CHAPTER 18
Ingrid Sorenson reached up and scratched the feathered ruff around her Noivern's neck. Crescita leaned down and nosed Ingrid's platinum blonde hair and made a low vibration deep in her throat. Ingrid came from a long line of Noivern tamers, stretching back nearly one thousand years to a feared and powerful clan of north Kalosian raiders, if her nearly-senile great-grandfather was to be believed. Her family's more modern pedigree was well-established, and a few of her cousins had even been selected to study with the elite dragon trainers in far-away Blackthorn City. Had Ingrid set her mind to it, she probably could have done the same thing, but her heart had never been in the endless drills and mental conditioning that being a professional dragon master required, and she could tell Crescita hadn't wanted that either.
Her choice to pursue music, and to travel so far from home to attend the Harding Institute in Clarus City had caused no amount of consternation with her family, immediate and extended. But Ingrid had been adamant, and she had never looked back. It wasn't an easy life, to be sure, and it wasn't as glamorous as she had thought it would be as a teenager, but it was her life, and she had chosen it for herself. But even when she had gotten a band together, she still wanted more.
And so she did the only logical thing and became a superhero.
Music had always helped her sidestep her debilitating stutter and anxiety, and when she was on stage rocking out, she could almost forget that outside the flashing lights and wailing guitar, she was quiet little Ingrid, the perpetual wallflower and shrinking violet. As Echo, she embraced that feeling, channeling it into every fiber of her being. Every fight with the bad guys was just another show, and she was going to be a showstopper.
But tonight, she wasn't just a solo act. It was time for Clarus City's most anticipated comeback tour, and she had been handpicked to join the band. The Hammer was back on the streets, and after all of their training the last few months, he had asked her to watch his back while he showed the Sins it took more than a beating to keep him down. A year ago, she would have bristled at playing backup, at being second fiddle to anyone. But she had more than her share of close calls, and if sharing the glory was what it took to keep her and her pokemon safe, then that was fine by her. She and the Phantom had teamed up on multiple occasions, and while he could sometimes be a hothead and a major pain in the ass, they did good work together, and Ridgewood was already becoming a safer place because of it.
The Hammer had helped her identify her strengths and hone her skillset. She had talents none of the other heroes did, and it was his opinion that she offered some of the most unique applications of pokemon to hero work that he had seen. Plenty of the other heroes were just skilled fighters, and while they were good at what they did, sometimes a different approach was needed. Echo's application of sound was best at containing and controlling villains, and the Hammer had shown her how she and Crescita could use that while using Mezzo and Forte to provide the muscle to back up her power.
Her Loudred and Exploud loomed behind her, and Forte cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the fight to come. Ingrid bumped fists with both of the normal types before swinging up into the saddle on Crescita's back and clipping into the stirrups. She reached back to her red guitar and twisted two of the tuning pegs as she waited for the Hammer's signal.
She wasn't actually sure what the signal was, but the Hammer had told her she would know when the time was right.
A loud crash sounded from several streets over, and she heard the Hammer's booming laughter. "Guess that's the s-signal," Echo muttered. "All right. Mezzo! Forte! Sh-Showtime!" She swung up onto Crescita's back and unslung her guitar, holding the neck in her right hand while her left clutched the Noivern's reins. The dragon type shot into the air and spiraled out over the rooftops as Mezzo and Forte jumped into action.
Another series of crashes echoed up and down the street, accompanied by plumes of dust. The Hammer's laugh came again, and Echo tapped her heels against Crescita's flanks. The Noivern darted forward, rooftops and alleys blurring beneath her wings. Crescita looped to decrease her speed while Echo unclipped from the harness and dropped down on a roof ledge across from where the Hammer burst onto the main thoroughfare, locked in combat with a Machamp and Krookodile. His new metal armor gleamed in the streetlights, the hydraulic joints hissing as his steel and chrome arms delivered a flurry of blows. Forte crashed down on the rooftop next to her, his giant mouth contorted into a savage grin.
"Clarus City!" Echo screamed. "Are y-you ready to ROCK?"
The Hammer looked up and beamed. "Yes!" Forte threw his head back and roared, making windowpanes rattle.
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
By now, Mezzo had caught up, and he and Crescita added their voices to the answering scream. Echo grinned. "All right!" She twirled her pick in her fingers and struck a chord. The sound tore through the speakers wired into her bodysuit as Mezzo and Forte opened their mouths to boost the resonance. The Hammer drove his right heel back, cracking the pavement as he pivoted and hurled the Krookodile into the air. The ground type hit the sonic shockwave just as Crescita unleashed a second auditory assault, and the crimson beast dropped back to the street with a moan.
"More where that came from!" the Hammer barked as a pack of Mightyena and their trainers raced down the narrow side street. A flock of Murkrow and Golbat took to the air, accompanied by a handful of ghost types.
"On it!" Two blurs shot out over Echo's head and arced towards the street. They dove straight for the thickest concentration of foes and came up swinging. Hawlucha Man and his partner fought back to back, clearing a wide radius around themselves with a flurry of lightning fast punches and kicks, punctuated by dynamic leaps and bounds, springing into each other's cupped hands or talons for a boost. Hawlucha Man somersaulted backwards before using the palms of his hands to quickly change direction and wrap his legs around the throat of one of the enemy trainers. He swung his weight around so that he was resting his center of gravity behind the man's head and forced him to his knees, but just before hitting the ground, Hawlucha Man jerked his weight to the side, hurling the man forward and into his Hawlucha's waiting fist. Then, almost before Echo could blink, Hawlucha Man was clear, ducking beneath a Mightyena's snapping jaws and supplexing the squirming canine.
Echo had seen Hawlucha Man fight before, in the battle royale against the Sins with all the other heroes. But that had all been chaos and confusion, and she hadn't been able to appreciate just how skilled the Avenbrooke hero was. He and his partner were in perfect synch, knowing each other's moves and acting in seamless two part harmony. Their strikes were fast and hard, but there was a fluid grace to it, a calm self-assurance that every hit was going exactly where it needed to, the kind of technical perfection that can only come from years of training.
She had worked with the Phantom often enough to know that he had a habit of showing off in combat and adding little flourishes to his technique. Hawlucha Man had the same kind of grandstanding swagger, but it wasn't affected like the Phantom's was. This was just the natural movement of an incredible fighter at the top of his game. He was damn good.
But Echo wasn't about to let the boys have all the fun.
She quickly played a chord progression and signaled to her Exploud and Loudred to be ready to boost her sound. "Let's g-give 'em hell!" Echo gritted her teeth at her stammer before sucking in a deep breath through her nose and expelling it as a scream. She heard a whoosh as her pokemon boosted the resonant frequency and expelled it outward, and the force of her attack made her hair fly back from her face. "Don't let up!" she cried, repeating the same words the Hammer had used in training. "P-Pour your entire heart into it! GO!" The flying type pokemon were blown out of the sky, and on the ground enemy trainers strained against the sonic attack.
"We need to do something about those ghost types!" Hawlucha Man called, rolling under a Machamp's punch and kicking the hulking fighting type's legs out from underneath it.
"My turn!" the Hammer shouted back. "Siegfried, you're up!"
The Hammer's Conkeldurr burst from where it had been crouching on a nearby rooftop and slammed one of its concrete pylons against the street, shattering the pavement into jagged stones. Grasping the other pylon with one hand, Siegfried battered the stones into the cloud of ghost types. The spectral pokemon shrieked as the rock fragments tore into them and rained down on their allies below.
The Hammer's massive metal fist clenched. "Now, Albrecht! Finish them off!"
The Hariyama raced out from an alleyway up the street, its massive hands outstretched. When Albrecht was just below the ghost swarm, he pivoted on his back foot and pirouetted in place as he shoved his open palms up at the sky. The movement generated a powerful swirling gale that caught up the ghost types, sending them high and scattering them in all directions.
"More hostiles incoming!" Echo called down from her rooftop perch.
"Is it our target?" the Hammer asked.
"Looks like it!"
The Hammer turned to Hawlucha Man, and his suit hissed as he rotated one of his metal fists. "How about a boost?"
Hawlucha Man grinned. "Let's do this." He bounded up and perched on the Hammer's closed fingers as the metal suit hummed and clicked. The mechanisms in the forearm clicked and slid home, and the hydraulics hissed as they compressed. Then the fist shot upward, catapulting Hawlucha Man into the sky as the Hammer shot forward on piston-boosted legs towards the crowd of thugs that had burst onto the street.
"Iron Boyar!" the Hammer roared as he charged into their midst. "I've come back for a rematch!"
Sergei Polovich swore and signaled for his men to fan out. His new steel gauntlets gleamed in the streetlights, highlighting the wicked-looking spikes he had added. "Open fire!" Polovich cried. His men leveled their machine guns, and the sharp report of gunfire echoed down the street. The Hammer raised his fists to shelter his exposed torso, and the bullets bounced harmlessly off his metal arms. As he drew within striking range, his arms flashed out, knocking down the Boyar's men.
Polovich's Bastiodon charged forward, only to be stopped cold by the Hammer's fist. The rock type groaned as the Hammer barreled past, and Polovich's angry snarled turned into something closer to panic. "You've never once been able to beat me, Boyar!" the Hammer said. "And this time, your defeat is going to sting that much worse!"
"Barrier, now!" Polovich shouted. The iron cross on his Metagross glowed a brilliant blue, and a glowing wall of interconnected hexagons began to appear in the air before Polovich.
"Not so f-f-fast!" Echo called from down the street. Crescita dropped out of the upper air and unleashed a brilliant column of flame on the steel type. The Metagross groaned as its focus was broken, and the Hammer shattered the barrier with a single punch. At that moment, Hawlucha Man dropped out of the sky behind Polovich and jabbed his batons into the Iron Boyar's back. Polovich's eyes went wide as the electrical current from the batons coursed through him, but he didn't fall. As the Hammer's fist came crashing down, he raised his spiked gauntlets to catch the blow, his knees nearly buckling beneath the weight.
"This time, I brought my two star pupils with me!" the Hammer said, and Echo couldn't help feeling a swell of pride. Sure, she and Hawlucha Man were the Hammer's only two pupils, but to have her work as a hero be recognized by the one man in Clarus City whose opinion she cared about made her feel like everything she went through to get here was worth it.
More of the Iron Boyar's men had rallied to him, forcing Hawlucha Man to retreat back to his partner. Polovich sneered up at the Hammer. "I'm not going down here," he growled. "I have the full might of Greed's forces to back me up tonight!" He ducked out from under the Hammer's arm and clanged his gauntlets together. "Come on!"
The night air was filled with the shrieks and roars of pokemon as more of Greed's thugs jumped out of hiding to surround the Hammer and Hawlucha Man. "So they w-want to get l-loud, huh?" Echo muttered. "All right, l-let's get LOUD!" She played a chord progression as a roar built in her throat, culminating in a piercing scream that froze her adversaries in their tracks.
"You cannot run, you cannot hide or fly away!
You better hide when you see me
But you can't run from the fury!"
Forte dug his fingers into the masonry as he boosted her sound to the limit, and Echo saw Polovich's men collapse as their eardrums burst. Windows shattered and rained down sprays of broken glass on the street below. Echo switched chords and tossed her hair out of her face. "Forte! M-Mezzo and I can handle this! Get down there and l-light them up! Bring the fury!"
Forte's gaping maw turned up in a grin, and he slammed his right fist into the palm of his left hand. The fur on his arms crackled as he built up a static charge, and soon his fist was surrounded in a snapping nimbus of harsh electric light. He vaulted off the rooftop and into the press below, his strikes punctuated with brilliant flashes and supersonic booms.
"Back him up, Siegfried!" the Hammer shouted as he traded blows with a Rhyperior and a Tyranitar. The Conkledurr's eyes narrowed as he built up his own charge, and then used his powerful legs to jump to Forte's side. Thunderous booms echoed as Forte and Siegfried lit up the battlefield. Hawlucha Man and his partner soared over their heads, battering humans and pokemon alike into the striking range of the hulking pokemon.
Polovich motioned for one of his thugs carrying a reinforced metal briefcase to retreat. "Don't let him get away!" the Hammer called.
"Hierro!" Hawlucha Man barked. His partner hurled a Scrafty into an advancing Throh and shot off into the air. Two men fired off shots at the Hawlucha, but Hawlucha Man was on them almost before their guns were raised, and they fell with two sharp jabs from the acrobatic hero's batons.
A Galvantula had managed to scurry up to Echo's rooftop, and Mezzo's attempts to blast it away with sonic pulses had been unsuccessful. Electricity crackled along its bristle-like fur as charged up an electric attack, and Echo winced as she prepared for the shock to come. With a shriek, Crescita dropped out of the sky, seized the spider in her claws and hurled it back down to the street just as it unleashed the discharge, shocking several of Polovich's allies.
Down the street, Hierro had managed to dispatch the fleeing man's Escavalier with a pair of powerful kicks, and then snatched the briefcase with his taloned feet. "Get clear!" Hawlucha Man ordered, and Hierro shot up into the sky.
Sirens could be heard closing in, and the Hammer looked up at Echo. "We got what we came for! Finish this off!"
Echo grinned. "All right! Mezzo! Forte!" She raised her guitar pick in the air. "FORTISIMO!" She brought the pick down as she raised her voice to a piercing high C. Mezzo and Forte boosted the sustained note as high as they could as Crescita harmonized her booming ultrasonic wave.
The shock of the blast knocked several of Polovich's men off their feet and sent them spiraling head over heels for several paces. The Hammer grabbed Hawlucha Man in one steel fist and held him close to the chest plate of his armor while the other hand dug into the street to keep himself steady. Siegfried and Albrecht had fought their way clear of the blast radius before the attack began, and now reappeared from the alley they had sheltered in to contain any of their opponents who had remained conscious.
Polovich had vanished in the confusion, but the package he had been carrying had been recovered. Police officers from Clarus City's Sixth Precinct and yellow PPS vans arrived to apprehend the Sins' men and take their pokemon into protective custody. The Hammer extricated himself from his armor to debrief with Captain Ito as Echo and Mezzo descended down to the street level.
Forte lumbered over, and Ingrid gave him a pat on his forearm. The Exploud let out a long sigh, and the hollow pipes around his face whistled. "You d-did good, b-big guy," Ingrid said. "T-Time to rest up." She reached up to dig the earplugs out of her ears as Hawlucha Man picked his way over to her, stepping carefully over the unconscious criminals.
"Echo! That finishing move was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" he shouted. "The way you just…"
Ingrid held a finger to her lips. "N-No need to yell."
"What? Sorry!" Hawlucha Man grinned sheepishly. He made an effort to lower his voice, but it still came out louder than usual. He turned to Forte. "And you! I recognize those moves! Siegfried's been showing you a few tricks, huh?" Forte returned Hawlucha Man's disarming smile and flexed his arms. Hawlucha Man glanced back at Ingrid. "The way you guide all of your pokemon at once is so awesome! I don't think I could do that. Sure, Hierro and I are good together, but it's probably a lot easier with just two of us. I can't imagine trying to coordinate three other partners."
"You j-just have to know how to harmonize," Ingrid said. "B-But don't sell yourself sh-short. I s-saw how you moved. Your p-partner is really something else." The words had come out before she really knew what she was saying. She never chatted like this with the Phantom, and despite the Hammer's kindness towards her, their relationship was clearly one of teacher and pupil. But Hawlucha Man was easy to talk to, and she found herself tripping over her words less around him. He might be a terror on the battlefield, but with his easy smile and open face, she could see why the people of Avenbrooke liked their resident hero so much.
"I figure we're all right," Hawlucha Man said with a laugh. "When you were playing before, are those pieces original or are they covers? Some of the stuff sounded a little familiar, but I don't know enough about music to know if that's just, like, common musical phrases or whatever."
"Some original c-composition, some c-covers. I just let the m-music move through me, I d-don't really think about it."
"Yeah, I thought I heard some TogepiMetal in there."
His namedrop of the Johtonian pop-meal girl group gave Ingrid pause. "You know T-TogepiMetal? I d-didn't think they had a big following over here." Ingrid looked Hawlucha Man up and down. "And y-you don't st-strike me as much of a m-metalhead."
"Yeah, I sort of, uh, that is, Hierro likes to listen to it when we spar. The kind of up-tempo stuff, you know? Helps him get in the zone, I guess."
"Right." Ingrid swung her guitar onto her back. "You sh-should come to one of my jam sessions. M-Maybe we can find some n-new sparring music for you." She looked over Hawlucha Man's shoulder. "The Hammer is c-coming."
Johannes had walked away from Captain Ito and nodded to the younger heroes. "The captain has been updated on the situation, and she thanks you both for your hard work. The police will handle things from here. They've established a cordon to catch anyone who managed to escape, but I doubt they'll manage to get Polovich. We're too close to the Underhill." The Underhill was the poorest district in Clarus City, and was notorious for its lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Police patrols steered clear of the Underhill, with its narrow streets, blind alleys, and sagging tenement buildings. It offered the perfect labyrinth for criminals with the right connections to disappear into, and it had only gotten worse when the Sins had taken over the city several years previously. "But that's not important," the Hammer continued. "Polovich may run to fight another day, but that just means I we'll beat him again. We took back what we set out to recover, and the police will ensure its safekeeping."
Through Johannes's underworld contacts, he had heard that Greed was mobilizing her men and seeking out contractors to hit a biomedical research facility to secure various chemical components to use in the manufacture of a more potent strain of dream dust. The Hammer had decided that thwarting a heist the Sins had clearly poured an extensive amount of resources into was the perfect opportunity to put his new armor to the test, and had called in Hawlucha Man and Echo for backup. It was fortunate he had, because Polovich's reinforcements were far greater than they had anticipated, and Ingrid privately felt sure that had the Hammer gone in on his own, the outcome would have been very different. Johannes was more than capable of handling a big ensemble singlehandedly, but Polovich had called in the whole orchestra.
But all the same, it begged the question of why the Sins were so intent on manufacturing dream dust that they would overreach like this…
"I'm very proud of both of you," Johannes went on. "You've far exceeded my expectations. I couldn't have done this without your help. Clarus City is lucky to have such powerful heroes to defend it."
Hawlucha Man beamed, and Ingrid lowered her eyes to hide her blush. "Th-Thank you, I... without y-your training I d-don't…"
Johannes put a hand on her shoulder. "There's no need to be so modest. When I was training you both, I never taught you anything you weren't on the cusp of figuring out for yourselves. All I did was give you a push in the right direction. Both of you have the makings of truly great heroes." The corners of his mouth turned up, and his face lit up with his signature broad grin. "I'm going to have to work even harder to stay ahead of you!"
Ingrid felt flushed with pride. Ever since she had first of the Hammer bursting onto the scene several years previously, she had known that he embodied everything she aspired to. He was brave and strong and confident, but he was also kind and beloved by everyone in Clarus City. When he had offered to teach her, to show her what it meant to be a hero just like him, she had jumped at the chance. And now, mere months later, he was saying she was going and above and beyond his expectations, that he saw her as a peer and an equal. That he saw her as a great hero.
She fought hard to keep her cool. Now was not the time to seem like a shameless fan girl.
"The armor worked all right?" Hawlucha Man was saying. "It seemed smooth to me."
Johannes nodded. "I wasn't sure if the torque mechanism would hold up to repeated use, but your instincts were right. It gave me just the kind of power boost we were looking for. And the pistons in the legs were running as smooth as I've ever seen them." Hawlucha Man glowed under the Hammer's praise, and Johannes turned to Ingrid. "And you! Your sonic attacks were nothing short of masterful! The coordination you display with your partners is proof of their trust in you as their trainer. Your hard work certainly paid off!" He swung back into his powered armor and clanged the heavy metal fists together. "Now then! The night is still young, and plenty more ruffians are waiting to creep out of the shadows. What do you say we give them a reason to hide again?"
"Absolutely!" Hawlucha Man said. He sprinted towards the Hammer as the armored hero maneuvered his fist into an upright position. As soon as Hawlucha Man vaulted onto the fist, it shot upward, propelling him into the sky. Hierro soared past, briefly eclipsing the streetlights as he shot after his partner.
Ingrid nodded to Mezzo and Forte before whistling to Crescita. "L-Looks like we've been c-called for an encore!" The Noivern had barely come to a stop before Echo was back in the saddle. Her Loudred and Exploud bounded forward as the dragon type shot into the sky and after Hawlucha Man. The Hammer's booming laugh rang out, carrying up and down the streets and amplified by Mezzo and Forte. Echo's mouth pulled back in a savage, predatory grin as she tapped her heels against Crescita's flanks. "Showtime!"