The Arcanine on the other side of the clearing suddenly released the Nidoking’s arm from its bite, then drew in a deep breath and let out an explosive Roar. The force of the sound pushed the Nidoking far out of the clearing, sending him tumbling over other Pokemon and disrupting other sets of fights as he was forced away.
Then the Arcanine turned to look at us, and in the blink of an eye it appeared right in front of Pausso and me. Had it just teleported? No – it was simply so blindingly fast that I hadn’t seen it move.
Edwin and Luca both went silent when they saw the Arcanine had appeared next to us. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything either. It was huge, taller than the other evolved Pokemon on the field by several feet, and it could probably eat me for lunch.
“Ca, arc ni canine,” the Arcanine growled, baring its teeth and looking directly at Pausso.
My Pokemon gulped. S̵̝̿͝h̶̬͇͋́e̸̱͊̾ ̶̰̎ c̵͖̬̈́̉l̴̟͒ͅa̷̡͠n̷̤̲͛ ̸̺͝ l̷̲̗͛e̵̮̒͘a̸̫̎d̶̩̅ę̵͑r̷̯̾.̶͈̔̽ ̵͙̽̚ A̵͒̌͜n̴͙̞̋͠g̵̠͌r̴̤̽̐y̶̡̅͊.̷͎͑ ̸̧̀ W̷̳̒̚a̶̛̫̖͊ṉ̴̅͘t̸̞̍s̵̛͉͝ ̵̠̻͐ f̶̼̏́ȧ̷̼̲m̴̖̺̉i̷͉̇l̸͈̏̈y̵̦̥͛͛ ̷̥̂͑ b̶̛͇ḁ̶͖̀̎c̶̯̙̈́̿k̸͕͎̃̆, he thought to me.
I gulped too. “She realized we’re capturing the majū,” I told Edwin, my voice wobbly. “She’s mad. She wants us to release them.”
Edwin looked a little flabbergasted at having a wild Pokemon make demands at him, but after a moment he seemed to accept it as the situation we were in. The man shot a glance up at his Fearow in the sky, then shook his head firmly. “Not unless they agree to stop fighting on the route.”
I could feel that Pausso was uneasy, but he still passed this message along to the other Pokemon. The Arcanine threw her head back and howled into the sky in a way that made my heart hammer, at least until I noticed that the pair of Vulpix who had walked up beside her were both making odd coughing sounds. Were they laughing? Was this how Arcanine laughed?
When the giant dog lowered her head again I took a big step back; maybe she had been amused before, but now there were flames flickering in her mouth around her fangs. “Nine,” she said in a clearly derisive tone. “Arca ar –“
Her words were cut off when a small object flew at her from the side and smacked against her back. The poke ball didn’t hit quite right, but when it bounced down the button clicked against her leg, sucking the giant Pokemon in. I spun around and saw that Luca had been the one to throw the ball. He had another ball held ready in his hand, and he was visibly shaking as he looked at me.
My eyes flew back to the ball holding the Arcanine, which I was shocked to see hadn’t immediately opened back up. Could it really be that easy?
Almost as if on cue, the ball gave a massive shudder and burst open, sending the Arcanine back out onto the field. She roared angrily and immediately turned to face off against Luca. He quickly threw the poke ball he’d been holding, but it did no good; the Arcanine spat out a quick stream of fire that engulfed the ball, leaving a small puddle of stone to fall to the ground.
Then, just as I drew a breath to tell Pausso to try calming her down, she blasted a much larger Flamethrower right at Luca.
He just stood still in shock, but Piloswine snapped her attention back to her trainer and cried out, tackling Luca so that the two of them fell and rolled off to the side. That meant that the attack missed them, just barely.
“Confusion!” I yelled to Pausso, who was also watching the unfolding events in horror. Even as I spoke I saw the Arcanine’s back legs tense; then she disappeared in a burst of incredible speed. She reappeared right next to Luca and his Pokemon, but Piloswine was ready for her. The ground Pokemon dug her tusks into the ground and thrust a spray of mud into the fire-dog’s face, making her stumble back and whine in surprise.
“Aerial Ace! Keep it back!” Edwin screamed up into the sky. Moments later his Fearow dove down from the sky and slashed at the Arcanine with his talons, keeping the giant dog from lunging at Luca and Piloswine again. Piloswine growled and barreled forward, flailing wildly at the Arcanine and accidentally whacking Fearow with her tusks in the process. Then the Vulpix who had used Attract on her before hissed and leapt into the fray, spitting small balls of fire at the other combatants. In moments the cluster of Pokemon was in complete mayhem.
Seeing that Vulpix reminded me of a danger closer to us. I spun back around just in time to see the Vulpix that had used Disable before (who had an oddly flat tuft of fur on its head) smash into an unsuspecting Pausso with a Quick Attack. The other Vulpix, who had a chunk missing from its ear, sat back and watched. Pausso fell to the ground, then stumbled back up onto his feet, snorting angrily. “Switch Confusion to these guys, see if you can target both of them,” I said quickly, backing away to get out of range.
Pausso was able to ensnare the flat-haired Vulpix in his psychic attack quickly, but the other one was too far away, and he wasn’t able to spread the attack to cover both Pokemon at once. The attack still seemed to hit the first Vulpix hard, though, as it shrieked unhappily and cowered down, covering its head with its paws. That made the scarred-ear Vulpix jump into action. It leapt to its feet and let out a high-pitched cry, forming a bright spot of light above its head. I yelled at Pausso to watch out, but the light shot through the air and burst into a jangle of colors right in front of his face before he could move.
I gasped and staggered in place as a riot of colors and sounds assaulted my head, turning the world around me into a kaleidoscopic nightmare. Pausso’s body elongated into ridiculously tall proportions and the sky overhead twisted into a funnel that dripped rainbows with thundering ker-clonk, ker-clonk sounds. I could smell burnt peaches and taste ketchup-flavored sushi, somehow at the same time, and that combination made my stomach roil unpleasantly. A strange tickling sensation danced around the middle of my back, just out of reach, and the tips of my toes were numb.
Obviously this was all rather distracting, so for a few moments I clutched my head and groaned, trying to process all of these strange sensations at once. But there was a little voice in the back of my head that always took a logical view of things, and that voice cut through all the distractions. I had felt this way once before, if only for a split second. And that had led to a connection. A connection that came from right – there.
Something in my mind clicked, and all of the weird sensations disappeared as the world reverted to normal. I blinked, still feeling mildly nauseous and very headachey, and saw that Pausso was reeling around dizzily. He swung a fist through the air but only succeeded in overbalancing and falling over, jamming his trunk into the ground as he fell down.
Pausso’s behavior helped me realize what was happening, since I’d seen other Pokemon act like that before. He was confused; that second Vulpix must have used Confuse Ray.
“Pausso, snap out of it!” I shouted, running over to him. He turned towards me as I approached, but his reaction wasn’t reassuring – he just blinked rapidly and shot a Disable attack straight through me. The attack didn’t do anything (I didn’t even feel it), but it did make me reel back and stop my approach a few feet away. Confused Pokemon were dangerous, as they fired off moves randomly at everyone, even themselves. You had to approach them with caution.
It didn’t help that the rest of the battlefield was getting increasingly chaotic. Off to my side Edwin and Luca were shouting suggestions to their Pokemon and dodging attacks, but the Arcanine had gotten over the surprise of Piloswine’s initial Mud-Slap and was now spewing out liberal amounts of fire. Piloswine in particular probably should have been in big trouble, but Fearow was drawing most of the Arcanine’s attention away; he kept darting in, attacking, then darting out again, which enraged the large Pokemon.
Then the Nidoking reappeared. He charged into the clearing and went straight for the Arcanine, bashing her head with his limbs furiously. “Ni! Do! King!” he roared, lashing his tail wildly as he fought. Fearow hovered over the pair, looking uncertain, until the Vulpix who had lured in Piloswine shot a psychic attack in his direction. Then the battle resumed with the Vulpix as Fearow and Piloswine’s primary target.
I halfway-noticed all of this in the background as I concentrated on helping Pausso. I tried reaching out through our mental bond, only to pause when I realized I couldn’t feel it. Then I had to resist the urge to smack my forehead. That was what the mental click had been – the confusion Pausso was feeling must have bled through our bond and started affecting me, so I’d subconsciously found a way to turn the bond off. I’d need to find another way to reach my Pokemon, or we’d just have to wait it out. I scratched my ear, considering the problem. Maybe if I dumped cold water over his head? Where would I find water, though?
“Pix!” something squeaked from my right, and I turned just in time to see the scarred-ear Vulpix slam into me. We fell to the ground together and the Pokemon hissed in my face, holding all of its tails out straight. Without thinking I reached up and grabbed the small fox, then threw it away from me as far as I could. The Vulpix tumbled head-over-heels over the ground, squealing in alarm, which led to the second Vulpix getting its hackles up as it started stalking towards me. Pausso clearly wasn’t going to be any help; he was currently engaged in using his Confusion attack, yes, but it looked like he had targeted a rock on the ground.
I scrambled backwards on all four limbs, trying to keep some distance between myself and the Vulpix with the flat fur on its head. I’d probably be able to handle any physical attacks it could throw at me, but if it breathed fire I wasn’t sure what I would do.
“Incoming!” a voice called from further afield. Then two small figures flew onto the scene, and both went straight for the Vulpix that had been about to attack me. For a moment I was just startled; then I let out an involuntary cheer when I recognized Misdreavus and Hoothoot. The cavalry had arrived!
Misdreavus cackled as he shot a wave of psychic energy at the Vulpix, and Hoothoot flapped her wings sharply to generate slices of air. Both attacks hit at the same time, which knocked the wild Pokemon over. To my surprise, the little fox didn’t get back up. Had it been knocked out already?
“Bullet Seed!” Florence called from the other side of the clearing. I turned to see her running up to the battle with the other trainers from the second group just behind her. She held out Hoppip at arm’s length in her hands and had him pointed at the second Vulpix, the one with an ear that was missing a chunk. Hoppip chirped happily and spit a long stream of seeds through the air right at the other Pokemon, making it flinch as the seeds peppered its head.
Hisa gave me a brief wave as he ran by me on his way towards Edwin, and his ghost chuckled darkly as he swung away from the downed Vulpix to follow his trainer. Jordan and Sudowoodo didn’t even appear to notice me; they both made a beeline for the brawl on the other side of the clearing instead. Florence stayed back to let Hoppip concentrate on his attack, but Michael ran straight up to me, casting a concerned look at Pausso (who was now laying on the ground and trying to make a snow-fairy in the dirt) as he passed my Pokemon.
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“Drowzee’s confused,” I said by way of explanation. “I haven’t figured out how to snap him out of it yet. What are you all doing here?”
“Regrouping,” he said shortly. He turned back to look at Hoothoot and whistle three sharp notes; in response his bird immediately took flight and arced around to attack the remaining Vulpix. He kept his eyes on the battle as he continued speaking. “These wild majū are smarter than we gave them credit for. It looks like they tried to take out all three branches of our operation at the same time. The group at the base camp saw them coming and were able to send our group a message just before a Growlithe led us into a pit trap.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes slightly. “Trainer Jordan still stepped right on it, but my partner and I were able to pull him back before he fell in. You all?”
“A Vulpix lured Piloswine into the battle with Attract, and the rest of us followed her,” I replied. “The Arcanine – she’s their clan’s leader – she tried to tell us to release all the Pokemon we caught, but things got out of hand. Are Isaac and Kiah and the others okay?”
“Yes, they are fine.” Michael paused, then whistled a high note that dove down to a lower register after a second. Hoothoot pulled back to avoid an Ember, then shot some kind of psychic beam back at the Vulpix. When combined with the Bullet Seeds that Hoppip was still firing, that was enough to knock the second Vulpix out. “Last I saw they were retreating to the city gates. We ought to fall back and join them there.”
“Sure,” I said, very willing to leave this battle as soon as possible, “but Drowzee is still confused.”
Michael paused, then frowned at me. “I thought you had a stock of persim berries? I saw you eating one this morning.”
I stared at him mutely for a few moments; then I slapped my forehead into my palm. How stupid of me. I had been eating persim berries this whole time to cure mental side-effects, and the one time they would be useful for my actual Pokemon, I didn’t think of them.
Michael just sighed as his Hoothoot winged over and hovered next to him, clicking her beak. “Go sort out your partner. I will see if I can help handle the main threats.”
He ran off and joined Edwin and the others, and I glanced past him to see how the battle on that side of the clearing had developed. It looked like things had devolved into a full-out brawl. Arcanine, Nidoking, Vulpix, Fearow, Sudowoodo, and (I blinked twice, then shook my head) Jordan were trading blows in an absolute frenzy of elements. Luca had pulled Piloswine out of the fight; the boy and his Pokemon crouched near the group of adults and kept an eye on the boundaries of the clearing, and I flinched when I noticed that a large swath of Piloswine’s fur had been burned clean off, leaving angry red skin visible. Next to the two of them the older trainers talked animatedly, probably trying to figure out a plan.
I had a job to do before I could join them. I ran up to Pausso, fishing a persim berry out of my sack as I moved. As I approached he put his head down and ran forward in a Headbutt attack, so I dodged to the side. That made him overbalance and fall to the ground, which gave me the opening I needed to dart forward and force the berry into his mouth.
Pausso just laid on the ground and blinked for a few seconds after that. Then he grunted and sat up, rubbing his head. He looked at me, then jolted upright in surprise.
“What?” I asked. He paused, then tapped his head. “Oh, right – I had to turn that off when you were confused.” I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing on the part of my mind I had noticed before. It felt like I had to change something… yes, right there.
B̸̢̙̄͑e̴͔̓t̵͖̾t̶̥͎̎e̷̲͋ȓ̵͙̫, he thought immediately with an approving trunk-nod. W̵̝̳͐̐ḥ̴̀̏a̵̟͗t̷̖͌͋ ̵̣̀͝ ĥ̴̥̖a̵͕̐p̸̗̖̌̅p̴͙̰̾̆e̸̮͈̔n̵̙̫̎́ẽ̷̦̾ḑ̵͓̄͝ ̴̻̈́̌ ţ̸̻͐͒o̸͇̐… his thoughts trailed off as he noticed Florence and Hoppip, who had walked up behind us, and beyond them the two fainted Vulpix who were laying on the ground.
“All healed up?” Florence asked briskly. I nodded. “Come, I think the others are waiting for us.”
The group of adults were indeed now looking in our direction. The four of us ran towards them, though I couldn’t help but watch the brawl as I ran. Jordan had somehow gotten up on the Arcanine’s back and kept tugging at her mane to redirect the Flamethrowers she was trying to blast off, and this appeared to have sent her into a rage. Fearow crash-landed into the remaining Vulpix and the two of them skidded away from the main body of the brawl; it looked like the Vulpix had finally fainted, though Fearow looked pretty ragged at this point as well.
“Finally,” Edwin snapped as Florence and I arrived within easy earshot. I pulled my gaze away from the kicking contest that the Nidoking and Sudowoodo had gotten into and paid attention. “As I have already told the others, we are not letting this opportunity slip away. If these creatures are the leaders of their clans and can make bargains, we will force them to make a bargain.” He held up a poke ball, making it clear how he intended to do that.
“I’m not sure how well that will work,” I said warningly. “We haven’t tested them on really strong majū yet.”
“We will make it work,” Edwin replied grimly. “We just need to make them fall asleep, yes? That has led to successful captures for most majū before.”
“Easier said than done,” Michael said. “The stronger majū can shake off Hypnosis and keep fighting, especially when they see it coming.”
“That is assuming they can see it coming,” Hisa said, his eyes lighting up. He exchanged a look with Misdreavus, and his ghost started cackling happily. “We shall make it work. After all, where there’s a will, there’s a ray.”
Edwin furrowed his brow. “What?”
Hisa didn’t answer; instead, he pivoted back around to face the battle and pointed his hand forward dramatically. “Time for your sneakiest Confuse Ray, partner!”
Misdreavus’ cackling suddenly disappeared as he went insubstantial and dove into the ground. It only took him a few moments to reappear directly behind the Nidoking with the bright light of Confuse Ray already prepared in front of his head. He was able to fire the ray point-blank at the poison Pokemon, sending him reeling.
“You and your partner might want to move, Trainer Jordan!” Hisa called out happily as Misdreavus disappeared into the ground once again. Jordan (who had swiveled around and now held onto Arcanine’s side in an attempt to avoid the dog’s backwards Bite attack) growled audibly, but after a moment he dove off of the larger Pokemon and rolled away. The Arcanine almost immediately started blasting fire at him in retaliation, but he dodged expertly, jumping from side to side and avoiding the attacks, which just further enraged the Pokemon. This meant that the fire-dog didn’t even notice what was happening when Misdreavus resurfaced under her front legs and shot a Confuse Ray up and into her head.
“I… suppose that works,” Edwin said begrudgingly as Arcanine shook her head from side to side, then shot an Ember attack at her own tail. He turned to look at Michael and me. “Are your partners prepared?”
Good question, actually. I looked over at Pausso. “Is your Hypnosis still disabled?”
Pausso flexed his hands experimentally, then shook his trunk quickly from left to right. Good; it had been long enough that he could use the attack again.
Michael met my eyes and nodded gravely. “Together?”
I grinned in reply. “Let’s do it!”
We both turned towards the wild Pokemon. Jordan and Sudowoodo had successfully escaped the brawl thanks to Hisa’s warning and were making their way back over to our group, which left only Arcanine and Nidoking in the fight. The two Pokemon were clearly still confused, but they had somehow identified each other through the confusion, because they were grappling with each other yet again.
I pointed forward dramatically while Michael swept his hand outwards. “Hypnosis!” we both commanded at the same time.
Pausso waved his hands in his special pattern, sending his blue wave of psychic energy out across the field. At the same time, Hoothoot (who had carefully landed on his head) flashed her eyes blue and sent out her own Hypnosis attack. The two fields converged and formed a more intense wave than I had ever seen Pausso produce on his own, which swept rapidly across the field and over the two fighting Pokemon. I held my breath, then barely suppressed a cheer as the two Pokemon slumped over, both fast asleep.
I didn’t particularly want to walk up to those two Pokemon, even if they were sleeping, but it turned out that wasn’t necessary. Hisa and Michael both looked at Florence expectantly, and she grinned proudly at me as she drew a pair of poke balls out of her pouch. She walked a little forward and to the side, examined the sleeping bulk of the Arcanine, then tossed her first poke ball forward in a careful underhand. I laughed quietly in delight as the ball spun slowly and then landed at the perfect angle, compressing the button against the Arcanine’s fur and sucking her in.
Arcanine was caught in that single throw, but Nidoking was a bit more difficult; he broke out of the first ball (even though he was still asleep! I had no idea how he did that), then Florence misjudged the spin on the second one. Her third toss caught him, though, and a minute later Florence had proudly added two new poke balls to the collection in her sack.
Edwin nodded as if everything had gone as expected. “Well done, team. I believe we can begin by letting out one majū at a time to gather information. Trainer Monroe, if you could –“
“Ummm, you might want to see this,” Luca said suddenly, interrupting Edwin. I turned around to look back at the field and see what he was talking about, and my stomach swooped unpleasantly.
The Pokemon who had previously been fighting out on the field had noticed that we’d captured their leaders. They’d noticed, and they were not happy. Many Pokemon were growling and building up attacks as they slowly started stalking up to us.
“If I may,” Hisa said calmly, “I recommend that we beat a hasty retreat instead of interrogating the majū right here.”
“Confirmed,” Edwin said without hesitation. “All together, towards the city gate. And… now!”
We all broke into a run, just missing the first blast of fire that the Ninetales on the field sent after us. I tripped over a stone in the field almost immediately, but Jordan grabbed one of my arms and Hisa grabbed the other, and they hauled me back upright before I could even fall down. Piloswine had the hardest time due to her burns – in fact, she seemed to be on the verge of fainting. But we all called out encouragements to her and Luca, and they kept going through it all.
Luckily for us, seeing a group of fourteen humans and Pokemon all running and flying in a massive pack appeared to spook most of the wild Pokemon, because the ones between us and the city gate mostly cleared out of the way. We kept getting hit by attacks that were thrown at us from the sides and behind, though. I hissed when a Poison Sting grazed my arm, ripping through the cloth of my sleeve and sending a stinging sensation through my (still-burned) skin, and Pausso yelped when a Will-O-Wisp scalded his left leg, turning his run into an awkward limping gait.
When we made it to the boulders that marked the city boundary, the soldiers up on the wall starting firing arrows down to cover us before Edwin even had to call up an order. Many of the weaker wild Pokemon fell back, but the strongest ones kept running forward, expertly dodging missiles from above as they flung their own attacks after us.
“Open the doors!” Edwin bellowed as we got closer to the wall. A horrible moment passed where the doors didn’t move; then the left door creaked open just slightly and a soldier poked his head out to stare at us. Edwin roughly pulled the door all the way open as soon as he reached it, then started ushering each of us through the entryway while he kept an eye on the field behind us at the charging Pokemon.
Jordan was right next to me, so I saw how he blanched when he saw the open door to the city. He exchanged a quick look with his Pokemon, then swiveled around and stalked back out towards the field. “I will hold them off!” he called back to the rest of us, motioning for Sudowoodo to join him.
Michael and Hoothoot were waiting to get through the door right in front of Pausso and me; now the trainer swiveled back around, making me bump into him. “You idiot,” he called back to Jordan, looking furious, “get back here!”
“Not an idiot if I have a plan,” Jordan yelled back cheerfully. He watched the oncoming horde of Pokemon, and though I couldn’t see his face, his posture screamed confidence. “We’ve practiced this move for months now. I think this is the perfect time for an official debut.”
Michael opened his mouth, looking dumbstruck (I couldn’t blame him; I felt much the same way), but Jordan insisted on having the last word. As the charging Pokemon reached a point just ten feet away from where he and Sudowoodo stood, he shouted and swung his fist down into his open palm. “STONE EDGE!”
“SUUUUU-DO!” Sudowoodo shouted, bringing both of his limbs down hard so that they slammed into the ground. In front of the tree Pokemon a wide range of rocks burst up through the ground, striking the charging Pokemon so that they were thrown up into the air. The ground churned as rocks kept jutting out and up, quickly forming a jagged stone wall that spread in a long line in front of the pair and dozens of feet off to the sides. All I could do was stand there and gape at the sight.
They didn’t stop there, either. Jordan immediately started calling out instructions to Sudowoodo as he spotted Pokemon that had escaped the massive attack, and he even picked up and bodily threw a Nidoran that tried to pounce on him from the side. I didn’t get to see much, though, because a few seconds after the Stone Edge attack happened Edwin grabbed the back of my tunic and the scruff of Pausso’s neck. He unceremoniously pulled us both through the door, then slammed it shut behind us.