So here we are the next chapter. Now things get to continue for Flare. Things get a little heated this chapter... literally. Anyways excuse the poor puns... Thanks again to genericgamer207 for beta reading.

Guest review response (Just one lol)

LuckyWhisker: I actually laughed when I saw what you hoped would happen on how Gray would survive. It was ironic because to an extent that did happen. Also glad to see you're relieved and enjoying the story to this point. Anyways people in this story may not always be that lucky in the future... Thanks for taking the time to review I appreciate it.

Chapter 62: An old friendship ends

Point of View Flare

"You know, I still remember the old Day's Flare. Back when we were friends, and things were different. We trusted each other, and yeah sure we got into trouble here and there, but that time still meant something," Hunter reminded me.

I too remembered those days. I was a completely different pokemon back then. "Yeah, I haven't forgotten either," I responded back to Hunter.

"Don't you miss the days we worked as a team? We were unstoppable, people and pokemon respected us," Hunter asked.

"We were looked up to by a bunch of psychopaths, people who wanted to commit mass genocide," I snidely replied.

"I remember back then you had no problem with that. Technically, you are responsible for assisting team Flare in almost creating a holocaust," Hunted said.

"That's because I was sick in the head back then!" I screamed back.

"So what, you're different now? You're just going to sweep that under the rug and pretend it never happened?" Hunter snidely asked.

"After what happened I was given a family. They took me in only knowing my name. I hated them all so much at first, I even considered hurting them. But over time I was changed by those around me," I truthfully said as I looked back at Kana's unconscious body.

"I don't buy it," Hunter spat out. "I know you're the same pokemon, you're just sitting here and lying to yourself and making yourself believe you're a good pokemon, when really you're just the same pokemon I knew," Hunter stated as if he knew me better than myself "Just think, is this really who you are, or are you just living a lie?"

In response I let out a sigh of depression. "There's nothing left for us to talk about if you won't accept me for who I am."

"I guess it seems that way," Hunter said as he walked over to the knife he dropped earlier and retrieved it. "Let's make this a memorable one," Hunter said as he sheathed his knife.

Hunter took his battle stance and I took mine. Even though this fight would result in one of our deaths, I still couldn't help but feel nostalgia. Hunter and I have always been sparring partners, although never once have I managed to beat him. Out of us two I was the weaker one, yet somehow I still advanced further in Team Flare than him.

Hunter and I both remained in our battle stance hesitating to be the one to strike first. Within a split second Hunter and I both launched an ember at the same moment. The two masses collided and created a smoke screen around the both of us. I ran blindly through the smoke without a clue where he was. Upon realizing how pointless it was, I stopped running and inhaled a deep breath, which I nearly gagged on due to the smoke. I blindly fired a continuous stream of flames from my mouth in hopes it would hit something.

'Nothing,' I thought in my head as a bead of sweat dripped down my forehead. A force suddenly smacked into the side of my head and knocked me straight onto the ground. My head throbbed in pain as I recovered to my feet. The smoke finally began to clear up and revealed Hunter standing right where I was.

The blaziken sprinted forward with his fist ignited in flames. He jumped towards me, and I jumped away as his fist smashed into the ground. I quickly turned towards him to launch another ember, but before I could even open my mouth, I saw a foot between my eyes. I went flying back onto the ground from the force of the kick. Hardly conscious I rolled onto my back; Hunter appeared in the airspace above me ready to pulverize me. I shot an ember directly towards him. Without a chance of dodging the ember made contact with Hunter's torso. The air above me ignited in a fiery explosion, and I lost sight of my opponent. Hunter flew through the flames unscathed, and he landed directly on my stomach, and used it as a landing pad. All the air in my body was forced out of me as he crushed my much smaller form. Hunter then used my chest as a launch pad and jumped off me.

I was so out of breath from the attack, I couldn't even scream or moan in pain. My stomach on the other hand felt like it was on fire, and along with that, I heard a few of my lower ribs crack when he landed on me. I tried to move, but the instant I did so, my ribs and stomach shot up in pain.

"Just as I thought" Hunter scoffed. Through all my pain, I managed to direct my blurry vision towards him. "This loving family of yours has only slowed you down. I've never seen you so weak."

With newfound motivation I forced myself over onto my stomach, and I forced myself to stand despite just recently being crushed into a pancake. "My fighting skills may have gone down a little, but they didn't make me weaker. Because of them I'm stronger," I proudly replied back.

"Let's see how far that'll get you," Hunter snarled as he took off towards me.

Hunter flicked his foot outward towards me. I jumped over the kick and attempted to smash my head into his gut, but instead, his hand came down and grabbed me by the back of the neck. He held me high and used all the force he could to smash my head into the ground. Instead of releasing me, he swung me around and threw me. Back first I collided with a tree as pain shot through my body. I tried to move but the instant I did my lower back filled up with pain. I screamed in pain as I quickly gave up on moving. I didn't know what it was, but something was seriously messed up in my back and it was impossible.

"Get up!" Hunter yelled at me. I looked up to see the blaziken hovering over me. "I said get up!" he yelled as he grabbed me from the back of my neck and held me to his eye level. My injured back screamed as I was forcefully held into the air.

"S-Stop," I begged as the pain in my back only became worse. As the pain became worse I could feel my vision becoming blurred and my head began spinning. The grip around the back of my head loosened and I fell to the ground. A yelp left my mouth as the pain worsened from the impact with the ground.

"I guess it can't be helped," Hunter said as he slowly unsheathed his knife and crouched down to my level "I really wish it never had to come down to this, but I think this is better for you in the end," Hunter said as he looked at his reflection in his steel blade.

As I stared at the knife he held, I realized that things were pretty bad on my end, and there wasn't even a chance that I would win. "Someone help!" I yelled out loud as I looked for anyone that would save me. "Kana!" I screamed at the unconscious jolteon who lied on the ground still asleep. She didn't even show a response from my screams of terror.

"Shhh, I promise this won't hurt a bit," Hunter gently whispered as he stroked my fur with his free hand. My heart throbbed in my chest as he slowly pressed the knife against my chest right where my heart lied. The steel blade was cold and I could feel how sharp the blade was just from him poking me.

"You don't have to do this," I pleaded as a tear began to drip down my eye as the fear of death grew until it was all I could think of. I wanted to remain strong but I couldn't. I didn't want to die, not like this. What would happen to everyone, and how would they react. I couldn't bear leaving any of them. There was so much I haven't made up for yet.

"You know I can't do that," Hunter replied.

'This is it, I'm going to die,' I thought in my head. In the end I guess this could be described as karma. I've done horrible things in my life, and I guess I wasn't destined to make up for what I've done. Death would be my atonement.

"Make it fast," I said in defeat as I accepted my fate. "Just promise me that you'll leave Kana out of this. She doesn't deserve to go down with me," I asked as a final wish. Kana meant so much to me, she was like a sister. If it wasn't for her I would have remained sick in the head and I probably would have done horrible things. She has always been there for me and never questioned who I really was. Someone like her deserved a better life without constant threats of dying.

"You have my word, the jolteon won't ever be harmed. I'll personally make sure of that," Hunter reassured me. Silence filled the air as I waited for Hunters knife to penetrate my heart. I looked Hunter in the eyes as I waited. I wanted him to remember the look in my eyes when he killed me. Hunter hesitated and withdrew his knife from my chest and sheathed it.

"I guess I'm not ready to kill you yet," Hunter said in disappointment. "I'll be back one day, and when I am, I'm going to finish what I couldn't today. Until then, I'd advise that you stop playing around with these friends of yours and learn how to actually defend yourself." Before I could say anything, Hunter grabbed a syringe from the sling that went over his shoulder and stabbed me. The effects of the syringe almost worked immediately, and I passed out.

Point of View Black

Gray and I both moved quickly down the staircase as an alarm went off in the hotel. Gray still had the riolu on his back, thankfully still unconscious. After a long walk down some stairs we reached the bottom and entered the lobby. To our surprise everyone was gone and there was no sign of any life.

"Where are they," I anxiously asked Gray as I looked in every direction possible.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Gray responded.

"Hey, you two!" a voice called from one of the hallways. Gray and I both turned our heads and saw Aiden running down the hallway alone.

"Where is everybody!?" I yelled over the loud alarm that was non-stop beeped.

"They're all outside, everyone is fine!" He yelled back. "Follow me!" he added on as he signaled us to follow. Gray and I both followed him outside the hotel. Aiden lead us around the hotel to the back where we were reunited with everyone.

"Black, Gray!" Ebony called out excitedly as she dashed towards me. The kid practically tackled me to the ground in excitement, I couldn't be more thankful that the eevee wasn't a rhyhorn. I responded to Ebony's excitement with a hug. She was probably scared out of her mind this whole time.

I looked around and spotted Hesh who was lying unconscious on the ground, along with that raichu who was also unconscious and Nia who was, again, lying down wearing an uneasy look on her face, but at least conscious. I released Ebony from the hug and ran over towards Nia.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"Hardly," she replied. Nia was pretty banged up. She had a piece of metal sticking out of her side which caused blood to stream down her side. Then I saw her leg and noticed that it was awkwardly bent. I cringed at the sight of her leg. She was in really bad shape and needed medical attention.

"You can stop looking at me like that," Nia barked at me. "I'll be fine," she reassured with her usual grouchy voice. From the short amount of time I've known her this was very typical. She seemed to not like anyone feeling bad for her or showing any form of sympathy towards her. She was like me in the sense that she liked her space from people.

Before I could ponder off too much on irrelevant thoughts something clicked in my head. "Wait, where are Flare and Kana!" I yelled out as I looked around but no one replied.

"No one knows, they haven't come back yet," Nia replied from the ground.

"And none of you went out to find them!" I shouted in anger.

Nia let out a growl of anger from my outburst "Listen we all almost died in there, right now I need medical attention, and the only pokemon capable of that is unconscious," Nia said with a point. It was true. They were all banged up. Nia couldn't even walk, Hesh was unconscious, Ebony was just a child, and well, Aiden probably didn't give two craps...

"I have to find them," I said out of impulse.

"I'll come with you," Ebony called out. I looked back at the eevee who had a determined look in her eyes that I've never seen before.

"You need to stay here, it's too dangerous," I responded to Ebony. I really hated the idea of saying no to her, but I still felt somewhat responsible for keeping her out of danger, which to this point I have done a horrible job on that.

"But you may need me," she retorted.

"No Ebony," I replied back in a stern voice. The eevee's ears fell low in disappointment as she frowned at me. Before the argument could have continued, but we were all cut off by the loud sound of police sirens and horns blasting through the silent night. Soon I could see red and blue lights flashing in the air.

"Great the police," I muttered.

"Probably some fire fighters too," Aiden added on.

"I'm going, you all stay here," I ordered as I took off running in pursuit of Flare and Kana.

Third person point of View

"Well sir, it seems the mission failed" a gardevoir telepathically told two middle aged men. Three people sat in a bar that was completely vacant: Jack Jaegar, John Hayter and Alex Hayter. Alex was the only member of the three who was completely unconscious.

"What do you mean they failed!?" Jack yelled as he slammed his hands down on the wooden bar counter. The gardevoir didn't flinch at her master's fury and remained calm.

"Everyone appears to be alive sir, but Raiden and Sam are being taken into police custody," the gardevoir answered.

"And what the hell is Blaze doing, taking a walk in the park!?" Jack yelled at the gardevoir.

The gardevoir knew completely well what really happened to Blaze, but she didn't really care to get him into trouble with Jack. "He failed too, but he managed to get away from the police."

"Just fucktastic," Jack sarcastically said as he grabbed a whiskey bottle straight off the table and took a swig.

"Excuse me mam," Alex's dad politely got the attention of the gardevoir. "As I said I would, I drugged my son. You said you'd be able to add artificial memories in his head to fill in the blanks to why we were out so late?" John asked.

"I'll begin that in a moment. I do apologize for things not going as planned today," The gardevoir sincerely apologized.

John let out a small sigh but didn't accept the apology. Instead, he turned his attention towards Jack. "Well I have to say, I truly thought you were one of the best," John said in disappointment.

"We are the best. Obviously something went wrong if my pokemon lost. Those pokemon shouldn't have been a match on any confrontation," Jack defended his pride.

"Well, I have to thank you for screwing things up to the point that I can't fix it," John snidely replied as he snatched the whiskey out of Jacks hand.

"Hey!" Jack yelled as John took a gulp and threw it across the room.

"Do you not realize what this means for me and my son?" John piped up. "Now Alex is going to be fully aware that people are after his pokemon. I came to you so you could just get this out of the way and keep him out of this," John firmly stated "Now I have to worry about things getting worse because the police got involved! You put me, my son, and all of Team Genesis in jeopardy because you bit off more than you could chew!" John yelled.

"Who do you think you're taking to?!" Jack snapped back. "Talk to me like that again and you'll find me knocking on your door one night!" Jack yelled as he got close to John's face, and poisoned the air with his smelly alcohol breath.

"No," John bluntly said. "You clearly don't realize who you are talking too. I am one of Genesis's top scientists. You don't threaten me, I threaten you. I am the one who sends people to do my dirty work. You're just a houndour to Genesis. You even think about hurting me or my son and I'll send someone to peel the skin off your face and force feed it to you." John threatened "Are we clear?" he asked in a stern voice as he shadowed Jack.

Jack remained silent as he processed the threat. "Fair enough," he hesitantly replied.

"Glad we have an understanding," John said as he gave him a pat on the shoulder and walked towards the gardevoir.

"Would you kindly transplant the memories into my son now, please?" John asked in a kind voice with no sign of emotions from the previous conversation.

The gardevoir looked over towards her trainer who gave her a nod of approval. "Right away," she responded as she headed towards Alex who was lying unconscious in a booth.

Chapter End

Author Note: Now that was a heated talk at the end lol. I should use that tactic to get people to read my story "Read or I'll peel the skin off your face and force feed it to you!" lol I'd get banned so fast lol. Anyways this huge battle will come at a price, I mean they blew up a hotel and had a violent battle to the death in it. The whole time I was writing this chapter I so wanted to make a shining reference "Here's Johnny." for anyone who's seen that classic horror film.

Anyways here is a question for anyone who feels like answering, what is your opinion on John Hayter (Alex's Dad)

Thanks to everyone who has review so far and another thank you to all those who follow and support this story. I appreciate it!