My sparring with the Pidgey came to a sudden halt when our height in the sky let us see an odd sight approaching our area. A white and black hawk with a scorching red flame pattern over its body was hauling what looked like a hot air balloon basket underneath it, by grasping a handle in its talons. A Talonflame. There was clearly someone inside the basket, and they were approaching quickly. I thought it was actually really impressive for a comparatively small bird to be able to fly around with a grown man and the equipment besides.
Then I noticed that the goggle-clad man seemed to be in a frothing panic, staring back over his shoulder and down toward the trees below. His mouth was moving, I could tell with how excellent my eyesight was as a Pidgey, but I couldn't read lips and he was too far for me to hear. The Talonflame nodded its head and tried to bank sharply, a motion that left the man and the basket swaying in an outward circle from the force. What was wrong?
And then a green blur launched itself from the trees below, translucent wings fluttering to assist in an insane leap. A large bladed arm swiped at the Talonflame's attempt to dodge, and outright cleaved through the metal bar holding up the man's basket like it was slicing through butter. The terror in the man's eyes redoubled as the outward swing of the basket launched him in a tumble, sailing over the last of the trees around the pasture. That man should count his blessings, as he landed squarely in the pond. I briefly worried that he might have landed on the Lotad or Azurill, though, so I hurried to wing over, spotting Mable dashing across the pasture toward the commotion as well.
While I moved to the pond, my eyes flicked back up, able to catch the descending figure of a Scyther. That thing was easily the biggest bug I had ever seen, and it was huge. It was taller than the man who had taken that unfortunate plunge, positively massive. Its green carapace was riddled with scars and scratches, badges of battle in a much more wild Pokémon sense. I could sense hate and anger rolling off it like waves, as it ignored the Talonflame soaring overhead and dashed toward the pond, more interested in the man who had just hauled himself out of the water. "Run! It's going berserk! Eggs got broken in battle!" He coughed the words out, trying to desperately wave Mable off from assisting him.
The Scyther was approaching the pair of them, and Mable was only a few steps from the man. Seeing red, I tucked my wings and turned myself into a Pidgey missile. I may not know Brave Bird, but I'm sure going to improvise one. Picking up speed as I fell, I was grateful the Scyther was dashing in a straight line with its short leaps. When it pulled an arm back to swipe, I rammed beak-first into the joint of its shoulder, driving it back several feet and leaving me rebounding off it to skip across the dirt. I was seeing stars, and struggled to get back on my feet.
"Talonflame, flamethrower!" The man cried out, the bird overhead swooping down and flying past, a thick gout of flame scorching across the Scyther's body. And it just. Didn't. Care. The crackle of cracking carapace responding to the heat made it clear how much damage it was taking from the attack, but it twisted, leapt into the air, and brought both scythe arms down directly onto the Talonflame in a guillotine-drop motion, even as its body blackened slightly from the fire. Both blades impacted the Talonflame, which cried out in a shrieking scream that sent shivers through my body. Part of me expected to see the bird land in three pieces, but instead it hit the ground with only some still concerning-looking gashes.
"Bibi, Super Fang!" This time it was Mable's turn to call an attack, Bibarel having emerged from the dam and immediately taken up a position in front of Mable. I had to hope all the Bidoof were hiding inside. With a lunge forward, Bibarel sunk those goofy beaver teeth into one of Scyther's wings, tearing a gash in it in the process and hopefully hindering its speed enough to make a difference.
I didn't see any of the other little Pokémon around, so they must know to avoid an incident like this. Honestly, I probably had contributed all I was going to do this fight, but I wasn't just going to hope that Bibarel could bring down an enraged Scyther like that. I dropped my transformation, and turned into a copy of the hulking, scar-clad Scyther myself.
Before I could do anything, though, Mable shouted at me. "Ditto! Stay back! We don't need to get confused over which one is you!" I... shoot, she was right, I figured that transforming into the Scyther might help hold it off, but they were just as likely to hit me by accident, and I wouldn't be able to beat this thing on my own. I shifted behind Mable and maintained the form, however, ready to try and leap in at an opportune moment.
"Talonflame, return! Fearow, get out here and help!" The battered fire-bird was recalled, and the long-beaked, brown-feathered Fearow aimed a glare of anger at the Scyther. While about the same size as the Talonflame, it struck me as more intimidating, the way its beak seemed to twist into a snarl at the sight of the opponent. "Put it down, Fearow! Hyper beam!" A crackling orb of energy gathered at the bird's mouth, the sphere growing larger and pulsing more and more unstably as the gathered power grew.
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"Bibi, get out of the way! Get ready to follow up with Water Gun!" As Bibarel tried to follow the instructions, the Scyther swung an uppercut with both of its arms, the reverse treatment of what Talonflame received, and launched him into the air. Straight at the ready-to-discharge Hyper Beam.
"Oh no, Fe-!" It was too late, the beam launched. I pushed off the ground hard enough to leave a deep gouge in the floor from where I left, wings flaring wide as I dove forward with every bit of energy I could bring to bear. I used the flat of my blades to homerun-bat Bibarel out of the way.
Then I felt a searing pain across my back, the powerful attack grazing against me just slightly, as I slumped to the ground. My head twisted to the side, looking at the other Scyther, who took the blast square to the chest and finally went down. "Yes! Now's the chance-!" The excited man tried to pull a Pokéball out, but Mable rounded on him and slapped him clear across the face with a resounding clap.
"Now's the chance? You said it was enraged from eggs getting broken. Did you try and battle a Scyther protecting eggs to catch it?" Her voice was chill, and positively scathing. "Recall your Pokemon, and you're not doing a thing until the police get here to deal with you! Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in? Why I ought to go give that Scyther a few potions and turn it loose on you again, you-" The tirade faded from my mind, as I was gritting my teeth and feeling Bibarel prodding at my side.
"Whew. Thanks, Ditto, that would'a been nasty. Are you okay?" I dropped my transformation, and I was more puddle than blob at the moment. Even taking the edge of that Hyper Beam had left me in a fair bit of pain, and the multiple transformations on top of the training I had been doing before all this started had me absolutely wiped out.
"Y-yeah, I think the worst of it missed me. How about you? You took a hit yourself?" When he nodded, I sighed in relief. "That's good. Man, that thing was crazy. It's way bigger than a Scyther should be, isn't it? They're normally shorter than a person, aren't they?" Bibarel tipped his head aside, giving me a confused, assessing look.
"I don't know. I don't see Scyther much. Normally they stay over in the next route, and it's hard to travel that way from here. That Scyther must have chased that guy quite a ways. At least this didn't happen when any kids were around." Bibarel pat me atop the head, and waddled over in the direction of the dam. "Hang on just a minute, I'm gonna go tell the little ones it's all clear, and I'll get us some berries to use to recover a bit." I nodded in agreement. I wasn't going anywhere.
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It took some time for everything to get settled, after that chaos. The police arrived and spoke to Mable, and the man had the decency to at least look abashed as an Officer verbally tore him apart. Not a Jenny, I was almost disappointed to see. I wonder if they were still a family of police officers in this world? Regardless, the man was forced to pay both a fine to the police, as well as to Mable for bringing her into danger in the process of his failed capture attempt. The fact that he had broken nest-protection statutes in his capture attempt wasn't going to seriously affect him as a trainer, but it was going on his record and he may face restricted or even banned access to certain areas where nests could be found.
I overheard all this while I was being fed berries by Mable herself. She was holding me and had praised me for my quick-thinking at the start of the fight and the last-moment save. I was content to relax in her arms and just listen to the goings-on around me. It felt a little bit like a slap-on-the-wrist treatment to me, but I didn't know how big the different fines he paid out were, or how strict the restrictions might end up being. I just hoped that the bird-trainer wasn't going to be in a position to do something so monumentally stupid again. What Bibarel had thought about terrified me. What would kids be able to do in the face of an enraged Pokémon like that? If they had been here, it would have been a lot messier.
The sight of the careless recklessness of this man only reinforced to me that I did need to have some prejudices against Pokémon trainers. This guy may have only been overtaken by greed, but if he hadn't made it to a place where someone could help him, who knows what the end result of his clash with the furious Scyther matriarch might be? I swallowed nervously, as... well, I thought about how in the games, things were casually hand-waved away by blacking out and returning to the nearest Pokémon Center. Most Pokémon wouldn't attack humans, I believed. But when enraged and pushed too far, or for the more aggressive species... would that always be the case?
One more things to add to the growing mountain of things I needed to consider well before I went on a journey of my own. After today's events, I was more sure that while I had decided I needed a trainer to have a journey, I definitely needed to be sure it was the right trainer. Going on a journey with a reckless idiot like this fellow might mean I wind up in some unfortunate scenarios. I suppose I had the time to be picky, still. As the police took the man away with them to file the appropriate reports and additions to the records, one of them having temporarily caught the Scyther to release elsewhere later on, Mable leaned down and kissed the top of my head. "Good job today Ditto. You were very brave, and you kept Bibi from getting hurt. Thank you."
"I just did what I had to..." 'Dit-Di-Ditto...' I rubbed at the back of my head, embarrassed. She pat atop my head and we went back into the house, where Mable slumped down on a couch with a heaving sigh. Bibarel wandered over and climbed onto the couch alongside her, relaxing, while I remained atop her lap.
"What a day. Well, the little ones are going to need to be fed in a bit still, but I think we've all earned a little bit of a break, yeah?" I couldn't agree more, so I just quietly closed my eyes and relaxed. Chores and such can wait a little bit until the edge had been taken off the stress that built up today.