Warning: Things are going to get nasty.
Flannery hummed a tune while packing her things, neatly folding her clothes into a suitcase. She would be staying in Lilycove for a week, going by the five day meeting rule. Every day for five days, the gym leaders would meet in the Lilycove Civic Center with the champion and the elite four on topics concerning regional stability. Flannery usually slept through most of the meetings, as did Brawly. Sidney tried to make it seem like he gave a crap but she caught him nodding off at times too. She was a young gym leader, making her opinion smaller compared to the more experienced leaders like Norman, Juan, or Wattson. Winona also played a large part in the discussions, along with the psychic twins. They seemed to enjoy the atmosphere, Flannery didn't really care. The redhead didn't feel like going in the slightest, but she had to because of her obligations as gym leader.
She sighed thinking about the hours long debates and boring topics they usually discussed there. Dull stuff like crime in their jurisdiction areas, kidnappings, illegal pokemon smuggling, and the recently added topic of unstable trainers. Sinnoh had been a wreck for the entire pokemon world, they still hadn't forgotten about it. The region had barely stabilized but there was a long way to go before things would return to normal. This time though, she knew why they were organizing another gym leader meeting, and it wasn't because of Sinnoh's problems. It was Petalburg, and this one was much closer to home. Everyone had a scare when they discovered that Norman had been shot, but thankfully he was taken to safety. No one found out who that security guard was, or where he had gone. Lavaridge never seemed to have those kinds of problems, being the second smallest gym location in Hoenn, behind Dewford town. It was no wonder why Brawly was so relaxed.
Her torkoal was next to her, being used as a stand to place her clothes so she could fold them neatly. A torchic came running into the room, stopping at her feet to rub it's cheeks on her jeans. It was Cherry, her newest addition. She had just hatched and Flannery couldn't stop pinching her warm fuzzy cheeks. The little chick chirped and jumped on her bed, rolling around with glee. Maybe when she grew some, Flannery could use Cherry in her gym matches. Having a fighting type would surprise some of those pesky weakness exploiters from trying to sweep her teams with water pokemon. Forgetting about battling, she focused on packing. She was nearly done when she heard some banging on the gym door.
Flannery rolled her eyes in annoyance."What do these silly trainers not understand about the gym being closed? Sheesh, it's like trying to talk to brick walls." She took the elevator down to the bottom floor and walked up to the doors. Unlocking them, they opened to a little boy, frantic and out of breath.
She recognized the little boy, he was a resident that lived near the hot springs. He wasn't old enough to be a trainer, so why was he knocking on the gym? "What's up Thomas? Why do you look so out of it?" He looked like someone was trying to kill him. It better not have been those bullies again. If it was, she was going to make them stop. This bullying dilemma had been going on for too long; the poor boy was developing trauma.
The child took a few deep breaths, trying to formulate words. After he sufficiently recovered enough to say a word without pausing for air, he said something. What he said caused Flannery to break out into a cold sweat. "Trainers, pokemon...being attacked in the middle of town...Some are dead."
No. No. Not here.
She didn't respond. Instead, she sprinted back to the elevator up to her room. Nearly kicking the door down, she came into the room, red eyes full of dread. Her torkoal and torchic were surprised. Flannery gathered her pokeballs and returned her torkoal. She turned to Cherry and said, "Stay here. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back. I hope." Flannery left the room and went back down to the lobby as fast as she could.
She wasted no time in letting out her rapidash. Quickly climbing on, the rapidash huffed curiously, kicking sparks with his hooves. "Dash, we need to get to the center of town right now." Her pokemon understood and shot off, leaving a trail of flames on the ground.
I hope I can get there in time.
Minutes earlier, the three men steadily approached the back of the establishment, peering at the faces of every black haired trainer in the restaurant. Riven took Will's soda and uncovered the lid. He emptied his own glass soda bottle into Will's cup and placed both containers in front of him. He told Will to stay calm with a flick of the eyes. The little boy listened and pretended to continue eating.
Black boots came closer. Riven heard them check behind their seats and could almost feel their gaze rest on his head. He was the last black haired male trainer in the restaurant. His nerves were on overcharge now, he had to mentally restrain himself from jumping the guys. The men caught sight of Will and whispered in a low voice, "I think this is him." Riven tensed, ready to fight.
The three men stopped in front of them and the one in the middle stared at Riven. "Hey, friend." The black haired trainer didn't look at him and sipped the soda, playing it cool. "I said hey. It's rude not to reply back."
Riven gave them a glare full of hostility. "Do I have to?"
"Whoa, calm down. We just want to be friends. You know, trainer stuff." His grin was far from friendly. Riven was not convinced, they were trying to lure him with fake friendliness. He examined their clothing, all identical and fully black. If there was one fashion rule trainers lived by, it was being unique.
"Trainers don't wear uniforms."
"We like to match."
He suppressed a scoff. Riven knew these guys were armed, and attempting to go for a subtle attack or kill. "If that's the case, what is it you want?" The best plan was to keep them occupied.
"We just want a friendly battle outside, nothin' serious." What did these guys think would happen? Trainers didn't look inside restaurants for battles. Whoever told these guys this was a good idea was an idiot.
"Battling in a public area is illegal." The guidebook specifically said that any who did so would be severely punished and fined. As the men thought of something even more stupid to say, Riven kept watching their hands, looking for weapons. The two behind the one in the middle looked edgy, pouring sweat in an otherwise cool room. They all had that cocky grin plastered on their faces, which didn't help their case.
"So? You don't look like a guy that cares for rules. Lavaridge has no police, just a dumb broad for a gym leader. Sure is hot though." The two behind him nodded and licked their lips.
"Don't talk about her like that." It was disgusting, coming from someone like him. Riven felt like punching his face in for insulting Flannery. She was likeable, nice, and a proficient battler as well; she was not a dumb broad. His knife was starting to feel very friendly.
"Oh, sorry. We know most of you trainers like the gym leaders." Mistake.
Narrowing his eyes, Riven pounced."I thought you were trainers. "
He realized his error and quickly corrected himself. "We are."
"Then how many badges do you have?"
The trio looked unsure of themselves and the guy's smirk fell. He was getting annoyed. This was exactly the thing Riven wanted. Uneasiness makes for slips, and slips mean openings.
"A lot."
"How many?"
"Got six," the middle one replied. He pointed to the two guys behind him. "We all got six."
He was such a bad liar, he could have made an effort to make it convincing, he didn't."Really? Show me the balance badge. I'd like to see how it looks before I go to Petalburg to battle Norman." Riven held tightly onto both the soda cup and the glass bottle.
The man hesitated before agreeing slowly. He was going to make his move. He looked down momentarily, reaching for what Riven presumed was a pistol. "You're no trainers." The man paused and was about to look up when the older boy viciously smashed the bottle against his temple, shattering the glass container and dropping the guy instantly.
Before the other two could react, Riven swung the uncovered cup horizontally, splashing soda into the face of the two guys behind them. As they were stunned, the teenager took advantage and swiftly kneed the one closest to him in the mid section before smashing his face into the table. The third tried to throw a right but Riven slipped to the side and pushed him to the ground. Before he was able to get up, the trainer beat him with a chair until he stopped moving. A girl screamed as she saw blood on the floor.
Riven grabbed Will's arm, who looked more than a little spooked. He was still processing what just happened. "Come on, we need to get the hell out." As soon as they were about to leave, a girl in her mid teens and a boy ran ahead of them.
The doors to the restaurant slid open as a jet of intense black flames engulfed the two trainers and hit the front of the restaurant, scorching the register and the counter. The girl and boy screamed briefly before falling to the floor, severely burned and no longer alive. Riven held Will back, staring wide eyed at the two corpses. He saw his friends burning again. Memories flashed in his mind. Something inside clicked and his mind went blank. Everything was enveloped in a haze, voices became nothing but empty noise. He saw a threat to innocent lives, and he was going to eliminate it.
"Come on out!" The voice came from outside, no doubt from the very men who turned those two unfortunate trainers into blackened corpses.
Will was horrified and tried to hold back Riven with what little strength his thin arms could muster, but it was no use. "Gray, stop! Don't go out there!" He cried.
But Riven's eyes were cold and his face held no hint of emotion. A blue eye looked back at him and Riven shook off Will's hand. He walked out of the restaurant and chucked pokeballs outwards while analyzing the situation outside.
Three men stood on the other side of the town square, a houndoom beside the one in the middle. The other two had a fearow perched on the roof of a store and a seviper that dripped purple venom from it's long red fangs. They were surprised by the trainer's sudden response. "What the fuck? Is he going to fight?"
Mischief materialized and instantly noticed his trainer's feelings. He noticed because there weren't much at all. He picked up complete calm and a very slight feeling of something else. His trainer's face and stance promised murder. As White Queen came out, her horn tingled furiously, shit was about to hit the fan. Aine appeared soon after, grasping the situation in a couple of moments and losing all cheerfulness. It must have been those fighter instincts that she developed when she evolved. She was able to recognize what a fight for sport and what a fight to the death were. The amount of tension in the air told her it was the second one. She quickly jumped on a roof.
The one in between the other two with spiky black hair spoke up, revealing a slasher smile, flashing sharp canines like a wild mightyena."That's how you want to play? Fine. We'll kill your pokemon, then we'll beat the information we want out of you and I'll personally smash your fucking brains out after." He held his hand out. "Kill the pokemon, leave the human alive, but barely."
The fearow shot into the sky while the seviper and houndoom advanced forward to intercept the human trainer and his pokemon. Riven's pokemon responded equally as their trainer ran in a full sprint towards the other three humans on the opposite side of them. The criminals weren't expecting a trainer to get so close and personal, usually the trainers just stood behind their pokemon and barked orders. The trainer dodged acid shots and flamethrowers, having plenty of experience beforehand.
"He's insane! Get him!" The houndoom was the closest to him and jumped, trying to knock Riven down. Unable to dodge, he didn't slow down. He was only focused on ending the three in front of him.
White Queen collided with the houndoom before it was able to pounce on her trainer, biting and snapping at the neck. The dog used its horns as a ram and headbutted the absol in the ribcage, causing her to recoil back. It inhaled oxygen and felt fire coming up from his center before the absol recovered and slashed him in the snout with her horn. It blinked furiously, howling in pain from the slash and losing the flame it had been building up. She slashed at it again, more so to keep him occupied than anything else. He was driven to a wall of a nearby shop and was about to receive a stab to the neck when the seviper slammed into Haona and sent her to the ground. The snake opened its mouth, revealing massive fangs before sinking them into the absol's leg, injecting deadly poison.
"Ahh!" Haona cried in pain as the snake pulled its fangs out; it reered its head back to finish the job when it hissed and fell to the floor, writhing. The absol looked across the square and saw Bib's eyes glowing blue. He was using psychic to control the poison in the snake's body. The seviper cried out as the psychic built pressure inside the organ containing the venom.
"STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" It hissed. Then screamed when the sac ruptured, spilling venom onto its organs, causing them to get broken down by the poison's toxins. It twitched uncontrollably and eventually stopped completely, slowing down as it died. The injured absol looked away and stood up shakily, trying not to put too much weight on the bitten leg.
She panicked, the houndoom was gone. Haona looked around and saw it jump out from behind the kirlia, its jaws clamping down on the psychic's left shoulder, making Bib screech in agony. The dog shook its head, tearing more tissues in the shoulder as thick red blood ran down the white pokemon's body. "Baron!" she screamed, kicking up some winds. She had only one shot at this, or he was dead. She waited for the houndoom to expose his neck and let loose a razor sharp gust of wind. It blasted forward, howling like a tornado. "Get off of him!"
The kirlia was on the verge of blacking out when the houndoom's neck exploded, sending a spray of blood outwards, coating the psychic's body in crimson. The jaws immediately relaxed and the mutt fell to the floor, limp and missing part of its neck. The spectators cried in horror and chaos followed; panicked people ran inside the stores and away from the scene, appalled by the blood. Haona limped weakly over to the injured psychic and helped him lean on her. The poison in her leg would slow her down considerably, she wouldn't be able to move fast enough if an attacker approached them.
"You a-alright, Baron?"
He grinned weakly, holding his left shoulder with his right hand. "You haven't called me that in a long time, Haona. What's the sudden change? Not getting sentimental are you?"
"You nearly died, idiot."
"You're not exactly a spitting image of health yourself."
"I'll manage. But you need help, your shoulder looks terrible and you're barely even conscious as it is. The darkness is making it worse." Blackened spots of flesh where the houndoom's crunch had connected were all over the kirlia's shoulder. The spots were spreading, dark attacks often did that to psychic flesh. They caused considerable pain, which made it difficult for the psychics to focus.
Bib winced. "Yeah, it's pretty bad. Where's our trainer?"
They looked towards the northwestern end of the square and saw their trainer fighting the three men with his fists. He blocked punches and kicks before grabbing one guy's leg, using his right heel to kick in the attacker's right knee, forcing the bone out of the skin and tearing ligaments and muscle. Then, he locked his head with his right arm, twisting it outwards. Riven's muscles flexed and he pulled upwards, snapping the man's neck like a twig. He moved on to the second man and delivered a barrage of rights and lefts before kicking him in the chest and sending him to the floor. The man pulled out a pokeball and threw it behind Riven. Before the pokemon materialized, Riven mercilessly crushed the man's windpipe with a stomp, just like the one in Petalburg. The teenager was then whirled around and received a dizzying strike to the face, disorienting him. His vision blackened for a moment.
"Choke." A machoke stood behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders, effortlessly throwing him into a nearby shop window. The glass shattered and their trainer rolled inside helplessly. The machoke went to go fetch him. Haona and Bib felt like helping Riven but were cut off by a fearow cry, seeing the large bird dive-bomb towards them, wings glowing with a metallic sheen. It was coming in for a beheading. Bib's teleport couldn't teleport a dark type, and the pain of his injury interfered with his ability to focus clearly. They couldn't get away and their movement was impaired due to their injuries. Haona shot an ice beam but the bird easily evaded it. As the fearow swooped in closer, a fireball collided with the bird, sending it crashing into the floor. The ground shook slightly as rocks trapped it in place. Bib used his good arm to release a thunderbolt, shocking the bird unconscious.
Nez and Quil ran up to assist them, followed by Will, their trainer. The quilava was at Haona's side and the nuzleaf was next to Bib. "You would have gotten decapitated if we hadn't intervened," the quilava mentioned. He knew it wasn't the time to be joking but it helped boost their moods, something the absol and the kirlia sorely needed.
The absol laughed. "Don't get… ahead of y-yourself, pyromaniac."" She let out a pained gasp as the poison made the bite burn.
Nez inspected the purple bite marks and grimaced. "You're poisoned. You can't fight like this. I'll see if our trainer can help." He turned to Will and made some hand gestures. The boy nodded grimly, applying an antidote to the absol and a super potion for both her and Bib. A medicine of that strength wouldn't heal them completely but it was enough to keep them going for a little longer. More pokemon were released from their pokeballs; an ursaring, another houndoom, a crawdaunt, a rhydon and an electabuzz.
Quil's flames flared brightly, showing aggression. "Great. Now there's more of them." Rika emerged from the ground next to them. Another pokemon on their side would help, but it wouldn't make much of a difference; all of the enemy's were evolved and much stronger than any of them. "What are we supposed to do now?"
Will saw the pokemon emerge and he knew he had to think quickly. Gray had told him that winning battles wasn't all strength and power, but tactics too. "Nez, Rika, Quil, and White Queen, cover each other while protecting Mischief!" He looked down at the kirlia. "Use thunderbolt, it takes less focus to use than your psychic attacks but don't overdo it okay?" The psychic nodded and yellow sparks danced around his right arm. Will wasn't White Queen or Mischief's trainer but they listened anyway, the situation was too critical to nit-pick something like that.
The five pokemon fought the others off, protecting one another and complementing their weaknesses. A water pulse shot towards Quil, who was busy clashing flames with the houndoom. Haona's ice beam met the water pulse, sending shards of ice in multiple directions. Rika smashed the ground, trapping the houndoom with rocks. "Try getting out of that, dirty mutt." Then the rocks slid off with a ground smash from the rhydon. "Oh, shit." It punched the ground and lifted a piece of earth, then chucked it at them. Quil and Bib combined their attacks and blasted the rock throw into bits, showering the area with dirt and dust.
The ursaring started to charge up a yellow beam in its mouth. Even if they combined their attacks, a hyper beam would vaporize them. In the confusion, Aine jumped out from the roof of a building and attacked the ursaring with a double kick to the face, following up with a flurry of kicks to the much larger pokemon's legs, making it stumble. The interrupted hyper beam went awry and destroyed a store near the pokemon center. However, the large bear grabbed a hold of the combusken and slammed her into the floor, hearing only a jarring crack as she hit the ground. Aine whimpered in pain before releasing a massive jet of fire into the ursaring's face before it could step on her. She didn't relent until the smell of burnt flesh and fur permeated the air. She tried to stand up but couldn't, her leg was broken and caused her unbearable pain whenever she put weight on it. She was immobilized, unable escape or fight back effectively. Without mobility, she was as good as dead.
The problem was that she was still near the enemy. The crawdaunt doused her with a water gun and the electabuzz released a point blank thunder, shocking the fire type. The water only made things worse. The electricity coursed through her body and prevented her from screaming, she only twitched as the electabuzz continued it's assault. She fell to the ground, still being shocked as she remained on the floor.
Haona noticed and shouted,"They're going to kill her!" She shot an ice beam, only for it to be nullified by a flamethrower.
Quil and Nez saw the combusken being electrocuted to death and cursed, they couldn't do anything from here. The electabuzz finally stopped when Rika dug up under the electric type and hit it with a dig. Bib fought through the pain and used the opening to teleport Aine away from the fight. He reappeared next to the pokemon center, where he passed out from exhaustion, the shoulder injury was too much. He had exerted his body far beyond its threshold. Nurse Joy came out and took both of them in.
"Chansey, take both of them to the emergency medical rooms, NOW!" The two pink pokemon loaded both the kirlia and combusken on a stretcher and wheeled them inside. Nurse Joy went back inside and held her hands out, "No one is to leave the center until this is resolved, understood?" Trainers nodded and began murmuring amongst themselves. Joy went to the counter to lock the doors but two boys managed to slip past, they were two of the more experienced and older trainers. "Wait!"
Only Haona, Nez, Rika, and Quil remained. Then, the other man walked over to the unconscious one on the floor that Riven had knocked out and released all of his pokemon. A gengar, ninjask, weavile, magneton, and crobat appeared. Now they were in a dire situation. They were outnumbered and injured. They fought to the best of their ability but they were outnumbered and stood little chance of winning. White Queen could barely walk, and Nez had taken a fire fang to his side. Rika had been hit with an icy wind, slowing her down significantly. Quil was the only one who wasn't very hurt, suffering only a few cuts and bruises. They were going to lose or die. That is until two other trainers jumped in and decided to help them. They released their teams, enough to match the number of pokemon on the other side.
"Now it's fair," Quil said, seeing a medicam charging an aura sphere. A swampert stomped on the floor and shot a hydro pump, joined by a swellow's air cutter. A duskclops fired shadow balls, blocking incoming ice shards.
Explosions echoed through Lavaridge.
"What is he doing?"
Steven paced around his room. He had called Riven twice and there was no answer. That was odd, he was usually punctual in answering the phone. The teenager didn't sound particularly spiteful(even if his usual demeanor was heavily sarcastic and rude), so he had no reason to avoid talking to him. Calling two more times, Steven heard the ring all the way until the end and gave up trying to call. His metagross didn't have a lock on Riven, which meant that he would have to teleport to Lavaridge at a general location and find him from there. Before doing that, Steven decided to wait five more minutes. If he received no call back, he would teleport directly there. A little swarming wouldn't kill.
Five minutes passed and there was no call back. Steven had a sinking feeling that something was up. Riven sounded completely fine in the call, what kind of emergency would there be? I can't help but feel something is wrong. I can't wait. I'm going now. He summoned his metagross and watched as the large blue psychic levitated into the air.
Yes, Steven?
"Teleport to Lavaridge please. I have some business to attend there."
Understood. Hop on.
Steven climbed aboard the metagross and a pink light enveloped them both. Teleporting a long distance was always strange, and really made Steven nauseous. They arrived in the small town and Steven noticed that there wasn't anyone around in the stores. The emptiness struck him as something out of the ordinary. Lavaridge always had people outside, it was a tourist attraction. Looking upwards into the sky, Steven saw flares of fire, bolts of lightning and ice beams, followed by explosions. Pokemon battles aren't allowed in public areas. Are they insane? And that's not just one on one…has to be at least a triple. No, this is more than a triple battle. Then he heard the screams.
The gravity of the situation registered within Steven's brain and he turned to his metagross."We need to-"
I know, the metagross telepathically said. Steven nodded and climbed on again. The large blue psychic flew quickly over to the center square.
What Steven saw next could best be described as a death brawl. There were pokemon ferociously attacking each other in the square, with trainers commanding them to cover each other. There were scorch marks, ice, and blackened lightning impacts in the shops everywhere. A hyper beam destroyed part of a shop and a rock throw smashed various windows into bits. There were dead pokemon on the floor and two dead men in black. The only one still standing was a built black haired male with short spiky hair, who was also shouting orders.
Steven hadn't brought along his team, clearly not expecting something like this. He needed to do something. "Meta, separate as much of the pokemon as you can!" The metagross's eyes glowed a pale blue and it psychically held back several pokemon, coiling metal bars from the debris around their bodies, holding them in place. It wasn't enough to restrain all of them, but it would slow them down. As strong as his metagross was, it couldn't focus on keeping them all held down. Steven didn't know who was friend or foe. The battle continued on, causing even more damage and mayhem.
Riven groaned in pain as he lay on the glass littered floor. The impact with the window had broken the glass and his back felt like it was bludgeoned repeatedly with a mallet. He felt pain whenever he took deep breaths, indicating bruised if not cracked ribs. The adrenaline lessened the pain somewhat but it still hurt to move. The machoke would look for him soon. There was no way he could go toe to toe with it and win. Its thick muscle made his strikes useless, and it was much stronger than him. It made that man in Petalburg a weakling in comparison. One punch nearly knocked him unconscious and probably left one nasty bruise on his face. He needed to surprise it, so he decided to play linoone.
The machoke walked in through the window, its weight crunching the glass beneath. Riven judged the sound of the glass to measure where the machoke was. When the sound was at his feet, he held his breath and felt two fingers on his neck. The pokemon was checking for a pulse. This was the time to strike. Riven's eyes shot open and drew his knife from his pocket, driving it into the machoke's neck, pushing it in as far as possible. Blood spurted onto Riven's face, staining his clothes and face. The young man dragged the knife inwards to the left, tearing through the jugular vein and carotid arteries. Crimson shot out of the machoke's neck, staining the wall across from them and further coating Riven in blood.
"Ma-choke. Maaaa" It fell onto the floor, still leaking blood. Riven stood up and walked slowly out of the window, limping painfully with knife in hand. The final piece of trash stood a few feet away, eyes widening at the sight of Riven's face and blood splattered clothes.
"Machoke…how the fuck did you do that?" He couldn't believe that this guy had killed a machoke with just his hands. He was more dangerous than any little trainer, that much was certain. "I'll give you one last chance, tell me what happened in the desert." No reply came from Riven, who approached him with a slow gait. "Know what? I don't care. The only reason I came here was to kill you. That director can go fuck himself. You're mine."
Drawing a knife, he lunged at Riven, who dodged under him and slashed him in the leg before backing up, holding his ribs in pain. The assassin flinched and turned around, releasing a guttural growl at Riven. He pointed at Riven's knife. "Oh, so you have one of those too. Why don't you show me what you got then?" He lunged at him again. Adrenaline rushed into Riven's bloodstream again, lessening the pain of his ribs. Every moment felt like agony, but he endured it nonetheless. The two of them exchanged slashes and blows, trying to look for openings. The man in black managed to get a good look at the kid's face, he was smiling.
Meanwhile, the pokemon battle around the two men raged on. White Queen and Quil were fighting off a rhydon. Quil's flames were ineffective against the rock type's protective hide and Haona's ice beam was the only thing that was able to damage it significantly. But it was immensely strong. It slapped Haona with its tail, sending her crashing into a wall.
The quilava stood in between the absol and the rhydon."Haona, are you ok?"
Her red eyes were pained but fierce. She was about to do something incredibly stupid. "Quil, go! Help Nez, he's in trouble. I'll be fine! You can't do anything here, go protect your teammate!" She didn't want him getting killed too.
"But if i leave you here you'll die."
"Go!" She growled. The quilava hesitantly agreed and scampered off, shooting flames to intercept a flamethrower from burning his teammate. Haona yelped in pain and tried to pick herself up but her legs failed her. She remained on the floor, staring at the rhydon in fear as it turned to her. It formed a sinister smile and a green elongated horn extended outward. A mega horn would kill her instantly at this point. She closed her eyes, waiting for death to come.
As it reared back to gore her, a powerful green beam blasted a hole through the rydon's center, dropping it instantly. Haona sighed in relief and watched as a flaming horse approached some distance away with a human on top. It was the gym leader they faced earlier. She thanked whatever legendaries had blessed her that day.
Steven instinctively fell to the floor as the solarbeam blew past him. He picked himself up and turned behind him, seeing Flannery approaching rapidly on her rapidash. It came to a halt next to him. Flannery stepped down, taking in the sight of the battle and gasped. There was blood and debris everywhere. "What the hell is going on here Steven?!" A battle in the middle of the square? Why?
"I don't know. I came here to pick up a stone from a contact and suddenly I'm in the middle of a warzone! I didn't bring my pokemon with me, Meta tried to restrain as many as he could but there's just too many for him alone. Flannery, we need to get them to stop fighting or there will be more casualties. I'm going to call the authorities to send some officials in, meanwhile you need to try your best to control the situation." Steven looked at the rhydon and said, "Nice shot by the way, with the solarbeam. And at high speed too, impressive."
Flannery nodded tensely. "Dash recognized that absol. It belongs to a trainer I fought earlier. He must have seen her about to get killed and used solarbeam to stop the rhydon. He has scary precision with it." She wasn't comfortable about having to use a fully powered lethal solarbeam, but gym leaders couldn't take chances, not after recent events. Getting back onto her rapidash, the gym leader left Steven's side and went to go control the situation.
Steven took out his personal phone and dialed Wallace. He picked up a few rings later.
"Ah, Stevey! What brings you to your magnificent cham-"
Steven's response cut through Wallace's playfulness like a hot knife."Lavaridge. Now." Explosions and fire could be heard in the background, unbelievably loud, it truly did sound like a war zone.
Wallace picked up the severity in Steven's voice and his playful nature vanished completely. "Steven, I hear explosions in the background. What. Is. Going. On?"
"You need to get over here now. Something serious is going on and Flannery is trying her best to handle it. I didn't bring my pokemon with me. Bring some regional officials and grab psychics. We need to take care of the situation before it gets any worse."
"Steven, tell me what's going on!"
"There's no time. Go get them, and make it fast." Steven hung up and could only watch as the pokemon continued to battle.
Some distance away, he saw two men fighting each other, holding knives in their hands. They were bleeding in several places. The champion's eyes widened as he realized who was fighting. It was Riven. There was a coldness in his face that he had never seen before, it was chilling to see on someone so young. Both men fought like savages, rolling on the floor while biting and slashing at each other with teeth and knives. He hoped help would get there soon.
The battle was beginning to wind down as the rest of the trainers managed to knock out several of the opposing pokemon. Although, some of those pokemon hadn't been so lucky. The gengar took a night slash from the absol and fell onto the ground, leaking ectoplasm, which pooled onto the ground. It wasn't getting back up, ever. The ninjask had also fallen, having been incinerated by Quil's flamethrower. The trainer side was in considerably far better shape, having more control due to the guidance of three trainers, as opposed to none on the enemy side.
Flannery's rapidash stopped in the center of the square where she released her camerupt, magcargo, ninetales, torkoal and arcanine. She shouted fiercely, angry beyond belief. "I am the Lavaridge gym leader and I order you to STOP!" She raised a hand and her pokemon released jets of flame that separated the pokemon with walls of fire, preventing them from getting any closer. Even the crawdaunt was hesitant. Her pokemon stood directly in between the two opposing sides, growling and glaring at them through the flickering flames. "One more step and my pokemon will not hesitate to turn you into a pile of ash." The redhead was not playing around.
Just then, several men and psychics appeared next to Steven, along with Wallace.
"Restrain them." The psychics began to restrain enemy and allied pokemon. The ones who knew hypnosis put some of them to sleep. The trainers recalled most of their pokemon after they saw the officials intervene.
Wallace pointed to some of the officials. "Erik, take some men and check the rest of the town, see if there isn't anymore criminals." The official gestured the others to follow him and they dispersed around the town, trying to calm down the residents and assess damages. The psychics stayed behind to handle the pokemon situation. Seeing the men arrive, Flannery returned her pokemon and joined the two champions.
"Wait, what about them?" Flannery pointed to the two men scuffling on the floor.
The two separated and stood up, only to clash again. The black clad man elbowed the trainer in the ribs to make him flinch in pain. Then, he kicked Riven in the fingers, dropping the knife in pain. Throwing his own knife on the ground, the older man picked the teenager up by the shirt and began punching him in the face. He could have used the knife to kill Riven but it would have been too quick a death for him. He wanted to savor killing the boy.
"You. You son of a bitch. It's your fault he's dead. You beat him into the wall until you disfigured his face and gave him permanent brain damage. He was my fucking brother!" He placed his hands over the trainer's neck and tightened his grip. Trying his best to fight against the other man's grip, Riven tried to break the hold but couldn't, his right hand didn't help him. If he didn't do something, he was going to pass out.
"Stop them! Anyone!" Wallace commanded, speaking to the psychics.
A hypno noticed the two men and attempted to use psychic to stop them. It stopped the older man from choking the teenager, but did nothing to hamper Riven. The psychic bouncing off the trainer bewildered the hypno, who momentarily dropped the attack. Suddenly free, Riven kneed his attacker in the stomach and bent down to pick up the knife on the floor. At that moment, the authorities began to run over to them, trying to stop any of the two from doing anything more drastic. Psychic attacks didn't seem to affect the younger male. Steven froze as he saw the black haired trainer pick up the knife. His face was devoid of any mercy or hesitation and his hands weren't shaking in the slightest. The intent to kill was clear.
Steven shouted for him to stop but it was too late. Riven shoved the blade into the man's chest and twisted it slowly. He snarled in an almost feral tone,"Now you can join your brother." He pulled out the knife, flipped it in reverse and plunged it into the side of the man's skull. As the body dropped, Riven bared bloodstained teeth at the man's lifeless corpse, drowning out the muffled shouting around him. He simply stood there, watching the man's corpse until an official's manectric paralyzed him with a thunder wave and then shocked him.
Before he fell unconscious, he felt the cold metal of handcuffs against his skin.