Chapter 36: Invasion of Naporia

I zipped past the near-empty front lobby of the Naporia Pokemon Center and went into the back where Eliza was waiting in our rental room, where she had her only remaining pokemon, Golem, nestled between the sheets in the hospital bed with her. Her eyes, similarly to mine, were red and puffy and I knew she had spent the majority of my time away crying over her fallen Staraptor, and she seemed to be showing Golem extra attention in response since both her arms were fully wrapped around his hard, rocky figure as if he was a cuddly stuffed toy. Judging by Golem's hearty grin, he didn't mind it.

"Hey," Eliza greeted in a weak, broken voice as I closed the door shut behind me and entered the room. "How'd it go?"

When I opened my mouth to respond, I only broke out into tears of failure and embarrassment as I stumbled to my knees, sobbing into the sheets at the foot of her bed, the words too hard to utter, crying like a baby being surprisingly easier to accomplish than explaining.

"I didn't get in!" I managed through the dry heaves as Eliza simply rubbed my shoulders to console me. Golem looked slightly irritated to have the attention off of him, but he understood, and heaved himself off the bed, making the room tremble slightly as his full weight fell to the floor and he rolled to the corner to give us some more space.

Eliza let me have my feelings for a long time while she just stroked my back in her attempt to comfort me, until she finally broke the silence with her quiet, sad voice. "Adam? I know you're not going to want to hear this right now, but I promise that it really is going to be okay. You're still, like, one of the best trainers on this island I've ever seen. Just participate next year and you'll be even twice as good and you'll know for sure what date to register for next time and I guarantee you're a shoe-in. This could turn out to be a great thing. I mean, if you think about it, you still don't even have a sixth pokemon. Maybe an extra year to cook is exactly what you need before you're seriously ready to steamroll through the competition and take down the Elite 4 and Ava herself, because I know you have the skill, Adam. I know it's hard to hear, but this just might be the way destiny wanted things to turn out. You're so much more than just a League anyway, so, like...trust me when I say it's really not that bad that you didn't get in, and it's actually very impressive how far you got all things considered. And I think that's what most counts - in the end."

As she spoke, the strength in her voice and her old tone was returning to her. It was like having to lift me up out of my dark place forced her out of her own negative thoughts in order to carry us both to the light, giving her purpose. She was saying all the right things to reassure me and reinvigorate me, but the humiliation in front of the crowd and the feelings of wasting a whole year were still wracking through my brain. But Eliza could sense it.

"Would you stop thinking that just because you didn't get into the League this entire year was a waste, because that's just stupid. Do you have any idea how much shit you've actually got done in this whole year? Do you want to know how much shit I got done this year? Or how much the majority of people around here do? Because I guarantee that you made far better use of your year than most people in Ilragorn have."

Her words touched me, but I wasn't completely sold on their authenticity. "Like what?"

"Well, you've tamed a wild Skorupi into a powerhouse of a Drapion who has the potential to go up against Ava, saved a very intelligent Haunter from some mean ghosts in a cemetery and leveled his ass up into the most powerful Gengar I've ever seen. You offered my asshole ex-boyfriend Marvin another solution than to just keep hitting (pokemon and people), a chance to be a better man, and he surprised all of us by taking that chance. The fact that he even took it shows me that you really did spread some of your good into him, and I thank you for that." I failed to mention to her that Snake had killed Marvin somewhere in Scalding Springs shortly after I had spared his life, but I found it better to keep that from her. "What else, what else? Oh, duh, and the time you told me that flock of Unfezants just, like, attacked that bus you were on and you were the only rider with pokemon on hand to defend it."

"The guy I was riding next to, Cletus, he died in that accident. I couldn't help him." I frowned.

"Okay, and the other 10, 15, 20 people whose lives you and your Kabutops saved and escorted to Celmont that day don't mean anything?"

"Yeah, okay, but-"

"Remember you mentioned to me you took down those guys snatching up wild pokemon and selling them to Anonymous back in Exeter Forest?"

"The poachers…" I said, recalling how one had threatened me with the full wrath of Team Anonymous being brought down on my head if any harm had come to then - and then I had proceeded to free their captured Zoroark and leave it to its own devices getting its revenge on the poachers as I had left them in their screams of horror. I mean, he hadn't been totally wrong. Marvin Bloom as well as Snake were certainly some of the most capable battlers I'd ever tussled with as a trainer, and they were Anonymous members. I'd hardly call two members the full wrath of that organization, though.

"That shopkeeper you saved from getting robbed by that couple back at that herbal store in Goldenleaf?"

"Oh, yeah, forgot that one-"

"You stopped Snake from sinking anymore ships leaving Shorebridge Docks to get people from Ilragorn to the Isle of Naporia. You avenged all those Clefable his Gyarados murdered."

"Well-"

"You've opened up the minds of people like Zach, you showed him you could take down even his prized Diggersby with an unevolved Skorupi when his whole shtick is that pokemon need to be fully evolved to beat him. Do you not see how much talent you had as a trainer even from the very beginnings of your journey?"

I remained quiet, finally relenting on resisting her words to fuel my fighting spirit back to life. Because every example she gave me was was a 100% accurate slice from my past, and I didn't have to put myself into any one of those situations, but I chose to. And I think, for the most part, I always did the right thing, or at least what felt the most right at the time to me.

"Am I being too hard on myself?" I asked Eliza, finally lifting my head from the wet splotch of tears and mucus I'd left on her bed sheets, wiping at my nose, feeling gross.

"You usually are. You're like me. We gotta stop doing that." Eliza grinned, and I returned a small smile because I couldn't help it. We scrambled into a hug that I didn't know I needed, and then my rapidly beating heartbeat at last started to settle back to its normal pace.

"Thanks for everything," I told her quietly while still holding on to her. "Thanks for coming with me when you didn't have to, and when I know I haven't made it easy. I promised I'd keep you safe and you've strayed way too far from safe way too many times."

"You're doing it again," Eliza responded, almost chuckling, and then we pulled apart and faced each other, both of us now sitting on the bed. "The point is, you have kept me safe. I chose to come with you. And I'm really fucking glad I did, Adam."

She saw the doubt in my eyes at those words even though she sounded completely genuine, and I saw the hurt in her eyes that I didn't believe her.

"What happened to Staraptor - that was horrible. But he had a good life, and he got a lot of love every day from me…" Tears were starting to well up in the corners of Eliza's eyes, and it was now me who had my arm on her shoulders to console her. "But your Passimian - oh you trained him so good, Adam - he did the best he could, and he did great. But that Cloyster...it was, like, from hell or something, and wouldn't stop attacking until it went down. It's eyes were just the reddest color, and it was so vicious that my Staraptor never had a chance. But he bought us much needed time and I probably owe him my life for that. I'm just glad I treated him well."

"Red eyes?" Jolted by those two words, my mind instantly thought back to the flock of Unfezants that had been so unnaturally aggressive since they had just been brought up. Those birds had attacked the bus for no reason, had refused to be put down until Kabutops had to slice them down with his scythes, and they had eyes red as rubies, too. Now that I thought about it, that Dusknoir in Sillstone Cemetery that had beaten my Kabutops to death my pummeling him with Brick Breaks had been much more combative than most wild mons. Dusknoirs always had red eyes anyway, but wasn't it possible that that rampaging Dusknoir was just as infected with whatever had poisoned the hearts and minds of the Unfezants and the Cloyster that had done so much damage to me and Eliza on our journey?

I explained my theories to Eliza, who was entranced by my words and was on board with everything I was saying.

"So you think it's like a virus infecting wild pokemon?" Eliza asked.

"Yeah, of course it is. What else could it be? But is it natural or man-made? That's the question." I replied. We knew we had exhausted that topic with wild theories when it got to a point where we bursted into laughter at the idea that maybe pokemon just react differently to getting high and someone was out there sticking joints in pokemons mouths and getting them blazed (hence the red eyes) and then the pokemon just went wild.

With the mood lightened and both of us helping each other to lift our spirits out of their heavy funks, we continued talking as we both ended up lying in the bed, facing the ceiling. The topics became easier and over the course of a couple hours we discussed a wide variety of things ranging from how long we think we were going to be trainers until we would get jobs, to what our parents were up to right now (which was a short discussion, not worried about us), to figuring out the best place to train up for the following year until the next Ilragorn League, which I would definitely register early for. Eliza had already looked up the date for me using the Poke Center's wifi internet access on her pokedex and forced me to memorize it in front of her.

Eliza told me that she was starting to warm up to the idea of being a daycare lady. She said she loved hanging out with pokemon and battling was okay once in a while for fun, but she had learned that she just didn't like the competitive nature of being a trainer. She told me she thinks that because her dad used to beat her mom, she thought she had to be tough and mean like her scumbag father had been since he had so much power over her frightened mother. She said she knew she was always destined to wind up with a guy who hit her, and had seen so much of her father in Marvin Bloom and that was why she followed him to Peltagrow City as his 'punching bag girlfriend.' I got the feeling I was the first person in her life she was sharing this to.

"I dropped out of high school in Lunaris Town."

"Why?"

"Was failing everything, not doing homework, barely getting to classes...I just stopped caring."

"Didn't your parents-?"

"Their solution was to just always compare me to Evan, talk about how good he was doing, how independent he was being a self-sufficient trainer traveling around Ilragorn most of the year collecting the annual badges. Yet here I was under the comfort of their home with my own nice bedroom and closet and bathroom and all the usual luxuries, but I couldn't make it work. I couldn't pass any of my classes. I was just in bed all the time, sleeping or doing nothing - just laying there. So, I think they started to resent me for being such a failure, just moping in my bedroom. So to get me out of the house and out of their lives, they just forced me to be a trainer, like Evan. But they always preferred Evan and I always felt it so I...I don't know, I just never had anyone I could talk to, like, for real. I guess I felt alone."

"Were you depressed at the time you think? Was there something bothering you around the time you can think of?"

"I don't know, Eliza. It was like a lifetime ago."

"It was a year ago."

We both bursted into laughter at her dry delivery, but then, out of the blue, it started. It was an abbrasively loud, high-pitched tune in the air, wailing from outside the hospital windows. After a few moments, we both recognized the sound as the town emergency siren that only rang to warn of an incoming natural disaster or some impending danger.

Eliza and I bolted out of the hospital bed, and Golem had propped up in his corner, his tiny arms raised defensively, his guard up from the inhumanely loud siren wailing outside that was still uncomfortable for Golem's ears inside a government building. Can't imagine how bad it was for any pokemon near the actual alarm, which was probably mounted on top of the Naporia Poke Center itself now that I thought about it, and would explain why it seemed so harsh/close.

"Golem, be ready for anything!" Eliza approved of Golem's aggressive nature despite her previous speech, shouting to be heard over the wailing siren as the three of us had our attention pulled to the window in the corner of the room that faced outward into the city street. It was currently obscured by a closed set of blinds masking what was going on outside, but there was no mistaking the sounds of car alarms going off and a series of explosions, one after another, all interlaced with screams of panic from the late-night partiers outside as the party came to an end.

"What the fuck's going on out there!?" Eliza screamed in panic, rushing to open the blinds. Rather than stopping her to calm her as she was clearly going hysterical, I followed right behind and aided Eliza in tearing the blinds down, too frenetic to open them the normal way.

What we saw through the plate glass window was the last thing I expected to see in the middle of the night along one of the busiest streets in Naporia City - crowds of intoxicated or tired people sprinting, tripping over each other, faces filled with fright and the fear of not making it home, all of them running in different directions because the source of danger was not just one thing - it was coming from multiple directions.

From the sky straight above the pokemon center, a flying pokemon with massive wings that when outstretched nearly covered the width of the whole city street was flapping them with frenzied swings, summoning extremely well-aimed Hurricanes spinning through the street outside. Fire hydrants went blasting into the air, cars went flipping left and right, people and more fragile pokemon that could not escape the hit were sucked up into the tornado cascading down Mulctuary Street that was being fired off by a Mega Pidgeot with a girl wearing all black attire riding its back.

Down the eastern side of Mulctuary Street, another trainer in all black garb was standing in the middle of the upturned street, his partner, Krokodile, standing beside him with its snout agape in a roar. Both trainers were clearly the cause of the chaos on Mulctuary Street, though judging by the sheer high volume of glass shattering, alarms wailing, and screaming all around us, I had the feeling there were more of these members scattered all over the city, not just right in front of the pokemon center.

"Team Anonymous," Eliza whispered in shock before covering her mouth at the sight of the two young trainers laughing as the girl had her M-Pidgeot Hurricane a crowd of petrified Sunfloras that had been posing in front of a flower shop into nothing but pieces of green resembling lettuce. Proceeding that, the boy then had his Krookodile Earthquake Mulctuary Street by stomping on the ground with furious kicks, causing many of the survivors who had fled to the farthest reaches of the street to still be knocked over by the convulsing ground, some of them not getting back up. Even the Naporia Pokemon Center's walls trembled threateningly as Krookodile shook the ground to both Anonymous members amusement.

"Let's go," I said shortly, my voice set, my decision made.

"Go? Where?" Eliza asked, confused, catching up to my mindset as she saw me heading towards the door of the room leading to the hallway.

"We're going out there to take them down."

"Adam, are you fucking craz-"

"Eliza. We got this. Let's go."

Biting her lip and furrowing her forehead in worry for a moment, she then nodded in acceptance that this was the only route left to take. Team Anonymous had invaded Naporia City - why, it currently didn't matter. All that mattered was that I had to get us out of the city, off of the Isle of Naporia entirely even - we had to get back to Ilragorn's mainland. If the dude in charge of Anonymous, Sir I believe him to be called, really had ordered such a blatant hit of this magnitude on the city using the full force of his organization, there had to be a better reason than he was just pissed off. But I did not need to get involved in all that with Eliza by my side - only when she was out of harm's way. I had learned at this point she was not a fighter, and I didn't have the right to put her in any kind of dangerous position against the likes of Team Anonymous. Not again.

The long walk exiting that hospital room for the last time with Eliza right behind me and Golem trailing in the back obediently was a very mixed bag of emotions to say the least. It felt like this was my calling. Maybe I wasn't destined to enter the Ilragorn League this year (hell, I guess no one was if Anonymous' damage to the city wasn't repaired by tomorrow morning). But I was certainly destined to train my team up all year and have enough experience dealing with these Anonymous goons to be able to take two down that were blocking me from getting Eliza safely away from this incoming storm of disaster heading the city's way. Eliza and I had lost a lot over this year together - but it had forced us to grow stronger from it as people and to learn what went wrong the first time so that we could better ourselves.

Nurse Joy was on the floor of the front lobby, cradling two young children in her arms who were bawling into her shoulders while asking about the whereabouts of their missing parents. Her obese Chansey and curvaceous Blissey were standing guard over the front door in an attempt to block off any dangerous pokemon from entering. All of the overhead lights shut off as M-Pidgeot fired off a rather powerful Hurricane that blasted the antenna broadcasting the emergency siren clean off the roof of the Naporia Pokemon Center, silencing the blaring alarm at last as well as destroying several generators keeping most of the main power lines on, which included the lights. Several people who looked injured and who had taken refuge in the center to avoid being swept up in the Hurricanes and Earthquakes going on outside were all watching in awe as Eliza and I approached the front doors with no signs of slowing down. We were both walking right out into the loud explosions and the unknown attackers with brave faces and with full intent to fight these bastards to the finish if need be, but just as we were approaching the front doors, a new siren began wailing from the distance that was fast approaching. A familiar siren - police cars approaching.

"Oh, thank Arceus the cops are on their way!" Nurse Joy exclaimed, hope brimming from within her and seeming to infect the other people in the room as they all relaxed slightly. "Hang tight, children. It should all be over soon. The police are trained to deal with these Anonymous goons, even if us normal citizens can't. Shouldn't be long before they're here to take care of everything!"

Eliza and I took pause before exiting, and exchanged looks. Do we wait and see if the cops can deal with it, or make our presence known? Without needing to say anything, we both stepped back and watched through the bulletproof glass windows of the waiting room as three squad cars with their red-and-blue lights flashing and alarms wheeowheoing came tunneling down the street, with a jet black police helicopter for good measure coming from around a rather large skyscraper at one of the corners of Mulctuary Street.

"Hurricane that 'coptor down!" the girl ordered her M-Pidgeot, who obeyed rapidly, firing off a Hurricane that had no chances of missing toward the helicopter.

"Earthquake those cars into the ground before they get close!" the boy told his Krookodile, who stomped and kicked at the ground like a tantruming toddler, aiming to destroy the quickly incoming three squad cars.

Both sets of police, both aerial and grounded, were caught in the concentrated attacks. The earth-shaking ground crumbled beneath the speeding cars, causing all three to lose control as the tires all went spinning out of place and the cars could only crash into each other. Meanwhile, the helicopter above was swallowed up into a devastating Hurricane that proceeded to shatter several windows of an office building several stories above the ground, sending thousands of shards of glass and debris from the wrecked helicopter flying down into Mulctuary Street where quite a few knocked out people and pokemon were caught in the deadly fallout.

The ease and confidence with which the Anonymous boy and girl and disposed of so many police officers and vehicles triggered some of Eliza's old nerves judging by her trembling foot. But not just hers. Everyone in the room had once again sunk back into a state of terror for their lives, especially the children who had somehow begun crying even louder and harder.

"How can this happen?" Eliza whispered to herself in disbelief at what was happening outside.

"Because we're letting it. Come on." I grabbed Eliza's hand firmly, and paused to see if she would grip mine back, which would be a sign that she agrees with me. She immediately did, and the two of us set back toward the glass front doors that were being cordoned off by Chansey and Blissey.

"Let them through, ladies," Nurse Joy told her pokemon staff, and the two pink blobs shuffled out of the way of the doors. "Just make sure you lock it behind them. But please be careful, you two."

I nodded encouragingly at Nurse Joy, remembering how I'd used to hate her upbeat attitude for no reason, back when I was immature enough to complain about the likes of that when there were people getting rained on by broken glass on the street outside.

Eliza and I unbolted the locks holding the doors together, then pushed open the surprisingly heavy glass doors and stepped out into the chaos that was Team Anonymous killing Naporia City.