Chapter 7: Real Threat
Lucario followed from a distance, using his aura-sight to look around before moving from cover to cover. The man came from a different direction, but just as suspected he seemed to be walking towards Rena's trailer. Well, sauntering was more appropriate. Lucario didn't know how thieves or muggers or other criminals felt while actually committing their crimes, but he imagined most weren't as calm as this guy was. It was rather unnerving when juxtaposed with his unsettling aura.
Every now and then, his target would look around and Lucario had to quickly duck behind cover. He thought he felt a twinge of surprise at one point, but the feeling dissipated as soon as it came. Eventually, the man stopped in front of Rena's trailer. Lucario readied himself from behind the next trailer over. He could tell via aura that Louie was still inside, probably talking to Rena about earlier that night, and decided to trust Louie's abilities and launch a surprise attack if necessary. The man raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. A pause and the Lucario answered.
As soon as the door opened, the man pulled out some sort of pistol and fired. A metal spike sank into his skin, and suddenly Louie was wreathed in crackling electricity. He went limp and was easily pushed aside by the man, who unclipped a pokeball and threw it inside the trailer.
Lucario gasped and ran out of hiding, but a giant pillar of concrete knocked him off his feet. Before he could get up, he had to roll out of the way as another pillar came down where his head used to be. Lucario quickly jumped to his feet and saw the hulking frame of a Conkeldurr bearing down at him, a pillar of concrete in each hand.
The man turned to face him, confident his other pokemon could keep Rena at bay for the moment. "About time you came out of hiding," he said smugly. "You might have snuck up on any other ol' Joe, but luckily I've got this visor that lets me see sneaky-fucks trying to get the drop on me." He tapped the dark piece of glass and issued a final command to his pokemon. "Conkeldurr, smash."
Alex couldn't have run any harder or faster if he tried. Behind him, the Gengar and Gliscor released by the thugs lobbed Shadow Balls and Toxic globs at him respectively, and he flinched whenever the heat of a ghostly explosion whiffed his skin or blobs of purple sludge flew past. Purrloin ran beside him, occasionally pausing to use Copycat and throw their pursuers' attacks back at them, but Gengar would either intercept the poison or Gliscor would use Protect and deflect the Shadow Ball with a bright green shield of energy.
The ankle brace made running difficult, and were it not for fear and adrenaline the pain would have been unbearable. But this was a matter of survival, and in times of crisis the human mind had ways of compartmentalizing these things. Physics, however, was free to do as it pleased, and the bulk of the brace caused Alex to stumble and fall face-first.
Gliscor seized the opportunity and launched the largest glob of Toxic it could muster. Alex had enough time to turn and see the attack coming, but not enough to get out of the way. Purrloin leaped in front of him and took the attack, which coated her in toxic goo and knocked her away. "Purrloin!" Alex yelled as he scrambled to his feet.
The purple cat stood up and tried to reorient herself, but the poison was already taking its toll. Alex immediately scooped Purrloin into a protective hug and turned to face the other two pokemon. He was backed against a wall, trapped. The Gengar's sinister grin somehow became even more terrifying, and with a bone-chilling laugh it charged a Shadow Ball. Alex held his pokemon tighter and readied himself for the worst.
"Sigilyph, use Light Screen!" A protective barrier of psychic energy appeared and shielded Alex from the blast. A multi-colored bird which looked more like a living totem than flesh-and-blood descended from above and stared down the living shadow and hovering scorpion-bat. It immediately launched two powerful beams of psionic energy and blew away the attacking pokemon. To the young trainer's immense relief, Donny ran up and offered him a hand. "You alright Alex?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Alex answered, "but Purrloin isn't. The Gliscor hit her with Toxic and she's not handling it well."
Donny nodded and reached into his pockets. "Here, use this," he said, handing Alex a small spray bottle. "It's a Full Heal, it'll cure the poison." Alex nodded and promptly sprayed Purrloin with the healing elixir. The purple cat convulsed, shook herself, and became livelier than before. "So, what's goin' on here?" Donny asked. "I'd just finished doin' some late-night work with the stunt 'mons, and then I saw you out the window dodging a Shadow Ball. I already called the cops and they should get here soon."
"Long story short, two guys knocked out the security guards and stole their uniforms, and there's a third walking around the trailers. We saw the third guy and I went to get the guards while Lucario went to—" Alex realized Lucario was by himself, and that if the third guy had pokemon as strong as the imposters'... "I'm sorry, but I need to go!"
The blonde trainer took off running, oblivious to Donny's yelling. "Alex, hold on a minute! Wait until the cops get here. Alex!" A Shadow Ball blocked by Sigilyph's Light Screen stole his attention, and Donny realized the Gengar and Gliscor were recovered and ready for another round. Donny scowled and reached for his belt. "Oh, so ya'll want ta' play dirty, huh?" he spat as every pokeball he had on hand was unclipped. "Well don't ya' worry, I can play dirty…"
Satisfied that his Conkeldurr could handle the other Lucario, he returned his attention to the dark-haired woman cowering under the fiery glare of his Arcanine. The large orange-and-stripped canine growled with a crème-colored maw, and the poacher grinned sadistically. "You know, you might as well drop the act," he said. Rena regarded him with a look that was somewhere between terrified and confused, and the red-haired poacher elaborated, "I know what you are. I've got to say, the whole being a Zoroark thing is kind of a bummer, but I'm sure my aching heart will be soothed by the metric shit-ton of cash I was paid to capture you."
Much like her illusion, Rena's fear dissipated and turned into determined fury. With a vicious growl, she launched a beam of pulsating dark energy and flung the Arcanine against the wall of the trailer. The Dark Pulse made Arcanine flinch, and Rena immediately threw herself through the window and ran.
The poacher frowned, waited for his pokemon to recover, and pointed out the window. "Arcanine, fetch." The striped beat snarled and leapt through the shattered window, then shot forward in an extreme burst of speed. He immediately intercepted the fleeing Zoroark and launched a potent Flamethrower, which Rena barely managed to dodge. Before she could react, something cold and metallic stuck into her back and her world became sizzling pain. The Zoroark buckled and collapsed to the ground, residual electricity dancing off her body, as the poacher sauntered towards her. "You didn't think you'd get away that easy, did you?" he asked as he twirled the specially-made Taser around his trigger finger. "I'm pretty damn good at what I do, and it'll take more than a sneak attack to stop—"
120 pounds of blue fur and irony hit like a semi and knocked the poacher off his feet. His visor shattered and blurry vision meant he probably had a concussion, but he was of sound-enough mind to glare at his attacker. Louie ignored him and ran to Rena, but was intercepted by a flamethrower and then a large Arcanine that stood between them. The poacher stood up on shaky legs and spat blood out of his mouth. "Arcanine," he spat venomously, "play."
Lucario jumped into the air, narrowly dodging the wide swing of a huge concrete pillar. Fortunately for him, Coneldurr were notoriously slow. This meant dodging the large blocks of concrete was relatively easy. Unfortunately, however, Conkeldurr could learn Mach Punch, which this one demonstrated by suddenly sprinting forward and launching a punch faster than the Aura pokemon could react. The attack connected while he was midair, and Lucario found himself tumbling for what was probably the third or fourth time since the fight began. He barely had the state-of-mind to recognize and dodge another pillar of concrete swung at him in a devastatingly powerful Hammer Arm attack. The vaguely clown-esque monstrosity hoisted the concrete with little effort, and the blue jackal saw the crater left by the blow.
Lucario winced and realized his current strategy wasn't working. The Conkeldurr swung one of his pillars again, and the Aura pokemon decided to try and disarm his opponent. He caught the pillar mid-swing, knees buckling under the tremendous force, and smashed it to pieces with a potent Force Palm. The sudden lack of weight made Conkeldurr stumble, but Lucario was too hurt to react properly and Conkeldurr quickly regained himself. Clutching his remaining pillar like a bat, he swung at the Aura pokemon and knocked him away like a blue-furred baseball. Lucario struggled with shaky limbs to pick himself back up and realized just how not-hurt his opponent was.
"Lucario!" Both pokemon turned their heads towards the voice of a blonde-haired teenager running towards them. Lucario saw the look in Conkeldurr's eyes and gasped. The muscled monstrosity used Mach Punch and rushed Alex, intending to pulverize him. Lucario roared and used Bullet Punch, his superior speed allowing him to intercept, and hit Conkeldurr full-force. He then followed up with a barrage of Ice Punches, before finishing with the strongest High Jump Kick he could muster. Conkeldurr was sent flying and landed with a loud thwump, and Lucario collapsed to the ground, energy spent and gasping for breath.
…Alex…are you okay? the blue jackal asked.
Conkeldurr's attack startled him, but Alex shook it off and focused on the situation at hand. "I'm fine Lucario. Hold still, I have some Super Potions for you." He kneeled and pulled the medicine out of his bag—grabbed from their trailer on the way over—and sprayed Lucario with generous amounts of the healing elixir. "That guy we saw had friends, and they knocked out and impersonated the guards. They sent some pokemon after me, and then Donny—" Alex realized he'd left Donny by himself. He'd be fine, he had all the stunt pokemon to help plus the police were coming, and Alex would have time to feel guilty later. "Anyway, is Rena okay?"
I don't know, Lucario answered. That guy used some kind of Taser on Louie and then sent a pokemon inside the trailer. Before I could do anything, the Conkeldurr jumped me and we started fighting. On cue, the burly pokemon groaned and slowly got back on its feet. He looked at the rejuvenated Lucario and bellowed, slamming his concrete pillar into the ground.
Purrloin hissed and ran towards him, catching her two team mates by surprise. With a roar, Conkeldurr hefted his concrete pillar and swung it down with tremendous force. The attack connected and burst what turned out to be a Substitute clone. Before the burly monstrosity could comprehend what happened, he heard a taunting meow and turned just in time to see Purrloin leap above his head. Paws glowing, she launched her own Copycat-enabled Hammer Arm and hit Conkeldurr as hard as she could.
The attack stunned him, and Lucario capitalized on it by rushing forward and hitting him with an Ice Punch. Purrloin used Copycat to do the same, and for a while both pokemon ran back and forth hitting Conkeldurr with alternating attacks, keeping him perpetually stunned and battering him down. Then Lucario ran towards him, hoisted up the larger pokemon by the waist, and with a great deal of effort launched him into the air with dual Force Palms. Purrloin leapt into his arms, and the Aura pokemon threw her as high as he could. Right before gravity began to pull him downward, Conkeldurr saw Purrloin above him, both palms glowing with wispy blue aura. She used the first Force Palm to launch herself downwards, and then fired off the second the moment she made contact with her foe. The combined momentum amplified the force of the blow, and Conkeldurr landed with a mighty crash into the ground below.
Purrloin landed gracefully and approached the small crater created by her attack. Lucario and Alex did likewise, and to their immense relief they saw that Conkeldurr had finally fainted. "He's not getting back up anytime soon," Purrloin purred smugly.
Before they could celebrate, a ball of fire exploded behind Rena's trailer. The trio ran as fast as they cold, and arrived just in time to see an Arcanine—cloaked in fire—body slam Louie and send him sprawling to the ground. Not too far away was the man dressed in black and red, bloodied up and a little woozy but otherwise okay. Louie struggled to get to his feet, but couldn't find the strength to do so and collapsed. The man smirked, satisfied, but it was short lived when he noticed the angry glares of Lucario, Purrloin, and Alex.
"Alright, just who the hell are you!?" Alex yelled. Lucario crouched into a fighting stance and growled, and Purrloin raised her hackles and hissed viciously.
Arcanine growled and readied himself to pounce, but his master waved him off. "Piss off kid; I'm in the middle of something here. Go play with your toys and leave this to the adults."
His dismissive attitude did little to placate the blonde-haired trainer. Alex then noticed Rena's illusion was gone and realized why the man was at Pokestar Studios. "I don't know how you found out about her, but we're not going to let you capture that Zoroark! We took down your Conkeldurr, and we'll take down your Arcanine too!"
The man started laughing. "You'll fucking what? Look, maybe you took down the big lug by his self, but you can't beat the rest of my team. Seriously, last warning, get lost before you become lost." The man nonchalantly turned away and reached into his pockets. He pulled out an Ultra Ball, white on bottom, black with yellow stripes stylized into a "U" on top, and chucked it at Rena. She disappeared in a flash of light and the ball fell to the floor. It rolled once…twice…three times…and clicked.
Alex paled. This man had just captured Rena! He knew the police were on the way, but the man didn't; somehow he had to stall him. "Who are you? How did you find out about Rena? Why do you want to capture her in the first place?"
The man's smirk grew even wider, and his green eyes seemed to dance gleefully. "I don't see any reason to give you my name, but I like watching you squirm so I'll at least tell you this. I'm a Pokemon Poacher, and one of the best damned ones in the business. My little group specializes in finding the rarest and most valuable monsters in the world and securing them for our clients." He motioned towards Rena's ball and added, "Someone caught wind of her little façade and decided she would be a neat addition to their collection. They paid me a fuck-ton of cash to capture her, so here I am." Suddenly, the poacher's smirk became predatory. "Now that you know what you're fucking with, why don't you leave?" He contemplated something. "On second thought, don't—I think I just might take that Lucario off your hands..."
The threat was interrupted by the flashing lights and loud sirens of a half-dozen police officers arriving at the front gate. The poacher raised an eyebrow, and now it was Alex's turn to smirk. "Yeah, that's right, we found your buddies up front and called the police," Alex said smugly.
The poacher growled something about idiots and made to grab the Ultra Ball. Alex yelled for Lucario to stop him, but Arcanine leapt in front and kept him at bay with Flamethrower. Alex wanted to help him, but he saw the poacher bend down and reach for Rena…
Alex jumped on the poacher's back and started punching him as hard as he could. The poacher yelled, cursing and flailing, but the young trainer held firm. Purrloin ran up to him and sunk her teeth into the poacher's ankle and he promptly kicked the purple cat as hard as he could. He finally got a hold of Alex and threw him onto the ground. He pulled out his Taser and aimed it at Alex's heart. "You know, this thing's got enough juice to incapacitate a Raichu" the poacher said through clinched teeth, face contorted into a wicked and sadistic grin. "I've always wondered what it would do to a person. Why don't we find out?"
A beam of pulsating dark energy hit the poacher and knocked him off his feet. He landed with a painful thud and wearily looked at his assailants. Rena, panting but absolutely furious, stood beside an equally pissed-off Purrloin. When the poacher had kicked her away, she landed by Rena's Ultra Ball and managed to release the Zoroark from her prison.
It didn't matter if the redheaded human could understand her or not; Purrloin hissed at the poacher and yelled, "Hands off my trainer!" She then used Copycat and launched her own Dark Pulse, which hit true and sent the poacher sprawling even further away.
The poacher barely managed to pick himself up. Off in the distance, he could see a group of people—likely the police—running towards them with an assortment of different pokemon. He hated to admit it, but there was too many of them and he was too beat up to fight; It was time to cut his losses. "Arcanine, heel!" The Arcanine immediately disengaged Lucario and ran to his master, who promptly returned him as soon as possible. He released a large Aerodactyl and yelled, "Get me out of here, now!" The poacher climbed on the back of the ancient dinosaur and took to the sky, making sure to stop and return his downed Conkeldurr before disappearing into the night.
The police finally arrived. "Hey kid, are you okay?" one of the older officers asked. Alex didn't answer; he was still on the ground, staring where the poacher had been. He'd almost died…that man had a weapon pointed at him and was going to kill him. He was going to kill him, take Rena, take Lucario, and get away. His adrenaline rush was gone, and suddenly his body started shaking and convulsing. Alex doubled over and puked, and kept puking for several minutes. The officer called for aid, and soon paramedics helped him up and to an ambulance. He was going into shock, they explained. They put a blanket over him, did a quick medical examination, and did their best to make him comfortable.
Alex wasn't really paying attention. He remembered being asked a bunch of questions—what happened, could he give a description of the culprits, did he know what they were after?—and Alex slowly and methodically answered them all as best he could. He heard them ask the same questions to the others, and soon the police had the whole story.
About that time Stu Deeoh arrived, ranting and raving and demanding answers to a slew of questions. "Okay, what is going on!? What happened, where's Rena Kuro, and why the hell is there a Zoroark here!?"
Said Zoroark looked at the ground and nervously explained that she was Rena Kuro. To his credit, the owner of Pokestar Studios took the shocking news in great stride. She explained herself a second time, at one point she demonstrated by briefly re-applying her disguise before dropping the illusion again. When Rena finished, she regarded her boss with worried eyes. "Now that you know…what happens now?"
"What happens now…?" he said. There was a dramatic pause, and Rena closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. "What happens now—"the purple-clad man rushed and scooped the Zoroark into a hug "—is we make the best movies that Unova has ever seen!"
Rena wheezed under Stu Deeoh's surprisingly strong grip. "Y-you mean you're not going to fire me?" she asked.
Stu Deeoh released his hold and regarded the Zoroark incredulously. "Fire you!? Are you nuts!? Get rid of one of my best actresses? Dahling, please, I don't give a Ratata's ass what you are!" He shook his head and made a tsk, tsk sound. "Besides, you're a Zoroark who knows how to act. With your talents, you could literally play any part imaginable. Do you have any idea how valuable that is!?"
The Zoroark tilted her head and scratched nervously. "Aren't you worried about the backlash when they find out 'Rena Kuro' isn't even human?"
Stu Deeoh chuckled good-naturedly. "Rena, dahling, you shouldn't worry about other people. True, I'm running a business, but in my line of work I've learned that if the movie is good enough, the rest will fall into place. Sometimes art is about having the courage to create something in spite of what other people think." He waved his hand dismissively and added, "You just leave everything to me, and it'll work out in the end."
Rena couldn't believe what she was hearing. She tearfully hugged Stu Deeoh and thanked him for his understanding. Off to the side, Louie let out a huge sigh of relief. Lucario walked up behind him and patted his fellow pokemon on the shoulder. "It looks like you did all that worrying for nothing," he spoke.
Louie shrugged. "I'll admit it, I'm kind of surprised at how well Stu Deeoh is taking this. Maybe I didn't give him enough credit."
Lucario chuckled. "I know how you feel. When I first met Alex, I underestimated him and it ended up biting me in the tail."
Louie nodded but decided he wanted to elaborate. "It's not that I think humans don't care," he said, "I just don't think most would understand why a pokemon would want something like this. But your trainer, Donny, Mr. Stu Deeoh…I guess they're not your normal humans."
Lucario agreed and looked at Alex. He was still wrapped in a blanket, staring blankly into space and not really moving. "I wish I could have done more tonight, then maybe you and everyone else wouldn't have been in as much danger…"
Louie lightly punched his shoulder. "Don't sweat it. You did plenty." He folded his arms and continued, "Without you, that poacher guy would have sic'd both his Arcanine and his Conkeldurr on me. Then Rena would have been captured for sure." The other Lucario became flustered and added, "Seriously though, thank you for saving her. I…I don't know what I would do if I lost her…"
Lucario smiled, but considered something for a moment. "If you want to thank me, how about you teach me Aura Sphere? I think it's time that I learned how to use that move."
Louie seemed shocked. "You don't know how to use Aura Sphere? Oh, oh hell no, this cannot stand!" The other Lucario smiled and held out both paws to demonstrate. "Okay, so the first thing you have to do is gather up your aura and…"
Purrloin, who listened to the whole affair with mild disinterest, decided at that point to saunter over to her shell-shocked trainer. She meowed and batted his leg with a forepaw, but he didn't move. She frowned slightly and started rubbing against him, purring loudly, but it had no effect. She decided to be even more direct and jumped into his lap, using a paw to lightly swat him on the face, but he quickly brushed her aside and told her to stop. Purrloin locked dejected and meowed sadly.
"Y'know, I think she's trying to get your attention doofus." Alex looked up at the owner of this new voice, a short woman a handful of years older than him with white hair andtealeyes. She wore a purple and teal striped sweatshirt that was one-size-too-big, a pair of shorts, and black boots with one toe teal and the other purple. Her hair was wild and all over the place, even the part fashioned into a ponytail towards the top. He got the impression she was part of a rock band of some kind, and she had the attitude to match.
"Sorry," he said meekly, promptly picking up Purrloin and petting her. "I just…I've got a lot on my mind."
"I'd imagine," the young rock-punk-looking woman replied before holding out a hand. "The name's Roxie. I'm Virbank City's gym leader. These bozos here didn't bother to call me until after the perp got away. Honestly, police these days…" She huffed indignantly but quickly became serious. "They told me what happened, and I thought maybe you might need to talk about it."
Alex shook her hand, regarding Roxie with more respect than before, and shrugged helplessly. "What's there to talk about?" he said. "Yeah, I managed to save Rena and Louie, but I almost died in the process. If it hadn't been for Purrloin here, he would have stuck me in the heart with that Taser-thing and fried me to a crisp. Not to mention what he might have done to Lucario." He groaned and pulled at his hair. "I was absolutely useless tonight. I almost got killed, my pokemon almost got hurt, I left Donny behind to handle those goons by himself…" Alex grabbed at his hair and groaned. "Maybe my dad was right, and I'm not cut out to be a trainer..."
Roxie leaned over and promptly smacked Alex upside the head.
Alex let out a startled "ow!" and asked, "Is this a thing now!? People smacking me upside the head?"
The gym leader shrugged. "I dunno, where you whining the other times too?" Alex looked viciously indignant and Roxie folded her arms. "Don't give me that look! That's what you're doing right now—whining!"
"I almost died!" Alex shouted incredulously. "How exactly is freaking out about that whining!?"
"It's not," Roxie answered nonchalantly, "but having a little pity-party over what might have been is." She unfolded her arms and placed a hand on her hip. "Look—Alex, I think they said your name was?—I'm not telling you to just get over what happened tonight. But I'm not letting you beat yourself up either!" She pointed to Purrloin. "You see your pokemon? She's your partner. That means that you're a team, and that you help each other out no matter what. Sometimes you give more than you take, and sometimes it's the other way around, but in the end it doesn't matter. I don't know what's going on with you and your dad, but it's obvious that Purrloin likes you, so you're doing something right as a trainer."
As if to prove the point, Purrloin started purring and rubbing against Alex's chest. The blonde boy smiled and softly stroked her fur and scratched behind her ears. Purrloin approved and mewed happily.
Roxie smiled. "See? Besides, you weren't useless. You kept that poacher from running off with the other pokemon. Same goes for finding the two fake guards and helping your Lucario win against the Conkeldurr." She sat beside Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're a trainer, right? Look, if you're going to give up, at least let me whoop you in a gym battle first. I'd rather you quit because of that instead of quitting because you're too scared of the world. If nothing else, you owe your pokemon that much."
Alex looked at Lucario, talking to Louie, and remembered their deal back in Aspertia. Then he looked at the Purrloin in his lap, the one that kept following him and eventually more-or-less let herself be captured. Lucario had faith in him. Purrloin had faith in him. Now he just needed to have faith in them…and in himself. "Thanks…" he said with a small smile. "I think I actually feel a little better now."
Roxie grinned and punched him in the arm playfully. "No problem. Pay me back by stopping by my gym and giving me a good match." She hopped up from her spot and started to walk away. "Don't think that just because you have a cheap-ass steel type that it'll be easy! I didn't become a gym leader for nothing you know!"
Alex smiled, more confident than before. "You can count on it!"
Author's Note: Okay, so maybe it wasn't "Fight Scene: The Chapter," but there was plenty of action, not to mention Alex having a brief breakdown after his ordeal—as most sane people likely would after a near-death experience.
Fyi, the visor uses infrared. That's how the poacher knew Lucario was tailing him, but was caught off-guard by Louie.
