Battle for Treasure Town
Swampert walked out with a grim look. "Looks like we're out of time."
Smoke, embers, and ashes blew, and the sky was turned a hateful red, as VVulf's Brigands charged from the treeline, guns and blades up and ready to rend and tear flesh. These Pokemon's eyes were blackened with malice and hate, and they would give no quarter once they came upon their quarry.
From behind the barricades, the Militia Konstantin had rallied were steadfast, as the armored charmander had given a zealous speech, eliciting a hopeful cry from their ranks.
"Steady!" He bellowed, as he and his Militia aimed their weapons and readied attacks.
The Brigands, pokemon of all shapes and sizes, united by the blood-lust and cruelty the Brigade shared, charged forth in a disorganized rabble.
"Wait 'till they get close!" He ordered, seeing some of the younger members shake.
He could see unending hate in their eyes now.
"Fire!" He bellowed, and as one the Militia opened fire with pistols, blunderbusses, and a variety of devastating moves!
Screams from the bandits echoed across the new battlefield.
"Swampert!" Konstantin calls out to the large water type. "Find and take out the War Machine, or the Brigands with smash us down from range!"
"Got it, little lizard!" And Swampert was off in the trees.
"Good luck." Konstantin mutters under his breath, turning to draw a pistol and placing a hole in a charging Brigand Butcherer.
Meanwhile, Luke had frozen up. He knew what to do but… there just was just so much going on. If he shot, he could hurt someone on his side. If he didn't shoot, someone on his side might die.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like fate would allow the pikachu to remain indecisive, for a Butcherer was already attempting to clamber over the barricade closest to him, the vicious, armor-clad squirtle growling as he attempted to vault over the obstacle while in an inhuman body and grasping two over-sized knives.
"Gyah!" He reacted on instinct, shocking the bandit.
"Ahhaaagaggaagag!" Was the poor Brigand's reply as he fell to the ground, convulsing and burnt to a crisp. The attack had rendered the foe unconscious, it seemed.
Luke backed away, shaking. "Oh gods." He gripped the gun his had been given earlier tighter.
"Luke!" Konstantin shouts to his partner from his position, causing the pikachu to look over. "We have to take out VVulf! Take him out and we break the back of the Brigand attack! Where's Rita!?"
"Um um um, I think she took your friend to Audino!" Luke responded, yelping when the squirtle moaned, hitting him on the head with a quick 'thwack'!
"Well, what are you waiting for!? GO GET HER!" The charmander bursts out, waving his arms.
"I-"
"No need!" Rita suddenly shot by in the air before releasing a large lightning bolt into the crowd of brigands. "I was already on my way over~!"
With a whole wave of Brigands reduced to unconscious, smoking crisps, there came a moment of reprieve in the air.
"Great." Konstantin says up to her. "But they'll keep on coming until we take out VVulf. We just have to find the bastard first."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He perked up at that.
"There!" He says, pointing to another part of town. "He loves tossing bombs, and he always leads from the front!"
"Well, Swampert should be charging to the back to go destroy the cannon by now…" Rita mused, picking up Luke and Kon with a psychic.
"AHHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!" Swampert's laugh echoed through the battlefield, along with another.
"Ah, sounds like Chesnaught arrived on time. Shouldn't have to worry about the cannon doing any more collateral damage." Rita chirped, creating a few shields with her power to block random shots.
"Good, good." Konstantin mutters, before a massive blast of fire and sound carves a swath of destruction in the forest, the Brigand's Cannon being the obvious culprit. A number of trees are felled or torn to splinters in the process.
And then it was stopped right before it could get close to Treasure Town. "HAH! MY ARMOR IS INVINCIBLE!" The mystery voice yelled in joy.
Luke groaned slightly. "He's never going to be quiet about that when I see him again."
"Impressive." The armored lizard seems to admit. "Now, let's take care of VVulf."
"Okay!" Rita took off for the smaller explosions.
A sick bellow of laughter came forth as they got ever closer. None of the other Pokemon fighting the massive Brigand leader could get close, for he tossed bombs with wild abandon, and smashed the overconfident aside with sheer strength and his massive Tower Shield.
With another toss of an explosive a Mightyena was sent flying, and he backhanded a Gardevoir hard enough she flew into the ruined front of a shop.
He was accompanied by his own Praetorian Guard, grey colored Brigands, their leathers adorned with furs and highly armored. They were a force to be reckoned with on their own.
Luke froze up at the site of the various former humans wearing pokemon fur, subconsciously gripping his stomach.
"Well, best to get his attention." Rita whispered. "With an 'electrifying' entrance~!"
She held up a sparking paw before bringing it down, along with an absolutely huge Thunder!
A number of VVulf's guard went down twitching and smoking, save those immune to electric entirely. Even those who were resistant to it were put down by the sheer power behind her attack.
With most of his personal guard down, the tide turned against them, and it was all who was left could do to hold back the resurgent Pokemon.
Now VVulf was exposed, ripe for a confrontation with his flunkies out of the way.
The leader himself looked up at them, and gave a rigid grin.
"Now, get down from there! Hahaha!" He mocked, before tossing a sizzling bomb straight at the trio.
"Protect~!" A psychic shield popped up around the trio, bouncing the bomb back at VVulf, though Rita did get lower to the ground. "Sir, I am thinking that you are over your head here~!" Rita said cheekily.
"Mom! We can't really damage him!" Luke whispered, not really wanting to get close to the other ground types.
"Then it seems I'll have to handle him!" Konstantin snaps at him, his own nerves frayed.
Turning to the Brigand leader, he wastes no time blasting him in the side.
Slightly stumbling, Vvulf growls, and he lets out a booming, ear splitting howl that inspires terror in the hearts of all but the most fearless of fools.
Konstantin shudders, and reels back, trying to get behind Rita as he raises an arm, as if to block an attack.
"Really? That the best you can do?" Rita joked at VVulf, a smile on her face. "I've heard more terrifying from the weird bug things on the islands~!"
"Wh- Bug things?" The armored charmander asks, somewhat confused and frustrated as a headache comes unbidden. "What did they look l-"
"Get Them!" VVulf bellows, and in response, two Raiders, dressed head to toe in armor smash their way into the battlefield from out of sight through debris.
They're extremely difficult to tell what Type they belong to, as they are so heavily clad head to toe in armor.
Their short swords, slick with blood, are quite intimidating, however.
Luke recoiled slightly before sending a bolt of electricity at both of them.
One of the Raiders collapses, convulsing, though the other only shivers, before charging at Luke, chopping at the air wildly.
He started backing up rapidly, fumbling with the gun before… a large tree branch smacked into the raider from behind, encased in the glow of a psychic.
"Honey, don't mess with my son." Rita said with sweet malice, before turning to some more Raiders crawling out of the wood-works.
As the other is knocked out cold, Konstantin would be busy trading volleys with VVulf.
The, the massive Brigand leader lets out another howl, and the Charmander freezes on the spot, shivering and dropping his blunderbuss, and grasping at his hood with both paws.
…
His Resolve is being Tested…
"Kon! What's wrong?!" Luke started to run over.
The charmander scratches wildly at his hood, and tears both it and his mask off, and he lets out a wild, unrestrained howl. One of a broken being.
ABUSIVE.
He whirls to face Luke, and his eyes are burning with seething hate.
"Incompetent fool! I could have done this alone, I should have! Why did I bother to bring you along!?"
Luke was already moving, words falling out of his mouth. "Because!" Luke slipped around Konstantin, cape moving quickly to block VVulf's shield bash of opportunity. "No one can do this alone!"
Luke sqeaked as the shield slammed into him, part of the force being muffled by the cape's properties… but he was still a light weight pokemon, getting sent right into Kon.
Luke's altruistic display didn't seem to help, if anything, the charmander was practically apoplectic with sheer rage. Flecks of white foam dribbled out of the corner of his mouth, and his pupils were but pinpricks.
Rearing back, he backhanded Luke hard enough to send him flying to the side.
"Tread on my heels again and I'll run you through! Get in my way and you can die, simple as that!"
Luke rubbed his cheek, wondering briefly exactly what was going on with Kon. He had been violent before, but nothing like this. "Kon?"
"Useless! Useless!" The wild-eyed charmander growls, slicing VVulf's side open with his knife, the Brigand retaliating by tossing another bomb, which violently detonates and sends him flying back.
Rita glanced to the side at their battle before grimacing as her latest Protect broke. She tossed out a small platform of psychic energy before focusing back to the big guy in front of her.
Luke took out his gun when he saw Kon fly back, finally using the gun to shoot at the giant former human. "Leave Kon alone!"
With a boom, the round smashes into VVulf's shoulder, eliciting a groan of pain from the massive former human.
Glaring at Luke, he attempts to smash Luke flat with his Tower Shield!
The pikachu started to back up, but found he had no need, as Baldwin shot down from the sky, slamming a foot into the Rhyperior's head, stunning him before hopping off to Luke's side.
"Are you unharmed?" The leprous lucario asked.
"Mostly. But Kon's gotten really…" Luke tried to find the words as Baldwin glanced to the charmander. "Abusive."
"Hm. It is temporary." Was all the former human replied with before hefting his broken sword for battle. "VVulf, you have already lost."
"Ah, of course you'd show up!" The Brigand leader responds, chortling. "But you're alone, your only help is a coward and a madman, and this town is already burning!"
He gives a cruel leer Baldwin's way.
"But I won't deny you another rematch. Heheh!"
Baldwin just shook his head. "Your eyesight is poor as always. I see no cowards here." Then he took a fighting stance. "And this is not a rematch. This is simply a fight with one outcome."
And with the sound of crushing metal in the distance, Baldwin rocketed towards VVulf, already swinging the broken blade with one paw. The blade, infused with strength born of a surgical focus, rends a tear in VVulf's shield, and the Brigand reels back, dazed!
"You've-heh-gotten faster, haven't you? Hahaha!" He taunts, throwing a bomb right in Baldwin's face!
Baldwin hissed in pain as he jumped back, making sure his mask was still affixed with one paw. "Not just faster. More prepared."
Scowling, VVulf's expression slowly morphed to one of agony as he began to howl, reaching with one hand at his back as it sizzled, eating at his hide!
"Luke!" Luke jumped when Baldwin regarded him. "Use your electric attacks. It will effect him now!"
"Ah!" Luke started running on all fours towards VVulf, covering himself in electricity. "Hyaaaaaaaaah!"
He jumped, slamming into the former human, the electricity causing an explosion.
Luke bounced away, singed and dizzy, but alive. "Someone see where that wailmer came from?"
Baldwin shook his head but stayed alert. The status of VVulf was not confirmed, there were still brigands about, and the cannon may or may not have been destroyed.
Foot-stomps shake the ground, and VVulf charges out of the smoke, sizzling and obviously in pain, roaring deafeningly and attempting to trample Luke!
"GET AWAY FROM MY GODSON!" And Swampert just slams into VVulf from the side, pushing on and on. All the fighting just seemed to stop in confusion and awe at the sight of the muscular water type pokemon pushing the Bandit leader towards the ocean cliffs. "Hey buddy? Ready for a swim?"
Grinding his teeth, the cruel Brigand leader digs in his feet, however futile it may be, and shoves back with all his might, unwilling to go down easy.
With a surge of power, Swampert overtook the Rhyperior's attempts to stop. "IT'S BATH TIME!" Swampert roared with laughter as he pushed VVulf off the cliff, following shortly afterwards.
Then the two slammed into the water, the water type pokemon being much more adept to the water. Then, the armlet on his left arm started glowing. "Witness the power of friendship!"
A shell of power engulfed Swampert before he broke out, his body much bigger now. And he smiled.
Baldwin carefully picked up Konstantin. Many of the brigands were fleeing or trying to. Some of them were getting cut off by Chesnaught and knocked out.
"Gah! Let me go you fucking sickly Leper! Why don't you go stop fucking missing all the time!" The charmander spits, thrashing about.
"Are you sure he's going to be okay?" Luke asked, rubbing his head.
"As positive as the sea is deep." Baldwin replied, ignoring the abusive things Kon was spewing. "It has happened to me many times before. All he needs is to de-stress."
"Ah…" Luke was quiet before Rita handed him some berries.
"Swampert should come back when he's done having fun with VVulf." Rita spoke happily, a few brigands in her psychic grip. "Until then, we gotta tie up the brigands we caught and bury the ones who died."
"Oh, go stack some Accuracy Trinkets, you... you... Double Leper!" Konstantin screams.
"Truly, your words are as sharp as daggers." Baldwin snarked, keeping the charmander under one arm.
"Luke, baby." Rita squished Luke's cheeks. "You should go deeper in town with Baldwin and see what the damage is to the town, make a list of what we need to rebuild."
"Y-yes ma'am!" Luke started walking with Baldwin, looking at the various damaged buildings. Whenever he saw a dead body, he averted his eyes, feeling sick.
Baldwin had seen the dead before. It was normal for him. Before he had become king, fighting for that cursed Hamlet, delving into that dungeon. But this felt different.
This was an innocent village. There was no madmad who had cursed it. There was no unspeakable horror living beneath it. There was no Crimson Curse barely being held back.
They didn't seem to even have the concept of war.
It didn't deserve this.
The charmander was still deep in his own mental hole of madness, spitting curses with aplomb as he writhed in Baldwin's grip.
After a few minutes, Swampert walked into town, dragging a sad sack behind him.
Half conscious, beaten nearly lame, and wrapped in chains; the soaked, dented figure of VVulf is deposited, well, more thrown down actually, in the center of town, to the cheers of everyone, seeing Swampert victorious over the criminal.
"Be careful. He's not completely unconscious." Swampert warned, as Magnezone and several magneton approached to take the leader away.
Luke approached with Baldwin, a psychic type pokemon having put Kon to sleep.
A wet, sickly laugh came from VVulf as he dragged his head to look at the three, spotting Konstantin.
"Well, if it isn't the Traitor." He chortles. "No wonder he was fighting with you lot, considering how he ran away after we sacked Goldenvale. I thought he was having fun, considering the last I saw of him was him holding a blood covered locket, standing over that dead wench, heh!"
Luke's blood went cold at what he said, before stepping forward. "Shut up! You don't really know Kon!"
"How long has he been around here, huh?" The Rhyperior asks, staring Luke down. "A few weeks, tops? Hah! He's been running with the Brigade for years! Well, he used to, at least. Not much use for cowards, we have."
"And he's probably learned a lot more here than with you!"
"You sure about that? He sure learned a lot under me." VVulf said, his grin getting wider. "He was one of my best marksmen, it almost made me proud, really. He could shoot the head off of a fleeing peasant at two hundred yards, hah!"
"Really, we must thank you for that. Made stopping your bandits easier." Rita spoke up, while Luke was shaking with rage. "So, yeah, thanks for that, Mister Wolfy~!"
"Jus' remember." VVulf says, as the magneton moved to take him in.
"Once a Brigand, always a Brigand. Give him my regards, will 'yeh? Hah! Hahaha!"
"We won't!" Luke snapped, shouting at the former human. "Because you're just a monster!"
"Kon's not the best person, he's rude, rough, and really obsessive, but he's a hero and he's worth a million of you and your bandits!"
"Maybe. Maybe." The massive bandit leader laughs, and the magneton dragged him away, still laughing.
Luke fumed but turned on VVulf to check on Kon some more.
The charmander stirred a bit and let out a few grumbles, but did not wake.
...
It was probably for the best, considering that they'd need to calm him down.
Darkrai was livid. The laughing human in his head was not helping.
"I'm going to kill VVulf. I'm going to force feed him the worst poisons I can think of and make him suffer!"
"No need." The Ancestor lectures condescendingly, breaking off his sardonic laughter. "Let him live to stew in his failures, he will learn from them. We would very well have use for him later."
"Ffffffine." Darkrai turned away from the cheering crowd of pokemon. "We'll just have to kill those meddlers on their little trip."
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Several things delayed this chapter. Arc 2 end!
Next arc! Fogbound Lake!
Also, Darkrai just turned into a petulant child at the end and decided to shift targets.
Zara, your thoughts?
Zara: I am glad to finally see this finished. I genuinely enjoy working with Kris on this.