Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 48: A Disruptive Environment

Ten Trainers his arse, Max thought as ninjask darted through the air, easily avoiding an Aurora Beam from a kabutops and homing in on the hovering vibrava that was trying to pelt the ground forces – Steven's armaldo – with Dragonbreath. Doublade was hovering nearby to watch out for any Pokémon trying to flank them, but so far, it had all been a full frontal assault.

They were talking a different route compared to the Gym Leaders, whose larger Rock-types needed the wide open space of the street. And they also needed to do something about the people fleeing the area. It had been the perfect opportunity for the two of them to slink off, with Steven acquiescing instantly when Max had pointed at the path between two high rise office buildings.

"I must admit, I did not expect to find you in Hoenn. I had thought you were in Kanto," the Champion said as if discussing the weather, breaking the silence between them for the first time. His armaldo rushed forward after ninjask engaged the vibrava with X-Scissor. "Nevertheless, your expertise and skill will be most welcome."

"How did you recognise me any—" He interrupted himself to look at doublade, who had split up, but it wasn't because there was something above them. "Anyway?"

"Several things," Steven said calmly as armaldo launched the kabutops into the air. Ninjask got out of the way. Vibrava did not. Good. "Your voice was familiar, your stance suggested familiarity with Brock, and there is something about that reminded me of, well, you."

They started moving again, with the armaldo being returned and a cradily being sent out. The other former Fossil immediately Mega Drained the opposing Trainer, who fell to the ground in a boneless heap as the sound of sirens started coming closer. "And what does that mean?" Max asked, wincing as his headache flared up.

"There aren't a lot of Trainers your age that are angry and willing to fight when this happens," the Champion said. "And you looking younger narrows that further. The hair did cause me to doubt myself for a moment, but then Brock confirmed it."

They reached the drained Trainer, who was moaning a bit. Good. Served him right for attacking. He was wearing the same black clothing that Max had seen before for real and in memory: Dark-type fur lining it, making it harder for Psychic-types to affect them. "Any idea what they're after?"

"So much that I would struggle to narrow it down. I doubt this one knows." Several pokéballs disappeared into a bag. "I don't suppose your gardevoir knows how to scoop information?"

Oh, Max wanted to let gardevoir do that. Without the ability to use a Mega Evolution – they had yet to get that to work without giving in to anger or hate – it wasn't an option, though. The disruptor felt pretty powerful. "Can't do that. There… There's a machine that causes Psychic-types pain," he admitted.

"And how do you know that?"

"You heard of Danny and I being attacked?" Max asked, but he didn't wait for an answer. "They used one there. Same in the Tree of Beginning. Stopped Psychic-types from doing anything."

"I am aware of that. I was looking into the properties of Gems earlier this morning to see if there is a way to counteract the disruption from a distance," Steven replied as a Jenny spotted them, running up with a growlithe by her side. "We will continue to Devon Tower. Everyone who isn't an Ace-tier Trainer needs to stay inside and away from windows and outer walls."

The Jenny gave Max a strange look, but didn't comment. "We put out the word on that as soon as we heard you were in town." A metal clink revealed some handcuffs. "We will take care of this."

"Appreciated, Officer," the Champion said before returning his Pokémon. "The Gym Leaders are sweeping the streets. We'll look to break the attack on the tower itself."

As if on cue, the sound of breaking glass in large amounts pierced the sky, as did a loud cry from a steelix. It was probably two streets over – Max remembered a large office building with glass windows over there. "Let's use that as a distraction."

"Sharp thinking," Steven said as he started jogging, Max instantly following along with ninjask flying above and ahead of them. They crossed the street, heading into a second alley, but this time, nobody awaited them. Steven, however, stopped about two thirds through, holding out a hand. "Ninjask, scout. And you, Max, owe me an answer," he stated. "How do you know the disruption is in effect here, right now?"

For a brief moment, he thought about trying to lie. There was still a lot he didn't know, even if trial, error, and a heap of bad luck had taught him a bunch. Then reality caught up as electricity crackled nearby. "I feel the same thing Psychic-types do. Ghost-type things, Dark-type things, y'know."

"Peculiar," Steven said as ninjask landed in front of them, settling on a railing. "How bad is it?"

Max looked at his Pokémon first, and the bug made a sound that was clear as anything. There were Electric-types around. "Now? Headache. Annoying, but not debilitating," he said as he returned ninjask. "For me. Gardevoir and ralts are out of commission or very hindered at best. Not that I'd send ralts out."

"I didn't know you had one." The Champion sounded pensive. "Unfortunately, that also precludes my metagross from joining in until we can locate the machine they use."

"Mega Evolution should be able to work through it," Max said as he sent manectric out. If there was electricity abound, she was going to be helpful. "Not sure how comfortable it would be for you."

"Do I wish to know how you know?"

"Cross Hollow was my doing, but… That's not an option."

"Why n…" the adult started. "Of course. Emotional feedback loops between gardevoir and human are well established. If augmented by a Mega Evolution bond, and with your sensitiveness… Were you even in control of yourself?" A pokéball was enlarged, and a dangerous-looking excadrill came out. "Regardless, let's keep that as a last resort for now." He gestured towards the street. "Max, let's show these goons our true power as Trainers."

The moment they stepped out, electricity rained down on them; a trio of bolts crackling loudly. Manectric absorbed two with her Ability, and the excadrill intercepted the third with a claw extended into the air.

The sources were two raichu and a magneton, flanked by a pair of breloom. The fact that manectric ate the two without too much of an issue revealed their strength, though, and without waiting for an order, she returned fire, using the boost she got from absorbing the attacks to unleash a jagged and sizzling bolt down the street.

It wasn't redirected towards any of the other Pokémon. The magneton put up an attempt at a Protect, but it was woefully inadequate, and an explosion was followed by the very loud sound of a window shattering because of a ballistic Pokémon.

"That is rather disappointing," Steven observed as the four remaining Pokémon darted towards them. "No plan to deal with Lightning Rod. Excadrill!"

The Ground-type obliged, jumping up and landing, which sent out a wave of bulging asphalt – Bulldoze, clearly – that caught one of the breloom and sent it flying back. A hail of Bullet Seeds followed from the other one, but they got closer to Max than they did to the Ground-type, which wasn't there any longer. It rushed forward on its own, both of its claws glowing with Metal Claw.

One of the raichu broke off, going for an Iron Tail, and Max heard manectric howl as she unleashed a Flamethrower at the breloom on the far left, which was caught out badly. The second raichu tried to intercept the flames with a Thunderbolt, but that only caused an explosion that blew out several windows nearby.

Max's Pokémon sent a Thunderbolt of her own into the explosion's smoke, but nothing was hit, and a Seed Bomb flew back in return, forcing her to move, and with a sharp howl, she shifted into a Quick Attack. She intercepted the raichu that was trying to land some attack on excadrill's back as it grappled with the breloom for just a moment, and then she launched a bolt of electricity at the Ground-type.

The electricity sought the path of least resistance, and since excadrill jumped up at just the right time, that path was through the Grass-type. Steven's Pokémon leveraged the sudden weakness into a throw as it landed, and the mushroom-like Pokémon hit a stone planter.

Then excadrill dropped a Horn Drill on it, and it slumped to the ground, one arm bleeding copiously.

The two raichu had regrouped, and a bar of pure electricity headed straight down the street for the two humans, but manectric was there to block it. She took a Seed Bomb to the flank from the other breloom that had recovered from the Bulldoze, but it was a nuisance, nothing more.

It was also a good target. Aided by the stored electricity, the Thunder was impressively fast to form and powerful enough that bolts of stray electricity struck the asphalt between the yellow Pokémon and the Grass-type. It moved, of course, but there had only been one direction it could move to: into the street itself, because it had been close to a building before and excadrill was moving in there as well.

The result was crisp mushroom; something that took the raichu aback if Max was any judge.

"Excadrill!"

From the side, Max saw the Ground-type leap into the air, sending a different planter wobbling and onto the pavement, but the landing was more impactful. A Fissure surged down the width of the street, and one of the raichu was not fast enough at jumping out of the way. It fell into the newly created cracks, whereupon it was an easy target for a Flamethrower.

Maybe that cry had been of surrender. Max didn't care.

The last opposing Pokémon remaining took one look and started running like the houndoom of hell were on its tail. Unfortunately for it, Steven was prepared, and the cradily that appeared tripped the Electric-type easily before a Mega Drain struck. The electricity that was building up immediately vanished, and by the time Max and Steven had reached manectric – maybe twenty feet away from where they had been – the green light died down and the last Pokémon had fallen.

"Good work."

~~§~~§~~

Paulson sighed as the report of the Pokémon came in. A ninjask had been just doubtful enough, but a powerful manectric and a ninjask fighting alongside the Champion? There was only one Trainer in Hoenn who was of that calibre.

Why did that meddling child always show up. The former spy was not much of a religious man, but this was enough to tempt him to ask arceus if the boy was here by divine intervention. Between his appearance and the presence of the Pewter Gym Leader, even an ally like Roxanne could be subverted, and that did not take into account the information that would undoubtedly soon flow to the Champion of Hoenn, who was above the League Politics Acts law by legal status.

The convention was that they kept to it, but with the information the boy knew… That convention would go out the window fast.

But they had planned for an eventuality like this. It just needed a little push. And luckily, they were in a position that they could do that. Right here, right now.

He opened communications, but closed them without a word when an idea came to mind. A devilish idea. One with risk, but the reward for complete success was commensurate, and the median case probably was enough to suit their needs regardless. It did rely on the enemy noticing what was done, but he suspected that was not a problem.

Perhaps Stone had a detector: their contact inside Devon had indicated that he had heard of work on that. More likely, however, was the chance of one of them receiving word that it had faded. There was bound to be one of them in contact with the police, who tended to be inundated with calls about how certain Pokémon were behaving at times like these.

"Turn the disruptors down and replace the gems."

"Sir?"

"It is time to release the captives. However, wait until the strike team has confirmed new hostiles inside."

There was a bit of silence, but the man obeyed regardless. "Affirmative."

Now to warn the ones assaulting about what, or who, was coming their way.

~~§~~§~~

Gym Leaders, Champion, and regular Trainer met up in the middle of the road. Roxanne had taken one look at what Steven had unleashed, and sighed loudly. "Fissure, Steven? Really? Don't you feel that's a bit… Much?"

"After several Thunderbolts sent straight at us? My forbearance is limited, Roxanne," the grey-haired man replied tersely as Max and Brock just shared a look. "Did you hear anything from the police about Devon Tower?"

"About twenty Pokémon outside, and an unknown amount inside. How good is the security on R&D?"

"Decent if they entered lockdown, which they should have. Blast shields designed to withstand fire for an hour, a rhydon's drill, and reinforced against blunt trauma."

"Can it be overridden?" Brock asked, kicking a loose piece of asphalt into the crack.

"It can be. But they would need a code that changes every week, or the override in my father's office," Steven said before turning to Max. "And since Team Aqua stole something from us, we've gone through quite the security upgrade, and my father has some of my Pokémon."

The tone made it perfectly clear that Steven pitied the one who would try to go that route. Max didn't agree, but he could at least understand it. "Okay, so, what's the— whaa?"

All of a sudden, his headache vanished, gone as if it had never been present. It was blessed relief, taking a huge weight off his mind.

"What is it?"

"Disruptor's gone," Max answered Steven as he quickly sent ralts out onto the street. She seemed surprised to be sent out for sure, but she eagerly jumped onto the hand and arm the teenager was offering. "See?"

Roxanne sounded like she was about to protest, but Brock was faster. "What does this mean for us?"

"I don't trust this," Steven said as he returned excadrill. "Most of their attacks last far longer, and I doubt they'd leave whatever is causing this unattended."

"Causing this? Steven, it's the Types. I've told you this."

Ralts bristled on Max's shoulder, and he quickly raised his hand to calm her as Roxanne tried to assert her opinion. "It's not, Roxanne," the Champion said calmly. "It is possible to create a machine that causes Psychic-types to go haywire. The Tree of Beginning incident proved this. It is a logical conclusion that the same can be extended to the other Types. I understand this is counter to what you believe, but it is ever only Hoenn that is affected."

The Rustboro Gym Leader clearly worked that statement through. "Okay," she said, sounding like she didn't really believe it. "Assuming you're correct… So where do you come in? Weren't you in Johto?"

"He—" Brock started, but Max coughed pointedly. "Really?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath and looked Roxanne straight in the eye, as best he could. "A different ralts died in my arms, and for trying to save him, the government wanted to arrest me. I was there at the Tree of Beginning, and I got kidnapped for it. I was there in Cross Hollow. I was there in the Aso Mountains a few weeks ago. It's still happening, it's still going on, and you know who's responsible?" He waited for a moment to draw out the reveal. "I-"

A hand on his free shoulder stopped him. "It doesn't matter who is responsible. Or how we know there's nothing in effect right now, Roxanne. All that matters is making sure they don't hurt my colleagues and get whatever they want inside Devon Corp."

"Why do you believe him? He's not been in Hoenn for ages. He doesn't know what we've been going through!"

"Enough," Brock cut in. "Roxanne, now is not the time. There's no disruption now, and there was ten minutes ago. Max, don't push it. We've got an opportunity now." He walked up to the teenager, taking the Friend Ball from its position on the magnetic belt. "We can use your gardevoir to relocate two of us. Pincer them."

"Head into the building and trap them between us?" Max asked.

"No," Steven stated. "Only you have the Pokémon for that. Agile Pokémon work better than the kind the rest of us has."

"What do you propose then?" Brock asked.

"The idea of a pincer attack is a good one. We just need to locate a place to start it from on the other side."

"We can use the roof of the Devon Corp building to check the surroundings. That's like a hundred and eighty feet up, so it's out of range of most attacks. And who would look up anyway," Max finished, remembering clearly – with plenty of disgust – the last time he hadn't done that. "Then relocate after that."

For a few moments, there was silence, but then, Roxanne snorted. "At least you can use that brain. Just return the gardevoir when you're on the ground again. No need to have him lash out at you if we're trying to stop these guys."

Ralts bristled again, and Max again extended a calming touch. It came away decidedly annoyed, which made him hide a smile. The feeling was mutual. "Sure."

"I'll come with you," Brock said. "Roxanne and I overlap too much in Pokémon anyway."

"We have our plans. Let's carry them out."

A minute later, winds buffeted Max and Brock as they appeared atop the Devon building. Max saw some guards step towards them, but they stood back after a moment.

"There," Brock said, pointing down over the edge. Max followed the finger to an inner courtyard that looked empty. It was hard to tell from the distance, though. "Good straight road. Wide too."

"You brought steelix, didn't you?" the teenager said teasingly. "If some Pokémon needs the space… What else ya got?"

"Swampert, steelix, probopass, boldore, rhydon, and crobat," the Pewter City Gym Leader listed. "Can't really use rhydon if you use manectric, and if the disruptor's active again, we might need crobat and ninjask."

"Oh?" Max asked, and Brock explained. "Okay, yeah, that's a good idea." He peered over the edge again, but there wasn't any really obvious place where people were guarding something. "You think they can find it?"

"They're our best bet."

~~§~~§~~

Danny listened in silence as Sidney communicated with a wide variety of people. One moment it was the mayor of Rustboro, then it was someone from the League, followed by an assistant from his Uncle's Lab – he didn't recognise the voice – and now it was a friend of Sidney's who was giving an update on where the pidgeot that had been asked for were.

The last fifteen minutes had been chaos. They were halfway between Oldale and Littleroot, and it was supposed to be a day where they'd take it slow.

That had gone out the window as soon as the first call on Sidney's Pokénav came in. The Dark-type Master had immediately switched it to speaker mode, and Danny had been able to listen in on the Hoenn Champion reporting that Rustboro was being attacked and that the ones attacking were after Devon Corp, with Psychic-types out of commission.

Since then, it had been a whirlwind of preparing, and getting updates on everything. Apparently, Brock was in town, which was a help, and there was an unidentified fourth Trainer willing to help out, but most Trainers were staying out of the way because they weren't strong enough, at the advice of Steven himself.

"Pidgeot arrive in two minutes," Sidney said as the call ended. "Due south. One of them has a tropius pokéball to take our packs to Littleroot."

"Got it," Danny replied, trying to peer at the sky, but the sun stopped him from spotting the approaching birds. "I'll try to keep my lunch in."

"Full Restore extract works on upset stomachs. Push to shove, just gulp some of that." The Pokénav rang one more time before the teenager could reply. "Yes."

"It's Birch. I just cross-referenced Pokémon Center data on who is in town. Only one name you're not aware of stood out. One retrieval from Kanto, earlier today."

"Will they help?"

"If he's not, I'm retiring to the Orange Islands and Danny will have to take over the laboratory tomorrow," was the Professor's reply, and Danny recognised that tone. His uncle was dead certain he was right. "I'd say be on the lookout for him, but I suspect you'll find him pretty easily. Just follow the electricity impacts. Birch out."

The call ended, and as soon as it did, two pidgeot landed nearby: majestic and graceful. One of them sent tropius out with a flick of a talon. "Over here," Danny said, getting the Grass-type's attention.

Sidney gave him a hand with securing the packs. It wasn't hard, not with a Pokémon used to it, and soon the green Pokémon lifted off, heading south. "You realise who's in Rustboro, right?"

Danny went back to the hints his uncle had given, but as soon as he did so, he realised the obvious answer, and his heart leapt with joy and anxiety. "How on arceus's Earth does he find himself in these situations..."

"Sheer luck, good or bad does not matter." They moved towards the waiting Flying-types. "Which of you is the gentler?" was the question, and the left one preened. "Okay. Catch."

Sidney threw one of the bottles of extract Danny's way, and the teenager easily caught it, immediately clipping it onto his belt. He hoped Sidney's handiwork would keep safe during a high speed flight, but without their packs, it was the only place he could put it. "Really hoping we don't need this."

"Best be prepared to. Fifteen minutes is a long time, notwithstanding the time already elapsed," came the reply as the Dark-type Master climbed onto the pidgeot waiting for him. "And many things can go awry. Let's go be one of them for the government, shall we?"

~~§~~§~~

So far so good was the best summation of how Max and Brock's assault from the other side had been. Defences had been light at first, and manectric plus ninjask had been able to drop two Trainers entirely before reinforcements showed up. Only a half dozen more to go if Brock's count had been correct – and half of them were busy on the other side.

That put the number of Trainers at well over thirty, Max thought, but he refused to think that through now. There were opponents to defeat, and right now, the Pokémon arrayed against them were actually putting up a challenging fight between the two cherrim keeping Sunny Day active, the venusaur threatening – and the two Sinnohan Pokémon – to use Solarbeam any time something came near, and the shiftry that was also being helped by the sunlight, fake or not.

They couldn't get close, as another Protect made the world go green for a second, because manectric would flambé anyone who got too close if probopass or steelix didn't get there first with something, but a stalemate wasn't helping at all. "Got any ideas?"

"No," Brock said, but Max heard the lie. "Well, I have a few, but most of them are dangerous." Okay, that was probably right. "How's your headache?"

What was that question? "Don't have one," he replied as probopass and steelix deliberately let their attacks collide to throw up a smokescreen. Manectric immediately darted forward, jumping on top of a parked car, then onto a sign, then onto a balcony to unleash a Flamethrower from an unexpected angle. "Why?"

"Have gardevoir Teleport to one of the roofs, then attack venusaur. Manectric and probopass punch through the cherrim," Brock said as a Zap Cannon was intercepted by an Energy Ball. A car alarm went off. It wasn't the first, but the previous one had been silenced after a Solarbeam had blown up a Hyper Beam. "In and out strike."

A Seed Bomb tried to rain down on them, but the distance was too much, and the projectiles were easily intercepted by probopass launching a few magnetised attacks. The one remaining was incinerated by manectric. A return salvo was equally ineffective. They needed to break the stalemate, and Brock's suggestion was good. "Get me a smokescreen."

The Pokémon did so, and once it was up, Max sent gardevoir out, with the plan being read from his mind a moment later. It wasn't comfortable, but it had to be done. The Psychic-type vanished just before the smokescreen fell apart.

Fifteen seconds later, the venusaur suddenly collapsed, and even from the distance, Max saw the other Pokémon and Trainers look around in confusion. One of them cottoned on pretty fast, but by that time, it was too late. The cherrim weren't enough to stop a Thunderbolt and Zap Cannon double whammy, and then a Hydro Pump from Brock's swampert washed everyone up, including the shiftry.

A soft swish announced gardevoir's return. He extended his arm to Max's hand. "Mission acc—"

~~§~~§~~

Paulson watched through binoculars as the quadruple Grass-type team held off the opponents for far longer than anticipated. Geography and convention likely aided: the Pewter Gym Leader seemed loath to use the steelix's bulk because it would likely tear through a glass facade at some point, while the row of high rise buildings precluded the manectric from effectively using its agility.

It was pure luck as well. They had identified this street as a potential path through which Trainers could seek to stop them, which had been why there had been scouts posted down the road. It had been why he himself was standing atop a building at the tail end of the street, far above ground level and hidden from anyone who didn't look up. Then, these irritants had been revealed, taking out their scouts with ease and ruthlessness before starting their run down the road.

This had unwittingly ruined the highest upside to the plan that he had put into motion not too long ago as well. He wasn't sure why they hadn't gone for the easy flank: tactically, unexpected opposition from above made sense and the Champion's father was present as well, adding a human element to the calculation.

Regardless, some of his men had rotated in to block the path. Unfortunately, as good as they were, the other side was better. It was a simple fact of life. Given enough time, they would figure out ways around this blockade, and reports from the other side of the Devon Corp building were less positive, judging by the words flowing into his ear.

"Sir, everything is in position."

He sighed. That had taken longer than it ought to have. But the bait was still set and would work well enough outside. He didn't reply immediately, as an explosion obscured the street, and he looked to see what was up as the smokescreen dissipated on the back of some attack slicing through it.

It wasn't until the venusaur writhed in pain that the plan became clear to him, and the gardevoir was soon found atop a building, concentrating. A risky move, but a calculated one. Stone likely had a spare detector and had given it to one of them. "Activate, now."

The gardevoir vanished, presumably reappearing next to his enemies.

"Active."

Beautiful, wonderful, hatred surged across the city as every Psychic-type in a three mile radius – give or take – was forced out of its pokéball and started attacking everything in sight. This long into their rule, the amount of them in the city was undoubtedly low, but that was where the captives had come in.

Hidden in various spots had been pokéballs of captured Pokémon. A little technological rigging had ensured that they could remain in stasis until a signal was transferred – one that had been sent just prior to the disruptor being turned on again.

Every single Psychic-type in the area was in the throes of blind, all-consuming hatred. The emotion was strong enough to even force them out of their pokéballs if they weren't in stasis: that had been a key requirement of the setting, in fact. Not even Stone's metagross ought to be able to escape it, and the complete disjoint of emotions would stop any Mega Evolution from taking place.

The gardevoir was the only problem. Empath Pokémon like them were a weakness of the system, if backed by Mega Evolution. It was a weakness identified in the analysis of what had happened on Izabe. Questions remained as to how the gardevoirite had been acquired, but that was a low priority conundrum.

But this time, the street hadn't lit up with that infernal light. And as he heard things start to shatter behind him; as the rampage got started, he took another look down to see how well these irritants were doing, faced with the rage of a powerful Pokémon.

There was a strange field where the probopass had been, but that Pokémon was off to the side, maintaining it, though it didn't supply the electricity that surrounded the purple, forming a cage. Paulson took a closer look into the purple – harder than expected at this distance, but doable – and saw a ralts held inside. He wasn't sure why there was one there, but it was probably the son of that gardevoir or something. Or perhaps… The Aso facility had gone dark a while back, and last he had heard the lead scientist had taken the ralts he had used for blackmail. It mattered not; not when the ralts was pathetically weak.

He moved his binoculars slightly and found something more to his liking. The Pewter Gym Leader was very much worse for the wear, though he was getting up after leaving a dent in a nearby car. Good, that ought to be something to press later.

Another adjustment showed the gardevoir's Trainer still standing. Paulson could only see half of the boy's face, but even that was enough to reveal someone incensed to the point that older men would have popping veins. He wasn't sure if the boy was even in control of himself at this point, and between that and the fact that he was standing despite being mere feet away from a Pokémon that powerful being incited was truly boggling.

And what on earth was that behi… How?!

~~§~~§~~

Everything hurt. A wave of hatred had flung him into the car, and Brock got up tenderly. He hadn't been tossed around this much since he'd been travelling with Ash, and he was several years younger at that point. He was really getting too old for this shit.

He didn't have to think long to figure out what was happening. The disruptor had been turned on, flipped to hatred. That was the only reason why gardevoir would have done what he did, but… There was no trace of him now. At least none that Brock could sense, and he was pretty sure that an empath like gardevoir would be broadcasting emotions everywhere right now.

Then he looked right, and saw pure devastation.

The street had been levelled. The buildings were probably structurally sound, with plenty of windows that weren't broken earlier, but every planter, lamp post, sign, and everything else that was not a building was somewhere in the distance. A car was the closest loose object to Brock, but even that was like a hundred feet away, on its side with the boot and bonnet both cracked open. Brock was pretty certain it had been just behind them earlier.

Steelix rumbled, crying for attention, and Brock's gaze snapped left where probopass and manectric were holding Max's ralts in what looked like a Gravity cage surrounded by electricity to nullify any attacks that could come out. Good thinking by them, but it raised the question where on Earth Max was.

Basically where he had been before? With gardevoir just behind him, knocked out?

Brock shook his head. Now was not the time. He started walking – ignoring his protesting vertebrae. They weren't broken, but he was going to feel this for a while. "Max?"

No response. If anything, he seemed to be focused on…

That damn sensitivity. If gardevoir and ralts were consumed by hatred, then so was Max.

If it was one of his siblings, he'd just send them outdoors, tell them to go rage outside for a bit in the quarry. Every one of them knew that, and nobody even blinked an eye if that happened. Living with the better part of a dozen people made it happen pretty often. But Brock didn't have time for that now. He needed Max at least coherent, or out of the way. Rustboro needed help.

He grabbed the teen's wrist just above the band, only to have it wrenched from his grasp. Max's head turned, and Brock flinched when he saw the sheer hatred in that face. Hatred and conflict. "Max?" he asked, but no words came, even if there was a slight change in the expression.

Windows shattered several streets over. There was no time for this. "Crobat, go find the disruptor and destroy it," he ordered with a tap of his finger, and the bat shot out of the pokéball and into the air. He took a few steps back. "Rhydon, restrain him."

That caught manectric's attention, and she stepped forward threateningly, even as she kept up the low-power electrical current to keep the ralts from lashing out at them. "Tric!" she barked, and out came sceptile, ninjask, and doublade. "Tric, man-man."

"Your Trainer is not himself. The thing that is making ralts lash out is also affecting him," Brock argued. "And I need to stop what's causing this, and I'm going to need your help for that. We have to keep him safe. Even from himself."

~~§~~§~~

Rustboro was near, and it was worse than Danny had expected. Smoke rose up from multiple parts of the city. Sirens were everywhere, audible even as they slowed down over the suburbs, visible as blurs for now. Devon Corp's tower was in one piece, but the amount of smoke was thickest there. It was enough to churn his stomach worse than the flight had. "What on Earth, Sidney?"

"I don't know!" the Elite Four member shouted back. "Split up. Help out. Pidgeot's pokéball is in the plumage."

Before Danny could reply, the other pidgeot had shot off as his own flew at a pedestrian pace. He shook his head. People needed help down there, and from the looks of it, they could use every last bit of it. "Plume of smoke to the right," Danny said, starting to point – but then realising the Flying-type wouldn't be able to see. It wasn't too far from the Trainer's School, about two and a half miles from Devon Corp. "Land there. Let's go help people."

With a powerful cry, the pidgeot started a glide downwards. It created a weird feeling in Danny's stomach – as all descents did – but there was more to it, he could tell.

A desperate hope they weren't too late.

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

Pokédex entry: pidgeot

Characteristics: avian, predator, Flying-type. Avg. height: 4'11'', wingspan: 12'7''. Avg. weight: 87 lbs.

Detailed information: One of the largest Flying-type Pokémon around. It has outstanding vision and is capable of reaching great speeds on its own, with racing specimen in a dive clocking in well over 250 miles per hour. It can easily carry humans around for flight, and is often used for that purpose, with only tropius outpacing it in raw use, mostly due to the increased weight those Pokémon can carry. In battle, these Pokémon can create fierce gusts of wind that are capable of bending or breaking tall trees, though it cannot fully use all of its speed in a controlled battle setting.

Author's Note: Ever write a plothole the size of a small mountain into your story? Yep, that happened. Someone realised something they had no right to realise, and I only noticed this time last week when I was doing the final check before uploading.