I had to assess our situation.

We were surrounded by a thick forest and would not be able to run. To my side was Jess with Jungle, Quake, and Velocity against two average Seviper. They should be able to win either by fainting them or making them run away. Meanwhile, Cape, Mesa, and I were up against a huge, strong, and probably smart Seviper.

We most likely will not faint or make it run away.

The only way we are going to get out of this situation with all our pokemon alive would be to stall the Seviper and wait for Jess to finish up her fight and then help us.

I took off the sweat from my forehead.

“Stall,” I whispered to my two pokemon, “we will wait for Jess to finish up her fight.”

I took some steps away from the incoming fight as the pokemon spent some time sizing each other. Cape took some steps forward to stand in the path of the Seviper and Mesa floated back. Mesa was too fragile to be hit by a pokemon like that, especially with that sharp tail.

The Seviper, realizing we would not attack first, began to slither forward while slowly moving its body from one side to another on the grass. I noticed that Cape had begun to twitch nervously and realized that it was Swagger.

“Stay still Cape, It’s trying to provoke you,” I said.

Cape nodded and shook his head to get rid of the effect and Mesa didn’t seem affected. The Seviper was still slithering forward when it finally reached Mesa’s range. “Now, Sand Attack.”

The ground around the Baltoy glowed and the soil under the grass transformed into sand that began to rise and gather around. The sand mustered in the ground in front of Mesa and then briefly glowed pink before bursting forward like a wave towards the Seviper’s approaching head.

The snake stopped the Swagger and dove down to dodge the sand and, in the same action, pounced towards Cape with its mouth open for a bite.

The Heracross dodged by jumping to the side but as the Seviper passed him by it swung its bladed tail towards his body. Cape used Harden on his left hand and deflected the poison-dripping blade before rushing forward and, with his other hand, punching her body up with an Arm Thrust.

The poison pokemon was tossed away by the hit and, while surprised at Cape’s strength, almost took a load of sand in the face from Mesa but it dodged at the last second by twisting its body in the air. It landed on the grass and quickly slithered back and around to wrap Cape with its body.

“Fly away!”

Cape turned and opened his wings to fly above and away from the wrap. The big snake opened its mouth and pounced to bite on Cape’s wings with a flaming mouth only to finally take a tightly packed pound of sand on its face, pushing its head to the side and enabling Cape to fly to the top of a tree and out of the Seviper’s reach.

I was going to praise Mesa when I froze as I realized that the Seviper had just used Fire Fang. It was not a good Fire Fang, not as fast or as natural as a fire-type pokemon could make but it had used it.

The Seviper was or had been, a trained pokemon.

I didn’t have the chance to process this information as the poison pokemon shook its head, taking off the sand from its face, and rapidly tried to pounce towards Mesa only for Cape to come down from the tree and hit the Seviper’s body with an Aerial Ace infused arm.

The snake received the strike with a grunt and, reacting way faster than I expected, turned around and bit Cape’s other arm. He cried out in pain and began to hit the Seviper’s head with his other orange glowing arm over and over. The poison pokemon groaned every time Cape hit her eye, head, or jaw with Arm Thrust but even then it didn’t let Cape’s arm go.

I saw its near-sealed mouth glow in a sickly purple color and knew that Cape was poisoned and that the more time stuck there the more poison energy the Seviper would inject and the faster it would act.

I clicked my tongue. I would have to risk Mesa if I wanted Cape to get out alive. “Mesa, Rapid Spin on her throat.”

The Baltoy didn’t hesitate and began to float towards the Seviper but, before he could begin to spin, a white furball jumped ahead of him. It was the Minccino and its eyes were glowing pink.

The Seviper lost the enraged look on its face and began to look puzzled. Cape, to his surprise, was suddenly released from its mouth and, even in pain from the poison, managed to complete his last Arm Thrust to her jaw as the pokemon stood there dazed.

The poison pokemon flew back because of the strike but even then it was able to twist its body in a way that, even as it was pushed back, it slam Cape’s body away. He didn’t have time to defend or dodge and took the hit. It was a blow so strong he flew by me and hit a tree behind Mesa and me.

I looked back and saw that the big and strong tree that Cape had hit had been shattered to the ground into many pieces, an orange glow was dissipating in the air and Cape was already getting back on his feet.

Insane. Cape had managed to use Counter on that surprise attack and then hit the tree to dissipate the physical damage that he controlled from the Seviper.

A grin invaded my face despite the situation. He really was a crazy bug.

My grin dissolved as I looked forward again and saw the Seviper rise and Glare at the ground in front of Mesa where the Minccino was.

The little pokemon froze in fear.

“Mesa!”

Sand began to rise from behind the Minccino but the snake pokemon had already pounced and was about to chomp the little pokemon when a flying grey blur hit the Seviper on the head and forced her to the side. The Minccino took the chance and ran behind Mesa.

I looked to the side.

There were no more Sevipers and now Jess, behind Quake and Jungle who were together with a Zangoose, were encircling the Seviper.

A Starly, Velocity I imagined, trilled as she stopped at the other side of the poison pokemon, the grey energy from the Quick Attack fading away. Meanwhile, a battered Cape had flown to stand in front of me, one of his arms dangled by his side.

I exhaled in relief. We had won and now was just a matter of driving away or fainting the Seviper.

“You guys are okay? Wounds?” I whispered as Jess approached.

“None on my side… Cape is looking bad.”

“Yeah, but he still is going at point, you guys just hit it on the sides.” Cape raised his good arm in approval.

Jess nodded as the Seviper, now free from the influence of Baby-Doll Eyes, looked at its new enemies. The snake’s face twisted in fury.

I thought it was going to turn around and flee but then its body began to twist and wave strangely, not like Swagger though. It looked more like...

My face twisted in shock and I heard a gasp from Jess. The air around us changed from relief to despair from those who had seen that move before in Conferences.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

The Seviper’s body began to flash in the grey light. The red eyes glowed and its muscles began to contract and grow bigger and bigger. Wisps of pure gold could be seen here and there glittering across its scales. The Seviper, before, had been three meters in length and now it looked like its body had grown by half a meter.

It was not even close to decent but it was using one of the most powerful moves ever created in Indigo, Sword Dance.

The exhausted and glowing poison pokemon began to lower itself to strike in Cape’s direction when another Zangoose, this one visibly bigger and stronger than the one with Jess, dropped from a tree above the Seviper and Slashed its face with a claw.

A grey light brightly flashed as the claw touched the face.

The Zangoose landed on the ground and hopped away from the retaliation of the sharp tail. The tail missed the Zangoose by centimeters but hit two trees and both were cleanly cut in half by the Sword Dance’s powered tail.

My eyes widened and I began to sweat as I looked at the damage of that single swing.

As the trees fell the Seviper glared at the Zangoose before flinching back in surprise as it realized that the Sword Dance was disappearing.

The Seviper muscles deflated, the golden wisps faded away and the poison pokemon looked even more tired.

I took a deep breath and looked at the Zangoose in awe. If that tail had caught even a little piece of him he would have died and even then he risked his life to use a Disable to get rid of the Sword Dance. Cunning and fearless that one.

The Seviper, now extremely tired and almost fainting made to run away but the older Zangoose ran forward and tried to hit the back of its head with a silver glowing claw and, even as dead tired as the Seviper was, it still dodged the attack and made to strike back with its body but Quake, the Hippopotas used Sand Tomb to disbalance the Seviper while Velocity hit the Seviper with a quick attack from one side, the Seviper tried to jump in the air but her body was struck by a couple of green whips that stopped the jump,

In front of me, Cape bent his knees and pushed off the ground.

The Seviper’s head, moving to one side and the other to see who would attack next, didn’t see Cape until he was right beside it. The blue glowing horn smashed into the snake’s head and the Seviper finally fell to the ground.

Cape landed on top of the poison pokemon and raised his good arm to the sky.

“Hera… Cross!” The sound reverberated through the trees. Cape then fell on his butt and slipped to the ground

I waited some seconds to see if the Seviper would rise.

When it didn’t I rushed forward while opening my bag and grabbing an antidote and some potions. The first thing I did was use the antidote on his bitten and mangled arm, then I used a potion on the hit he took to the body from the Seviper, Counter couldn’t stop everything after all, and then on his back from the release on the tree. Then I came back to his arm and, after the antidote stopped the poison energy, used two entire potions on his broken arm.

He stood silent the entire time but had a small smile on his tired face. Crazy bug.

After that, I returned him and Jungle, who looked tired, to their pokeballs.

I sat on the ground for a bit and after some seconds heard Jess’ steps as she began to approach from behind. “Is he okay?”

“Yes… He is going to be okay.” I said and soon enough I felt my heart rate begin to increase and my body release adrenaline as rage surged forward.

I, sitting on the grass, turned to look at Jess “What are you doing!?”

She flinched but didn’t respond.

“What is your problem!?” I put my hands on the ground and stood up, uncaring about the fact that we were in a possibly dangerous forest. “Do you know what passed through my head when we didn’t find you at the camp? What would have happened if I hadn’t come after you!?”

“…Pokemon don’t eat humans.” She whispered to herself, but I did hear it.

“Hungry pokemon don’t care about tomorrow if they are going to die of hunger today! They could have killed and eaten you!” I stood up. “And what about your pokemon!? And mine!? You almost killed them today! I—“

Two loud claps interrupted me and all of us, humans and pokemon, turned towards the Zangoose who had clapped, hard.

The one with Jess had walked to stand near the bigger one and now that I looked at them together I could clearly see now that they were father and son.

By the patterns on their red fur and their musculature, they were both male. The older one had many scars across his entire body including one that seemed to go from one side of his face to the other. He was at least one meter and five which made him a little smaller than me and he was standing by the side of the three meters Seviper with a cold indifference.

The other Zangoose, on the other hand, was nervous and cautious when approaching the fainted Seviper. He had very little in terms of scars and had only one meter and two at most, which made him look even more like a child when standing next to the bigger one. As if their body language didn’t scream father and son.

The older Zangoose, noticing he had our attention, pointed at my waist, where my pokeballs were clipped in my belt, and then pointed to the Seviper.

“You want us to catch the Seviper?”

He nodded.

“… Why?” Said Jess, still frozen in place.

The Zangoose looked to the sky, rolled his eyes, and then repeated the same gesture, pointing at the pokeballs and then at the Seviper.

“Why do you think he is asking us to do that?” Jess said.

“The Seviper is a trained pokemon right?”

The Zangoose coldly nodded.

I looked back at Jess. “You might not have seen it but the Seviper also knew Fire Fang, combine that with the fact that it had a very rudimentary understanding of Sword Dance—”

“That was a rudimentary understanding!?”

I sighed, nodded and glanced at the Seviper.

Sword Dance was a very complex move that was certainly impossible to grasp without a trainer’s help. For a Seviper to have it in the wild means that someone released her here and that could be a problem because a trained pokemon, unless killed by a more powerful wild pokemon will dominate the wild, especially when in the Ilex Forest and having Fire Fang to threaten the bug types.

I grabbed an empty pokeball from my bag, clicked the button, and threw it at the Seviper.

The big snake turned into red light and was pulled into the pokeball. It shook one time and then stopped with a click. I walked to the pokeball, picked it up, and looked at it.

It’s a shame that I already have a poison pokemon… Actually, I think that even if I didn’t have one I wouldn’t want this Seviper. The Seviper line had problems that made it difficult to work in a team. It's not that they were a bad line, but in the specific function of competitive battling they were not the most versatile poison pokemon, and in terms of a striker or switcher, which are the positions where Sevipers usually found themselves, there were other types that were more favored than poison.

It was not that they couldn’t reach the top, but it would mean more work would be done for less return.

Not to mention the fact that this Seviper seems to have some kind of grudge against trainers if it chooses to use Sword Dance instead of running away.

“Are you going to keep it?” Jess asked.

I put the pokeball away. “No, I will give it to the ranger post when we reach the next one.”

The rangers had posts all over the routes and in Ilex, they had three. We had already passed the first one and should be near the second.

I turned to the two Zangoose.

“Thank you for the big help. You saved our lives with that incredible use of Disable.” I bowed to them. The big Zangoose nodded and the small one smiled.

“Let's go back to the route.” I turned towards the camp, I sensed her hesitation, and looked back at her.

“We… have to do something before that.”

My look turned into a glare. “What now?”

She bent down and grabbed something grey from the ground and showed it to me. It was the little Minccino.

Actually, what was a Minccino doing here?

Minccino is a line from the Western Continent. I knew that in the last decade some trainers, probably spies for the government now that I thought about it, would travel to the other continent and bring back some pokemon lines and release them in the wild for our trainers to get but who would have thought to bring the Minccino line. A Darumaka or a Roggenrola could understand, unique pokemon with unique mechanics, but we already have a lot of pokemon who could fit the same role that Minccinos do, the Igglybuff line comes to mind.

“Shoving her in my face should make me understand something?”

“Her?” Jess looked at the little pokemon and then shook her head. “When I came here it really was to fight and catch something interesting and strong but then we found this big tree with many Minccinos and other pokemon that were being attacked by that group of Seviper, so I was going to run away, but this baby.” She shoved the Minccino in my face again, which now looked very angry, in my face. “Fell off from the tree and was about to be found, so I just grabbed him… Her and ran away.”

That explained the chase by the Sevipers.

“And?”

“We have to get him back to his tree!”

I shook my head. “No, now that the Seviper is captured she can go back to his tree.”

“No,” she said. “She is just a baby and there are still two Sevipers somewhere around here, we can’t let her go back by herself.”

I examined the Minccino stuck in her arms and noticed that it was not a kid at all, its body was fully developed and she didn’t show any signs of hunger. It was just small for its line.

I hummed. That explains the angry look, probably about the baby comment.

Nevertheless, the Minccino did help us with the fight, Cape would still be stuck in the Seviper’s mouth if she didn’t help us. However, I would not be risking ourselves without some guarantee.

“I will only do it and… Allow you to do that if the Zangooses can accompany us to the tree and back to the camp.”

She turned towards the Zangoose with a pleading expression and even showed the Minccino still stuck in her grasp. “Pleease.”

The smaller one smiled and looked towards his father. The older and now seemingly tired Zangoose shrugged his shoulders and the young Zangoose looked back at Jess and nodded.

She commemorated and I sighed. “Let's go, I still did not have breakfast.”

Jess smiled and began to walk towards the presumed direction of the tree. “…And we also have to finish our conversation later at the camp.”

Her head dropped.