Jaret King is owned by aggies2015
Viola Almach is owned by Ariesbird
Juliet Grey is owned by DolceBrio
Ryuu Sinclair is owned by Tendou Souji
Seria Day is owned by Kittynip
Cody Frost is owned by HodgePodge 97'
Victoria Reed is owned by Lord Farquaad
Jaret had only ever heard the rumors about her, and he hadn't expected them to be so wrong. They had sold her short in nearly every way. Victoria was effective across the board, from her pure power to her dangerously honed application of skill. Arcanine had arrived with the two Charizard from earlier, with Virgil, Juliet and even Dragonite, and that should've made him feel better.
But the rumors about Victoria's Kingdra had sold her short too and Jaret learned immediately that Kingdra was trained to terrifying extremes. She had battled and subdued both Charizard that had touched down with them when they had swept by and ahead with Arcanine. Victoria had even snatched up one of them on a whim, and that had sent Dragonite after Kingdra in a fit of rage that Jaret had pegged immediately as fear. He saw it in the way Dragonite had forced Arcanine behind him and in his wild swings, from Aqua Tails to Ice Punch, then to an Ice Beam when Kingdra had caught him off guard with a burst of Hydro Pump that he'd managed to dodge but pressed him back into a distance. For all of his strength, Dragonite was terrified.
Dragonite kept that same distance after that with a barrage of Ice Beams that Kingdra had taken to either moving by, or meeting them with an unfreezing Hydro Pump. Jaret's chest tightened when he saw the recognition of Dragonite's fear dawn on Kingdra and her trainer. No, they'd known about it from the start, and Kingdra had done something that Jaret could only describe as twisting space that closed the distance between them in seconds and let her freeze Dragonite solid with a perfectly placed Ice Beam. Victoria had no intention of killing him. She was there to capture. He had caught the image of Arcanine just after that. He'd pulled in before Dragonite and the other Charizard with eyes alight with fire and fury before throwing himself into the battle.
It'd sent Jaret howling in anger and panic because how had this all happened? He'd fought tough battles before. In fact, he'd had a lot of them, but there was only a single soul that he could think of that fought like Victoria did. He was sure that she could've swept Falkner with no effort if she really wanted.
Then again, it was a rare occasion when trainers would order an attack on another, and even rarer that the Pokemon would oblige it. He could only think of the Rocket and Galactic goons he'd battled in the past. The thought made him pause and bring a hand gingerly to his shoulder. It pulsed when he ran his fingers over discolored and disjointed skin, thrummed with pain that would burn hotter if he moved too quick or resolute and left him with an epiphany: This was a fight, and it wasn't something to be won, but survived. Victoria, with a well-timed ambush and just two of her Pokemon had been able to level the playing field. She was a huntress, and he—they were all her wounded prey. It would've been different if he'd had his entire team with him. It should've been. He shifted, wincing at first before biting against the pain, and he'd managed to squirm enough to place Victoria square in the center of his glare.
A hand fell over his mouth.
"Don't," Liza whispered. "You don't need to bring her attention over to you. You're in no condition to fight." Jaret went to squirm out of her grasp and his breath caught at the shooting pain. "Case in point." He turned to her with sharp eyes.
"My Arcanine is out there fighting and you think I'm just going to stay here!?"
"In your condition, yes," she hissed. "You'll just get in the way and hurt yourself more. And, you might even get your Arcanine in trouble." Jaret was quiet but felt her attention balloon out around them. "Besides," she began again. "You're one of the main reasons that Arcanine is fighting now. He's the last line of defense we got."
"Virgil is here, you know…" Liza's lips twisted into a frown.
"Do you really think Virgil could handle someone at Victoria's level?"
"Juliet's here too."
"And didn't you say you don't trust her? More than anything, I don't think either of them stand a chance." Jaret let out a terse breath and battle roiled through his ears. Arcanine was holding his own. It was reassuring.
"But Virgil does," Jaret retorted. "And right now, it'll have to do."
"But do you think either of them would be able to deal with Mastery?" Her tone was stern, a little harried. Jaret might have even said astounded.
"You mentioned that before, didn't you?"
"I did," her voice came sharper. "I thought that your understanding of equilibrium and your trust with your Arcanine might've gave you an idea of what I was talking about."
"Then what does it mean?" Liza pressed her lips together, consideration passing into and through her eyes.
"Mastery is a proponent, a remnant really, of the Old World and made simple, it's a state where a Pokemon technique bends the physics of their type. When a technique is 'mastered', 'type' stops mattering altogether." Jaret started and was upright but snarled in pain; Liza forced him back down.
"You're telling me that her Kingdra doesn't abide by type…? Is that even possible? And what's the 'Old World'?" She hesitated.
"Kingdra still has its typing. It's the moves that are affected… Do you remember what I said earlier about Innate and Type energy?" Jaret's eyes went wide with realization.
"Type energy is emergent…" Liza nodded. "Then Kingdra's attack will flatline—"
"It won't," Liza refuted. "Innate supersedes every and all types. Everything comes from it, so why wouldn't it be able to claim everything that is technically still a part of it? Mastery makes it so. But… that's not even all of it: Type effectiveness will build on top of that if it applies…" Silence fell heavy over them, and Jaret could feel her strain to not look at him.
It was infuriating.
"Liza," Jaret's tone was dark. "There's no way I'm letting Arcanine fight that Kingdra by himself!" Her face twitched, just as understanding dawned on him. "How much does Blackthorn know about this, and why don't other trainers know about any of it?"
Her face twitched again. She was burning with the need to respond. Instead, she threw a glance over her shoulder and Jaret stifled the hiss of pain that came to his lips when he struggled to peer around her, but sucked in a breath when Virgil formed there at his side, eyes scanning across him to rest on his shoulder; there had only been a frown.
"V–Virgil… Hey, think you could help Arcanine? He could probably use it." Virgil's frown deepened.
"I got here just in time to watch her Kingdra take down Ampharos without breaking a sweat…"
"Exactly. That's why Arcanine needs help—"
"There's no way I'm putting Galvy against that Kingdra of hers." Jaret recoiled at the sharp response. "And Azumarill's… too hot-headed for this whole thing. She doesn't know when she's outclassed…" Jaret twinged and Virgil leaned in, asking him a familiar question so low that Jaret had to strain to hear it. "Did she beat you?" Jaret's mouth was suddenly dry and the feeling made his chest twist and teeth clench.
If he were honest, Jaret wasn't sure if he really even knew. He swallowed.
"She… caught me off guard…" Something rippled through Virgil's face and his frown deepened. He tossed a glance over where everyone else lay, then turned back to him with a murmur.
"She's too strong. Even if Dewott were here, it wouldn't make a difference…" Virgil paused. "The best I can do is help both of our Lucario hold the line here. That Kingdra's unreal." Jaret's lip curved in spite of himself.
"What about Viola?" Virgil's following grin was somber.
"If I'm honest, hanging back was her idea. She's been here the whole time, hasn't she? So… I'm guessing she knows how dangerous she is." Another crash from Arcanine's battle pulled Virgil's attention up to it but he was quick to bring them back down.
"Juliet's not going to help?" Virgil shook his head once.
"The trials really kind of messed her up..." Jaret glared.
"You can't be serious!" Virgil shrugged, but shifted a little, enough for Jaret to get a clear look at her. She was staring ahead, past both of them, past the battle, and directly to Victoria, who stared, surprisingly, right back at her. He saw the recognition flash between them. Jaret grabbed hold of Virgil to yank him down closer to him. "They know each other?!" Virgil knocked his grip loose.
"Keep it down! That doesn't mean they're working together," Virgil retorted. "And, Juliet's told me that that one over there has a reputation."
"She's one of the 600, if that's what you're getting at," Jaret murmured.
"Like you?" Jaret was quiet at first. "Yeah, like me. But Victoria's doing her best to uphold the worst of the rumors…"
"Are the 600 really just thieves?"
"How does Juliet know her?" It was a deflection, and Virgil's tense breath in was all the confirmation Jaret needed to know that he knew that.
"From an inconvenient meeting. Wrong place, wrong time. But one thing's for sure, Juliet already knows that she wouldn't be able to do much either…"
"You're telling me that not even that Dragonair she has could make a dent?"
"Didn't you just say that Victoria is one of the 600? I'm out of practice enough as it is…" Virgil fixed his eyes onto Arcanine, and Jaret followed. Discomfort rippled through his shoulder. "Arcanine'll be fine. I know better than anyone what it's like to battle that powerhouse. Besides, Arcanine feels… different…" Jaret watched the battle escalate in silence, teeth clenching as he realized that Victoria and her Kingdra reminded him perhaps a little too strongly of Ryuu Sinclair.
Arcanine landed deft and expertly, leaning into waves of wind that shifted him aside ephemeral and far away from Kingdra's shot. She was eagle-eyed and dangerously precise, those same eyes wide with honed rage and interest that shivered through her whole being that she was careful to tamper down. It had been a passing second between them, a fragment, but Arcanine understood everything he needed to with just that single glance.
The air had been rippling around her when she struck forward, twisting black and red like other Dragon Dances he'd seen before, but never like hers. In fact, Arcanine was impressed. The entire thing in of itself was never actively employed, always passive against him, still too slow. The space she'd struck sloshed into mud almost immediately, and she bounded up toward him to pursue.
He'd seen this before.
A paw swelled and he lunged with a slash that swatted Kingdra to the side that sent her skipping across the rock surface. A shot of hers sliced from earth to sky even as she tumbled. He ignored the sound of his blood against the rocks and moved in; a tiny knick meant nothing. Kingdra's space gleamed with black and red that stalled her upright when it twisted in and then without, but the colors were deeper, sharper. Arcanine's feet were sliding under him as a bullet zipped by and as Kingdra disappeared: Her first pulse of Dragon Dance.
Arcanine snickered. She was employing her mysticism already? He swayed low and to the right, shuddering at a second bullet slashing past him. An ear twitched to the left and his legs tensed, snapping him backwards that found Kingdra burrowing into the space he'd been, body armed to teeth with flowing water. He leapt back even further when some of the water struck out after him. She'd been waiting for that and Kingdra bounded up from the water a second time, Arcanine realizing at the last minute that she'd planned to miss: He was right where she wanted him.
"Hydro Pump!" This, Arcanine figured, would've been a time to worry. Instead, he sniggered—laughed even. The earth was instant, meeting his feet and pushing him upwards a few seconds faster than Kingdra's blast. But it'd blown through the wall and shattered it into raining debris. Arcanine's piece lurched him forward, and Kingdra turned her focus over to him, water already swirling at her nozzle. She had him right back in her aim at that moment.
It was fitting that she was staring at falling rocks the moment right after that. Her eyes came down astounded to find him lunging for her with lightning fangs. A noise, a voice made his ear twitch and his mouth snapped shut. He twisted a desperate flip instead, the rushed swish of his tail enough to puzzle her, and hide the foot that slammed into her from overhead. Arcanine landed the same moment Kingdra hit the dirt and he charged forward with another powerful swipe, a repeat of earlier. Arcanine was moving into the wind the very next second, his body coming to him as he stood over his trainer. He was astonished with his mouth a bit ajar but wrinkled with a tiny twist of pride on the edges. Arcanine smiled then whirled around with another paw to punch into another body that he'd sent flying. His eyes fell to the center, at a stream of fire tumbling toward him and Arcanine held firm; this Flamethrower was useless against his Flash Fire, and Arcanine was sure that whoever was interfering must've not known that.
Arcanine caught the slow pulse of bright green riding along the edges of the fire at the last minute with a curse. The Flamethrower was useless, like he knew it'd be, folding and swirling into his fur to ripple added power all the way through to his core.
The Magical Leaf, as ineffective as it was, still came by and sliced into him and burst into cinders. It'd been a planned attack and Arcanine went to turn his attention to Kingdra.
"Arcanine, above you!" Arcanine grimaced before he obeyed and looked up, and found cotton, and it was coming down fast. The tufts split into finer pieces when Arcanine moved by them, twisting around and about in a bid to get loose. One of the bulbs lit gold, firing a beam of light into another, then pinging from bulb to bulb. It suddenly arced for Arcanine, swelling into a web that shocked him as it knocked him off of his feet. The web shifted and soaked into him as he rolled, turning into an adhesive that bolted into the dirt, and farther than he would've liked from Jaret and the others. Arcanine struggled to break free, his eyes managing to find Kingdra's. She hadn't moved, and was watching him. Or at least, he'd thought so.
A pair of shoes settled in front of him, and Arcanine followed them up. He was young, but old by junior league standards. Even so, he was blinding, but the boy was quick to notice and he knelt down to ease some of the light. For a long moment, he stared.
"I've never seen an Arcanine as strong as you," he stated admirably. "With strength like yours, your PokeRus concentration is probably off the charts." Arcanine's eyes narrowed. "I'd even say that you've honed it very recently. You've been training, haven't you?" Arcanine let off a low grumble; a growl. He was a showy boy, with his glistening cape and all, with a tuft of a black uniform underneath just peeking through, but he had a sharp eye.
"Ravin," Victoria. "You didn't need to get involved." The boy, Ravin, shuffled to his feet a bit.
"Maybe not, but I think we shouldn't forget about why we're here. Your Dewgong and Crawdaunt both went down in the battle. We should really grab the Eevee and go. This Arcanine isn't normal." Jaret had barked an obscenity then, and Arcanine saw him struggle pitifully before he winced in pain. Viola, with Virgil, Juliet and Liza too, were all tense. Victoria waved a hand.
"Don't be such a scaredy-cat. Didn't you see how fast Kingdra took down that Ampharos? He was pretty dangerous with that Electro Ball of his." Ravin winced.
"...She drew blood…"
"Oh, it's not like you've never seen it before," she shot back with a shrug. "And don't worry. I know you came looking for strong Pokemon with their 'PokeRus levels' or whatever."
"It's responsible for their Innate Energy," Ravin snapped, and Arcanine was sure he'd seen Jaret shift in the corner of his eye. "And, Pokemon with high PokeRus levels are usually so much more versed with their typing. PokeRus—"
" 'Is the precursor that makes a Pokemon 'Lustered' and therefore more valuable'. I told you I know all this already." Victoria paused. "And, I can tell you that the whole reason that man gave you for stealing strong Pokemon is bullshit. You're interested in the bonds between Pokemon, your 'professor' only gives a damn about—"
"He has a good reason," Ravin snapped again. "Andaras is doing research, motivated by the Sinnoh Lake Guardians!"
"And he wants you to steal other trainer's Pokemon to do it? At least when I do it, it's for a profit." Arcanine's ears twitched. He'd forgotten: they were Pokemon Hunters. He growled again, and their eyes went down to him. He'd heard enough, and he certainly had no plans on being taken to this "Andaras" whoever, or wherever it was. He'd taken enough time to scope out the Cottenee that had caught him off guard, and also a Galvantula that had found his way into the battle. He sat close to that Cottenee, snoozing lazily on one of the beds of cotton alongside a wispy looking Salandit that glared his way; the one he'd sent flying. Arcanine snickered. He'd be able to run circles around the three of them with no issue. But, they weren't important. In fact, neither was Ravin. Victoria was where all of the muscle was, and the main threat.
Still, it had caught Arcanine off guard that Ravin had managed to pick out his shift just by looking at him. He rightly proposed that Arcanine had been training, and that yes, he had grown stronger, personally escorted by the two defeated Charizard, and trained in one of the most sacred places in the Valley. He had grown much stronger, and he had done it for a situation exactly like this one. Heat was burrowing into his chest at the thought, striking at his core before reversing into a steady stream of heat outward.
He'd heard that Ravin rear back with a noise of surprise as he came up, burning away both the web and the cotton. He turned to Ravin with a strong glare, and the boy stumbled back, awestruck. He heard the particular thump of Victoria's steps. She'd closed the distance a little, and her Kingdra had come in at her side.
"Get behind me." It was a simple command. "Me and Kingdra will handle the rest. She hasn't been able to cut loose in a long time. Just do what we came to do, and don't interrupt this time, got it?" Ravin swallowed with a nod and obeyed. Arcanine watched as Kingdra made her way back before Victoria, and her attention settled, with the same weight onto him. The wrath and fury, however, were both gone, and she prepared herself for battle with something entirely different but so agonizingly familiar that it brought Sagark— Ryuu's Salamence to mind. Her malevolence would have no restraints.
She met him with exalted eyes, just as Arcanine had for her, saying for the second time everything they needed to.
Don't disappoint me!
Dewott's back hit the dirt hard, and he'd rolled away from that same gust of breath that had locked him into stone the first time. Dragon Breath confirmed what Dewott had figured: This Arcanine was much more partial to breathwork. Arcanine snapped forward in a headlong rush and Dewott had seen it coming, body coming to form by instinct and his first slash coming down, then with a pivot, slashing back up to cover his rear.
Both copies of Arcanine dispersed into smoke.
Dewott expected as much. This Arcanine was slower without question but that much more clever. The combination of Extreme Speed and Double Team left Dewott slashing into copies of the Arcanine that felt anything but fake. One of the clones had stormed down after Dewott bursting with lightning—a Wild Charge— that he'd leapt back from and the clone crashed into the dirt and dissipated in a puff of smoke.
The attack alone had caught Dewott off guard and had raised so many other questions that he turned to his back too late to find an Arcanine looming over him with wide jaws that were going to snap him in half. The trim of steel blue roared to life around Arcanine that slammed him into the dirt. He burst again into smoke.
Dewott couldn't help but be drawn to King's direction just as King's eyes came back to normal. He fixed him with a knowing smirk, paws coming just behind his back as another Arcanine came to form over him and aiming squarely for his crown.
It also burst into smoke, Icy landing deftly on her feet and right at King's side, also with a smirk, and then with a curl of annoyance when King swiveled and swooned her way with all of the praises in the world. The frown that came to his lips had been a habit, but Dewott was quick to return the favor. A burst of water kicked him forward at them and they stepped aside to let him through to collide into another body, another Arcanine that let loose a strangled yelp that let Dewott know for sure he'd gotten the real one.
The Arcanine landed with a thud and Dewott spun back around, shell-blade searing to life with water to slice through fire. They had Arcanine surrounded, and it had been easier than Dewott had thought it'd be. But Arcanine was back on his feet the next instant, eyes shifting and ears twitching at their movement. Dewott had expected another Double Team when Arcanine crouched but cut forward with another burst of swiftness— Extreme Speed to fill the space before Icey. She'd splashed herself airborne with a Whirlpool and away from Arcanine's spout of fire. Arcanine's response was instant, dropping onto his legs that turned him into air. Dewott poised and a force twisted into a solid thrum, and oscillated light. The knowledge turned him into air the next second, and then back again in the second after that, and between Icey and a surprised Arcanine no less. Dewott spun with a Razor Shell when thin light dashed across his fur, and Arcanine twisted into a ball of fire against it that shuttered into fog on contact as he fell.
And splashed into water.
Dewott landed the next instant and at full attention at the cone of water that reached up to catch and swallow Arcanine. The edges fell in, like tendrils and splashed into speed, into a torrent dotted with sunlight that when Dewott took a closer look, he realized that it was Icey, and she was moving fast. A red cloud plumed when she swished a claw and Arcanine twisted in pain and the cyclone spun faster, flattening just a bit into an ellipse.
That Sneasel was vicious. Whirlpool flashed against Arcanine again and Dewott dropped his attention to Arcanine's trainer. Dewott had no idea what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been frivolity.
The trainer had a plan.
Discolor sloshed across the whirlpool and tendrils turned to clump itself in slush. That was bad, and a scalchop surged to life with water as Dewott prepped an Aqua Cutter. He'd felt something ripple from King's direction, an appeal to his mind. Of course he was worried.
Idiot! Save her! Dewott sneered. He could always turn his technique on King if he wanted. Water bubbled across— and over the length of his scalchop into a blade of its own. The whirlpool shifted again, this time into silt before burning into clear solid: Glass. He scanned quickly over it all. Icey was nowhere to be found and Dewott couldn't help to wonder, frustrated, what that would do to King's resolve.
Light bent to catch Dewott's eyes to blind him and Dewott loosed his Aqua Cutter in response. Dewott heard King curse as glass shattered into crumbs, as another piece came to open a shallow cut across Dewott's brow, and then again on his side. The heat burrowed into a bullet of fire there. He shook it away and brought his sight back up, and into a third slash that he dodged at the last second before a force was pulling him away.
King.
The rest of it came like hail, after Dewott as he slid to King's side and toward both of them before King cleaved them apart with a sheer force of focus that had been far stronger than what he had shown him earlier. He brushed past the quibbling in his mind, throwing a glance over his shoulder to follow King's dismay.
Icey was falling. A sphere of force loomed— tailed behind her, all with the intent of shredding her apart. King flashed desperately behind Dewott's eyes again, and Dewott kicked forward with the swiftness he'd taken from the trainer's Arcanine; he would do anything to shut King up. He came to form between Icy and her shadow to wrap a paw around her and bring her close. She was breathing, but the breaths were spotty and short. She also wasn't moving, but she had caught his eyes when he observed closer. She was awake, and even without a voice, she had told him everything she needed to.
Poison.
Dewott spun back toward Icey's—now their— shadow. It sprang open into a brown shade of spiky and shrieking muscle. Sandslash thundered down with a flashing claw that Dewott took across a scalchop that left him dismayed when it crumbled in his paws, and had also sent him, and Icey, spiraling toward the dirt. Pressure fell around him and he pulled Icey to him immediately. It didn't stop the world from twisting in shimmering light. Dewott turned to King for an answer and found him cloaked in whirling purple and red. And, of course he was. It was clear that the trainer's ambush was a spur of the moment but decent plan and Dewott was sure it might've even been able to impress Jaret and his Arcanine, if he'd gotten lucky.
But King seemed to see everything.
The light came in and it pushed him even closer to Icey, if that were possible. It ghosted against and over him, surprising Dewott with earth when he came through the other side. He turned the hurtle into a tumble that let Icey slip from his grasp, and rolled him directly into hands. Familiar hands. His eyes went up and his paw froze just over the remaining scalchop, one of those hands he'd rolled into holding him in place before he'd even thought to strike. Seria had been glancing Icey's way before she turned her eyes back to him, and he stared at her, surprised.
"Are you okay?" Dewott winced. "It's okay," Seria added. "King—" Dewott wriggled loose, feet against the ground that he should've been crashing into and looked up. It would've been impossible to not find such a hulking Pokemon, and seeing him that far in the air was strange by itself. But what had been all the more impressive had been how quickly he'd reacted, shifting and swapping spaces between the three of them. He'd managed to eke out an understanding and viable counter to the will King weaponized—Confusion— as mislabeled as it was, but shifting the spaces of himself and others was something he'd never seen before.
Sandslash hadn't expected it either, and the blast of water that followed clipped him into a freefall down toward the dirt. Sandslash tucked himself into a ball to tunnel through and into the dirt. King thundered behind his eyes again, even more demanding if that were possible, but his direction, his command had been so desperate and out past both him and Seria. Something was gravely wrong.
Dewott snapped to attention, turning into a towering cauldron of burning fire. A limb wisped out, a void taking shape where what should've been hands. The flame billowed violently, face forming around a flash of eerie white near the top where the cauldron was hottest. It was smiling. Gold light crackled from inside the void as Magmortar leveled it just over Icey. But… how had they missed something as big as Magmortar? Water washed under his feet as he went forward. An Aqua Jet would get him there in time, before that thing would be able to react but the flicker of aura, those same whirls of purples and reds that had shifted him, swirled their way around that cauldron too. Seria yelled after him.
"Dewott watch out!" He was pulled, again, in the opposite direction, a desperate glance over his shoulder and a paw dropping to the empty space where his scalchop should've been as he turned into a still-standing Arcanine lunging for him again and with another Crunch. A sphere of violet red shored up around and pulsed across Arcanine with a flash and Dewott shielded himself against it, stepping forward the very next second, paws reaching to his other side.
He couldn't help but cry out in shock at the burning air that struck him. He also couldn't quite believe the blazing fist that tore him from the ground and snatched his breath away. That sizzling crackle of lightning also came back to him louder, closer and burning against his skin.
"We got em'! Thunderbolt!" Magmortar let the shot loose, overtaking Dewott entirely in a bursting flash of yellow light. Dewott thought he'd heard Seria screaming, and he'd heard and felt King landing and rushing over to save him. His voice found its way back into his mind like Dewott had been getting used to, but even that was distant, a mirage of some kind really.
But his mind was racing elsewhere and through everything as fast as those volts, and it let him remember what all of this was even happening for: He was the target. The Hunter had even said so, and both him and King had tried to defend the bait and not the actual prize, and that, Dewott realized, had been the desperation in King's voice. They'd outsmarted them. Dewott's vision blurred black when he hit the ground, watching and writhing as the hunter— or a blur that looked like him came to form next to him and with an effigy of gold no less. The hunter said something, and Dewott strained to catch it; his body twitched again, but the words came out clearer the second time.
"No worries. You won't die." Dewott did his best to snarl. Instead, he simply went still.
Fast-paced battles were always a hassle for King, and if there was anything that Dewott's temperament was good for, it was that. But it was also the thing that had gotten him a Thunderbolt that left him writhing in the dirt. The hunter had outsmarted him, preyed on his love for his dear Icey splayed a few feet away from Magmortar as the hunter grabbed a hold of Dewott and slung him over his shoulder. He must've been out of those anomalies that he'd thrown earlier.
Seria was close, too, but King could see the small shiver that she desperately tried to hide. King was sure that it was mostly for that hunter's sake. His eyes went over, to the Pokemon settling next to the hunter. He was careful to ignore the piece of silver rocking slowly. Hypno's turn toward him had been so direct and so precise that King understood that instant that he'd slipped past his attention and into his mind. It made King redouble his effort and shore up a shroud to block Hypno from his mind, and he would have to be doubly sure he kept his emotions in check. He was graced with a psychic mind too after all.
Still, it hadn't stopped Hypno from reaching into the future with what info he had grabbed, rippling through temporal space enough to scratch the surface of his mind and intent. Hypno had been given the answer to King's desperate switch by way of his own, and paired up with that Arcanine's frustrating Double Team no less and enough to feel out and predict this particular moment. He would need something that would let him access that space too, and ahead of Hypno. King made a face.
Forewarn was such an infuriating ability.
It was that and the budding of what King was sure was an obsession that brought Hypno's pinpoint focus onto him, and with a particular pedagogical tint at that. He hadn't expected to find such a hungry student in an enemy. He could feel Hypno prodding at his mind, tapping, searching across, and finding steel. The presence flickered, and the split-second hesitance of a student was all King needed. Pressure circled into the gem of the crown with a tap and the Shellder twisted a little bit deeper into his scalp that made King grimace— and also smile. Hypno was wide with astonishment and disbelief. King's light was staggering when it gleamed, seizing and twisting into Hypno. King's command, "deflect" had only been a ghost in his mind, but Hypno was sent flying by the command all the same.
That was one down, and the easiest. Sandslash's attempt to catch him off guard through Dig had almost been a problem. Almost, however, just wasn't going to do. He had timed his side step in just the right way so that Sandslash misread his Crush Claw and buffed the surface of his crown. The inhale that King brought frightened Sandslash into a quilled ball of purple, the Poison Sting that had gotten his dear beloved, but he hadn't had a chance to loose them like he thought he would as space, twisting itself into a bullet of force at King's whim, pried the ball open and slammed the Pokemon back into the dirt. King let out a slow, weighted breath.
That was two, and then three when the Arcanine came back into the fray yet again, entering into King's field of vision, his senses that he'd expanded upon really, and that had earned him a thwarted Flame Wheel and smoke, and then a handful of well-placed Water Guns that sent the Arcanine rolling back at the feet of his trainer when the steam lifted. And then, with another push of focus, he twisted with the color of his mind, taking a space right next to Seria again, and with a pull of his paw, yanked an unconscious Dewott back at their side as well.
Fast-paced battles were exhausting.
The hunter walked up with a whistle, looking over his Pokemon. The Hypno was the only one that had managed a way to his feet.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," he snickered. "Talking Slowking are really on a whole 'nother level." But the hunter's focus came down against him stronger than before, and stronger than ever. "I don't think sis'll mind if I snag you too. The last Slowking we saw was smart, but he couldn't talk like you. I guess Azalean Slowpoke are even slower than most." Taunting, as far as King was concerned, was a child's game and never to be taken seriously, and it was such an obvious appeal to emotion, anything to throw him off and none of it meant anything.
But he'd heard distantly about the Slowpoke in Azalea, about how they were worshipped for supposedly bringing rain, and how there were also rumors about them being harvested. It opened his mind to anger, and then regrettably to Hypno. That student was precocious and his tapping from earlier doubled back into a full-on assault that slipped him past King's barrier and into the map of his mind. That was bad, very bad, but King had already misstepped too far as it was. He would have to adapt. His will fell across and behind his brow to expel Hypno entirely, and then manifested it into a mauve wisping just over him. His mind reached for the hunter, and for Seria. His body creaked and his focus shuddered. Adjusting a Side Change teleport to an opponent was always perplexing and always difficult. But King was well-versed and also well-practiced. The click in his mind brought him to the success he'd expected all the same.
He inhaled as he turned back to Seria. Or, at least to the Hypno that'd taken her place. Power rippled from his fist and it would've been a real issue if it had struck.
If.
King bellowed with a breath of fire so strong that overtook Hypno and doused his Dynamic Punch. But that Hypno still came out on the other side with a hunched form and desperate breath that somehow held him up, and brought a weak fist that opened up into a hand that clasped King's shoulder exhausted. Hypno came up with a deep breath but was clipped and caught off guard by a pressure glancing into his shoulder, and then punching into his gut to rip his breath away. King's hand, and will went out against Hypno's reckless and second Dynamic Punch, thrashing up against and cracking a feel of glass that couldn't be anyone else but that student's. King's order was stalwart and deafening.
Move! And Hypno was made to obey without question.
King fell to his knees, and a paw went up to steady his crown. The Shellder had loosened a little and that meant that the venom it had was spent too. That was a good thing. Venom was still venom, and all things were better in moderation and never excess. He focused again, this time with a lot more effort and strain, but enough to manifest a flitting wisp of an image of where everyone was.
There was Icey, a few feet, mere steps from him, and a forceful expansion of view brought him Arcanine, Sandslash, and a newly beaten Hypno that he'd manage to put down for the count with the full force of his will, who all of which had left strangely out of their Poke-Balls and—
The image wilted, and King hoisted himself back up with a heave and to the hunter and Seria. He had an arm pressed and twisted against her back—roughly based on the grimace written into her face. King's breath tightened.
"An uncouth tactic for an uncouth boy."
"Nah, you did it to yourself." It was a taut response, and still, somehow, frivolous." I didn't think you'd be this tough." Pain screeched across his brow and took King's focus with it to his right and to someone else. The hunter followed and King swore again under his breath.
"Huh? Yo, Roan!" The newcomer was a tired, slothing kind of man that Dewott would have utterly abhorred had he been awake. "Roan" in of itself wasn't even a real name, as far as his mind could tell him. He slowed to a stop with lips upturned in a father's approval.
How old was this man?
"Looks like you really got yourself a cannon here, huh?" The hunter gave Roan a wide smile, and that reminded King that this hunter was also a child.
"I was just telling him that he's way tougher than he looks!"
"Huh? You mean you were having an actual conversation with it? Don't Slowking speak…well, nonsense?"
"Not this one! He can actually talk! Sis says that the only Slowking that can actually talk come from the Shamouti Islands!" Roan's eyes came up to King.
"You don't say…" Roan grinned, and where King expected malice, there was none. "You really did find a big one."
"What'd you expect? My sister's in the 600, so I definitely gotta' make sure I'm doing something!" Roan's hand went up.
"Nah. You should take it easy. Victoria is Victoria, and Cody is Cody, right?" The hunter bit down a grin.
"Maybe, but… I gotta show out somehow."
"Tell you what," Roan strode up beside him, hand clasping around a shoulder. "How about you let me grind down this Slowking, and you can take him to Victoria. You look like you've already worn him down a lot. We can even add some extra details to make you better!" Cody turned back to King with an even stronger resolve that nearly made King buckle under the strain.
"That sounds like a plan!"
King's heart drummed in his ears. He had fought with the full breadth of everything he had. The Shellder venom had been borrowed time, and made Future Sight that much more versatile. It had been the answer to Arcanine and Sandslash, and opened up that Hypno to his will. But he was also utterly drained.
Fast-paced battles were beyond exhausting and a second round was unfathomable. But he couldn't leave Seria on her own, and he refused to abandon his darling, not when it was his chance to truly win her over with his strength. That desire wasn't enough to stop him from bending, cringing if he were honest with himself at a fourth body that'd made its way into, no stamped itself into his mind.
Dark.
Unrelenting, and strong.
Too strong,
The fourth body that formed in his mind forced Roan, or his signature anyway, to shirk back with a strand of cautious amusement. But Cody paled in comparison. King re-adjusted the strain that rattled against his skull and a fuller, more clear image of Cody came together. Cody wasn't just surprised, but bewildered. The body shifted and stilled the air, and this made King buckle. His mind was thundering against his eyes and pulling him toward that body. King obliged.
It was human, in shape and therefore in theory, or so he hoped but there had been nothing else. A normal human torso, with exceedingly standard arms, legs and a head but all of it dressed in impossibly opaque darkness that found a light tinged with spiraling purple and red; a nightmare. It spoke, uttered really, some incomprehensible noise that could possibly pass as speech if King stretched his mind far enough, and then again when the shadow realized that he didn't understand. He'd felt Cody's essence all but drain in the face of the shadow and felt Roan shore up his guard, the warbled pitch of a Poke-ball ringing distantly in King's ears. The shadow uttered again with a step toward King, and black dust skittered against him and over him. The shadows focus had shifted past him for just a moment but fell back to him with a third punch of a word that weighed against King's mind heavier than anything he'd placed himself against before: he understood the shadow only then.
"Rest." King broke against that weight, and hadn't even realized it when his back hit the dirt.
Ryuu pressed his fingers, thumb and middle against his temples. It was a stabbing pain this time rather than a shooting fire, like most pain was, but he'd managed to make those fade if he rubbed the sides of his head just right, and with a blessing from Pioggia no less.
Avia had told him that she would bring him "those eyes of the past" if he were to get too close to her, and he took those warnings of hers to heart, but it would've been arrogant to think he knew exactly what those "eyes of the past" entailed.
Still, it brought him strength without question, and from how Slowking had watched him utterly overwhelmed, strength without form. A part of him wanted to believe that the Slowking had fallen because he was simply exhausted. Psychic Pokemon were strong just by way of their nature, but it always took them so long to get going, and maintaining the flow of that energy was notoriously fickle, all things he'd learned from Avia. But, he'd reached out to Slowking with all of the softness that he could, told him to rest, but the Miracle Eye had come to life and forced King to do just that. Strength without form wasn't just strength.
It was power.
"If it isn't Ryuu Sinclair from Aspertia." Ryuu's eyes flicked, glaring, over to the older man.
"Roan of the 600." A smile, and then he was sauntering over to him with open arms.
"Aw, don't be so modest! We're all in the same boat here, aren't we?" Ryuu's hand, like light, went to his waist. Roan had been just as fast. His low smile remained.
"Do you still have the same team?"
"They're stronger."
"And here I didn't think that was possible." Ryuu's glare deepened. His hand tightened around Kaito's ball. Roan sighed, then shrugged. "You kids are prodigies. Every single one of you." He pointed over to Cody. "Especially that one. That Slowking gave him a little bit of trouble, but—"
"Leave him out of it, understand?" Roan frowned, and sighed again.
"And you're as serious as ever…"
"I mean it," Ryuu shot back harshly. "He's just a kid."
"No I'm not," Cody suddenly chimed in. "I don't see you for two years and that's the first thing you say after showing up randomly!? You don't even know how much better I've gotten! It's not like you even saw the battle I just had anyway—"
"I did," He'd said that sharper than he'd meant to. "You've gotten a lot better, but…" a pause. "You're doing this?" Cody made a face, and Ryuu's eyes fell down to the woman when she whimpered in pain, arm twisted and locked into her back as Cody pressed his weight on it. Cody was suddenly seething.
"What else did you expect me to do!? What'd you expect Vicky to do!?" Ryuu frowned. "Do you even know what you did?! Do you even know what she's been dealing with?!" Roan's arm shot out before Cody and he went quiet. He was glaring.
"You abandoned him, you know," Roan said matter-of-fact. "Don't you know that people hate to be abandoned?" Ryuu brought his attention back to Roan, and with it, a glower.
"And you have all the details of the situation, I take it?"
"Only what Victoria's let me know."
"So you don't." Roan chortled.
"Okay, you got me. I guess you can say I managed to put things together after some skulking around and all that. The 600 have to know things about each other, don't we? What if we have to band together at some point?" Ryuu's glower deepened. "Battles between the 600 are dicey, you know. I heard about Violet City. You're not really considering another battle in Ecruteak of all places, are you?" Ryuu looked askance, eyes rolling over the city and late sunset, the Pokemon Center's practice field of dirt and gravel, and the attention of bystanders and other trainers at that. They were drawing too much attention. Cody cut in.
"Don't worry about him, Roan." Cody tightened his grip and the girl squeaked in pain when he yanked her up on her feet, but she was taller than him and swept one of her legs out from under her with a snarl to put her on a knee when she'd caught herself. Ryuu started with a powerful step forward and teeth clenched. His voice was sulfur.
"Cody!"
"You left," came a sour reply. "So I'll show you I've grown up!" He shoved the woman and she scuffed into the dirt, and Ryuu's hand tightened around the button on Kaito's ball, but a burst of sand kicked up to blind him. Wind gusts blew the sand away the next second and nearly threw it in his eyes. He came to the sight of that woman prone, and face to face with Magmortar and his open hand, just as his head began to ache, just as the Miracle Eye began to return, and just as Cody snarled a command. "Fire Blast!"
Dragons were always powerful opponents, even when they weren't. Even when they were soft or something like it, they were always, without fail, strong. Battling dragons were also almost always a real test of his strength, a benchmark really, if Arcanine were honest with himself.
He'd defeated quite a few of the Charizard in the valley. He ran circles around them, and none of them, save for one of the Charizard that he'd honed his breathwork with in the Valley of the Singed, as he'd called it, had been able to keep up in the slightest, and he'd even seen Dragonite put that Charizard to shame.
He'd even matched the Salamence that he'd gotten into a scrape with in Violet City, the one that never seemed to leave him alone and never left his mind. Sagark was both lazy and strong, outweighing the Blaziken that he'd had fun against too.
Kingdra was without a doubt weaker than both of them, in theory, but she battled him so completely and so fully, and with a lust and zeal that Arcanine knew that she hadn't felt for a long time. He saw it in her movement, and in her eyes, each movement a hyper-focused planning of strategies meant to catch him off guard to not just land a hit or to even hurt him, but to kill him.
Between her Hydro Pumps, and a reckless charge that shored up streams of rapids around her, Kingdra had become consumed by her nature, and it made Arcanine smile. She was his first fight against an actual dragon he realized. She was eons ahead and beyond any opponents that he'd ever had to fight, and it wasn't as if rank and file in criminal organizations had ever been a real consideration.
Arcanine loved every moment of it. She'd made the air pulse two more times over, and nearly made it shatter on the third and it had let her land three shots that had splayed his blood over the dirt, and like Ampharos's, over her face that had earned her another heel across her face and into her snout. But he'd imbued it with power and strength and went after her with no defense, and lost himself in the battle too.
There had been times where he'd heard his trainer yelling and shouting in concern and worry and then being inevitably placed back down to recover, either by Liza or one of the others. He was defending them, yes, but… he was also fighting.
She'd just missed a blinking charge, fast enough to strike anyone else, scuffing over the surface again, and landing conveniently just before her trainer and he'd expected the air to twist again, another Dragon Dance that would've placed Kingdra at officially being too fast for even him, but held down his surprise when Kingdra gave him a gleeful gleam of her eyes.
More!
Arcanine's nose twitched. He'd locked on and identified Kingdra's scent near the beginning, but it shifted, and had moved into something that was more pungent and not at all like the royal silk and salted bitterness he'd identified; it was something else entirely.
She was suddenly odorless and smelled like nothing, perhaps stale air, if that were possible. Her scent ripped back into his nose the next second, a toiled mix between burning metal, rotting earth and brackish brine. More mysticism, more draconic energy.
More!
The strength of her Outrage pushed her forward in another charge that sent Arcanine flying and Jaret howling, But he'd caught himself, skirting on the edges of the limits of his Bulldoze. She came for him even faster after that, Outrage's red aura pulsing around her frame. Arcanine had shored up three more pillars of earth, and none of them had been enough to even slow her. Arcanine's muscles swelled as he leaned into a second Close Combat. He ignored the creeping exhaustion.
The pillar shattered under the weight of the clash, and Arcanine shifted to glean some of her power away, strong enough to carry itself into one of the mountain faces around them. Arcanine grimaced when Kingdra stalled in the air, this time through her pure potency in her wrath. She was going to destroy the mountains if he wasn't careful. Pain tingled through his frame, and he ignored it then too. She'd only struck him once, and he'd parried the brunt of it. She hit hard, unimaginably hard, but that wasn't going to stop him. He called on his strength, his innate strength that gave him his natural speed to bound him from the debris of his falling Bulldoze and back onto the spire.
Kingdra had been right there with him too, all the more enthralled that he had challenged her wrath of all things, that he'd challenged it and was still standing. The aura of her wrath swelled and ballooned out then, splitting into two, three, four limbs, claws that would serve as her weapons. If Kingdra had been able to smile, Arcanine was sure it would've been from ear to ear.
More…!
He'd never seen an Outrage like what she was showing him. Had never seen pure energy from any dragon metastasize into limbs. From what he'd seen, Dragon energy was notoriously difficult to wield with poise.
Kingdra was simply full of surprises. Kingdra howled her request a fourth time, a last time and Arcanine smirked. She'd spent so much time asking, demanding him to take her seriously, and he did but she wanted him to battle without worrying about Jaret, without worrying about the mountain or the space that they were in. She wanted him to see only her, the same way she saw only him. Arcanine crouched at the ready with a snicker, nose twitching as he settled it against the new scent of her wrath and obliged.
Her hands rose upward like wings and dove for him with an even stronger tint of lightning and black and Arcanine moved in with his third Close Combat with teeth and claws rushing innate power behind them; he was going to peel back those scales this time.
He met her once, twice and then thrice, and Arcanine even felt Kingdra's wrath waver against him. Innate energy applied in its purest form was incredible and Arcanine couldn't believe that even a dragon's might was folded before it. He couldn't really even believe that it had been wild Charizard that had discovered it, or at least, somehow learned about it, and those same Charizard from the Singed Rock Valley had admired his strength enough to give them their blessing. Kingdra's wrath had split again, this time into eight, moving faster and with her as she charged. And surprisingly, they were too slow. Arcanine's nose twitched and it let him know that the other Pokemon, Ravin's, were moving in toward Jaret and the others.
To Eevee.
But…
He didn't care at all. More accurately, he couldn't, and if Arcanine were entirely honest with himself, he didn't want to. Ravin, without a doubt, was less of a fighter and more of a scholar. A Poke-ball clicking to life and the pinch of static at his nose let Arcanine truly tune into Kingdra's demand. Manectric would be fine, and if she struggled, then Juliet would be able to do something. Kingdra demanded all of his attention, and that was what he gave her.
He gave her another rumble: A Close Combat against the whole of her wrath.
He gave her a start when she'd burned a bullet through a leg he'd left steaming and with no blood and that left her snickering praise: She'd only known the best practitioners to hold Morning Sun so well.
But he had earned her ire and from what he had learned through their battle, her adoration. She had found her rhythm and struck him for the first time with her charge of swirling rapids, and it hurt. She'd expected his bones to break on contact but fired into him with a Hydro Pump that he'd tampered down by supercharging his Flash Fire with his own Flamethrower to minimize the damage. But she'd struck him good, drew the most blood that she'd been able to so far, and she made sure she was caught in the splatter.
She was a dragon after all.
It'd sent him rolling backwards, hurt, bruised and bleeding, but also full of life. She was strong. Impossibly and thoroughly strong. But he was never one to back down, and Kingdra had learned that fact about him almost immediately. Jaret's voice had come and gone throughout the exchange but he was quiet now and Arcanine could feel all of his trainer's concern and focus settling at his back. There was a lot of it there but there was also his trust that ebbed into him alongside a rumbling of a growl. Arcanine paused, and the growl became thunder. He bit down and ignored it. Whatever he'd heard, he had no time for it. His muscles swelled and he lunged in with the heaviest pulse of his innate energy.
Arcanine moved everything else aside when he engaged her again for the third time, paws whirling ecstatic fury against wrath and his legs gliding him across the battlefield. A noise rose from Jaret's direction, probably that Ravin and his Pokemon arriving before Jaret and everyone else, and then the sounds of a fight starting that he just didn't care about.
Kingdra was all that mattered.
Another pulse and the air broke.
Colors changed and shifted space that strengthened her claws into graviton force. They came down after Arcanine fast and he was simply faster. Force skittered behind his gallop, the impact trickling up his heels but he was grinning, smiling from ear to ear. He was toying with her, and he knew she knew it. But Arcanine doubled down with a fierce snarl and his body went dense with strength, and warm with invisible light.
Kingdra was looking over him again, and this time, he'd struck her before she had a chance to follow. The blow lifted her and Arcanine followed her with a back and forth of his Bulldoze and Close Combat. His final blow came from overhead, catching wind of one of his claws breaking and a scale of Kingdra's peeling as she was sent barreling from the spire and the valley down below.
Arcanine landed sloppily, but landed on all fours nonetheless. His first instinct had been to follow after Kingdra, to demand more of her. They'd both wanted the same thing after all. Instead, his eyes went over to her trainer, Victoria, as his blood cooled and insurmountable exhaustion barreled down on him. He couldn't help but fall over. Victoria's eyes were cold, but her lips were turned up into a slight curve. He suddenly understood where Kingdra had gotten it from.
"Oh, you. Are. Good. And Kingdra absolutely loves you. Ravin was right when he said you were on the cusp." Arcanine tensed on shaky legs. That was the second time she'd said that. What did she mean by 'on the cusp'? He didn't know what 'Andaras' was, but he'd made his vow to not go, and even as exhausted as he was, he still had a bit of his divine innate left in him. That Cloyster of hers would be a problem, but not unbeatable. And, how was she so calm? He'd knocked Kingdra into the ravine below.
Not a killing blow by any means, but it would be enough time to finish her off. Arcanine steadied himself and focused on the heated light blooming from his core. He wasn't one to kill, but this huntress, for all of the damage she'd caused was far too dangerous. The light cultivated and slowly spread outward. The training definitely had an effect, he was going to amp his Fire Blast even higher than he had against Sagark. The Thunder from earlier had also rolled back into his senses, through his ears and into his heart. He ignored it again, and paused when he saw Victoria's eyes move past him and back to Jaret and that had Arcanine back to his senses. He followed Victoria to Viola with her Manectric, and with her Grovyle no less, and the three of them fanned out across the others. He was surprised that Viola of all people had decided to make her stand, but out of everyone that could still fight, she smelled like fear the least.
Grovyle stood at the front with a smirk that could only be described as condescending, looking down at the three of Ravin's Pokemon from earlier, all of them and Ravin included snaked into the ground with an intricate set of vines.
Arcanine hadn't expected him to be back so soon.
"You've definitely fought dragon's before." Arcanine turned back to Victoria, to that small curve of lip that had grown to a slightly wider grin, and into something close to Kingdra's exaltation. "So," she sucked in a breath, scented crystal and dried, that powdered ice across Arcanine's nose, and it startled him. "I think we can show you Mastery for real." Arcanine shuddered.
Mastery?
What did she mean, 'show him for real'? Victoria inhaled again, this time with a mist swirling into her lungs. The exhale out though, was a yawn.
A breath of ice.
Another yawn.
What was she doing?
"Arcanine!" Terror punched into his nose, into his chest and whisked him back to Viola when he caught her scent unmistakably mingled in. The scent was the strongest between her brow, or maybe just on the sides of her eyes where they widest with terror. His eyes dropped down a bit, to her slightly trembling hands with that little piece of talking metal that made him all the more apprehensive. His eyes went up when Viola's did, past him and over Victoria.
Arcanine had never seen the sky darkened as fast as it did, and he'd never been in the mountains when it had, but he'd heard from hikers that mountain-side thunderstorms were dangerous. But he was sure that none of those hikers had ever faced down a dragon like Kingdra. She'd flashed back to life, in the space a little ways above her trainer with wind and power whirling around her.
"A Pokédex," Victoria started coldly. "Then you know what comes next." Her finger wafted up slowly to point toward Arcanine that'd sent a pang into his center. He'd felt that first before he saw the three times sparks of light, each of them flashing closer and closer until burning ice punctured into where the pang had been, and then even deeper than that. It was cutting into and through him, and all of the focus he'd turned into his Flash Fire and Divine Innate flailed against it. His ear twitched toward Victoria's voice, subtle, soft and chilling.
"Snipe." The Hydro Pump splattered blood, and sent him flying.
Kingdra exhaled, and it sent shivers deep into her bones. Arcanine had been so strong, so fast, so… perfect.
She'd berated Crawdaunt for being too short-sighted. It was the whole reason she even had to fight in the first place. Ampharos was the most ardent challenge there, and a blip on her radar sans the Electro Ball, and she had decided, begrudgingly, to entertain him. Or at least, kill him for putting Dewgong in so much danger.
But Ampharos's stubborness had also brought her Arcanine, and she couldn't help but shudder in glee. He'd been fresh from training, that much was obvious. Most Pokemon that tasted even a little of their Divine Innate were always wild, and sensitive to the energies around them. Kingdra wondered if Arcanine had even known he'd started to become a dragon in his own right. He certainly fought her like one.
But he was new to it for sure, and he'd pushed a little too hard and too much, and it entreated her the full breadth of her Mastery, something that no amount of Flash Fire shields or Morning Sun variants were going to save him from. She looked over his grave in the face of one of the mountains at the Charicific Valley. It was a perfect gift for him. He'd earned it after all.
She came down to the rest of them with smiling eyes, to Arcanine's trainer, and it would've been impossible to describe the expression if she had too, but what she had been able to make out was desperation and murderous fury. It was him, and the short girl with the plain face that she was sure were the only ones that had the will to move. Her Grovyle had already pivoted her way, standing strong to block her way to the Eevee that Ravin should've been able to grab. At the very least, he did seem clever. There wasn't going to be much to expect though, especially not after a Pokemon that had tasted the divine, and especially not after tasting the scent of that Arcanine. She caught a whiff of Sagark, even. She honed her focus and braced for Grovyle. An Ice Beam to freeze him solid would do the trick, and when he finally rushed her, she had, for some reason, let all of her chances slip right by her. Being just out of reach and sly was never the problem. She'd dealt with that before well enough before.
No, what bothered her was the subtle crackles and jolts of lightning that would spark from her nozzle and across her eyes and face, everywhere where she'd bathed in that Arcanine's blood. What had bothered her was that while she parried every Leaf Blade and dodged every Energy Ball, Arcanine's trainer, Jaret, always brought her attention to his eyes, and always twisted with that fury.
It thundered in her mind at one point, and she'd caught a Leaf Blade that Grovyle had tailored together with a surprising and clearly newly learned Dragonbreath. That crackling had gotten stronger, louder until it demanded her eyes again, at the same time she'd managed to freeze Grovyle's foot into place. She glanced up and the sight of Jaret locked her, and everyone else into place.
The shattered shoulder was probably the only thing that kept him in place, but Kingdra wasn't certain if that notion applied at all. Him standing hadn't been something she'd expected at all, and the tremble in his body was certainly unexpected too. The crackling she'd gotten used to rattled against her again almost immediately, even louder and stronger than before and caught her off guard when she realized that Jaret was the one making the noise now.
What was happening?
"I'm not gonna' let you take him," Jaret snarled. The sky was dark, even darker than she'd managed. Ravin did remark on Arcanine being 'not normal' but that was just the Divine. But this…
This was feral.
This was different.
"I won't." Jaret bellowed and Kingdra was sure the sky had cracked. "I'll kill you before that happens!" Jaret flashed light, a blinding light, and Kingdra's heart pulsed, and her mind, in foreign and welcome desperation turned her eye back to Arcanine's grave.
And found that very same light.
It was a slow pulse at first before leveling itself to drums, her heart. It pulled her back to Jaret bathed in not just light, but thunderous light. Kingdra bit down past her awe, pulling from Victoria and her own divine, feeling Victoria wisp a little as she pulled for her mastery and Hydro Pump. But Jaret howled, and bulbous lightning and divinity— Arcanine— was there, right in the space next to her, red eyes burning into and through her. He roared, and fire that struck her like lightning, consumed her.
Kingdra fell into the dirt in defeat and unmoving, but Viola didn't dare to look anywhere else. Kingdra had lost… she thought, but that didn't mean that they won. But Viola did catch something not quite a sneer written across Victoria's face before she'd lowered her eyes back to Kingdra.
She didn't believe it anymore than they did.
Victoria and her Kingdra were dangerous, and Kingdra like Victoria's were a rarity, if not a pure anomaly. Research and theory put forth that it was possible for Kingdra to cause storms from yawning alone, but no one had ever seen it in the field.
And Kingdra had even turned the storm itself into flashes of light that she was certain that no researcher had ever seen before either. And it had all struck Arcanine in a way that she was sure would've killed him but left him bursting with lightning and fire instead. She'd meant to stop Jaret when he'd bolted past her, but she'd hesitated at the thought of his shoulder, but that didn't really matter to him.
"Arcanine! H-hey! Stay with me okay?!" He strained to hold his voice together, and leaned into Arcanine's coat. Viola's eyes went up to Victoria, surprised when all she did was stare at them.
"Ravin was right," she started softly. "But too bad for you, I still have one more left." Viola's stance tightened, and so did Grovyle's. This was an uphill fight, probably even futile. But she couldn't stand aside.
She wouldn't.
Victoria hands flicked at her waist, fingers dancing over the button for her Cloyster. She was interrupted the very next second when her waist chimed, and just as deft as the first time, her hands flung to her waist, slipping it on over her wrist. A screen flared up, and another flared to the side.
She's taking a phone call…? Victoria's eyes widened in shock, then she sighed, clicking the device shut and tucking it away.
"But lucky for you, I'll cut you a deal." Viola held under her eyes, but Jaret had lifted his head back up with the same murderous glare. And then he was up, faster than what he'd been all this time.
"I'll kill you!"
"Jaret!" The rage melted the very next moment and he tensed, then tossed a ginger glance her way. He'd done a lot of crying. "Don't." He slumped, pitfully, back into Arcanine. Viola glanced back up to Victoria, to her pointing past her and to Ravin.
"Let him go, and I'll let you off." Viola's eyes narrowed.
"Why would I trust that?"
"Because there's been a change in plans. Something more important than Eevee." Victoria looked past them, toward her Manectric and the others, then back down. "So, let the boy go, and I'll let you all off. He's just a kid."
"Is that a promise?" Victoria sneered again.
"Who do you think I am, Clair?" And then a scoff. "And I told you, there's something else more important, so just hurry up and hand him over!" Viola paused for a second, then signaled Grovyle to unbind Ravin. He'd gone by her in silence, but there was a recognition, a small "thanks" that was lost on his Salandit glaring, and the particular degree of protection from a Meowstic that had ambushed and almost overwhelmed Grovyle then too. She'd been hiding, this entire time, and she was probably the one that has moved first at the start of everything. But battling was not the boy's strong suit, and Viola was grateful for that.
It hadn't even been seconds after he made his way back over to Victoria before she'd slipped something into her hands again, between her fingers that Viola deciphered immediately as smoke bombs. How long had she had those?
"It was fun! I hope we can do this again sometime!"
Victoria smiled, a cloud snapping up to obscure her and Ravin both, settling only moments later to an empty space, leaving the five of them with horror in their minds, and a sour taste in their mouths.
A/N: Okay, so this may need some edits for tightning things up, but I couldn't wait to get this out. A little update, but US based here and things are... well, not great. So if the updates slow, sorry about that. But this story won't die until I do! At 12,574 words, this is my third longest chapter ever, but there was a ton of rework, including dicing one of 17-year old me's favorite scenes at the end, but I definitely think this is a better end result. Last but not least, if anybody wants to review, by all means please do! I know that it can be a dicey thing but trust me, I have thick skin, so if you wanna tear it apart, or tell me how much you liked/hated something, I'm all ears.
P.S: One of the original submitters came back to the story and I couldn't have been more geeked, and I hope that all of the Arcanine hype makes them happy, because it certainly did for me!
Anyway, always grateful for everything,
Reknownst