Author's note: While I understand the set limitations in the Pokémon games, anime, and other media sources, it's never made sense to me that any Pokémon should only be able to know four moves at any given time. In my opinion, if a Pokémon learns a move, they have no logical reason to forget that move as they continue to learn others. This might have been shown in previous chapters, but I wanted to be clear on where I stand on this before the chapter starts.

Akuma didn't try to stop it this time, but it wouldn't have changed things if he wanted to try either. Before the light from the Pokémon's release had stopped, Shiner was already fighting. A glittering light swirled around its body after the flash ended for a brief moment, but Rhydon lay crumpled on the ground before the lights disappeared. The monstrous creature changed its target instantly to Steelix and dropped the iron snake Pokémon just as quickly with a fire blast attack. As quickly as the next target was selected it was defeated with little effort and Shiner seemed to have so many available attacks that there was no chance of it tiring any time in the near future.

Before a Raichu could strike it with a thunderbolt it was knocked away with an iron tail then slashed in midair, nearly ripping it in two. Golem tried to endure the attacks but fell to two steel wings. Before a Muk had fully emerged from its poké ball Shiner had hit it with zen headbutt. A Pidgeot came from Kurishimi's direction to give backup, but fell under a rock tomb. A pathetic attempt at stopping Shiner with an ice beam from Jynx was ended when the user was hit with a crunch attack. While a Seel was an unexpected and random choice for a counter it was nothing against a thunder fang. A Dragonair even appeared, but dragon claw crushed it immediately. Crobat, Golduck, Arcanine, Machoke, Electrode, Persian, Scyther, Wigglytuff, and many others were crippled one by one while Akuma looked on until Kurishimi made her way over to him.

"What were you thinking?!" she yelled at him, but Akuma didn't reply. "After the bandits are all gone or dead it'll come after us next!"

"I know," Akuma admitted in a sad voice.

"You know it'll kill us and you let it out anyway?"

"It won't kill you, Akashi; or Chad."

"Why not? Nothing's stopping it from trying to kill everything else right now."

"It won't kill you because you won't be here."

Kurishimi's reply was drowned out when Shiner roared again. "How do you figure?" she asked again when able.

"I want you to take Chad and run away from here with him deep into the forest. Shiner can't kill you if it can't find you."

"Not a chance, you idiot. I saw you losing all your Pokémon when you were fighting before. You've got less battle strength than I do right now."

"I've got two things in my advantage this time though." Akuma began to place revival medicine into his poké balls while he talked. Shiner had almost completely decimated the remaining fighters at this point while the bandits were running away as they pointlessly sacrificed their Pokémon as cannon fodder to aid in their retreat. "Right now I'm carrying four gym badges and Shiner's poké ball. That means I am its trainer and I've got the authority so it has to listen to me now."

"That's assuming you can get close enough to hit it with the poké ball beam before it kills you."

"It's worth trying over having it kill you. Besides that it doesn't look back after beating an enemy so it can't help but have a blind spot. I know how it fights, how it moves, and what it will do next. No one else in Kanto knows how to survive a battle with it except me. I chose for this to happen, and I'm going to be the one who makes it go away. Take Chad and run away from here."

"No."

"What?"

"No, we're not running away. Friends don't abandon each other at times like these."

"Akashi, I appreciate the gesture, but there's no point in dying just to prove you believe in our friendship. Besides, I'm trying to protect you both. Isn't that something friends do for each other too?"

"Exactly, there's no point in dying for someone else when you can avoid it, but you're trying to do the same thing right now too."

"I agree," Chad said, suddenly appearing behind them. "And I get the idea that we'll be protecting you too by helping out. Besides that, you can't force us to run away if we don't want to either."

Akuma shook his head as he handed Kurishimi a full heal then smiled slightly in acceptance. "If it sees you, it'll kill you."

Kurishimi felt the care in his voice weigh heavily within her chest but nodded with determination. "I know it will." Chad probably hadn't any experience with death at his age beyond what had happened to Ariados, but he voiced his agreement as well.

Akuma checked on Shiner one more time before they went out to meet it. Still in a rampage, Shiner was attacking the forest now as well as any living thing that emerged. Every enemy had either fallen to the ground in its wake or evacuated the area. He didn't want to think about whether any had been eaten. The trio had still been ignored since they were in the blind spot to the rear. Now was the best chance to take it by surprise.

Akuma handed his companions a pair of revives each. "These are my last ones. Don't just choose who you want to fight with, but who you think can survive. We won't get out of this one otherwise."

Kurishimi had already cured Pinsir with the full heal medicine by now and began to administer healing to others, but Chad hesitated.

"Hey Akuma, which of my Pokémon has the best chance of beating that… thing?"

"In all honesty, Chad?"

"… yes?"

"If all your Pokémon work together to fight it, they'll all die."

Chad's face paled and he seemed to shrink at the thought. "All of them?"

"All of them," Akuma repeated grimly. Reluctantly Chad placed a revive into one of his poké balls as Akuma had done before. "It's not too late to run away you know."

"I know," Chad whispered. His reply was barely audible over the ongoing destruction. "But I'm still going to help you anyway."

Akuma took a breath then started walking into the flames; a great ball in one hand and the cherish ball in the other. "Just get me close enough to return it to the poké ball and we can stop it. I doubt it will listen to me when I have four gym badges anyway."

Kurishimi held a poké ball against her chest and said a silent prayer then walked beside Akuma, fully prepared for the worst to happen. Chad didn't move as he watched the emerald monster continue its path of destruction. Finally he closed his eyes tightly and ran past his teacher. Akuma and Kurishimi increased their speed as well. There was literally a mountain's worth of distance before the nightmare arrived in Fuchsia City. Even then at the rate it was progressing, that much time wasn't enough to stop it, and only three trainers were able to do so at this point. For a moment, Akuma thought that the rain suddenly seemed appropriate for the situation they were in.

Kurishimi was the first to throw a poké ball. "Use disable then restrict its movements with psychic!" Alakazam canceled Shiner's flamethrower then attempted to pull it away from the forest with its powers. Strangely the huge dragon was almost unaffected by the psychic hold. It ceased its forward movements, but with a flap of its wings it moved backward and landed right in front of Alakazam. One hit from a mighty dragon claw attack ended Alakazam's attempts for a peaceful solution.

Before it could turn on Kurishimi, Chad's Gyarados charged into it from the side and latched onto its neck with an ice fang. For a moment that attack seemed to do the trick. Shiner was unable to turn its head for many of its attacks and its forelegs were too short to reach Gyarados' body. Shiner thrashed around attempting to get itself free while Gyarados wrapped its serpentine body tightly around the dragon. With a sudden burst of energy, Shiner's wings broke out of the bind via steel wing and it flew into the air. Gyarados sunk its teeth deeper into Shiner's neck, but the two dragons continued to soar into the air. After reaching a sufficient height the pair went into a dive right for Kurishimi. The poor girl tried to run, but they were descending too fast and Shiner even increased the danger by firing a dragonbreath attack in her direction. Before the attack could hit her, Akuma's Dodrio swept her up by using its agility move. The long range dragon attack washed over the terrain just before the deadlocked dragons crashed into the earth and scattered the flames upon impact. The energy of the dragonbreath attack continued to linger over the area and set the ground on fire with red flames mixed among the green. Shiner and Gyarados faced the other on either side of the flames since the impact had knocked the latter away. Gyarados seemed winded but still able to battle, the first Pokémon that night who had survived Shiner's attacks, while the enemy appeared just as strong as ever. Shiner threatened Gyarados with a beastly roar which the atrocious sea serpent was quick to answer. Each beast attacked the other with a brutal dragon rage attack, but Akuma's bane was already prepared for the next attack. As the dragon attacks canceled each other out in a blast of energy Shiner leapt through the surge of power and slashed the front of Gyarados with a dragon claw attack. Gyarados roared in pain and quickly used a bite attack on its opponent's neck again, but fainted unconscious immediately after.

The victor roared in triumph as Gyarados disappeared in a flash of red, and began to search for the girl that had escaped earlier. As it leapt through the flames in search of more victims the return beam of a poké ball passed through the area where it had been a moment before. Shiner was oblivious to the unseen opponent and whipped around in search of Kurishimi. Suddenly in front of its head a face took shape and screamed in a ghostly voice. The dragon attempted to hit Gastly with a fire blast, but the ghost Pokémon faded away quickly after putting a curse on the much larger Pokémon. Suddenly Shiner felt its health quickly drop and sensed a presence from below. It spun around quickly while raking its belly across the ground, but Misdreavus had already used pain split and escaped. Angry at being played with, the dragon flew into the air as the return beam passed underneath once again. After reaching a suitable height it looked over the ruined landscape until it spotted Dodrio at a distance with Kurishimi still on his back. Shiner dove toward the pair with a furious cry as multiple night shade attacks struck it from underneath. The ghosts were ignored as the dragon rapidly gained speed in its descent.

Before it had closed the distance halfway, Dodrio split into five with double team and ran off in five directions. The mighty dragon was not deterred from its target however and released a hidden power at three of the copies. All four fakes vanished when the real one was hit and fell to the ground. No time was wasted as Shiner quickly closed in on them and landed on the ground before the pair. As it came down on them with a thunder fang intending to kill, a return beam shot in front of its eyes – another miss, but the great dragon recoiled in surprise. Akuma's Pokémon looked to the left and saw its unofficial trainer standing before it with a defiant look. To Kurishimi's surprise, it did not attack right away which allowed Akuma to speak to it directly.

"That is enough out of you, Salamence! Stop this destruction at once!"

The mighty green dragon roared back, clearly not in agreement. In its blind spot neither Akuma nor Shiner saw Chad creeping closer, and Kurishimi was too paralyzed with fear to notice as well.

Akuma pointed a finger aggressively at the murderous Pokémon that had nearly killed him multiple times over. "This rampage of yours is over! From now on you will listen to me!" Salamence lowered its head to the ground and roared in protest as a flash of lightning illuminated the dangerous duo. "You are acting outside the laws of nature. I can not allow you to continue what you are doing anymore. Return to your cherish ball and be calmed, Shiner!"

Quickly Akuma held out the poké ball and attempted to strike his Pokémon with the capture beam. Salamence slid out of the way smoothly and began to charge Akuma with a double-edge attack. Akuma tried to evade, but Shiner was much too fast for him to do so. The mighty beast roared as it was about to crush the body of its trainer as well as the poké ball that prevented its freedom when a heavy weight landed on its back and smashed it to the ground.

Salamence attempted to face the unexpected threat when its head was forced into the mud from Gyarados' ice fang pressing into its neck. Just after Chad recalled his Pokémon he had used the second revive Akuma had passed him to bring back Gyarados for one last round. With the atrocious Pokémon now pinning it to the ground by taking advantage of the moment of surprise, Shiner was too shocked to retaliate immediately. Akuma stared at the sight for a moment. He knew he would have died had Chad not been there to save him. After realizing what had happened, Salamence began to attempt to throw Gyarados off by spreading its wings as it had done the first time. Before it had a chance of doing so however, Akuma fired the return beam once again and this time it struck Salamence in the chest. The mighty dragon resisted the poké ball, but eventually succumbed to the beam and was sucked back into its prison.

Distant thunder sounded as Cleffa's rain dance began to wear off and the clouds slowly parted. Gyarados hadn't taken any damage this time, but still lay on the ground in exhaustion from having three heavy battles in a row without a chance to rest. Kurishimi had already fainted from sheer terror. Chad was still staring at the spot where Salamence had just been. Akuma stood still while breathing heavily then dropped the cherish ball to the ground, unable to even hold the spherical prison in his hand because his body was so exhausted. Gastly, Misdreavus, and Dodrio came over to their trainer with worry in their eyes. Sableye appeared soon after; carrying Akuma's poké balls on their straps over its shoulder.

Akuma allowed a long sigh and fell to his knees. "Got you," was all he could say before he passed out on the ground again.

Chad stumbled over to his Gyarados with concern. "Are you okay?" he asked. Gyarados grumbled a positive reply so Chad sat down with his back against what passed as Gyarados's torso. "There's no way it could have been that easy. All we did was try to hit it with a poké ball beam and that nearly killed us all. Sapadense, or whatever Akuma called that thing, was strong enough to keep battling even after all we did to it. Pokémon also have to be weak before you can catch them in a poké ball. Whatever Akuma and the hunters did to capture it… I can't imagine it. That must be the power of dragon Pokémon. No wonder Akuma is afraid of them. Oh, I'm sorry. I guess you're tired. You can rest now, Gyarados; return." Gyarados vanished into its poké ball and Chad fell back onto the ground. "Actually the ground feels pretty soft here. I think I might…"

While Chad slept, Akuma's ghost trio kept an eye on the group to make sure everyone stayed safe. Now they all knew what the most dangerous Pokémon among them was and everyone in the group feared it equally with good reason.