Edwin tapped his foot nervously on the floor of Lilycove's pokemon center. His eyes were glued to the television, and Poseidon lazed beside him on the floor. Faustina sat across from him at the table, and her violet eyes glanced up at him.
"Will you stop that?"
Edwin took a breath and stopped his foot from rapping against the tiled floor. "Sorry."
The dark-haired woman sighed. "We all feel the same as you do right now, but we can't let our emotions get the best of us. It's times like this where we need to stay calm." Her mesmerizing purple eyes then shifted away from Edwin and looked past him. Edwin turned his head to follow her gaze and saw Red step back into the center.
Red approached the two trainers and sat down at their table. Edwin and Faustina stared at him expectantly.
"The Unovan and Kalosian representatives are dead, and the Hoenn one is gone. A few Hoennese soldiers were also killed," the champion said.
"We know. It's been all over the news," Faustina replied. "Did anything else happen? The news often leaves certain things out that may be too sensitive."
Red shook his head. "That's the whole of it, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, Faustina, but there's no way we're going to avoid a war now."
Edwin glanced at Poseidon, and the swampert croaked deeply.
"I don't know what we do next," Red said, looking at Poseidon. "We'll have to wait and see."
Edwin was surprised that Red understood Poseidon so perfectly, despite never meeting the swampert before.
"How soon will this all start?" Faustina asked Red.
Red shrugged. "I wish I could tell you something concrete, but I have no clue. All I know is that I need to get back to the Indigo Plateau as soon as possible and start preparing. I want to make sure that Kanto and Johto don't get involved in this."
"What's going to happen here, in Hoenn?" Edwin wanted to know.
"Sorry, but I told you, I don't know much. All I can tell you is that Hoenn and Unova are going to be the main belligerents. I don't know whether Hoenn will invade Unova or if Unova will invade Hoenn, or if anybody will invade at all, but I can say that you guys should get yourself out of the region if you want to avoid war. You can come to Kanto with me, if you want."
Faustina's violet eyes twinkled sadly. "I can't. I have unfinished business here."
Edwin agreed with Faustina. "My family's here, and everyone I know. I've lived my whole life in Hoenn, and I'm not going to leave now. Thanks for the offer, though." Poseidon croaked in agreement.
"Alright. Good luck to you, then," Red said as he got up from the table. He glanced at Faustina, and then at Edwin. "Stay safe."
With that, the Indigo League Champion walked out of the pokemon center, leaving Edwin and Faustina alone together.
Faustina seemed to be in deep thought, but Edwin was couldn't resist asking "What now?"
"I don't know," she said after a moment. "Any ideas?"
Edwin was unsure of what to do. He had never experienced a war before, and he didn't know what would happen. If Hoenn invaded Unova, he expected that he could continue his journey, though he knew that supplies would be scarcer and that his quest would go a lot more slowly. If Unova invaded Hoenn, however, everything would change.
"I guess we could go to Mossdeep," Edwin said. "My parents live there, and I haven't visited home in a while."
Faustina nodded. "Sounds good. I've always wanted to see the famous Mossdeep Space Station. We should leave as soon as possible, so that we don't get held up when the war breaks out in full. I'll go get us tickets for a boat."
As Faustina left the center, Edwin sighed. Poseidon croaked at him, and Edwin smiled. "Yeah, at least we get to go home. I haven't seen Mom and Dad in a while, and they'd be excited to see that you've evolved." Poseidon croaked proudly.
"Still, I can't help but feeling nothing good will come of this war." Poseidon croaked again at that, and Edwin laughed.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, that was unnecessary of me to say. No good ever comes from war."
The two women walked briskly through Slateport's marketplace and towards the housing developments that rested north of the market.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Aurelia asked. "It's only been a few days since the shipyard incident."
Liviana glared at the red-haired woman with her sharp green eyes. "I told you already, they won't be looking for us. Unova and Hoenn just declared war on each other. The authorities have better things to do than look for a couple of women they only briefly glimpsed."
"Fine," Aurelia replied, "but I still don't think we should be doing this."
"We have to. If we don't get the Dragonslayer, we are going to be severely punished. We got sidetracked when we went chasing after Alfgar, and to make it worse, we attracted so much attention to ourselves that we basically caused the war to start."
The two women eventually arrived in front of a large house. An impressive, well-cut lawn preceded the house, and the house itself was made of mahogany wood.
"So what are we going to do, just walk up and ring the doorbell?"
"Precisely," Livina answered as she started towards the house.
Aurelia reluctantly followed the blonde woman. "What if he recognizes us?"
"So? We're probably going to have to take him by force anyway. I doubt he'll just come with us peacefully."
Liviana hit the button beside the massive wooden doors. She could faintly hear a chiming noise echoing inside the house, indicating that the doorbell had been pressed. Soon enough, she heard footsteps.
A man opened the door, though it was not the man she was expecting. He was tall with black hair and pale skin, and dark stubble covered the lower half of his face. He wore an expensive-looking suit, but Liviana was more worried about the faint outline of a gun she saw under his coat and the four pokeballs that adorned his belt.
"Sorry, we're busy at the moment," the man said. "You'll have to come back later."
"I'm afraid we can't do that." Liviana reached for her belt and pulled out a knife. She jammed the blade into the man's throat and pushed him backwards as blood sprayed onto her face. As the man bled out on the ground, Livina wiped her face with her gloved hand, staining the black fabric with red. She then stepped inside the house.
"He was working for the Hoennese government," Liviana said to Aurelia after noticing the surprised expression on her face. "He wants the Dragonslayer for the same reason we do."
"I guess diplomacy is out of the question now," the red-haired woman remarked as she closed the door and stepped around the dying man. "Shame about this flooring, though. It's actually really nice, but the blood won't do it any fav - hey, wait for me!" Aurelia said as she noticed Liviana leaving the foyer and heading into another room.
The two found the Dragonslayer standing in the middle of a large, spacious room with a pokeball clutched tightly in his hand.
The room was carpeted in some sort of plush, green fabric, and a large painting of a salamence hung on the wall. A few sofas were present in the room, and they were all angled toward the huge flat-screen television and sound system that took up most of the west side of the room.
The Dragonslayer himself was an old man, and he wore a faded brown jacket on top of a plain black t-shirt. He wore black traveling pants and black hiking boots, and on his plain, wrinkled brown belt were five more pokeballs. His face was windburnt and aged, and he had a white mustache and beard. His brown eyes were filled with apprehension and caution.
"Who are you?" His voice was strained and soft, as if his vocal cords were rusting.
"We're from the Unovan government. You need to come with us," Liviana said.
The Dragonslayer only clenched his pokeball tighter.
"Put that away, and we promise we won't hurt you," Aurelia told the old man, though she had begun to reach for a pokeball as well.
"Go to hell." The old man chucked his pokeball into the air and released a blue dragon with a red face. The druddigon bellowed and raised its claws.
Liviana and Aurelia both threw out pokemon of their own, a roserade and a noivern. Upon seeing that he was outnumbered, the Dragonslayer sent out another pokemon, this time releasing an angry-looking haxorus.
"Divina, sleep powder," Liviana called out. The roserade twirled and released a cloud of minuscule blue spores which floated towards the druddigon and haxorus.
"Esther, incinerate!" The druddigon opened its mouth and sent a burst of fire towards the spores, which, when it made contact with them, caused them to explode. The haxorus then began rushing Divina, but Aurelia's noivern intercepted the other dragon and slammed into it from the air.
"Razor leaf, then sleep powder again." Divina twirled and sent out a flurry of sharpened leaves towards the druddigon, causing it to lift its arms in defense. The roserade wasted no time in spinning again and releasing some more spores, and this time they made contact with the opponent. As the pores began to swirl around the druddigon, the dragon's eyelids drooped and it began to slouch. Soon it was asleep.
The Dragonslayer opted to recall his druddigon rather than let it be abused by the roserade as it struggled to escape from its spore-induced sleep. He sent out a salamence in exchange, and the large, quadruped dragon roared fearsomely as it entered the fray.
"Razor leaf and sleep powder, Divina." Liviana attempted the same tactic again to see if she could get lucky, but the salamence simply flapped its red wings and sent the leaves and spores right back at the roserade.
Divina had a natural resistance against the spores, but they nevertheless caused her to yawn and become sluggish. The salamence took advantage of this and spewed a stream of fire at the roserade, and Divina shrieked in agony as she was burned by the super-effective attack.
Liviana grimaced and recalled her pokemon as Divina dropped to one knee, unable to fight off the fire that consumed her. The salamence roared in victory. Livina noticed that the Dragonslayer was now focusing on Aurelia and her noivern and had left the salamence to fight its own battle, indicating that the dragon was definitely both powerful and experienced.
Livina sent out her seviper, Mirzai, her most powerful pokemon. The snake hissed upon release, seemingly not intimidated by the large dragon that he was to face.
"Use night slash!" She shouted, and her seviper swung his tail around and jabbed it at the salamence. The dragon took the attack but then returned one of its own, a vicious fire blast that caused Mirzai to screech in pain. The salamence then flapped its wings and rushed towards the seviper, slamming it into the wall.
"Coil around it, Mirzai!" Now that the salamence had gotten close to him, Mirzai was able to wrap his serpentine body around the dragon and begin constricting. The dragon roared in distress and desperately tried to break free.
"Poison fang! Aim for the neck!" The seviper sunk its long, red fangs into the dragon's neck, pumping poison into the salamence as it shrieked. However, the salamence took that moment to use its own fangs, and it bit right into Mirzai's head with an extreme amount of force. The seviper screeched and let go of the salamence, and the blue and red dragon immediately flapped away from the snake's grip.
The salamence then sent a beam of blue energy towards Mirzai, sending the seviper right back into the wall. As Mirzai slunk out of the crater he had created in the wall, the salamence shot another fire blast at him and Liviana knew that he could no longer go on. She returned her seviper and pulled out another pokeball.
The next pokemon she sent out was Roland, her glalie. The strange looking pokemon appeared and began floating in the air, its face contorted into a snarl. She was taking a chance with an ice type, as the salamence possessed an arsenal of impressive fire attacks, but the dragon also had a severe weakness to ice as well.
"Ice beam!" Roland opened his mouth and sent a linear beam of ice towards the salamence, but the dragon countered with its own flamethrower attack that stopped the ice beam in its tracks. The salamence then shot a compact burst of fire at the glalie, and if it touched Roland, Livina knew that the fire blast would explode on impact and practically melt him.
Luckily Roland managed to dodge the attack and fire off another ice beam, but the salamence flapped its wings and did some evading of its own. It then began charging towards the glalie.
"Try an ice shard attack!" Roland sent a storm of ice shards towards the salamence, all of which made contact with the creature, but the dragon did not even slow down. As it got close to Roland, the salamence opened its maw and released a point-blank fire blast into the ice type's scowling face. As the fire made contact with Roland, Liviana hastily returned him.
She cursed under her breath as she readied another pokeball. She didn't care or know what was going on with Aurelia and the Dragonslayer; all she wanted was to finish the salamence. The damn dragon had already taken out three of her pokemon, and she was not going to be humiliated by one pokemon.
Liviana heaved another pokeball into the air, this time releasing her heliolisk, Yered. The electric lizard hissed upon release and extended its collar in order to look more fearsome, but the salamence only blew smoke out of its nostrils and roared.
"Use your speed!" Liviana called. "Quick attack!"
Yered darted towards the salamence and slammed into its side, and the blue and red dragon roared again and took to the air. It loosed a stream of fire at the lizard, but Yered skidded away from the flamethrower and launched a thunderbolt at the dragon. Salamence shook its head and shrugged off the electricity and then dived at the heliolisk, but once again the yellow lizard managed to dodge the attack.
"Keep dodging, Yered! You're too fast for it!"
The heliolisk continued to evade the salamence's attacks and kept on thunderbolting it. The dragon did not seem too damaged by the attacks, but Liviana knew that it wouldn't last very long if it kept receiving blows and giving none.
Suddenly, the salamence landed and let out a loud roar. Yered used another quick attack, but the attack seemed to bounce of the dragon. The salamence roared again, and the ground began to shake. Liviana struggled to keep her balance, but the shaking was most powerful where Yered was. The small lizard was being tossed around like a rag doll by the earthquake attack, and when the ground stopped shaking, Yered stopped moving.
Liviana swore again and recalled her pokemon. She immediately sent out another; this time it was her magmar called Blythe. The magmar would at least be resistant to the salamence's flamethrower and fire blast attacks.
"Try a flamethrower!" Blythe shot a string of fire from his narrow snout, but the salamence charged right through it and slammed into the magmar, a blue, draconic energy surrounding the salamence's body.
"Damn it," Livina said, anger lacing her voice. "Blythe, get up and use a confuse ray!"
The magmar slowly got to its feet and sent out a ball of bright yellow energy, but the salamence flapped its wings and easily avoided the attack. It then roared and slammed into the magmar once more. Liviana heard a sickening crunch as the dragon made contact with Blythe, and she immediately recalled her pokemon.
She felt a bead of sweat trail down her face and to her chin as she clutched her last pokeball. It contained Ignazio, her pinsir, but she knew that the bug pokemon would be destroyed by the salamence's infernal fire attacks. Nevertheless, she sent the bug out and watched as he clacked his pincers together in preparation.
Before Liviana could even utter a command, the salamence fired a devastatingly hot wave of fire towards Ignazio. Liviana felt sick as she recalled her last pokemon to prevent it from being burnt alive. If she was going die, she found no reason that her pokemon should die with her.
She looked at the salamence, and the dragon glared back at her. Nothing stood between the two now. Liviana pulled out her gun and pointed it towards the dragon, her hands shaking nervously. She knew that the bullet from her pistol would barely make a dent in the salamence's hardened scale armor.
Just as she was about to fire anyway, the salamence let out a long, pained roar and collapsed. As Liviana stood there in shock, her pistol still clutched by her unsteady hands, she noticed blood and some sort of purple acid seeping out of two punctures in the dragon's neck.
Surprise filled her mind, then glee. Mirzai did manage to poison it after all. Now that the threat was gone, Liviana remembered that Aurelia was currently fighting the rest of the Dragonslayer's pokemon.
Liviana turned and saw Aurelia and her simisear facing off against the Dragonslayer and his flygon. The sand dragon was breathing heavily while the red monkey seemed relatively fresh, but Liviana also noticed that the Dragonslayer was holding his left arm. Blood covered his hand and was gushing out from underneath it.
Aurelia's simisear jumped into the air and, in a flurry of impressive acrobatic motions, kicked, punched, and slammed the flygon in its head and torso. The assault was too much for the desert dragon to take, and it slumped over and fell to the ground, defeated.
The Dragonslayer winced as he recalled his pokemon. The old man fell to his knees, and Liviana assumed that Aurelia and her simisear had just finished off the last of his pokemon.
Aurelia flipped her red hair as she saw Liviana walk over and glanced at her with her shining blue eyes. "Where were you? We could have used your help." The simisear hooted energetically, as if to emphasize Aurelia's point.
"I was dealing with a salamence, and it was probably much stronger than anything you faced," Liviana replied scornfully.
"Edward was my first pokemon, and my strongest," the Dragonslayer interrupted, his voice full of sadness. "You didn't kill him, did you?"
Liviana shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. But if he is dead, you'll soon be joining him. You've lost a lot of blood."
The old man sighed deeply, and his voice sounded even weaker than before. "I know. It's over."
"Listen up, Dragonslayer," Liviana continued. "We can make your passing peaceful and merciful, or we can make it very unpleasant. Tell us everything you know about Rayquaza."
The old man looked startled. "Rayquaza?"
"You're the only trainer who went to Sky Pillar, fought Rayquaza, and made it out alive. What are his weaknesses? What do we need to do to capture Rayquaza?"
The old man shook his head. "No. You cannot capture him. You all mistake me, I'm no 'Dragonslayer,' I never have been. I never defeated Rayquaza, I didn't knock him out or kill him or capture him. All I did was talk to him, me and Edward, we talked to him, that's all." The old man looked very feeble in that moment, and his face was as pale as his whiskers.
"He doesn't have much longer," Aurelia whispered to Liviana.
"What did that man want with you? The one from the government?" Liviana asked.
"Something about Rayquaza, and the Orbs... I feel faint. I can't remember much." The old man was swaying now, wavering. Liviana knew that he would die soon.
"Tell us."
"He said... He said the Orbs were... No, the blue one... At Mossdeep... I am very tired..." The Dragonslayer crumpled and fell, his knees no longer able to hold him upright. "Edward..." He murmured. And then he was gone.
Liviana stared at the man's body for a second, her cold green eyes looking right through the lifeless old man who used to be the Dragonslayer.
"Let's go," she finally said. "We've got to get to Mossdeep."
Dex entry #373: salamence
"In the early days of Hoenn, salamence were probably the most feared pokemon in the region. They would fly around Hoenn from village to village, and whenever they landed at a village, the people would be expected to have a human sacrifice ready for the dragon. If the villagers decided that they weren't going to give up one of their own, the salamence would simply fly over the village and burn everything to the ground." - Interview with Barry Genroe, Hoenn historian
Salamence are fearsome dragon pokemon found in the mountains and caves of Hoenn and in a few other parts of the world. These pokemon are capable of flight, and they often times use their wings to give them an edge in battle. Though salamence are rare, they are also very dangerous, capable of spewing fire, draconic energy, and mauling their opponents with their deadly claws and fangs. Police have had reports in many cities and towns of people spotting large blue dragons flying in the sky, and though these sightings are frightening, they are largely unfounded. Still, towns located near mountains employ a warning system against these dragons, just in case they do decide to appear and terrorize the people of Hoenn once again. Salamence are considered a level four threat on the Pokemon Threat Scale.