The hall rocked with the force of the explosion, a wave of hot air sweeping over Cashe and his pokemon. A deep, wailing siren rose from speakers placed along the hall and the fluorescent bulbs overhead flashed red, washing the world in a sanguine light.
Around Cashe, noise rose from the labs as grunts and scientists spilled into the hall, a few shouting as they saw him and his pokemon. The grunt that spotted him previously shouted with the rest of them, pointing in feigned surprise. The sight no longer made Cashe grin.
“Ivysaur, make way!” Cashe ordered, pointing a finger ahead and taking off at a sprint. He swore as ahead of him, people were streaming out of the offices. Of course. Most people ran away from explosions. They had not yet noticed him, too concerned with the sudden shaking of the facility and the wailing of the alarm, but the stream of people would slow him down.
“Ivy!” Ivysaur ran ahead of Cashe, using his vines to part the sea of people entering the hall. Team Starlight fell away as Ivysaur plowed through them, Ivysaur the pilot to Cashe’s locomotive. He barreled through the hall, leaving a confused and crumpled pile of Team Starlight employees in his wake.
His pokemon kept up with him, Sneasel and Primeape having no trouble running down the wide hall, Hattrem still clutching to his head and holding on for dear life as she bounced on her perch. Only Araquanid lagged at all, the confines of the hall still tight for his hulking form.
“Araquanid, lay down a Sticky Web!” Cashe ordered.
Araquanid responded even as they ran, slowing to fire a ball of thick webbing from his mouth. It passed through the water bubble around his head uninterrupted, splashing down on the floor of the hall and covering it with a thick layer of web, making pursuit all but impossible.
Cashe doubted he needed to bother. From the looks that the passing grunts were giving them, especially Araquanid and Primeape, there seemed to be little risk that anyone would get involved here.
“Sneasel, on point!” Cashe shouted as they ran. Sneasel bolted ahead, only stopping at an intersection for a moment to look back at Cashe with a questioning gaze.
“Hattrem-” Cashe didn’t get the question out before he felt his pokemon’s familiar presence in his head, urging him down the left side of the hallway. Cashe pointed, and Sneasel took off.
Cashe sprinted around the corner, slowing just enough not to go tumbling to the ground as the sirens blared around him. The hall ahead was long and empty, the doors adjoining the hall remaining unclosed. The red emergency lighting strobed in warning as he ran, the acrid sting of smoke tainting the air and burning his lungs.
He was heading the right way.
He turned again, finding Sneasel standing over the prone form of a Drowzee, a bewildered grunt stumbling onto his backside as he utterly failed to stop his pokemon. Cashe didn’t have time to offer Sneasel praise before he sprinted by, letting Sneasel take a moment to make sure the fight was finished.
He rounded another corner and skidded to a halt, allowing Sneasel to catch up to him. Ahead, the hallway came to an abrupt end, terminating in the steel doors of an elevator. The scent of smoke was thick in the air now, spilling out from the elevator shaft.
“Down?” Cashe shouted to Hattrem.
“Hat!”
He nodded and ran forwards. As he did, the elevator doors slid open. A dark cloud of smoke rolled out of it, along with a dozen of Team Starlight’s people. The group was mostly scientists, covering their faces with e collars of their lab coats to prevent smoke inhalation, but there were three others as well, wearing the emerald green blazers of Team Starlight, faces covered with gas masks.
The blazers were familiar but distinctive from the usual grunt uniform. Each had flashes of personalization. One man’s was streaked with silver-gray accents, and he wore a steel colored shirt underneath it, instead of the standard green. The only woman of the three looked familiar to Cashe, even under the gas mask. Green hair was pulled back into a severe bun and her own uniform was accented with gold. She had a tablet in her hand that she was typing away at, furiously. The last was no jacket on at all, opting to wear a vest instead. The man was huge, and his vest and shirt underneath clung to his chest like they were made of rubber instead of cloth.
Cashe froze in place as the group noticed him. If the pokemon games had taught him anything, these people were important. Administrators or bosses of Team Starlight. Twelve sets of eyes landed on his jacket and drifted to the pokemon around him. Cashe looked down at his own jacket and smiled at them.
“Hey guys,” Cashe gave them a little wave, “Uh, I found some pokemon. Are we stealing them or is that not a thing?”
The group stared at him in silent shock. Recognition flashed in the silver accented man’s eyes. He shouted something, muffled by the mask around his face, and the green haired woman barked out an order. In unison, all twelve people reached for pokeballs and tossed them out.
“Attack!” Cashe shouted, “Ivysaur, Razor Leaf! Hattrem, Disarming voice, Araquanid get in there! Body Slam and Bug Bite anything you can. Sneasel, Knock Off everyone! Primeape-” Cashe spun to face his pokemon, “get angry!”
“APE!”
Chaos erupted in the hall as a dozen flashes of red light joined the glaring red from the lights overhead. More joined a second later, the hall filling with pokemon after pokemon.
Golden leaves filled the air, reflecting red light as Ivysaur released a flurry of them from his flower. They filled the hall, speeding through it even before the enemy pokemon’s forms had fully formed. Cashe ducked behind his body, taking preemptive cover from what was to come. Araquanid lunged forward, Sneasel keeping pace with him to maximize the effectiveness of their attack. Cashe had a brief moment to wonder at how he knew to do it. He hadn’t taught them that.
The moment was gone in the next second as dozens of pokemon appeared in the hall. Drowzee and Hypno, Meditite and Medicham, Elgyem and Beheeyem, Kadabra, Bronzor, Flittle, Espurr, Kirlia. Dozens of pokemon, almost all psychic types took form.
Ivysaur’s Razor Leaf tore into them, indiscriminate, the sharp edges of the golden leaves tearing holes, opening cuts and throwing the enemy pokemon back before they had a chance to understand what was happening. Hattrem shouted on his shoulder, her voice ringing unpleasant in his ears, the cascade of sound rolling through the tight corridor and blasting into the pokemon and knocking them back a step, as one. It was just enough to allow Araquanid and Sneasel to close the distance, wreaking havoc among the psychic type pokemon with their super effective attacks.
Already some were going down from the assault, but no battle was one sided. Team Starlight shouted orders and their pokemon responded. Screens popped up around the enemy pokemon as the Bronzor erected protection for their side, blunting the impact of the ongoing attacks from Sneasel and Araquanid and making the wide area attacks of Hattrem and Ivysaur all but useless. The air warped as attacks flew in from the psychic pokemon. They glanced harmlessly off of Sneasel, his dark typing making him all but totally immune to psychic type attack, and Araquanid weathered the assault without slowing down, but as the air churned around Ivysaur, he groaned in pain and turmoil. He fell to his knees, barely able to stand under the pressure from the enemy pokemon.
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Cashe hunched over as well, taking as much cover as he could behind the collapsing form of his first pokemon. “You can do it, buddy,” Cashe whispered, holding himself against his pokemon, “Just a bit more.”
“Ivy.” Ivysaur’s reply came in a moan but he straightened under the assault, righting himself
Primeape, too, suffered under the responding barrage of the attack, but with each hit, her eyes glowed more and more red, shining even in the red washed light of the hall. She screeched out a challenge, shaking where she stood as energy erupted around her, each hit fueling her rage to the point of breaking.
“Get in there!” Cashe managed to shout among the chaos, “Rage Fist!”
“APE!”
Primeape rocketed forward under the barrage of attacks, gray energy erupting around her body, cascading and swelling as it gathered around her fist. She struck, slamming her fist, now billowing with ghostly energy, into a Bronzor. The Reflect it had erected around the battlefield held for a moment, then shattered, and Primeape crashed through it, crashing her fist into Bronzor and sending it flying. She turned, thrashing out at the next pokemon, a Flittle, continuing her rampage.
The battle descended further into chaos. Cashe could barely make out his own orders from that of Team Starlight’s, though somehow, his pokemon always responded. Sneasel moved around the battle like a wraith of destruction, his dark type attack creating misery for the enemy wherever he appeared, his typing making him all but untouchable in the wash of psychic chaos. Araquanid drew the most attention by far, the giant pokemon’s presence terrifying Team Starlight as he threw his body around, biting deep into the pokemon and taking the brunt of a dozen attacks for each pokemon he sank his fangs into in the fray. Pokemon reeled under the power of his bites, flesh tearing as the deep punctures rendered them incapable and too impotent to continue.
Hattrem blasted the battlefield with area attacks, shouting with Disarming Voice over and over until her cries were a ring as constant as the blaring alarm overhead. Primeape trashed around the front lines of the fight, a rampaging berserker, her Rage Fist inflicting grisly ghost type attacks to the surrounding psychic pokemon, even as they countered with super effective attacks of her own.
Through it all, Ivysaur stood fast, throwing out shining Razor Leaves and hitting as many pokemon with Leech Seed as he could in his desperate attempts to stay standing.
Cashe could barely think, the psychic energy around them warping his thoughts as the mysterious energy infected his mind. The whole battle became a swirl of light, barely recognizable to his addled brain. Brilliant colors flashed, sounds changed to the surreal, clashing with each other in a cacophony of dissonance, rendering him unable to stand straight or keep his balance.
Primeape was the first to fall of his pokemon. Each of the enemies she struck crashed across the battlefield and struggled to stand again, but there were too many, the dozens of pokemon overwhelming her with their super effective attacks. Prismatic light turned the area around her into a kaleidoscope of color as the energies around her knocked her to the ground. Couple with the exhaustion of her Rage Fist usage, she collapsed. Cashe was barely conscious of this, returning her to her pokeball and continuing the fight, shouting orders in his delirium.
The battle thinned as his pokemon did work, and so too did the mind melting nature of the fight. Hattrem was the next to fall, out of exhaustion. She was still perched on his shoulder, but was barely able to keep up her attacks, each a struggle, causing her to drop from his shoulder as she failed to use yet another Disarming Voice.
Araquanid was next, the vast storm of attacks he weathered proving too much at last. He dropped to his belly with a cry, his body a mess of cuts and ichor as he struggled to get off a final attack.
It was not only Cashe who suffered from the battle, however. By the time Araquanid went down, the enemy had also been thinned to a scant few pokemon and trainers. As they fought and their pokemon collapsed, the trainers fled, not past Cashe but into rooms adjoining the hall. Cashe did not know what was in those rooms, nor did he care. He only had one goal coming here.
The first to flee was the silver accented Team Starlight admin. After his Medicham went down, he fled across the hall, cutting off his fellow team members and disappearing behind a door. Scientists followed over the intervening battle, trickling away from the battle until it was only the green haired woman and the muscular man left.
They were both breathing hard, only Beheeyem and Kadabra left between them. Cashe was down to Sneasel and Ivysaur, similarly exhausted, but not afraid. Ivysaur, steadfast and bold through it all, was on his last legs, but Sneasel was nothing more than harried. Both Kadabra and Beheeyem reflected the exhaustion of their trainers.
The green haired woman paused in battle and ripped off her mask, revealing the familiar face of max Maple’s assistant.
“Why are you doing this?” She shouted, “Why are you stopping us from making a better world?”
The fight all but over, Cashe crawled from behind Ivysaur, looking around the hall properly for the first time since the battle started. It was surprisingly intact. Ivysaur’s golden leaves stuck in the steel walls and the plastic floor was rent and torn from Araquanid’s physical might, but the hall was mostly untouched besides that, a consequence of the immaterial, psychic attacks.
Cashe staggered to his feet, his lungs burning as smoke flowed from the elevator shaft.
“I’m just here for Emilia.” He gasped. His voice was raw, his throat sore.
Confusion flitted over the woman's face, emotion flashing across her eyes as she registered his statement. Confusion turned to recognition, denial, and finally fear as she spun on the form of the hulking man.
“Third?” She glared up at the man.
The man looked almost sheepish under the much smaller woman’s withering gaze. He pulled off his gas mask as well, wringing it between his hands. He was not a handsome man, with brutish features and a shaved head, but his voice was meek and soft as he responded to the woman.
“Yes, First?”
“Did we kidnap Emilia Oak?”
The giant, Third, nodded, “We didn’t know it was her at the time, First. Second recognized her and decided to keep her, though.
The woman swore violently and returned Kadabra to her pokeball. The giant gave her a confused look.
“We’re leaving. Now.” She ordered.
“But Project Star C-”
“I don’t care!” First snapped, “We need to get out of here and we need to contact Mr Maple before her sister shows up!” First glared at Cashe for a moment, “There’s no way she isn’t on her way.”
She grabbed the giant and tugged him towards the room that the other Team Starlight members disappeared into, only pausing to let him return Beheeyem to its pokeball.
“Wait,” Cashe croaked, “Where is Emilia?”
First paused, shooting him a vehement glare. Cashe glared back and Sneasel bared his teeth, hissing at the woman. First grimaced and shook her head. “Bottom floor is where we process our workforce. Unless Second changed that?” Her eyes flicked to Third with the question.
The big man shook his head, “No.”
“Then the bottom floor, likely.” First and Third disappeared into the room. Cashe glimpsed a wall of flashing machinery before the door slammed shut. He watched it and groaned, letting out a long sigh of exhaustion. The alarm continued to blare as smoke trickled from the elevator shaft. He stepped forward, picking up First’s discarded gas mask and opened the elevator doors. Sneasel and Ivysaur joined him, the latter moving gingerly as he moved his bruised and battered body into the shaft.
Smoke filled the elevator as soon as the doors closed and descended further into the ground. Cashe knew there was supposed to be some sort of measure that stopped elevators during a fire, but it looked like the secret, underground facility for a maybe terrorist organization wasn’t quite up to standard. Go figure.
The elevator doors slid open at the bottom of the shaft. The air was thick with smoke here, the caustic fumes stinking his eyes and even his skin as his face was covered in it. He ducked down, signaling Sneasel to do so as well. Mundane pollution could still poison him, though Ivysaur would likely be fine.
As he stepped out, hunched over as he was, he was greeted by a swarm of unevolved pokemon. There were a dozen of them, many battered with ruffled fur or feathers. A Litten growled at him and rushed onto the elevator before he could exit, the rest of the pokemon followed. Ivysaur let out a voice of complaint as the small pokemon brushed against his battered body, but let them pass.
“What the?” Cashe watched as the small parade of pokemon jumped onto the elevator. After they had all piled in, the Litten looked at him expectantly. Cashe reached inside and pressed the button for the top floor of the elevator, letting the doors shut behind them.
Muttering to himself, he stalked down the hall until he came to an intersection. One hall led further into the facility.
The other ended in a ball of fire. The silhouette of a familiar figure was sprawled out on the floor in front of it, a Charmeleon standing vigil over the body, facing the fire as it inched closer and closer, smoke billowing from the flames as it burned away the remains of whatever lay beyond it.
“Emilia!”
*****