While Mikail was making sure the house was tidy for one last time, his parents arrived at Rota City per registered teleportation and unhurriedly made their way to their new home on foot. They were talking with each other and the atmosphere was a bit subdued.
*sigh*
"We're going to see our greatest treasure in a few minutes, and I," Edward slightly shook his head before he continued, "no, we definitely need the time we are going to spend with him to recover from what happened."
He grimaced when he mentioned the tide they were involved in a week ago. He had been called in for an emergency that happened near them while they were traveling to Iris City.
As a registered Expert-class trainer he was obliged to comply, and he couldn't get Arya to wait for him in the PokeCenter he received the summon in.
She insisted on following him citing that the only reason she wasn't an Expert-class trainer yet was that she was missing two more Badges, which was true so she followed him to Brighton Town, the target of the emergency mission.
*sob*
Arya released a short sob that interrupted his musing. They still hadn't fully recovered from the loss they experienced.
"My sweet baby boy, we haven't told him about what happened yet, and it's not like we can hide what happened from him. He's bound to notice their absence." Arya said in a sad tone, her eyes glistening with unshed tears at the reminder of what they lost.
"We're going to tell him the truth. He's going to be an official trainer in the future, and he will have to go through similar events when that happens, so it's better to be open about it right now to show him what can happen at any time during our journeys.
I know he has gone out exploring, but as far as I know, he has never seen or participated in a tide, so learning about our experience and seeing the consequences first hand will make sure he doesn't underestimate them." Edward replied with a slightly grim but determined tone.
What happened that day was a sad event for them both.
Rangers had noticed a C(+)-grade Tide approaching Brighton Town, which was why the emergency mission had been issued. C(+) meant that the tide-leader and several of the sub-leader were at the Gold stage.
They arrived roughly before the tide did and were quickly integrated into the Town defenses. Thanks to reports from the scouts they got rough estimations on the number of Pokemon and the most common species. They used the information to make preliminary plans and after the tide arrived most of the information proved to be true.
The tide leader was a (high) gold-stage Lickilicky, and there was another Lickilicky at the (mid) gold stage among its personal group along roughly 500 Lickitung.
There were 8 more sub-leaders under the Lickilicky. The strongest among the sub-leaders was a (high) gold-stage Dodrio leading another (mid) gold-stage Dodrio along with roughly 1000 Dodrio and Doduo.
Next up was a (mid) gold-stage Raticate that commanded the largest group with around 6000 Raticate and Rattata. A (mid) gold-stage Vileplume leading more than 3000 Gloom and Oddish moved concurrently with a (mid) gold-stage Weezing leading about 600 Weezing and Koffing.
Two (mid) gold-stage Fearow jointly led a flock of nearly 2000 Fearow and Spearow. A (mid) gold-stage Dugtrio led a labour of 800 Dugtrio and Diglett. Finally, there was a (mid) gold-stage Quagsire leading 600 Quagsire and Wooper.
All in all, there were over 14.500 Pokemon in the tide with 11 confirmed gold stage Pokemon with more probably hiding. When the confrontation began most of the traps they had dug got solved by the Dugtrio and Quagsire, but they still managed to reduce their number by a hundred or two with them.
The Fearow group was dealt with by the defenders flying type along with some electric types that tried to snipe them with electric moves from the wall whenever they broke through the flying blockade.
Edward's Pidgeot, Skye, and his Crobat, Duke helped the air battle. Arya's Fearow had to stay inside his Pokeball since he could have been confused with the enemy.
Despite there being a few Pokemon among the defenders that were stronger than the assailants, they were vastly outnumbered so the Fearow did not lose out, at least quickly, despite being weaker.
Edward couldn't really keep up with what was happening up there at the time but he had been confident that his two flying types would at least survive since they were both at the (high) gold stage.
An hour into the tide, the assailants had lost roughly a fifth of their number while more than 400 defenders had lost their lives, Pokemon, and humans combined, despite them having a wall. Unfortunately, the dead tide members created a corpse ramp that opened the way to the way for the tide.
The defenders tried to burn down the corpses to destroy the ramp, but it looked like there were some pretty smart commanders among the attacking Pokemon because the Dugtrio used Mud-Slap, while the Quagsire used Water Gun to not only put out the fire but also to make use of it to make the ramp sturdier and easier to walk on.
Using the dried mud/corpse ramp they stormed the wall turning the previous "siege" into a direct confrontation. Seeing the situation, the defense commander gave the signal and the available Expert-class trainers along with a contingent of Senior-class trainers fought their way towards the leaders that had been staying at the back.
The seniors and some of the weaker experts kept the weaklings from the stronger experts so that they could focus on reaching and battling the leaders.
The group split into 6 once they reached the back, and Edward, as well as Arya, were among the ones targeting the Lickilicky and the Raticate boss along with roughly 500 of his line that he kept back.
Once the battle at the back began they called all their Pokemon out and the fighting that was going on was brutal. Titania and Titan were fighting the tide boss along with his deputy, while some other kept tide members from interfering.
Unfortunately, they were pretty equal. Their other Pokemon were fighting as well and the situation was pretty chaotic. Arya and Edward were moving close to each other and they kept a few Pokemon at their side.
Arya had her Butterfree and Vileplume by her side, while Edward had his Rhydon, Butterfree, and Lombre by his side. Rhydon was at the (mid) gold stage, the two Butterfree were at the (low) gold stage, while Vileplume and Lombre were both at the (mid) silver stage, so the pair should have definitely been safe.
However, they were ambushed. Not only that both were ambushed simultaneously by 3 (low) gold-stage Raticate and 5 (high) silver-stage Raticate. 2 of the silver Raticate jumped Vibra/Rhydon to distract her, 2 silver Raticate jumped Cyan/Butterfree, while one gold Raticate jumped Edward trying to rip out his throat with a Hyper Fang.
The attack was so sudden that Lono/Lombre, the only one of his Pokemon that was not busy fending off attackers, only had time to jump in front of Edward to intercept the Raticate. It got badly hurt but managed to fend off the golden Raticate long enough for Vibra to kill her assailants and to attack the golden one.
However, by that time Lono/Lombre was extremely hurt, and Edward recalled him while putting the Pokeball into stasis mode. Cyan managed to take out his two Raticate as well while Vibra in her fury ripped the golden Raticate apart.
Edward quickly send Cyan to support Arya who had to fend off attackers as well, while Vibra stayed by his side. The situation on her side was even worse than on his. So Cyan had to go ahead because he was faster than them, while they followed behind.
Arya's side had been ambushed by 2 gold-stage Raticate and the final silver one. Specifically, the silver Raticate attacked Sunny/Vileplume, one golden Raticate jumped Emerald/Butterfree, and the final golden one jumped Arya aiming at her throat with a Hyper Fang as well.
Seeing the situation Sunny ignored his attacker and directly moved in front of Arya and suffered not only the Hyper Fang in her stead but also got bit into the side by the silver one he ignored. Both attacks ripped out chunks of his body.
The brave guy used his body to stand against the assault of two Raticate stronger than him, one even at the gold stage, long enough for Emerald to get rid of her foe. She quickly attacked the gold Raticate leaving only the silver one to him, but by that time he was missing multiple chunks and was heavily bleeding.
Nonetheless, he kept it away from Arya until Cyan arrived. Once that happened, he looked at Arya, released a happy smile seeing that she was safe, and fell over.
Arya began crying when that happened and ran to his body. She felt their bond snap after he fell, which meant that he unlike Lono had died. The brave Vileplume had fought way over his limits while defending her, stubbornly refusing to die despite accruing horrendous wounds and losing more blood than believable.
So, once he saw that Arya was safe, he relaxed and the unbelievable determination that was keeping him "alive" vanished. He succumbed to his wound the very moment that happened.
When Edward arrived by her side, Arya held Sunny's dead body in her arms and repeatedly muttered "Sunny, no" and "you can't be dead". Edward was heartbroken upon seeing the scene and hugged his wife, while Vibra watched over them.
She was quickly joined by Emerald and Cyan after they killed the Raticate. The two were both sad about the situation as well. Arya, who looked at Edward when she felt someone hug her released a sad loud wail, that Titan and Titania both heard.
They recognized her voice and went berserk, wanting to get rid of their foe to return to their partner's side. Both knew that the whole situation would fall apart if they just left their opponents.
Since they could feel that Edward and Arya were alive they tried to quickly get rid of the Lickilicky to check why Arya had released that wail. Stimulated by the fight and the emotional rush he was experiencing Titan managed to break through to the (low) dark gold stage.
Afterward, he was able to kill the tide leader and helped Titania finish off her foe as well. The tide Pokemon that witnessed that began to falter, and Titan, as well as Titania, went to their partner's side.
When they saw Sunny's corpse and heard about Lono's critical situation they got furious. Shortly after the two attacked the Raticate leader and killed him along with his 3 bodyguards, which caused a mass retreat among the surviving Rattata-line members and the Lickitung.
Their furious group went to the next group fighting against one of the sub-leaders, the Dodrio, and made quick work of the strongest ones. This led to a mass retreat of the surviving tide Pokemon.
A bit more than 9000 wild Pokemon died in that tide, along with 1056 defender casualties. 817 of those were Pokemon, while 239 were trainers. One of those Pokemon casualties was Sunny, while another was Lono. After they had won Edward handed over Lono's ball to the PokeCenter and he was released from stasis to receive treatment.
Unfortunately, he didn't make it because his wounds were too heavy and he had lost too much blood. Arya and Edward both put their bodies in coffins which they stored in their bags so that they could bury them on their property.
The fact that they had the biggest contribution to the victory over the tide was noted, and they received the corresponding contribution points, but neither could really celebrate the point windfall at the time.
Edward stopped from reminiscing about the events that were the reason for their current conversation.
"We'll tell him about the tide and everything tomorrow. After that, we can dig their graves." Edward finished his answer.
"Okay," Arya answered him in a slightly subdued tone.
"Com'on, we're going to see our boy. Let's try to not make him suspicious or sadder than necessary, alright. Try to be strong. They gave their lives for us and I'm sure they wouldn't want us to keep moping around. We shall never forget their sacrifice, but life has to go on." Edward tried to calm his wife.
"Hmm." Arya agreed wordlessly and tried to compose herself. "You're right, I can't greet my baby with a sad and teary face. That wouldn't be good, he could blame you for making me sad." She said after calming down some more.
Edward smiled a bit at her attempt at relieving the sad air. It took them roughly 45 minutes to arrive at their home and they used the time to completely compose themself and talk about other happier things that happened during their journey.
They looked one last time at each other with slight smiles, before they rang the doorbell.
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