CHAPTER 262 - Beachhead

"This is a problem," Denzel yelled. He had to, for his voice to be heard over Golurk's engine.

The Pokemon Mansion was beautiful, especially on such a sunny day. There wasn't a cloud in sight for miles, allowing us to get a perfect view of the place. The property itself was long, rectangular and surrounded by huge brick walls. Those wouldn't be a problem, considering we could fly. The mansion itself reminded me of the haunted one we'd been in during our trek through Eterna Forest, only not in a decrepit state. The entryway was grand, with guests having to climb at least a dozen steps before making it inside. The roof itself was made of some kind of purple material— possibly painted tiles. We were too high in the sky to check in order not to give ourselves away. The problem Denzel had found was that while the enormous garden was swarming with guards and their Pokemon, some whom we couldn't make out with the naked eye, there were also guests galivanting about. It was easy to tell the difference. Backlot's friends were dressed in bright colors that popped, even from this far up.

"We knew it was a possibility," Chase said. "I won't cry if a few billionaires get hurt through collateral damage."

"If we do this," I exhaled, "we do it properly. Minimize the casualties. Let's at least make sure no innocents die."

"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Chase asked.

"Easy. We make them run inside. Our appearance will scare the crap out of them, and the guards will direct them into the mansion. Then, we have free reign in the garden," I explained. "Just, you know, don't burn down or blow up the damn building."

Cecilia squinted. "The layout seems accurate to what Zoey told us. Five floors, two wings, four entrances, one tower, and the garden is exactly as she said as well."

Rows of enormous fountains with Milotic statues spitting waters atop of them, surrounded by hedges, and graveled paths. I turned my head back at the swarm of ACE Trainers waiting silently behind us. I recognized a few of the faces, including Ariel on her Dragonite, some who had saved me from Abra at the park in Veilstone, Maxwell, Carlos and even Lou, although she shared a mount with someone else. I still didn't know why she felt like an abomination to my senses. Pokemon, but not completely. There were sixteen of them in total, each with six or more Pokemon, save for Lou who had five. Flygon, Dragonite, Staraptor, Pidgeot, Skarmory, Tropius, Unfeazant, Drifblim— they were all on their fliers and had followed us here. Now, they were silently waiting for us to strike with emotionless faces or hardened stares. It felt weird in a way. It was almost like we were leading an army, although I knew that obviously wasn't the case.

Cecilia's Talonflame silently glided next to us in a blur, stopping herself right in from of Lehmhart. The ground type dwarfed her completely, but she could run circles around him all day. Talonflame quietly cawed to all of us.

"Fifty-two guards," I translated immediately. "There might be more inside. Fifty-five Pokemon that she could spot, but there'll be more."

Hundreds of them, and most wouldn't be drugged. Even if Zoey had said they weren't that good compared to us save for those who had been fed candy, we couldn't lower our guard. We were planning to strike hard and fast to not give them time to organize a response. The sight of so many ACE Trainers in uniform would be terrifying for anyone who wasn't us.

"So," Mira nervously yelled. "Are we ready?"

"Give me a few. Five minutes," I said.

I closed my eyes and let a large swath of air fill my lungs. Deep, slow breaths. I did not know for how long I was silent for, but every time I inhaled, my heartbeat slowed. The last bits of nervousness melted off of my back, leaving me lighter than I'd been before. There were no more doubts. The innocents would be spared, and the men and women who had a hand in this scheme would face retribution, because if not us, then who? So with one last breath, I opened my eyes and was no longer myself, but a girl. A vessel to carry out what needed to be done, and nothing more. To look at the situation objectively without letting feelings or reservations get in the way. It was unsightly for a fairy to let her emotions show so strongly, Bella's voice rang out in my mind.

What did the girl want?

For Justice to be brought upon those who deserve it.

What did the girl need to reach that point?

Nothing but act, for she already had all the tools at her disposal. Now all she needed to do was not to flinch.

"I'm ready," I said.

One pat on Princess' back, and we all dove down as one. The wind whipped across my hair, sharpening my wits. In a matter of twenty seconds, we reached the Pokemon Mansion. Loud crashes thundered everywhere as dozens of flying type landed on the gravel, sending sprays of stone flying everywhere. The guests and the guards stared at all of us, almost as if they were in a daze for a few seconds until dozens of the ACE Trainers' Pokemon appeared in a sea of scarlet.

"This is a League-sanctioned raid," an ACE Trainer spoke. "Surrender and—"

A Politoed waved a hand, using all of the water from a nearby fountain to hit an ACE's Furfrou with a Hydro Pump.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Guests screamed as they ran and the guards barked out orders, and multiple fights erupted all around me, but I honed in on myself. A Flamethrower washed over Princess' barrier as I released my entire team. My eyes honed in on the guard that had ordered his Pokemon to strike me. Darmanitan, Machoke, Donphan and Graveler.

The man called out for all of them to break me, and they all rushed in our direction. Each one of Machoke's steps left a small hole in the ground. Darmanitan left a fiery trail in his wake. Donphan and Graveler were the fastest, using Rollout to get to me. There went my option to ask them to surrender.

"Drown the trainer. Honey, Sunshine, hold them off. Sweetheart—"

They were already here. Donphan rammed chest-deep into Honey, who slid back a few feet at the force before lifting the ground type off the floor and throwing him back at his trainer. The man jumped out of the way, and Buddy appeared from the gravel to catch him like a net, submerging his entire body. Sunshine slammed a foot against the ground, turning the gravel to fiery sand as it clung to Graveler, but it was Pupitar that stopped the rampaging rock type. She slammed into him with Iron Head and his skin cracked as the impact sent hundreds of rock shards flying off.

Honey grunted as Darmanitan blew a Flamethrower into his face. The rampaging fire type tried to get him with what looked to be a Flare Blitz, but Electivire just pulled up his first Protect of the afternoon, leaving Princess an opening to slice Darmanitan open with a multi-directional Air Slash. Honey followed up with a deep Thunder Punch that broke something in Darmanitan's chest, and Sunshine finished him off with a Dragon Pulse that stretched until it hit a Butterfree in the distance that Mira's Porygon2 was battling.

I stared back at the man whose name I did not know and watched as he desperately clawed at his throat to breathe. I gestured to Jellicent, who let him out of his prison, and the guard hacked water out of his lungs while Angel grabbed Donphan by the tusks as he slammed him a dozen times with Power Whip until the ground type went down.

"Feel free to be more aggressive," I told the grass type. "Princess has me covered."

Tangrowth nodded and immediately waddled to help Honey duel this Machoke. I had expected him to be strong enough, but fighting types were not to be underestimated. Machoke clasped Honey's arms as the electric type retaliated with numerous Thunderbolts. He would win eventually, but wasting his energy on this would be useless. This was a battle of attrition. Our enemies were numerous, and the fighting would be long.

"Princess. His arms."

Machoke cried out as her arms bent until her bones popped out of her body, and Honey used a Cross Chop across her neck, knocking her out cold. Pokemon were people, and Pokemon that weren't drugged were just as wrong as their trainers. Knocking out the guard was actually harder than I thought it would be, since Angel was too far to use any kind of Sleep Powder or Stun Spore without impaling him. I didn't want to accidentally kill—

Sunshine reeled when a Dragon Pulse hit him in the shell, and he tumbled across the graveled path. Huh, that had done substantial damage. I let the guard run away and turned toward the culprit as explosions and attacks rang out all around me. The entire area was cordoned off anyway, so he'd fall into our hands soon enough. A Shelgon with bloodshot eyes. Drugged, probably, along with a normal-looking Zangoose and Tauros. The three Pokemon were led by a furious-looking woman.

"Shelgon is a threat," I identified as I spoke over her order. Another Dragon Pulse targeted Sunshine, but Electivire stepped in front of him with Radiant Leap and held it at bay with Protect. "Buddy, drown her. Princess, slice the normal types and make them bleed."

Targeting the head of the Ekans was just smart. Buddy sunk into the ground, and I didn't miss my enemy pale and consider running off when she realized a Jellicent was targeting her and not her team. She deliberated for too long, since the ghost appeared below her and surrounded her entire body. Zangoose tried to claw away at him, but she was like a child trying to push a mountain. He instantly regenerated any damage she dealt with her claws. These Pokemon were weaker than the last ones, I noticed. Tauros' eyes narrowed as he screamed and made a beeline toward me while Shelgon was too out of it to use anything but Dragon Pulse. Without a trainer to direct her, the dragon type was aimless due to the drugs.

Zangoose stopped striking at Buddy as soon as deep gashes opened up in her fur from Air Slash, and instead she rolled and squirmed against the ground. Buddy let the woman's head out of him, and she took in a gasp of air before he submerged her once more. So long as she could breathe, she wouldn't die.

Vines outstretched from Angel as he stopped Tauros dead in his tracks and sucked his energy with Giga Drain. Shards of gravel sharpened and stabbed into the normal type thanks to Sweetheart's Stone Edge. Sunshine was more preoccupied with taking down Zangoose, at the moment, having run over there with Flame Charge, so I turned my attention back to Tauros. Honey used Cross Chop and Princess Psychic to take the normal type down, blood seeping out of her nose from the mental assault. Unfortunately, Honey had been hit by another Dragon Pulse and had a giant bruise on his right shoulder.

"Angel, grab that lady's Pokeball," I spoke. "Princess, contain that Shelgon."

Layers upon layers of grey earth rose from the ground all around Shelgon, who screamed as a Dragon Pulse blew up the first layer. Angel walked around the path, ignoring Sunshine stepping on Zangoose's chest and burning her to a crisp and he snaked two vines into the Jellicent's body, grabbing the drowning woman's Pokeballs. He clicked on the buttons until Shelgon was recalled, spared from suffering any longer, and once he gave me the Pokeballs, I placed Shelgon in my backpack.

I turned to Sunshine. "Enough playing around. Be efficient with your takedowns."

The dragon blew a Dragon Pulse into Zangoose's face, and the normal type fainted. This time, I managed to recall all of them and kept the Pokeballs on the floor save for Shelgon's.

"Good. Let's keep going."

I turned, looking for a guard to fight. Mira had moved on from Butterfree and the other bug types she'd been fighting and was mopping through a Kangashkan and Dodrio with her team. Cecilia was even further, standing in the middle of a huge crater with only the ground she was on still intact. Lehmhart had changed back into his normal form and was essentially destroying everything around him while Slowking kept her and Croagunk protected. The poison type was watching the fighting around her with sharpened eyes. Talonflame dueled a Staraptor and a Staravia in the air and was slamming into the weaker bird over and over with her body surrounded by flames while dodging all of their attacks while Scyther sliced across a Raichu's chest with Night Slash, keeping the electric type from using any TE. Pokemon burning in dark flames and writhing on the ground surrounded Chase, who was flanked by Houndoom and Zangoose. Lucario danced in Aura and was taking on four Pokemon at once, never getting hit a single time. I noticed Chase wasn't having the same reservations we were about the guards and was having his Pokemon hit them until they fell over. Abomasnow was beating a Loudred to a pulp with frost spreading after each hit.

Denzel hadn't strayed too far from me. A small Moonblast had rendered a Linoone and Indeedee completely unable to even muster the will to fight while Lopunny mopped them up. Unconscious Pokemon lay at his feet with their skin melted off from Roserade's poison and Milotic coiled around him and used Protect whenever he was on the verge of getting hit. Swablu angrily screamed as she fired off Dragon Pulses in support as she flew above his head. Mira's Gardevoir was nearby, since she was his main way of countering psychics, but she was focused on helping her trainer from a distance, at the moment.

Things were moving along well, it seemed, but that was only thanks to the ACE Trainers. They were so… clinical when they fought, even more than me in that regard, and their fights weren't battles so much as they were pure domination. Like farmers mowing through wheat. There was just no resistance there.

Angel wrapped a vine around the girl we'd just defeated and brought her to me.

"Where's Abel?" I asked. If he was going to hide, then I'd rather know where. Then, I'd put her to sleep.

"Fuck you," she snarled. "I'll never—"

I never heard her next words. A huge wave of slicing winds slammed into us and was so powerful that the woman's body just… fell apart. There was no other word for it. One second, she'd been there, the other, she turned into paste. Princess barrier didn't hold for long. It shattered and I felt my entire body vibrate until Lou Teleported next to me with her hands held out, and she grunted when blood seeped across her palms. All of my Pokemon had been knocked away and cut save for Sweetheart. Dozens of Angel's vines had been cut to ribbons, Buddy had disintegrated, and a lot of Sunshine's scales had just peeled off. I stared up at the culprit. Culprits, plural. Eight enemy flying types had targeted me and not cared for their ally being in the way. They weren't even being directed by trainers, and there was no regret in those stares. They just didn't care.

I slowly stood up as my entire team rushed to my side once more and wiped the pieces of that woman off of my face and ignored the numerous tiny cuts across my body. My cast had been torn open and was done for, and part of my clothes were shredded. Honey and Princess had dozens of cuts across their body, large and small, being the Pokemon who would be most vulnerable to that type of attack.

"Where are your Pokemon?" I asked Lou.

"Dealing with the riff-raff," the white-eyed woman answered. "I had to Teleport away from my fights for this. You don't look too shaken for someone who almost died."

"Focus on the task at hand," I said.

"You're bleeding all over," Lou countered. Her barrier strained when another gust of sharpened wind hit us, but it held.

I stared down at myself. "Doesn't look or feel lethal, and most of it isn't mine. Honey, Sweetheart take down those fliers."

A spear of lightning blurred toward two Noctowl, who instantly fried. Good. Their attacks had only been strong because they'd combined their might. Sweetheart cried out, and the gravel became hers. It was an enormous, dark swarm that buried the rest of the fliers and made them fall to be easy pickings for the rest of my Pokemon. Sunshine, Princess and Jellicent quickly dispatched them. One of them escaped, but Lou's arrival had freed Togekiss from her bodyguard role and she rose high into the sky.

At this height, she could use her Moonblast without fear of hurting us or any allies. The move came faster this time, and it pulled in the escaping Fearow. She used Sweetheart's gravel to create two spears almost as large as me, and used the curve of gravity to rip through both of Fearow's wings. The flying type screeched as she fell, but Honey's Thunderbolt smothered her scream of pain.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"We can keep advancing, now."

"You keep going," Lou deadpanned. "I'll—"

Her head snapped to our left, and in an instant, she blinked away to shield Chase from an attack that had broken through Sigilyph's barrier. I was on my own, then. I stepped over the guard's corpse, not bothered about the blood getting on my shoes. They were already bloody anyway, and I couldn't exert my ankle that much now that my cast was shredded and didn't hold the leg in place. It was painful, but pain was just that. Pain. Easy to ignore in my current state of mind. Grace could deal with it later.

It didn't take long to find my next opponent, and this one, I was worried about. A Musharna hovered over her trainer with her eyes closed and smoke emanating from her nose. A single Pokemon, but a Pokemon that exuded confidence. This was one of the guards Zoey had warned us about.

"Princess, run psychic interference. Don't bother with the brain, we have—"

A sudden headache hit me and I stumbled to the ground. Lou had been correct and Slowking's barrier was enough, then. Good. So long as my neck wasn't snapped. It's not like Musharna didn't try. I felt the bones and muscles there shift, but Princess countered her every time. Sweetheart panicked and flew off toward Musharna, her body surrounded by darkness. The sudden burst of movement forced the psychic to act, and an Energy Ball formed in front of her. Pupitar broke through the barrier with an enraged yell, ripping Musharna away from her trainer—

I squinted when Musharna condensed into pink mist and she was on top of her trainer again. What had just happened? Zoey hadn't spoken about illusions, and Sweetheart appeared to have been hurt by that attack. I ordered Sunshine and Honey to just bombard her with moves while I motioned at Buddy to sink into the floor, since he had come back together a while ago. To my surprise, his body was wrestled away before he sank below the gravel.

"That trick won't work here," the trainer smirked.

Why waste breath talking in the middle of a fight?

"Night Shade and Shadow Ball," I said.

The Shadow Ball came out of Princess, and Buddy summoned as many shades as he could. The spirits let out silent, whispering howls of pain as they barrelled toward Musharna with only one goal. Explode.

But that was only a distraction.

Princess whispered that Musharna's mist was making us see things, and I was inclined to agree. Sweetheart circled around to get back to us, and Honey and Sunshine stopped attacking. Another headache hit me like a truck, and blood seeped out of my nose. No matter. The barrier held, and would hold for a while, still. I closed my eyes and felt.

Rage, anger, fear, anguish, sadness swam around me like a tidal wave. It was hard not to get swept in it. Loud. Louder than anything I'd ever heard before, like I was sitting in front of a concert bass. Illusions could fool Princess, but they could not fool me. Another mental assault came, but this time, it was repelled like a pebble striking against steel and I felt nothing but a cold numbness. I opened my eyes, not changing anything about my behavior.

"Princess, drills to your left." What we'd been fighting against had been a dream. "Buddy, Sweetheart, add some dark TE."

Twenty drills rose from the earth, crumbs of gravel and darkness melded to the structure, and they all flew to our left. I heard a barrier shatter, a yell, and a thud. The world went blurry around us, and then shifted. The trainer I'd been fighting was bloodied on the ground, and Musharna started to sob for her fallen comrade. Good, she was distracted. I motioned to my team, and we hit Musharna all at once. The psychic crumpled to the floor like cardboard, and mist stopped smoking from her nose. If she hadn't been so sad, she would have been a tough opponent.

That had been close. Without Mesprit's blessing, I would have had to buy time until an ACE Trainer came back. I strode up to the man who was bleeding on the floor and assessed the damage. Princess had gone overboard here. I crouched and slapped him before he could bleed out on the floor. Collateral damage was unfortunate, but I didn't have the resources to save him. Too many holes in his body. I let my crutch fall on the ground, slipped my hatchet out of its holster and held it against the man's neck for effect.

"Where's Abel? What's he planning?"

"Please… it hurts."

Luckily, he had the energy to speak, at least.

"Tell me where Abel is, and I'll see what I can do."

"I don't know where he is, just that he's inside," the man croaked. He launched into a coughing fit and hacked out blood. "That's all I know, I promise. It hurts."

Would a dying man lie to me? Well, it wasn't like I had a way to figure it out.

"Hm. Well, I've seen what I can do, and that is nothing. You're going to bleed out, I apologize. You tried to kill me first, however, so no debt was incurred."

I grabbed the Pokeball on the guard's belt and recalled Musharna, ignoring his cries for help. After rising from my position and hobbling my way forward, Honey whirred with a twinge of worry.

"I'm fine," I said. "Tired, bleeding, but fine. That was an accident. We didn't know exactly where he was, so we needed to use more drills."

Princess apologized to him, although I knew she couldn't care less about the actual murder when the man had tried to kill me. What she was worried about was Honey's mental well-being. The electric type nodded, and Buddy asked if he could wipe the blood off my body and clean my wounds. When I answered yes, I let the warm water wash away the muk and blood. Scald had been good for him. He could heat up his water now.

The others were… not dead, so that was a relief, but they were all wounded. Chase was bleeding from his arm— coincidentally, the same arm that Sneasel had cut him on when we'd fought his pack. Two of Mira's fingers were bent wrong, and she continuously clenched at her hand to help with the pain. Cecilia was hard to gauge. She was covered in grey dust, but she was still standing. All of their Pokemon were as well.

Denzel was fighting two trainers with a bloodied nose and forehead. For the first time since the operation began, my stomach lurched. He was losing, and no one was coming to help.

"Princess, Sweetheart, go assist."

Togekiss and Pupitar lunged forward, and in less than five seconds, they reached my best friend. Princess lobbed flaming orbs into the Grotle, Poliwrath and Bibarel while Sweetheart folded an Ariados like papier-mâché, and poison and green blood squeezed out of her like a grape. Denzel used the opportunity to bark out a few orders, and Lopunny slid behind the burning Bibarel to strangle him. Her muscles had bulged due to numerous Power-Up Punches, and nothing could overpower her. Sharpened leaves from the garden floor and Roserade's body herself sliced across a Crustle, who scuttled forward with surprising speed. Sylveon blurred in front of Roserade, his ribbons angled at his enemy like knives as they glowed pink. They extended further than they had any right to and slammed into the bug type like whips. Princess weaved her flame around into a raging inferno that burned the two trainers until they were forced to step back. The flames only subsided when Bibarel and Poliwrath worked together to extinguish the flames. Unfortunately for them, though, Grotle had fainted.

There was also another Graveler and two Dugtrio that had to be taken care of—

The smell of ozone clung to my nose as Honey appeared in front of me with a Protect. A flier had attacked us, this time with a trainer on the Pidgeot's back along with a Pidgeotto and a Staraptor. A flying type specialist, then. Had they used me sending two of my Pokemon away as an opening? A good tactic, I had to admit. I held out a hand at Sweetheart and told her to stay and help Denzel, but Princess had to come back. Sunshine, Buddy and Angel's attacks didn't hit their marks. These Pokemon were quick enough to dodge, although Sunshine's flames still burned the tip of their wings and started to cook the trainer. Exploding Scale Shots would have been enough, but he had to hold back, otherwise this entire side of the garden would be burning and gravel would have turned to molten rock by now. That was the thing about fights like these. Most of them were brutally simple. Just hitting your enemy with a bigger stick until they gave, instead of using fancy techniques.

The trainer was forced to land, he realized, or he would just suffer from more burns until my scars looked pretty compared to what he'd get. Pidgeot swooped down on the ground, but not before Princess rammed into her with the wind at her back and a barrier around her. The psychic structure collapsed from the impact, and the hit sent the trainer rolling on the gravel until he was covered in cuts and his elbow joint bent backward. Pidgeotto and Staraptor screeched in worry and flew down to nab their trainer. It was always surprising, to see Pokemon caring so much for their criminal owners, but I supposed being a criminal didn't mean one wouldn't treat his Pokemon well.

"Shell Trap."

With a wicked grin, Turtonator summoned a Flame Charge and ran. One, two, three steps, then he jumped and exploded forth. He slammed his entire body into Staraptor and burned. Princess looped back toward us with the air vibrating around her. Pidgeot scrambled back to the air, but a Thunderbolt from Honey kept her grounded until the Air Slashes cut across her back. It wouldn't be long, now. Staraptor was unconscious, her body a smoking crisp. Pidgeot took another two Thunderbolts to go down, and Princess chased Pidgeotto with Charge Beams until the bird crashed on the gravel right into Buddy's figurative maw. It was strange, how he could stretch so wide and turn into such horrors. His insides turned boiling with Scald, and Pidgeotto fainted.

Their trainer was running away now. It was surprising, how adrenaline and fear could push a human. A torn joint, broken arm, burns, and bleeding all over from falling into sharp gravel, but he was still legging it without even trying to get his Pokemon back into their balls. If he did not value them as much as they did him, why did they care for him so? I didn't understand.

Needless to say, he didn't get very far. Honey caught up in less than two seconds, and the man stumbled back. He crawled, begging for his life as Electivire just sighed. The trainer crawled back until Angel snatched him with a vine and wafted the air around him with a hint of Sleep Powder, knocking him out for good. I wasn't going to keep asking about Abel, since evidently, no one knew where he was or what his plan was. After recalling all three flying types, I turned back to Denzel. He had a leg up on the competition, now. Sweetheart wasn't even needed any longer, with how brutally Sylveon was knocking Bibarel's head into the floor over and over until his ribbons were bloody and Denzel had to tell him to stop.

The guards weren't fighting back. Not anymore. Evidently, someone had sounded for the retreat while I'd been focused on my fights, because they were all scrambling to get inside of the mansion. We all managed to pick off a few stragglers, of course, but a decent number of the remaining guards made it inside by the time all was said and done. Around twenty, by my count. Almost a hundred unconscious Pokemon and an uncountable number of Pokeballs littered the garden, and some of its grass burned until water types extinguished the fires. I grabbed my bag and applied potions to my Pokemon. None of them had been hurt too much, save for that Dragon Pulse Sunshine had taken and the combined blast of slicing air that had almost killed me. Still, I divided two Hyper Potions for the entire team. While it would heal their wounds, it wouldn't replace the blood they'd lost or replenish their energy.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Honey turned toward me as I patted his arm and nodded tightly. We hadn't breached any of his boundaries, save for a single murder. That was unfortunate, but going through this without any collateral damage would have been a miracle. It was already a miracle that none of the guests had been harmed before making it back into the mansion. Sunshine looked like he'd been having the time of his life. I wouldn't blame him for having his fun so long as he was efficient with it. Angel was appalled at all of the meaningless hurt the guards had caused. He looked onto the fallen with a saddened expression. Buddy and Princess didn't give a crap about anyone but us, and Sweetheart felt like she could have done more. Her evolution wouldn't come today, I knew— not before her last molt, and that frustrated her. I tended to all of them talking about their worries. We had won the first battle, but we had not won the war quite yet.

I passed by a fountain as I made my way toward my friends and traced my hand on the granite to ground myself and remember I was still human.

Mira and Chase were already together as I found myself next to them. The pink-haired girl gnawed her teeth as she clenched her hand.

"Grace," Chase gruffed. He shot me a look and acknowledged my injuries. The cuts all over me weren't deep, but they were probably hard to ignore. Some would probably scar. I needed to get a look at my face before I could know if any would stick there, but one on my arm looked pretty deep. "Glad to see you're relatively okay."

"Right," I said. I blinked and began to feel again, little by little, and with that came prickles of pain. "How's your hand?" I asked Mira.

"Can't move it without it hurting like a bitch," she hissed. "Think multiple bones are broken in there. Some piece of crap Sudowoodo nicked me in the hand."

"Multiple bones shattered, I'd say," Cecilia said as she slid into the conversation. Her face was still caked in dust, but she actually appeared unwounded. She wrapped me into a tight hug, and I responded in kind, even if it somewhat snapped me out of my daze. Lehmhart loomed tall behind her, with marks all over his body. He'd taken a lot of punishment due to his large size. The rest of her team followed suit. "That'll take months to heal. Longer than Grace's ankle."

"Without Carlos, it would have been worse," she muttered with a cold sweat. "I already know what I'll need. Bone realignment surgery, a cast, and physical therapy. It won't be pretty, but I'll live."

Losing the use of a hand was far worse than she made it sound, and I could tell she was frustrated. At least it wasn't her dominant hand.

Denzel was the last to arrive, panting and out of breath. He was pale as snow and I was pretty sure he'd thrown up, but he had already cleaned and bandaged his wounds. One across his forehead, a few across his face, and a nose that looked broken because of all the blood on it. I helped Chase bandage his arm while Slowking cleaned Cecilia's body with a gentle jet of water. Then, I moved on to patching Mira up as best I could. There wasn't much I could do without a cast, and hands weren't exactly fit for stone splints. For my cuts, I could only cover as many of them as possible in bandages, so my arms, legs, and below my half-shredded clothes that I had to change with a spare that Mira had somehow remembered to bring, although her clothes were a little big for me. Cece helped me in that regard. My girlfriend breathed a sigh of relief when I told her that Lou had Teleported to save me from that close call with all of those flying types. We all glossed over most of our fights, but talking was good to keep me distracted from the pain all over. It was like my entire body felt like one giant bruise.

I could still see the disintegrated woman off in the distance, but I did not shudder. Not now. The girl couldn't flinch.

"Milotic was good at protecting me," Denzel said with a clenched fist. "I actually hurt myself by jumping out of the way to avoid an attack and landed face-first in gravel. It could have been worse."

Thankfully, his nose wasn't actually broken, or at least that's what Mira and he said. It wasn't crooked or bent the wrong way, just slightly cut.

"We're alive," I said. "That's what counts."

"What now?" Chase asked, feeling at his bandaged arm. "The plan's screwed now that the guards retreated into the mansion."

That was true enough. There had been such a sheer amount of Pokemon that their bodies slowed down the ACE Trainers too much, and even if Lou and a few had Teleported to block the entrance, there were multiple of those. The guards had focused on them and not on us because of the disparity in skill, and their Pokemon had fallen by the hundreds because of it. Doing this without the ACE Trainers would have spelled doom for us unless we'd infiltrated the mansion instead, somehow.

Maxwell, Lou and Carlos walked up to us after around five minutes while the others were talking to themselves, staring silently or watching the mansion's windows to check for any movement.

"How'd you find your first battle?" Maxwell asked with his usual playful tone. "The scale of it is difficult to get used to."

I'd been in exactly one battle to the death with a trainer, but even that had been different. This one had been a lot more of me just… going through the motions of a never-ending struggle. Sure, I'd been in danger, but never enough to panic like I had against Harry Rodriguez when Princess and Sweetheart had almost died. I was fine with almost dying, but my children could not.

"Awful," Denzel groaned.

"More or less what I expected," Cecilia said.

"Pretty fucking bad," Mira sighed, gesturing at her hand.

Chase shrugged. "It did get my blood pumping."

"It's what has to be done," I finally answered. "And it's just the beginning. What now?"

"Casualty report first," Carlos gruffed. His half-molten face was still quite a sight. "Eleven guards and eight Pokemon have died during the battle. Fifteen wounded guards that we're taking care of, two wounded ACE Trainers, but none critically or enough to stop them from participating. No Pokemon casualties on our side," he droned.

Eleven dead guards, and eight dead Pokemon huh? That was a lot more than I expected, but ACE Trainers weren't exactly known for their gentle touch. There was less regret for the Pokemon than I thought, even if it was still there. The image of some of them killing their ally in an attempt to get to me without any hesitation was hard to ignore, even if a Pokemon's morality wasn't aligned with a human's.

"We've retrieved all drugged Pokemon, although two were severely wounded. We'll have one of ours Teleport them to the Center—"

I grabbed Shelgon's Pokeball and dropped it into his hand. "A Shelgon. The only one I recovered."

"That makes eight," he nodded. "There should still be a few inside, then, according to Zoey Miranda."

"I recommend sealing off the mansion with darkness to prevent anyone from fleeing," Maxwell suggested. "Rich people tend to use a Teleporting service and I doubt they'll come now that we've started the battle, but we can't discount one of them owning a psychic and using it to filter people out. I can take Dick and Asher with me."

"No, Maxwell," Lou said. "Them escaping helps us."

"Wouldn't that stop our psychics too?" Cecilia pondered.

"We can make it powerful enough to stop glorified Pokemon taxis, but not strong enough to hamper your psychics besides mild annoyance. But it is a terrible idea regardless," the ash-haired woman said.

"The guards might use the guests as cover, no?" Denzel asked. "It'd be a PR disaster for the League if you killed a bunch of innocents. And, you know, it would also be horrifying."

"You're correct, but Maxwell tends to only think in terms of efficiency," Lou said dismissively. I disliked how she spoke to Denzel as if he wasn't meant to be here. "This is now essentially a hostage-filled building, which is why striking with a full frontal assault or not thinning out the herd a little would be unwise."

Denzel answered with a nod, and Maxwell followed Lou's suggestion without protest. There was a chain of command I didn't quite yet understand there, because from what I knew about the scarred ACE, he wasn't one to bow so quickly.

"Unless Backlot gets desperate and traps everyone in there," Cecilia suggested.

"If he does, we'll have to deal," I said. "What if Backlot and his associates escape? He has no reason to stay here."

"Backlot will not run," Carlos grunted. "The League knows him well. He's too prideful for that, and if he's hiding a collection he's spent more than a decade building somewhere in that mansion, then he will not abandon it."

"If you're sure," I muttered. If that was true, we could get the names of his associates' through him, or by using the Voice, if he didn't talk. By the time we captured Backlot, he'd be good to use it again.

But Abel wouldn't think twice before escaping, I thought to myself. The Unovan had no allegiances. As soon as things got dicey, I was sure he'd run. Hell, he might have already run away. Annoying, but I was still in a state of mind good enough to understand that protecting innocents was better than exacting revenge.

"Where would he hide?" Lou shrugged. "He wouldn't be able to escape to any city, and Backlot isn't one to live in the middle of the woods without all of this." She gestured around herself. "Now that the fact that he's at the head of a poaching organization is spreading, no other Region will take him. Not even Alola. The Tapus are not as lenient as they used to be after the war. Alolans won't let in a criminal of this magnitude now that his crimes have been made public."

There was a reason no new city had been established or expanded in that region in decades. Mudsdale and Sunshine explained it to me recently when they'd been reminiscing. Every time, the Tapus rejected the notion, refused any negotiation, and weren't beyond wiping out any half-built town before anyone even had the time to move in. The only thing the Alolans had managed to do was build an artificial island in the middle of the ocean.

I nodded. "Alright. I believe you."

Lou frowned. "I didn't particularly care about that. We've got our beachhead," she declared. "Now, we strike inland."

"I have a few ideas on how to approach this," Mira said. "Feel free to tell me if I'm being a dumbass or not."

Carlos raised his only eyebrow. "Let's hear them."

Soon we would be going into the belly of the beast, and the girl would come back in turn.