I ran and ran and ran-

This is stupid! Why would they do this?! It's not our fucking problem! We are just some aspiring trainers in the shallow part of the WA, why play the fucking hero?!

The first sign of an active battle I spot during my dash are the sounds of violence. Both myself and goggles double our efforts to get in there as fast as possible.

The second sign I see is the enormous shape of a monkey shoulder-tackling a two story-sized bird through the trees.

If it wasn't for Goggles grabbing my by the hair and pulling me out of the way I probably would've been flattened.

"HOLY SHIT!" I scream as I tumble away from the fight.

Empirically, I knew that a 1 star rookiedee should be about as tall as that, but seeing it and reading about it are two entirely different things.

"Hey Trent!" I turn around to see Gloria, smiling as tough we aren't in a fucking battlefield right now.

I see the colors of Victor's and Hop's clothes pass by, voices shouting "Aim for the eyes!" And "Keep it on the ground!"

I try to regain my composure, Gloria is just next to me helping me gain my footing.

"You good man?"

No! What the fuck are you thinking? Why are you all risking your lives for something is not our job? Come on! I don't want you people to die! "Yeah, I am" Is what comes out of my mouth.

"YAN!" Oh crap that sounds like "DUCK!"

I jump , shoving Gloria behind a tree as a terrible windstorm ripped apart chunks of the ground around us.

"HOLY- Good save!" Gloria sighed in relief. (If I was paying much attention to anything but the pounding of my head and the sounds of battle in my ears, I might have been embarrassed to be on top of Gloria like this)

"So, I was going to ask you to patch Ronaldo up, but this is not going as well as I hoped." She said meekly, and Gloria being meek just sounded wrong in my head on so many levels, enough to snap me out my panic state (not a full blown panic attack yet, the little victories.)

I peeked the scene the behind tree, things have escalated into a rolling brawl between Zarude and the large bird, while the trained Pokemon is physically stronger, the flying 'mon held a type advantage, and the water guns from Caduceus are not at all blinding the-

"VICTOR! THE WHITE PARTS ARE NOT HIS EYES! ITS JUST THE RED!" Damn mimicry adaptations.

"Got it! 'Duce! Bullseye on the red!"

Ok, that should help push things in our favor, I turn to Gloria, who was now crouching next to me, to my chagrin her only response is to shrug and say "Probably would have Goggles in the air to try and hit it if it tries to run."

Oh hey there is the anger that was being suppressed by my sheer panic. How the fuck is she so blasé about this?

Plus, why the fuck are Hop and Victor out in the open? They should be hiding behind a tree like me! We don't need to be vulnerable to give orders to Pokemon!

"G-goggles, dash behind it, latch onto it's back and bite him" I tell my 'mon, keeping my voice low and trying my best not to tremble, would it have been smarter to heed Gloria's advice? Maybe, If I had literally anything against this thing just flying away and leaving.

I see Goggles form blurring as it dashed towards the bird we are fighting.

Was that a true use of agility? Little victories all around, I guess.

I snap my eyes shut, my heart is pounding in my ear. Rookiedee are not aggressors, but when they perceive themselves being threatened or attack they will reveal quite the vengeful streak. Once you factor in the reinforcement of violent tendencies and the tremendous increase in stamina and toughness that accompany a naturally dynamaxed Pokemon kaijuification means that this thing is going to chase us to the end of the world if we don't take it down now.

I can see the pain and the flinch on the large bird Pokemon as I can only assume Goggles manages to latch onto his back and begins to viciously bite into him.

For a moment I consider letting the yet-unamed little guy out, my trembling hand reaching for the pokeball on my belt, but I quickly discard that line of thinking. Wouldn't be fair to him, making him fight this thing when I just said he did not need to fight if he did not want to.

And things are going quite well, Zarude is pummeling the bird and leaving very little room for retaliation from it, the bug bite and water gun are mostly just disrupting it's focus and it's ability to gather type energy.

Or so it should be, It looked very much like it's beak was beginning to glow with the distinct cyan blue color associated with flying type energy.

Now, do we commit or pull back to dodge? Maybe one more strong move would do it but overextending could quite possibly kill us all at this point-

"Hop! Make a fucking decision NOW!" My train of thoughts was abruptly interrupted by Gloria's shout, it seems like Hop is in a similar decision paralysis as me.

Thank god Gloria's cusses count as motivational speeches.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"GET THE HELL OUTTA DODGE AND RETALIATE!" Too many words on his command coupled with his late decision color the result of his action. Before he can even finish his sentence the humongous bird Pokemon lunged with reckless abandon, piercing Zarude's shoulder down to the base of it's beak.

The chimp stumbled backwards, glowing red light fleeing his body just as quickly as blood and sap.

Fuck.

Everything begun going the way of the distortion.

Hop quickly recalled Zarude back into his ball. I felt Gloria springing into action next to me while her brother seemingly went into hiding behind something.

I was a bit preoccupied watching the Dynamax Pokemon slowly and awkwardly walk towards Hop, for all the extra toughness granted by dynamaxing, the thing still took a beating, unfocused eyes and the lethargy were pretty big signs of a concussion, and it looks pretty concussed right now.

Not the slowness of the bird's steps mattered since Hop's knees decided that this was a good time to get weak and make him fall.

Fear grips my body like never before, watching the boy I started to joke and talk to with minimal panic was about to get killed because he got too big of a fucking head and went into a dynamax raid unprepared. (And look at me! Imma gonna be next because I decided to help!)

I couldn't take my eyes off even If I desperately wanted to. My palms are sweating and my whole body is trembling. I hear my heart thrumming on my ears.

Three things happened at once.

One. The fucking bird reared it's head back to attack

Two. A water gun was shot from behind the trees.

Three. Gloria dashed out of wherever she was hiding in Hop's direction.

I held my breath. My body frozen as I watched the whole scene unfolding. (No time to hate myself for doing nothing at least)

The dynamax Pokemon stepped back attack after the sudden spray of water in it's eyes, giving the female twin enough time to begin dragging Hop away.

It was a brief thing. But I saw Goggles while the gigantic Pokemon stumbled. He was still latched onto their back, red light marking dynamax energy fleeting from the wound my darter made.

We just need time. We just need to buy time for enough dynamax energy to bleed from their body so Hop can use the dynaball.

Time. Hop needs to recover. Gloria is on rescue duty. Victor can't hold the bird's full attention alone. I need to buy time as well. My hand briefly passes through blipbug's pokeball, but even now I can't dare to do something this heartless.

Despite everything, my body moves towards the opposite from the direction Gloria is dragging her rival. This may be a stupid idea.

The corviknight line is prideful. I decide to use that. "BIRDBRAIN! YOUR BEAK IS SMALL AND YOU WILL NEVER LEAD A SQUAD!"

My trash-talking skill might be kindergarden-level, but pokemon don't understand human words, they understand a rough mix between meaning and the intent behind them, so the words probably would tug all the common insecurities a young rookieedee should have.

Considering the 'mon immediately turned his body towards me and started lumbering towards me.

I might have frozen for a second watching the bird approaching. Survival instincts took over. He was already slow and only getting slower I should be fine.

But just running away was a bad idea, If I run it might just turn back on the champion trio, so I have to maintain healthy distance.

Easier said than done when you are watching a giant Pokemon's beak slowly light up with TE.

Hiding behind trees wasn't going to work, so I just ran. My body would probably have protested after all the running I had already done today, but I had too much adrenaline pumping through my body to notice my own limits.

I tripped on a exposed root.

The pain of facing the ground did not register. Just the sound of slowly approaching gigant footsteps. All the worst case scenarios running through my head a hundred kilometers per hour. If that thing wasn't concussed to hell and back I might already be a goner.

"HEY IDIOT! YOUR PECKS SUCK! NO ONE GONNA WANT TO MATE WITH YOU!"

"SOBBLE SOBBLE!"

Victor. My savior. My knight in shining armor. I wanted to look at him, I really did, but getting my foot unstuck and hiding was more important than thanking him.

The moment I got my foot out, I immediately dove behind a tree. Desperately pleading for my heart trying to burst out of my chest and for my breath to get more controlled.

It takes me a moment to compose myself and compartmentalize the fear, I peek around the tree I am hiding behind, the environmental damage from the fight has deescalated from the beginning now that the giant Pokemon is running on the last legs and scraps of remaining dynamax energy.

I look down at my dynamax band. Energy levels in the air are very high and dissipating rapidly, if Hop was the one who got here first, his band should be almost ready to charge a dynaball.

I hear screaming. Probably Gloria's voice. The tone isn't like a screech of pain or a yell of desperation. It sounds triumphant. (Maybe I am biased when hearing her voice.)

Staying in this position is safer. Further away from the danger. But I got into this situation because I did not want my friends to die, so staying here safe was counterproductive.

I did not have to move a lot to catch a glimpse of Gloria, zig-zagging through the trees as the rokieedee bumbles around trying to catch up to her.

I felt the exhaustion of the fight starting to creep up my spine looking at the rookieedee barely managing to chase Gloria around, my trusted companion still clinging to it's back. This would probably be much faster if Goggles knew a single non-bug physical move.

It was almost sad watching my could-be-murderer trudging along like that. Like the only thing making him move is a mixture of spite and bullheadedness. I know uncontrolled dynamax energy messes up a Pokemon's agression, but this is ridiculous.

Next Thing I know Hop is dashing past me, a bowling ball sized iridescent red orb firmly held in his grip.

Just don't fucking miss the throw Hop

"HEY YOU DUNCE-HEAD!" The boy screamed. And the house sized bird promptly turned his head towards him.

"CATCH THIS!" His throwing of the dynaball wasn't particularly impressive, I have no idea how heavy a dynaball actually is, but it looked like he was attempting to throw something that weighted like an actual bowling ball rather than a pokeball. Even so, his target was enormous and walking straight towards the ball, unlikely they even registered the projectile flying in his direction between the berserk state and the concussion.

Without the typical 'snap-hiss' characteristic to most pokeballs, the dynaball opened right before making contact, unleashing a storm of colors from it's insides, I've seen videos of the process, the Pokemon would melt into a bright orb of light before being sucked inside the ball.

What the videos did not tell me is that the light is fucking blinding. I quickly averted my eyes away from the prismatic showing until I heard a heavy THUD impacting the ground.

One shake.

Two shakes.

Three shakes.

Ding!

The dynaball quickly reverted into a normal pokeball. Lying unconspicuously in the patch of grass.

I collapsed in relief. The full force of my physical excertion finally weighting on me.

"Is it over?" Asked a voice that sounded like Victor.

"Yeah" the panting voice was probably Gloria.

"I think I pissed my pants man." That was absolutely Hop.

Well. I might be a bit delirious with the adrenaline rapidly flushing out from my system, but Hop admitted to it first. "I definitely pissed my pants."

"Yan!" Oh, Goggles sounds fine.

Gloria started laughing first. Hop joined quickly. I don't know when Victor and myself started laughing.

Absurd. We almost died and we are now laughing like maniacs. I should feel like they should be laughing at me, but it feels like we are laughing together at this whole situation.

Everyone survived. That's good enough for me right now