakes seriously harmed Sarin, Sarin's poison sting would hurt Alder whenever it wasn't aimed well and her blizzards… kept doing more damage to us than our opponents.
"The issue isn't with you… We're all a bit out of sync," I responded honestly. All these issues were causing Sarin to doubt herself constantly, further worsening her performance. Last night, we had quit after Dan had taken all three on by himself and won by exploiting the lack of coordination.
"Yeah, but I'm the common weakness! Ellie and Alder could probably win by themselves…"
"Sarin, stop it. Neither Alder nor Ellie are very strong right now. Dan is strong enough to probably beat Shedinja one on one. And it isn't like you haven't become stronger." We opened the door into the dimly lit hallway and headed towards the underground cafeteria.
"…I don't know why you want me to travel with you. You lied to me about not having other pokémon, didn't you? Sal always said that a trainer and his pokémon were on the same level, but you're miles ahead of us… I doubt Shedinja is even on your level right now. And that's not even mentioning what you did back at Sandgem…"
"Sarin, why would I bring you along if I didn't want you hear? I traveled with other pokémon, yes, but I haven't seen them in a while. I guess you could say I was starting over. If nothing else, if I'm really as good as you think, eventually you'll be on my level," I laughed easily.
We had arrived at the cafeteria so the conversation took a momentary lull. A pokémon cafeteria definitely was a bit different. Since pokémon sizes and styles differed so wildly, psychic pokémon would generally distribute food to where a pokémon would eat, like a restaurant. However, the food was still chosen cafeteria-style: fully presented and ready to be eaten. This wasn't to say the food was subpar. In fact, Al had nearly a hundred cooks and even some worthy of being called 'chefs'. The food was good enough that Al himself ate it.
Al Psy and Latias were easy to find. They sat at one of the few tables in the room over in one of the far corners. Sarin and I quickly selected our breakfast and moved to join them. As I sat down, Al looked up from his newspaper and took a sip of his coffee before greeting me. Latias smiled and nodded, but was more interested in feeding Ellie.
"Sleep well?" Al joked.
"Of course not. I had a dream about being in Veilstone after a mission. Centered around a mawile named 'Rosa'…"
"Oh?" Both Latias' and Al's heads turned, showing a renewed interest.
"Do you know her? She seemed… intriguing, I guess." Al and Latias shared a look before Al shrugged and turned back to me.
"I don't know her. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't know of her," Al started. "This was roughly a year and a half before I… met you. From what I gather, she was really young when you met her. You wanted to raise her, even to the extent that you resigned from Rocket to do so. Outside of that, you sheltered her from everyone else so well that outside your old party of pokémon, your grandfather and a few people on the Battle Frontier, no one would know her."
"All I remember is she got you into trouble within a week after I left you in Sinnoh…" Latias sighed. "The packet Georgie gave you didn't show anything on her?"
"I… didn't ever finish looking through it," I admitted. "I got so caught up in everything else that I just ignored it."
"Well, I guess my advice doesn't hold any water," Latias huffed. Her disappointment was visible in her eyes. "You'll have to look for yourself, then. Neither of us have any knowledge of her personally."
"I blame time constraints. The few days have been busy," I argued weakly.
Plates clattered as Latias slammed her fists on the table. "Really? I remember you saying…"
"Tía, it's irrelevant. Tonight, he may not have a choice. As I said earlier, Future Sight has suggested he'll be needed at his home tonight."
"I can't believe I expected anything more," Latias sighed. With that, silence reigned over an awkward breakfast.
Within an hour, I was preparing to begin the last session of training. My opponents today would be Dan, a Jinx named Shellie, a Shuppet named Toby and a politoad whose name I didn't know. Each was said to be comparable with one of my team's levels. Toby was Ellie's counterpart and Dan was comparable to Shedinja, according to Al.
Even before the battle started, the issues were numerous. Shellie would be able to take out Ellie, Sarin and Alder by herself. Toby wasn't dangerous in attack power, but Shedinja was incredibly frail by anyone who could bypass wonder guard. And Dan's power was probably too much for anyone to take on easily outside Shedinja. This wasn't even taking into consideration the range advantage they had. But Al stated I wouldn't be allowed to leave until I beat this group.
"We can start any time! I'm buzzing in anticipation," Dan joked, causing a few of his teammates to role their eyes.
"Then let's begin! This will probably take a while," Al laughed, seemingly pleased with Dan's joke.
Immediately, the sky turned dark and rain started to fall. It was obviously caused by the frog, but I wasn't too concerned. Neither side was seriously gaining an advantage by the rain. On my side, Shedinja disappeared and Ellie burrowed underground.
My plan was to have Ellie remain enough of a threat that Dan didn't risk moving into range to start his 'control style'. Once he moved to the center of the field, his ability to shower medium-range attacks and fluency in hand to hand combat made him too difficult to handle early. Unfortunately, Ellie wasn't really able to understand me yet. Even digging had been something Latias had to communicate to Ellie for me earlier. The strategy with her was really predetermined and inflexible.
Shedinja was of course my trusted flanker. If he could knock out Shellie, this game could be winnable. Toby wasn't leaving Shellie's side, making sure that Shedinja would fall if he attacked. Shedinja's frailness meant no mistakes could be made in his attack pattern.
"It's not a bad opening, Gray," Al advised from the sidelines. "However, this alone makes your core weaker. Sarin and Alder aren't going to withstand the group's attacks if they get close."
I nodded my acknowledgement, but I already had recognized this issue. Flanking teams divided themselves up, making attacking one of the individual components much easier for a group.
"Sarin, toxic spikes. Then, luminesce." The strategy I used back in Jubilife seemed to be my best option here given the limited resources. Perhaps making a stalled out fight was my best option?
However, the politoad wasn't afraid of advancing. Alder wasn't going to be enough of a deterrent to the water type. Nevertheless, I wordlessly sent Alder forward to guard Sarin and repel the water type. But when the stream of water was launched, it wasn't aimed at Sarin. Realizing my mistake too late, I noticed that the stream was directed to flood Ellie's tunnel.
Had it been the me from less than a week ago, I would've panicked and had Alder try and block the water. However, too much water had already made it through so Alder would never be able to change the situation there. Instead, when Ellie was forced to surface in-between Dan and the politoad, Alder jumped to position himself between the politoad and Ellie.
It was a puzzle. One of my partners on a fringe, cut off by an opponent who surrounded two more of mine with another three opponents outside. If left surrounded, my two would surely lose. Ellie lacked the mobility to escape, meaning that if I cut losses, she fell and Dan could basically win.
"Sarin, toxic into…"
"Gray, focus on Ellie and Alder, I can beat this one," Sarin interrupted. I wasn't sure where she got her confidence, but regardless I immediately turned my attention to the Alder. The politoad was poisoned from stepping on the poisonous spikes. It was definitely a fight Sarin could win but not one I thought she'd be confident enough to try.
As part of the strategy, Ellie started to cause an earthquake. It was weak, but still Dan had to respect it and back up a bit. Sarin was also near the edge of the shockwaves and taking some damage. However, she continued to duel with the politoad.
"Alder, the Jinx!" I shouted. Even though Alder was weak ice, Dan and Shellie immediately aimed for the threat. However, this left Toby slightly distracted. And in that moment, Shedinja claimed the first knock out of the match.
I allowed myself a grin. Risks like these weren't something anyone could pull off so easily. However, nonstop studying and fighting had gotten me to the point where I could confidently make these decisions.
"Get the bug, Shellie!" Dan yelled. However, Alder used pursuit and threw Shellie down from behind. He was now surrounded by two very strong opponents and unfortunately wouldn't last long, but Shedinja got out fine.
However, right as Alder was about to be overwhelmed, his body started to radiate a strong while light. In the span of a few seconds, Alder transformed into a larger, stronger form. His somewhat bushy tail was lost for two thin leaves. His hands and head gained more of these streamlined leaves, leaving his body looking incredibly streamlined.
"Ah, this is really inconvenient! One could say the situation has evolved badly," Dan laughed. Still, Shellie unleashed a blast of ice at point blank. But Alder's new form easily outpaced his old form in both speed and agility.
"Alder, fall back to help Sarin." So quickly, Alder streaked back the hundred meters to Sarin and the politoad. The leafs on Alder's arms grew long and sharp and without stopping, Alder struck the politoad at top speed. The little water type was sent flying with a deep gash in it's back. It hadn't even had the time to turn.
With two down, I became incredibly confident about my changes. However, before I could give my next command, Alder collapsed.
"Perish song," Al sighed, addressing my confusion. "You could've noticed Sarin telling you it if you weren't so caught up Alder."
I looked at Sarin, who shrugged helplessly. I patted my chest twice to silently signal that it was my fault.
"That bug needs to go, Dan." Shellie sighed. Dan nodded and began unleashing pulses of electrical energy. Thunder wave, an attack focused on crippling over damaging, would be able to affect Shedinja even with his unique ability to avoid most damage. More importantly, as long as Shedinja was within range, he would be crippled. No sight was needed. And with no sight, I wouldn't know if he was paralyzed.
But it wasn't really an issue. Shellie could only hurt Shedinja with Shadow Ball and Dan with Flamethrower. Neither of them were particularly good at wide-range area attacks.
"Sarin, toxic pits please." The one thing about Sarin I had been pleasantly surprised about was her intelligence. It might be a while before she rivaled Espeon, but she had been able to understand strategy so quickly that I had dragged her along to some of the War Games. Without even asking where, she spewed the toxic chemicals between the Dan and Shellie, forcing them away from each other. The toxic settled into temporary poisonous pits, acting as a temporary fissure.
Dan saw the strategy as soon as it started, but it was too late. Before Dan could jump across and use flamethrower, Shedinja appeared and hit the already-injured Shellie in the back. Regardless of paralysis, Shellie was naturally slow. As long as Shedinja could avoid the flames and escape, we were in the clear. I smiled, the trick of having him attack who I blinked at was invaluable.
However, Dan was still healthy. With Shedinja paralyzed, Ellie only obeying simple commands and Sarin still hurt from her fight with politoad. Even after that, some of Dan's long-range electrical attacks had hit her throughout the match. The fight was far from over. Or so I thought.
"Ah, I've been had!" Dan laughed, raising his hands in surrender. "That little munchkin might not beat me but no reason in trying to injure her when you played so well!" Al nodded his agreement and like that, I had finally bested Dan.
Al, Latias and I had ended up in a deserted part of the woods shortly after the match. The trees did well to shade the forest and for once, Latias dropped her illusion. Sarin and the rest of my companions were tucked away in their pokéballs and secured inside my backpack, so we spoke in general privacy.
"It was good to see you, Gray, but there's more pressing matters to attend to. Please find the pokédex holders and alert them. I'll keep in touch."
"Are you sure I'm ready? We both know Dan could've taken the last three relatively easily," I sighed.
"Truthfully? You're not. You're an easy week away and your companions may never reach that level. Shedinja in particular, while strong, may not get any stronger. We don't have the luxury of time to test this. Remember that you're needed at the Battle Frontier tonight, it is imperative that you be there," Al nodded, confirming my suspicions. "However, the confidence of your team is far more important sometimes. Especially Sarin. But I wouldn't leave you like this. Take this."
Al held out a black and yellow ultra ball. Unlike the pokéball, only the pokémon inside could see out so I had to release the occupant. In a flash of light, I was met with a familiar 'face'. Quietly humming and chiming in front of me floated a large silver bell with ancient inscriptions etching out a face.
"This is my bronzong?" I asked cautiously. There was no real emotional connection to show recognition from the bell, but no curiosity to suggest that it didn't know me. Rather, I was greeted with relative indifference.
"Yes. And for now, your trump card. While he doesn't have much in the way of attacks, he is a better Controller than Dan and even your magmortar. Bronzong will help your team's coordination, power and information gathering." Al handed me an old leather-bound journal. "This is the book you wrote on his abilities and how to take advantage of all the different programs and systems 'he' has. It's actually impressive. I'm missing the communication device, but it's unnecessary since you can understand pokémon. It goes without saying but until you learn how to use these properly, Bronzong is too much for you. Just, as the book says, beware his jokes. They're as deadly as he is."
"Thank you, Al. Then I'll see you soon," I said, returning Bronzong to his ball. "Hopefully it'll be with good news."
"Aren't you a bit too quick to leave?" Al questioned, grabbing me before I could go. When I gave him a questioning stare, he continued. "I guess I could give a speech about the philosophical intrapersonal battle of good and evil you're facing. However, morals and good or evil… it's all nonsense. Not even the gods believe it." When Tía gave Al a harsh stare, he rolled his eyes. "Tía, we will never agree here. You know I harbor nothing but disgust for the choices Arceus and the others made regarding Luke. There was no moral action there."
"Look here. Were you a good person before? No. But did this surgery change it? Your lack of memories? Absolutely not. In fact, I don't think it changed after your memory loss. And right now, it doesn't matter if what trivial moral standing you take. You think I'm some sort of saint after hearing what I've done? Think I've repented ever? Who to? Mew or Arceus?" Al laughed, disgust laced in his words. "Look, there's bigger issues out there than you and how you care for others. Whether you're crueler than that bitch that killed Luke or more caring than Emily herself doesn't change the issue at hand. So please, stop worrying about yourself and let's get to stopping Meg. Maybe you see this as selfish and maybe it is. But just remember that I've steeled myself to end the life of one of my only friends." Al paused for a long moment.
Just as I was about to excuse myself, he spoke up. "Yeah, you're not that bad right now. You're just human, after all. You don't live long enough to control your emotions, unlike the partners left behind." I wasn't sure if that was a compliment as Al's voice was choked with remorse that I couldn't understand.
?
I've always been a fan of vacations. When I have some extra cash, finding a nice beach island like this one was a great way to unwind. Hey, sometimes you even get to be with your significant other for a while. Although I had to admit, I wasn't a fan of the night scene when compared to sunbathing and swimming. I mean, once you get past the fact that the residential area of the Battle Frontier has basically no night life, it's not so bad. Hey, it's peaceful! For now.
So much for taking a vacation while working. Anyways, who goes to a beach island to walk through a forest and plains? The moonlight was all but nonexistent, cutting even farther into my ideal vacation. Sneaking around in a forest with no light in the middle of the night seems kinda shady… Because of all the trees.
"Damnit man, and here I was thinking that we'd get a pretty nice break…" I complained. My partner in more than just crime stared back at me.
"Colin, the boss asked us to do this personally. You fucking around is not an option."
"Yeah but we could bring some grunts and then just take some time to relax. When was our last vacation?"
"A month ago, when you allotted two weeks to track down one salamence. Why do we need two weeks for something took us ten hours?"
"Damn Cory, I thought you'd appreciate having some time off. And it was fun to go hiking through Mount Chimney. It's good to take a break from Cancel once in a blue moon!"
"I enjoy vacations as much as the next person. However, that was a bit needless. Two weeks of hiking was a bit much and this mission is a bit more important. Apparently when Gray left, he came to live here…"
"Yeah, and you're still really obsessed with him, his quiet nature and unkempt jet black hair. Pretty old me just doesn't measure up."
"Stop trying to make this sexual."
"It already is, poor chap," I taunted. Cory just shook his head and pressed on.
"We'll be in the clearing in a quarter mile. Need I restate that we're probably not the only ones here?"
"Yeah yeah, time for quiet mode." It was pretty standard protocol to go in silent. Not even the two sitting heads of Cancel got to avoid it, since Gray was the one who basically wrote the book. And Cory worshiped said figurative book. Yeah, I was a tad jealous.
As we approached the Frontier Brains' neighborhood, both Cory and I had to put on a pair of night vision goggles. The dark landscape was suddenly bathed in shades green and a few splotches of white light. Also per standard procedure, both of us had already deployed a pokémon that was trailing us a bit from the side. The goggles were nice for keeping track of where they ended up. I could see the silhouette of my exploud off to the side. As usual, though, I couldn't locate Cory's shiftry. Stupid thing didn't give off body heat because it was a plant.
Ding. A quiet sound went off as our motion sensor picked up movement. Cory's left hand flew up, signaling to stop. In an instant, both of us became perfectly still. We both stared in the direction signaled, trying to identify the source. Eventually, we saw a small pokémon leap from behind a bush. I let out a small breath. These covert missions could really fuck with your head.
After ten minutes of slowly progressing towards the house, we came across the first of our adversaries. The man was prone in a bush, facing towards the house. With how his arms were positioned, it seemed he was holding a rifle. I quickly relieved him of his duty with a quick slice. Not exactly my favorite part of the job, but at least it was quick and clean enough that my target probably didn't even notice. I, however, had the fun job of checking the corpse for anything that might give away who he was working for.
Two more sitting on a ridge, 500 meters West of the house. Trevenant will take care of them. Cory conveyed this via a small text-based communication system. I would've just said it. Probably wasn't anyone around us, or at least the goggles and motion sensor weren't picking anything up.
Soon, Cory messaged that the two on the ridge weren't going to be an issue. Those two probably left this world with the greatest scare they'd ever had. Cory's two grass types were scary as hell itself at night.
"To the home then," I muttered. We crept to a bush at the of the forest and prepared to make a run for the house. The house was large two-story manor with a visible bay window and probably more porch space than was truly needed. The clearing separating us from the house was a hundred by a hundred meter square. Too large to traverse unnoticed, really, but we didn't have a choice. Easier ways to get there? Probably, if we wanted snipers to be watching us in the woods. Though it begged the question on why they were here tonight. Why do we get the shitty jobs? Boss clearly knew they'd be here…
"Nice house. I think I could settle for a place like that," I mentioned quietly.
"Your ego for having the biggest toys will never stop." I glanced over at Cory to see a faint grin crossing his face. The running joke in Cancel was I spent more money on trivial garbage than the entire division combined. It wasn't exactly untrue… except the trivial garbage part. Very misleading.
After making sure we weren't being watched, we took off towards the house in a sprint. However, before we could get there, a large flare went off, brightening the entire area. Some asshole was using Sunny Day to blind us and give visibility to shooters.
"We missed some, Cory!" I yelled, instantly, shielding my eyes and tossing out a few pokéballs. Both of us had to remove our goggle, which had become completely worthless in the strong light.
"I can see that, Colin." His voice was calm as ever, but there was an edge to it that gave away his excitement.
"No you can't. We can't see shit."
"Just shield us before we get shot, you moron!" Heh. Got him nervous.
"Lunatone's already put Magic room up. Now we wait for the sun to settle a bit." Shots rang out loudly but the sound of bullets whizzing by never ever came close. After about twenty seconds of failing shots, the gunfire ceased. Untrained, I guess. Most covert teams would recognize what happened instantly.
Magic Room, our 'shield', prevented the use of guns. Well, you could use them but the area was completely distorted for items. You could very easily accidentally shoot yourself with a rifle while under this affect. So when they continued to shoot, it was easy to tell the group we faced was green. It was dangerous to continue not only because you could kill yourself or a partner but because you lost all stealth. Unless they were running Trick Room over the area, the shots could be heard by anyone in the area. But none of our equipment was picking up any other distortions besides my Magic Room.
Because of how powerful Magic Room was, each team in Cancel was required to have access to it. Was a lifesaver, literally. The recent trend in covert operations were to revert to guns, but weapons hadn't quite caught up to the level pokémon were on.
When we finally could see, I sighed. There were easily six humans standing in front of us. If they each brought a full team, thirty six pokémon would have to be dealt with. What a pain in the ass. If they were any decent, we wouldn't win.
"Nice fellows, dressed in Rocket uniforms… You think the boss sent them?"
"No," Cory responded instantly. "They weren't wearing any when we were sneaking. This is a façade. Anyways, if the boss has another group to take us out, I'd hope they'd be a bit better than this."
"Well, Rocket or not, I can already feel it's going to be a pain in our ass."
"You're insufferable. Just do your job and let me annihilate them." Cory stepped forward, drawing out one of his four remaining pokémon. When it exploded onto the field, even I took a step back. The massive gyarados was almost ten feet longer than most larger than his brethren at over thirty feet long. It roared out at the opponents, causing more than a few to cower. While Cory generally liked stealthy attackers, his affinity for this monster had never lessened. It matched his personality more, anyways.
"Heh, they're only two men, what are you worried about? Go wreck them." A voice spoke up from the crowd. However, even though it inspired the group to send out their teams, the man identified himself as a target. Immediately, an array of pokémon charged the gyarados. Most of them, I noted, were from Sinnoh. Another failure to mix in with Rocket? Not all of us were so blessed with resources to gain the pokémon we needed.
"Bunch of amateurs. This isn't a gym battle." Cory's eyes were dark with bloodlust. When he started battling, my job was simply to support him and allow this master to take control. "Trevenant and Shiftry, take their lives!"
In a moment, gale winds started to blow over the plains. Everyone but the gyarados would struggle in such a wind. But when the Shiftry flashed through, he didn't aim for any of the struggling pokémon. Instead, both trevenant and shiftry appeared fifty meters behind them and next to their trainers. The shiftry came through and tossed three of them up in the air with his giant fan before slicing them precisely. Whirlwind and razor wind launched his targets into the air and then leaf blade completely shredded his targets. How could they know that the effect of Sunny Day only made this unstoppable assassin even faster?
Trevenant appeared behind the leader and locked the leader's movements before disappearing with the 'leader'. Cory called this move the "Gate of Hell". A combination of Phantom Force and Faint attack allowed Trevenant to appear anywhere almost instantly and virtually undetected. Destiny Bond and Curse were used to apprehend and kill the opponent as Trevenant disappeared. Even Confuse Ray was added to disable the opponent's struggles. It was rumored Cory came up with the name after having Trevenant use it on himself. I didn't even know if there was any truth to it, but Cory had been haunted by terrible nightmares that developed right around the same time….
Even the humans that survived were so distracted or scared that they pulled their attention and pokémon away from the battle with gyarados. Without any commands, the remaining ones on gyarados were handled by my lunatone and gyarados.
"Ain't that bad… I didn't even have to call my exploud over."
Ding. Ding. Ding. The motion sensors started going off like crazy as it picked up ten more people coming. Shortly, the two remaining Rocket-imposters were joined by another larger group of imposters. Twenty-one people in total stood at the edge of the clearing.
"This ain't winnable, Cory. They're not falling for the same trick twice, either. We can get out of here if we move…"
"Colin, hearing you talk brings me such great joy, but please save it for later. You bring out your Ampharos. Standard two artillery, one support, one tank and two flankers."
Ever since Gray had left, we lacked anyone truly able to take on a huge group of people. No one else was able to effortlessly command as many pokémon at a time. Cory and I basically became the answer to that. With each of us managing three pokémon and managing different parts of the 'field', we were able to roughly emulate Gray's ability. Well, individually we exceeded it. Cory was so good with assassinations and these stealthy attackers that even Gray's own two flankers might lose to his. And while nothing I had could compare to the magmortar Gray had trained for nearly eleven years, my long range attackers were very devastating. More importantly, we had something Gray never had access to.
Both of us clicked a button on our wrists, activating a glow from a covered gemstone. Both Cory's gyarados and my ampharos began to glow and change. When they were done, both had changed their appearances. Gyarados' back fin grew tremendously and his body became outlined with red scales. Ampharos' gained white, static-ridden hair on her head and tail. While not as obvious, both gained more power and a secondary typing. Mega Evolution was a technology so 'new' and costly, we were among only five people in Rocket who even had access to a mega evolution. Realistically, science had only just recently been able to reproduce technology mentioned in dusty books from thousands of years ago.
On their side, a quick count gave me 49 pokémon. Averaging roughly two pokémon per person wasn't terribly usual. These people were average at best. Only five people would control three… Assuming they could control them effectively, we were screwed.
"Impressive! A strength like yours is rare and quite beautiful. Though, you two match our files for the heads of Rocket's covert team. Perhaps it is to be expected?" A large woman stepped forward. Her stolen Rocket uniform was stretched painfully over her muscular body and the leaves were noticeably missing. Instead, her sun-tanned arms were covered in what appeared to be tattoos. Her voice had a rich and enticing islander accent, unique to those who lived around Hoenn. "We're not really interested in taking on a couple of Rocket operatives. Our objective is that house. If possible, quietly. If not, at the cost of your lives."
"They brought almost forty people to secure this house? What the hell did they expect? A demon?"
"Is there any reason to take this deal?" Cory wondered aloud.
"Well, it is conducive to living."
"We don't fail missions, Colin. If nothing else, we risk it and run six each. It isn't impossible for us to run four and we can have the other two work on their own…." Damn you Cory. And damn us for being so close to the four pokémon mark. It wasn't as if we couldn't… but we could only say so much in the heat of battle. Coordination that Gray had a mind for didn't come naturally. We were best at battling, not strategy.
"Indecisive men have no appeal. Make your choice!" The woman yelled.
"I knew there was a reason I disliked bigger women," I muttered. However, being I could wrap up Cory and physically drag him away, the door to Gray's house swung open. We turned back to see a huge magmortar lumber out, looking absolutely furious. Wisps of fire swirled around his body and even in the middle of the night, I could see smoke rising from the ground where he stepped.
"Is…"
"Yes," Cory responded instantly. The magmortar continued to walk out until he stood next to Cory's gyarados. "Our situation has changed: Magmortar is a battle controller, so we need to cover him until he gets in range to use Maelstrom. If that goes off anywhere near them, everything goes down."
"So what you're saying is it isn't guaranteed we die anymore."
The twenty opponents must've had some idea of the situation because they immediately started the attack. About a third of the pokémon split to the sides to flank, going far enough out to be in the woods dividing this area from the next property. It meant they weren't to attack immediately, which gave us a bit of breathing room. With nearly twenty-five left behind, the opponents split their tasks to being frontline attackers, supporters, artillery and even some left to make sure the humans didn't fall to trevenant and shiftry.
Both Cory and I had to start working out commands. About eight pokémon existed on each flank, and Cory was right to bring in our flankers to help Magmortar reach the center. This meant it was my job to monitor the flanks. Wasn't much two pokémon could've done against the sixteen in the woods.
Two luxrays dived forward to intercept the magmortar. The large fire type ignored them, instead letting the gyarados explode forward and swallow the two pokémon whole. The serpent stood protectively around the large fire type, deflecting any of the pokémon charging forward with large bites or swatting the comparatively small pokémon away with his tail. The magmortar would fire off short bursts of fire at anything approaching, both arms reeling with recoil in a similar fashion to what I'd expect had he been duel wielding machine guns. A machoke got caught in the crossfire and was instantly torn to pieces. Apparently, the fire was able to cut or melt through flesh at the intense speed it was fired with.
As Magmortar continued advancing, it became apparent our opponents were missing something. Mostly, brains. Their strategy was just a little off. Had the flanks attacked first, we might've not pushed magmortar forward. More importantly, exploud and ampharos were insanely talented at distance attacks. I could tear up the field if untouched. But they had no answer to the magmortar other than to douse the sunlight they had given. As if that was truly amplifying his power… His body was a natural lava pit, there was very little chance the mild light of the sun was helping at all. And his bullets served as tracers, meaning his accuracy didn't fall at all.
"Ampharos, thunder please. Exploud, Crescendo Fortississimo." My own custom attack on Exploud involved a gradual increase to an incredibly loud sound bomb. But instead of the sound increasing in volume over time, it was meant to gain volume over distance. Using echoed voice to gain the distance effect, boom burst for maximum noise and screech to destroy any defense they might have, the attack was perfect for these battles, if not brilliantly named.
When the attacks hit the back lines and trainers, the effect was immediate. Most fell to their knees, holding their heads. Some would obviously blow eardrums. Others were quick enough to get something to protect their ears. Even the trees swayed with the huge sound waves exploding in front of them. Most of the pokémon faired slightly better, but it wasn't like the attack was ending soon. And the constant thunder was accurate at this relatively close distance. Eventually, a huge bastiodon rose up by the trainers and used something akin to an area protect. Typing and soundproofing made it a very effective counter to the artillery's rain. However, the area's shield only seemed to greatly weaken my attacks, not completely counter them. Oh well, the front lines were still getting battered and Magmortar continued to advance.
"Hell, we might even win this thing if they continue sucking." As fate would have it, Magmortar's next step triggered a huge explosion, probably from stealth rocks. Immediately, the flanks collapsed towards us. I'm not superstitious but I'd like a full refund on that statement, please.
Sorry for the long break. Finals are rough, but all is good. Wanted to combine two chapters for this one but the word count was already over 10k words. I expect to upload quicker. I appreciate the continued support.
Also happy holidays.