ALWAYS AUDACITY
CHAPTER XXIV – CONFRONTATION
The Mankey went for Sam first. With a yell, Sam willed himself to dash forward, shooting past the fighting type in a flash of light to materialise behind and above it. The din of battle already ringing in his ears, the Scorbunny kicked an Electro Ball straight towards their back. The monkey threw themself aside, the electric attack just brushing past the Mankey's shoulder and causing the fur to stick up on end. Sam touched the ground as his foe spun, brow visible clenching. With a scream, the angry Pokémon charged for him once more.
Sam didn't hesitate, booting another pebble away into an Ember before springing back. Once more, the fireball struck the monkey in the face with a flash of light and a puff of smoke. But this time, it didn't stop, powering through the attack. Gasping, Sam tried to spring away again – only for the monkey's hands to grasp round one leg and one of his ears, yanking him back. The Scorbunny roared, trying to pull the ear free. God damnit not ag-
He couldn't finish the thought, the Mankey screaming as he threw him above their head and tossed him down into the ground hard.
Headfirst.
Sam's jaw slammed shut on impact, his whole body jerking with the impact as his skull rang. Planting his paws into the earth, he looked up to see Oscar duelling with Marowak, spinning its bone round to deflect a burst from the beaver's Water Gun. He turned –
To be greeted with another foot to the face.
Sam cried out as he sailed through the air, pain rushing through his body and flaring up as he landed with a thud. Heat surged forth from his face and rushed down into his chest, feeding that fire within. He shoved himself upright, eyes locking onto once more charging Mankey.
The fire threatened to consume him, his blood boiling. His mind flashed back to the betrayal, his original fight against Greg… the asinine number of times he had been hit in the face and Kyle's kidnapping.
Something snapped, the Scorbunny's vision flashing red. "Fucking stop hitting my head!"
Roaring, Sam charged back towards the fighting type, pouncing into the air. His roar rang in his ears, and so loud it was that the Mankey actually skidded to a halt, eyes widening.
That was his mistake, as Sam dove down on top of them with a salvo of two kicks straight into his face. As the Mankey stumbled back, the Scorbunny followed up with the biggest Ember he could manage. His foe recovered just in time to see the fireball strike his face once more, sending the fighting type rolling across the field and into one of the surrounding trees with a thud.
"Now you know what it feels like!" Sam barked, panting as he turned his attention to the rest of the battle. The Marowak was still locked in battle with Oscar, swinging a glowing bone round to strike at the bigger Pokémon. With a look that screamed that he wasn't impressed, Oscar was stood upright, casually blocking the strikes with both arms. In the air, Jack tangled with the Spearow. The latter diving down and swinging past the Butterfree with Wing Attacks and Drill Pecks. But each time, Jack twisted out of the way of the dives before firing off red waves at the bird. The Spearow squawked as one such wave hit, shaking his head violently.
Esper in comparison was in a whole other league. She simply stood in the middle of the field, ears glowing a light blue whilst the two Spinaraks, surrounded by the same colour glow, hung helplessly in mid-air. Without as much of a twitch, the two bug Pokémon were flung into the ground with a heavy crack and thrown back up again. Beyond them, Greg growled as he stomped towards the Meowstic, one hand dragging through the earth. Esper psychically tossed the two spiders away, focusing her full attention on the Swampert.
That left Alice to deal with the Gloom. She swung an ice-coated ear straight into their leg. Wincing, the Weed Pokémon dropped down to a knee and with a gasp, vomited a violet blob up at the Buneary. Alice hesitated only for a moment before throwing herself aside. The blob landed with a splat where she had stood, hissing softly as the grass surrounding it quickly went yellow and broke apart under the acid. Sam broke out into a sprint, headed their way. "Alice! Incoming!"
She had just thrown another Ice Punch into the Gloom's other leg before turning to face him. She hopped away as the Gloom toppled forward straight into another Ember. With a flash, the petals on their head quickly ignited. Immediately, they had scrambled back up right, letting out a twisted scream as they sprinted away from Alice and back down the field.
"Good shot!" Alice grunted with a little smirk as Sam slid up alongside her. "Who next?"
One person remained unaccounted for in all of this. Someone still in danger. "Kyle…" Sam uttered, spinning his head round to find the Snom still hanging from the tree, desperately swinging himself to get free. "Let's get him loose and out of the line of fire, then we can help the others!"
An almighty bang rang out over his shoulder.
Behind him, Oscar grunted as he slid back, struggling to hold up a massive boulder that seemed to have been torn straight from the ground. Esper stood sideways on from him, eyes widened. That attack was all too familiar, and the Meowstic had only just dodged th-
A shield made of light formed just as the glowing arm of Greg slammed into it. With a clang, the Protect held from the strike, allowing the Meowstic time to pull back.
"Let's not waste any time!" Alice barked, beckoning for the Scorbunny to follow. With a sharp nod back, he followed, the two sprinting towards the central tree where Kyle was waiting, still struggling against his bindings.
Sam dug his feet harder into the ground, willing himself to go faster. A screech rang out above him, and he looked up in time to duck under the Spearow, his beak glowing as it tried to skewer him. He bit off a curse, the bird pulling up as Jack flew overhead. "I'll keep you covered!" he cried out, flapping his wings to a heavy beat and throwing a blast of air at the bird.
Not wasting time to watch the result, he continued his charge towards Kyle, Alice slightly ahead of him. "Hang on Kyle! We're coming!"
They were little more than a few metres away when Kyle started screaming. "A-Alice! Look out!"
Sam caught the flash of white and blue from his left.
He sprung forward, arms shoving straight into Alice's back. He ignored her cry as they both fell into the grass, a loud whoosh ringing in his ears as the flaming bone spun above their heads and flew back the way it came, back into the open hand of the Marowak.
Must have slipped away whilst Oscar caught that rock! Sam realised, as he helped Alice back up to her feet. "You alright?"
"I'm fine!" Alice growled, "Thanks but now we've got him to deal with!"
The Marowak had brought himself round in front of the two rabbits, twirling the bone around with clear slits in his eyes.
He glanced over at Alice, "Take him down together?"
"Agreed." She stated, springing forward at the Marowak as the Ice Punch formed round her ear. Sam sprinted after her, seeing the Marowak spin round the burning bone with a flash of purple. The bone connected with the ice attack, the latter shattering on impact to reveal a normal ear. The momentum flung Alice back over the top of Sam, but he didn't look back, firing off an Electro Ball at the Marowak. The skull-headed Pokémon couldn't respond quick enough to deal with that. The ball hit it in the chest, the entire Pokémon spasming as the electricity coursed through his body. Taking his chance, Sam came down onto the Marowak, kicking with both of his legs-
Only for both feet to bounce harmlessly off its belly.
He didn't even get a chance to process this before he was treated with the club end of a bone flying into his own gut, sending Sam sailing away. Gritting, he rolled mid-air and skidded across the grass. "Careful!" Alice shouted off to his side, crouched down with one hand in the dirt. "Ghost type!"
Ghos- He shook his head, there was no point in questioning it now, that attack didn't do anything – Double Kick! Of course of all the times he would learn it out of nowhere, it had to be against a fighting type and a ghost type to boot! That meant Quick Attack would be worthless as an attack too. And that fire on the bone had to imply that the Marowak also happened to be a fire-type too.
That only left Electro Ball, and pouncing up into the air, he kicked off another electric attack. This time, his opponent saw it coming, his bone glowing before whacking it away with a decent swing of his weapon.
But as he spun the bone round for another attack, he cried out as Alice's Ice Punch caught his side. The Buneary gritted her teeth as she withdrew, the bone whipping through thin air and skimming past her chest.
Sam booted another Electro Ball away, this time physically shoving the Marowak off balance. He readied himself for another kick, but something clicked in his mind. Just because this can't hurt him doesn't mean I can't abuse this move!
"Hey! Skull-head!" Sam barked, pulling a mock wave as his foe turned towards him, quivering with anger. "You can't hit anything for toffee!"
He could see the dino's hand tighten around the bone. "Y-You dumb rabbit!" he snapped, sweeping the bone back for another throw.
Sam started to sprint at it, just as the bone flew at him.
One moment the Scorbunny was there, the next he was gone.
The Marowak jerked back, head swivelling to find him. "Surprise!" Sam exclaimed, poking his own head the reptile's shoulder. Almost jumping into the air, he wildly swung a fist round, only for the Scorbunny to blink away and out to the side. "Damn isn't Quick Attack fun!" Sam cheered as the Marowak caught and swung the bone back round at him, only to dash aside. "What's the matter!? Not used to a little dodging!"
Coming in from one side, Alice was rapidly approaching, ear already getting encased back in ice. Perfect. Sam realised, a euphoric pulse rolling over him as he performed one more Quick Attack, this time feeling the bone rush past the hairs of his neck – and pulling up alongside Alice, mid charge.
The poor bandit turned round face first into the combined Electro Ball and Ice Punch, crashing underneath his chin and sending him cartwheeling head over heels straight into the tree with a nasty crack, hard enough to shake Kyle up in the tree. The bandit crumpled face first into the ground, weakly trying to push himself back up. He looked up once, and whimpering loudly, the bandit crawled on his back towards the tree with widening eyes. Now they had space, Sam looked towards Alice, standing slightly ahead of him. "Now's our chance!" Sam said.
"Yeah, let's-" Alice's ears stiffened and before he could say anything, she threw herself into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs as he hit the deck. Sam gasped, trying to get air back in. W-What was-
Over her shoulder, Greg skidded past them backwards, his fingers digging into the dirt and throwing up grass blades, slowing him down to a halt just in front of the Marowak.
"T-Thanks." Sam coughed as Alice stepped up and reached a hand out. He took a second to stare at it before grabbing hold and getting pulled up to his feet. Esper was walking towards them from the side, eyes focused on Greg, save for a quick confirmatory glance to check if the two rabbit Pokémon were alright. Greg's jaw was clamped shut; brow furrowed as he pushed himself back upright.
"Sorry about that." Esper replied, "Had my hands full with this one."
The Marowak slid out from behind, "B-Boss!" he shouted out in evident panic. "W-We can't keep t-this up! We s-should run!"
Esper's ears remained open, raising an eyebrow. "The wiser option would be to surrender now."
A low growl rumbled forth from the Swampert, loud enough regardless Sam could feel his chest vibrate in rhythm. I don't think he's that eager to quit…
And sure enough, the Swampert rolled his jaw before barking back at her. "And lose my only chance at freedom? Screw that!"
Esper shrugged, "The hard way it is then." She glanced back to the rabbits, "I'll deal with Greg, you get-"
Her eyes widened as she started to spin round, only for two webs splashed against her legs with a splat, the Meowstic barely getting the chance to look down in shock before they were yanked out from underneath her. She hit the floor; eyes wide as she was pulled back from them. In the field, the two Spinaraks had spat out webs. Incredibly, the Mankey seemed to have recovered, and was pulling the Meowstic via the webbing back towards the rest of the fighting. Oscar was now fighting the Gloom, it's petals still smoking as the Bibarel dodged the Grass Knots shooting out of the ground between him and his target.
Instinct took over, Sam readying himself to leap for the Meowstic, "Hang o-"
Don't worry about me!
Esper's voice boomed in his mind, barely taking a moment for Sam to realise she was using telepathy. Next to him, Alice visibly flinched. She could hear her too.
I'll deal with these ones! Stall Greg until I can get back to you!
Sam blinked, Stall him!? How- damn it, not the time!
He turned back towards Greg, the big Swampert flashing his toothless grin. "So… now I have two little rabbits to play with!"
"We're not helpless you know." Alice stated, one ear pumping in and out.
Sam flashed his buckteeth, "And I've got a lot stronger since last time."
Laughing, Greg stepped forward, "So confident, I might actually make this quick!"
He took one step forward, only for the Marowak to run round in front of him, waving his arms desperately. "P-Please boss!" he cried out, "These two are something else! And S-Spirit is the s-strongest team in Robinwood! W-We've kept them busy l-long enough!"
The smile vanished as the Swampert glared at the ghost-type, fingers twitching. "What did I say?" he growled.
The Marowak visibly froze, slowly starting to step away with hands outstretched. "I-I-I d-didn't me-ACK!"
His cry was cut shut as Greg's giant hand grabbed hold of his neck, lifting him up like a ragdoll. "I warned you!" he snapped, "You little shit!"
"B-Bos-ss!" The Marowak gasped, hands beating desperately on his arm.
Holy- Sam stepped forward, "Let him go Greg!" he barked. "You don't have to do this!"
"Have you forgotten already?" Greg shouted back, his captive desperately gasping for air. "I'm trying to survive. And I'm not getting dragged down by some cowards!"
"P-Please! I-I-I c-can-n f-fight! I c-c-"
A sickening snap rang out, the Marowak's eyes going wide in shock.
Alice gasped.
Kyle screamed.
Sam's heart stopped.
The Marowak's limbs twitched for just a moment, before his body went limp, head rolling forward. "What a waste of space." Greg spat, casually tossing the corpse aside over his shoulder onto the field. When the body crumbled into a heap, it was all too easy to see the broken neck.
Sam nearly retched, his entire body convulsing. The image of the dead Squirtle flashed through his mind, it was just like before. All that blood, all that broken-
A soft weight settled onto his shoulder, the Scorbunny flinching, trying to turn – and finding Alice standing next to him, a firm hand on his shoulder with her mouth slightly open and her uncoiled ear dipped to one side.
Worry.
And then it clicked, feeling his chest rise and fall like a pulse. He took a deeper breath, slowly blowed it out, and with his breathing under control once more, turned his gaze back on Greg. "You're going to pay for what you've done." Sam growled.
"And that's something we can both get behind." Alice declared; her voice deathly cold as she let go of Sam's shoulder.
Greg stared them down, eyes flicking between the two. Even as the battle waged on behind their backs, Sam held his nerve. He wouldn't run. He didn't care what Greg said, or how he killed 'to survive' or some cheap excuse like that. A life was a life. It was precious regardless of who it belonged to.
Sam dragged one foot back, readying himself for the fight ahead. They had no time to wait for Esper to finish the other bandits off. They had to deal with Greg here and now.
"Heh." Greg croaked, more amused anything else.
Then he rammed his fists into the ground, ripping out two gigantic boulders that dwarfed Sam and Alice both. "Then do your worst!" he roared, throwing the rocks straight towards them.
Sam sprinted forward, Alice doing the same on his left. One rock bounced off the ground, cartwheeling in the air towards the Scorbunny. Skidding, Sam threw himself into a slide, barely flinching as the rock flew over his head. Behind him, Alice instead jumped, bouncing off his rock then over to the one aimed for her higher up. Springing back up, Sam fired off another pebble, igniting the rock with ease. A glowing arm struck the fireball, smothering the fire attack with little effort. But that gave Alice all the room she needed to come down onto the top of Greg's head with a Double Kick. The Swampert snarled, waving a giant fist to try and swat the Buneary away. But she was too fast, and backflipped away.
Then came the second Ember flew into his open mouth. The Swampert's eyes widened as he stumbled back, an internal shot like that being too painful for the water type to ignore. His orange eyes, visibly bulging with red veins, shot daggers at the two rabbits as he reared up with a dreadful roar and slammed his fists straight down into grass.
Sam just caught the shockwaves rushing through the grass before Alice said the word.
"Earthquake!" she screamed, and without hesitating, Sam leapt upwards. He sailed through the air, hoping he was in the air for long enough. But when his feet hit the ground, he found them jerked to his right, then back again just as sharply. Sam cried out, struggling to maintain his balance before his legs finally slipped out from underneath him and his chin hit the ground with a crack. Groaning, he forced himself back up just as Alice launched herself back at the much bigger enemy, one ear glowing.
Sam's heart missed a beat, "Alice! Wat-"
Alice cried out as a single fist sailed into her chest, flinging her up and over the Swampert and out of sight.
Screaming, Sam charged, feeling his chest burn hotter than ever. Another Ember went flying, this time being put out with a little squirt of water from Swampert's mouth as he turned to confront him. Not even a metre away now.
Sam willed himself to Quick Attack, to dash past Greg. The world blinked.
And Sam remerged to find Greg's fingers clamped round his legs.
He barely had time to cry out as he was thrown to the ground. Hard. Pain jabbed across his entire body, jarring from the impact. He tried to pick himself up again, only for a blue hand to bite down round his neck. Sam squirmed, fighting desperately to get himself free, but Greg's grip was too strong. Anger turned to blind panic, the Scorbunny slamming his fists down onto his captor's fist. No no! Let go off me! P-Please!
Greg's eyes burnt as he lifted the Scorbunny up.
You started to rise, no, the story couldn't end here. You had to intervene-
Something flickered in your vision.
"Alright you little shit." Greg rumbled, "You're thick-skulled alright… but let's see how easy it is to break that little neck of yours."
He began to squeeze.
What little air was able to down his windpipe now failed to get through at all, his lungs starting to burn like acid. He tried to cry out, but only a weak gasp escaped. He was choking, his vision already beginning to swim. His throat throbbed harder and faster, a little tighter and-
Panic and fear took over. He weakly kicked his legs out, where was Alice? Esper? His head rolled back, Kyle was hanging directly above, tears flooding his eyes. I-I don't wanna-
"P-Ple…" he tried to gasp.
"Don't bet on it." Greg growled, "No one is saving you this time."
As if on cue, a brown shape flew into view from behind the Swampert, ear glowing blue.
Alice's Ice Punch crashed round into the side of Greg's head with an almighty crack, the amphibian's head jerking violently to one side with a look of complete shock.
The fingers slipped free, and Sam dropped down to the floor, gasping as fresh air rushed into his lungs. But he didn't have time to wait, looking up with a hostile to find Greg shaking his head, one hand clutching it as he moaned.
"Break-" Sam growled, leaping up at him and kicking once at Greg's chin, "This!"
The second kick hit even hard, snapping Greg's head back with a sickening crack as Sam cartwheeled back through the air and back onto open ground. Alice jogged up aside him, for the first time look genuinely concerned even as she clutched her side. "Thanks." Sam said, flashing a little grin. "Got a knack for last minute rescues eh?"
Alice merely shrugged. But even in his state, he could see the pained smile.
The agonised roar caught his attention. Greg slammed his fists back down into the grass, keeling over as he struggled to take deep breaths. "You… bastards…" he panted, head jerking back up. "When I'm finished with you, I'll rip you both in half!"
Sam straightened himself up, slowing his briefing and willing the flames… no… that energy in his chest to burn harder than ever. "No Greg." He started, "We're finished with you."
Greg reared back, a blue ball of energy forming within his open mouth, charging up.
Sam looked over at Alice. "Together?"
She looked back, returning a strong nod as she pulled her hand away from her side. "Together."
Nodding himself, he turned to face their foe. "This ends here!"
With a final roar, Greg snapped his head forward, a massive jet of water screaming towards them.
Sam leapt aside; the massive Hydro Pump shot slamming into the ground where he had stood. Rolling back onto his feet, he charged for the Swampert, Alice doing the same on his left. "Go for his head!" he shouted, bouncing into the air.
Greg, still firing the Hydro Pump, could only look up to see the Scorbunny and Buneary high above his head, falling down on him with righteous fury.
Two feet stuck once, then twice with a bang. The Swampert crying out as the Hydro Pump cut out with a squirt thanks to the twin Double Kicks. Alice dropped down to the floor. Sam flipped back up high.
Teeth bared, Alice's ear darkened as she swung in her Rock Smash attack, a sickening crack ringing out as Greg's jaw slammed shut. Sam touched down a few metres away, charging back in as Greg stumbled backwards. The Buneary's eyes flicking between the ground and Sam himself. In that moment, she grabbed hold of the projectile and flung it towards the Scorbunny.
Sam kicked out, the pebble igniting as it was thrown up into the air. Leaping up to meet it, Sam screamed as he brought his foot back, and booted the Ember away.
Greg opened his eyes to find the fireball flying towards him.
He gasped in surprise.
The Ember flew straight into his mouth.
It exploded with a flash of light and smoke, Greg's roar barely reaching Sam's ears as Alice leapt away to land next to him.
The smoke was thick and black, but as Sam panted for breath, the cloud faded away… and revealed Greg still standing upright, his mouth and jaw charred an obsidian black. Three streams of blood ran down the side of his face from the inside of his mouth.
Groaning, eyes burning, Greg took one step forward.
Sam and Alice held their ground.
Greg took a second, wobbling.
He didn't get a third.
His eyes rolled back into his skull, and with a final sigh, toppled over backwards into the tree with an audible boom that made the plant shiver. His body slid down before finally slumping over into a big heap.
Sam felt his shoulders sink, It's…. it's…
Something snapped, and he looked up to find Kyle, still wrapped up in rope, falling free.
Headfirst to the ground.
Eyes widening, he tried to run forward. But it was too late as Kyle cried out, he couldn't-
The Snom was bathed in a soft blue light, a confused whimper coming from the Bug-type as his descent slowed, the rope slowly unwrapping itself from him before an exposed, and unharmed Kyle was gently plopped down onto the floor.
Blinking, Sam looked back towards the field.
Behind them, Esper let her ears finally drop down, a little smile on her face as she looked over them. Behind her, the bandits were all scattered around the field, softly groaning as they laid on flat on the grass. Out of the fight, but very much alive.
Save for that Mankey, arms and legs flailing as he found himself with Oscar's arm wrapped around in what was clearly a wrestling chokehold. Rolling his eyes, Oscar bumped his fist straight into the Mankey's face.
That promptly calmed the monkey down, looking dazed within the lock.
"Kyle!"
Jack touched down not even half a metre away from Kyle, the Snom boosting to him at a speed that Sam didn't think was possible. "Papa! Papa!" he exclaimed, literally throwing himself at the Butterfree. Jack didn't hesitate, wrapping his arms round his son. "I-I'm so sorry Papa! I-I should have stayed at home!" Kyle sobbed, burying his face into the Butterfree's chest.
"There there." Jack whispered with a clear quiver in his voice, holding the Snom close, "It's all cool… it's all okay now. You're safe buddy. I've got you." He looked up towards Sam and Alice, his red eyes visibly tearing up. "T-Thank you… I don't know how I can ever repay you."
The adrenaline was now wearing thin from Sam's system, feeling rapidly more tired as his body slumped further over, throbbing from all the blows he had taken. A headache rolled through his skull, no surprise where that had come from.
"You don't have to." Sam replied breathlessly. "It was the only thing we could do. Right Alic-"
He turned to find her toppling over forward.
Sam shot over to her, catching before her she even got halfway to the ground. She felt surprisingly light as he slipped one of her arms over his shoulder, her eyes flickering over to him with one hand pressed back against her side. That blow must have knocked the wind out of her.
"I've got you." Sam quietly said, helping her back upright.
He caught the small flash of surprise on her eyes.
He didn't see the weak smile.
"We'll get you patched up once we are back in town." Esper said as she walked up to them, rummaging a hand into her satchel, "We have some spare oran berries, that should- "
"By golly he's persistent!"
The Mankey had broke free of his captor's grip, scrambling into a run across the field. Esper sighed, "It's always the fighting-types isn't it?" she whispered to herself, opening up one of her ears again, which softly hummed with power.
She didn't need to do anything though. He had reached the edge of the wood when a single red and yellow fist flew out and belted him in the nose. Stumbling back, the Mankey landed on his backside as the avian Pokémon emerged from the foliage, icy cool eyes looking down on the wide-eyed Pokémon.
Rex crossed his arms, "Do you want to try that again?"
Without hesitation, the Mankey snapped his arms up in surrender.
"That's what I thought."
The Guildmaster looked up towards the Pokémon across the field. He looked over Team Spirit, Kyle and the bandits in short order. He held his gaze on the still body of the Marowak, then the crumpled form of Greg. And finally, Sam and Alice, barely standing up at the foot of the tree. Sam could just make out the sharp intake of breath, before Rex composed himself just as suddenly.
You watched from your perch, slowly sinking down as you observed the scene, your gaze mostly fixed on Sam and Alice.
It seemed like your assistance wasn't necessary at all.
Rex started making his way towards them, "Let's get you all home."
Author's Note: And with that, we roll on to the final chapter of Episode 1. A short chapter, but with all the combat, I figured that was a reasonable approach. The next chapter will conclude Episode 1 of Guardians of Balance. The good news is, I have a pretty solid idea of how Episode 2 is now going to proceed! So I can start planning out finer details for the story ahead.
I am still planning on doing bonus chapters in the lull between the two episodes though, so any suggestions or anything you would be particularly interested, that would be greatly appreciated it! So if you could please post/comment, that would be a big help for me! I've got some support behind a Team Spirit focused chapter, but any other ideas would be great.
Chapter XXV will be coming within a week provided nothing much happens, as I want to wrap up this Episode and bring it to a close. Either way, again, I hope you enjoyed this new Chapter!