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Cyllage City Hospital.

"Thank you! We hope to see you again!"

Matheson tilted his head to the side as his Nurse wished him goodbye while he sported a curved burn under his eye and a black sling on his healing arm, just like Zack's. "Whyyyy would you say that? Sorry, I know you're trying to be nice, but-"
"s**t, I did it again didn't I?" The Nurse shook her head, embarrassed. "Sorry, my last job was at the Pokémon Center, we said that all the time."
"Oh." Math thought about it. "It's not really, like, what you'd wanna wish anyone there either."
"The union is ********, dude. Just take care of yourself, okay?"
"Thanks! You too!"

Instead of exiting the hospital, Matheson went down the hall to the nearest door with a keyhole, his Klefki Metis floating alongside him. Salieri had sent him a picture of the door he should use to get to her. He took out his Magic Door Key, visualized himself exiting on the other side, and tried opening the door.

"Huh." The door wouldn't budge. He tried it again, but it was stuck shut. Metis jingle jangled and watched him struggle. "I know I shouldn't be embarrassed, but this is embarrassing." Matheson used his good arm to push against the door while jiggling the handle. "Somewhere in this scenario is a d**k joke, I know it."

The Magic Door Key could open any door, locked or not, as long as there was a keyhole. If he couldn't open the other door it meant it was being forced close. He called up Sal.

"Hi!" There was a loud rustling over Salieri's voice on the phone, so much that she had to yell.
"Hey, so I can't open the door? Is there something blocking it?"
"What?!...oh, that's gotta be the wind! I'll turn it off, hold on!"
"Turn off the what?"
The noise died down. "Okay, try it now."

Matheson stuck the key in the lock. He didn't know what he was looking forward to the most. Seeing the alien, the pirate, or Salieri. He took a deep breath and opened the door to...

Shalour Pokémon Center - Roof

"You really like rooftops, don't you?" Math said as he and Metis stepped out onto one. The vantage point here was fantastic, great for seeing most of the city and the Tower of Mastery to the north. Salieri and Durendal were the only ones on the roof, which begged the question: "How'd you, uh, turn off wind?"

"You'll see what I mean when it's ready," said Sal coyly as she walked up to him while Dune waved hello and he waved back. She looked happy to see him, but also on edge about something. Either way, he thought she was cute. But not the same kind of overwhelming cute that hit him like a wave when he feasted his eyes on Oberon standing on her shoulder. "Hey-"

"Ohhhh my gawd that is the CUTEST WIDDLE BAYBEE ALIEN~!" Math squeed, making Sal wince. Oberon looked back at him with big baby eyes. She held up her arms, trying to reach him.
"You wanna hold her?" Sal asked. <******** yes I do. Merde, I shouldn't curse in front of the baby, right?"
"I've been doing it this whole time, I think it's okay." Sal held out Oberon and the Cleffa leapt onto Math's shoulder in a single bound. Math was surprised by the weightlessness of the jump, and how coordinated this Cleffa was for a baby.

"Hey there little guy, oooo I just wanna pinch your widdle cheeks," Math cooed, but Oberon paid him no attention. She was focused on Metis, trying to cling onto Math's keys and knicknacks. Specifically, she was trying desperately to grab onto Matheson's Mega Ring. "Aww. Sorry Obie, that one's not for sale. Here, Metis, give her the pocketknife."

Metis unclasped her arms to drop a tiny pocketknife on a keyring into Oberon's outstretched hands. She inspected it closely. "You can keep it."
"You're giving her a pocketknife?" Sal was touched. "That's so sweet."

Oberon bounced down onto Salieri's belt bag, slipped the pocketknife inside, and bounced back up to Math's shoulder, gunning for the Mega Ring again. Math and Sal both "D'awwwed" and Metis floated away so Oberon would bounce after her on the roof.

"That is the most precious alien I have ever met, I just wanna squeeze her."
"It’s the only alien you ever met."
"Actually, my little sister's Starmie came from a meteor too." Math nodded. "Yeah, it's like, super uncommon."
"Seriously? That's pretty cool, I guess," Sal said, slightly deflated. "I thought I made first contact."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Math cleared his throat as Oberon continued to bounce many times her own height to chase after Metis. "So, is it cool if I kiss you in front of the baby? Or like, in general?"

Salieri grinned, grabbed his collar and got on her tiptoes. They both forgot Durendal was standing a few feet away while their hello kiss lasted for long enough to make him uncomfortable. Considering his patience, it was a long time. "Dune, how about you join up with the rest of them? Math and I gotta talk shop."

Durendal jumped at the chance to leave. He flew off the roof and down in the small meadow on the hill below where Salieri's other Pokémon were training. "We're super close to mode number two, I think it's gonna blow you away dude," Sal boasted.

"What is it? I wanna know."
"Nope, you'll have to see."
"Tell meeeee."
"Not happening."
"Fine, okay. So? What were you saying before about a pirate?" Math asked, cursing internally for forgetting his sweet pirate hat before deciding it was for the best. That would've been too much.

Salieri took a deep breath. Math sensed that it really was time to get down to business.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wait so he’s a pirate king?”

Math sat on one of the industrial air conditioners, looking at a photo on Sal’s phone of Skarada, provided by Interpol for his wanted poster. “Self proclaimed. Math, I hope that’s not the take away you get, because I just explained literally everything to you.”
“I got it, I got it,” Math claimed, and he did. This was the guy who had set up the traps on Route 10. He was most likely a member of Team Flare, and he ended up with all the Mega Stones Ratio had been searching for except for the one that ended up with Zack. “And you just want to know where he is?”
“That’s why I called you, mister master tracker. I thought he’d be around this city but I’m not sure. His airship can submerge under water or create a cover of cloud to hide in the sky. Here I drew it for you.”

Salieri took out a crumpled napkin from her pocket and handed it to Matheson. On it was a doodle of Skarada’s airship, a Roll Cloud class cruiser called The Fishbone. The badass ship Matheson had been imagining was severely mitigated by Salieri’s dreadful artistic skills, enough that he had to flip it around a few times to figure out which way was right side up.

“I’ll give it a shot. Sounds like a challenge.” Bigger objects were generally easier to find, but this one could hide effectively. Math was going to have to approach this from outside the box. “How do you know this guy, anyway?”
“I ran into him in Orre. A lot.” Salieri put her hands on her hips. “Too many times.”
“So training wasn’t all fun and games, huh?”

Sal laughed without mirth at that statement. “No, not fun and games…my teacher wasn’t really a good dude, we didn’t see eye to eye all the time. So after a year, I got fed up and split off. Orre’s a big place, and Ska was the only other person I knew there. And he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so…” Sal scratched her head and looked away. “I kind of joined his crew.”

Matheson’s jaw dropped. “You were a pirate?” His voice was already on the rise.
“Barely. For like a year, tops, before I split and found my teacher again.” Sal rolled her eyes. “We didn’t part on great terms.”
“…You were a pirate.”
“It’s no big deal. Orre is way different than Kalos.”

This was definitely the strangest turn on Matheson had felt all day, and that was considering the bizarre arousal that happened when the Nurse applied his burn medicine. Either he was still suffering from a concussion or he just had to come to terms with the fact that guys could get boners from anything. “Man, guys can get boners from anything.”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Nothing.”

Math jumped off the air conditioner and put the sketch in his pocket. “What do you want me to do when I find this ship?”
“Just call me.” Sal put a hand on his arm. “Listen, he might seem like a fun guy and I know you think the best of people, but he’s a rotten man. If he sees you, don’t let him take control. He has a way of doing that.”

Salieri seemed more spooked at the prospect of Skarada than she did after fighting Ratio. Math wondered exactly what had happened to her in Orre, but didn’t question the specifics. He had learned that when it came to Salieri, she’d reveal how she felt in due time. Pushing her just made her shrink away.

He put his hand on hers. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Okay the last time you said that though, you got turned into a crispy chew toy.”
“I’ll be even more careful. Promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Princess Atomicka looked as the male and female humans sucked each other’s faces again. At first she thought it was simply the male sucking the female’s excess energy out through her mouth as was custom on Glacknor until it was clear that this was some sort of disgusting display of mutual affection. The large peppy male with the intense cuteness aggression departed through the door he came in through, with the keyholder floating behind him.

No! Atomicka gasped and bounced after Metis as fast as she could. That Pokémon held a mineral that gave off the same energy wavelength as the rest of her species, and of her ship. It was the first sense of familiarity she had felt all day. She had to have it, she had to see if she could use it to contact her people.

The door closed and Atomicka jumped onto the frame, peeking inside. Matheson and Metis were gone. No… Her eyes welled up with tears as she banged on the door in despair. NOOOO!

“Awww wassamatter Oberon?” Salieri asked, scooping up Princess Atomicka in her arms like she was some ignorant child. “You hungry? Oh, you wanna see my team train?”

The princess stopped herself from crying. As much as she was learning to use the human’s belief that she was a ‘precious widdle baby’ to her advantage, she did not want to shed real tears in front of these primitives if she could help it. Atomicka nodded. “Mmmkay. Here, play with this.”

Salieri gave her the folding sword that the male one, Matheson, had called a ‘pocketknife’. She clicked it open and clicked it closed repeatedly, memorizing its feel and properties as Salieri took her down to the meadow.

Two of Salieri’s Pokémon were sparring with each other. The oafish plant beast, Biz Marquis, was trying to punch at the aqueous quadruped, Reynard. Reynard kept transmuting her body into liquid and squirming around each punch with deft skill. “Come on, Biz! Punch where she’s gonna be, not where she is!”

[It’s-not-that-easy,] Biz groaned, each word punctuated by another missed punch. Atomicka turned her attention to the other two Pokémon. One was a turtle that Atomicka had originally believed to be just a hot rock until it revealed its limbs. The other was the metal soldier that had engaged in a battle earlier at the cove. His skills impressed Atomicka greatly. If they were on Glacknor, she would have allowed him a seat on her warrior’s council.

Durendal noticed her as well, then folded his arms and looked away. Embarrassment? Jealousy? She was unsure. The culture and behaviors of these Earthlings, primitive as they were, were still hard to read.

“Okay guys, this training is getting nowhere.” Salieri checked her mobile device for some reason. “We’ve got a ways to go if we wanna beat Korrina before dinner. Let’s kick it up a notch. Or twelve.”

Benedict looked at all the newcomers and shrugged. "We'll see." All it would take was one clue. Something that Helena had left behind to point the way.

Between Routes 14 and 16 -Beginning path-
Ben made a show of leading the crew, more or less, as he hunted for something that would lead the way. There had to be something that Helena had done. She wouldn't have given them something extremely vague and useless, would she have? Go prove this thing exists, but I won't tell you where.

It had to be obvious, right?

It wouldn't be safe out there without being ready, though. Reluctantly, he released Essence, she would have an easier time maneuvering while staying in sight. Ajax' evolution meant Ben was reluctant to let the pokemon perch on his shoulder. "Manny." He said, looking back to the Meditite that followed him as closely as possible. His finger tapped his head, and the link was formed. His hand moved to gesture to Essence, and the emotions and impressions formed the rest of the message. Manny added her to the link.

"What I'm looking for isn't too far off." He lied. And then they came out into what seemed to be a clearing at first, at least to Ben it did. They'd been moving diagonally forward, away from the route but still along a path. Instinct more than anything told Ben to go that way. If the link were more perfected, he could probably have used Ajax for scouting and general overwatch but...


Benedict turned slightly and realized they weren't in a clearing. There had been a path ripped through by something... Big. Dangerous.

Helena had mentioned having a pokemon called Tyrant. Quickly he took out his pokedex and looked up anything that might have to do with that name.

Tyrantrum. Large. Dangerous. Not at all inconspicuous. He made a hell of a path, though.

"Her pokemon did this. Tyrantrum." He said, showing the group his pokedex. "We follow this as far as it goes, and look for any human footprints we can find. Few humans go this way, so it should be possible." Without another word, he walked with complete confidence.

Of course, this was just a hunch, so if it was some other trainer's path of destruction they were following, that would be disappointing.

Lumiose Badlands - Rocky Hill

'Stop being a little b***h, and take it down already!'

Malis took another Slash across the chest and collided with a rock, shattering it into a jagged splinter. The Charmander hit the ground in a roll, scrambling to his feet in time to avoid an overhead Dual Chop. He was tired, practically on his last legs, but from the mad glare in his eyes and growls accompanying his every move, Malis was too pissed to go down just yet. Gabite ripped at the earth with a flurry of blows, too focused on its attack to notice its target had escaped. Malis followed up with Dragon Rage, which lifted its opponent off its feet and off the cliff.

'Not good enough,' Zack said from the sidelines, earning a hateful glare from his pokémon. He always skirted the lines of mutiny with Malis, but it was for a good reason. He knew from the day they met that Malis was an evil little b*****d at heart; he needed to bring out its strongest traits, not water it down by being nice. Viciousness, ferociousness, it fit the fire type perfectly, and they were almost ready to take it to the next level.

'Dragon Rage won't get you far. You need to channel it, focus it into a pulse,' he explained, but Malis didn't seem to be listening. He'd turned himself toward Zack completely, muttering under his breath as flames seeped between his teeth. It'd be more terrifying if it didn't come from a Charmander. Zack folded his arms, and decided not to warn him that Gabite had crested the cliff.

Malis found out a second later as Gabite hit hard with a Take Down where Zack could've sworn he heard something snap. Malis fell on his back, screeching in pain and terror both, and Gabite mounted him, pinning the Charmander between its legs. Its hooked claws rose into the air, then came down in a flurry.

'Come on, Malis,' Zack shouted. Blood flew from cuts on Malis's arms as he barely fended off Gabite's assault, its claws a dance of knives. 'Focus hard and fight back!'

The Charmander's screech became a growl, became a roar. Bright light escaped his maw, the purple dragon-type energy condensed into a Dragon Pulse that ripped Gabite from the earth and into an arc. The light spread over Malis's body, fading a second later and leaving his scales a deeper red, his limbs longer and more muscular, but the madness in his eye went nowhere. Gabite hit the floor, rolling backwards to its feet, its chest burning from the super effective attack, but it had no chance. The Charmeleon launched itself forward, fist ablaze with Fire Punch, and skewered Gabite in its wound. And the Fire Punch ignited further on contact, unleashing a secondary blast wave that vaporised the earth in a circle around the two battlers.

Gabite crashed into a sharp crop of rocks and lay still, smoke rising from its scales. Its body hung limp, its head slumped to one side. Malis breathed hard, smoke escaping his nostrils, then turned towards Zack. He should've been beaten long ago, but stayed standing through sheer force of will. Malis looked down at himself, at his new, more powerful form and gazed in wonder. Then looked back to Zack, baring his teeth.

'Good,' the trainer said. He walked right up to his pokémon, who glared, breathing deeply from the fight. The evolution had mended most of his cuts, if not his stamina, but there was now a dark scar running from beneath his left eye to the edge of his jaw. Malis's eyes lingered on his pokéball, which Zack picked up and turned over in his fingers. He smiled, then clipped the ball back onto his belt. Zack nodded towards the Gible nest, and Malis stared at the deep, dark hole.

'We're not done here just yet.'

Off Route 14: Tyrant's Desolation

The moment that s**t started to jump out, Benedict sought focus in Manny's meditation. True, he wouldn't be increasing any stats, and neither would Essence, but that wasn't the only use that it had. With the telepathic link, imperfect as it was, he could still find something.

Haunters were ghosts, psychic strikes from trained pokemon would help a lot. He sent to Essence as he turned to direct Alexa. Worry and the image of seeds flying at one of the haunters went out to his pokemon. They might still be able to move, but taking away the levitate might help them be less mobile. He searched for pokemon nearby, and briefly considered using Manny for that.

It might work, if there was more training there. He sent the instruction anyway. Search for minds, give directions of them. Still, he used his eyes as well.

"Psychic attacks on any that leave an opening." He replied out loud. It seemed a good opportunity to add them into the link, but again...

He wished he'd gotten Manny sooner than this. "Defensive moves otherwise."

Essence, meanwhile, was responding to the vague order. She had had less from him, verbal commands that were ingrained. The feelings she understood well enough to launch worry seeds at the haunter in the center.

She focused on any movement around her, of course. If something attacked, she'd be ready for it. At least enough to start reacting. If none of the pokemon came quickly enough, she would use the spare time to activate growth and prepare herself for what came next.

Manny had the easier job, reaching out with his Telepathy, his natural psychic abilities. The same thing that let him detect allies, and start reading enemies. If Ben was correct, he would be able to detect pokemon by which was closest. It wouldn't be as exact as if he had mastered mind reader, of course, but would allow him to give Benedict a direction to focus on for the next attackers.

((Specifically, psybeam the Haunter if it's hit by the worry seed is what I'd choose if it's available.. But Ben's not aware of all her pokemon's moves.))

((You got it!))

Off Route 14

The center Haunter Licked up the Worry Seeds before they hit its face, cackling alongside its cohorts. Then it felt sick, clutching itself while the seeds did their magic as the other two Ghosts kept laughing. It still floated a couple of inches off the ground, but that Haunter's movement was limited to lateral now. Angrily, it formed a blob of darkness in a palm and tossed the Shadow Ball at Essence.

As the ground became electrified, everyone on Alexa's crew but her shrieked. Noel dropped her lighting kit but Alexa caught it with one hand while adjusting her fedora with the other. "Do it, Saz."

She wasn't much of a trainer, but Alexa was still Bug Gym Leader Viola's sister. Her Vivillon packed a punch. Sazerac leveled a beam of warped space at the grounded Haunter, currently distracted by its anger at Essence. The Psybeam would hit its mark after the Shadow Ball was tossed, heavily damaging Haunter while knocking it back into the thicket of trees.

As the terrain crackled with sparks, one of the levitating Haunters was struck by the first half of Split Thunderbolt, and then the second. It went flying away back into the forest. The last Haunter was already throwing out a Shadow Ball at Luxray to avenge its fallen friend.

The sounds of battle were attracting strong off route Pokémon to their location. Manny would feel three different factions of Aura converging on them:

-A group of five Pokémon a slightly lower level than Luxray were coming from the left, the closest of the factions.
-A duo of Pokémon just as strong as Luxray were coming from the right. They were the second closest, but the fastest, and would get to the travelers first.
-And a third Aura faction, made up of just one Pokémon, the farthest and more powerful than Luxray by five levels. It was coming from a fair distance behind the travelers, moving slow but gaining speed.

If Manny could make out the subtleties, he'd be able to feel the small presence of a Pokémon all around them, like a looming shadow.

Guigsy followed Liam, his Gogoat and Noel to get behind Roy, looking at the scratch on his arm that had stopped bleeding and turned a purple green color. "I take back that joke!"

"Let's move!" Alexa shouted, keeping his camera ready while the twins hopped onto the Gogoat. The first wave of attackers was already upon them, a duo of Floatzel jumping from the branches above them. As soon as they had targets in sight, they bounded down from above, Aqua Jetting like cannonballs to tackle into Luxray and Essence.

Three long range but relatively weak Acid Sprays arced in from the second wave of attackers before they were got there, coming from the other side. The shot of noxious poison was poised high over the group, raining down seconds later.

And as the wild attacks continued with no signs of stopping, the tree root in front of Benedict's foot ripped up from the ground and grew a gnarled hand of wood to grab his ankle.

((I should have mentioned this earlier: Sazerac has all of a Vivillon's level up moveset and Egg Moves, as well as Infestation. She's level 20. Here's Alexa's options this turn:

A) Defend one target from an Acid Spray
B) Attack target Pokémon (any attack)
C) Support move (Safeguard/Aromatherapy/Light Screen/Rage Powder)))

((It's OVER 9000! xd rofl It was originally 30 but let's say it was only using 60% of its true power against Dune way back when. So 50. Pretty sure that's how scaling works))

Lumiose Badlands - Valley Passage

Oh how Zack wished he had a flier. Instead, he was forced to stand well back as Hazard battled, dealing orders from afar while the match played out in relative miniature. The horde of Dugtrio he had pissed off were doing their level best to collapse the narrow passage on his pokémon with quakes and rock slides, but they weren't even the Haunter's main concern.

'Spine Sling!' shouted the opposing the trainer as her Sandslash took to the air and span, loosing a trio of spines from its back as projectiles. Hazard avoided the first couple spines, but the third caught her in the side and she staggered mid-flight. A tumbling boulder almost finished the ghost type off, but she noticed it in time, flying around it in a roll. The Sandslash landed, then took off, jumping from falling rock to falling rock to avoid the Dugtrios' quake damage as its spines regrew.

The spine that caught Hazard had to be yanked out, and she looked slowed. Great. Obviously Zack's opponent had been working on some custom moves, and Zack guessed that one was a dark type. Sacrifice something for something, make your pokémon hurt itself to slow its opponent down. Looked pretty cool too.

He commanded a Toxic, flooding the passage with poisonous gas, emanating from Hazard's body. The Sandslash landed on a rock and jumped no more, falling downwards as its trainer retaliated with Sandstorm, kicking up a sudden wind that brought a desert's worth of sand. Toxic's progress had slowed and visibility was enshittened for Zack's side. At this point, Zack would normally have Hazard use Shadow Punch to fade into her surroundings and tag her opponent with a blow, then press her advantage to obliterate it. But she couldn't fade into the passage walls without suffering from the quake damage.

'Oh, you cheeky b***h,' Zack said to himself before raising his voice. 'Fly above it, Hazard!'

He thought he made out a thumbs up amidst the raging sands, but for now the battle took place in shadow. Hazard's shadow soared skyward, then stopped short of breaking free from the Sandstorm as a wild Rock Throw exploded against her. She hit the passage's vertical wall, and the Dugtrio sped toward her like ants to food. The Sandstorm thinned just enough for Zack to see what was happening from his distant vantage point. To see his opponent's Sandslash leaping at Hazard to deliver the finishing blow while she was stunned.

'Venoshock, now!' commanded the trainer. Hazard peeled her hand from the wall. Sandslash came in with a darkness-bleeding Night Slash as Toxic bit at its body, and the ghost type nailed it in the forehead with her burst of purple light. Sandslash fell, hitting the valley floor as the Sandstorm destabilised and vanished in a spray of sand.

But the wild pokémon were still coming, and Hazard was in no position to take them all on, so Zack recalled her quick. He exhaled, annoyed with himself. Granted, he had made the fight harder by involving wild pokémon, but that victory was far too narrow. If his opponent had kept her cool and stayed at a distance, he'd have lost. Not good enough. Ratio wouldn't make a mistake like that.

'Heeeeey!' the other trainer shouted from far down the passage. 'Look ouuuuuut!'

Zack frowned, then saw what she meant. In lieu of attacking Hazard, the wild pokémon had rounded on Zack, turning en masse and rushing toward him. Zack swore under his breath and grabbed Serene's ball. Without a flier, he'd have to rely on Teleport. She materialised in a burst of light and Zack gave the command.

'Get us out of here, Serene. Teleport!' Zack shouted over the rumble of a thousand Dugtrio rushing them. Thirty metres away. Twenty-five. Serene stared at them, tilting her head slightly as she looked at one Dugtrio to the next. Fiery panic shot through Zack's stomach. 'Not now, god dammit. Snap out of it!'

Serene did nothing. The Dugtrio were almost on them. Zack grit his teeth and did what he had to do to get Serene's attention. He kicked her in the chest, knocked the psychic type to the floor. She lay on her side, looking him in the eye. The rumble grew louder and louder, the floor shook up and down as the wild pokémon dragged a butt of filth toward the pokémon and her trainer.

'Teleport. Now,' Zack said calmly. Serene responded without a sound. She stretched her power around them, and they vanished in a flash that faded in my butt of dirt.

Off Route 14

Electricity crackled along Luxray's body and it sent a charge into the floor beside it. The Thunderbolt exploded as Luxray leapt to the side, its electric charge briefly speeding up its movement as the Shadow Ball shot past. Luckily the attack had been long range, or that little trick wouldn't have worked. The electric type barely had time to breathe when the Floatzel was upon it, then Ajax was upon that, and Luxray shot off a panicked Thunderbolt into the fray. It was aimed at Floatzel, but if the wild pokémon was fast enough, it might be able to make the Pidgetto take the hit in its place.

But if Ajax was unable to redirect the Floatzel at all, then the Aqua Jet would collide with Luxray and knock it off its paws.

Ben was at the mercy of the Acid Sprays, but lucky for him, Roy's level 50 (yeah) Fearow was on the job. The sprays would get hit by Fearow's Whirlwind as the pokémon zoomed in from above, then struck hard with a mighty flap of its wings. It ought to be enough to force the attacks off-course and into the plants and trees beside him, where they'd eat away at the foliage.

'Now!' Roy shouted, checking the distance between Alexa's crew and where Benedict was fighting. Looked about right, time to do it. 'Big Whirlwind!'

It wasn't a particularly creative name, but it wasn't a particularly creative attack either. Fed up of being beset by horde battles, Roy had trained his Fearow to turn its whirlwind into a miniature tornado. The pokémon flapped hard as it soared in a circle overhead, quickly nurturing the winds into a storm that would encircle the expedition party.

Everything that was already on the field would be caught in the eye of the storm within one turn. While weaker pokémon would be unable to penetrate the eyewall, stronger pokémon could just wade through. Still, it'd buy them time enough to regroup and mount an escape.

Off Route 14

Goodra's chance was now. To kill these intruders, to bring honor back to his people. The girl before, she had torn through his champions. This time, they would be the predators in the hunt.

As Goodra was preparing to strike, stepping out into the path, a man ran past. Taken aback, Goodra looked down at the trainer, passing just a foot away from him, but clearly uninterested in him.

"Stay away from me, you psycho!" He screamed.

"Not without my badge!" And then there was a bright flash of light, and Goodra's world was shattered into darkness.

***

Wailord's arrival, tearing through the path, caused a shockwave of the sudden displacing air and dirt, trees being torn up by their roots, a poor thief being blown away by the force and crashing into the mud.

The light faded as quickly as it came, and Bridgette jumped out into the path, Kabutops on one side of her, and Drifblim on the other. "That's what you get!" she shouted, wind blowing everything around her. When she looked over, her hair blowing backwards and the kicked up dirt forcing her to squint against it, she saw the Big Whirlwind.

"The heck is that?!" she shouted over to Drifblim, but he didn't say anything in response. It was a miniature tornado, of course, but out here, in the blue skies of Kalos, there was no way it could actually be that.

"Oh man! I'll bet someone's having a pokemon battle!"