A/N: So, this update marks you guys being all caught up here. I mentioned that the next chapter is giving me some trouble and that still applies, but we're making slow progress. This chapter also features the introduction of another one of my favorites, and a new addition for the subplot I got from the Pokemon FF subreddit. Since you guys are all up to date here, I'm still really curious to hear how you guys feel this one stacks against the original so far. Praise and criticism are super welcome, I gotta improve somehow. You guys are appreciated.
Chapter was originally posted to ao3 on: 24-10-06
Eevee cowed behind his leg at first, and if it had been any other situation, Jaret would've thought it was unlike her. But this woman was tall, and her stare, unnerving. He had had his run-in with thieves before, but this woman was unlike anything he had seen. His face twitched at the thought; he was having a lot of firsts this year.
"You called her 'lustered'," he started coolly. "I've heard a lot of new words in the last hour or so, so I'm going to need you to spit out what you mean." The woman cocked a brow.
"You think I want to waste time with the details? All you need to know is that I'm taking her."
"Like hell you are!" She laughed.
"And how are you going to stop me? You're not going to use her to battle, are you?" She pointed a finger at him. "Especially not when I already have her." Jaret froze, and his attention dipped down to his leg where numb static plumed where Eevee's weight should've been. He twisted to reach for her, and his body locked him into stone. His muscles bit down, and burned static flashed across his body.
Jaret screamed for both pain and effort. His body wouldn't move, no matter how much he demanded it. Eevee buoyed by in the corner of his eye and noted streaks of deep gold across her fur: Stun Spore. His mind flared into a frenzy, and his muscles bit down harder; Jaret snarled. Stun Spore wasn't going to stop him. Weight clasped a space near him, on the fringes of his sight that cut the scent of wet mud into his nose. Power hummed from the space just as Jaret leaned into his fury. His body went slack for a moment, and he lurched forward, falling into a tumble into the dirt. He roared.
"Eevee…!" The air rattled and shifted, and a teeming ball of shadow sliced by him, and into that dense space that sent a body crashing into the ground. Eevee broke her paralysis, and curiosity tugged at him to see who or what had come after him, but he didn't have the time. Eevee was more important. He brought the woman and her Kingdra into sight. He was on the backfoot without any of his Pokemon, and Eevee was held down and afloat by a psychic force that he couldn't pinpoint; Eevee was getting closer to the woman, and she was beginning to panic. The blue outline shimmering around Eevee gave him an idea.
"Eevee," Jaret's voice was even, and he saw Eevee's tension curb a bit, and Jaret's did too. He was going to get her out of this. "Shadow Ball!" Darkness swirled to Eevee's mouth before it pulsed into an obsidian sphere; it was what Jaret was waiting for. "Bite down!" Eevee's eyes flared in bewilderment. She found Jaret, and he held under her eyes. "Trust me!" Eevee bit down. The Shadow Ball held for a split second before flattening into a teeming disk, then burst apart.
Shadow flung outward in every direction from Eevee and even cleaved through the light that had held her down. She landed adroit and on her feet and wasted no time and kicked off back toward Jaret, and he smirked. It had been sloppy and crude, but "Shadow Pulse" worked just fine enough for him; he would have to thank coordinators for the inspiration later.
Jaret moved to take Eevee into his arms but froze at the inkling of that heavy presence from earlier. He threw a glance over his shoulder to the sight of a massive mound of red poised to strike with a pulsing pincer raised overhead. Jaret shifted out of the way, to the side as Crawdaunt barreled down into space. It landed deftly, and Jaret, with strained effort, searched his mind for the next move to get Eevee from between Crawdaunt and its trainer.
Crawdaunt caught him off guard when he disregarded Eevee to go after him, and Jaret kicked out to catch a pincer that wasn't quite wide enough. He pressed down on the Pokemon as best he could, noting that Crawdaunt's claws were surprisingly strong and that it wasn't going to move. He grimaced, the other pincer pulsing as the form slipped from under him. Jaret stumbled forward, and a glance to his side brought the same as before, and this time Crawdaunt was going to be sure he connected.
But Jaret was quicker still and dove into a roll that left Crawdaunt swiping back into space with a snarl of annoyance. Crawdaunt had no time to react when Eevee intervened, catching it in mid-air with a Quick Attack that sent the Pokemon skidding on its side in the dirt and on the edge of the cliff. Jaret was on his feet with Eevee at his side and turned his attention toward the woman clapping in amusement.
"Oh, you are good."
"What the hell do you want with my Pokemon!?"
"Not just any of your Pokemon, but your Eevee in particular. You were listening earlier weren't you?"
"Shut it. Whether it's just Eevee or more than that, I'm not going to let a grimy thief get her hands on any Pokemon." The woman leaned against her Kingdra as it floated languid, eyes half-closed in disinterest.
Like that Salamence.
"Judging from Kingdra and pure common sense," she began. "Even if you're going to battle with her, I don't think there's much Jaret King can do with just a little Eevee." Hungry eyes. "And I would hate to ruin that silver coat of hers."
"Don't look at her like that," Jaret spat, and the woman's eyes flicked back up to him. "I know your type, and I've knocked around some heads before because they were trying to do exactly what you think you're gonna' do." The woman pushed herself up from Kingdra with another stretch. "And you can wipe that smile off your face." She laughed and said nothing, pointing past him, to the Crawdaunt. It was back on its feet, shaking and drumming its pincers together and against its body, and when a crimson flashed across its armor, Jaret cursed.
"You're really good." Jaret whipped back to her with a glare.
"A Dragon Dance isn't going to keep her coat clean, you know."
"I thought you said you weren't going to let me take her." She sneered. "It shouldn't be a problem for one of the 600 like you, right?" Jaret's scowl deepened.
"If you know that, then you're one of them too, aren't you?" The woman laughed again, this time less coy, more jeering.
"You finally caught on! But, I don't think I can just go and tell you my name just like that now can I?" Jaret spat.
"Anyone in the 600 paying attention knows who you are." Her eyes narrowed, but her smirk didn't leave.
"Think you can handle a Crawdaunt with just an Eevee?"
"Victoria Reed's Crawdaunt doesn't have the same reputation as her Kingdra." He stepped closer to Eevee, eyes keen on the woman. "I think I can manage until my real heavy hitters get back." She flashed a violent smile.
"Please, call me Victoria."
Eevee was young, curious, and somewhat of an unintentional troublemaker, and there had been so many times where she had needed to be saved by Arcanine or Leavanny, and no matter how exasperated they might have felt, they would always come to her aid and everyone else would too, but it was always those two at the head of everything.
But no one was here right now, and she was the only thing standing between Jaret and a Crawdaunt that she was sure would mangle and tear him apart. She dodged a Crabhammer of his that dug him into the dirt a little ways, and Eevee was swift, charging a Quick Attack that knocked Crawdaunt free and sent him skidding back a little.
His claws snapped in anticipation, and his eyes burned with it too. He was impressed; she had his full attention now. He lunged for her with a burst of red wind that moved him just a bit too fast, and her startled loss of balance had been the only thing that had saved her, tucking it into a roll and a bounce back to her feet. But Crawdaunt was already overhead with another Crabhammer, this time pulsing with crimson.
Crawdaunt was knocked aside just then, Jaret sliding to her side and turning to her with a barbed focus that reminded Eevee of Violet City. She saw also, maybe just as quickly, how tired her trainer really was. Happy Town had been the last time they had gotten to rest in full, and that had been interrupted by Virgil's nightmare. Every battle since had been grueling, and from the way that woman had leered at her, they were more than likely to get worse from now.
Eevee turned to the sound of snapping claws, and another cloud of red sweeping over Crawdaunt, but his attention had shifted, and it settled densely to where exactly she figured it would. She tensed, eyes skittering over him to make sense of everything. His armor pulsed, and his gaze slit. Both came together in another fast lunge, too fast, of a current-backed tackle.
She lunged, strained forward with another Quick Attack just as the command left her trainer's lips. The mountains bent into a blur as she caught Crawdaunt, the impact enough to move his aim but not to hurt him. His charge cut the space just short of Jaret, who bounded back and away with Eevee at his side.
Shadow tinted the aura now, carrying the gargled crackling of blue lightning along with it. Eevee braced herself again. She crouched low to get a sense for the thin layer of light—knowledge, that wisped along her fur and forced down her surprise when her legs trembled all the way down. She knew Crawdaunt shells were hard, but Eevee had never hurt herself against one like this, and Crawdaunt brightened at that realization all the more; his eyes were screaming for her to fight harder. They demanded it.
So that was what she did.
Jaret's call for Copycat had already been in her mind, and Eevee pulled that light into her body; it snapped into an aura the same instant. Crawdaunt scoffed and moved for Jaret a third time, and that ended the same way as it had the other two times. Except that time, he had been noticeably slower.
Eevee called on the knowledge again, swirling red shadows about her that tightened her frame and sharpened her focus. Crawdaunt's speed fell back to something like normalcy, and his fourth attempt and stubborn mistake earned him another Quick Attack that knocked him again off his mark and sent him skittering to Victoria's feet. Eevee had managed to steal a glance at his trainer, with intrigued eyes and a smirk veiled behind a hand, sitting on spiked rock like a throne. She wasn't fazed by this at all.
Eevee's eyes fell back to Crawdaunt, already beginning to snap his claws together again to call more shadow, but she had called on her knowledge a third time, and her body coursed with lithe strength. Dragon Dance was getting faster, and easier; Crawdaunt was only a fraction of the way through his iteration, but Jaret sent her after him for her fifth Quick Attack that she had expected to connect, but squeaked shocked when Crawdaunt went deftly by her and brought a third Crabhammer down, the slowest she had seen now. She worked her way by it, and the subsequent strikes after that. She shifted into a series of dodges, weaving, swaying, and twirling expertly through and by Crawdaunt's swings. He was brutish but never slowed; not like her.
A well-timed dodge and a punishing Shadow Ball opened up needed space between them, and Eevee gauged the burn in the rhythm of her breaths. She couldn't believe that Dragon Dance was burning through her strength so fast and that on top of that, Crawdaunt remained strong as ever.
"Eevee," Her trainer's voice was low but steady. Had he thought of something? She smirked. Of course he did; Jaret always did. "Copycat's weighing down on you, isn't it?" Her ears drooped. She was sure she heard a lilt of despondence when he'd said that. She didn't look at him but nodded. "Yeah, I thought so…" Weight twisted her insides. Jaret always had a plan, didn't he?
Didn't he?
"You've been fighting your hardest this whole time, and that Crawdaunt of hers isn't slowing down at all." His breath hitched. "I don't think we've been doing any damage at all..." She whirled to him in disbelief and in demand, but he kept forward, attention settled fully on Crawdaunt in such a way that reminded her that her attention needed to be elsewhere. She turned back to Crawdaunt, and she saw the laughter in his eyes. "That Crawdaunt doesn't know when to quit," Jaret started again. "He might be getting ready for another Dragon Dance." Crawdaunt's claws were clicking together again, then stopped the next second before gaping a claw toward them; Dragon Dance never came.
Instead, Jaret's startled cry bounced against her ears as she dove, snapping her eyes shut so that dirt and the upended debris wouldn't lodge in her eyes. She tumbled from the dirt roughly and shook it from her fur and caught sight of Crawdaunt in a single swift movement.
He hadn't moved, and had switched his lead claw. At least, that was the idea. Eevee clenched her teeth in thought as she tried to make sense of what exactly happened. Eevee wasn't quite sure if anything happened, even if Jaret's scuffed up form said otherwise.
"Crawdaunt!" That woman's voice turned her body to ice, and Eevee only managed to bring Victoria back into her sight through sheer will. She wasn't leering at her for once. Victoria's eyes fell down—hammered into her Crawdaunt with a glare that had pierced even his thick armor. Crawdaunt turned, small, to his trainer. "Don't ruin her. She's a diamond of a catch and one of the best we've ever seen. So, no Mastery, and no bone-breaking, got it?" Crawdaunt nodded anxiously and turned his focus back onto the other of them. Eevee noted newfound pressure in Crawdaunt's eyes.
"Eevee," Jaret's voice came to her, and it was different again. Not just different, Eevee noted but the best kind of different, the one that was familiar and alight with a warm mirth and just a little bit edged. And that meant that her trainer had a plan. "Crunch struck all the way over here," Eevee gawked. Is that what happened? "And that shell of his is pretty hard." A pause. "Can you manage one more Dragon Dance?" Eevee smirked again. It was a straightforward question with a simple straightforward answer.
Of course she couldn't. Not for the massive amount of time they would need to finish the battle. Eevee was all that Jaret had left at the moment, and there was no telling when Arcanine and Dragonite would be back. Her limbs were aching, and her chest burned with dry air, patches that worked its way into the back of her throat. Her second iteration had started to seep from her, and it left her exhausted. She hadn't expected transmuting dragon energy to be so difficult. It was possible—likely really, that a fourth one would make her body fail completely. It had taken until then for Eevee to realize that that was the weight in Jaret's voice from earlier. This was a dangerous gamble for the strongest of the strong, like Arcanine.
She nodded anyway.
"Alright, but we'll have to bait him first. Keep an eye out, and you'll know what to do, but don't do anything until I say, okay?" He looked down at her, offering that soft turn of his lips whenever she found herself not quite scared but… apprehensive. "Do you trust me?" She nodded timidly. "Alright. Let's do it." He started with a slow walk that earned him a cackle and jeer from Crawdaunt, and then a claw tightened and raised in intimidation; Jaret stopped, and so did Eevee's breath. His eyes flicked up, probably to Victoria before they came back down to Crawdaunt with an uncharacteristic sneer. Eevee found her breath in a shuddering staccato. She tensed at the ready and bit down against the anxiety that tightened her muscles even further when Jaret snickered and turned his back from Crawdaunt, and to his trainer.
The way Crawdaunt ground his claws together had been the loudest Eevee had heard until then. Crawdaunt was indignant and was above Jaret with another claw, burning orange this time. He was not going to be pushed aside by anyone who wasn't Victoria. Jaret's dodge was last minute and narrow as Crawdaunt's claw tore into earth inches to Jaret's side. The impact by itself had sent her trainer rolling and Crawdaunt in pursuit. That swing had been different. Less form and all grotesque force. Eevee shrank back when a claw came down again, thankfully, into more dirt instead of Jaret's chest where he had been aiming. Crawdaunt snapped his claws again, louder still but with none of the aura, and when a third claw came down, into the dirt but much more closer than Eevee, and now, Jaret had been comfortable with, Eevee called on her knowledge for the fourth time.
She was certain that she never carried so much weight in her life, had never thought that so many tiny jolts and lashes could erupt through her like fire and become burning acid. In all of the battles she'd ever fought, she had never felt pain like this. But it was all gone as quickly as it came, and she leaned into her refocus. Crawdaunt moved in again, on Jaret's side, and he, still very thinly, swayed in the opposite direction, but Eevee could see it more than ever in that moment. It didn't matter how deeply Pokemon training had built up his reflexes; Jaret was still only human, and he was exhausted. He had stolen a glance at her and Eevee understood; the edges of her fur tingled.
The light on the fourth swing smoldered, and the orange had dimmed into rust, swiping across air as Jaret fell under it and moved in for another tackle. But Crawdaunt had shifted, turning in mid-air to bring his other claw around, heady with force that ground into Jaret's other shoulder and Eevee hated that her acute hearing let her hear everything in that shoulder break.
Jaret fell back with a noise, a snarl because her trainer was exactly who he was and would never show weakness in front of thieves. Crawdaunt's landing was unexpectedly deft, and he pivoted to Jaret with a gritty noise half-laugh and half-snarl. He was a Pokemon fitting of a thief, brutal and bloodthirsty. A claw was already pulsing with tinged and rusted shadow as he moved in for the finishing blow. Eevee took a desperate step forward before she stopped herself. Jaret had said to wait. But… how was she supposed to do that? How was she supposed to wait for his word when he was so very close to death?
How could she?
Jaret's voice thundered across her ears.
"Hit the claw!" That was the signal, and Eevee wasted no time. The mountain bent back into a blur, everything snapping back into place just as she came under Crawdaunt's blow and between Jaret. Her second dash was even faster and she dug deep for her Double-Edge when she struck against that iron barrier that was loosely "a claw". The impact sent stars flashing behind her eyes. But, something had also snapped and she didn't plop into the dirt in pain. Instead, she moved through the noise, landing dazed and unceremoniously, on Crawdaunt's opposite side and then into the dirt.
But she was up on her feet the next instant, trying to shake spots of light from her vision. She had to get up to par as fast as she could. She was the only thing standing between Jaret and death and she couldn't let him—
There was an amused, slow whistle, and it grabbed Eevee's attention. It brought her to the thief sitting on her throne, something that someone that was more than a thief would do. Eevee was sure that she was. Victoria's strength was something far above that threshold and closer to the elite: Like a Pokemon Hunter.
"You're really something," came her voice. "I can't believe a little ol' thing like you could hold so many Dragon Dances." The onset of exhaustion was immediate. "If you weren't worth so much money, I'd take you myself. You really are a fighter. You'd make such a good Flareon." Eevee's face twisted in an awkward mix between pride and disgust. Victoria pointed past her, and Eevee followed.
Crawdaunt was still with his back to Jaret, and the distance Jaret had managed to make between them let Eevee relax a bit. Crawdaunt hadn't been paying attention to him at all, she noticed, and in fact, his focus sat at the empty space in front of him, where his claw should've been. Eevee stared at it too, and the patch of red that she thought she would've caught a glimpse of somewhere had never materialized. The Double-Edge she had mustered more than likely had sent it over the edge of the cliff and into the valley below, or maybe even beyond. Dragon Dance was so, so strong, but it had also left her numb, and the emptiness in her front paws made it difficult to balance and even stand. She bit back a flood of tears as she realized that as she was, there was no way she was going to win. Not like this.
Her eyes came back up to Crawdaunt, and he'd become every bit the image that his trainer had entered with, but where Victoria held foxily amusement, Crawdaunt leered fury. His one pincer clicked, clasped together bellowing thunder, and she could only watch burned rust brighten its way back to power. His eyes sharpened as he set his poise. He had marked her death right then, and even as Victoria had intervened with a command of violent disapproval, Crawdaunt drew his claw overhead and lunged for Eevee with all of his rage.
A voice came to her with the same command as before just then, and Eevee realized that it had been that command that was the signal.
"Copycat!" Her trainer!
The tingle along her fur funneled in, and it clasped against her skin to bring her knowledge like before, and bring her a different kind altogether: Brute force and the strength to smash into and through anything. Superpower.
The pain that had wound tight into muscles hissed everywhere, from her center and to her paws. Sparks skittered after it, also into her paws. It gave her the feeling of stern rock under her feet, and also gave her light. She mustered up her fiercest cry as she lowered her head into Crawdaunt's center and was surprised at the roar of agony that tumbled from over her. That iron shell of his had really only been a bump that time, and as she heard Crawdaunt rumble across the dirt, Eevee landed face first into it.
That was it for her, and the pain that spiraled into her body from Dragon Dance came back seconds later, screeching across everything. A whimper snuck out from her when she craned her head up and over to her trainer. She had knocked Crawdaunt that way, and he had tumbled toward the cliff's edge, closest to the bridge that led to Liza's cottage. She bit back more tears when she caught wind of Jaret rushing over to her as quickly as he could. He was quick for being so hurt, but he was still so much slower; she thought she'd seen shadows a little ways between his back and the cottage at first too. His shadow hulked over her the next second, and while she saw his lip move into an "I'm so sorry" that she knew he was yelling but was still hard to hear, it was impossible to ignore the rare tears streaming down his face.
"I'm so sorry," he repeated. "I'm so, so sorry. This… wasn't supposed to happen and I know it was a gamble and… I should've known…! I should've…!" He choked on the next words, and he went quiet, save a wince that he couldn't hold in when he went to scoop her up. She would've squirmed out of his overexertion, or at least leaned her head against him so he'd feel at least a little better if she could. He struggled to his feet with her added weight, but made his way up all the same, his focus coming back to Victoria as Eevee leaned against him. He was thinking again, and this time, Eevee wasn't sure if Jaret would be able to come up with anything. He took a breath to speak, but they both froze, both of them far too familiar with the feeling of dense air. Jaret turned as best as he could, managing a sloppy dodge but lost his footing and tumbled down, but shifted his weight to give her the best protection. He fell onto his bad shoulder with a howl of pain and Eevee slipped from his grasp, rolling to a small stop just outside his reach.
Crawdaunt was strong, but he was winded now. There was a claw missing, a cracked shell, and he heaved through his breaths. And, the fact that he still stood after a Superpower enhanced by all of the Dragon Dances that she could muster, the fact that he still wanted to fight even now meant that he was nothing short of a monster. Their gamble had knocked loose all of the speed that Crawdaunt had built up through his dances, and his strength had been ebbing slowly but surely through his use of Superpower. Even so, it still wasn't enough, and Eevee still had such a long way to go. But maybe none of that was going to matter soon. Crawdaunt howled, incensed as he dove in for the kill, and Eevee thought she had heard Victoria curse, and that had been followed by crackling air, freezing, and a yowl of pain that dissipated into groveling. Eevee was horrified when she saw Crawdaunt reel back, an entire half of him encased in ice. His one pincer had been caught in mid-strike, and that meant he was left defenseless. He belted a second yowl of pain when a green light flashed across his armor, then a third when a blue shade hazed just over him, too, with the solid crack of impact. The snarls of pain faded, and Crawdaunt slackened into the dirt.
She landed between them and Crawdaunt with red eyes that were usually soft but were now as sharp as the blades she brandished. Eevee hoped that she had been strong enough to do something, even if Leavanny would be fine on her own. Eevee felt other bodies come around her and Jaret, and pain cut into her as she strained to get a better look. It almost snatched her vision away from her right then.
She made out that blue shade first, and he strolled in, fist in paw as he cracked his knuckles, and then his neck. He frowned as he went over the scene, then flared anger when he caught wind of Jaret's shoulder. Lucario set his glare to Victoria and then set himself into form. He didn't falter under Victoria's amused eyes. A few others came into shape too, namely the glimmering bodies of Virgil's Ampharos, and a Manectric that had taken it upon herself to look after her sometimes in Arcanine's or Leavanny's absence. Most of the time, she was always at Viola's side. She tried to move for a better look at the others, turning painfully into a paw that pulled her gaze down to stare, surprisingly, into Lucario. Eevee corrected herself immediately, noting a dark piece of cloth tied around this Lucario's upper arm. This was Virgil's Lucario, and the light pulse of mending warmth made Eevee squeak weakly but with as much relief as she possibly could before she let herself fall into darkness.
The Arcanine was nothing like Jaret's, and Dewott was certain that no other Arcanine would ever be. This one was slower, less resolute and had caught three Razor Shells after measuring his space wrong, but still left an impression. He was still quick enough to keep Dewott on his feet, and still powerful enough for Dewott to maintain his defense, and even with all of his utmost focus in the moment, Dewott hadn't escaped unscathed; all Arcanine were fast, after all.
He sliced through a Flamethrower that opened his sight into the Arcanine rushing for him, but he read through the feint and as Arcanine hissed into air, Dewott had rolled to his side as Arcanine drove his fangs into the space where he'd been. It would've been a deep bite between his shoulder and neck, and momentary paralysis, maybe. Dewott's mind pulsed, and his scalchop flashed, and metal clacked against the ground past his feet. He ignored the Poké-ball, following a sense of warning that brought him to the Arcanine that came into form on his side, punching a bolt of fire at him that Dewott spun by effortlessly, before hooking his scalchop back at his waist and bursting forward with an Aqua Jet.
He caught the Arcanine off-guard, and slammed into the Pokemon, just under the chest that he knew was going to throw the Pokemon from his feet. He'd finish off the Arcanine right after, but Dewott yelped in surprise when Arcanine caved into the impact more than he had expected, his body folding in over him a little before bursting into smoke with a subtle 'pop!'. It was a trick, and the Arcanine he'd struck was clearly a fake. Dewott passed through and flipped from his Aqua Jet just as the trainer intervened.
"Extreme Speed!"
The command brought howling wind and memory into Dewott's ears. The Arcanine's swipe caught him mid-flip that sent him skipping across the dirt, but he'd been quick to find his footing. Dewott tightened his muscles and his focus, calling white light, Copycat, to his mind. Dewott scoffed a second time. Jaret's Arcanine was this swift by nature. This Arcanine had to employ energy to match Jaret's Arcanine at all.
The second blow came far faster than Copycat could register, and Dewott found himself tumbling across the dirt a second time that he'd had a harder time rebounding from, but managed it all the same. The next two blows were closer to jabs, and when Dewott had managed to sense and parry the third strike after that, Arcanine's paw slammed from overhead and locked him under his weight. The trainer strode up behind his Arcanine with a snap of his fingers and smirked.
"Lock em' down for real." Arcanine rumbled, then erupted with blue fire— wind— that both burned and sent Dewott's muscles into a spiral of tightness that rattled lightning across his body. It struck him harder when he'd tried to struggle. The trainer came closer into view, and with another one of those Poké-balls that was identical to an ordinary one save for four arcs of metal clasping around it. "Pretty cool, right?" The trainer tossed the ball to and fro. "The arches on the side hack and break the coding system on normal balls, so we can catch another trainer's Pokemon." He stopped, bringing a finger to his lips in thought. "They call 'em' something like snatch balls, I think?" Dewott glared. "Oh, right! Snag Em' balls! But… I like snatch ball better anyway." He spun the ball on his finger and Dewott's face twisted into irritation. He was so tasteless. Even so, he was still talented. Much more talented than thieves that came after his "innate-ness". This boy, this trainer, was closer to a Pokemon Hunter. His mind twinged with the thought of Lucario: he hoped they were safe. "Either way, I gotta' take you with me, alright?" He whipped the ball in his direction.
And it fell into pieces like before, and the trainer fell back with a snicker of surprise, and Dewott was surprised he'd seen the flash of black as well as he had. His Arcanine was at his side the next moment to deflect it, and it bounded into shape next to him with a shuffle of her claws and a snicker of her own; Dewott was up the next moment with a scalchop drawn.
"Leave him alone!" Her voice had come from behind him and closer than he would've given her credit for. It shook a little but was steeled all the same, like the expression he'd turned to. "You can't have him." The boy shrugged.
"And why not? It's not like he's yours either." Seria flinched.
"W–well, no, but… I'm not a thief like you! And, his trainer was really mean—!" Dewott's weapon came up and Seria went quiet. That shade of black, a Sneasel that touted a pointed half-snicker his way formed right there at his side. Dewott scoffed, and did the same right back. Did this Sneasel really think he needed her help? He shook the thought away as quickly as it came. She wasn't looking to help at all. She was only having fun, and the stretching that she'd taken to had confirmed that.
She clearly wasn't a Pokemon that got out very often.
"Ah, Icy, darling! Do be careful, please!" Dewott glared, and he turned to the Sneasal in full. Her face had curled into annoyance, disgust, if Dewott had to place a word for it, but turned to stare back at him with a curve of her lips. That vicious excitement was still there, and that had been both a denial of King's infatuation with her and a challenge to him, one that he was all too familiar with.
Bet I can land more hits than you can!
His free paw found its place at his side and he shifted his grip marginally for a better draw. He grinned before he turned back to Arcanine. He'd sat back on his haunches and was yawning tiredly. He was going to regret that laziness soon. She'd gotten his answer quickly, and Dewott was going to make doubly sure that he'd curse Ampharos for how much he'd rubbed off on him. What was the harm in accepting a challenge from a wild animal like Icy?
Prove it.
Ampharos stood at the front, right there with Jaret's Lucario. He was sure that the difference between them wasn't as big as it seemed, and if it was, then that simply meant that Victoria's Cloyster was that much stronger than both of them.
She'd returned her Crawdaunt with a bored rise and fall of her shoulders, and that rocky throne of hers rumbled into convulsions before he was sure he'd witnessed the impossibility of the shell shifting in real time. The bullet that snapped loose lanced by him, opening a thin line across his cheek and under an eye. Leavanny had been quick on her feet to slice the bullet in half before it lanced into Jaret, and Ampharos almost couldn't believe that Jaret had gotten himself into such a situation.
Almost.
But Leavanny's quickness had left the two of them there in front of Jaret as Virgil's Lucario strained even harder still to stymie Eevee's rapid loss of strength and mend Jaret's shoulder together. They hadn't had a chance to rest since they'd gotten here, and from what Jaret's Lucario had been telling him, Pidgeot and Swellow both took a beating, and Swellow had gotten the worst of it. It made Ampharos frown. Lucario had been looking over him when he lost at the tower too. But Kiai had been different, and the same type as him. A Cloyster, as much of a wall as it was, couldn't possibly stand up to an Electro Ball.
The shell shifted again and flung dusty ice as it snapped loose with a second Spike Cannon. Ampharos howled and a wave pulsed from him to slow the bolt to a near stop, then pulsed again to turn it back toward Cloyster. Jaret's Lucario formed behind him, launching the spike forward with a Psychic that transformed the bolt into a bullet like before. Cloyster's shell snapped shut, and the missile shattered over the carapace.
This was their chance. Ampharos's flipper went to his neck, teeth clenched as his muscles ached in response to the Quick Claw. Leavanny and Lucario had already moved to close in, and the Quick Claw responded to their speed too, matched it to pour into and overload his body. Virgil always opted for letting the item operate on its own, and always scolded him when Ampharos would activate it himself. But that didn't matter; it always placed him where he needed to be.
Cloyster's shell opened to a flipper crackling with energy, and he pulled back with a snarl. The shell shifted, just like Jaret's Lucario said it would and he was on his right flank with an orb of purple in his paws. Leavanny circled on Cloyster's other side. She crouched under a spike that swung after her, and pressed forward with arms crossed to cleave through Cloyster. That left him to close in.
His body flashed as he took a step forward but froze when Cloyster burst into a plume of smoke that took Lucario and Leavanny with it. The shell shifted again and the noise grated against Ampharos's ears, and he nearly fired off an Electro Ball out of sheer annoyance. The screen danced between flashes of purple and green before a third spike flung in Ampharos's direction that he managed to veer off course with another Thunder Wave and it splintered against another one of the rock faces. He turned back with another flash of his tail, this time steeling himself against whatever Cloyster sought to throw at him.
He came face to face with sharp eyes, Victoria's eyes as Ampharos realized that they'd all forgotten that she'd been sitting atop her Cloyster all the while fighting the three of them. How had she managed the shell shifts, and better yet, how had she gotten by them without getting hurt?
He slung a Thunderpunch forward and she went by it; she'd been expecting it and he felt a small tap against his underside and a brow went up in confusion, and then he scoffed as he pieced it all together. She would have to hit him much harder than that. He spun backward, slinging his tail toward her to take her head off, but that smirk in her eyes never left and she was already moving to pass under it for another one of her pathetic punches; he fell back on a tactic tried and true.
His tail stopped just beforehand, erupting with a sinister light that had actually shone brighter than Ampharos had managed before. It burned across his own sight and Ampharos understood immediately that something was wrong.
A second punch struck him harder and Ampharos doubled over, but a well-timed surge of lightning jolted him upright and he made distance between them. Victoria would follow him if he'd gotten an accurate read on her. He was surprised she had managed a hit that strong, but even so, she was only human, and an Electro Ball backed by the Quick Claw was a sure-fire way to put her down.
He hadn't counted on her being nothing but shadow. A space near him went cold and Ampharos knew instantly that it was a Pokemon, even if spectral shadow flitted across his sight and over his skin undoubtedly real. One of them gripped his shoulder and Ampharos repressed an instinctive Thunder Punch against it.
The air grew cold again, this time right in front of him and it made Ampharos take a step back, but the sound of splashing waves pulled his attention upward. He swayed away at the last minute, and pressed distance from the shade with the Aqua Tail that in the next instant fluttered about his sight and skin. The next strike rang true, even though he'd managed to catch and deflect some of it with his own tail. He loosed lightning and the space holding the second tail burst into smoke that sent him tumbling backward. He recoiled and rolled to his feet as fast as he could, heaving as he did so.
There were two shades that formed at his side, and Ampharos went between the two of them. His face tightened into a frown and that quickly gave way to a scowl; his tail pulsed again with Confuse Ray and with restrained pastel. A few slow blinks shook away the burning in his eyes and dispelled the shadows. It left the forms of a defeated Leavanny and a battered Lucario that shook as he climbed to his feet. Ampharos grimaced, but he didn't have time for questions. The air went cold and he turned to punch through a spire of ice that broke into dust. Jaret's Lucario snagged hold of his arms and tugged him down before Ampharos could object. The ice churned and grated just over them, exploding into a caltrop—a star—-then faded into nothing. Ampharos shot to his feet.
Victoria had fallen back, and three others, save her Crawdaunt fanned out on every side, but Ampharos's eyes fell down to that massive rock that she'd hoisted herself back onto. That Cloyster had fought off Leavanny and Lucario, and that was impressive in its own right. He took a step forward, eyes flicking to Cloyster's flank, to the Dewgong that he was sure that the Aqua Tail had come from, and that had reflected Confuse Ray back onto him by either her body or some ice technique, and then over to the Kingdra that even now, watched the entire thing with disinterest.
Lucario's arm went out to stop him, and Ampharos turned to him. He gestured to Leavanny, then over to Jaret and Eevee. Virgil's Lucario was there, kneeling at their side, along with that woman with the wild hair, Viola and her Manectric. Ampharos turned back to Lucario with a stubborn shake of his head. One of them had to take Leavanny back, and it wasn't going to be him, Lucario was faster between the both of them anyway. Ampharos repeated Lucario's gesture and held firm and it had earned him a sigh of admission from Jaret's Lucario, and he hoisted Leavanny onto his shoulder, barking a warning to be careful before turning back. Victoria's smirk broke into a fanged smile.
"So," she began. "All I have to do is make it past you?" Ampharos's frown tightened. "Oh come on. That wasn't meant to be an insult, you know. I actually really like noble try-hards like you. You almost always overestimate how much of a difference these last stands actually make." Ampharos's body surged with lightning fury that he fought to get under control. She might have been strong, but that didn't mean he was weak. She sighed. "Oh, alright. I'll play. But, just know that you have a hefty bounty you're trying to protect, and a hunter like me can't pull her punches on something so perfect." Lightning cycled through his limbs even faster and it seared heat into his frame, his bones, and the flipper that went to his neck sent a shock of activation into the Quick Claw; the fire intensified.
Ampharos poured his focus into directing that current into the space in front of him, noting and memorizing the accelerating twists of lightning, energy and current. It would pool back into his body even faster, all of it bolstered by all of his silent application of Agility. Now all he needed to do was to force all of it into the space in front of him, maintain it with his own charge, and then launch it.
It was how Electro Ball worked, and he'd worked on his understanding of it tirelessly under both Virgil and Alice, and he'd never met a Pokemon that had been able to walk away from a full-on Electro Ball. But Ampharos felt it in his bones, his mind, and in Victoria's confident dismissive-ness. This woman and her Pokemon were different and that was fine. He didn't need a battle, he needed a kill.
Ampharos would just have to leave his mark before Arcanine got back.
He let the ball fly with a pulse that had surprised all of her Pokemon, and shifted Kingdra from disinterested to mildly observant. Victoria shifted, also into surprise and pride bloomed into Ampharos's face when he saw the understanding etched into Victoria's expression.
He'd latched on to her with Thunder Wave, marking a path to her in particular to move the Electro Ball even faster. It was impressive that she'd caught on at all. The Quick Claw scraped across his muscles, and an instinctive Thunder Wave forced him upright just as the Electro Ball made contact, erupting into a massive shower of sparks and light, then burst into smoke.
Ampharos hadn't heard anything save for the unmistakable thud of flesh against the earth and as far as Ampharos was concerned, he was fine with that. Humans were fragile, but surprisingly tough when it came down to it, like Jaret. At the very least, he was sure that the Electro Ball ended her quickly, and he was also sure that without her, the battle would eventually boil down to pure power and numbers: at least they had one of those in spades.
The first spear of ice broke against the back of his knee and the second one struck mid-fall, lancing into and then melting into his shoulder. He caught himself with a howl of fury as a flipper hovered at his neck before he thought better of it. If he kept it up, then he would end up doing serious damage to himself.
He turned into the third one and that one made him bite down in pain and surprise when the place it struck was left frozen over. Icicle Spear had never been capable of freezing anything. The fourth he had dodged, and it gave him a moment to gauge the scene when the smoke cleared.
Victoria was alive and kneeling down by a hefty body of white and Ampharos recognized it as the Dewgong from earlier, and Ampharos was sure that she had been the shade with the Aqua Tail too.
She'd also taken the Electro Ball in Victoria's stead and had managed to cling to life in the process but Dewgong were more durable than a lot of people and Pokemon gave them credit for, and this particular Dewgong had been graced with thicker skin, like some Dewgong were known to have. She would've died otherwise. His eyes came up, and back onto Victoria.
Her smirk had vanished, and she ran her fingers gingerly across Dewgong's underside, then up to pat her head, just behind the horn like they liked. He'd heard and learned about that the hard way. Her face was plain as she stood up, plain as Dewgong melted into the red light made its home with the resounding click of a poké-ball, and plain still when she turned to Ampharos. Frigid air and ice tore into his shoulder that knocked him from his feet that he bounded back from with a roll. His exhale was taut. His left side was numb.
That was an Ice Beam, strong enough to knock him from his feet but precise enough to freeze on contact; another thing to add to his growing list of first times. It was too clean a hit to be Cloyster. His attention shifted, hesitant, to Kingdra, and nothing about her had changed. Nothing, except for the austere focus in her eyes detailed entirely his way. He was the only thing she saw.
Kingdra moved, no, clipped through space, movement matching Ampharos's every blink. He'd even stopped blinking, to see if he'd been imagining things. Kingdra thinned into air the next moment. Agility made his body light and Ampharos tensed with anticipation.
He suddenly remembered Jaret.
Ampharos whirled around and came to the sight of scales, Kingdra, holding space between them; all of her focus was still on him. He thought he'd seen the air break and wrap around her first before turning to spiral out and away.
She'd already struck him thrice over when the air pulsed thick with red shadow, both like and unlike Crawdaunt. This was all pure power for Kingdra. Something splattered, first blood and his, probably. The sky blurred by and she appeared first before the sound of the wind did; his flipper twitched, and for the second time, Ampharos thought against it. Kingdra was just too strong, like Kiai and Jin.
No. That wasn't right at all. He had at least been able to keep up with those two. Kingdra was otherworldly and that first exchange had almost ripped his consciousness from him in an instant. Kingdra was on a completely different level.
Like Arcanine.
She out-sped him, even with his Agility, and even with the subtle but constant release of Thunder Wave that he had set up for a sure-fire hit. She had torn through it like it hadn't been there at all, struck him even harder to draw the first blood strewn across her face, and just above those sharp eyes of hers piercing into him with full attention: She was going to get him back for Dewgong.
The cold from the second Ice Beam cut impossibly deep, down to the bone even. The loss of heat and following numbness was immediate. His back slammed against the ground and the cold seeped there too, icing over the soil with a smooth roll of wind. He wasn't sure who'd made the noise of alarm, but he could hear, however muffled, the sound of the others scrambling.
Leavanny had gone down in the smokescreen from earlier, and Lucario had taken heavy hits then too. Ampharos had been at the best health out of all of them, maybe save for Virgil's Lucario, and the best chance they had and yet…
He had been so utterly ineffective, had barely managed anything at all and couldn't even begin to seize the distance between them let alone control it. He failed and was left clawing at consciousness and frozen to the dirt. He didn't struggle for very long, and he fell limp against the dirt with a shiver. He didn't move. At least, not until he'd heard someone else. Another voice, more shy, less overt and all the more deferring, at least to Victoria. Ampharos strained and the landscape flipped on its head but Ampharos was able to make out the newcomer all the same, standing a bit aloof and maybe a bit apprehensive under Victoria's eyes. Ampharos was surprised that Victoria hadn't tried to force him down under her influence when he'd turned from her with a brow of disappointment and to him with a frown.
"A lot of them are really kind of right there," he murmured, then turned back to Victoria. "How did you say you met Kingdra again?" Victoria bade a hand.
"That's not important, and Cody probably told you enough about it anyway."
"Maybe, but you did live the experience." Victoria shrugged.
"Anyway, did you get enough data on what you needed?" He nodded, the edges of his lips crinkling into a bashful upward curve.
"Well, I did get to see the remnants and proof of something that a lot of people have denied… So, thanks… Mastery is only the beginning but seeing emotion and strength harmonize and manifest physically is just… incredible." Kiai and the Sprout Tower barreled back into Ampharos's mind. He had been loosely there and under Lucario's care, and if he remembered anything, he certainly remembered hearing about harmony. Electro Ball was like that, he was sure of it but he was also sure that Kingdra was strong enough to take care of it, and that was if her sheer speed didn't dismantle the attack beforehand. It certainly seemed like Kingdra had a better understanding of that harmony.
Could that be what made Kingdra so strong?
He strained under the ice and heard someone call after him again, closer the second time and much more familiar in tone. They called after him again and the paws that came to the ice stamped panic into his mind that kick-started him back into a struggle.
Lucario had stepped up just then, Viola too and that meant that she'd left Manectric and Liza to look over Jaret as best as they could, along with a newly beaten Leavanny. Ampharos struggled harder and Lucario's paw went up to calm him down; it had only made it worse. He had expected Viola to say something clear and pithy, not that Ampharos was convinced that Victoria would back down, but Viola was quiet, eyes turned down and steeled for the worst of it. He wasn't even sure that Viola had a Pokemon at the moment that she could fight with: Grovyle had taken off into the recesses of the Valley almost immediately. That was a shame, and if they'd both been there, then Ampharos was sure they'd be able to come up with something between the two of them. Grovyle hadn't been back since.
And neither had Virgil.
He needed to break free. He had to. He thrashed between the ice and the dirt. Harder, harder and this time, Lucario's paw came free to slam and hold him down, and nodded to Viola who'd returned the gesture. It dawned on Ampharos just then that the two of them were going to fight together, and it was a plan that they had to have come up with during his bout with Victoria. It was an outlandish and desperate plan. And, they weren't supposed to.
They couldn't.
Didn't they know how dangerous Victoria was?
Hadn't they just seen it…? Ampharos swallowed nothing.
Didn't Lucario understand the danger that they were in?
"I told you," Victoria called after him. "The noble types like you always overshoot how much you can do." Her tone was flat. "All you gotta do is stay out of the way, alright? You've already gotten it worse than Crawdaunt." Her eyes darted up, and over to Lucario, and she let out a surprised, pinched breath as she roved over them, then a low, surprised whistle.
"She's not Lustered, but Lucario are rare enough as is. It goes double for the girls." Ampharos froze. This was what he'd been afraid of, and for all of the time they had spent together, Virgil was oblivious, and human on top of that. Of course he'd never be able to actually pick up the subtle differences between Pokemon, especially if there wasn't anything pronounced, and it left Ampharos with the horrific realization that this human, this Pokemon Hunter, was able to tell the difference. "I'd hate to see what the sick bastard that buys her has in store for her…" Victoria sighed, and Ampharos thought he'd heard a note of hesitance just then. "But, here's to hoping the price tag'll be worth it…" Ampharos shut her out, and thrashed as hard as he could, especially as he saw Lucario tap the cloth on her arm, a gesture for good luck before both her and Viola readied themselves. Ampharos was flashing again with lightning, howling and thrashing with everything that he had left. The ice wouldn't budge. Victoria's eyes came down to him with a mix of annoyance and pity.
"Alright," she sighed. "I guess we'll knock you down first." She went quiet, stopping for a moment to bring her eyes up and away from him thrice now, and for the third time and exhausted from the struggling, Ampharos followed her eyes.
And found Virgil. His breathing was harsh and it made Ampharos wonder where he'd started to run from, and how long he'd been running for. It was hard to exactly tell what it was that twisted his face but the trace of disbelief was definitely there somewhere.
The other one, Juliet, had slipped from the back of another that they'd all been waiting for, Arcanine, and the two Charizard they'd been training with earlier came down with Juliet as she dismounted; Jaret's Dragonite touched down with them too. Victoria scanned over them, falling to Arcanine stepping forward with eyes of fire, and Kingdra came to her side. Kingdra watched Arcanine with an absolute focus that was somehow even stronger than the small bit she'd given Ampharos and he understood then that the focus she gave him reflected the whole of her power.
She had high expectations for Arcanine, expectations that Ampharos was sure Arcanine had already cleared simply from how he approached her, from his wild blazing fur to the pure fury that Arcanine held in bared fangs. He was reflecting the whole of his strength right back at her.
Ampharos finally let himself slump. He'd lost, and he'd lost badly. He was sure that Eevee had put up a better fight than he had. But that was okay. He had lasted longer than Victoria probably gave him credit for, even if he'd gotten a lukewarm acknowledgement on it: That had to at least count for something. He slackened into the ice.
Arcanine was going to handle it from here, and Ampharos was sure that he was going to crush them.