Gimpy sighed and rubbed his leg with one thick hand, wondering what was taking Arden so long. Surely, the blastoise thought, he couldn't have found that old, burned out building to be this interesting? He flattened his little ears and frowned, wondering if he should be worried about it. With another sigh, he glanced around at the quaint buildings surrounding him.

Immediately, a familiar black uniform caught his eye. Retreating partially into his shell to make himself smaller, Gimpy watched as Stanislaus, his stantler in tow, spoke with a couple of town people. Gimpy strained his ears, but he could not hear what was being said. After a moment, Stanislaus turned and started toward the mansion with Adalhelm trotting along at his heels. Gimpy's stomach dropped and he stood up. As fast as he could manage, he limped down the street, trying to find a way to get to Arden before the Rocket grunt could.

Within the mansion, Arden sat with Cruelty, watching the waves beat against the beach far below. "…so we argued back and forth for a while," Arden was telling the raichu. "And finally she bet me that I couldn't get close enough to Quenelle to pull one of his tails. This was back when Quen was my mom's pokemon; he wasn't nearly so mellow then. He didn't like any of us much. So Felicia and I went out to where Quen was milling around, and I start sneaking up behind him. And as I'm sneaking up to him, Gaius comes out of the house and sees me doing this and he come running up just as I grab hold of one of Quenelle's tails. He grabs me and pulls me away as Quenelle kicks out, and he gets a hoof right in the nose. Well, Quenelle goes galloping off, all startled, and Gaius has blood streaming down his face and he turns to me and smacks me in the ear and, with a broken nose, he starts lecturing me. But I was laughing the whole time, because every time he breathed out through his nose it whistled."

"Raiii," said Cruelty, flicking his tail back and forth.

Arden glanced at his tail and frowned. "It's broken right there, isn't it?" he asked, gingerly putting his fingers near the obvious kink in the raichu's tail. Cruelty moved a little bit away from him. "If it hurts you tell me, alright?"

Cruelty looked downwards and said nothing, prompting Arden to poke him in the side. "Hey—I said, if it hurts that you should tell me. Alright?"

"Rai."

"Good," said Arden. There was a creaking sound on the stairs behind him and he turned his head toward it. "Eh? I wonder if that burglar guy came back…?"

Stanislaus became visible on the stairs and Arden paled and scrambled to his feet. "Shit," he said as Cruelty turned to look. "How the hell did he even find me?!"

Cruelty arched his back and flattened his ears as Stanislaus stepped off the stairs with Adalhelm close behind. Baring his teeth, the raichu growled and stepped in front of Arden as Adalhelm lowered his head. For a moment, the two parties stared at each other, the air thick with hostility and the anticipation of bloodshed. They were still, each weighing the pros and cons of making the first move. Finally, it was Stanislaus who attacked first. "Adalhelm! Shadow ball!"

As a dark blast issued forth from Adalhelm's antlers, Cruelty pushed Arden sideways, out of the range of the attack. The raichu took the full force of Adalhelm's attack himself, knocking him backwards, almost over the edge of the building. At the last moment, Cruelty was able to dig in his claws and save himself. He lunged forward, cheek sparking, without awaiting an order. The raichu dove onto the stantler's face, clawing and spitting, and then, in only a moment, they were on the ground thrashing about, exchanging brutal blows. Adalhelm jabbed his sharp hooves into Cruelty's sides, breaking one of his ribs with a groaning 'crunch'. "Cruelty!" yelled Arden. With a flash from his belt, Thief emerged of his own accord from his pokeball and went running to the raichu's aid. The persian leapt onto the stantler's back, biting hard at one of the pokemon's ears and digging his nails into his flesh.

Stanislaus threw out another pokeball. "Conrade!" he yelled as a dewgong appeared from the pokeball. "That boy—ice beam!"

Arden dodged out of the way as the blast of ice hit the wall behind him, freezing it solid. He threw out a pokeball, calling, "Gentry! Go!"

"Ran!" called the pokemon as he appeared. Immediately the nidoran was struck with another chilly blast from the enemy, which sent him skidding along the ground and knocked his everstone off.

"Gentry!" said Arden, running toward him.

"Nii!" Gentry shouted, getting to his feet and flattening his ears. He was telling Arden to stay back, and the boy did. Gentry got to his feet and ran toward the dewgong. Conrade let out another ice beam, striking Gentry once again. Arden gritted his teeth and threw out another pokeball.

"Fang, help Gentry!"

"Tsk, tsk," said Stanislaus as the crobat entered the fray. The rocket stepped around the fighting pokemon and began advancing on Arden. "Two-on-one fights aren't fair. Now, you've done that twice." He held up two of his own pokeballs. "Should I demonstrate to you just how unfair that is? Ellis, Sarah!"

An enormous ursaring and a bulky donphan appeared before him. Arden staggered back as the pokemon advanced on him. Fang and Gentry and Cruelty and Thief all had their hands full as it was, and he couldn't expect them to help with these two as well. That left him with only Prometheus to guard him. Arden touched the cyndaquil's pokeball. Was it worth it to put him in danger on the slim chance that this might be the single battle he tried to actually fight?

Arden moved his hand away from the pokeball and raised up his fists. Stanislaus leaned back slightly and said, "You plan to fist fight my pokemon? How absurd." But there was no fear in Arden's eyes. Stanislaus narrowed his eye and shrugged. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I'd have preferred you to curl up and beg for mercy, but either way you die, right? I shouldn't be so picky."

The Rocket's pokemon shifted their feet in anticipation. Finally, he gave the order. "Sarah!" he called. "Break him in two!"

The donphan charged and Arden hunched his shoulder in anticipation. All at once his mind was a million thoughts. Would it hurt badly, or would he die before that? Would he be crushed by it, or would he be thrown backwards? If he was thrown backwards, would he go through the wall, or would he just hit it and fall to the ground? Most of all, he thought of how he was about to die the exact same way his father had, and just on the heels of his funeral.

Just before the donphan reached him, a bolt of lightning struck in its path, forcing it to turn away at the last moment. Arden's eyes widened and he looked around. "Cruelty?" he said. His eyes widened as he saw a tauros at the top of the stairs. "Quenelle!"

Gaius appeared behind the tauros. "Get the fuck away from my brother."

Stanislaus turned to look at Gaius, his eye narrowing to a cruel slit. "I've seen that jacket before," he murmured. It was all he said before spinning around toward Gaius. "Ellis—make that tauros bleed."

The ursaring turned and flew at Quenelle, his movements light and swift. With a ringing clatter, the two massive pokemon came together and began a brutal brawl. Gaius took a few careful steps toward Stanislaus, who stared at him icily. "Well," said Stanislaus. "Come on, big boy. What're you gonna do with all the muscle?"

"I'm gonna crush every bone in your body is what I'm gonna do."

"Ooooh," said Stanislaus, putting his hands on his hips. "You promise?"

Sarah dug one foot into the ground, turning toward Arden. Quickly, Gaius grabbed a pokeball from his belt and tossed it. With a flash of light, a sandslash appeared and dashed in-between Arden and the donphan. Stanislaus' eye widened. "Br-bruno?!" he said. "That's Bruno—that's Dixie's pokemon!"

The color drained from his face as he wheeled around, back toward Gaius. "What did you do to my Dixie?!" he said. "You bastard, if you've hurt him—"

"I did hurt him. I hurt him a lot," said Gaius. "Whacha wanna do about it, guy?"

"I want to kill you."

Gaius grinned. "Is that right?" he asked, rolling a pokeball around in his hand.

"That's right," said Stanislaus, holding up one of his own pokeballs.

Simultaneously, they tossed them out. A wall of light filled the room, and when it cleared away Stanislaus' magmar and Gaius' granbull were locked together in battle. In front of Arden, Sarah and Bruno were also exchanging blows. Arden looked around, at all the pokemon fighting one another viciously. Cruelty and Thief were huddled beside each other, trying their hardest against Adalhelm and still loosing. Stanislaus' dewgong had left Fang in a broken heap and was working on doing the same to Gentry. Quenelle and the ursaring he was fighting were both bleeding heavily, and the former had lost part of one horn. Arden watched all this, wordlessly. He had never felt so helpless.

In front of him, the donphan hit Bruno hard, knocking him backwards into Arden. The force of the blow sent Arden flying back, rolling across the ground. He smacked against the wall, hard, and its old boards gave way, dropping Arden down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Toward the jagged rocks.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Toward the cold ocean.

Down.

Down.

Toward death.

"Father," whispered Arden, closing his eyes as the ground came toward him faster and faster.

Down.