Blaine’s response to Oak’s appearance was to attempt to set everything on fire.
The air itself ignited, and the hallway filled with flame as Blaine’s team of pokemon disgorged fire straight at us.
They hadn’t even paused to draw breath.
It was a hell of an opening move.
I was halfway through projecting for my pokemon to use Protect to save us and block the doorway behind me when Oak countered the attack.
His Alakazam, Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur appeared.
Alazakam took hold of the fire before himself, causing it to writhe as the shockwave of fire slammed into the will of a powerful psychic.
Alakazam trembled as he raised his spoons and began to reshape the fire much like I had seen Sabrina do, forming it into a living beast that reared itself back around.
Charizard matched the fire in front of it with a powerful flame attack that I couldn’t recall ever seeing another trainer use. It wasn’t Fire Blast or Overheat, I knew that much.
Venusaur’s vines stabbed into the wall and ripped sections of metal out to create a shield in front of itself that curled the flame away from anything important.
Blastoise merely lowered its cannons and disgorged a small lake’s worth of water, causing an explosion of steam to wash over the battle.
I felt my eyes sting, only to stiffen as another shadow flitted from overhead. I drew up my aura and lashed out only for the shadow to twirl around the blow.
Lola followed up at my side, her hand forming a blade as her other hand dipped towards a knife that she drew in a reverse handgrip.
The shadow backed up. “Good to see your instincts haven’t dulled with time Lola,” remarked Agatha as she stepped forward with a glint in her eyes.
“Agatha!” Lola stiffened. “I should have known it was you!”
“Lola,” Agatha replied with a respectful nod. The dull sound of a roar and metal tearing behind her didn’t cause Agatha to so much as twitch as she stood watching me.
“We’re going to need to get everyone out of the way,” Agatha proclaimed. “If we’re staying, all we’re doing is holding Oak back.”
That got me blinking in shock, only to nod. Right, tight hallways, and Blaine would have no issues with targeting us while we were clumped up like this.
“Right, good idea,” I murmured only to shift. “...can we stay close though? I want to watch them fight.”
Agatha smirked at me. “As you should,” she replied. “But make sure you stay alert. Blaine will be looking to slip the noose if he can. Don’t let him have any slack!” she growled.
“Of course,” I replied. It hadn’t been easy finding this place let alone infiltrating it. Like hell I was going to let Blaine slip past me if I had the chance to stop him now.
Agatha nodded and jerked her chin back.
“We’re clear in five Sam!” she called behind her as she led us out of the room.
Oak didn’t reply verbally, but I suspected Agatha’s call wasn’t just for show.
As we walked away, I kept a slow count.
Three…
Four…
Fiv—
Right as I stepped through the door, and was about to finish the count, the facility was rocked around us like an Alpha pokemon had emerged and taken umbrage with it getting in the way.
Erika and Sabrina, were floating in the air, allowing them to evade the ground bucking underfoot, while Karen stumbled, only for her Houndoom to catch her.
Lola reached out to me, and I caught her only to find her sliding with the shockwave. She blinked back at me, surprised to find me unmoved.
I glanced behind me only to be blinded by the sudden increase in brightness of the room.
Or rather, the cavern.
Like clouds parting at a mountain top, I watched as the steam that had clouded the battlefield between Oak and Blaine parted, revealing a destroyed landscape.
Where before there had been a gently sloping hallway, there were now gouges in metal, sparking cords and leaking pipes. Metal was slagged and crumbled up.
Blaine stood with his arms crossed and his glasses in place with a smirk. “Ah, this is more like it, isn’t it Oak?” he called.
Oak didn’t reply.
The others and I could only look at his back. It looked bigger than usual, but that might just be the literal aura he was emitting. I’d felt others project their specialists, and while they were certainly more honed than Oak, there was something to be said for having quantity.
Despite the breadth and depth of his aura reserves, Blaine remained undaunted.
In fact, whatever expression Oak was making only seemed to please Blaine more.
“Good, good, you’re taking this seriously! But… perhaps you shouldn’t have been so quick to open up the field hmmm?” Next to him, his Charizard began to flap their wings and rise into the air.
In response, Oak tapped two pokeballs on his belt, revealing a Pidgeot and his Dragonite.
That was six of Oak’s pokemon, I thought, interested despite myself. I’d never seen any records about what pokemon Oak specifically had.
Even the Guardians had redacted his trainer profile out of respect.
Everyone knew about his Dragonite; I doubt most knew that his Charizard was actually his starter pokemon however.
It didn’t surprise me to find that he had all three Kanto starter pokemon however.
Pidgeot made a lot of sense to me. It was a stable of many young trainers and became both a powerful pokemon and practical as a transport.
“Brock, we need to go,” Sabrina called, putting her hand on me and lifting me into the air. “We’re going to form a cordon.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, only to stiffen as from behind Blaine a small wave of purple liquid began to race forward.
“Oh shit,” I remarked, knowing what was about to happen as the small wave of Ditto resolved itself into multiple little shapes.
“They’re going to—”
“Dragonite, Hyper Beam,” declared Oak without any inflection.
He said the words quietly; it felt like it could have been a calm statement made in a room over tea, and yet I heard him perfectly.
As did Dragonite.
Blaine, for the first time in the fight moved, throwing himself to the side as his hand flashed out. “Arcanine! Flareon! Protect!” he ordered.
Both pokemon stepped in front of Blaine as Dragonite opened its mouth.
I turned my head away as some instinct warned me not to look.
A flash of light erupted for a second, then the world shuddered before it returned to normal.That was nothing like what most Hyperbeams were like. They usually pushed a beam of energy.
Turning back I found myself looking at a battlefield with a line carved through it, blackened and burnt even as Dragonite slumped to the ground bonelessly.
The wave of Ditto… well it was fair to say they’d been deleted.
The few remnants that happened to be behind Blaine shifted. They appeared to be second-guessing themselves.
Blaine, shielded by two of his pokemon forming Protect over him, scoffed and raised a remote that he pressed.
Instantly, every Ditto twitched in pain only to stare at Oak’s exhausted Dragonite.
Then they began to transform, their bodies shifting into a more tan colouration as they grew taller and bulkier.
Suddenly, there weren't just fire types on Blaine’s side of the field, but also a small army of Dragonite. Enough to give any Blackthorn conniptions.
“Thank you for bringing him out, Oak! I’ve always wanted to use this tactic on you and your precious Dragonite!”
“An inferior copy will never match up to the original,” Oak remarked flatly.
I tilted my head, wondering why that sounded familiar to me and yet, at the same time, slightly off. I shook it off and instead settled onto the ground, a few hundred metres from the fight that was taking place…
I glanced around quickly, only to blink in surprise as I found myself standing on the slope of a small valley between mountains.
Huh, so this is where the facility began properly.
Or rather… what was left of it.
Part of me wanted to track down the rocket chutes and find out at what angle Blaine had been launching them to evade Cerulean’s notice.
No way I bought the excuse of Cerulean being such a party city that none of them noticed the rockets streaking through the skies. There had to be something else at play.
Agatha directed us to various points around the valley and I was rather surprised when, instead of slipping away, Agatha instead pointedly took up a position in the cordon, her Ghost pokemon emerging around her and staring hungrily at the fight occurring in the valley.
I twitched when I spotted another figure standing on the other side of the valley with Koga and then Pryce standing like sentinels. Their own team of pokemon arrayed around them.
The mountain around Pryce was starting to frost over, and a cold wind blew over the valley as Pryce sat on the side, waiting.
None of them were moving in to crush Blaine.
“We have the numbers,” I murmured.
Agatha must have heard me as she glanced up and shook her head. “Don’t underestimate Blaine. He wouldn’t hesitate to use you, or anyone else against Oak, which is about his only recourse now that Oak has him engaged in a proper fight.”
“Can’t we pepper him with attacks?” I asked.
Agatha shook her head. “Blaine will merely close in on Oak if we do that, make it that much more dangerous. Best to give Oak the room he needs.”
I shifted, somewhat agreeing with her while also annoyed that there didn’t seem to be anything else I could do but stop Blaine fleeing.
Heh, it was like the pokemon battle option of fleeing a fight, only no longer being able to.
I’d never seen it play out beyond the pokemon pursuing the trainer, but in this instance, it seemed to fit right in.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow, I thought to myself as I arranged my pokemon, ready to answer any attempt to flee. Just to be sure, I even released Regirock who shifted about.
Its eyes glimmered momentarily, and I got a small sense of confusion.
“We’re making sure a bad man can’t run away,” I answered, keeping it simple.
Regirock straightened, its eyes locking onto the battle. It turned from Oak to Blaine and back again before the thought of a 'query?' came to me.
“The bald one over there is setting things on fire,” I projected back to the Legendary pokemon.
Bertha helpfully pointed her huge hand at the ‘evil’ one.
I sighed, unable to correct her while noting that a shift had occurred within the fight.
The Dragonite was being swatted out of the air as Oak’s Dragonite shook itself off, done with its little nap to regather its strength from that… I hesitated to call it a Hyperbeam because it was so different.
Perhaps an Ultrabeam? Hyperblast?
Regardless, ditto began to fall out of the sky like purple raindrops as Dragonite tore through them.
“Tch! Shift targets! Sweep the Valley!” called Blaine as he clicked his remote once more, causing some of the Ditto to dissolve slightly before reforming into their Dragonite form. Damn, that must be painful to cause such reactions from them.
This caused several more to be knocked out, but Blaine didn’t even acknowledge the loss.
If anything, that kind of pissed me off, seeing the blatant disregard.
Oak seemed to be the same as he twitched. “Oh? Still the knight in shining armour Oak?”
I could feel the glare Oak replied with from my position on the slope of the Valley, but I had to turn my attention away as Oak’s pokemon began to attack Blaine’s with powerful strikes that caused small landslides even when they missed.
The remaining Dragonite swarm turned away from the battle and towards the cordon. Their wings began to beat and I sighed, knowing they were about to throw themselves at us.
Ah, shame.
“Blow them out of the skies,” I ordered mercilessly, more than happy to shut down the airspace on my side of the valley.
The Dragonite attempted to shoot towards us only to find themselves facing a barrage of rocks that knocked them out of the air.
I snorted; Oak was right, copies were nothing like the original, and it was only made worse by Blaine using his swarm tactics.
In the facility, it had been a threat with his potentially wearing us down, but here in the open?
Well the situation was—
A cold wind tore through me and I shivered, glincing over to Pryce’s side of the valley only to find it half frozen with Pryce glaring down at the wave of Dragonite that had turned into Ditto popsicles.
Ah, yeah, Dragonite attempting to get past me, or Pryce wasn’t going to work out for Blaine very well.
Which… seemed like too much of an oversight for Blaine.
He had to have something up his sleeve. He was standing in the middle of a valley, locked into position… For a man in a noose, he looked far too comfortable for my liking.
Oak must have agreed, as his pokemon began to throw combination attacks with Venusaur whipping chunks of rock into Blastoise's jet stream like Hydropumps. It caused the water and rocks to become like shotgun pellets.
No longer could they be intercepted by powerful flamethrowers, and instead more and more of Blaine’s team started to take damage only for a small robotic arm to appear from behind Blaine’s back and whip what looked like water balloons at his pokemon.
Blaine had a robot arm?
Shit, he had more tricks than he did when we ran into each other years ago. That shouldn’t surprise me but it does.
Perhaps that is just Blaine but it shows that Oak was right to not want to close in with Blaine as there are no doubt more tricks up Blaine’s sleeves than mere flamethrowers.
“Anyone else see any other tricks from Blaine?” I called over our comm line.
“Nothing yet,” remarked Erika.
“There is a strange shimmer that doesn’t appear to be a heat wave behind his head,” supplied Sabrina and I squinted at said position only to see that much of the field was shimmering and clouded with steam from all the water getting thrown around.
“I see it. There is something there, watching his back,” Agatha stated. “It would appear Blaine has found a ghost type pokemon to watch his back,” she growled.
“Chandelure,” I supplied as my mind made the logical leap. “It’s a pokemon from Unova that is a fire-ghost type in the shape of a chandelier.”
“Bastard stole a march on me,” Agatha growled. “When he is brought down I will look forward to taking said pokemon if I can stop Gengy from eating it.”
I decided to not ask about that, just in case she wasn’t joking and instead decided to explain it in detail.
The only other fire-ghost type was Alolan Marowak and those by nature weren’t ghost primaries which made a difference when it came to turning invisible.
Now that I was looking for other potential hidden aces I couldn’t help but wonder about the Rhydon that in the anime Blaine had.
Did he have such a pokemon here? If he did there was no way in my mind that he’d left it as just—
A Rhyperior exploded out of the ground, arm buzzing in a familiar manner as it slammed into Oak’s Blastoise and sent it rocketing across the battlefield and into the dirt.
I stared.
Next to me Bertha and Titan roused.
Between the three of us, a single thought stood out.
That had perfectly mirrored Bertha’s form of emerging from a Dig to unleash a powerful one-hit K.O. move.
Rather than back down, Oak turned slightly, crouching to let a wave of fire wash above him as He glared at Blaine’s pokemon.
“Ha! Brock thought he was clever with his method of evol—”
“Frenzy Plant,” Oak announced, speaking over Blaine.
Venusaur twitched and leaned forward. A green aura flashed from the powerful grass type only for huge vines that looked like they were part of an ancient tree emerged from the ground only to wraith and grow forward in a frighteningly fast display.
Rhyperior attempted to evade by diving into the ground with Dig once more only for the roots to catch it and lift it up. Then the roots twisted and grew tighter and tighter until Rhyperior was roaring in pain.
Then the roots flexed once and Rhyperior stiffened in shock only to slump to the ground. With the sound of dry earth cracking underfoot, Rhyperior collapsed in on itself. Hmm, that appeared to have been a super effective critical hit.
“You always approached things from the worst angle,” Oak said in the silence of two powerful pokemon being knocked out and potentially seriously injured.
“You look towards what pokemon are capable of at their worst. Pokemon at their best are so much more capable,” Oak declared with a glint of something in his eyes.
“Feh, you say that while your best counter to me is down and out. Are you going to revive it?” Blaine taunted as he stepped to the side as Pidgeot slashed the air and sent a Hurricane after him only for one of his Charizard to catch it and take control of it. “Bring it back in a weakened state?” he called as he returned his own pokemon and gave the pokeball a cursory inspection.
“Of course, mine is merely knocked out while yours is locked down,” Oak replied as he tossed two balls of something behind him.
It was a ridiculously lazy toss and had no right to make it to where his Blastoise lay unconscious.
Only for Venusaur to lift a tired vine and catch it, drinking it down and standing taller before swatting the second ball towards Blastoise.
Blastoise snorted loudly and rose with a glare towards Blaine and saunter forward, a blemish on the front of its shell where the Rhyperior had struck.
Bertha snorted.
“Yeah, if that had been you, that Blastoise wouldn't be coming back into the fight,” I replied, giving the cracked shell a worried look.
“Frenzy… Plant?” whispered Erika and I blinked, realising that Oak had just revealed that he knew the strongest Grass type move that had existed in the games.
Which… made so much sense to me.
If it was going to be anyone it had to be a specialist, or Oak.
If he had one of them, did that mean the others also had—
“Hydro Cannon,” Oak said, answering my unasked question and now that I had seen it a second time I felt the minor spike in his aura as he channeled water type from himself into Blastoise.
Blastoise’s cannons snapped around with a resounding boom then water built up on the tips from around Blastoise water began to race through the air to build a ball.
“Tch! Blast Burn!” Blaine called as his own aura spiked.
Both Charizard landed and while one turned its attention towards Blastoise, the other locked onto Venusaur who had slumped to the ground, regathering its spent energy from earlier.
In response, Dragonite landed before it and locked eyes with the Charizard.
A chill ran through my spine as I realised that four powerful pokemon were about to unleash their strongest moves within the valley.
“Brace for—” I shouted only for the first attack to launch.
Hydro Cannon caused a whine of wobbling water only for it to be answered by twin roars of fire from both Charizard.
And then Dragonite once more added itself into the mix with the Hyperbeam.
I knelt even as Selene, Titan and Bertha stepped close to shield me.
A wave of pressure washed over me followed by a boom as fire and water erupted into geysers of hot steam that rushed up the valley towards us.
Lola and I responded by having our water pokemon contain the steam even as Sabrina raised Barriers in front and above us.
It took me a moment to catch on to what she’d sensed as bits of rock and magma slammed into the barriers and sloughed off.
Oak’s Pidgeot cleared the steam and I noticed that he’d had to recall the flying type to his side to escape the danger of the two attacks clashing.
I clicked my tongue, annoyed that the only casualty of such powerful attacks being launched appeared to be—
One of Blaine’s Charizard’s were down, with a noticeable depression in its chest.
Oh, it seemed that this time Charizard hadn’t been able to block the attack. Instead it had been overpowered.
It shuddered as it took pained breaths that I suspected might just be its last. Blaine noticed as well, tapping his pokeball and returning it to save its life.
“Hmmm, you talk of pokemon at their best but you just utilised a Torrent ability with your Blastoise just now, didn’t you?” Blaine asked even as Magmortar, Flareon and Arcanine sprinted to the sides to make the most of the fatigued pokemon
From Oak’s side of the field a host of pokemon emerged to defend the pokemon regathering their energy.
Kingler, a Tauros, an Exeggutor, an Umbreon, a Gyarados, and a Clefable.
Of all the pokemon… the Clefable caused me to look back over his team.
A young Sam Oak hadn’t had Squirtle or Bulbasaur. Nor had he shown much interest in Clefairy when we’d been atop Mt Moon. some of the markings that those pokemon had… oh.
Those had been Daisy’s pokemon, and now they were his.
It didn’t change anything, but it did add some context of who his strongest pokemon were. It still made me wonder why he’d held back the later six pokemon.
Two of them would have been extremely effective against Blaine’s team.
“Using pokemon in weakened states is one thing. Holding them there and forcing them to fight for science… that is another thing. I know better than to rely on it,” remarked Oak as he began directing his pokemon into various positions.
Umbreon I noticed slinking away into the shadows with its nose twitching and glancing around. What was it going after?
Before I could ask Sabrina or Karen what it had locked onto Clefable stole my attention as it began to rain down attacks upon any of Blaine’s pokemon that it could.
His Tauros bellowed loudly as Blaine’s Rapidash sprinted in and out, peppering it with Flamethrowers even as Tauros responded with what looked like Rock Tomb to attempt to trap the faster-moving horse pokemon.
Rapidash danced through the attacks only for Alakazam to suddenly appear next to it, forming a Barrier of all things that Rapidash bounced off of.
“Extreme Speed!” Blaine barked and Arcanine went from tangling with Venusaur and a recovering Dragonite to lunging towards Oak’s neck with its teeth bared only for Pidgeot to raise its wings and create a Protect around itself and Oak.
Arcanine bounced off the Protect and slammed into Clefable, bearing it to the ground and biting down hard, causing it to wail in pain.
Oak returned it instantly and released it to the side with a potion spray rather than keep it in the fight.
Which… might not have been the right call as Gyarados and Kingler both fired shots at Arcnine only to miss as it no longer had a reason to stay in position.
“Ha! You’re flinching, Oak!” taunted Blaine.
“Hmmm, is that what you call it? I seem to be two pokemon up on my side,” Oak pointed out.
“Yes, you’re being practically bloodthirsty today, are you going to finally add another pokemon to your list of those that you’ve slain in combat?” mocked Blaine.
Oak’s hands flexed. “... if I must,” he replied stoically.
That caused Blaine to pause and give Oak a thoughtful look. “I see, we truly are fighting without our usual children’s rules aren’t we?”
Blaine raised his hand and the temperature spiked, causing me to feel sweat building up around me as the humid atmosphere drew a response from me.
The valley began to shift as lava bubbled to the fore, causing there to be limited areas for pokemon to move.
Venusaur roared defiantly as Oak’s water type pokemon suddenly needed to secure footholds for the other groundbound pokemon.
A shift that Blaine’s other pokemon immediately attempted to capitalise on with waves of fire launching down with Charizard dropping from the sky upon Venusar.
Venusaur saw the other pokemon coming and rather than attempting to dodge or use Protect, Vine whip lashed out, catching Charizard as it slammed into it, causing it to roar in pain.
Charizard kicked Venusaur in an attempt to make it let go but Venusaur was too determined and if anything tightened its grip on its worst match up.
“Burn it alive!” growled Blaine upon spotting the issue.
“No!” Erika screamed as Charizard’s maw opened, only for Venusaur to vanish and Umbreon to take its place at Charizard’s feet.
The much smaller pokemon darted in close, causing Charizard's attack to miss as it both passed over the head of the much smaller pokemon along with Charizard suddenly not having any resistance as it arced its neck upwards.
Umbreon grinned as Chraizard raised a fist coated with fire only to wink and vanish a moment later, replacing itself with Kingler and causing the Fire Punch to be caught by a powerful pincher.
Charizard had a moment to process this only to widen its eyes in fear as Kingler unleashed a point blank Hydro Pump into it.
Searching the field, a flash of blue flame racing towards Venusaur had me twitching in surprise as Venusaur suddenly caught on fire with what had to be a Will’o’wisp attack from Ninetails.
Blaine’s Ninetails shimmered into existence with its maw opened.
It was almost perfectly positioned to be in front of Erika, making me wonder if perhaps Blaine had been sneaking the potent fire type closer while the fight had been occurring.
Erika twitched and her hand snapped forward. “Blast it!” She called out to her pokemon and they responded.
Oak twitched, turning and raising a hand to stop her. “No Erika! It’s a trap!” he called as Erika’s grass type attacks hit the Ninetails on mass only for it to pop in a cloud of smoke, revealing itself to be a Substitute.
“Oh sh—” I snapped my hand to the side as a Typholosion erupted from hiding in front of Erika, launching a scalding wave of fire forward.
Erika raised her hands like she was caught out, only to stick her tongue out. “Gotcha!” she teased.
A second before the fire could hit, Sabrina’s team caught it and sent it roaring into the sky.
Typhlosion didn’t linger, diving into the ground as Starmie responded with a wave of water and psychic attacks began to lash the ground in front of Erika.
“Heh! I thought it was too obvious a target to be anything but a trap!” called Blaine. “Why else bring a grass type trainer to a fire fight?”
A moment later fire flashed before my eyes and my pokemon intercepted a gout of fire that ignited the land before me.
“I knew eventually one of you would stick your noses into our fight!” Blaine called. “I will have none of it! I won’t have it taken from me by you!” he let his glasses slip slightly to give all of us a glare.
Oak coughed, “Said by a man that ran when his crimes were brought to light!”
“Ah, but back then I wasn’t ready to fight you, now? Now I am,” Blaine replied as he reached into his lab coat and drew out a dark orb.
Oh shit, this wasn’t going to be good.
“The moment Team Rocket found signs of other regions I knew that I would need as much strength as possible. I thought I’d have to steal from those other regions, you know?” he announced with a glint in his eyes. “But then Team Rocket and Brock happened to hand me the perfect pokemon!” he taunted.
Team Rocket and me?
I glanced to Sabrina. Mewtwo? No, that made no sense. Sabrina was in regular contact with Mewtwo.
The only other pokemon that could… oh shit… We'd weakened it in our brawl in the Silver Ranges before Lance had driven it off.
Blaine clicked the button… and an empty pokeball was revealed.
I blinked in confusion, only for Blaine’s smile to grow wider as the temperature suddenly spiked.
“I’ve had it out for quite a while now, by the way,” he stated smugly.
Drawn by instinct, my eyes swept up to the sun, where a flaming body began to descend like a meteor, wide wings made up of fire swept out, each beat causing a spike in the temperature around us. Atop its head, a long crest of flame flickered white hot.
It loosened a cry and I felt a spike of dread run through me as the memory of facing this very pokemon in the past returned.
My breath caught as my mouth was suddenly painfully dry.
Moltres descended with dozens of blue orbs floating around it.
Down the line from me, Erika buckled as the heat grew higher and higher. Her pokemon wilted and she muttered something quickly that caused them to extend small roots.
Ah, Ingrain to resist the passive damage that a buffed-up Moltres could spread from its mere presence.
More and more Barriers and Reflects began to form in front of Erika as Sabrina shifted her defences.
Shit! How long had it been sitting up there in the sky growing in power? Was this why Blaine hadn’t charged down to crush us?
Had he been preparing the battlefield?
Another cry rang out and a wave of fire washed out from Moltres towards Koga who had to abandon his position. When orbs of blue fire followed him and his pokemon team Koga responded by returning his pokemon and forcing the attacks to splash ‘harmlessly’ into the ground, causing blue fire to flare up across the slope.
When one such orb closed on Koga, instead of evading it he hurled a fire blanket at it from his pouch, smothering it and blocking the fire from touching him.
That was a good idea.
Seeing the wisdom of it I drew out my own folded up fire blanket, ready to copy Koga’s example.
Moltres turned, rising from the destruction to look down upon Oak as he and his team repositioned with the new threat in the air.
“Funny thing about Legendary pokemon? They’re not all that special if you prepare yourself properly!” Blaine called.
Had he cloned Moltres? I thought fearfully.
Around Blaine a few Ditto appeared to have regathered themselves.
As one the group of Ditto looked up, and began to transform. “Turns out you can copy Legendary pokemon quite easily,” Blaine taunted as around him, a flock of Moltres appeared, causing the temperature to sky rocket and pain to flare across my body.
“What’s the matter, Oak?” Blaine called as Oak staggered under the sudden heatwave. “Can’t handle the heat?”
Oak drew out a water bottle and splashed it over himself, only for steam to rise off his body as he set his feet and pushed himself to stand.
Blaine chuckled darkly. “What was that about copies never matching up?”
Something in me twitched.
I wasn’t about to let this farce play out anymore. Erika had the right of it.
I called up my aura and swept my hand as my pokemon responded.
A wave of rocks slammed into the flock, knocking them out of the air and causing the temperature to drop back to a manageable level. People stopped buckling under the heat and drew shaking breaths..
“Oi Blaine!” I called, catching everyone’s attention.
A multitude of blue eyes locked on me as my team and I took a challenging step forward into the caldera that was forming.
“Don’t you know better than to bring flying types to a rock fight?" I challenged, knowing Blaine wasn’t going to leave my gauntlet on the ground.
If Blaine was going to take shots at us, it was time to stop sitting back and watching like Agatha wanted.
Time to step into the fight and end this by piling on the bastard instead of letting him dictate terms.
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for their continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!