Chapter 22 – The Long Twilight
"A code-nine curfew is in effect," announced the synthesized female voice. "Anyone found outside of their homes after nineteen hundred hours will be subject to the full penalty of law. A code-nine curfew is in effect," the announcement played over the street-corner loudspeaker time after time as the streets of Celadon City began to empty out. By seven o'clock in the evening, not a soul was left visible in the roads. Everyone lucky enough to own or rent a dwelling had retreated indoors and locked themselves in their homes. Those who lacked proper shelter had hidden themselves away in alleys, taking shelter within or behind dumpsters or the piles of refuse which had built up over the three days Celadon had spent without any waste management services.
As the sunlight faded the city grew darker and darker in the absence of streetlights, powered houses, or even garbage can fires. By the time the sanguine twilight had disappeared completely, only a few pinpoints of light, provided by homes and buildings that could afford private generators, shone in the darkness that overtook the metropolis. A cool breeze blowing out of the west chilled Ash, and the young Gym Leader pulled his heavy cloak tighter around his frame as he looked out over the inky city. Beside him, knelt down on the roof of the tall apartment complex adjacent to the gym but still nearly as tall as Ash, Arcanine raised his head and sniffed the air.
"You feel it, huh," Ash reached over and ran a hand through the massive canine's billowing mane. The Pokemon yipped and got to his feet, nudging Ash with a cold nose and standing closer to the trainer. "Yeah, me too," the human answered, looking down at Pikachu. The yellow rodent stood on the very edge of the apartment's flat roof, peering into the darkness, eyes flitting from side to side.
Ash took a steadying breath and reached into his pack, drawing out the thermal imager he pressed the device to his eye and looked down into the city as the flat darkness leapt to life before him. In varying tones of grey, Ash could make out tiny figures scurrying about in the courtyard of Celadon's enormous shopping complex. A kilometer or more away, Ash zoomed in to watch as the police mobilized in front of the complex and bustled like a colony of termites, their numbers bolstered as they were by the influx of mercenaries over the passed few days.
"It's going to be an interesting day..." muttered the trainer, turning as a flapping and fluttering of wings erupted behind him. Stepping down from Pidgeot's back, Brock crossed the short distance between himself and Ash, taking up a position beside the younger Gym Leader.
"Jennifer's awake," Brock reported, reaching down and tightening one of the many belts that held his segmented armor in place.
"Is she eating?" asked Ash.
"Like a horse," the taller man answered. "We're keeping her on an IV to make sure she stays hydrated and gets all the nutrients she missed in prison, but she's still really underweight and her blood work looks bad. Can't call that surprising though," Brock went on, pulling his cloak closer as another cool wind blew up behind him, "given what she went through."
"She's tough," Ash commented, still looking out over the city.
Brock agreed and stepped up to the edge of the roof, setting the heel of his boot up on the low banister and scanning the scene. "She still wants to fight," he said, holding out his hand and motioning for Ash to hand him the thermal imager.
"Not happening," said Ash, stone-faced as he handed the device to Brock. "I don't want her or Misty anywhere near the front of the action." He walked up beside Brock and Pikachu, followed by Arcanine.
"We might need them," Brock pointed out, actively keeping his tone passive.
"If anything," said Ash, "we'll keep them in the rear to screen Erika. That should be as safe a place as any."
"Just putting you and me in more danger," noted Brock.
Ash nodded. "Wasn't that the plan anyway? It was your idea if memory serves."
"Doesn't mean I like it," said Brock, looking through the imager and zooming in on the shopping complex. He whistled as he took stock of the scene. "You sure about this?" he asked, handing the imager back to its owner.
"I'll bet they're asking themselves the same thing right about now," said Ash, taking the device. "Seriously though," he turned to the older Gym Leader. "I'm not asking you to fight to the death here. I've been talking with Misty and..." he stopped short.
"And?" Brock probed.
Ash shrugged. "Well, I don't recall ever telling Erika we'd die for her cause. So I just want you to know that if things get too heated tomorrow, nothing is stopping any of us from turning tail and heading straight back to Fuchsia."
"You told Misty about this?" asked Brock.
"It was her idea."
"I like it," Brock smirked. "At any rate, her royal highness the empress of all creation wanted me to come and get you."
"What does she want now?" asked Ash.
"Mike's runners just arrived."
After another sidelong glance at Celadon, listening once more to the loudspeaker's announcement of the curfew, Ash returned Arcanine to his pokeball, gatherer up Pikachu, and flew with Brock down to the sturdily built greenhouse and the wooden fort therein. Making their way towards the pagoda at the back of the fort, Ash and Brock passed several of Erika's royal guards making various arrangements for a battle. Some were sharpening swords on whetstones while others were carrying bundles of arrows from place to place. Still others had brought out stands of armor or racks filled with tall bows.
Erika's office, lit by several gilded lamps hanging from the walls, seemed smaller to Ash than the last time he'd spoken with the princess. Tables now dotted the floorspace between the Gym Leader's desk and the entrance, each taken up by maps of the city and schematics of the buildings surrounding the gym being carefully studied by the people standing over them. Erika sat at her post, flanked by her bodyguard and two of her officers, as a trio of men in leather jerkins stood opposite the princess. Everyone in the room turned as Ash and Brock entered, stepping aside to clear a path between the two men and the people gathered around the desk.
Turning in her seat, Erika nodded politely as Brock and Ash approached, and the three mercenaries standing in front of her all pivoted and saluted the trainers. Their leader, a tall man wearing a scale shirt beneath his jerkin, inclined his head and shook Ash's hand, then extended the gesture to Brock and introduced himself as Alfred.
"You're Mike's men I'll assume" Brock said. "He's accepted our proposal then?"
Nodding as he crossed his arms, the mercenary's lip curled up in a grin, emphasizing the thick scar which wound from the inner corner of his right eye, all the way down the middle of his face to his chin. "That we have," said Alfred. "As soon as Mike said there was a chance Team Rocket was responsible for Fey's death, the rest of the men went ape. Some of the lieutenants wanted to defect right then and there but Mike held everyone in check. Long story short, y'all have your work cut out for you, but we've got your back. As a show of good faith," the mercenary went on, "Mike's offered me and these two, all three of us his friends, as hostages."
"So what's the plan?" asked Ash.
"On our end?" Alfred clarified, continuing once Ash motioned for him to go on. "Mike says we're going to move on City Hall as planned, but ignore the Police Department and the administrative buildings since they're too out of the way. Along the way we'll send a dozen or so of our light infantry to reinforce your flanks. Our main army will wait for Vicar's men to assault the gym, then show up and hit 'em from behind where they'll be the least defended. Simple as can be."
Raising an eyebrow, Ash uncrossed his arms and shifted back a little. "What brought all this on?" he asked. "Last I heard you guys were thinking you'd just stay out of the way."
"Fey was our boss," Alfred declared, raising his voice. "More than that she was our leader our..." he paused and searched for a word, "comrade. None of us are sure of exactly what happened when she died, but we can be sure that you" he pointed to Ash, "weren't involved. Mike says odds are better than not that Team Rocket was, and that's more than enough for me." He laughed once, the fire in his eyes settling down. "Besides, it's you folks that will have the brunt of the trouble anyway." As he turned around and motioned for Ash and Brock to follow, Erika stood up and hovered over the map.
"If Misty's intelligence is anything to go by," said the woman in the Kimono, "then we're in for an all out assault on the gym tomorrow night," she ran her finger down the street depicted on the map of Celadon in front of her. "The mercenary she interrogated gave up that their basic plan is to use the trainers to do all the heavy fighting while their regulars circle around the gym to hold their flanks and to harry ours. There's no surprise there, but where things get interesting is when you look at their desire to take the Game Corner."
Brock looked sideways at the map as Erika tapped a structure on the far side of the city. "Why?" he asked. "What's there?"
"Couldn't say," said Erika. "I haven't been watching it too closely, but the mercenaries are diverting twenty men and two trainers to the Game Corner's ruins. Something's there that they don't want us getting at."
"Janine did say Rocket had a base there," said Ash. "That's about half the reason we came here in the first place. Still, right now we should just be glad that those are troops we don't have to worry about."
"Agreed," said Erika. "However, if there's something there I want to know what it is," she turned to the mercenaries. "What are the chances you could devote some of your men to taking the Game Corner."
"We're no army," said Alfred. "If you want us to have a chance of doing any real damage to the main force, then we'll need everyone we have in that fight."
"Can't be helped then," said Erika. "The Game Corner will just have to wait. Brock," she turned to the eldest Gym Leader. "You have extensive experience in a militia and you'll be at the head of my formations. Consider yourself promoted to Captain." She shifted to face Ash. "I'll just let you do what you do best."
SC
"That's..." Ash muttered, looking out over the streets before the gym, "big..."
From his vantage point, sitting atop Pidgeot's back who had perched on the tall apartment complex next to the Celadon Gym, Ash had a clear view of the battle lines. The "T" intersection of two main thoroughfares before the greenhouse provided a large and clearly defined battlefield, a sight Ash was both unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. On Erika's side there stood fifty men behind a barricade constructed of sharpened wooden stakes fixed to the ground by heavy frames. Each man, some twenty of them obviously far younger than the rest, remained silent and at attention, armed with a sword on his hip and a tall black bow across his back. At the rear of the formation, Erika sat atop her massive Venusaur, flanked by her Victreebell and a Vileplume, while Misty and Jennifer stood on her left. Staryu, Arcanine, Vaporeon, and Starmie floated or stood in front of Misty, while Jennifer stood defended by a pair of statuesque Ninetales.
Standing like a colossus in front of the barricades and clearly dominating that side of the scene however, Onyx glared down the wide road as its trainer sat in his Rhyhorn's saddle. Positioned three hundred meters down the road sat the combined forces of Mayor Vicar and Team Rocket's mercenaries. Clearly, Ash thought, Erika's intelligence had been off. The vanguard of the army alone, the host escorting the body of trainers slowly making their way down the road consisted of no less than eighty men, while the main body of regulars remained about four hundred yards farther back. Every man in the vanguard carried a clear riot shield and a heavy crossbows, though the escorts concerned Ash very little; his attention remained focused on the mounted soldiers in the center.
Five men in composite armor rode in the front atop Tauroses, while four men, two on each flank, in identical equipment rode Ponytas. A tenth soldier, plainly their captain if his ornate armor and Rapidash mount spoke to his station, rode behind the other nine. Slowly the mounted trainers and their escorts advanced to within two hundred yards of the gym's defensive line and there they stopped, waiting as the main force of no less than two hundred regulars advanced to the point previously occupied by the vanguard.
From this distance, Ash could make out neither the exact tune nor the words of the army's call-and-response cadence, but nevertheless the marching song reached his ears in the form of a low and driving hum. The young trainer tightened his grips on Pidgeot's reins, his head beginning to race as fast as his heart at the thought of the inevitable fight. From the special divot in the saddle, specially designed for the little Pokemon, Pikachu turned around and looked up at his trainer, ears dropping back against his skull and popping upright again as Charizard's growl filled the air with the smell of sulfur. Ash glanced at the dragon beside him, watching the Pokemon's lip curl in a snarl as it looked over the oncoming force. To the young trainer it seemed obvious that Charizard had already tired of hiding on the roof, and he reached over to put a hand on the Pokemon's side.
"Just keep it pent up a little while longer," he said, feeling Charizard's skin vibrating with anticipation.
As the trainers approaching Erika's battle line, shielded by their vanguard, went to their belts and grabbed a number of pokeballs in unison, the rider in the rear trotted around his companions and rode forward, seemingly without any fear of coming under attack. As white flashes came and went to announce the loosing of several Pokemon behind him, the rider quickened his pace and cantered up to within a stone's throw of Erika's line. He reared his mount around and stopped less than thirty meters from Onyx and straightened up in his saddle.
"His Honor, Mayor Vicar!" yelled the rider, his call reaching even Ash with relative clarity, "extends his most generous offer of quarter in exchange for surrender! Peacefully lay down your weapons, surrender your beasts, and offer up the would-be usurper to justice, and you may all go free!" A short few seconds went by as every sound faded. Even in the sprawling metropolis, only the whistling wind broke the silence.
"If you lose this battle!" shouted the messenger, "Vicar will show you no mercy! No quarter will be given and none of you spared!"
Ash's attention immediately shifted to Brock as the eldest Gym Leader present rode forward only a few steps and raised one hand high over his head. Reacting to the motion every man behind the barricade drew his bow and aimed out over Brock's head.
"If!" Brock bellowed, swiping his hand down.
The air filled with the biting twangs of dozens of heavy bows as a thicket of arrows raced skyward from Erika's troops. As she shafts arced over Brock's head, even passing high over Vicar's messenger, Ash heard the dull thuds of more than twenty crossbows beneath him. Mike's mercenaries, stationed in the apartment complexes on either side of the gym opened fire, every bolt screaming through the air towards the man on the Rapidash. The messenger raised his arm to shield himself as the bolts thumped into his armor and his mount, tearing the horse out from beneath him and knocking the armored man to the ground. Whinnying in blind panic the Rapidash kicked out for a moment, pierced by many of the projectiles and incapable of righting itself. The messenger staggered to his feet, two bolts protruding from the thorax of his armor, and turned to run for the vanguard, even as five dozen arrows rained down on the mercenaries. He collapsed before reaching the formation.
Many of the men within the vanguard rushed to form a rough shield-wall around the trainers, while some simply ducked behind their shields to save themselves. One of the mercenaries holding his shield above his head to protect the trainer behind him cried out in pain as the bodkin arrow ripped thought his shin and pinned him to the asphalt road. To that mercenary's left, another screamed as an arrow struck his shield. The shaft shattered like balsa but forced the hardened steel head of the projectile far enough through the man's defense to skewer his hand. All throughout the vanguard a handful of men went down under the fire as arrows found undefended targets or fell hard enough to penetrate the riot shields. To Ash's chagrin, none of the trainers fell.
"Froward!" one of the trainers from Vicar's host ordered. The men on the backs of the Pokemon charged, their mounts bolting forward in unison with the small host of the trainers' Pokemon. The small army of monsters, ranging from Nidorinos to Gravelers to Scythers kept pace with their respective owners as the vanguard quickly reformed themselves into a Testudo formation and began marching forward.
The radio in Ash's ear buzzed and Erika came over the line. "Strafe the regulars," she ordered calmly. "Fly low if you can to avoid any arrows."
The young Gym Leader acknowledged the order and turned to Charizard. "Here we go!" he barked, simultaneously tapping Pidgeot with his heels and rocketing skyward. "The shields!" Ash shouted to the red dragon, guiding Pidgeot with his knees more towards the charging Pokemon. "Pikachu, the Charmander!"
As Brock, flanked by Golem and Onyx charged forward Erika's guard reloaded and loosed another volley, this one arcing far higher. An instant before Brock met the enemy trainers, Pidgeot swooped down behind the charging mercenaries and Pikachu loosed a thunderbolt that nearly flash-boiled a small red Pokemon. Onyx barreled into oncoming force like an avalanche, either crushing or knocking aside any creature that failed to dodge out of its way. At the same time Ash pulled up and Pidgeot banked hard to the left over friendlier forces as he finished his first strafing run. A combination of satisfaction and regret flitted across the airborne trainer's face as Charizard flew low over the Testudo formation and lambasted it with a jet of flame.
As the of shell of shields wavered under the infernal assault and opened enough for several men inside to train their bows on Charizard, Mike's crossbowmen took the opportunity and loosed another volley of bolts. Many of the projectiles, all aimed expressly to find the formation's cracks, thudded into their soft targets and several men screamed. A few in the vanguard loosed a volley at Charizard while the rest hurriedly cast about to find the source of the direct fire. Charizard rolled out of the incoming volley's path and began his circle around for another pass.
Over the radio, Erika warned Ash of another volley coming his way at roughly the same moment that the first rain of arrows came crashing down on the distant body of mercenary regulars who'd since begun their advance. Moving out of the arc of fire Ash directed Pidgeot with his knees and she swooped down towards the center of the wide intersection where Onyx had set into the line of trainers and Brock engaged a man on a Tauros. The bird screeched and opened its talons, snatching a Raticate off the ground and reducing it to crimson ribbons in midair, but not before the massive rodent clawed at the flighted Pokemon's belly and drew blood. Pikachu in turn loosed a thunderbolt that knocked a pair of Mankey to the ground.
"Brock!" Ash barked into his radio. "Fall back to the barricades before you're overwhelmed!" He tapped a small button on the earpiece as Brock began an immediate but measured push backwards. "Alfred, you're targets are about to get a lot closer, make it count." The young Gym Leader banked on Pidgeot, rejoining Charizard as the Pokemon finished yet another strafing attack on the near-panicking formation of mercenary escorts. "Hit 'em hard," he ordered, pointing to the Testudo.
Charizard roared and belched a luminous cloud of sulfurous gas as it angled straight down at the shield wall, howling like a thunderstorm. It snapped its wings closed an instant before impact and opened all four of its clawed limbs as it landed directly on top of a pair of unlucky troopers. Ash watched with a kind of sickened fascination as the dragon completely cut loose on the formation. In the time it took the trainer's heart to beat once, Charizard had eviscerated the first two troopers and held a third in its jaws. The man in the dragons mouth screamed and choked as Charizard wrenched his head about. Ash couldn't turn away. He'd thought the human body stronger than that, but the man's midsection literately came apart in Charizard's mouth and began splattering all over the surrounding troopers.
Shaking his head to snap himself out of it, Ash wheeled Pidgeot around as the Vanguard broke and scattered, fleeing from Charizard without so much as firing a shot at it. Charizard turned to chase after them, cutting down another soldier without hesitation, but Ash's order caught the dragon's attention. The young trainer swooped down, lighted on the ground next to Charizard, and stepped down from Pidgeot. The bird breathed heavily through its mouth, the wound across its belly staining its feathers as it disappeared into the pokeball in Ash's outstretched hand. Ash jumped up on Charizard's back, fastening his legs into the sturdy leather saddle as another volley of arrows arced high overhead. Pikachu hopped up in his lap and Ash kicked Charizard's sides. Begrudgingly, the dragon jumped and pulled itself into the air as arrows rained down on the rapidly closing body of mercenary regulars.
"That's a good start," said Ash, lashing Pikachu to the saddle and surveying the battlefield.
Still slowly falling back to the barricade, Brock shouted an order to the soldiers behind the defenses. On cue the front ranks of men drew their swords and handed their bows off to women and younger children who promptly retreated. As the noncombatants retreated to the relative safety of the gym, Erika and her two escorts moved forward to join the front ranks. As Erika leaned forward in her seat and took a Yari from her bodyguard, the sword armed troops on the front line charged into the fray beside Brock, their battle cry reaching even Ash's ears while the remainder of the bow armed troops rushed for the apartment complexes' doors where Alfred's mercenaries hurried them inside.
The princess twirled her long spear as her Venusaur lumbered into the fight. From the creature's back, Erika ordered her Pokemon to charge and drove the blade of the weapon at a Scyther's thorax. The force behind the wickedly sharp spearhead split the insect's protective exoskeleton and sliced into the mushy tissue beyond. The Scyther hissed and it's face contorted. The furious Pokemon swept downwards with its bladed arms and cut the princess's spear in half. An instant later it was around the Venusaur's snapping bite, up on the Pokemon's back, and up directly in front of Erika, its arm pulled back to strike. Without taking her eyes from her opponent and acting in a single fluid motion, Erika grabbed the handle of the sword fixed to her Pokemon's side, and drew the weapon with a blinding swipe at the Scyther.
The insect still slashed at the woman, but the attack passed well over the princess's head as the Scyther tumbled, from the knees up at least, backwards to the ground. The creature's severed legs toppled from Venusaur's back as the heavy Pokemon stomped on the Scyther and reared about.
Reaching out with surprising dexterity, Brock's Golem locked one of its massive hands around the Mankey that had leapt up on its trainer's back. The boulder of a Pokemon closed its fist and filled the air with a sharp snap in the process. Brock took a deep but hurried breath and cast about. From Rhyhorn's back he could clearly see that all around him, the enemy trainers were slowly falling back, constantly under attack by Erika's soldiers.
Working in small but coordinated units of two and three, the warriors in the bronze masks would dodge quickly into and out of the fray. If one man was in danger of being overwhelmed he would immediately retreat, only to find another engagement or rejoin the previous one while his allies covered for him and screened his redeployment. Watching all this, Brock couldn't stop a small grin from spreading over his face, and then he looked up.
Hearing a shrill whistling that quickly grew into a deafening din, Brock glanced up at the sky. For an instant he couldn't understand why long streaks of the burnt orange clouds were flashing between black and red, but then the first wave of arrows came down on the battlefield. Brock instantly rolled off his Rhyhorn's back and ducked under the stocky Pokemon, but all around him screams erupted as both soldiers, trainers, and Pokemon alike were cut down by the rain of arrows.
Watching in horror from Charizard's back, Ash flew over the battlefield and put a hand up to his ear. "Alfred," he barked into the radio. "Your archers need to turn all their fire on the Rocket troops moving in from the north!" Ash looked down at the body of mercenaries that had halted only a hundred yards from where Erika's troops had engaged the enemy trainers. The regulars had quickly drawn up line after line of thin ranks that took advantage of the streets openness and begun volleying waves of arrows towards the barricades in front of the gym. "You've got to at least thin them out!"
"Can do," the mercenary answered. "Guess those bastards aren't worried about friendly fire." He began shouting orders that Ash couldn't make out over the radio before the signal cut out, and a moment later bolts and arrows began arcing from the windows and balconies of the apartment buildings towards the body of regulars.
Keeping his distance from the regulars and circling behind them as quickly as he could, Ash watched their slow and methodical advance. As the ranks of bowmen in the front ranks loosed their volley, those in the rear would walk forward and knock another arrow, simultaneously turning their bows skywards and awaiting their orders.
"Ash," Brock came over the radio as the young trainer managed to get behind the thick mass of troops. "We're getting smashed down here! Anything you can do?"
"Working on it," Ash grumbled.
Leaning forward and to one side, not wanting to crush Pikachu, Ash held Charizard's reins with one hand and pointed with his other. "Come at them from an angle," he ordered the dragon as Charizard began to dive. "Pikachu, try for a wide spread!"
Ash streaked through the air less than twenty feet above the heads of the men in the rear of the formation. As Charizard leveled off and crossed from one corner of the formation to its opposite the dragon opened its jaws and loosed a geyser of flame that washed over more than a dozen men, igniting them in an instant. At the same time, Pikachu crackled with energy and several troopers on the edges of Charizard's fiery swathe flashed white as lightning arced between them and the rodent on the dragon's back. As screams of terror and officers barking orders rose out of the formation, Ash directed Charizard higher into the air and put his hand up to the radio.
"Brock," he said, looking back at the troops below just in time to see several dozen of them training bows on him. "I've got their attention but it won't last. Get to cover and-" Ash cut himself off, pulling on Charizard's reins to roll the Pokemon to one side and out of the way of the missiles screaming towards them.
Ash reached out with a thought and contacted the ghost hiding in his backpack. Haunter, he whispered. You wanted to wreak some havoc and now's your chance... on my next pass I want you to find every officer you can and do whatever you want to them. The trainer shivered when Haunter's maniacal laughter answered his order.
"Done," Brock muttered into the radio. "Out." Surveying the scene around him the older Gym Leader spotted one of the many soldiers hit but not killed by an arrow. Brock ran to the man in the mask and checked the sky for another volley before slinging the wounded warrior's arm over his shoulder and getting him to his feet. "Come on, let's go," said Brock, half carrying the man back to the barricades as what few soldiers around him who weren't hit helped their compatriots to relative safety.
"Brock," Jennifer and her two Ninetales came running up to him, followed immediately by Misty and her Pokemon. "We need to get inside before they can hit us again."
"Can't do that," said the Gym Leader. "If we hole up inside then they'll just starve us out or set the whole greenhouse on fire. Take cover behind the barricades," he pointed to the small walls of thick wooden stakes. "If we can draw them into melee then the breaks in the barricades should work as choke points."
"You sure about that?" asked Jennifer, turning first to her Ninetales and then to Misty's Pokemon. One of the majestic white foxes sported a patch of bare and burned skin that ran the length of its body, and the other bore a set of shallow but long claw marks carved into its haunches. Arcanine, who stood unflinchingly beside Misty, despite the bolt lodged in its shoulder, pawed at the ground.
"We still have time," Misty said, almost too quietly to be heard over the shouting all around, "to get out of here that is."
Brock pressed his lips into a fine line. "I'd almost consider it," he said. "But the battle's started, and our names are attached to it. If we leave now Vicar wins for sure and he wouldn't let this go."
"We never should have agreed to this," Misty shook her head. She turned around and spotted Erika issuing orders to the troops. "Get them behind the barricades!" Misty shouted. "Get them ready for another volley!"
A veritable hail of arrows turned Ash away from his next attempt to streak over the mercenary troopers, but he got close enough to feel the ghostly presence in his backpack abandon its hiding spot and rush down into the ranks of soldiers. As Charizard carried Ash and Pikachu to a safe distance from the still advancing troops, Haunter floated invisibly to the extreme edge of the formation. Marking its target, a man in a much nicer uniform than everyone around him, the ghost skulked forward, just as the officer raised his hand and prepared to issue an order.
Drawing the gazes of everyone around him, the commander's order choked off as his head jerked back. A second later the wide-eyed officer's head wrenched around towards his now staring troopers and twisted itself completely free of his shoulders. Spine snapping, tendons tearing, and blood spraying, the commander's head spun completely around and dropped to the ground as his body remained standing in place. As the troopers around the decapitated officer watched in stark horror, some already throwing down their weapons to flee, their commander's body drew its sword, lunged forward, and impaled the nearest mercenary warrior. Both bodies dropped to the ground and immediately everyone around the corpses scattered.
Ash circled around the flank of the advancing column, taking advantage of the chaos Haunter had sewn. Swooping down, Charizard blasted a fleeing trooper and snatched up another. As Pikachu loosed a bolt of energy, frying another soldier, Charizard shredded the man in his claws and scattered the remains.
The dragon roared as a bolt ripped into its side. The missile stuck in the Pokemon's ribs and Charizard wavered for an instant. In response however it quickly located the terrified soldier, still holding his bow, swooped down, and caught the man up in his claws. Flying high over the column, as much to get away from the new volleys of arrows aimed their direction, Charizard released the screaming soldier more than ninety feet over the ground.
Back at the battlefield before the gym, Erika had sheltered her men either on the lower floors of the apartment buildings or behind the barricades. She waited with Jennifer and Misty, themselves taking shelter from the nearly continuous sprinkling of bolts, while Alfred and Erika's other bowmen continued to harass the troops still marching for the lines of wooden stakes. Brock, still atop his Rhyhorn, waited behind Onyx as the missile fire deflected harmlessly off the serpent's hide.
Erika, now on foot having recalled her wounded Venusaur, glanced out from behind the barricade and grimaced as the enemy troops closed to within thirty meters of the barricades. One final volley of arrows flew from the column of mercenaries, the steel tips glinting like fiery hail in the waning sunlight, and clattered with little effect around the entrenched defenders. The Gym Leader put a hand up to the radio in her ear.
"Alfred," she said. "How are you looking up there?"
"Damned handsome but just about out of ammunition, ma'am," said the mercenary.
"One more salvo, pick your targets" Erika ordered, "then get down here."
"Done and done ma'am," answered the merc.
Erika radioed Ash and demanded a report on his position and condition.
Looking down at the battlefield, then at the many holes torn by bolts and arrows through Charizard's wings, Ash turned back to the barricade as Vicar's mercenary army charged the line. "A bit of a rough spot," he answered, feeling his mount's wings straining to keep them aloft. "I'm heading for the barricade now." As he released the "talk" button, Erika's voice immediately came over the line, accompanied by a cacophony of screams and ringing.
"Don't bother!" Ash heard Erika yell. "My lookout just spotted another group of soldiers coming out of the alleys behind the mercenaries. If it's Mike's troops then I want you to meet up with them and lead the charge. If not then kill-" something cut her off.
A series of blinding flashes of light forced Misty to raise her arm in front of her face. Jennifer standing beside her did the same and both women looked up as soon as the light faded. They gasped as the battle all around them seemed to pause for an instant, all activity becoming unimportant as the lines of fighting men opened up in the streets surrounding the gym. Coalescing from a pair of tall pillars of white light, two behemoth shapes reared up. Each standing more than fifteen feet tall, the grotesque shapes resembled nothing more than a pair of Rhydon, but as Misty spotted the metal plates grafted to their skin like armor, the steel helmets permanently fixed to their heads, and the forked drill bits in place of their horns, she stumbled with realization.
"Oh shit," she muttered, remembering what just one of the creatures had been capable of at Mount Moon. The girl nervously put a hand on Arcanine's shoulder as the fiery Pokemon Ash had instructed to protect her spotted the Arbok rising out of its coils beside the two aberrant Pokemon. Misty's glance flitted to the purple serpent and again her stomach turned. As it uncoiled, all could see the Pokemon had undergone modification similar to the pair of Rhydon. It's hood had been amputated and replaced with a steel plate, sharpened on both ends to provide both a protective weapon and a solid defense, and several overlapping metal scales had been grafted to its belly. As the Arbok opened its mouth, spotting Arcanine and glaring at the Pokemon, its mouth opened wide enough to swallow the canine whole, revealing no fewer than a dozen long spikes protruding from its gums.
Ash looked to the rear of the mercenary army, and immediately spotted several trails of men lining up a hundred yards from the other soldiers. Praying that Charizard could at least get him that far, Ash angled down and landed on the eastern flank of the new arrivals, much to the shock of several of the soldiers. Casting about as a pair of crossbows trained on him, Ash spotted who he was looking for. Before the young trainer could say a word though Mike came bursting through the line of soldiers, barking orders for them to put their weapons down. He turned on Ash with a smirk.
"You ready to take the fight to these bastards?" asked the mercenary captain.
Ash nodded and reared Charizard around like a squat horse. "Lead the way."
"Alright! Alright!" Mike shouted, turning around and marching back into the center of the formation. "You sons a' bitches know the drill! Fire and advance! Fire and advance! On my order!" he raised his hand over his head, then brought it down in a fierce motion in the direction of Vicar's army. "March!"
Organized in three lines of twenty-five men, Mike's soldiers began marching forward with quick, short strides. As Ash followed on the left flank, the front line of soldiers raised crossbows and aimed into the massed enemy. Mike shouted an order and the front line stopped and fired. As the bolts traced a shallow arc over the seventy meters separating Mike's mercenaries from Team Rocket's, the trailing lines of soldiers advanced through their reloading companions and repeated the sequence. No sooner had the first volley reached the rear of Team Rocket's formation, then another wave of bolts had been fired along the same trajectory.
Riding on Charizard's back, Ash could clearly see the projectiles falling on Team Rocket's mercenaries, though he more or less ignored the sight as he continued advancing beside Mike's men. In the distance before the barricades, the young Gym Leader could make out three hulking shapes towering over the other soldiers. One he recognized as Onyx but not the other two, both of whom Ash could make out grappling with Brock's most formidable Pokemon.
Mike scanned the rear lines of Team Rocket's forces. He laughed aloud and pointed when he saw them still stumbling around in shock as he and his soldiers advanced to within forty yards of their position. Some had gotten hold of riot shields from the front ranks, but most were trying to hide behind the people around them or searching ranged weapons of their own.
"All aim!" Mike shouted to his men as they all stopped. With the speed of a well-oiled machine the front row of crossbowmen dropped prone in the street, the second row knelt behind them, and the third stood directly behind the second. Every soldier trained their weapons on Team Rocket's massed troops. Mike bellowed the order and all seventy-five soldiers fired. As the bolts tore through the enemy troops, the least defended troopers intentionally chosen by each attacking soldier, Mike drew a heavy flanged mace from his belt. "Charge!" shouted the mercenary captain.
Leaping to their feet and bolting forward, Mike's troops tossed aside their crossbows and drew maces on the run. Ash quickly undid the straps holding himself and Pikachu in the saddle and kicked Charizard's sides. The dragon roared and spat a hissing cloud of acrid fumes as it charged, instantly pulling ahead of the charging mercenaries as Ash grabbed Pikachu and jumped from the Pokemon's back to the street. Several of Team Rocket's mercenaries saw the charging dragon, threw down their shields, and scattered even before Charizard slammed into the front rank of soldiers.
Spitting flames and smoke, Charizard flew into a berserk rage and loosed scream after ear-splitting scream as it lashed out to shred any living being within reach of its claws or teeth. Taking advantage of the chaos, Mike's soldiers made sure to steer well clear of the Pokemon, and barreled into the opposing lines. Maces came down on helmets, shields, and unprotected skulls alike as Ash's heavily armed and armored allies smashed through the first rank of men. The charge sent shock waves rolling through Team Rocket's troops while Ash stayed near the back with Pikachu, holding the little Pokemon in the air to give it a better vantage point. Yellow bolts of energy arced between Pikachu and the Pokemon's chosen targets, sewing even more chaos among the flanked soldiers.
"Why would Vicar want soldiers like this at City Hall?" Ash wondered, watching Mike's men hack and smash their way into the much more lightly armored regulars. "Probably to protect his sorry ass," decided the trainer. He paused, feeling a tug at his mind and noting Haunter floating invisibly up beside him before disappearing into his backpack.
Spent, whispered the ghost.
The moment the ghost went inactive, a bright flash of white light behind Mike's line snared Ash's attention. The nebula of energy whirled into a vaguely man shaped creature, though the form stood nearly eight feet tall and sported four hulking arms. The glow faded and Ash stared across the short stretch of empty road separating him from the monstrous Machamp. The beast glared at Ash thorough the spherical camera sewn into the front of its skull, the crimson skin cracking as it flexed to accommodate the flitting motions of the device. A wheezing breath escaped the mouth full of wickedly sharp yellow teeth and the monster banged the metal blades fixed to its truncated wrists together.
"Charizard!" Ash shouted as Pikachu jumped to the ground in front of him.
At the barricades the battle had quickly segregated with the colossal Pokemon grappling and slugging it out in the center of the conflict, while the human troops engaged in vicious hand to hand combat all over the space before the gym. Onyx held the full attention of both Rhydon. Always managing to break their attempts to grapple it to the ground the serpent, less agile but more massive that its opponents, overpowered one Rhydon at a time with sheer bulk, knocking one to the ground, but having to reengage the other before any finishing blows could be struck.
A dozen meters away from the giants' battle, but still within the clearing in the battlefield, Arcanine and Jennifer's two Ninetales traded glancing blows and lightning fast feints and dodges with the cybernetic Arbok. The purple snake had grown no slower for its upgrades. If anything it had somehow managed to move even faster, quickly overwhelming Arcanine's defenses over and over, focusing on the canine to the complete exclusion of the Ninetales, only to be driven away by jets and fans of flame sprayed by the statuesque foxes.
Arbok whipped it's head around, jaws open to bite, and Arcanine flung itself backwards with blinding speed. The serpent's jaws snapped shut well clear of Arcanine's neck, but the snake's bladed hood passed through the canine's front paw like water, opening Arcanine's leg and splashing the ground with its hot blood. A blast of fire sent the snake scurrying for cover as both Ninetales flanked the monster and closed in around to protect Arcanine, but the massive dog only roared and charged forward. Either oblivious to or ignoring its gaping wound, Arcanine flung itself forward and slammed its shoulder into Arbok, knocking the serpent off balance. Recovering from the charge, Arcanine again jumped into the air and went for the serpent's throat.
Seeming to blink out of existence, Arbok vanished in a blur of speed and reappeared behind Arcanine. The serpent hissed and lunged for the Pokemon, ignoring the streams of fire deflecting off the back of its hood that wreathed the battle in flame and smoke. Arcanine spun and again bolted forward, moving too close for the lunging snake to bite, and snapped its jaws closed closed at the base of the Arbok's skull. The snake reared back but Arcanine held tight, jerking its body forward and attaching itself to the serpent. Claw and fang ground and shrieked against steel scales, but Arcanine's crushing bite deformed and punctured the snake's defenses and a blast of flame bolted out from between the canine's teeth.
Shaking its head and blasting fire into the wound, Arcanine tried to tear Arbok's head free of its body, but the snake coiled up on itself and wrapped around the canine, fighting to strangle the life from it. As the two old enemies fought grappling, biting, tearing, and crushing one another, Misty and Jennifer stood in the no man's land between the dueling Pokemon and clashing armies. Protected by Misty's hovering Staryu and Starmie and left alone by both Team Rocket's regulars and Erika's warriors they scanned the ranks of soldiers surrounding them.
"There," Misty shouted over the roar of the battle, pointing across the arena and grabbing Jennifer's arm. "There's one," she motioned to a soldier in an unassuming figure in a sage colored cloak. Holding a small orb in one hand and watching the Pokemon dueling in the center of the fight, the figure stood out in the chaos.
Jennifer followed Misty's gesture, staring across the battlefield. Fingering the composite bowstring and the knocked arrow at her left hand, she spotted the mark and raised the weapon. Drawing the arrow back to her lip and releasing it without a breath or a word, she traced the projectile's path and watched as the figure in the cloak tried to dodge to one side a moment too late. The long arrow ripped into the man's chest and he fell backwards with a gasp. When the man's death did nothing to disrupt and of the enemy Pokemon in the center of the killing field Misty cursed.
"They're not just going to drop everything and run because their trainer's dead," Jennifer said. "Keep looking."
Misty focused on scanning the field for anyone not engaged in combat, or whom the other Team Rocket regulars seemed intent on screening. Watching as both sides tore at one another among the barricades, one man attacking another only to be hacked at by a third and a fourth until someone else could join the fray made Misty's stomach turn. The armor, thought the trainer, almost made it worse. Each soldier wore something to protect himself, and Erika's warriors wore more than anyone else, meaning that no one ever went down in just one blow. Often to kill an opponent it took one trooper throwing down his weapon and wrestling another man to a standstill so his companions could hack him to pieces, and no one ever slew anyone else without absorbing damage himself. Amidst the blood and the frenzy of the two armies, the roars of the Pokemon seemed an unimpressive display.
"I'm out," Jennifer hissed as he last arrow thudded into the thigh of a soldier across the battlefield.
"See about falling back ," said Misty, nodding towards the battle between Arcanine and Arbok. The combatants, both spattered in their own and their enemy's blood, continued to tear into each other while a pair of exhausted Ninetales observed from the flanks. "Try to get a few arrows."
Jennifer nodded and disappeared back into the ranks of Erika's and Alfred's soldiers. Standing near the front of the battle and making every effort to stay on the friendly side of the ever undulating line, Misty continued scanning the opposing side for trainers. Her two hovering Pokemon remained in front of her, spinning up into the air and destroying the occasional arrow loosed by Team Rocket's soldiers, though she made a point to keep Staryu and Starmie close.
"Misty," a feminine voice called from behind.
"What is it?" Misty turned around, spotting the soldier in the segmented armor and bronze mask immediately.
"Nothing," said the warrior. In a flash the figure lunged forward with drove her short spear into Misty's stomach. Wrenching the weapon to one side, the woman in the armor threw a pokeball to the ground, splitting it open in a brilliant flash of light. "I just wanted you to see it coming," said Jessie, reaching up and pulling the mask away from her face, exposing the sadistic sneer beneath.
Eyes wide and face awash with shock, Misty grabbed hold of the spear protruding from her abdomen as her orange shirt turned red around the wound. She could only stare at the wild glare in Jessie's eyes as a tall Machoke in a heavy chainmail shirt leapt out of the burst of light. Lashing out like a viper, the Machoke grabbed Starmie by one of its legs and swung down, smashing the Pokemon into the ground as Jessie stepped forward and shoved harder. As the spear burst out Misty's back, the Team Rocket agent put her mouth right by the impaled girl's ear.
"Don't feel bad," said the woman, twisting the spear as Misty's knees started to tremble. Around them, more screams broke out as people saw the enemy Pokemon in their midst. The Machamp stomped the stunned Starmie, shattering the red orb in its center and grinding the twitching Pokemon into the pavement. "Everybody dies sooner or later." She let go of the spear and stepped back as the Machoke smashed its fist down on a soldier's helmet, dropping him instantly.
Misty opened her mouth to speak, but the words gagged and died in her throat. The blood running down her stomach and legs began to pool on the ground at her feet. Jesse laughed once and reached to the bronze mask hanging by a strap beside her face. Fastening it back to conceal her identity, her eyes lit up as Misty went to her knees. The girl's hand twitched at the spear in her stomach, unable to grab it for the pain. Jesse took a minute to look down at her before turning around.
Glancing down at one of the dead men around her as the armored Machoke rampaged through Erika's ranks, Misty saw the sword still clenched in its owner's hand. As Jessie reached to her belt and grabbed another pokeball, Misty dropped to the ground on her side, reaching for the dad man's weapon and prying it from his fingers. She bit her lip so hard it drew blood as her face contorted with effort, but she pulled the sword free of the corpse's fingers and forced herself with a silent heave back to her knees, the exertion carving deep lines in her features.
As Jessie reached out to casually drop the pokeball, she screamed and her fingers locked around the little orb. Misty, still on her knees, ripped the sword out of Jessie's calf and stabbed again, catching the woman in the back of her knee and driving the tip of the blade completely through her leg. Jessie went down to one knee and tried to turn around. Still working around the spear shoved clean through her, crying now and screaming, Misty cut the sword from loose from Jessie's leg, nearly severing the limb at the knee, and lunged. The eyes behind the bronze mask went wide as the sword sliced through the leather guard beneath the helmet and drove into Jessie's throat beyond. Blood ran down the blade of the weapon like water from a straw and splattered on the ground below.
Misty took a hissing breath, tears streaming down her face as she twisted the blade and pushed herself even closer. She leaned as close as she could and growled in Jessie's ear. "Everybody dies," she said, falling forward and pulling both the sword and Jessie down with her. Collapsing in a heap, further twisting the spear in her stomach, Misty tried to shift onto her back, but only managed to further roll around on the crimson street. The rough pavement tore at her cheek and shoulder as the girl desperately tried to move away, only able to push herself with one leg at a time.
On the opposite side of the battlefield, Ash jumped back to avoid the stumbling Machamp. The mutilated Pokemon took heavy steps forward, reaching up with all four arms in a futile attempt to pry Charizard loose from its back. Charizard however remained lashed to the aberration's torso, his bottom set of claws dug in up to the cuticles in the Machamp's lower back and his front claws tearing at the Pokemon's chest like butcher's knives, carving away strips and hunks of flesh and exposing the Pokemon's ribcage to the open air. The dragon's fangs remained imbedded in the Machamp's neck, his elongated head twisting and further tearing open the puncture wounds until finally the four-armed Pokemon collapsed beneath Charizard's assault.
The dragon, breath a mix of sulfurous gas and smoke, tore its mouth away from the Machamp's neck and arched its head back, filling the air with a savage roar that echoed off the sides of the buildings lining the streets. Twenty feet away Ash's whole frame shook with the sound and he pressed his palms over his ears, unable to block out the ear-splitting cry. As the dragon, hide covered in long lacerations, stepped away from the Machamp's corpse and turned back to the battle behind it, Ash took a deep breath and surveyed the scene.
Towards the center of the battlefield he saw one of the monstrous Rhydon collapse as Onyx yanked its bladed tail from the creature's frame. Ash took another hard breath and grabbed Pikachu, running off towards the main battle and coming up behind the loose line of Mike's mercenaries. From there he caught glimpses of the battling Pokemon in the center.
"Oh thank god," he muttered, seeing a battered Arcanine standing over the corpse of a long purple serpent.
As the second Rhydon disappeared in a flash of white light, cries erupted from all over the battlefield. Mercenaries wearing Mayor Vicar's colors were throwing down their weapons. Dozens scattered for the alleys along the street and those nearer Erika's forces simply threw up their hands or dropped face down to the ground. In a matter of seconds, Team Rocket's army dissolved and either gave themselves up or ran for their lives.
SC
"Brought you a present," said Mike, wearing a wide grin. "That's why I was a little late." The captain turned and raised one hand as two of his men carried over a tall man wearing a black bag over his head. As the men forced the captive to his knees in front of Erika, Mike reached over and whipped the bag off the man's head. "Turns out the good mayor wanted us to protect him while he sent the police off to fight you."
Looking down at the mayor as he knelt with his hands tied behind his back and a thin line of blood dripping down his face from a gash above his eyebrow, Erika subdued a smirk. She turned to Mike and inclined her head a little.
"Well this saves me a lot of trouble," she said. "Thank you."
"Well I did have to take quite the detour to get him here alive for you and still make it on time for the fight," said the captain. "Wasn't easy," the grin didn't fade from his face.
"I'll see to it that you're compensated accordingly," said the princess, not taking her eyes off Vicar as the gagged man stared up at her. "Now the biggest question is what do I do with the likes of you?"
Mike cleared his throat and Erika glanced his direction. "If I may be so bold ma'am," said the mercenary. He gestured across the "T" intersection before the gym. To push back the night, Erika's men had brought out large floodlights and rigged them up to generators. Inside the circle of barricades a dozen of Erika's remaining guards stood watch over more than fifty prisoners captured during the fight, while the remainder of the princess's and the mercenary's troops had begun searching the surrounding streets for survivors and bodies. Several locals had come out of hiding and begun helping clean up the scene, donating carts, bedsheets, and manpower to the effort of rounding up the casualties.
"There's been a lot of damage done tonight, so I say you make an example of this guy," said Mike, nonchalantly reaching up to push his damaged pauldron back up his shoulder. Vicar tried to turn to the captain, but the strong hands of the soldiers at his sides held him in place. "Publicly humiliate him, then lock the sap in the deepest dungeon you can find so you don't turn him into a martyr. You might even offer his men amnesty, tell 'em they can avoid that fate if they'll work for you."
Erika shrugged, making her armor clink. "That's a decent idea. I'll take it under consideration. In the meantime, if you'll excuse me," she turned back to the entrance of the gym, "I'm very tired so I'll wish you all a pleasant night. Do whatever you feel is necessary with that..." she gestured to Vicar, before turning around and walking for the gym.
"What do you want done with the dead, ma'am?" the captain called after the princess.
"Burn them," said Erika, not bothering to turn around, "unless you'd rather we all be dead of disease in a week."
Mike sighed and looked between his men and their prisoner. "Bag him," said the captain, "and find a place to put him until we can figure something out."
Walking for the line of barricades Mike passed by a few soldiers, volunteers from both sides, carrying men on stretchers and bedsheets towards the gym. In the hour since the battle had ended the distinctions between friend and foe so clearly drawn at the beginning of the conflict had disintegrated and everyone worked to gather up the wounded and the dead. Spotting the massive orange canine immediately, Mike strode up to Ash who sat atop the big Pokemon and greeted the trainer.
"Congratulations," said the mercenary, voice still upbeat. "This is a win any way you slice it. Good job."
Face set like stone, eyes darting from one body on the ground to the next, Ash ignored the comment. "I can't find Misty," he said, leaning back to keep his balance as Arcanine leaned down to sniff at the ground. "She wasn't wearing my armor," he muttered. "I told her to wear my fucking armor..."
Mike's face instantly fell, his high spirits disappearing behind the mask he'd worn into the fight. He cast about at the bodies, not missing that many were too far gone to even identify by their uniform, having had their protective armor ripped apart by a Pokemon trying to get at the soft target inside the shell. Here on this section of the battlefield, where a hostile Machamp had come out of nowhere and wreaked havoc before five men had finally brought it down, neither Ash nor the mercenary saw any survivors.
"So where's your friend," asked the captain, "the other Gym Leader."
"Went to get his leg looked at," Ash answered curtly. "
Taking a heavy breath of the cool night air, Ash dismounted Arcanine and knelt down by a figure wearing the armor of Erika's guard. He rolled the still body over and, upon seeing the closed eyes behind the mask, pushed himself up to his knees, still scanning the bodies as Mike began walking from cadaver to cadaver and checking for survivors. Stopping where a pair of soldiers, ostensibly Team Rocket's troopers, had fallen in a heap, Ash reached and grabbed one of the two men by his shoulders and dragged him out to more open ground. Returning to the second dead trooper and the body he could now see underneath, Ash's eyes went wide and he grabbed the other soldier and heaved the corpse away.
"Misty!" he barked, recognizing the girl's face even in the poor lighting. He slipped one arm behind her back and held her up, his breath hissing to a stop when her head fell back and her eyes remained only half-open. Ash awkwardly tried to hold her head upright as he knelt and stared down at her. "Misty," he said again, voice wavering. "Wake up, wake up. I'm here," he fired off. "I said I'm here," the young trainer said again when the girl didn't answer.
Leaning forward and putting his ear directly beside Misty's mouth, Ash went absolutely silent as Mike appeared behind him. The mercenary's face remained devoid of any telling emotion as he surveyed the scene. His eyes did however seem to grow softer when he saw the jagged stab wound punched fully through the girl's unmoving abdomen.
Ash tried to take a breath, but his chest refused to move. The trainer felt his muscles lock up and his head grow light, hearing nothing from the body in his arms. "Please," he whispered, a desperate smile flitting across his face an instant before his features fell and darkened. "Not like this," he said, barely hearing his own voice. "Not like this."
Kneeling down beside the pair, Mike waited for a moment as Ash remained perfectly still. Without warning, the trainer sucked in a gasping breath and pulled the body in his arms into a tight embrace. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and every muscle in his frame began to shiver. Ash bit his lip and screwed his eyes shut. After a moment Arcanine took a few steps closer to the scene, though both he and the Pikachu on his back remained at a distance.
"I'm sorry," Ash choked quietly, the words sticking in his throat. "I didn't want this. I swear I didn't."
Tears found their way out of the corners of Ash's eyes and dripped onto Misty's stained shirt as a cool wind blew in from the west, filling the dry air suddenly with the scent of rain. Several minutes ticked by as Ash clutched at the girl in his arms until gradually his grip loosened and he lowered her back down to look at her. Teeth clenched, wet lines running down his face, Ash dropped his head and sat still for a while longer until a hand on his shoulder made him look up.
The mercenary captain stood over the young trainer. "I'll help you carry her back," he said, pulling on Ash's shoulder only just enough to nudge him. "We should go."
Ash took another look at Misty, his face drawn tight, and closed his eyes. Setting her down and standing up, the young trainer hung his head and forced himself to walk to his Pokemon. Still shaking and pressing his lips tightly together he ran a hand into Arcanine's thick mane, not really listening as the massive canine whimpered and yipped quietly. Pikachu walked up Arcanine's back to Ash and nudged him with his nose, but Ash only stood there, as still as any of the bodies on the ground until he leaned forward and rested his forehead against Arcanine's. He couldn't hold back any longer, and the young trainer began to cry.