We were severely outnumbered.
I don't know how long it had been since the first wave of Team Aqua members clashed with the front line of our forces, but it felt like an eternity for me.
Luckily for the temporary defense force that the remaining LSDF officers had hastily organised, the place we had positioned ourselves to fight the aquas is way narrower than the other streets of Lilycove. It is also the only invasion route to take if any invading forces ever attacked Lilycove, something I realised Hoenn's founders must have planned when they built Lilycove City. Thus, we can still hold them off despite the difference in numbers. The only ones who can go past this route are those who can fly through the air with flying types, but some of us had that covered with our pokemons with flight capabilities. Team Aqua's salamence is still fighting with the garchomp, and I cannot help but feel grateful to whoever garchomp's trainer is. If salamence was allowed to fire off a second volley of Draco Meteor, we are all toast. Snap is in the air, taking down Team Aqua's flocks of wingulls and pelippers. They have a few skarmorys as well, which Snap have no problem burning them into a crisp with Flamethrower. Individually, most of Team Aqua's pokemons do not pose a threat to us. The problem is that they made up their lack of quality with quantity. Fortunately, most of the LSDF and Rangers who were with us are at least Elite level in strength, and were instrumental in holding the last act of defense Lilycove is putting up.
That doesn't change the fact that we were really severely outnumbered, and we will be overrun if help doesn't arrive soon.
The invasion brought out the best and worst of both humans and pokemons. I have to watch as my pokemons, who are usually caring, lovable creatures, bring out their violent and monstrous sides. Bigblue, my goofy, happy-go-lucky Bigblue, took on a crawdaunt, gripped its pincers and ripped it out of its body through sheer strength. It used crawdaunt's dismembered limb as a hammer to slam crawdaunt into the ground before caving its head in with a Hammer Arm, killing it instantly. Lily, my quiet Lily who usually preferred to sway in the sun than to do anything else, single-handedly took on a pack of mightyenas and wrapped a tentacle around each of their necks before forcefully snapping it, ending them all at once. I also saw how she worked in tandem with Bigblue to raise spikes of stones from the ground and impaled both Team Aqua members and their pokemons in a well-timed attack. It's brutal. I never wanted to see my gentle Lily forced to act in this manner.
My Flamel, my starter that has been by my side ever since my ninth birthday stomped and cracked the heads of fallen aquas and their pokemons. He burnt enemies that got too close to him and Dolly. He disrupted any of their attacks and broke through their ranks by charging in before getting back out, allowing the remaining LSDF and Rangers to go in for the kill. Dolly, my cheerful Dolly who wanted nothing more than companionship, fully embraced her vicious nature as a ghost as she assassinated aquas and their pokemons alike. She stabbed them from behind, blast them with over-powered attacks, and even ripped some of them from the inside out in a violent display of gore and blood. She helped protect Flamel whenever he charged through the ranks of Team Aqua forces, and had to save him a few times with Shadow Sneak's teleportation to ensure that they both stay alive.
Snap had no problems letting his inner dragon out. My adorable Snap, who only wanted the occasional challenging battles and a nice sand bath, blasted flocks of flying pokemons that Team Aqua had let out. He slashed them apart, cooked them alive, or simply blasted them into unrecognisable pieces of meat. I forbade the use of Draco Meteor unless absolutely necessary, it will leave him too weak to move for a moment after using it, which is something too dangerous to be exposed to in a warzone.
My remaining five pokemon stayed around me. Kel prepared invisible blades of Razor Winds that she used as traps. Any of our enemies who were lucky enough to get past our front lines had their throats slit by Razor Winds. Kratos helped to shield any stray attacks in our direction with applications of Focus Rock and moved any injured members in the temporary defense force away from the fighting with Rock Surf. Rena helped him in his endeavour while using her Psychic powers to ward off attacks, establishing a one-way telepathic link for me to contact the entire team to help coordinate or warn them from attacks they are not aware of. Toothless sniped targets with his flames from where he is at the back of the lines, or whichever flying type pokemons that belonged to Team Aqua if they got too close to us. Fuzzy stayed by me as he supported the team with Thunder Waves and Shock Waves, prioritising accuracy over power, aiming to provide support by paralysing our foes rather than take them out in powerful blasts so that he can last longer in fights. He is the one positioned closest to me, and had to jumped in harm's way to protect me when a poochyena managed to sneak past our defenses and tried to maul me. Fuzzy blocked it off with a Protect, before tearing its throat out with a Hyper Fang. Toothless re-positioned himself closer to me after that together with Kel, as we tried to help defend Lilycove, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
I also saw the best in humans and pokemons that was brought out in the face of crisis. I saw trainers instructing their pokemons to help save pokemons belonging to our allies. I saw trainers helping each other to stand and maintain our defenses. I even saw one trainer throwing his body towards a snarling mightyena and shoved it off a fallen trainer from our side, saving his life just as Officer Haley's ninetales destroyed the mightyena with a Flamethrower. I saw my pokemons defending other pokemons on our side from potentially fatal injuries as they helped defend them as well. Several of the weaker pokemons we have on hand joined Kratos and Rena in pulling our injured members away from the fight so that they have time to heal or to seek shelter when they are too injured to be of any help. There were other inexperienced trainers, and we helped each other in directing the rescue operations with our pokemons so that we can minimise our casualties after this war is over.
Is this how the warring states era was like? Is this how life was in the pokemon world before the PWL was founded? God, I can't imagine it.
Things started to look better for a while as Lilycove's defenders held their ground and we actually managed to slowly push back Team Aqua's assault. The number of casualties on our side started to lessen a little. Team Aqua tend to use packs of pokemons from the same species, like mightyenas, golbats, and pelippers. They probably injected their pokemons with some sort of drug. Most of them were feral and uncontrollable, their eyes were bloodshot as they tried to take us down without caring about their own lives. We had no choice but to put them down for good. Hope welled up slowly in us as we gradually thinned out Team Aqua's numbers. We can do this. There's hope to hold out until reinforcements from the Hoenn League arrived. I myself had sent a call to Wallace, and I'm sure that someone among the temporary defense force had sent word out to someone somewhere before the fight officially started.
A sudden explosion can be seen at the front lines, and my view was blocked out due to the mayhem happening. Not a second later, trainers and pokemons from our side were violently thrown to the side and I could only pray that they are still alive.
Our line of defense had been breached.
A machamp made its presence known as it beats its chest and roared its challenge to the sky. It charged into our defense line and knocked anyone away that tried to intercept it through sheer physical strength. More Team Aqua members appeared from the beach and released more pokemon out, many of them fully evolved, as they renewed their assault on us once more.
Despite the breach, many of our remaining allies regrouped and formed back the defense line. I spotted Bigblue taking on 3 crawdaunts at once as he expertly defended himself and returned devastating attacks of his own. Lily reshaped the entire area around her using her own powers, the ground shot rock spikes up and impaled many of Team Aqua members and their pokemon. Team Aqua finally saw her as a threat and attempted to finish her, but Lily healed faster than what they can dish out, and finished them instead. Some of her surrounding allies recognised the importance of the defensive powers that Lily wielded, and helped to protect her as Lily killed our enemies en masse.
Lily's the best defensive battler in our team for a damn good reason.
The opponents in the sky had multiplied as Snap briefly healed himself with Roost, before charging into the fray once again. The garchomp from earlier joined him, and I guessed that it had probably killed the salamence a while ago. The two dragons led our aerial forces, aiming to decimate our foes for us to gain aerial superiority. Thankfully, the underground of Lilycove is too hard for any pokemon to dig through, so we would not need to defend ourselves from an ambush from underground.
Team Aqua's machamp still posed a problem to us. The machamp was within our defenses as it kept charging ahead, not stopping until it reached the very end of our forces. I saw Lily trying to grab it with its tentacles, but she got intercepted and was forced to deal with a bunch of spheals. Bigblue is still fighting off a pack of crawdaunts. I tried to see if there was anyone else that was both capable of stopping the machamp and did not have their hands full.
There were none.
I looked back at the machamp as it continued its charge, batting trainers and pokemons aside. We will all be destroyed by him at this rate.
'Mistress! This four-armed creature is aiming for the shelters!'
I analysed machamp's projected route if it was to continue its charge. Fuck. Rena's right. If machamp got past us, the defenseless citizens that we were trying to protect will be slaughtered like helpless wurmples. The shelters was where machamp was trying to reach.
"Fuzzy! Kel! Toothless! Rena! Kratos! With me! We need to stop the machamp or everyone will get massacred!"
There were no one else left to pull the injured to safety the moment I decided to engage machamp. The other trainers that were working with me to help evacuate the injured either got themselves killed by a stray Hyper Beam prior to this, or were too injured after that to help me. Kratos had jumped in front of me together with Rena to use a Protect to save me. I was the only one left.
My remaining five pokemons joined me as we ran in machamp's direction, hoping to stall it as I tried to think of ways to put it down. Nothing immediate came to mind. There was a reason why I didn't send them out into the front lines with the rest. Most of them here are either not as strong as the rest, or do not have the necessary battle experience. Kel lacks battle experience despite being highly trained due to her dislike of battles. Toothless had loads of experience but lacks power. Rena is decent enough in a fight, but is still relatively new and inexperienced to handle herself in a battle like this. Kratos had not yet attained power nor experience needed to face machamp and Fuzzy is definitely out of the question. He's not a battler and didn't train much.
Typing wise, Rena will be our best bet against machamp.
"Everyone, support Rena. She will be our main attacker against machamp, her psychic attacks should be powerful enough to deal significant damage. Toothless, Kel, I want you to be by her side at all times to protect her. Kratos, Fuzzy, you two are on support duties as usual, remember the battle we had with Winona."
It wasn't long when we finally managed to cut off machamp's charge as Kel unleashed waves of Razor Winds and Future Sights with her Prediction combo, which she had prepared while we ran here.
The battle started instantly as Toothless threw himself into the fray to get machamp's attention on him, blasting fire and slashing away with his claws. Kel stayed behind to launch ranged attacks of her own while she prepared another Prediction combo and hid herself and Rena with Double Team. Rena fired huge blasts of psychic attacks as she stayed behind Kratos. Kratos tried to shift the rocks and earth to trap machamp to no avail as they were destroyed with a single swing of its arms. Fuzzy tried to paralyse and numb machamp with electric attacks but it just seemed to bounce off machamp's thick skin.
This machamp had to be at least on an Elite level, and it had to be injected with drugs for it to be this murderous. We are so screwed.
In spite of my negative thoughts, we were doing fine in holding off machamp from reaching its supposed destination. The machamp was pushed back as we increased the intensity of our attacks. It's not impossible to be put down with five of my pokemons here, but it will take some time given that most of them aren't the main battlers on my team. Machamp had identified Rena as the main threat and tried to get to her, but was unable to spot her as multiple copies of Kel's Double Team obstructed his vision. Toothless expertly blocked and fired attacks that managed to inflict a burn-
Oh shit. The most common ability among the machamp species is Guts, to increase its own attack upon being inflicted by a status ailment.
"Guys! Get out of there!"
My team barely retreated to safety as machamp unleashed a Superpower that left a huge crater on where it was standing. Toothless was pulled out in time by Rena's Psychic and my team was forcefully scattered, Kel's Double Team had dropped from the disruption to her focus.
Machamp took the opportunity as it bashed Kel and Kratos, who were nearer, and sent them flying to my direction and landed a short distance away from me. I recalled them back with shaky hands as I saw the extent of their injuries. Kratos's armour was caved in and a huge dent could be seen, Kel's front legs were bending in the wrong directions and I could only hope that she didn't break any other important parts of her body, like her spine. Rena tried to resume her attacks, but machamp sent her light body flying far away from us with a swing of its fist towards where our front line is. Thankfully, she managed to pull off a Protect and Reflect combo to prevent herself from sustaining critical injuries and had nothing more than a scrape. However, she is now stuck in the thick of the fighting on the front lines, and was intercepted by a pack of feral linoones and mightyenas. She won't be able to come back to help us anytime soon.
'Mistress!'
'Focus! Rena! Deal with your situation first! You are more than capable to handle it alone! We can last long enough until you come back! We will be alright, so focus on your battle and make sure you come back safely to us!'
'I will make haste with my battles, stay safe and wait for one of us to reach you!'
'I will! Now go battle and focus on your surroundings!'
Toothless roared in rage at the sight of his fallen comrades as he battled with machamp once more with Fuzzy running interference. Toothless continued to increase the powers of his attacks, but it wasn't enough. The maximum power attained by a charmeleon is still not enough to fight off this feral, yet well-trained machamp, whose battle instincts seemed to sharpen with the drugs running in its bloodstream.
Machamp got fed up with Toothless and Fuzzy and unleashed a massive wave of Rock Slide, which Toothless had no choice but to block with a Protect due to the speed it was coming at him and was swiftly buried under the pile of rocks. Fuzzy managed to weave his way around it and tried to attack machamp with a Super Fang, only to use a Protect to shield itself from a Bullet Punch that it had just managed to conjure in time and was forcefully thrown towards me.
The speed at which Fuzzy collided into me threw me into a concrete wall that used to be part of a clothing store. I felt my head hit the wall hard as I slumped onto the ground right after. My vision blurred as I saw my blood pooling around me where I laid. I could make out Fuzzy standing in front of me trying to prevent me from losing consciousness by nudging and shaking me. Toothless broke out of the Rock Slide with a roar, coated with flames and he spotted my fallen form. In a fit of rage, he charged at machamp recklessly to tear it limb from limb.
The last thing I saw was a shine of bright light emitting from Toothless before I sunk into the darkness.
Toothless shielded himself with a Protect from the mountain on rocks that had fallen on him.
That stupid four-armed freak was well-trained, Toothless can tell that much. But in terms of experience and skill, Toothless knew he was way better, he just don't have the required power to back it up in order to overwhelm his opponents.
'VEL! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! DON'T SLEEP!'
What?! What had happened to Vel? Wasn't Fuzzy supposed to be watching her?
Toothless coated himself in flames for a Flare Blitz as he broke through the rocks piled up on him. He saw Vel lying in a pool of blood far away from where she was supposed to be standing a short moment ago, her breaths are getting shorter and Toothless can feel his trainer getting weaker every second.
'TOOTHLESS! DON'T LET THE FOUR-ARMED MONSTER GET ANY CLOSER TO VEL! STOP IT! I WILL STOP HER BLEEDING! JUST GO!'
Without hesitation, Toothless threw himself onto the monster that had hurt his trainer and master, blasting flames and slashing at it. The creature blocked his attacks and returned its own with its fists. Toothless dodged and blocked its attacks just as how he was taught the moment Vel deemed him old enough to train at half a moon cycle old.
Vel wasn't just a trainer to him. She gave him strength. Strength that he had always wanted. She gave him comfort, whenever he started doubting himself she will be there to reassure him that everything is going to be alright. She gave him love, she fussed over him and scolded him whenever he misbehaved, but he knew it was for his own good.
Vel wasn't just his trainer and master. She is his friend. She is family. She is home.
And now she's lying down there bleeding and dying.
Toothless knew he needed attacks that are more powerful that he currently knew, and he only knew one that he might just be able to pull off right now. He reached for his inner flames, and tried to imagine the white-hot flames that devoured everything in its way, just as Flamel demonstrated.
Nothing came out and Toothless was pushed back by a single punch from that blasted insane creature.
You will not be able to use Overheat as a charmeleon, Toothless. Your body is just not built for it. You need to evolve into a charizard before you can even begin to try and use it.
All of the things he could have done, he just have to ignore Vel's words, didn't he? Vel was rarely wrong, he knew it. He just have to ignore her words because of his stupid pride, didn't he? He put off his evolution, delayed the possibility of obtaining a greater increase of power, a power that might have saved Vel from dying out there just because he was too prideful and stubborn to listen to her, didn't he? What good has it done? Vel, the only human in this world who he cared about, is now lying down there and dying because of him and his stupid pride.
Toothless felt his body glowing and getting larger as he slashed at the creature.
It's all his damn fault
He roared and blasted his flames at the creature, making it back off in pain as he could feel the new limbs growing on the back of his body.
It's all his damn fault.
He felt his legs grow thicker, scales got harder, and his claws and fangs sharpen and he could feel the flames breathing out of his mouth growing hotter.
It's all his damn fault, it's all his damn fault, itsallhisdamnfaultitsallhisdamnfaultitsallhisdamnfault IT'S ALL HIS DAMN FAULT THAT HIS VEL IS LYING ON THE GROUND AND DYING RIGHT NOW!
With a final roar the light from his body died down and Toothless knew that he had finally evolved. He didn't care, all he cared about now is to murder this creature as fast as possible so that he can get back to Vel's side and try to save her from the claws of death. She nearly died once at Petalburg, and he will be damned if it happened for real this time because of him.
Because of him and his stupid pride.
He charged at the creature once more. He slashed with his claws and spitted flames from his mouth. His new wings helped blocked and attacked the extra limbs of the creature as he tried to control it through instinct alone. He had another two new limbs to help him in addition to his claws this time around, even though he doesn't know how to use it to fly yet. Still, this time he found himself blocking and shrugging off the creature's attacks a lot easier, his flames did more damage as the creature cried out in pain. Yes, Toothless wants to hear the cries of sufferings from the mouth of this creature. The amount of pain this creature is feeling right now is nowhere near the pain it inflicted on Vel and his heart.
Toothless erected a large wall of wall behind the creature with Rock Tomb. He is not proficient in it, but raising obstacles isn't a problem. He blasted the creature towards the wall with a Fire Blast, throwing the creature into the wall of rock. There's no escaping his rage now.
Toothless unleashed his very first successful Overheat onto the vile creature as he cooked the creature alive with the white-hot flames. The creature screamed out in pain as its skin got burnt and its flesh got charred, and begged for mercy. No. No mercy will be given. Toothless's rage will never be quelled even if the creature is reduced to ashes and scattered across the mountains. He increased the intensity of the flames of Overheat even more, and soon the creature was reduced to an unrecognisable pile of burnt flesh.
He tried to make his way back to Vel, uncaring the state of the sickening creature as long as it is dead, only to be attacked by a large pack of mutts that belonged to the void.
Toothless tried to unleashed his flames once more, only to find that none came out of his mouth. Extreme overuse of Overheat will result in a temporary state where you will not be able to use flames for a short while, so remember not to overcommit and use all your powers in fueling Overheat, ok?
He just have to forget Vel's teaching again, didn't he?
Even without his greatest weapon, Toothless is far from helpless. Vel had trained him to the point where he is entirely capable of defending himself with his fangs, claws and tail alone. It is only a minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience that he really doesn't want to face right now where he doesn't know if Vel is dead or alive.
She'd better be alive, or he will bathe the entire city in flames once he got his fire back, allies in the way or not.
Facing these suicidal mutts wasted time, time where he could use to go to Vel's side and ensure her safety, even if he doesn't know how he could help. But at least he can be there to help. Toothless snarled and unleashed a Dragon Pulse, he don't usually like to use this move due to how weird it felt when he used it, like he's part dragon but yet not dragon, but he needed every single power he have to reach Vel's side in time.
The Dragon Pulse created distance between him and the mutts, giving him some time to recollect himself. He was about to charge in, before a series of familiar tentacles shot up from the ground, wrapped itself around the necks of some of the mutts, and slammed them violently head-first onto the ground, breaking their necks.
Lily.
Some of those mutts tried to advance and bite him, only to find themselves sinking into the softened ground as something big and blue came flying from the side and bashed them through the walls of the buildings, killing them instantly.
Bigblue.
There were still many of the mutts left, and they split off into smaller groups to take on their newly appeared foes. Almost at the same time, a fast moving mass of flames charged and broke through a group of them, sending them flying into Lily's waiting grasp as she snapped their necks once more. The shadows moved beneath another group of mutts as an overpowered Thunderbolt shot out from it and burnt them alive from the heat of the attack. Draconic fire rained from above as it sniped mutt after mutt, putting them out of the count. A Dazzling Gleam shot towards the final group of mutts, annihilating any traces of them.
Flamel, Dolly, Snap, Rena. All of them had returned to aid him and their fallen trainer.
'TOOTHLESS! WHERE'S MISTRESS!'
'Over where Fuzzy is, follow me!'
Toothless ran clumsily as he tried to adjust to his new body. He wanted to fly, but he still didn't manage to find the instinct needed to use it for that very purpose. His comrades ran alongside him, defending him from any stray attacks since he is still out of flames.
They managed to find Vel, who is still lying on the ground motionlessly. Fuzzy had managed to wrap its long body around her head where most of the spilled blood had leaked from, attempting to stem and stop her blood from flowing out. His usually white fur is stained red with Vel's blood.
'Guys! We need to find a human-healer! Vel can't hold on much longer and I can't move away from her to seek help! Her body's turning cold! Someone heat her up!'
Toothless gently picked Vel up in his arms and tried to hug her as close to his body as possible, taking extra care to support her head gently, hoping that his own body heat will be enough to stop the process of her body turning colder. She is still alive, but she will not be for long if help doesn't arrive soon.
Another explosion occurred from where the main part of the fighting was and they could see more of these feral, vile, atrocious creatures breaking through the defense lines and heading in their direction. Bigblue immediately raised walls of stone and pushed them away with a huge wave of Muddy Water, buying them some time before getting their attention.
'Everyone, listen to me. Vel is injured and we need to get her to a human-healer, but we cannot all go off together. Someone has to stay and stall these abominations or they will catch up with us and pick us off one by one, me and Lily will stay and stall them as long as we can. There is almost no one left at the defense line now, no point going back there. We were overrun, pushed back, and forcefully separated. I don't know how many trainers survived. I need Dolly and Flamel to help us run interference and Snap for air support, just as how Vel initially stationed us. Rena told me Kratos and Kel were taken out, so that leaves Fuzzy, Rena and Toothless to carry her away from here and seek help from human-healers. Rena, I want you to try and maintain a psychic link with each of us so that you can tell us when to pull out the moment Vel is in safe hands. Fuzzy, continue what you are doing. Toothless, you cannot help us now without your flames, so swallow down your lust for battles and carry Vel to safety. Vel wanted us to stay alive, and I want each of us to try and keep our promise to her. She is trying very hard to keep her promise as well, but she needs our help.'
'I will get Mistress to safety and do my part, don't worry about us, Bigblue.'
'Are we done? Cos Vel won't hold on much longer if we dally here! My fur can't keep all her blood inside her body!'
'GO! Me and Bigblue will maintain our defenses as long as possible. Bigblue and I can now finally cut loose without any worry of friendly-fire to the other trainers, our moves are too destructive to be used with them around. We will be fine, I won't let them get past my tentacles.'
Snap simply roared and flew into the air before unleashing Dragon Breaths down to where the enemies are. Dolly shrieked and dove back into the shadows, this time she seeked to brutally murder the enemy trainers instead of their pokemon, trusting the rest of the team to take care of them. Flamel gave a war cry as he charged and broke through the enemies ranks, rushing to aid Dolly in its attempt to kill as many as these evil humans. Bigblue and Dolly changed the battlefield instantly, sharp rocks sprouted out of the ground at rapid speeds as they impaled a large number of enemy humans and pokemons. Bigblue took control of the offense, systematically taking out a large part of their foes section by section as Lily took care of the defense, blocking attacks that would have harmed her comrades, making sure that they will all fulfill their promise to Vel. They knew Vel is fighting hard to keep her promise to them. They trust her to stay alive. Lily and Bigblue unleashed attacks that could only be used around members of their team and not around unfamiliar allies. They all know each other battle habits and can coordinate with each other well enough even without words. They knew when to avoid areas that Flamel and Dolly will charge through. They knew who not to attack since Snap is already taking care of it, attacking them together will be a waste of precious time and energy. They knew how to unleash and pull off combination attacks that Vel had taught them to use with each other that can only be achieved when they all work together and perfected the sequences after many training sessions. They devastated the battlefield, wrecking their enemies and crushing their forces at a rapid pace, their rage and worry fueling them. Nothing is holding them back now, there are no unfamiliar allies around them that will be caught in the crossfire of their attacks. They can all unleash their full potential, potential that Vel had unlocked for them.
Toothless gritted his teeth as he ran away from the battlefield. Vel's well-being is more important now. He still did not manage to fly, only managing to do clumsy flaps of his wings. He settled for using his wings as shields that positioned itself around Vel protectively. Rena ran by his side as Fuzzy remained wrapped on Vel's head. They had a vague idea on where the shelter is located, and they are trying to find them, hoping that there is a human-healer among them. Rena can act as a translator if they meet any of the non-evil humans. He stopped suddenly, his nose picking up a familiar scent.
'Rena! I think Vance is here! Try and reach him with your telepathy!'
Rena narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on finding Vance's presence, straining herself visibly.
'I cannot find him specifically, but I sense a group of humans that just teleported into the city! Vance should be there! I think they are on our side from where they are heading. I will try to establish a public link to everyone there, even if Vance isn't present, someone can help!'
'What are you waiting for? Do it! My fur's not helping to stop the blood as effectively as before!'
Rena didn't bother to respond as she released a massive wave of psychic energy that nearly threw Toothless off his feet.
Carnage. All he can see is carnage, death, and more death.
Vance clenched his teeth in anger as he stood on top of his metagross who is levitating high up in the air with his psychic powers. He heard the typical popping sounds that signifies the teleportation of his ACE comrades' arrival onto the battlefield, who had joined him in the air with their flying type pokemons. He released salamence as he roared and hovered beside him and weavile stood by his feet on top of metagross.
"Arceus! These fucking aquas! They will pay!"
"Shut up, Terror. Save your anger on the battlefield. We have people to save and aquas to murder. Don't forget why we are here." Vance responded to Terence, call sign Terror. Vance's call sign on the field is Phantom. Right now, he is not Vance Vera, he is Phantom, second-in-command of Ghost Company. All of them have combat masks on their faces and wore full body armour, it is impossible for their enemies to tell who is who from their appearance.
"Has everyone teleported here? Good." Wallace, whose call sign is Chaos and their commanding officer, spoke. "Our objective is to save the citizens of Lilycove, aid the trainers and personnels of the Hoenn forces who had organised a temporary defense force, and destroy Team Aqua who had invaded the city. Lethal force is allowed, I had put the whole Hoenn on Code Red. Any more questions? None? In that-"
A massive wave of psychic energy washed over everyone from their company as they hovered in the air with their pokemon, causing most of them to lose their balance temporarily.
"What the hell was that?!" Larry, call sign Hollow, shouted out.
'HELP! SOMEONE HELP! VANCE! RESPOND IF YOU ARE THERE! PLEASE! VEL IS DYING AND WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! OR ANYONE! PLEASE! MY MISTRESS IS DYING!'
Vance's heart dropped into his stomach as he heard the telepathic message in his head. His mind stopped working temporarily. Vance knew Velda was at Lilycove, but he assumed that she would be safe in the shelters since she won't be of any help on the battlefield given her age. No way the LSDF will let her enter into a warzone. She's still a kid. So why is she injured and dying out here?!
Wallace shouted at him from the top of his gyarados who had acheived the rare ability to fly in the sky, something only achievable if it reaches a huge amount of power through rigorous training. "VANCE! Snap out of it! Go to your sister! She must be really injured for her psychic pokemon to be willing to establish a public link with everyone here! Take Mask with you! You can join us in battle later when your sister is out of danger!"
Vance didn't waste anymore time. He commanded salamence and weavile to aid his ACE comrades and weavile jumped onto salamence's back before salamence charged into battle with the entirety of Ghost Company. He mentally commanded metagross to fly him towards where the psychic wave had originated as Mask, their field medic, flew right behind him with his skarmory. He told metagross to try and find Rena using his psychic powers and to link them up with a telepathic link.
'Rena? It's me! Vance! Where exactly are you?!'
In response, a wave of trees near the woods of Lilycove fell not far from where they are at their two o'clock.
'Where the trees just fell! Did you see it?'
'I saw it! We are coming! Hang in there!'
Vance saw his sister's bloodied form in Toothless's arms as he flew in with his metagross. Toothless is now a charizard, and Fuzzy wrapped itself around her head, trying to act as a makeshift bandage to stem the flow of the blood spilling out of her body. It was what probably allowed Velda to stay alive as long as she could, she'd obviously been out here for way too long. Mask jumped down from his skarmory and pulled out his medic pouch, gently prying Fuzzy away from Velda's wounds so that he can examine it.
Mask quickly bandaged Velda's head wound as he spoke. "I cannot do much for your sister out on the field, Vance! I'm teleporting back to Ever Grande Hospital with my alakazam, only they have the necessary equipment to save her now. Your sister's espeon might have knowledge on what the hell just happened, ask her if she have any important information! Don't lose your cool now! Our comrades need their second-in-command! We need Ghost Company's Phantom!"
"I know. Just go. Try to save my sister."
"I will try my damn best, you know it." Mask gently lifted Velda in his arms, bridal style, as he simultaneously released his alakazam and recalled his skarmory. He disappeared in a Teleport a second later.
"Rena, you heard him. Vel is safe now. I need you to tell me what happened, and where are the rest of Vel's pokemon?"
'Come with me!' Rena started to run off in a direction which was swiftly followed by Vance and the rest of the group. 'I just managed to contact Bigblue and the others, they are making their way here as we speak! I was with Mistress at the back most of the time, so I'm unsure what happened at the front lines. Bigblue had mentioned that the front had been overrun, so I'm assuming not many had survived. I didn't pay much attention to what he was speaking about the situation at the front since Mistress was bleeding out. We need to find him or Lily to know more!'
Vance felt his blood boiled in rage as he processed Rena's words and saw the corpses of people and pokemon who had tried to defend Lilycove with their lives while running behind Rena. He let out the rest of his team, who ran beside him as Rena led the front with Toothless and Fuzzy. His team had sense his anger and they all prepared themselves.
There was no need for any explanation when he saw the remainder of Velda's pokemon fighting desperately as they tried to retreat into the woods near Lilycove, defending themselves from waves of feral pokemon. He saw his ACE comrades trying to help them from afar, but unable to reach them as they were intercepted by the large number of enemies they faced.
Vance gave a single flick of his hand, and the remainder of his team charged into battle to aid Velda's pokemon who were on the brink of exhaustion. Macky dove in and put himself in front of Velda's pokemon, and pushed the entire wave of feral pokemon back with an overpowered Focus Blast, creating space between Velda's pokemon and their enemies. His walrein stood guard in front of him as it allowed Velda's pokemon to retreat past them. Velda's and Vance's pokemon had met many times before, they knew and trusted each other. Vance had told Rena to bring the rest of Velda's team to safety and to lay low until the fighting is over. He will find them later with his metagross's and gallade's psychic powers.
"Kill them all, leave none alive."
With a single command, Vance's pokemons increased the ferocity of their attacks, making quick work of their enemies as they went on to slaughter whatever enemies they could find, uncaring if they were humans or pokemons. His magmortar and electivire returned by his side to guard him together with walrein as the rest of his team moved forward to crush Team Aqua at a rapid pace. They don't need him to command them in a warzone, he had made sure to train them to the point that they were capable of holding their own in a battlefield even without his help.
He walked forward calmly with his pokemon guards onto the battlefield, the three of them destroying anyone foolish enough to approach them.
Vance spotted an aqua grunt trying to ambush and stab him with a knife. He don't even need his pokemon for this. He parried and grabbed the knife from grunt's hands and used it to stab him in the gut before breaking his neck with both of his hands. He dropped the lifeless body of the grunt as he continued his walk towards the beach, increasing his pace, his pokemons bringing about destruction to their enemies as they single-handedly created an open path for his ACE comrades behind him, displaying the strength that had earned him the position of the second-in-command of Ghost Company. Wallace had flown ahead to the beach with his gyarados, and is wrecking havoc with his team, destroying the main force of Team Aqua at the back. Wallace doesn't need any help, he alone will be enough to handle the main force of Team Aqua.
Vance clenched his fists as he continued to push onward. These scums had hurt his sister. They will pay.
In
BLOOD