CHAPTER 24
The armored officer in riot gear grabbed Alex's shoulder and hauled him behind his ballistic shield as bullets started pinging against the reinforced material. "Thanks for the save," Alex panted. The officer gave him a nod and a terse grunt. When the rain of bullets stopped as the Sin enforcers hurried to reload, the officer lowered his shield and stepped to the side to allow his Magmortar to advance. The fire type raised its arms and blasted several pulses of molten material into the enemy ranks, scattering them and providing the officers of the Eleventh much-needed breathing room.
Alex glanced over his shoulder and whistled to Jade, the Duosion that was using her psychic power to keep him airborne. Jade lacked the telekinetic muscle of the Bronzong and two Alakazam that responding officers from the Eleventh had brought to the firefight, and so while the more powerful psychic types labored to hold up the tenement buildings damaged in the fighting while the occupants fled, Jade had been charged with erecting psychic barriers to defend the police. When Officer D'Souza, Jade's human partner, had been injured by a stray bullet and ordered to fall back, Sergeant Matsuri had instructed the Duosion to add "throwing Hawlucha Man in the air" to her list of responsibilities.
Jade might not have been able to hold up buildings, but Alex had to admit that she had quite the arm. Well, in a manner of speaking.
He experienced a sudden lurch as psychic energy wrapped around his torso and hurled him upwards towards the clouds of avian and ghost pokemon locked in combat over the street. Alex spread his arms and let his wingsuit catch the wind as Hierro plummeted out of the sky and struck a snarling Golbat. A building near the police line groaned and started to sag, but one of the Alakazam caught it with a psychic hold as two officers raced inside, shouting for the residents to get out and seek safety.
Alex signaled to Hierro, and together they dropped down into a melee of Sin and Kuromori fighters. Fire crackled around Hierro's fists as the Hawlucha leaped and struck at every combatant in range. Alex's stun batons hummed as he cranked them up to the highest setting. Normally, he would show a little restraint in a chaotic mess like this and make sure no one was trampled in the fighting but… to hell with it. Everyone he was up against was a criminal of the highest order that was actively endangering civilians and the police. If they wound up with a few broken bones or a concussion, he wasn't about to lose any sleep over it.
Brawls between the Sins and the Kuromori had become increasingly common over the last two weeks, with at least two or three erupting across the city every night as the rival factions went to war. But this was the largest Alex had yet seen, and neither side seemed terribly concerned with collateral damage.
Alex gritted his teeth and channeled his rage into each strike. These criminals had brought the fight to Avenbrooke, and he wasn't about to let them run roughshod through his town. He tossed one of his batons to Hierro, and the Hawlucha deftly snatched it out of the air, turning the motion into a backhanded strike against a Poliwrath. Alex's empty right hand curled into a fist, and he slammed it into the face of an oncoming enforcer, feeling a satisfying crunch as the man's nose broke under the blow. Hierro vaulted off a Graveler and jumped over Alex's head, dropping the baton back down as he did so. Alex grabbed it as Hierro slammed down on a Toxicroak and somersaulted into a Kuromori assassin. A Machoke lumbered through the press and reached out to grab Alex in a chokehold, but Alex ducked under its grasping hands and jabbed both of his batons into the fighting type's abdomen. He felt as much as saw the Machoke's body seize up as electricity coursed through its body, and then he heard Hierro's claws skittering on the asphalt before the Hawlucha leapt and drove a fiery fist into the center of the Machoke's chest, sending it staggering backwards before it collapsed and pinned two Kuromori under its bulk.
Alex and Hierro whirled to face the next wave of assailants, but before they could engage, they were momentarily blinded by a brilliant surge of light. Alex felt Hierro stiffen next to him, and they instinctively took up positions guarding each other's back. A howl of wind tore through the air, and when Alex finally blinked the spots from his eyes, he saw Detective Reyes and Sergeant Matsuri standing before a crowd of prone Sin enforcers. Matsuri's Raichu stood before her, the electrical sacs on the pokemon's cheeks still crackling with stored power. Bella, Reyes's Noctowl, beat the air with silent wings, her eyes glowing a brilliant red.
Matsuri trained her gun on the fallen enforcers and their pokemon to ensure they were truly down. "Well done, Kimiko," she said to her Raichu before looking up to smirk at Alex. "You were doing okay, but we figured our way was faster."
"Always grateful for an assist," Alex said, falling into line with the officers from the Eleventh. Reyes's gun cracked, and a Kuromori dropped to the ground, clutching their side. The ninja's Weavile turned towards them with a hiss, but Kimiko dropped the pokemon with a quick burst of lightning.
"Dispatch says the Kuromori have reinforcements coming in down St. Laurent Street, and the Sins have backup en route from Twenty-Sixth and Main," Matsuri said. "They broke through our cordon, so it looks like this party is about to get more fun."
"We have very different definitions of fun," Reyes grumbled.
"How are the civilians?" Alex asked as he checked Hierro for wounds. The Hawlucha seemed fine, but they had both taken a bad beating three nights ago. Alex was still feeling it, and even if his partner was putting on a brave face, he was sure Hierro was too.
"Not in the clear yet. Mags and Annabelle are holding up the last few buildings we need to evacuate," Matsuri said, referring to one of the Alakazam and the Bronzong. "But it's taking longer than we'd hoped. Lieutenant Garamond has Simon doing as controlled a demolition as we can on the empty ones." The sergeant pursed her lips to fight down a stream of curses before finally giving in. "Those fucking bastards are gonna pay for this," she hissed through clenched teeth.
The sharp report of gunfire echoed up and down the street as the rank and file of the Eleventh precinct advanced on the warring Kuromori and Sins. Matsuri signaled Reyes and Alex to advance, and they engaged another group of Sin grunts with Kimiko while Hierro and Bella headed off a flanking maneuver by three Kuromori. Alex lashed out with a roundhouse kick that sent a Sin enforcer stumbling into Reyes's waiting fist. A pair of brass knuckledusters that the detective wasn't technically supposed to have glinted on the detective's hand as he smashed his fist through the gangster's teeth. If Matsuri gave a damn about Reyes ignoring regulations, she didn't show it. With the city's underworld at war, the only thing that mattered was keeping the innocent people of Clarus City out of the crossfire.
A pack of Bisharp was closing on Alex's left flank, but before he could respond, a curtain of black and crimson flames separated him from the advancing pokemon. A Houndoom bounded through the blaze, more fire crackling around its jaws. Two of the Bisharp pounced, only for the Houndoom to turn its full fury on them. The canine snarled out a challenge and whipped the hellfire it had conjured into a spiral as it charged through the massed steel type towards their human partners.
The Kuromori behind the Bisharp drew their poisoned knives in preparation to attack, but before they could strike the Houndoom, four shots rang out, stopping the Kuromori cold. Captain Anderson stood down the street, his brown overcoat open to reveal a flak vest strapped to his chest. "Give 'em hell, Oscar!" the captain bellowed over the din of the melee. The Houndoom howled and set upon his foes with a vengeance.
Anderson ran up the street to join Alex and Matsuri. "The Sins have a Steelix incoming," he growled as he slammed a new magazine into his pistol.
"Where the fuck did they get a Steelix?" Matsuri snapped.
"Hell if I know. But taking it down has got to be our priority."
Alex nodded. The buildings on this street were already in bad shape, but if something the size of a Steelix were to engage here, it could level the entire block. "That riot guy with a Magmortar. Think he could put it down?"
"Jefferson and his Magmortar went down to a Rhyperior ten minutes ago."
Alex cursed under his breath. "I'll have Hierro distract it."
"Son, that's not—"
"Captain. My partner and I will keep it occupied until the Eleventh can figure out a way to put it down." He flashed Anderson a smile he hoped looked genuine. "Don't worry. We got this." He fell back a few paces and signaled to Hierro. "Jade! Get us airborne!"
The Duosion's eyes flashed, and Alex was hurled upwards. He and Hierro soared over to a nearby rooftop, where Alex could just make out the armored head of a Steelix making its ponderous way down Twenty-Sixth Street. Hierro looked expectantly at Alex. "Okay," Alex said as he paused to catch his breath. "So I don't really have a plan, as such…" Hierro made a low, rasping noise in his throat, the sort of thing that passed for an exasperated sigh from the Hawlucha. He struck his talons together like flints, and small flames blossomed around his claws. "Glad we're on the same page," Alex said. "The plan, more or less, is to improvise until something works, and then keep doing that."
Hierro rolled his eyes and launched himself into the air, and Alex was only a heartbeat behind him. The Steelix rounded the corner, flanked by a crowd of Sin enforcers that urged the beast on. As Alex shot past the Steelix's left flank in a dive, he saw that the serpent's beady eyes were crazed and agitated. Its tail lashed back and forth, scoring deep rents in the brick row houses that lined the street.
Hierro descended on the creature's broad head with a fiery strike. The Steelix groaned as Hierro delivered a flurry of blows between the Steelix's eyes, but the heavy metal plating that covered the steel type absorbed most of the force. Alex made a hasty landing on the street and jabbed his baton at full strength into a clump of the iron ore that made up the Steelix's body and the giant snake didn't so much as flinch.
The enforcers and capos turned towards Alex, and he braced himself for a fight. "Hierro!" he shouted. "Slow that thing down!" A Scyther lunged at him, and Alex ducked under its blades to drive his left baton into the center of the insect's thorax. When the Scyther seized up, Alex kicked it backwards into a leaping Ratticate and dropped a capo with three punches, likely breaking the man's nose in the process.
It seemed to Alex that the Sins didn't have the Steelix fully under control, and that they needed all of these enforcers and their pokemon to shepherd it forward to where they needed it. If he could disable enough of the enforcers, the Steelix might disengage. Granted, a rampaging, out of control Steelix posed its own set of problems, but the Pokemon Protective Service would be equipped to handle that.
Hierro screamed as he looped around for another strike, this time slamming into the Steelix from the right flank and making the fire from his punch explode in a supercharged burst the instant before impact. A brilliant explosion flashed, making the Steelix recoil. Alex saw Hierro tumble head-over-tail feathers through the air before righting himself and racing in for another pass, heedless of his smoking feathers.
In the moment of distraction, Alex felt someone strike him across the chest with a blunt club, knocking the wind from his lungs. A Golett was before him, its fist poised to strike as three Sin capos closed in. Even if Alex could have called out to Hierro, there was no way his partner could have come to his aid in time. Alex struggled to his feet and took a deep breath. "All right, bastards. You may have me, but I'm not going down easy."
The first capo moved forward, a knife flashing in his hand. Alex prepared to defend, but before the man could close the distance, there was a sharp crack, a spray of blood, and the man dropped. Two more cracks followed, and the other capos fell in the same fashion. A Granbull barreled through the crowd and lifted the Golett off its feet before slamming it down on the pavement, cracking the rocky carapace that surrounded the automaton.
"Never thought I'd see the day," a hulking giant of a man boomed. "When the boss told me to go help out Hawlucha Man and the Eleventh, I thought he'd gone crazy." Bruce Giordano reloaded a double-barreled shotgun and raised the weapon again. Alex froze as the gun went off again, and a man three feet to Alex's right had his head blown off. "But these bastards are fighting in Avenbrooke, and they seem to forget that the Baron always protects what's his." Giordano's Blastoise trundled up beside him and settled into a crouch. With a roar, it shot two blasts of highly pressurized water from the cannons on its back. The geysers struck the Steelix hard enough to fling the serpent's ponderously heavy head back. The metal carapace that covered its face had already been heated by Hierro's fiery barrages, and now erupted into a cloud of hot steam.
More of the Baron's men spilled out of alleyways and side streets, armed with guns, clubs, bats and knives. Alex realized that these weren't Pirozzi's rank-and-file, usually pulled from the legions of dockworkers and physical laborers in Avenbrooke's poorer quarters, the sort of men who would do anything for a little extra cash. No, the men Giordano had brought were the best cutters in Avenbrooke, trained professional killers. Alex had tangled with some of them personally, and had been hard pressed to get out intact.
"Show them what happens when they mess with our town!" Giordano bellowed. "Get 'em!" The Baron's men roared in response and surged down the street to where the Eleventh was struggling to hold the line against the warring Sins and Kuromori.
The Baron's forces crashed into the struggling factions from behind, turning the three way melee into an all-out brawl. The gangsters screamed and pokemon shrieked and roared as the fighting intensified, punctuated by the hollow crack of gunfire. Alex could only watch as the street descended into absolute chaos. Hierro shot out of the sky and tackled Alex backwards as the Steelix shifted its heavy coils, bringing part of them down just where Alex had been standing. Giordano picked off two more Sin enforcers before signaling to the alley behind him. "All right, Espalier. Go earn your keep."
A slight figure with a wan face stumbled out from the shadows, his weight supported by a concerned-looking Mr. Mime. His black-and-white motley clothes hung loosely on his skeletal frame, and he was so pale that his veins stood out like black webs on his ghostly pale skin. "Pierre," Alex gasped. The mime briefly met Alex's eye and managed a sad smile. The esper raised his hands in front of him, palms out, and Alex saw the air behind the Steelix ripple and shimmer, a sure sign that Pierre had just erected a psychic barrier behind the steel type.
"What are you doing?" Alex shouted to Giordano. "We want to keep it back, not cut it off!"
"I'm keeping it right where I want it," Giordano growled. "We can't let it rampage through Avenbrooke, so I'm taking it down right here! Genbu!" His Blastoise grunted and shifted its weight, lowering its bulk and angling its cannons. Giordano nodded and patted his partner's shell. "Give it everything you got!"
Genbu unleashed two torrents of water from its cannons with enough force to drive the heavy amphibian back several paces. And yet Genbu corrected for the recoil instantly, keeping up the steady stream of pressurized water and forcing the Steelix to retreat all the way to Pierre's wall. Giordano snapped his fingers a Hierro. "You, bird! We'll need you to finish it off!"
Hierro spared a quick glance at Alex, and his human partner nodded. Hierro took off at a sprint before flinging himself into the air. He swooped around Genbu's water jets, spiraling and building up speed. He shot past the Steelix's head, gaining altitude before diving back down at high speed, fire trailing from his claws like a comet. Hierro struck the center of the Steelix's skull plate just between Genbu's torrents, throwing up another cloud of steam. The Steelix's armor shrieked as it warped from the icy cold water and the blisteringly hot flames, and the last of Genbu's water became another cloud of steam. Alex saw Hierro shoot up over the steam, turn in a quick somersault, and plummet down again, feet first this time.
When Hierro's kick landed on the Steelix's skull, the metal armor cracked and the serpent bellowed as it suddenly went limp and crashed to the street. Hierro bounded off the Steelix's collapsing form and landed gracefully not far from Alex. Giordano shouldered his shotgun and sucked his teeth. "Not bad." Genbu grunted and favored Hierro with a respectful nod.
Pierre flicked his hands, and the psychic wall behind the Steelix shattered into hundreds of tiny shards of light that vanished before they hit the ground. The esper sagged against his Mr. Mime. The psychic type ran his hands through Pierre's limp hair and made small concerned noises while Pierre struggled to take deep breaths.
Up the street, the Baron's cutters had managed to turn the street brawl into a rout. The Sins and Kuromori that could manage it were fleeing into side streets. The police attempted to go after them, but their numbers had been thinned as well, and they lacked the manpower for a proper pursuit. Alex had no doubt that many of the runners would find their way to bolt holes and safe houses in Greenpoint. Giordano brought two fingers to his mouth and whistled. "That's enough, boys! If they're still breathing, leave 'em where they fell and let the police take care of 'em!" The cutters immediately broke off and slipped back into the alleyways they had come from, and Anderson's officers were too exhausted to chase after them. Alex saw Matsuri, Reyes, and a few of the other officers picking their way through the last of the other factions' combatants and looking for any that the Baron's men left alive. Those that weren't in critical condition were cuffed and moved aside so that medical personnel could stabilize the rest.
Giordano smirked. "Redstone's going to be pretty full before all this is over. To say nothing of the morgues."
Alex shook his head. "That was barbaric."
"They would have done the same to us given half a chance, Hawlucha Man. The least you could do is thank me for the help." Giordano shrugged. "I figure one less criminal, one way or the other, makes your life easier too." At Alex's cold glare, Giordano shrugged. "Or maybe not. Tell Captain Anderson that the Avenbrooke Community Fund will help pay for the damages here and make sure the civilians have somewhere to go."
"That's surprisingly magnanimous of your boss."
It was Giordano's turn to glare at Alex. "The boss keeps his promises. He told you and the Ronin that he would defend Avenbrooke from the Sins and the Kuromori. This is just him making good on his word." He turned on his heel. "Let's go, Espalier."
Pierre limped after Giordano, but Alex held up a hand. "Pierre, wait!"
The esper turned around and managed a faint smile. "Trying to save me again?"
"I… yes. Let me help you, Pierre."
"It's a little too late for that."
"The way they treat you is wrong! Can't you see that?" Alex took a step forward, and found himself up against one of Pierre's psychic barriers. He put his hands up against the wall and shook his head. "I couldn't help you before, and that's one of my greatest failures as a hero. But things are different now! If you just come with me, we can—"
"No, Hawlucha Man." Pierre sighed and turned away. "I chose this path, just like you chose yours. There's no going back now." Alex could only watch as Pierre and Mimsy disappeared after Giordano. It wasn't until Alex heard a car drive away into the night that the barrier finally disappeared.
Alex dragged himself down the street past where the police officers and emergency personnel were rounding up the remaining Sin and Kuromori brawlers. Several were dead, and a handful more were clearly in critical condition. Alex was sure that the Baron's men had been thorough in their work, and very few of them would live to see trial. He supposed he should feel something about that, but he wasn't really in the mood to be sympathetic to the people who had leveled two city blocks and displaced over a hundred civilians.
He felt his left leg give out as he passed the husk of a recently collapsed tenement building. The police psychic types had done their work well, and managed to make the building fall inward on itself, sparing the row houses on either side from serious structural damage. The building was a pile of timbers and masonry, with the remains of some furniture and piping visible in the rubble. But the stoop had been left almost completely untouched, and Alex let himself sink down onto the stone stairs. Hierro bounded up next to him and made concerned cooing sounds, but Alex assured his partner that he was fine and just needed to rest for a moment.
Reyes and Matsuri made their way over to him, and the detective handed Alex a paper cup of lukewarm coffee. Alex took it with a silent nod of gratitude and let himself take a moment to inhale the rapturous, heavenly scent of slightly charred, mediocre coffee. Matsuri leaned against one of the chipped stone pillars at the edge of the stoop and sighed. "Hell of a night, boys."
"And it's not going to get any better," Reyes replied. "How you holding up, Hawlucha Man?"
"Sore," Alex said, trying to work some feeling back into his leg. "But I won't really feel it until the morning."
"You want us to get one of the EMTs to take a look at you?" Matsuri asked. "Or get you some painkillers?"
Alex shrugged. "I've been sore for weeks now. You get used to it." He tried to manage a bit of bravado, but even to him it sounded hollow. Lately his body had just been a collection of aches and pains, and he woke up with new bruises every day. Jiro and Johannes kept reminding him to take care of his body and his health, but it was difficult to do that when he was putting himself on the line every night to bring down some new threat.
It was just a matter of learning to compartmentalize, pushing aside the minor aches and pains until they just became a mildly unpleasant background noise. He didn't have the luxury of taking time off to recover, not with the city in the state it was in. Part of being a hero was putting the safety of Clarus City above his personal well-being.
The hero business was all about self-sacrifice, right? Well, Alex figured he was doing his fair share.
Reyes shook his head. "Just once, I'd like a clear-cut win. You know what I mean? Every time we put a stop to these guys, the worst of them slip through our fingers and just make even more trouble a few days later. We can pack Redstone full of these bastards, but they aren't going to go away."
"This was a win," Matsuri said, her tone firm. "We managed to evacuate this entire street with no serious injuries to the civilians, and we're putting more than a score of dangerous criminals behind bars too. That's a victory in my book."
Alex stared into the dregs of his coffee, as if that would give him some answers. "Maybe you're right." He winced as he remembered the haunted look in Pierre's eyes as the esper turned away from him. Pierre had lost his hope, and Alex held himself responsible for that. If he had been able to help the esper when he was first starting out as a hero, maybe things could have been different. But Pierre was right, he had made his choice, and Alex couldn't save him if he didn't want to be saved.
But he could stop other people from succumbing to the same despair that had claimed Pierre. Seeing Jiro Sasaki become Blaziken Man five years ago had filled Alex with passion and inspired him to become a hero too. Blaziken Man had been a symbol of hope for the entire city, and inspired others like Alex to take to the streets to defend their homes. But with the Sins growing in power and the city teetering on the brink, Clarus City needed a new symbol of hope. Alone, the heroes couldn't hold back the tide of violence sweeping through the city any more than they could stop the tide coming into the harbor, but if they all stood together… maybe they could end it once and for all.
An alliance of Clarus City's heroes had once stood ready to put an end to Marcus Braun's reign of terror, however short-lived. Dominion was a more terrifying foe than Sloth had been, certainly, but if the heroes were all united once again, rather than holding the line and fighting their own private battles in their respective boroughs, then perhaps they stood a chance against the esper and her legion of criminals.
It was time to call in some favors.
Alex pushed himself to his feet and staggered down the steps, past Matsuri and Reyes. Hierro jumped up beside him, ready to catch his partner should Alex stumble. "Hey!" the detective said. "Where are you going? The captain wants to debrief."
"Tell the captain I'll catch up with him later. Right now, I need to make a few phone calls."