The door swung open, but Hector and I pushed down the couple trying to walk in, ran father into the room, and immediately unleashed our Pokémon. Turning around, the couple we'd knocked down had quickly gotten up and were smiling. They seemed to be wearing matching white and red tracksuits and had sunglasses on, even though the circular room was dimly lit. Blood was everywhere, coating the walls and large portions of the carpet. A large chandelier hung high from the ceiling was acting as a coat rack for several dead human bodies. More bodies were piled against the walls. I also noticed some stray, odd-shaped appendages, most likely from downed Pokémon. Had those trainers killed everyone that had gone through that area?

"Well, well, well," the man taunted as he produced a Poké Ball from his back pocket and tossed it up a few times before releasing the creature inside. "Looks like we have some new players to deal with!" The woman was also smiling and seemed to regard our Pokémon before throwing out a Poké Ball. The metal gates clanged to the ground, blocking off our escape routes as the opposing team's Pokémon formed and the robotic voice boomed over the invisible speakers, marking the start of the battle.

In front of the woman stood a tall figure clad in bright red and yellow feathers. Its head was definitely human but seemed to have a large red beak sewn over its nose and mouth like a mask. The head was also shrouded in a mane of white feathers that covered the chest, as well, although some of the feathers appeared to be splashed with blood and had become pink. Its claws seemed to be the snarled remains of a human hand with the ring and pinky fingers torn off, and then I noticed the red feathers also seemed to be dripping with blood. Blaziken athletically shuffled its feet before assuming a battle-ready stance, its arms poised in front of it like a boxer.

The other Pokémon was slightly smaller and was covered in dark blue and yellow fur. It had the head of a weird dog or maybe coyote whose fur had been dyed. Strange leathery cords cascaded down the back of its heads, and spikes protruded from its chest and backs of its hands, which appeared to be paw-like. I guessed they were from animals as I could see a clear separation at the wrist that was badly covered by the fur. Its legs were dark and seemed hairless, and I thought I could see bone sticking out in some places as the legs appeared to have been molded to resemble Lucario's. It growled viciously at us as it lowered its body, placing one paw on the ground. It glared up at us as its tail wagged from side to side behind it.

Hector had chosen Froslass, and I called Dragonair. We were at a type disadvantage with Froslass, and I actually wished I had called out Mr. Mime instead. As I tried to think of a strategy, the woman called out.

"Waiting for us to make the first move? If you insist! Fire Punch, Blaziken!" The Blaze Pokémon leapt into action but went after Dragonair to my surprise. Dragonair was able to dodge with ease, but Lucario had managed to appear on its side and jammed one of its spikes into Dragonair with a backhand. Dragonair screeched in pain and managed to wriggle away before I saw the trainers running at me. Both of them were wielding weapons—the woman had a knife, and the man had a bent metal pipe.

"Hector!" I screamed as I fumbled for the knife in my bag. A surge of electricity pulsated from Dragonair and paralyzed Blaziken and Lucario, and a blast of frigid wind from Froslass stopped the trainers in their tracks. Ice formed around their feet, causing them to lurch forward and swing their arms wildly to stay upright. The man quickly broke out of the ice by smacking at his feet with the pipe and continued to run at me.

"Blaziken! Melt this with Flamethrower, but you better not fucking burn me!" she cried out. Blaziken struggled to turn toward her as it seemed to be paralyzed. I was still trying to find my knife, and Hector came to assist but was blocked by Lucario, who didn't seem to be as stunned by Dragonair's Thunder Wave. Lucario kicked Hector in the stomach, the bones in its legs cracking loudly in the process, and caused Hector to fly back a few feet, but Froslass seemed to phase in between Hector and Lucario and enveloped Lucario in a strange force field. A floating light within the force field drifted slowly from Froslass to Lucario before disappearing as it touched Lucario. Froslass then faded from sight before reappearing at Hector's side.

The man had reached me and was about to strike before Dragonair intervened and took a strike from the pipe. It hissed angrily and swatted at the man with its tail but missed.

"Too slow!" he shouted playfully before striking at Dragonair again. I'd finally found the knife and managed to jam it into the man's calf while he was distracted with Dragonair.

"You little b—" the man started to say before Lucario punched him in the face. The man staggered and fell to his side. He managed to whack me in the face with the pipe as he went down, but it was only a glancing blow. "What're you—" Lucario then started to beat the man relentlessly, pounding his face into a pulp. I then realized that Froslass had used Confuse Ray on Lucario.

The woman screamed furiously as she tried to chip away at the ice with her knife, but she had been solidly frozen to the ground. Blaziken was also still paralyzed, and Dragonair took it upon itself to wrap its long body around Blaziken and slowly squeezed the life out of it. Dragonair coiled around me protectively once Blaziken breathed its last breath and collapsed to the ground.

Hector had somewhat recovered during this time and helped me up, taking the knife from me when I got back up on my feet. Lucario was still thrashing on the man's face and didn't notice Hector sneak up behind it, even though he was still gasping for air. Hector drove the knife into the back of Lucario's head and twisted it. Then he put a foot on its back and kicked it away to wrench the knife out of its skull. The body twitched a few times before becoming still. Hector wiped the knife on the ground before handing it back to me. Froslass appeared in front of the woman, smiling deviously as it looked back at Hector for instruction, but was just out of reach as the woman wildly slashed at the air with her knife. This caused her to fall forward, so she bent her knees and put her hands out in front to push off the ground. She screamed as the action likely put extreme pressure on her ankles and shins. Then without warning, Froslass and Dragonair fired rays of light at her until she was fully encased in ice. We knew she was dead when the robotic voice declared the battle was over.

Hector and I hugged each other once the gates started lifting and called our Pokémon back. Yet another battle survived. I was angry at myself for being unprepared—the thought had never crossed my mind that the trainers would try to attack us during a battle. I decided I would keep the knife in my back pocket moving forward. It was also interesting that Dragonair battled so well, even though I hadn't issued any commands. Thankfully, it seemed to like me for some reason, but I knew I couldn't afford to be that sloppy again. Hector came through for me again, too.

"Are you okay? You got kicked pretty hard." Hector shook his head and gently put a hand on his gut. He winced.

"I'll just pretend it was like that time…someone ran me over with their bike on my birthday—you remember that?" I nodded. We had gone downtown to walk along the pier and had just decided where we'd grab dinner when a cyclist came out of nowhere and slammed into Hector. There were no major injuries with either party in the accident, but suffice it to say, we did not end up going to dinner after that. Hector was pretty bruised on his torso and called off from work for a couple days but was mostly okay after some rest and a lot of ice packs. For whatever reason, whenever we talked about it afterward, we'd just laugh because it had been so random.

"You can talk, at least," I said, trying not to giggle as I recalled the memory. Hector was smiling, too, but when he started to laugh, he winced with pain again. "Should I call Dragonair back out? We could freeze something to press against the bruise—I mean, I'm sure there must be a big one." Hector had doubled over, holding his stomach with both hands. He started to lift his shirt, allowing a quick peak at some newly formed abs he didn't have before, but then winced. Looked like I was wrong about the whole not exercising thing. But then had he only pretended to be out of breath after the staircase?

"No," he groaned, "I just need a little bit to…catch my breath. And what about you? You…got hit, too, right?" I touched my face where I was hit with the pipe. Right under my eye. It hurt to touch, but when I took my hand off, I could barely feel anything.

"Not even a scratch."

"Well…, you should go get Noanne. She was…probably hiding." He slowly eased himself onto the ground but was still hunched over so I couldn't see his face. I walked around the frozen woman and peered through the doors into the other room. I called for Noanne, but no one emerged. The cart was still sitting on the tracks, but the other door in the room had been opened. I ran back to Hector to tell him Noanne had disappeared.

"Why would she have run?" I wracked my brain for a reason, fearing my earlier distrust of her made her run off.

"She can…take care of herself. Maybe this is for the best," Hector said quietly. I wanted to go look for her, but a part of me worried it could also have been a trap. Maybe she was angry at us but knew she wouldn't be able to take us both head on.

"If you're jumping to conclusions," Hector said, "you should stop while you're ahead."

"What?" I spat. I'd only half heard what he said.

"Stop reading into this. I'm sure she has her reasons. She probably didn't plan it, but something made her leave. We need to keep going, though, or we'll never get out of here, okay?" Hector said, looking up. He reached out to indicate that he needed some help standing, so I hoisted him up with both my hands. One of his arms was still gingerly covering his stomach. "Did you check him for supplies yet?" I shook my head and stepped around Lucario's body to search the man. His face had been replaced with spaghetti, apparently, so I made sure to avoid looking at it again while I dug through his pockets. Nothing. But in one of his back pockets was another Poké Ball. I fished it out and expanded it.

"Look," I said and showed it to Hector. "Should we see if anyone's inside?" Hector nodded so I unleashed the yellow lightning. A figure appeared, to my delight, glinting dully in the low lights. It was covered in red metallic armor over its, shoulder, arms, and legs. For its head, it had just a human skull wearing a red helmet with a giant axe blade protruding from it. The blade also seemed to extend inside the skull as it emerged from the nose and mouth cavities right down the middle of its face. Its rib cage was replaced with circular blades, revealing its spine, and knives protruded from its forearms like fish fins. The bones of its fingers had been fused into one unit so it looked like it was wearing white gloves. Lastly, its feet had been converted into bent swords so that it stood like a strange bird.

"Cute," Hector murmured before I returned Bisharp to its ball. "You can keep it, since you found it."

"Are you sure? I technically have three while you still have two." Hector nodded.

"Eevee doesn't really count, does it? I mean, would you ever use it in battle?" At the mention of its name, Eevee popped up from my bag and licked my ear. I laughed and scratched its head.

"I suppose not. …Oh, too bad we froze the woman, though. She probably had at least another Pokémon, too. Think it'd be worth it to break her out?" Hector thought about it for a moment but shook his head.

"Too much effort. I also don't want to risk it in case she's not actually fully dead. I call dibs on the next one, though," Hector said and laughed, again recoiling from the pain.

"Will you be okay to keep going? There's no telling what fucking nightmares are waiting for us in the rest of this area."

"I'm guessing those two probably cleared out most of them. I'll be fine as long as I don't get kicked again. Let's go." Hector started shuffling toward the door on the other side of the room. I looked back once more, hoping to see Noanne running toward us, but no one was there.