I was mostly silent as our small group ventured out from the safety of the wall and took on another cluster of fighting Pokemon. I let Luca and Piloswine take the lead, and they sent a spray of snow through the battle to freeze the fighters in place. What had happened before was still running through my mind.

I had watched plenty of Pokemon battles, both in the past few months and in my own era, and I’d occasionally watched people fight in mixed martial arts bouts on TV at a school friend’s house. I wasn’t like the girl down the hall who covered her ears and ran away every time someone started a battle in the apartment lobby; I was used to battles. Or so I had thought.

This battle, this war – it was clearly different than what I had known. There were no carefully observed guidelines of avoiding major hits to the head, no allowing the opponent to run away when they were clearly going to be defeated. The wild Pokemon clawed at each other in an all-out frenzy without holding anything back, and they had already shown that they were willing to attack anyone else who got in the way. Granted, it didn’t seem like they were seriously trying to kill each other yet, but how long would it be until that changed?

Humans didn’t have natural moves that we could learn; we had tools instead, tools like the bows and arrows that the soldiers on top of the wall had used to defend us before, or the sword I had seen hanging from General Finnegan’s belt. In a way, it was logical to think of using those tools against Pokemon when they were attacking without holding back.

In another way, it made me feel sick.

I walked forward mechanically as the last Pokemon in the group stopped moving, fully frozen in place, and started tapping poke balls on heads. Poke balls were tools too. Was it really okay to use poke balls this way, to capture probably-unwilling Pokemon? Sure, these Pokemon were majorly inconveniencing everyone by fighting in the middle of the trail, but did that give us the right to take away their freedom? Or –

Ḑ̵͗ǘ̴͍̲̕c̷̡̦̆̒k̴͇̔́, Pausso thought to me with a feeling of urgency, and I crouched down automatically. Two seconds later a stream of fire shot through the air just over my head, probably from an attack knocked off-target.

I turned towards the source of the fire to see the lone Ninetales on the field flick its tails in annoyance as it looked from side to side. A moment later a Nidoqueen erupted from the ground underneath it and roared out a challenge as she grabbed the fox and tossed it back down onto the ground.

I stared at the two fighting Pokemon for a few seconds until Pausso walked over to me and jumped up so he could flick my ear. D̸̤͜͝a̸̗̻̎́n̸̛̟͜g̴̗͈̚̚ē̶̫r̶̜̬̓̋o̶͇̍͜ǘ̶̮̈́s̵̥̐.̷͈̊ ̸̧͈̊̃ P̵͕͆ă̷̦̟͝y̴͖̍̅ ̶͕̎ ā̷͎ṱ̴̥̎ţ̸̹̐ě̷̫͈ṇ̶͉́t̸̟̞̔i̷̪̰͌o̸̙͑͜n̵̳͝.̴̮́

“Sorry,” I muttered, standing up straight and dusting myself off. Pausso was right. I needed to stop letting my thoughts run away with me, at least for now. I could spend time thinking about moral quandaries when I wasn’t in the middle of a battlefield.

I kept my head in the game for the next set of Pokemon, and we were able to incapacitate and capture them with no trouble. Before we could start on another set, though, something odd happened.

A loud, trumpeting noise echoed through the battlefield, sounding out even through all the various noises and calls that the wild Pokemon made while fighting. All the Nidoran and their evolutions perked up when they heard the sound; then they all retreated together, racing off towards the southern side of the trail and disappearing into the forest. The Growlithe and Vulpix apparently took this as a signal for them as well, because they turned about and ran towards the northern forest, completely abandoning the fight.

“Umm… what?” I said out loud as I watched the Pokemon that had been at each other’s throats mere minutes ago turn and run.

“They are switching shifts again,” Edwin said, sounding tired. “I had hoped we would make a larger impact on their forces before this happened.” His Fearow cawed unhappily, and he sighed. “Well, it will take them a few minutes to send the new forces out. We might as well regroup with the others at the base while we are waiting.”

I nodded silently in agreement and followed the group as we made our way back to the base. As we walked, I had to dodge around more puddles of poison and churned-up earth. The battlefield had somehow gotten even more chaotic in the time that we’d been working. At least it looked like the wild Pokemon had taken their wounded and fainted companions with them, since there weren’t any bodies left on the field.

We were able to reach the base camp pretty quickly, all things considered, but we weren’t the first ones there. The other team had gotten back before we had. Florence perked up and waved when she saw us approaching, and she joined Michael as he walked over to intercept us. Jordan and Hisa seemed to be busy; they were both huddled together with Kiah further back in the camp. All of the team’s Pokemon sat in a cluster next to them, doing something that I couldn’t quite see.

“Report,” Edwin said crisply, putting his hands behind his back and standing up straight.

Michael blinked at him, then shrugged. “The strategy worked well, I suppose. We were able to capture a good number of majū with no serious injuries. Trainer Hisayuki’s Misdreavus was burned and Trainer Jordan was mildly poisoned, but we are fine otherwise.” He glanced over his shoulder and gestured vaguely to where Kiah was working. “Trainer Kiah’s Corsola is currently revitalizing everyone in preparation for the next round of battles.”

“Good,” Edwin said curtly. “We should join them, then.” And just like that, he marched off towards where Kiah and the others were working.

“He is very eager,” Luca commented as our group trailed after Edwin and his Fearow.

“That is one way to put it,” Michael said dryly in reply.

It turned out that Corsola was using her Life Dew move again to heal all of our assorted Pokemon, which was actually quite interesting to watch. She had a small globe of blue water floating in midair, and she constantly flicked her stubby arms in one direction or another, sending droplets of water out of the larger globe to sprinkle over a chosen Pokemon. Pausso immediately jogged over to join the group of Pokemon with Piloswine hot on his heels, and I saw him sigh happily when Corsola sent a small globe of water over to him.

The humans were talking in a separate group, slightly apart from the Pokemon. Hisa fielded questions from Edwin as he sat cross-legged with Misdreavus nestled in his lap. I noticed after a moment that he was rubbing the salve Kiah had made for me into his partner’s hair-tendrils, which did look a different shade of blue than they had been before. Misdreavus didn’t look particularly bothered, though; he just hummed in a slightly off-key way as Hisa applied the medicine.

Jordan appeared to be a little paler than usual, but he was still grinning. “I am fine,” he said when Edwin asked him a pointed question. “It was just a light Poison Sting, I’ve had worse.”

“An entirely avoidable Poison Sting,” Michael said as he shook his head. He looked serious, but his mouth was twitching. “You’re lucky we were able to treat it quickly. Was it really necessary to jump into the middle of the battle like that?”

“Hypnosis takes too long,” Jordan replied easily. “I got bored.”

I glanced over the group of Pokemon, thinking. “So Hoothoot is using Hypnosis too,” I muttered. Then I turned to Florence. “How about the rest of you?”

“Sudowoodo is mimicking Hypnosis, though he does not seem to enjoy using the move,” Florence replied quickly. “And I have Hoppip using Stun Spore, though – wait, Hoppip, no!”

I took a step back in surprise as Hoppip happily yelled “Hop!” and shook his head-leaves, sending a spray of yellow dust into the air. The Pokemon sitting near him cried out in alarm and dodged out of the way as the dust slowly floated to the ground. Corsola also jumped and dropped her globe of water, and it splashed onto all the other Pokemon as it hit the ground, which made Sudowoodo screech in an undignified manner.

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“Sorry!” Florence said hastily, bowing to the group of Pokemon. When she stood up straight again and looked back at me, she was blushing. “Hoppip still cannot understand me most of the time, but he was able to learn our terms for his attacks with Trainer Smith’s help. But every time I say one of his move names, he uses that move right away. So I have to be careful.”

“That is very unfortunate,” I deadpanned, barely holding back a laugh. Florence clearly knew what I was actually thinking, because she scowled and cuffed the back of my head lightly in retaliation.

We both fell silent for a moment, so I glanced around at the other people. Most of the trainers (plus Isaac) were discussing how the plan had gone so far, and they seemed pretty pleased with the results. Luca had wandered off from the conversation, but he was absorbed in watching Corsola as she generated a new globe of water and wasn’t paying any attention to us.

“Hey, Florence,” I said, keeping my voice quiet. She looked over at me and raised her eyebrows. “I saw something earlier that – well, I guess it made me upset. Tell me, is it normal for people to attack majū in this time?”

“You mean like when Trainer Jordan punched that Onix? Or when he tried to body slam a Nidoran less than ten minutes ago? Because I would say no, that is not normal.”

I chuckled at that mental image, then shook my head. “No, this was something else.” I hesitated, then decided to just go for it. “We got cornered by a pair of the Nidoran evolutions, and they were backing us up against the city wall. Then Edwin got the soldiers up on the wall to shoot arrows at the pair of majū. And that – well, that just struck me as wrong.”

Florence nodded slowly, but her expression was troubled. “I cannot say that I like the idea of shooting arrows at anyone, majū or human,” she said after a while. “But I also understand why they would do it. If one of the battlers brought down the Violet wall, the whole horde could get into the city. People would die, Monroe.”

I flinched. I didn’t want to believe that was true, that wild Pokemon would really kill people. But then again, hadn’t that nearly happened to me? First with the Onix and the Quagsire, then again with those strange eye-creatures in the Ruins of Alph. And didn’t everyone always warn me about how dangerous wild Pokemon were?

The battlers chose that moment to enter the field again, which saved me from needing to think of something to say. The fire Pokemon emerged from the northern forest first, and the poison Pokemon came out of the southern forest shortly afterwards. The mass of Pokemon spent half a minute observing each other from a distance; then an Arcanine (perhaps the same one we had seen before?) howled a challenge, which a Nidoking responded to with a trumpeting roar. Shortly after that all the Pokemon cried out their names, and in no time at all they had charged at each other and broken into a chaotic mess of battles again.

I felt Pausso perk up with curiosity, so I glanced over at him with my eyebrows raised, asking a silent question. T̵͔̘̂̕h̸̙̣̄̿e̸͇̤̿̃y̶̤̒ ̶̦̞̐̒ ć̵̻â̵͖l̴͉̥̿l̶̯̓̇ ̸̪̖͆͌ e̵̢͛a̵̩̻͐c̴̞̅͊h̸̤̜͛̍ ̵͓̉̀ ò̸͎t̶̜̕h̴͓͋ȩ̷̒̇ŕ̷̳̃ ̵̤̗̿ t̵̘̀ḧ̶̖̪͆ḭ̸̄ĕ̷̟v̸̢̩̐͐e̸̺͋s̵̬̀, he thought to me.

“Huh,” I said quietly, musing over this tidbit. Both sides thought the other had stolen something from them. Maybe that had something to do with why they were fighting?

“Aha!” Edwin said, sounding pleased. “Their numbers are reduced already. That means we are having an impact. Come, teams – if we can move faster this time, we may be able to clear the field enough to isolate the heavy-hitters before the next changeover.”

Everyone murmured in agreement and we split into two groups again, heading back off to our respective sides. I tried to focus all of my thoughts purely on the plan so I wouldn’t get distracted again. Now that Pausso was refreshed, we could keep using Hypnosis from a distance to great effect. Maybe we could even move faster now since we’d had so much practice at it.

Edwin pointed out a small group at the edge of the battle where a Nidorina fought a Growlithe and a Vulpix. I nodded in reply and got into position, staggering myself behind Pausso so I would be ready to run forward as soon as it was safe. Luca and Piloswine took up their positions beside us, ready to start things off with an ice attack.

Before either of our Pokemon could make a move, the Vulpix dodged away from the fight with a neat tuck-and-roll. The other two Pokemon kept tackling each other relentlessly while the Vulpix darted forward in a Quick Attack, bringing it right up close to where we were.

“Uhh,” I said, startled. “Hypnosis?”

Pausso sent forth the psychic field, but it didn’t take; the Vulpix just shook its head briskly, easily staying awake. Then the fox twisted about and half-hid its head behind its tails, looking over them at our two Pokemon in a coy way. Its tails wiggled back and forth as it called out “Vu-ul!” in a lilting voice.

“What is happening?” I asked, completely at a loss. Pausso sent a feeling of confusion equal to mine through our bond.

Piloswine, on the other hand, reacted in a very unexpected way. She immediately stood up straight and the flaps of hair that rested over her face perked up, showing that her eyes were big and glossy. “Pilo!”

“Buddy?” Luca asked, his voice uncertain.

The Vulpix crooned, did a spin, and then took off in a saucy little jog towards the middle of the battle. And, to my dumfounded amazement, Luca’s Piloswine happily scuttled right after the little fox.

We all stared after the two rapidly-disappearing Pokemon for a long moment. Then Luca shrieked and took off after them. “Frosty, come back here!” he yelled as he barreled past wild Pokemon, dodging around the battlers and quickly vanishing behind a spray of dirt that had been kicked up in another fight.

Edwin cursed explosively, then turned to his Pokemon. “Get up in the sky and keep an eye on the boy. He is small enough, see if you can pick him up to pull him out of there.” His bird clucked his beak in a skeptical way, but he still launched up into the air and soared above the battlefield, dodging an Ember attack as he flew.

“What happened?” I gasped out, my voice much higher-pitched than I wanted it to be.

“Must be Attract,” Edwin growled. “We are lucky the beast only ensnared one of our three.” He hesitated, grinding his teeth. “It would be idiotic of us to go in there, but…”

“Luca doesn’t stand a chance by himself,” I said bluntly. “We have to go help him.”

Edwin cursed again, but he nodded his agreement. I glanced over at Pausso and he quickly wagged his trunk up and down too. So, with no further discussion, the three of us ran right into the fight.

For a minute, maybe two minutes, it was pure chaos. Duck under a flying trio of Poison Stings, then leap over a huge hole in the ground where some Pokemon must have used Dig. Swerve to the left to avoid a Nidoran scratching away relentlessly at a cowering Growlithe. Then swerve to the right and pull Pausso out of the way as a different Growlithe, wreathed in flames, charged at a waiting Nidorino. I had to keep my eyes on everything at once, because attacks were flying all over and the ground was littered with hazards of various sorts, including a scattering of toxic spikes that I was lucky to crush under my boots without having them break through the soles. At one point I almost stepped on a Vulpix that was lying still on the ground, and my breath hitched when I realized that I couldn’t tell if it was breathing.

I caught sight of Luca after half a minute had passed and followed him as best as I could. He was running like mad, mostly ignoring the fighting going on all around him. Frankly, it was amazing he hadn’t been hit by anything yet. And the whole time he kept screaming after his Pokemon, yelling for her to come back, what was she doing?

Then, with practically no warning, we broke into an empty patch of the battlefield. I looked around, breathing hard, and blanched when I realized why there was so much open space. We had run straight into the area that the Arcanine and Nidoking were using for their battle.

The two Pokemon were currently tussling on the other side of the clearing; Arcanine had bitten down hard on the Nidoking’s arm, and the poison Pokemon was thrashing wildly in a counterattack, whacking the fire-dog on its head with his free arm. There was a decent bit of room between us and the brawlers, but I was very sure that the evolved Pokemon could close that distance in a manner of seconds if they wanted to come after us.

Slightly off to the side, Piloswine was making eyes at the Vulpix that had lured her away as it sat and licked a paw demurely. Luca had run right up to his Pokemon and was trying to tug her away, but she completely ignored him, focusing instead on wiggling her ears up and down expressively. The group got even more chaotic when Edwin’s Fearow dove down next to Luca and hovered by him, then tried to hook a talon into his shirt.

“Let me go!” Luca cried out, ripping free of the bird’s grasp. He then tugged at Piloswine again, trying to get her to turn towards him. “Frosty, Frosty, what are you doing? Snap out of it!”

“Abort! Focus on Agility instead to prepare yourself,” Edwin yelled to Fearow over the din of the battle. His bird croaked out an annoyed “Row!”, then launched himself back up in the sky to fly in circles above the fight. “Trainer Luca, we have to get out of here!”

“Not without my partner!” Luca yelled back fiercely, still tugging at Piloswine’s fur.

The two trainers kept arguing, but I looked past them to the other side of the field. Two more Vulpix had appeared in the clearing. One positioned itself between us and the two evolved Pokemon, whipping its tails back and forth wildly, while the other ran over close to where the two larger Pokemon were fighting and yipped a few quick sounds at them.

I narrowed my eyes and leaned over to tap Pausso on the shoulder. “I think something’s going on. Can you take down the big ones?”

“Zee, dru,” Pausso replied quickly. Then he waved his hands widely to generate a Hypnosis field large enough to make it all the way across the clearing to the two battling Pokemon.

“Vul!” the Vulpix standing between us and the pair shouted, and its eyes glowed bright blue for a moment. Then a pair of familiar rings came flying speedily away from the Vulpix to collide with Pausso, sending him staggering backwards and disrupting the Hypnosis attack.

Pausso snorted in anger as I gulped. That had been a Disable attack, which meant Pausso wouldn’t be able to use Hypnosis for a while. And we were surrounded by fire Pokemon; even if we managed to get Piloswine back on our side, she wouldn’t be able to freeze them all for any useful length of time.

It wasn’t mere happenstance that the Vulpix had lured Piloswine, and therefore the rest of us, to this clearing. This was a trap.