It took me a full minute to digest the fact that we were being called for an emergency. I took a deep breath and recalled Jungle and Mesa.

“Come on,” I said to Cape who began to follow me.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

I looked back at Jess. “They are calling us so we have to go.”

“What! No, we don’t, we don’t need to go.” I could hear the panic in her voice.

I looked at her.

“Did you not read the contract?”

“What contract!?”

“The one you had to sign to get the Indigo trainer passport. You know, the one that explains that in Indigo you are obligated to respond to emergence calls?” My annoyance at getting caught by an emergency alert when I should be far away from here began to leak over.

She stammered. “I—I did not read it completely…”

“Well, we have to go now or we are going to risk losing our trainer licenses.” And I would not be losing that now that I had just gotten it.

I began to walk and heard Cape's confident steps and, after a while, I also heard steps from Jess. We made our way north and soon enough we saw what looked to be a great assembly of trainers. Trainers from all over the city were walking or flying towards the already large group. I remembered the news talking about emergencies like these two years ago and this vision was eerily similar to the news footage of the big group of trainers in Celadon that besieged the Game Corner, which was then revealed to be a Rocket base.

We slowed down when we noticed the smoke and the flames.

A fire had started in Ilex Forest and we could see that the Firefighter Brigade and their pokemon were already there. They were trying to contain the flames which seemed to be growing stronger. Many water pokemon, from the firefighters and from trainers who were recruited formed a line to hold it. The most prevalent, of course, were the Slowpoke, at least thirty well-trained Slowpoke were using Water Gun to stop the fire from spreading through the grass, there were also other pokemon, the Poliwag, Psyduck, and Horsea lines were present, and even a couple of Gyarados that were using Hydro Pump. And, of course, the Seaking of Fire Chief Richard.

The massive water type was collecting the water forming on the ground by the moves of the other water types and sending wave after wave of Surf towards the biggest parts of the fire. Behind the firefighters, the trainers, and the water pokemon, was a big line of trainers being funneled into three groups, one near the city, one near the forest, and one in the middle.

I returned Cape, since there was no danger yet, and Jess and I entered the large line. The line was long but moved very fast and when I reached the beginning I saw that there were two people, a pokemon ranger and a gym trainer from Azalea, sorting the trainers, both seemed to be at least forty years old by the weathered faces and greying hair on the sides.

I finally reached them and the pokemon ranger looked at me, while the gym trainer held a device in his hand, it looked like a cellphone but bigger and bulkier.

“Full name.” Said the ranger.

“Scott Wood.” I saw the Gym Trainer type my name on a handheld device.

“How many badges?”

“One.”

“Group Three.” He made to point his arm towards the group that was nearest to the city when the gym trainer stopped him and showed him something on the device.

“Group Two,” he said,” he has a strong pokemon who can down the Yanmas.”

The ranger looked me up and down and nodded. “Group Two then.”

I knew better than to question that call and went towards group two, the group that was between what I assumed was group one, who were right behind the firefighters, and group three, who seemed to be guarding the city.

I looked back to see that Jess had been directed towards group three. Who I assumed would be the last line of defense for the city itself and probably the safest group, which was good for her. When I got to my group, I saw that there were at least fifty members and more were getting here from the line.

Three minutes later the people who were still on the line were all sent to group three and a veteran ranger called for the attention of the almost one hundred pokemon trainers in group two.

He grabbed a megaphone and began to speak. “Listen well for I will only give you the scenario one single time… Somehow a powerful Coalossal, a rock and fire type pokemon native to the Western Continent has appeared in Ilex Forest in an area near the City and attracted the rage of a swarm of Yanmega and Yanma, they are in combat right now. Gym Leader Bugsy is ready to engage and subdue the Coalossal but when he does that, he will also be dispersing the swarm which will fly in all directions, including toward Azalea. That’s where we come in.”

He stopped to let that sink in. “Group One’s task is to thin the Yanma and to engage the Yanmega that will be coming in this direction. Group Two’s task, our task, is to stop the Yanma who make it past Group One, and finally, Group Three is to engage the Yanma who are able to make it past us. The operation will begin in five minutes. Release and pass this information to your pokemon. Rangers will soon be passing through the group to give quick individual advice to each of you.”

I released my team, knelt on the ground, and informed them of the situation. Cape was stoic and serious after he heard what we would need to do, Jungle looked worried and tense, so I put him near me and patted his head to calm him down. Mesa just bobbled in an affirmative.

I looked around at the other trainers. It looked like this group was composed mainly of one to four badge trainers since few trainers even had five pokemon.

Since I was at the back of the group it took a while for one of the maybe ten rangers assigned to our group to approach me.

I briefly explained Cape’s strengths since the other two did not have any strong points yet. He thought for a bit and said. “Since you are a beginner let the others do the heavy lifting, your Heracross should only use Aerial Ace to finish the Yanma. Maintain the Bulbasaur and the Baltoy near you for protection, remember that while region pokemon like the Yanma are not likely to target a human they may be imprudent or irrational because of the fight with the Coalossal. Good luck, trainer.”

And then he left for another person.

My team and I glanced at the burning forest. There was only one minute to start but that one minute went by a long time.

Someone blew up a horn. The sound startled us. The firefighter brigade and the trainers in charge of containing the fire began to fly or be teleported away.

A strong wind came from our backs and we looked up in time to see a gigantic Yanmega, easily four meters from head to tail, fly out from the city in the direction of the fire. We waited for another minute when the high sound of a Screech traveled towards us from deep inside the forest. Seconds later we began to hear the buzzing of the Yanma line but not one or two. Many, many, buzzing sounds were coming towards us.

A swarm of Yanma flew out of the forest fire and quickly reached their first obstacle, Group One, which was formed by at most thirty members. They had formed a barrier of ice and water-type pokemon who unleashed Icy Wind towards the forest and the swarm. The bug pokemon slowed down. And then came the storm of attacks.

Beams made of grey light and ice raced toward the flying and bug types and smashed them back violently. Electric types discharged thick bolts of lighting that raced from pokemon to pokemon and the flying types in the air released their Hurricanes, the many concentrated tunnels of cutting winds ripped apart the Yanma’s wings. Even in bright daylight and with the distance I could see shadows jumping from Yanma to Yanma, who then fell from the sky seemingly from nothing. The main concern of group one seemed to be attacking the wings or fainting them outright.

After the first barrage that thinned the Yanma, the flying types hiding in the clouds came down. The more prevalent ones were Pidgeot and Fearow, but there was also an Altaria, a Noctowl, a Golbat, a Gliscor, a Skarmory, and even some pokemon from the Western Continent like Braviary, Unfezant, and Corviknight. These pokemon began to glow in cerulean lights, some more darker than others, and dived down to knock out the Yanma who had escaped the barrage.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Everything seemed to be going according to the plan when the Yanmega finally came, and with them, they brought the earth. Yanmega is one of the pokemon more closely associated with Ancient Power for a reason. They were one of the lines that evolved when they learned to control the peculiar power that was Ancient Power. It was, in many ways, their birthright. There was also the complication that they were possibly the only pokemon line who, while not touching the ground, could use Ancient Power.

When the Yanmega reached the end of the forest and saw what was happening to their Yanma their bodies collectively glowed purple and large swats of dirt and earth rose above the tree line all across the edge of the forest and began to compress and morph themselves into big chunks of purple glowing rocks of dissimilar shapes. Those rocks were then thrown towards the pokemon on the ground and the trainers behind them like a landslide.

This landslide without a mountain would have probably engulfed Group One, pokemon and trainers alike, but the rocks that were coming began to glow even more, showing that a group of pokemon from the trainers were fighting back with their own Ancient Power. The rocks slowed down enough for many big and strong land-based pokemon like Rhydons, Nidoqueens, Nidokings, Golems, Onyx, and even a Gigalith to stop them with their massive bodies and moves like Rock Smash or Rock Blast, and even Rock Tomb which erected massive barriers of rock to stop the rolling rocks, I also saw a familiar huge Aggron on the front, towering over others.

The Yanmega were occupied wrestling for control over their Ancient Power and that gave time for Group One to release many new pokemon, these ones clearly stronger than the ones already released. The most noticeable was a raging Gyarados, a Dragonite who flew together in a pattern with a Flygon and an Altaria, and also the biggest Chandelure I had ever seen. These and other pokemon rushed forward and began to engage the Yanmegas.

I could not see more since the Yanma that came together with the Yanmega were coming towards us since Group One was now occupied. If I had to guess I would say it was less than one hundred Yanma incoming. The more experienced of us were at the front. We didn’t have as many flying types so many of our pokemon tried to knock down the Yanma by using Water Gun, newly mastered Ice Beam, or other moves that could do the same with mixed results. I wasn’t in any danger right now as the battle was focused on the front.

The Yanma raced down to attack and the ground and rock types responded by throwing rocks, Some ghosts tried to deliver dark energy slashes and grass pokemon were trying to hit rapid seeds or razor-sharp leaves.

Soon enough the Yanma began to retaliate. I looked towards a place where an Onyx was being hit by many Yanma.

“Cape, there.” He looked at where I was pointing. “Help the Onyx.”

The bug type nodded, crouched down, and spread his wings. After a second of gathering the flying energy, he jumped hard forward and disappeared. Four of the seven Yanmas surrounding the Onyx fell as a light blue blur slashed their wings, one after another. As Cape appeared again a Yanma made to Quick Attack him but a Fearow that was flying by interrupted it with a Peck.

Cape was able to return and we began to follow that strategy. Every time we saw the cooperative Yanma begin to focus on a pokemon or another I sent Cape to try and disperse them. It worked well enough.

The Yanma began to spread out over the groups and some got close to us when Cape was away but were soon rebutted by Jungle’s Vine Whip. My closest call was when a Yanma dived towards a Geodude that was near us with Quick Attack. The Geodude responded by hitting back with a Body Slam. The collision between them raised the earth around them. I raised my arms as I was going to be pelted by the rocks and the soil that were thrown in our direction but Mesa surprised me by glowing pink. The rocks and the soil stopped in the air and fell to the ground like rain.

I didn’t have time to celebrate the Baltoy finally using psychic energy as the Geodude had been flung away but the Yanma was still there and making to fly away.

“Vine Whip the wing!” The bug and flying type fell again as one of his wings was whipped by Jungle, and turned to us. Mesa didn’t waste time and flew forward to hit its head with a Mud Slap which fainted him.

“Great job, Mesa.” The pokemon looked at me and nodded.

The next minutes were quiet, Jungle and Mesa were still by my side and Cape was still doing his thing but soon enough the Heracross began to slow down so I asked him to stay put with us.

Now that the fight was dying down I could concentrate on more things.

I noticed that some trainers and pokemon were not fainting the Yanma but killing them. There was a particularly vicious team of electric pokemon where a Luxray and a Magneton were using very powerful Charge Beams directly at the heads of the Yanma. It was not against the law when done in an emergency, but still…

I shook my head and looked towards the city for the first time since the fight had begun. I didn’t see any Yanma making it past us but if they had I hoped that Jess would be alright.

After five more minutes part of the Group One turned back and unleashed attacks on the remaining Yanmas, finishing the fight for good. The firefighters and trainers with water pokemon were back again. They went deeper into the forest this time as the moves used in Group One battles had extinguished a large part of the flames on the edge of the forest.

Soon enough everything became silent and everyone stopped when they realized it had finally ended. I looked around, everyone was exhausted, even if our group had only fought for about ten minutes. I could not see anyone hurt or any pokemon dead but some younger trainers were crying, probably from shock. It was not every day that you faced a swarm of angry bug pokemon and not everyone was like Bugsy who was fearless around bug types.

Cape thankfully had not been hit by any move. He had been very careful to not attack any Yanma that looked old or strong and only attacked the younger and drained ones. He was just really exhausted. I rummaged through my bag for a bottle of water and gave it to him.

I noticed that the fire in the forest had stopped and then thought about Bugsy and the Coalossal. I remember reading about that pokemon, a mountain-like rock and fire pokemon made of coal and commonly found in Galar. A pokemon that has two types that are strong against bug pokemon. It was simply the worst matchup possible for Bugsy.

I hoped it was a situation where Lorelei or someone else came and helped him. If that didn’t happen…

-

Mesa and I found Jess sitting near the barracks that the people from the General Hospital and the Pokemon Center built. Her Hippopotas was by her side as she hugged him.

Some trainers from Group One were hurt by a Yanmega who seemed to be very proficient with Ancient Power. They had some broken bones and had to be hospitalized. Some rumors also said that a pokemon from one of those trainers, an Ursaring, had split that Yanmega in two in anger.

Jess looked tense and nervous. I sat at her side and we looked as people rushed by. Most trainers were too mentally or physically tired, including me to be honest, but many decided to delve into the forest to try and help the wild pokemon who had been affected by the fire. On my walk here I had already seen a group of trainers rushing in a group of burned Mareep and one trainer had brought two coughing and crying Teddiursa.

Those were the best cases, Ilex Forest was full of bug types and those were the least brought here.

“Are you all right?”

“Y—yes.” She said.

“Did you fight?”

“No… There were only like three or so Yanma, and they didn’t go to the area that I was in.” She looked like she was going to stay silent but then spoke again. “You people are crazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“You put people with barely any training in these situations.”

I stopped to think about how to explain it to her. “It makes sense what you are saying but consider this, the trainers from Group One and most of Group Two could have handled that situation by themselves if you think about it—”

“That’s what I'm saying!” She frowned.

I frowned back. “What I am trying to tell you… Is that Indigo doesn’t want new trainers to be in danger. They want new trainers to experience danger.”

Her face twisted in confusion.

“The trainers from Group One, one day were the trainers from Group Three. They were only able to act so calmly today because they had experienced those kinds of situations yesterday, an experience that they gathered by watching the kind of fight that you watched today. The next time you are in danger, maybe real danger, you will be able to react better than if it was your first time.”

“… That makes sense I guess.” she said and her body deflated, “I still think it's crazy.”

“Fair.”

We spent some more time in silence.

“Do you want to go back to the city, rest there, and travel some other day?”

She spent some minutes thinking about it. Things had begun to slow down on the side of the rescuers, many people had used psychic pokemon to search the large area around the Bugsy and Coalossal fight which had ended five minutes before ours, and most people were fairly sure that all the humans or pokemon that could be rescued were rescued. Some were still out there, searching, psychics did have difficulty sensing dark, ghost, and bug types, dark being the worst, almost invisible to them, and bug being the more noticeable of the three.

“No,” she finally said after some minutes, “the city will be somber for a while, and I don’t want to see that… I just have to call my family to say that I’m okay and then we can go.” She took a cell phone from her purse. A Pokegear, a cellphone from Sinnoh marketed for trainers. It's said they can even connect between regions.

I nodded and got up.

“Ok, I have to call some people too, will be waiting near the station.”

She nodded and Mesa and I left. We soon reached the station. I looked at the sky, it was almost midday. We were later than I ever wanted, but that problem seemed small now. I got out my old and normal cellphone and called Jeremy, then Alice, and then Dendra. It would cost a pretty penny but it was worth it to reassure them that I was okay.

They reacted as expected.

Jeremy was in shock. The library was on the other side of the city so he hadn’t been warned about the situation yet. He went on to ask for things in detail. It brought to my mind that even though it didn’t seem like it, it had only been fifteen minutes of fight. Alice already knew and was glad that I was safe. Dendra was able to pick from my tone that it had been difficult, but her questions focused more on aspects related to the fight itself.

When I finished I was still waiting for Jess when a trainer that was going to enter the station stopped and came up to me. He said that he was the trainer of the Onyx and shook my hand, thanked me, and left. That made me feel good and I would later tell Cape about it.

Ten minutes later Jess finally arrived. Her eyes were slightly red and her voice was rough.

“Let’s go.”

She passed by me to enter the station and I turned to look towards the City of Azalea for one last time in what would be a long while. I could swear that the city had been brighter in the morning.

It was not the farewell that I wanted.