Hoenn's tropical climate meant that the sun is constantly present. As an espeon whose power derives both from her emotional attachment to her trainer and from the sun, Hoenn is a place which she grew to love.
The more abundant the sun rays are, the brighter her powers can shine.
She woke up at the first rays of dawn, releasing a silent yawn while lazily stretching her body. She saw that her mistress was still asleep with a quick glance towards the bed. Her mistress' insomnia had heavily affected her life and Rena could not help but blame herself for being powerless to help her.
She knew how precious her mistress' rests are and so she took great care to lightly walk out of the bedroom to avoid waking her up, exiting through the door flap that her mistress installed at the bottom of the door so that they could freely enter and exit her room at their convenience.
She soon reached the living room and a quick psychic scan allowed her to know that the house was empty. Vance had left for work last night, she also recalled that her mistress' parents had told them yesterday that they would head for Fallarbor Town very early in the morning for a business trip. Her mistress will be alone at home today.
Well, it would be inaccurate to say that her mistress would be the only person in this house today. The new bodyguard that her mistress' parents had assigned to protect her mistress would also be living with them for the foreseeable future. She was given the guest room and Rena could sense her presence in the kitchen, probably preparing breakfast if Rena had to hazard a guess.
Rena would never trust her mistress' safety in the hands of another individual with the exception of the other pokemon on her mistress' team and her mistress' family. However, she is not in the position to comment when her mistress' father was the one who made such an arrangement. She had no wish to interact with that bodyguard unless necessary and so she headed for the backdoor which led to the farm outside. She intended to spend her time soaking in the sun rays on the back porch until her mistress woke up from her sleep.
She paused and narrowed her eyes dangerously when she sensed unfamiliar presences nearby. Her fur started to stand on their ends and psychic energy began to silently hum and pulse beneath her skin. Rena spotted an unknown pokemon grooming itself not too far away from the backdoor, a species of pokemon that she's certain do not belong to the farm or anyone else that she knew of.
In other words, a complete stranger that had no business being here but having the audacity to barge in unannounced. A trespasser.
She looked up, spotting another unfamiliar bird type pokemon perching on the top of a cabinet. She surmised that the bird pokemon must have been observing her the moment she entered the living room, using the better vantage point from above to get a full view of the room. The bird pokemon cocked its head to a side curiously and Rena started to contemplate how she would chase them out of the house without breaking anything in the process.
'Who are you?'
'That should be my question to you,' Rena snarled back to the bird pokemon. She knew that the ghosts who attached themselves to her mistress' shadow were almost always nearby. What were they doing, allowing these trespassers to break in unannounced?
'My name is chatot. That is lopunny,' the bird pokemon introduced itself and used one of its wings to point to the pokemon that was grooming itself. 'We are on lookout duty on orders from our trainer.'
'And your trainer is?' Rena asked, already forming her own conclusions after hearing what chatot had to say but she needed to be sure.
"Oh, I see that you guys are already acquainted," a female voice that most definitely did not belong to her mistress interrupted the standoff. Rena watched warily as Anna exited from the kitchen, expertly balancing several plates at once and set them perfectly on the table. Another pokemon that Rena never saw before followed after Anna from behind, doing the exact same thing that its trainer was doing.
"Rena, am I right?" Anna squatted down to talk to Rena and Rena carefully took a few steps back, not really trusting Anna. Anna acted like she didn't notice her defensive behaviour and continued with her speech with a sweet smile on her face, her hand outstretched in Rena's direction in a friendly gesture.
"I didn't have the time to introduce my pokemon to you and your trainer yesterday. That is chatot, the one there is lopunny, and the one behind me is hitmonlee. I have a few more others, would you like to meet them?"
Rena did not answer, nor would she ever engage herself in a telepathic conversation with anyone that is not her mistress. She simply turned and headed back to her mistress' bedroom.
As an espeon, her powers are of an empathic nature. She is able to discern the intentions and emotions of the people around her and if there comes a day where she could hone her powers to the extreme, her power could borderline precognition. She wouldn't say that Anna harbours any ill will. The truth is far from it. In fact, Rena couldn't sense even an ounce of negative thoughts from the enigmatic bodyguard. Under ordinary circumstances, these are the type of people that she would encourage her somewhat reclusive trainer to befriend.
However, Rena couldn't sense any good intentions from Anna either, which was why her first instinct was to be wary of her. More accurately, the reason why Rena couldn't bring herself to trust Anna was because she couldn't even discern any emotions from her, which made Anna no different from any pebble or tree outside.
That is certainly not normal.
Rena had certainly felt that Anna was a little unusual during their first encounter yesterday but she didn't get a good read on her because there were too many individuals present, which also made it harder for her to single out each and every emotion or thought that flitted around her unless she made a conscious effort to do so. Most living creatures experience a fluctuation of emotions at every moment, be it benign or malign ones. Some feel much more stronger than others and some less than others, which is fine too, but to harbour no emotions at all?
To an espeon, a living being with no emotions is no different from an abomination of nature. Anna lowered herself down to speak to her that made her look approachable and respectful, she had a sweet smile on her face that would lower anyone's guard. Yet, Rena sensed no emotions from her, which meant that it was all fake. Anna's behaviour was one of deceit and thus, an unknown and potentially dangerous factor to her mistress' safety that she has to keep an eye out for.
Anna's pokemon looked like they were veterans and no strangers to combat and it would definitely be a bad idea to attack them here in the house when her mistress is currently asleep and defenceless. It was why she decided to head back to her mistress' room immediately. She would keep a vigil by her mistress' side and inform her of what she learnt about the mysterious Anna after she woke up.
And if Anna proved to be a threat, Rena would see to it that she will be removed with extreme prejudice.
From an empath's point of view, abominations like Anna shouldn't exist.
Anna's hand remained outstretched for a few more seconds after the espeon had turned and left. The smile on her face slowly disappeared and she looked at her opened palm, her inner thoughts unknown to anyone else but her. The sweet friendly demeanour that had fooled countless people vanished and she slowly stood back up, the expression on her face betraying nothing.
"This is why I hate dealing with empaths."
Hitmonlee gave its trainer a silent unreadable look before returning back to the kitchen to get the plates that they had not yet set on the dining table. Chatot and lopunny returned to keeping a lookout as they were previously doing. None of them gave any response to their trainer, much less offering her any words of comfort.
Anna returned back to the kitchen as well. Her client would be waking up soon so the breakfast must be prepared by then. True enough, her client entered the living room just about twenty minutes later with a sleepy look on her face, her hand barely concealing a yawn that she tried to hide. The espeon that plainly showed its distrust of her earlier stalked its trainer from behind in a protective manner, something that Anna chose to ignore. Let the espeon think whatever it wants, she's here only because she's returning the doctor a favour and also because she could further her own personal agenda should she take up this job.
If the Veras chose to terminate her employment because the espeon chose to be a tattletale, so be it. No skin off her back.
"Morning, did you have a good rest?"
Anna's false friendly demeanour returned and she greeted her client with a perfected sweet smile that showed no flaws. She also spotted the espeon narrowing its eyes at her again.
"Morning. It's been a while since I was able to sleep in like this," Velda greeted in return and curiously observed the pokemon nearby. "Are they yours?"
"Yes, they are. We didn't get the chance yesterday but I was thinking of introducing our pokemon to each other later today. That way, in the event that your safety is being compromised, at least our pokemon would not mistake each other to be enemies."
"That will be necessary," Velda nodded and took a seat, looking a little surprised at the variety of dishes prepared for breakfast. "You didn't need to go that far for breakfast. I don't usually eat a lot in the mornings."
"I will keep that in mind," Anna replied.
"Have you eaten yet?" Velda asked and Anna shook her head, and accepted her client's invitation to sit down and have breakfast with her. They do need to get to know each other better because a certain level of trust is needed between the client and the bodyguard in question in order for her to do her job well. Today's breakfast will provide such an opportunity, just as she had planned.
"Just curious, what kind of clients had you worked for before? I was told that you work only for VVIPs," Velda broke the ice and it didn't escape Anna's notice that the espeon was showing subtle signs that it was holding a telepathic conversation with its trainer. Both trainer and pokemon were up to something, that much was obvious to Anna, but she will play along with their games.
"I have worked for politicians, billionaires, famous superstars. You might know some of them. As long as I'm properly compensated I also offer services beyond bodyguarding like what I am doing now, preparing meals, doing housekeeping etcetera," Anna replied and told Velda a few names that almost everyone around the globe would know when she probed. She had worked for many famous people and successfully protected them from harm countless times, some of which might have claimed their lives if it wasn't for her presence. This made her a very much sought after professional for those who are in need of her expertise.
Their pleasant conversation continued well into their meal and eventually, the question that Anna had been expecting finally came.
"If you were acquainted with so many VVIPs and if your services are so highly sought after, how did dad reach out to you and convince you to come over to Hoenn?"
Anna knew that her young client was trying to fish for information and she's willing to bet that nobody in her family told her the details of how she ended up having her as her bodyguard. Velda's trying to be subtle about it and she's doing a good job for a fourteen year old, but Anna saw through her act instantly. She is just going to pretend that she didn't notice her attempt at fishing for information.
Furthermore, she saw no reason to conceal certain facts from her young client after knowing that she has an espeon, an empath type psychic. Such psychics are not often used in battles because most of them do not boast powerful battle capabilities, but their value truly shines in areas where you require them to identify or sense emotions. Some use them as sensors on the battlefield, some keep them around as bodyguards, others use them as assistants for psychological counselling. A highly trained empathic psychic is able to fetch a very good price on the market not only because of their relative rarity compared to other types of psychics, but also because of the difficulty to train an empath to reach a certain level of mastery of its power.
She wasn't expecting that a fourteen year old girl would possess an elite level espeon. It's certainly not the most powerful psychic type she had seen, but it's definitely skilled enough to give most elite level pokemon a run for their money.
Either way, the presence of the empath alone would already mean that some things that she preferred to keep hidden cannot be kept secret. If so, the only solution left for her would be to be upfront and honest with her client, revealing just enough to obtain her trust but at the same time, not revealing everything either. She has to try building some semblance of trust with her young client because it would be detrimental to her work if her young client is distrustful of her.
"Your father knew of me through the doctor."
"Doctor? You mean Dr Lott?"
"The doctor and I knew each other from way back. Sometimes he would introduce work to me, sometimes I would introduce a patient or two to him. He was the one who told me that your family is hiring a female bodyguard and he recommended me to your father. It just so happened that my contract with my previous employer had only just ended and the pay your father offered was good, so I decided to come over."
Anna then purposefully glanced at the distrustful espeon before looking back at Velda.
"You can also tell your espeon to stop talking about me behind my back. I know that I feel like a freak of nature to an empath like it but I am hired to protect you and that is what I will do. Are my answers sufficient, or are there any more questions that you might want to ask me before you feel that you can entrust your safety to me?"
An awkward silence befell the dining room and Anna could tell that her young client looked a little at a loss of what to do or say for being exposed like that. Her reaction was the intended effect that Anna had hoped for when she chose to broach this topic in such a manner.
"You do not need to feel bad about it. Empaths are my natural nemesis but your espeon was simply doing its job and trying to protect you from what it perceives to be a potential threat to your safety. I knew the doctor from way back because I was his patient. I still am, actually, and I still visit him from time to time for consultations."
"Do you mind if I ask what kind of…"
"I would not want to confuse you with the complicated medical jargon, but in layman's terms, I have a severe case of apathy. Excluding the cases of extreme circumstances or unique individuals that I'm capable of caring about, under normal circumstances I am incapable of experiencing strong emotions, especially positive ones. Emotions that govern an individual's morality, like guilt, shame, disgust, and empathy, I have a hard time feeling and understanding them too, which makes me a high risk individual that can easily turn to crime. Oftentimes, even psychics had a difficult time trying to detect any fluctuations in my emotional state, which allows me to naturally disappear from their radar. I have to act to appear normal and actively blend into the crowd or I would stand out too much. Even as we are holding our conversation as we speak, my smile, my gestures, behaviour; they were all carefully practised and perfected so that I can appear to be "normal". It was something that I forced myself to learn since I was young in order to not stand out, because people tend to bully those who do not fit into the crowd. As you might have already speculated, my childhood wasn't pleasant. People always called me a freak or a psychopath when I was younger until I was able to master the art of deception in order to protect myself."
"I'm sorry."
"You do not have to apologise. This is not something that anybody can control and this is why I was the doctor's patient. I rely on the medication he prescribed to me to keep my mental state stable. If it wasn't for him, the person sitting before you now might be a heinous criminal instead of a professional bodyguard." Anna reassured her young charge. "I do not usually divulge this to my clients because this is a private matter. Despite my disability I had still completed all my jobs perfectly without any exceptions. None of my clients had also noticed this abnormality about me, but unfortunately for me you have an espeon. I do not know how badly it spoke about me to you so I find it necessary to reassure you that I am fully capable of doing my assigned job. It would be difficult to do my job if you are distrustful of me. However, if you do not feel comfortable… You are also free to discharge me from service, but I would like to request to keep what you had just learnt about me to yourself."
"I'm not going to terminate your employment for such a reason," Velda replied and even the espeon looked a little apologetic after hearing what Anna had to say, an outcome that Anna could accept as long as the espeon stops getting in her way. What she had divulged was a calculated risk that she had chosen to take after weighing her options and it had paid off handsomely.
Empathic individuals are always the easiest to exploit. This is why bad people like her tend to live longer lives than the good ones like this little girl.
"Well now that the serious topic is out of the way, let's talk about happier things, shall we?" Anna proposed with a false cheery voice. "I don't think neither your parents nor your brother will be home for the next few days. Your parents told me that you are free to go anywhere you wish in Hoenn since your condition has stabilised and you now have better control over your ability, but do give me a heads up if you decide to travel elsewhere, okay?"
"I absolutely miss the hot springs at Lavaridge," Velda said longingly. "There were other places that I did not have the chance to properly tour in detail when I was on my journey, I think I would revisit them now that I have the time. Have you tried the hot springs at Hoenn?"
"Several times when my job brought me over to Hoenn previously, but the hot springs I visited were at Verdanturf town instead of Lavaridge because that was where my previous client stayed whenever she visited Hoenn. The flower fields there are very lovely, they reminded me of the ones at Floaroma town back home."
"Then let's go visit a hot spring inn at Lavaridge later in the afternoon. We can invite Mika to join us, and maybe Flannery too if she happens to have some free time on her hands."
"Mika looked like the type to enjoy a soak at the hot springs," Anna agreed. "Her sister, not so much."
"Are you trying to make a pun about Fire Specialists?"
"Am I?" Anna playfully shrugged despite feeling nothing on the inside. There's only one person who she truly cared about in this entire world who could also make her feel truly alive and human, but they could no longer meet. The person who she wanted him to view her as her had died the day her deceit was exposed.
Everything that she is now, everything she does or says, they are all carefully constructed masks and acts for the sake of making people believe what she wants them to believe. A psychopath; that would be the most accurate description of her if they were to know of her true self.
A person that would never be loved, that's who she really is.
'So this is the bodyguard that Vel's parents got for her? They don't look like much.'
Even Flamel couldn't help but inwardly agree with the rude comment that Kratos made in front of their guests. Their trainer wanted them to get acquainted with her bodyguard's pokemon team but…
They looked utterly lacking.
'Rude! Rude!' The chatot cawed and Flamel saw how Kel frowned in distaste at the chatot's screeching loud volume. Flamel was more knowledgeable of the many different species of pokemon that inhabit this world due to his trainer's influence and also because he had been with her the longest, so he recognised them on sight. There's a hitmonlee, a ditto, lopunny, bibarel, lickilicky, chatot and kecleon. A total of seven pokemon that do not even number to half the total sum of their own team.
It also looked as if Kratos alone could decimate them. Flamel does not want to belittle them but are they really up to the task in protecting their trainer?
'We are being belittled again.'
'This is why I always said that she needs to get some powerful looking badass in our team, even if it's just for show,' the lickilicky groomed its long tongue with its paws while answering lopunny's remark.
'Crush them! Crush them!'
'Can you be quiet?' The kecleon hissed irritatedly at the chatot before eyeing Flamel and co. 'Well, they don't look like much either. Think she will be mad if we crush them?'
'And make her lose her job? She will skin you alive and make a new leather wallet out of it.'
'I'd never seen some of your kind before,' a friendly banette floated over to say hello and ditto did a little wriggle to convey its excitement, instantly transforming into an exact replica of the banette which surprised the ghost.
'Cool!'
'This one's okay, I like her,' the ditto remarked before it transformed into the scary looking tyranitar glaring at them. 'This one's pretty strong.' The ditto did a few more transformations of the pokemon from Velda's team, attracting attention from everyone present until it took a pause when it transformed into a pachirisu.
'This one's meh.'
'HEY!'
"Looks like they are getting along," Flamel heard his trainer speaking to Anna and he wished to tell her that no, they are not exactly on friendly terms, but she's not able to understand their speech.
"I would say that your pokemon don't seem impressed, but that's quite normal," Flamel heard Anna reply and yes, they really are not impressed by what they had seen thus far. It's still hard to believe that Griff entrusted their trainer's safety to a team of pokemon and their trainer that did not look the least bit reliable.
'I think it's obvious that we don't like them and that they don't like us so you know what? Let's just settle our differences the easy way,' Kratos made his opinion known like the boorish pokemon that he is. 'Hey stuck-up, let Vel know that we want to fight them.'
Rena's displeasure for Kratos' rude mannerism was clearly conveyed in the glare she gave him but for once in forever, they were on the same page. Kratos' request was quickly conveyed to their trainer through telepathy.
"Do you mind?" Their trainer asked and the bodyguard shook her head.
"I think it would be beneficial if our pokemon had an idea of each other's strengths if it ever comes to the point that we have to fight alongside each other. And…" Anna took one glance at her own pokemon team before she looked back at Velda. "I think my pokemon are raring to go as well but a word of caution, they are not that good at holding back."
'I don't need them to hold back!' Kratos proclaimed and his proclamation immediately incited sniggers from several pokemon from the other team, which further infuriated him. The two trainers had already retreated to a safe distance away from the epicentre, fully intending for their pokemon to duke it out among themselves without their interference.
'So who's in? It feels unfair if we all fight them at once,' Toothless pointed out and after a quick internal discussion, Kratos, Toothless, Snap, Chill, Hulk, Wacky and Dolly stepped up to meet their adversaries in battle. Seven against seven, this would be a fair fight.
Fuzzy was given the role to signal the start of the match once both sides were ready. An electrical flare shot up to the skies and a flurry of motions immediately followed. Kratos charged ahead, a display of confidence in his own strength. The bibarel shot a Water Pulse at Kratos which he easily shrugged off despite the type disadvantage.
Kratos was soon right in front of the silly looking pokemon who didn't seem to recognise the threat Kratos posed, still staring at Kratos with a stupid look on its face. The hitmonlee vanished and reappeared before Kratos, putting itself in between the two and managed to intercept Kratos' Dragon Claw and successfully stopped Kratos before pushing him back in a contest of strength.
'Get lost!' Kratos roared, a Hyper Beam on the verge of being formed at the front of his opened jaws before he fired the attack. Hitmonlee's left leg lashed out in a swift blur, kicking his jaws shut at an impossible angle only made possible due to its unique springy limbs. The two combatants broke contact from the force of the blow and hitmonlee's left leg snapped back to its original length from the reactive force before compressing in length.
All of it, in just a split second.
'Kratos, look out!'
Hulk's warning came too late. Hitmonlee's compressed left leg shot out once more like a cannonball and the explosion of the impact that came with the blow was loud enough to temporarily deafened all those who were unfortunate enough to be in close proximity. Kratos flew up into the air from the blow, much to the disbelief of everyone else on Velda's team, before making a crash landing some distance away. Part of his armour had caved from the blow and while it didn't look like he had been taken out entirely from this battle, it certainly would take a while before he could get back up on his feet.
One hit had brought Kratos to his knees. It was a sight that they rarely witnessed ever since Kratos evolved into a tyranitar. The last time something like that happened, it was when they were training with Volkner's team back at Olivine in preparation for the upcoming One Day War. The memories of how that monster of an electivire toyed with them like they were a bunch of rare candies were still fresh in vivid clarity.
Hitmonlee's kick had swiftly forced that memory to resurface in everybody's minds.
Hitmonlee wasn't gracious enough to spare them the time to recover from the shock. It used the surprise to its advantage, quickly pressing on the attack as it shot out another kick, its leg extending to lengths further than their wildest estimations. Two beams of light shone from hitmonlee's eyes as it casted Foresight, instantly removing Wacky's and Dolly's immunity to normal and fighting type moves. The battle had quickly gone from bad to worse for them right from the get-go.
Hulk decided to take on the hitmonlee, recognising that he would be the most suitable pokemon to face it in battle as a fellow fighting type. His attempt was quickly foiled when a pink ball barrelled his way, forcing him to break his charge. A long slimy tongue slapped him aside with Lick and Hulk quickly wiped away the slime coating his face with disgust. He counterattacked with Bullet Punch and lickilicky cried out in pain, tumbling a few steps back from the blow and Hulk immediately decided to follow up with a Sky Uppercut.
He wasn't expecting himself to suddenly stumble on his feet and crashed onto the ground. His limbs had suddenly gone numb and so had his face. The intense numbing sensation quickly spread all across his body and his body convulsed erratically without him meaning to.
Paralysis? From a single Lick?
Everyone else quickly understood that their foes were far tougher than they seemed. Snap and Toothless had immediately taken their positions up in the skies and blasted their attacks from above. Hitmonlee was a menace down below, its four limbs swinging and lengthening and compressing at unpredictable intervals and angles that created a zone where its allies could safely hide and attack from within, leaving behind a trail of destruction such that nobody could get close. Any attack that they tried to take down the hitmonlee with would be quickly intercepted by the other pokemon on the other team.
Dolly unexpectedly reappeared within hitmonlee's guard through Phantom Force. However, the hitmonlee's quick reaction in using Detect in the nick of time saved itself from Dolly's ambush. Kecleon immediately came to hitmonlee's rescue, its long tongue shooting out with Feint Attack that forced Dolly to defend herself with Protect. Wacky's fist met hitmonlee's foot with Shadow Punch but he was unable to follow up with another attack because the lopunny was immediately on his case.
A massive Blizzard came howling in, courtesy of Chill, but that was easily countered when lickilicky used Me First. Toothless rained fireballs down from above but the ditto instantly transformed into Toothless, creating fireballs of its own to foil Toothless' attacks. Snap shot Hyper Beams but that was easily countered with bibarel's Thunder.
The team's assistance was what gave hitmonlee the opportunity to crouch low, its legs compressing further and further while it locked onto its targets with Mind Reader. It then leapt into the air with a superpowered jump, the force of his propellation creating a sonic boom in its wake and it crashed right into Snap, instantly taking him out with a Mega Kick.
Hitmonlee only landed two kicks throughout this fight, but one kick brought Kratos to his knees and another kick immediately took Snap out of the fight. By now it's obvious to everyone that it has the ability to take out almost every opposing pokemon in a one hit-KO and it's the most immediate threat that had to be addressed.
Hitmonlee's attack was too swift and powerful for anyone to properly react against. The hitmonlee used Snap's body as a springboard, catapulting itself and crashed into Toothless this time. Nobody could escape once Mind Reader has been casted. With that, the aerial threats had been neutralised.
Hitmonlee landed back on the ground with its body pressed low against the ground, its right leg fully extended before unleashing a powerful Low Sweep. Wacky was immediately blown away from the force while Chill was almost taken out instantly from the blow. Dolly escaped via Phantom Force.
Hitmonlee prepared itself for another attack but was promptly interrupted when the ground quickly turned sandy. The ground trembled and the sands rose, viciously lashing out at it like vicious serpents as hitmonlee quickly retreated, dodging the unknown attack by contorting its body at unexpected angles and making effective use of its unique biology. A brutal roar could be heard and Kratos came charging in, now fully enraged.
Hitmonlee's only response was to narrow its eyes a little before shooting itself forward to meet Kratos in battle once again. Sharp plates of rock erupted from below which hitmonlee easily predicted and avoided. Hitmonlee's body spun in midair from an application of Rolling Kick to build up the needed momentum before doing a powerful drop kick from above. The force of the blow was so great that it could easily take Kratos out should it connect.
Kratos paid the incoming attack no mind but instead, quickly conjured a Hyper Beam and swept the destructive attack across the battlefield, forcing everyone to scatter. A Dark Pulse from Hulk struck hitmonlee before its attack could hit Kratos, sending it flying away from the impact and thus protecting Kratos from harm. The hitmonlee rolled on the ground to cushion itself from the impact before quickly getting back up on its feet. It was clear that the attack did little to affect it.
'We really underestimated them,' Hulk huffed as it stood beside Kratos, still doing his best to fight through the paralysis that he was being inflicted upon. Kratos growled, still angry and pissed that he was almost taken out from a single kick but he knew that Hulk was right. They were being arrogant and are now paying the price for it.
'Just make sure that the one with long arms and legs don't get to me, I can take out the rest on my own,' Kratos grunted and sharp spikes of rocks erupted all around them with a stomp of his foot. Hulk leapt into action, knowing that this is the best plan that they could come up with given their current situation. A quick exchange of blows followed as soon as he met hitmonlee in battle. He blocked a knee blow from hitmonlee, only for its leg to quickly curve and he was sent tumbling back from the blow when the limb adjusted its shape to get past his guard. It's impossible to discern where hitmonlee's joint really is thanks to its stretchy limbs, making its attacks nearly impossible to predict.
But he doesn't have to take down the hitmonlee, he just has to stall it long enough for Kratos to defeat everyone else. Ominous cackles filled the air and Hulk knew that Wacky and Dolly had started their own counterattack from the protection of the shadows. They simply have to tough this out until Kratos defeats everyone else while he's on his rampage, and after which they could combine their efforts to take down the deceptively powerful hitmonlee.
Hulk threw himself into battle once again, the two fighting types began to exchange blows in earnest, each attack more ferocious than the last before they both unanimously locked their limbs in a deadlock to prevent the other from getting away.
'Not bad,' the hitmonlee finally spoke for the first time since Hulk met it.
'You are pretty strong yourself,' Hulk returned the compliment as they both tried to overpower the other with sheer strength to no avail.
'Me? No, I'm not strong. I'm not the strongest one on my team if you are talking about raw firepower,' hitmonlee answered. 'I just have to hold you here until the strongest guy finishes everyone else on your team, and then we are done here.'
'Funny, we had the same idea,' Hulk grunted back but no matter how his eyes searched, he didn't see anyone else on hitmonlee's team who looked the part of a powerful threat.
'You are looking at the wrong guy. The one I'm talking about, it's the one with the stupid look on his face. He should be done anytime now.'
Hulk immediately redirected his gaze at the only pokemon which matched hitmonlee's description. The unassuming bibarel who was Kratos' initial target when the battle first started had only just finished using Swords Dance and had returned to staring into blank space. It had done nothing but fire a few potshots of Water Pulse and occasionally use Swords Dance without even trying to use any physical attacks to take advantage of the power boost Swords Dance provided.
'He's about to start. Just watch,' hitmonlee spoke. The silly looking bibarel suddenly vanished before their eyes just as hitmonlee said that. It was so sudden and nobody was paying any attention to it because it wasn't a threat. It wasn't even actively contributing into the fight like everyone else was doing.
It was how the bibarel escaped everyone's notice. It was why nobody noticed that the bibarel had finally launched its offensive until it was too late.
Chill was the first to go down and Hulk didn't even see how she was taken out. Bibarel's nose twitched, the only indication that Odour Sleuth was used to track Wacky and Dolly down before vanishing and reappearing before them in a brown blur with Quick Attack. A brutal use of Waterfall took them out of the count as well and by the time Kratos realised that something was amiss, it was only him against everyone else now that hitmonlee was actively preventing Hulk from going back to assist his team.
The bibarel screeched to a stop and stood before Kratos, standing upright unsteadily on its hind legs before raising its right front paw, pulling it back in preparation for a punch. It looked comically ridiculous with how small it was in comparison to Kratos' size but Kratos did not dare to belittle the little rodent any longer after understanding that it had somehow defeated three of his friends in the span of a few seconds and none of them were pushovers. He immediately shook the ground with a violent Earthquake but bibarel had already thrown his punch.
Kratos flew into the air for the second time that day and this time, he's not getting back up from the new crater he crashed into for a long while.
'Superpower?'
'One of his best moves, I taught him myself,' hitmonlee finally released Hulk from his hold and stood aside, not seeing him as a threat now that it's only him left. The other pokemon from hitmonlee's team had surrounded him from all sides and the stupid looking bibarel wobbled up to Hulk, needing to raise its head upwards to even look at Hulk in the eyes.
The bibarel slowly raised its front right paw once more. Fear started to crawl from the base of Hulk's spine and panic gripped his heart.
'I give up,' Hulk immediately raised his hands in the universal gesture of surrender, knowing that he doesn't stand a chance. The bibarel looked a little disappointed at the outcome with the way it hung its head, scratching the back of its head with its right front paw while wobbling away. Even after witnessing how it had taken out his friends at the speed of light Hulk still had a little difficulty trying to come to terms with the fact that they had all been bested by a bibarel.
"I guess we still have a lot of work cut out for us, huh," Hulk turned around and saw his trainer recalling their fallen friends back into their pokeballs before turning to face Anna. "I thought Mika's slowbro was deceptive enough, but your bibarel's performance was really ridiculous. The very first Water Pulse it fired wasn't even that powerful so how did it suddenly…"
"Bibarel's ability is Simple. It greatly amplifies his stat changes. What other pokemon could achieve with two or three Swords Dance, mine could easily do it with one thanks to his mastery over his ability. That's how it obtained the strength to go up against your tyranitar," Anna patiently explained. "With Odour Sleuth at his disposal, it also meant that he's not helpless against ghost types and he does have a wide array of moves that he's capable of learning, making him a very versatile fighter."
"Bibarels are very commonly found in Sinnoh, right?"
"They could be found in almost every freshwater body in Sinnoh, to the point that they are sometimes considered as pests because the dams they built often clog up the flow of the rivers' tributaries."
"But I don't think it's easy to train such an ordinary pokemon to do what your bibarel displayed. You are really good," Velda complimented and Hulk had to agree with his trainer's assessment. A bibarel is… a bibarel. The upper limits of its species had been fixed the moment it was born and while that ceiling could be broken with rigorous training, for a bibarel to do what Anna's bibarel did and defeat a tyranitar with ease was something that many would believe to be impossible.
Hulk observed the bibarel once more. It still had the stupid look on its face and was staring into blank space again, looking as if it didn't just punt a tyranitar into the air and take it out with a single punch with its puny paw.
He's not too sure what the others might think, but he sure as hell won't be underestimating any bibarels ever again.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male
Anna Tide, Female, Professional Bodyguard
Pokemon:
1) Hitmonlee
2) Ditto
3) Lopunny
4) Bibarel
5) Lickilicky
6) Chatot
7) Kecleon