Pokémon Vengeance Part 1

Originally sent to subscribers in April, 2023. Sign up for the newsletter now to receive exclusive stories months in advance.

Elera stalks through the tall, thick grass toward her target, which is facing away from her in a small clearing beneath a giant Oran Berry tree. It hasn’t detected her yet, thanks to the thick coating of pollen she smeared over her skin. Every step releases a cloud of yellow which enters her nose and nearly makes her sneeze. She manages to hold it in by narrowing her focus on the tall, flower-like creature before her. She has seen similar beasts before, but this one is much larger than the others she has come across. It is nearly six feet in height, standing well above her own frame.

She glance over her right shoulder at Zorry, a small white and red creature with a plush coat and a sadness about her. Their eyes meet, Elera’s full of determination while Zorry’s show her trademark mixture of sadness and anger. Elera nods, and Zorry moves further into the brush, flanking around to the target’s right side. Elera holds up her hand, halting her other companions, who have hidden themselves in the thickest sections of the brush. With her other palm resting on the handle of her trusted battle-ax, Elera hold her breath in anticipation.

The creature, called Lilligant by the farmer who hired her, bends down and begins digging at the ground with one of its long, powerful legs. Elera takes a step forward to get a better look.

Crack!

Lilligant’s head snaps around as the twig snaps beneath Elera’s boot. It’s a mistake she shouldn’t have made. She’s been had enough encounters with these monsters known as pokémon to know better. “Everyone, stay hidden,” she hisses.

With a single bound of its long legs, Lilligant lands before Elera, who is still kneeling in her position in the grass. The creature uses its leafy arm to lift Elera off the ground and toss her into the clearing. Something digs into her back as she lands on the ground. It doesn’t feel like a rock. Noticing the beast’s hesitance to approach, she takes a moment to check the ground beneath her. A red device is buried in the ground, with only one corner sticking up. She rips the hard plastic from the ground and holds it up to get a closer look. It doesn’t look like anything special and it has no power, like most of the old technology left in the world. Still, people will pay a premium for quality plastic and old electric parts they may be able to repurpose. She shoves the device into her pack and turns back to Lilligant, who is approaching her slowly.

Elera glances to her left and sees Zorry hiding in the grass. She nods quickly. Zorry returns the gesture and focuses its attention on the approaching Lilligant. She bares her teeth as her anger and resentment grow. Her fur stands up on end and takes on a green tint. Elera watches as Zorry morphs and changes before her eyes, taking on the form of the Lilligant.

The wild Lilligant stops and notices Zorry, its eyes wide with shock. It makes a sharp, high-pitched hissing sound and steps toward Zorry. Zorry emerges from the grass and stands face to face with the Lilligant. Zorry matches the hiss and moves closer. The anger burns in Zorry’s eyes, becoming more and more intense with each passing moment. Lilligant steps back as Zorry begins morphing its borrowed face, melting and twisting its visage into an evil, contorted version of the enemy. The Lilligant continues retreating, unable to look away from Zorry, until it knocks against the tree and freezes in place.

“Now, Blopblop!” Elera calls.

A small pokémon, no bigger than a foot in height, leaps from the tall grass and stomps on the ground with one of its six legs. It calls out, but the water bubble surrounding its head blocks most of the sound, resulting in only a short burst similar to a popping bubble.

A crack appears in the ground beneath the Lilligant. Hundreds of tiny bugs stream from the hole and up Lilligant’s legs, leaving a rash of bite marks as they go. Lilligant cries out, swiping at the ground and its own body. Its sharp arms knock off a mass of bugs with each swipe, but they keep coming as it covers itself with shallow cuts.

“Axey!”

Another pokémon charges out of the grass. Axey stands just above Elera’s hip. He has a hard green shell covering his head and back. Two long tusks, gray with blue tips, jut out of the sides of his mouth.

Axey charges toward Lilligant. “Frax!” he bellows as he leaps toward the Lilligant.

The flowery creature looks up and raises its arms to defend itself, but it’s too late. Axey swipes his head to the side. One of his tusks slices right through the Lilligant’s arm, severing it from its body. Screams of pain escape Lilligant’s mouth. Seeing her opportunity, Elera springs forward with her battle-ax raised high above her head. She swings down hard and impales the Lilligant through the chest. Blood pours from the wound as the Lilligant falls to the ground, lifeless.

#

“That sure is a big one,” the old farmer, Porter, says. “Don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Lilligant quite this big before. How did you manage to take it down all by yourself?”

“I got lucky, I suppose.” Elera takes her payment of fifty coins and an enormous bag of Sitrus Berries. “Thank you for this.”

“Thank you,” Porter insists. “You got that damned thing out of my orchard.”

Elera turns to leave with her haul when a thought occurs to her. “Say, quick question.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you know that thing was called a Lilligant?”

“Well, my ancestors from before the war were all pokémon breeders by trade,” he says. “The ones who survived made sure to pass down all kinds of information about pokémon through the years. They always said that, one day, things would change and the people of this world would come to appreciate and cooperate with those magnificent beings once again, and they wanted us to be ready. I don’t see how that could ever happen as long as those Team Victory people control things.”

“I hope it happens.” Elera manages to keep from balking at the optimism of the man’s family. “We can only hold out belief that those with power will come to realize that they could use that power for good, rather than for beating us down.”

After a shared look of feigned confidence, Elera and the old man go their separate ways. Elera adjusts her backpack, throws the fifty-pound bag of berries over her shoulder, and marches away from the farmstead. She waits until she’s sure she is out of the farmer’s sight before ducking off the beaten road and into the thick weeds of the untamed countryside, where her pokémon companions are waiting for her. Axey hefts the bag from Elera’s shoulder and grunts in a show of both his strength and his cockiness. Zorry and Blopblop fall in line behind them as the four friends turn toward the location of the fallen Lilligant in hopes of gathering some of the Oran Berries it had been picking.

It has been hundreds of years—or thousands by some professors’ theories—since the Last War, but only a few decades since people were able to emerge from their caves and return to the surface. What those first explorers found was a world, though once ravaged by the effects of the War, thriving without the influence of humans. Plant life flourished as forests and plains of tall, wild grass grew to cover many of the former metropolises throughout all of the regions of the world. Even where the physical structures of the past remained, nature had run its course. Vines and moss covered even the largest of buildings, from Rose Tower in what was once Galar to the lighthouse belonging to the famous Bill of the former Kanto Region.

Pokémon populations rebounded quickly following the destruction of the War. Ghost- and Bug-types proliferated in the early days, but nearly every species adapted and learned to survive, thrive even, in this new world. Many grew larger than ever before, while others reverted to their ancient biology, before human influence had altered their evolutionary paths. The governments of the world had systematically eliminated the most powerful of the pokémon during the War, the Legends and the Myths. In their place, different species rose to the top of the pokémon hierarchy.

Some tried to keep the knowledge and appreciation for pokémon alive through the generations of people forced into hiding, but much of the information was eventually lost. Elera’s ancestors had been following orders to report to the nearest shelter when the attacks started. They didn’t live near a town with a Gym, so they were traveling through Victory Road on their way to the Pokémon League of the Kalos Region. They were deep within one of the caves, lost, when the first bombs hit.

Some of those caught in the depths decided to continue on, only to be exposed to the destructive elements outside of the protection of the caves. Those who remained were forced to live out their days deep underground, with only their own intelligence and grit to keep them alive. Even those who had loved pokémon their whole lives soon had to face a harsh reality: there wasn’t enough food to survive. The survivors were forced to hunt down and consume the hordes of Zubat, Diglett, and other monsters who lived in the cave. Eventually, even those pokémon who came with the humans succumbed to the difficulties of this new life.

Though stories were told through the years, very little information on pokémon actually survived among this group. When they were teenagers, Elera’s parents were among the first to venture out into the altered landscape of the Kalos Region. Having witnessed the destructive power of the pokémon who roamed the lands, they grew to fear the creatures, retreating into a nomadic lifestyle that constantly kept them moving from settlement to settlement as they hid from the most powerful pokémon.

Elera was just eleven years old when she met Axey. She was out with the other kids gathering wood for the cooking fire in their temporary village. She had wandered down near the river to check for bark and logs that may have washed up onto the bank when she noticed a group of pokémon picking on one of their own kind. Its skin was a duller shade of green and it had purple around its neck where the others had green. It looked different, if only slightly, and it was being bullied for it.

Elera jumped in swinging the biggest stick she had at the creatures until they ran away. She used a strip of her own clothing to bandage the pokémon’s arm and named it Axey. Axey returned the favor, using its sharp tusks to slice the biggest sticks into sections small enough for Elera to carry back to her village leaders. She was forced to keep Axey hidden out of fear for what her parents would do, but the two of them became fast friends. She snuck food from her rations out of the village to give to Axey, and it supplied her with plenty of wood, fish pokémon, and berries to take back to her village.

She had been out playing with Axey the night her village was attacked by a roving group of bandits. She went running when she smelled the smoke, not wanting to miss the food, only to find it wasn’t the cooking fire burning, it was the tents. She watched as a crew of people dressed in flashy uniforms walked away, their pokémon pulling a wagon piled high with everything they had stolen as other pokémon finished coating the area in flames.

She was only thirteen years old at the time.

Something shifted inside of her in that moment. She was sad, angry, scared, confused, of course. But she was also frustrated with her parents and everyone else in the village. If they hadn’t been so afraid of pokémon, if they had somehow befriended or tamed them, they could have stood a chance against the powerful creatures the bandits utilized. They could have battled back against their attackers.

On that day, she made a vow that she would learn as much as she could about pokémon, befriend them, and work with them to try and make the world a better place. She didn’t quite know what that meant at the time, but she knew something had to change. And that would start with her finding those bandits, who she came to know as Team Burn, and ending them.

Along her journey, she met Zorry and Blopblop and welcomed them into her crew. Blopblop sort of forced itself into the team. It followed her for over almost a whole day after seeing her save an injured pokémon from a pack of wild, fire-breathing, black dog pokémon. Zorry had been much harder to break. It had struck out at her every time Elera approached. She seemed to cross paths with Zorry every few days in some situation or another. Eventually, she realized that Zorry wasn’t mean, it was just angry and sad and scared, much like she had been after seeing her home burned. With that common ground, they forged a strong bond that has proven to be beneficial for both of them.

Elera even managed to find a pokémon egg. She had witnessed an intense fight between a flying orange pokémon with fire on the tip of its tail and a pokémon made entirely of rocks, with two huge horns and a club-like tail.  Eventually, the rock pokémon defeated the fiery one and moved on its nest. Elera had managed to sneak in and swipe one egg away without being noticed, before the rest of them were devoured by the rock pokémon and its offspring, gray pokémon that ran on all fours and had a much smaller horn on the ends of their noses.

She’s had that egg for over a year now, and she still doesn’t know what will hatch from it. Sometimes it almost looks like it’s moving, but then it returns to its dormant state. Elera understands enough about pokémon at this point to know it is unlikely a miniature version of the winged pokémon with fire on its tail will hatch from the egg. She just hopes that, whatever it is, it will join her and her pokémon friends on their journey to right some of the many, many wrongs of the world.

Elera remains dedicated to her goal, but her confidence has waned through the years. She has seen enough of what is now known as the Seven Domains of Kalos to know that it is going to take more than one nineteen-year-old girl and her three pokémon companions to change things in any significant way. As it stands, the ones with either the most number of pokémon or the most powerful pokémon are able to do as they please, taking control of entire Domains and ruling over the people who reside there without consequence.

They don’t befriend their pokémon as Elera does. Rather, they force them into wooden balls peered by steam, leaving them inside until they have use for them, when they finally release them from the tiny prisons long enough to do their bidding before containing them once again. These balls are marvelous inventions, relics of a time before the War, but they are rare, expensive, and, in Elera’s opinion, barbaric.

Axey lets out an excited chirp, snapping Elera from her thoughts as the Oran Berry tree comes into view. “Let’s go!” she yells as the four companions race through the tall grass toward the tree and what little remains of the felled Lilligant.

Zorry and Blopblop immediately begin using their abilities to slice berries from the tree while Axey cuts pieces of wood for a fire. Elera gets a spark going using some kindling. She soon has a small bed of coals perfect for cooking. Using an assortment of nearby logs to make a spit, she dangles a pot over the hot flames. Water shoots from the bubbles surrounding Blopblop’s head, filling the pot as Axey shovels in armfuls of berries. Elera adds slices of meat from the detached arm of the Lilligant before sitting back to wait while the stew cooks.

With time to rest, she retrieves the red device from her pack and turns it over in her hands. She should have gone to a shop in town to sell it while she was close, but the thought of dinner had been too enticing to pass up. She’ll just have to make the trip into Moldour Town to sell it tomorrow.

“Axey, toss me a berry.”

Axey responds by pausing its eating to launch one of the larger Sitrus Berries toward her using its tusk. Elera’s arm shoots up to catch the fruit, cradling it to protect its delicate skin. “Easy,” she says with a grin. “You could have squashed it.”

Axey grunts and returns to its snack. Elera bites into the yellow berry as big as her head. Juices dribble down her chin as she tosses the device into her lap and looks up to the fading light of the evening sky. She breathes a sigh of relaxation as she takes another bite, causing even more juice to spill over her face and hand. She’ll need to find a stream to bathe in tonight anyway, so why bother being clean while she eats. It’s just her and her pokémon friends out here, after all.

“Bzzzt—wha—he—o”

Elera startles and swings her head from side to side, searching for the source of the strange voice. “Who’s there?” she calls.

“Do—her—ts—me—tom”

“What?”

“Down here. It’s—e, Rotom.”

“Rotom? What the hell is a Rotom?”

“I’m what the hell is powering this Pokédex. Now, give me some more of that berry before I go back to sleep.”

“Berry?” Elera looks down in her lap to see that the screen on the red device has sprung to life, though it is fading quickly. She wipes the remnants of berry juices from the screen and bites off a hunk of fruit to place on the plastic. The berry is consumed as two eyes wink into existence above the screen.

“Thank you.”

The voice is coming from the device. “Y—y—you can talk?” Elera stutters, totally freaked out.

“Of course,” the device says. “Haven’t you ever heard of a RotomDex or a RotomPhone or a Rotom-anything before?”

“No,” she says honestly. “I don’t know what any of that stuff is.”

“What do you mean? Have you been living under a rock?”

“Me? No. But my parents were living underground for a while.”

“Hold on.” The eyes on the device—the Rotom—close for a moment as the screen brightens. The eyes snap open and Elera can sense a palpable amount of fear coming form the… thing.

“What’s wrong?” she says.

“It’s all wrong,” it replies. “There’s no internet for me to access. The satellites have all gone offline. What happened?”

“Nothing?” Elera says hesitantly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is that Old World stuff?”

“Old World?”

“Yeah, like, before the War?”

“What war are you talking about?” Rotom says.

“The one that ended the Old World, the Last War.”

“That must be it.” Rotom closes its eyes once again and seems to take a deep breath, even though it’s just a piece of plastic with eyes. “There must have been a cataclysmic war that changed everything. What’s your name?”

“Elera.”

“Hello, Elera. I’m what is known as a Rotom, the Plasma Pokémon. You do still have pokémon, right?”

“Of course.” Elera turns the Rotom to face her companions. “This is Axey, Zorry, and Blopblop. They’re all different types of pokémon, and they’re my friends.”

“Axey, Zorry, and Blopblop? Interesting nickname choices,” Rotom says. “Would you like to know their species names?”

“Okay?”

“Fraxure. The Axe Jaw Pokémon. A Dragon type. The evolved form of Axew.” Rotom’s screen changes to show a picture of Axey, though the one is displays has red markings where Axey’s blue ones are. “Their tusks can shatter rocks. Territory battles between Fraxure can be intensely violent. A broken tusk will not grow back, so it diligently sharpens its tusks on river rocks after the end of a battle.”

“Fraxure, huh?”

“Zorua, Hisuian Form. The Spiteful Fox Pokémon. A Normal and Ghost type. Derives power from—”

“Okay, I don’t need the whole history. Just the species names are fine.”

“Very well,” Rotom says. “The one you call Zorry is a Zorua, though this form was thought to have existed long ago before growing into the modern Unovan form. Though, I suppose things are different now.”

“I suppose so,” Elera says. “And what about Blopblop?”

“That which you’ve names Blopblop is what is known as a Dewpider, the Water Bubble Pokémon. A Water and Bug Type.”

“That one makes a lot of sense,” Elera says. “Hey, when you were talking about Axey, you said it was the evolved form of Axew? I remember the day it changed. There was a flash of light and all of a sudden Axey was so much bigger and it looked so different. What is that? Why does it happen?”

“The phenomenon of evolution can be triggered by many different events,” Rotom says, its tone becoming brighter as it talks. “For the majority of pokémon, including Axew, that process is the result of aging and gaining experience through battling. It is much the same as the growth and maturation of humans, though it occurs rapidly in large chunks, rather than over time.”

“Amazing.” Elera falls back against the tree trunk behind her, lost in thought.

“Fraxure can evolve once again, as can Zorua and Dewpider,” Rotom says. “Would you like to their fully evolved forms?”

Elera thinks for a moment before responding. “That’s okay. I’d rather be surprised. Besides, I want them to grow at their own rate. I don’t want to pressure them just because I think a different, more evolved form would be cooler.”

“Very well.”

“Say, how do you know all of this anyway? I’ve never met a pokémon that can speak human language before.”

“You see, I am capable of inhabiting a variety of electrical devices,” Rotom says. “In this case, I have taken over a Pokédex, a device created by the late Professor Oak which contained a vast amount of information on every pokémon in existence. Or, at least, the known pokémon. I use this knowledge, along with vast troves of additional information, and the speakers which are specially designed to convert my speech to human language in order to communicate with you.”

“That’s amazing,” Elera says. “What else can you do? Can you fight?”

“In my current state, I cannot,” Rotom says. “However, that may change as I recover my strength or as I learn more about this new world in which I have awoken. Until then, consider me your source for knowledge on all things related to pokémon, as it is clear you are not familiar with our biology or traits.”

Elera cracks her neck and leans forward to check on the stew. Noticing the consistency, she leans back and proceeds to spend the next hour interrogating Rotom, asking every question she’s ever thought to ask in regards to pokémon. By the time Axey tugs on her sleeve and points to the boiling pot of stew, she is, for the first time in her life, confident that she can interact with the pokémon around her.

“Everyone, eat up,” Elera says as she pours five bowls of stew into clay bowls. “Tomorrow, we finally start training in earnest.”

“Ferr?”

Elera jumps to her feet, wooden ladle in hand. “What was that? Rotom?”

“Ferroseed. The Thorn Seed Pokémon. A Grass and Steel type.”

“Ferroseed?” Elera says. “Why did it have to be so hard to say? Why couldn’t it just be Thorn Seed?”

“The answer to your question is only known by those who named the pokémon so many thousands of years ago,” Rotom says.

“Whatever.” Elera braces herself as she spins to face the rustling grass behind her. “Come on out,” she calls.

A group of seven silver pokémon with green spikes protruding from their bodies roll into the clearing beneath the Oran Berry tree. They look in unison toward Elera, then at the only remaining part of the fallen Lilligant, a portion of its claw which would have taken too long to cook. The Ferroseed roll their round bodies toward Elera, who jumps backward and raises her ladle to defend herself. Strangely, Axey and the other pokémon remain still as they watch the Ferroseed.

“Ferr?” the largest Ferroseed says as it glances upward at the tree.

“What is it?” Elera says.

“Ferr.” The Ferroseed jumps into the air, but it only flies a few inches before crashing back to the ground, gouging the dirt with its spikes. It looks back to the Lilligant claw. “Ferr.”

“It seems the Lilligant you… dispatched of… was helping this group of Ferroseed reach the berries to feed,” Rotom says as it floats in the air before Elera’s face.

“What? It was helping them? I didn’t know different species of pokémon worked together like that.”

“Well, of course,” Rotom says without hiding its exasperation. “Even in my time, pokémon worked together to accomplish all sorts of tasks. Based on what you’ve told me of this new reality, I’m not surprised that pokémon have learned to adapt and coexist to survive, and in fact thrive, without humans. Perhaps they should have adapted this way before the War, to be able to better defend themselves against the humans who destroyed this world.”

“I’m not going to disagree with you on that one,” Elera says. “From what I’ve been taught, we pretty much screwed everything up.”

“And yet, you survived. That means you humans have been given a chance to fix things and make up for all that you have caused.” Rotom whirs and flies closer to Elera. “What have you done to make amends for your actions?”

“From what I can tell, nothing good,” Elera admits. “But I made a vow to work alongside pokémon to improve this world.”

“Well, now is a good chance for you to make good on that vow.”

Elera nods decisively. “You’re right. Come on and grab some stew, Ferroseed. The more the merrier.”

#

“Axey, use Breaking Swipe. Blopblop, use Headbutt. Zorry, follow them up with a Shadow Claw.”

In the four months since waking Rotom, Elera has managed to trace the location of Team Burn, the same group of bandits who burned down her village so many years ago. Along the way, both Zorry and Blopblop evolved into their final forms, Zoroark and Araquanid. Given Rotom’s reassurance that it is perfectly comfortable for pokémon, she has even managed to capture some new pokémon using the sparse pokéballs she has come across.

“Spikey, use Iron Defense!” Elera calls as she tosses one of her few pokéballs.

Her Ferrothorn, which evolved just from a Ferroseed just yesterday, emerges from the ball and sets a strong defense, shielding the others from a spray of deadly purple poison.

“Now, Swordo, use Iron Head.”

A pair of swords crossed into an “X” fly out of another pokéball and ram into the small purple and brown pokémon.

“Zara, finish it up with Ember!”

The small orange pokémon with flames on its tail hatched from Elera’s egg only a few weeks ago. It doesn’t have wings yet, but her education in the ways of pokémon evolution have convinced her they will come in eventually. She asked Rotom for the name of its fully evolved form, but no other details. Using that information, she came up with a suitable name for her new friend.

Zara takes a deep breath in and sprays small, hot bursts of flames all over the attacking pokémon Rotom identified as a group of Skrelp. They float atop the rising swells of waves, only one holding onto life. Elera takes her opportunity. She rummages through her pack for her final pokéball and tosses it at her target. The red and white wooden ball hits the pokémon in the head and opens, absorbing the Skrelp in a flash of light. The pokéball flashes and shakes once before erupting a puff of steam, confirming her break.

“Skrelp has been added to your Pokédex.”

“I’m turning into a pretty good Breaker after all,” she says. “Or, what was it you said they used to be called? Trainers?”

“That is correct, Elera,” Rotom says. “You have fared quite well. In those times, trainers were allowed to travel with only six pokémon at a time. The Pokémon League made this rule to prevent a competitive advantage for those who captured the most pokémon. However, the Pokémon League has been long abandoned. That is why your Skrelp has remained here with you, rather than disappearing to be stored at a lab.”

“Say, Rotom, what do Skrelp evolve into?”

“The final evolution of Skrelp is known as Dragalge, the Mock Kelp Pokémon.”

“Dragalge?” Elera puts her finger to her chin to think. “All right, come on out Galge!” She tosses the pokéball into the air. The newly captured Skrelp appears in the water as the ball flies back into Elera’s hand. Blopblop shoots a beam of bubbles toward the slain Skrelp, pushing them out of Galge’s sight. “Hello, Galge. I’m Elera. It’s so nice to meet you.”

Galge swims forward hesitantly, surely confused at being greeted so kindly by a person who was just fighting it. Elera holds out her hand. Galge sniffs once and licks her hand with its prickly tongue. Satisfied, it rubs its head up under her arm.

With a nod of approval, Elera steps away while her other pokémon companions gather around and greet their new teammate. She retreats to the shade of a nearby palm tree to wait and watch as Galge becomes acquainted with the others. “Rotom?”

“Yes, Elera?”

“Is it hard for you to see us killing pokémon?” she asks. “I mean, you are a pokémon. So, wouldn’t it be strange to watch us kill and eat your own kind?”

“Well, to be honest, even in my time, pokémon were consumed by humans,” Rotom says after a moment. “In fact, the way you hunt and eat only what you need is much more reasonable than growing hundreds of thousands of pokémon in terrible conditions with the sole purpose of selling them as food. This is the natural order of things. Pokémon have hunted, battled, and fed on one another for the entirety of our existence. Things are much different now, yes, but not everything has changed for the worse. I have grown to appreciate many of the differences between this world and the one in which I previously lived.”

“I’m glad.” Elera pauses and looks out to the vast sea. “I’m glad I found you, Rotom. It’s been nice to have someone to talk to that can actually teach me about pokémon, instead of just spewing random tales they heard from a friend of a friend or trying to sow fear for pokémon in everyone around. You’ve made this journey that I’m on much better.”

Rotom whirs and floats up in front of Elera. “And I will say that you are a remarkably fast learner. And the way you use your own body and fighting prowess to help protect your pokémon—sorry, your friends—is a thing of beauty.”

“Thank you.”

“In my time, that was not the way of the pokémon trainer,” Rotom says. “It pleases me to see humans risking themselves just as pokémon have done for so long. Breakers are, in some ways, better battlers than their predecessors.”

Elera rises and waves to Axey, who gathers the others and guides them to shore. Galge hesitates as Elera extends her hand. It glances around at the other pokémon, who nod their heads in turn. With a trill, Galge leaps from the water into Elera’s arms as it spews bubbles into the air. The other pokémon join in a chorus of greetings for their new friend. Elera raises Galge above her head and beams with joy.

As the ruckus dies down, though, she is reminded of her true plight. She is close to finding Team Burn. The entire reason she’s here at the coast is because she tracked the movement of one of Team Burn’s lower ranking members, some punk kid she found setting fire beds on fire in a nearby village. Even being unfamiliar with this portion of Kalos, tracking the kid has been easy. He takes little care to cover his tracks, even in between the obvious trail of singed foliage.

The chance to peel away and battle with the group of Skrelp distracted her from her goal of finding and ending the nefarious group. She wishes there was a way she could just travel the world finding and befriending more and more pokémon, but the circumstances of her life have made that future impossible. “Time to go, everyone.” She presses the buttons on her three pokéballs, recalling Spikey, Swordo, and the newly acquired Galge. Zara hops up onto Blopblop’s back and the other pokémon fall into line behind Elera. They need to move if they’re going to catch up to the kid and cut him off.

Elera bounds into a steady jog as the pokémon fall into line behind her. The burned places along the trail have cooled considerably. She doesn’t need to be quiet yet. They continue their pursuit through the afternoon and into the twilight of evening, stopping at various intervals for food, rest, and water. Elera forces herself to ignore the hundreds of pokémon she passes in favor of her main target. She can always come back and meet those pokémon later.

They’ve been jogging for over an hour with the sky gradually darkening. Elera thinks she will probably stop soon to set up camp. As much as she would like to, they can’t continue through the night without sleep. Even if they did catch the kid, they would be exhausted. She begins scanning the area as she runs, searching for an easily defendable spot to rest.

“Frax!” Axey jumps forward, landing in front of Elera and holding its claw up to stop her. “Frax.”

Elera drops to a crouch and lunges to the side. She slides to a stop behind a fallen tree trunk. Zara hops down from Blopblop’s back and joins her, while the huge Araquanid crawls forward into an area of tall brush to hide. Zorry’s wild red fur raises as energy surrounds it. In the blink of an eye, it transforms from its usual untamed appearance to that of an innocent Bunnelby. Zorry hops forward along the cleared dirt path and sniffs the air in search of the Team Burn grunt. It locks eyes with Elera and hops forward before disappearing into the grass near a bend in the path.

Elera receives the message and whistles once. The brush shakes as Blopblop moves into position. Axey has positioned itself near a tree ahead of Elera. It grunts and points above the top of the brush barring their vision beyond the curved path. A few wisps of smoke float into the sky, growing in intensity with each passing moment. Elera sees the flame of Zara’s tail flare up brighter and hotter. They’re almost ready to go.

Axey, Zara, and Elera creep forward. She trusts that the others are already in position. She can smell the burning grass of a campfire. She takes a risk, peeking around the edge to get a look at this kid. She catches sight of him just as he’s dipping into his tent. She waits until she hears him start to rummage around inside before whistling three short, sharp bursts.

She jumps around the corner and charges toward the tent. Zara shoots a trail of fire that surrounds the tent. Blopblop follows up the ring of fire by shooting a beam of ice from its water bubble, a move it learned from observing and battling a Sealeo attacking a group of Krabby a week ago. The beam coats the area beyond the tent in a thin layer of slick ice. Finally, Axey jumps in and tears the tent from the ground, slicing through the hide with its tusks. The plan is perfectly executed.

“Don’t mo—”

Elera feels the bite of cold steel on her neck. The tent is empty except for a small yellow pokémon with a hard shell covering most of its back and head. It looks up to Elera and tilts its head to the side. “Shrew?”

“Who are you?” a man’s voice says from behind Elera. “Why have you been following me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Turn around.” The boy taps his sword on Elera’s shoulder. She turns around slowly, but he doesn’t lower his blade. He pokes the sharp metal tip of the sword into the dip in her throat and holds steady. “Why have you been following me?”

“I haven’t,” Elera says defiantly.

“Then why have you—” The boy pauses to look down at a Bunnelby who has started nibbling on his pant leg. “Get out of here. Get off me.”

The Bunnelby steps back and looks up to the boy with its big eyes. He turns back to Elera. She smirks as the Bunnelby morphs and grows into Zorry before her eyes. The ancient form of Zoroark that has re-emerged into the ecosystem of the Kalos Region taps the boy on the ankle with its foot.

“What the—ahh!”

The boy stumbles and falls flat on his back. The sword clangs off the hard earth and bounces out of his reach. Elera steps forward, her shadow falling over his face. “Now, let’s have a chat, shall we? Blopblop, how about a Spider Web attack?”

Blopblop launches a web of sticky string at the boy, who falls to his knees under the pressure of the webs. The attack prevents other pokémon from escaping in a battle, and she’s hoping it will have the same effect on this Team Burn scum. She picks up the sword and twirls it in her hand. “Not bad,” she says, her tone conversational, like she’s just chatting with someone from her village. “It’s pretty light, though. I prefer something with a little more weight.” She pulls her ax from her belt and holds it to his shoulder. “Feel that? It’s nice, yeah? Scary, too.”

“What do you want?” the boy blurts. Tears have formed in his eyes.

Elera almost feels bad for a moment. “We’ll start with your name. I’ll even give you mine. I’m Elera.”

“I’m Matt.”

Elera stares straight ahead. “Really? That’s not a fake name?”

“Really. My name is Matt.”

A pause. “Weird.” She stands and paces before him. “Next question. Why would you join such an awful, evil group? Team Burn ruined my life and the lives of so many others. How do you sleep at night?”

“Actually, I’m not in Team Burn,” Matt says. “I stole this uniform to try and infiltrate them.”

“You really expect me to believe that?”

“Honestly, no. But it’s the truth.”

Elera throws her hands in the air, exasperated. “You’ve been burning patches of grass every fifty yards. If that doesn’t sound like Team Burn, I don’t know what would.”

“Look.” Matt drops his head and lowers his voice. “Team Burn destroyed my village a few weeks ago. I’ve been hunting them down since then. I stole this uniform from a camp when they were sleeping and I’ve been trying to find the main group.”

“Am I supposed to believe this?” Elera raises the ax above her head. She threatens to swing, but a hand on her hip stops her. She turns to see Axey looking back at her.

“Frax.” It shakes its head, then nods toward Matt. “Frax.”

“You think he’s telling the truth?”

Axey nods again and walks forward. It uses its sharp tusk to free Matt from the web. Matt scrambles back away from Elera but doesn’t try to stand.

“Team Burn destroyed my village, too,” Elera whispers. “It was a long time ago, but I never forgot. I won’t stop until I make them pay for what they’ve done.”

“I feel the same,” Matt says. “And Sandshrew does, too. Right, buddy?”

“Shrew!” The small, yellow pokémon emerges from the tattered remains of the tent and stands at Matt’s side.

“Rotom?”

“Yes, of course,” Rotom says as it hovers before her. “Sandshrew, Kantonian Form, the Mouse Pokémon. A Ground type. Sandshrew will roll into a ball to travel through dry, arid areas at high speeds. Its thick hide protects it from danger.”

“Are there any other pokémon that travel with you?” Elera says. “Are you a Breaker?”

“Nope, I only met Sandshrew recently,” he says. “Team Burn destroyed its home, too. It found me, crying and curled up on the ground in the remains of my village. We hid from a storm together. I told it I wanted to get revenge, and it got so worked up I had to stop it from running out right then. We’ve been together since.”

“That’s nice. Can it fight?”

“It’s gotten me out of a few scapes with other pokémon, for sure,” Matt says. Sandshrew flexes its arms and grunts. “It can definitely hold its own. What about you? I see four pokémon here. Do you have others?”

“I do,” Elera says. “You’ll meet them eventually. If you prove yourself capable and trustworthy, that is.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re coming with me, of course.”

Matt starts to laugh, but stops suddenly when he sees Elera’s face. There isn’t a hint of humor in her expression. “You’re serious?”

“Obviously.” She scoffs and hold out her hand to help him to his feet. “We both have the same goal. We’re both going to be going the same direction. It would make sense for us to work together. And, if you betray me, I’ll cut you down where you stand, so I’m not worried about that.”

“You’re pretty brutal, you know that?”

“I will stop at nothing to reach my goal,” Elera says. “Plus, I like my pokémon friends more than I like most almost every person I’ve ever met, so there’s that.”

“I wouldn’t cross her,” Rotom says.

Matt stares on in awe. “What is that thing?”

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To find shelter,” Elera says. “I destroyed your tent.”

“There’s a cave just a little ways down the path.” Matt points in the direction of the cave. “I only stopped here to catch you.”

“Very well. Lead the way.”

#

It takes Elera and Matt two more weeks, but they finally locate the main force of Team Burn, in the ruins of what was once a complex of huge buildings, with easily over a dozen acres of land inside the outer fence. Rotom says it was some kind of factory used to manufacture all different kinds of pokéballs, but it has long since fallen out of use. Now, it is home to a group of awful people who ruin lives for their own sick pleasure.

“So, we attack in the morning, before sunrise, yeah?” Matt says, interrupting  Elera’s seething.

“Yes,” she says. “We go in while it’s dark. We let Blopblop and Galge create a distraction from the water behind the hideout. Sandshrew can burrow underground and wreak havoc on the guards near the fence. Swordo will slice through the metal fence. Zara, Spikey, and Zorry can clear the way to the entrance on the far left, near the back of the central building. You, me, and Axey will infiltrate and try to find the leaders while the others catch up.”

“Sounds perfect,” Matt says. “Just like you,” he adds under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Just going over the plan.”

“Let’s finish cooking this Stantler meat and put the fire out,” she says while turning the leg of the felled Stantler over the small fire Zara created. “We’ll use Zara’s tail flame to keep us warm tonight.”

The two Breakers and their pokémon companions eat in silence as they mentally prepare for the upcoming battle. Everyone understands that this may cost them their lives, but they all know it is something they have to do. Elera offered for her pokémon to stay behind, but they were all adamant about coming with her. The fact they were willing to lay down their lives to help Elera had nearly made her cry, but she had choked them down to keep her brave face. Now, in the quiet darkness, those feelings are threatening to overwhelm her again.

“Thank you for agreeing to work together,” she says in an attempt to distract herself.

“You didn’t give me much of a choice,” Matt says jokingly.

“I’m serious. You could have left. Thank you for staying.”

“Don’t mention it,” he says. “Like you said before, it makes sense to go at this together.”

“Are you finished with your food? We should get as much rest as we can.”

“Agreed.”

Elera and Matt settle into their makeshift shelter in the middle of a tightly packed group of trees. Elera has decided to leave her pokémon out of their pokéballs for the night, so they can all enjoy one another’s company before the coming fight. Zara curls up beside Elera. Matt nestles in close.

“Elera?” he says.

“Yes, Matt?”

“Do you think we’ll win?”

Elera can barely see him in the dim light of Zara’s tail. She nods slowly. “I hope so. At the very least, I hope you and the pokémon make it out alive. I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I take Team Burn down with me.”

“You really are incredible, you know that?”

“I am just doing what I feel is right.”

“And you’re amazing for that.”

Matt closes his eyes and leans in closer to Elera, his lips puckering as they prepare to meet hers. Her hand is between them in a flash, stopping his advance and holding him in place. “Matt, no.”

“R-right,” he stammers. “Yes. Of course. No. That would be stupid. I’m sorry. I’m just tired and nervous.”

“It’s okay,” Elera says. “Let’s just get some sleep.”

“Right.”

Elera turns the opposite direction and exhales quietly. She can feel the heat in her cheeks and hopes he didn’t notice her blush. She closes her eyes and tries to force herself to sleep through the Butterfree in her stomach.

#

“Axey, use Dragon Dance to get behind them!”

A green glow surrounds Axey as it dashes behind the Team Burn front line. Its claws and tusks almost look sharper as it turns back toward their stunned faces.

“Now, use Dragon Claw!”

Axey’s claws grow to three times their normal size as they’re coated in the same green energy. Axey lashes out, slicing through three Team Burn grunts in a single swipe. Blood pools on the ground as it bounds to the next group, leaving a trail of body parts before they can react. In a few moments, a dozen Team Burn members are lying on the ground. Only a few of them have enough life left in them to even call out in pain. The rest were dead before they hit the floor.

“Wow, it’s so much faster than I’ve ever seen it,” Matt says.

“That’s the Dragon Dance,” Rotom says from Elera’s back. “It increases a pokémon’s speed and attack power.”

“Amazing.”

“Let’s keep pushing,” Elera says.

They sprint across the large room littered with overturned desks and discarded electronics. The double doors leading to a long hallway are thrown open as they burst through without concern for a potential ambush. They have to move quickly if they want to maintain the element of surprise and meet up with the other pokémon.

“Which way?” Matt calls as they approach a branch in the hall.

“Left.” Elera studied the old maps of the factory using Rotom’s screen yesterday, but she has no way of knowing how much things have changed. For some reason, Matt trusts her judgment without question. She just hopes she isn’t leading him into an impossible situation.

The push through another set of double doors and emerge into a huge, jumbled space. The room extends at least a hundred yards in every direction. Old equipment that has fallen into disrepair towers over them, creating small corridors of space. Elera holds up her hand, slowing them to a stop, but she doesn’t stop moving completely. She can’t.

They go right, deeper into the central building of the old Pokéball Factory complex. She guides Matt and Axey through several turns, all leading toward what she hopes is the center of the room where they can climb onto one of the machines and get a view of the space. Each corridor is void of any resistance, and her shoulders start to relax slightly. Maybe no one knows they’re coming yet.

They make a left turn at an intersection, where Elera is forced to push back against Matt, leading him back into cover behind the side of a piece of machinery. The path ahead leads directly to the center of the factory floor, where a portion of the room has been cleared and one of the old machines has been repurposed into a throne of sorts for who must be the leader of Team Burn. Elera didn’t get a good look, but she is fairly certain she wasn’t spotted.

She points down a different corridor, hoping to flank around to the back and attack the leader from behind. They dart across the open space and run as softly as they can across the concrete floor. Elera can see her victory ahead of her. If they can just remain undetected for a few more minutes, she’ll be able to take down the Team Burn leadership and end the team in one move. She has to get there.

“Elera, look out!”

Matt barrels into Elera’s back, knocking her forward and out of the path of a flurry of sharp leaves coming at her. He winces in pain as several lines of blood appear on his legs and back. The leaves didn’t dig too deep, so he forces himself to his feet as Elera scrambles out from beneath him, searching for the source of the attack.

“That was Razor Leaf,” Rotom says.

Axey pulls on Elera’s pants and points to the sky. Up above them, near the ceiling, a silver, metallic bird pokémon is carrying a pokémon with a leaf coming out of the top of its head and eight more around its neck.

“Bayleef, the Leaf Poké—”

“No time for all that,” Elera says. “Just run.”

They sprint forward as hunks of metal fall, nearly crushing them after being sliced off by the Razor Leaf. Each piece of debris gets closer and closer, and Elera has to dive and roll to avoid being hit as her energy fades. They turn down another narrow corridor and run as hard as they can manage. A piece of metal barely misses Elera’s heel, digging into the ground behind her. Matt doesn’t have time to react. He trips and hits the ground hard, knocking the breath from his lungs. Another volley of leaves descends upon him as the floor underneath him starts to rumble.

Just before the leaves slice through him, surely killing him, the floor opens up and he falls. The Razor Leaf collides harmlessly with the concrete floor as Matt falls the short distance into an underground tunnel. “Shrew.” Sandshrew brushes the dust from Matt’s shirt and pushes him to his feet. They emerge from the hole and see Elera, who has turned to try fighting the flying pokémon.

“Shrew!” A line of flying stars emerge from Sandshrew’s mouth and fly toward the Bayleef being carried by another pokémon. The bird pokémon flies to the side, but the stars alter their course and connect with their target. The two pokémon cry out and fall from the sky, landing on top of a rusted catwalk with a thump. A loud whine of twisting metal echoes through the cavernous room as the weight of the pokémon threatens to bring the entire metal structure crashing to the floor.

“Let’s go!” Elera says. “While we have the chance.”

“Hold on,” Matt says while grabbing her arm. “Something’s happening to Sandshrew.”

Sandshrew’s body is bathed in a bright light as it morphs and grows. Spikes grow from the hard shell on its back and the claws on its front and back feet grow longer and sharper. It’s eyes narrow and take on an edge they lacked before. “Slash!” the pokémon calls as its transformation is completed.

“Sandshrew has evolved into Sandslash, the Mouse Pokémon. A Ground type,” Rotom says. A cry from the enemy Bayleef cuts it off before it can continue. “I’ll tell you the rest later. You should run now.”

“Follow me,” Elera calls. They take off at a sprint once again. Elera continues to lead them toward what she believes to be the center of the room, nearest the leader of this evil group.

They finally emerge into the cleared space surrounding the makeshift throne. The old machine is covered in red cloth stitched with orange and yellow flames. Steps made from smaller machines lead down from the pedestal on four sides. A woman sits atop an ornate chair that appears to have been carved from pure charcoal and coated in some substance to keep the black dust from rubbing off. They can’t see her face, but her long red hair hangs in waves over the back of the chair.

Her entire chair rotates as she spins to face them. She’s younger than Elera expected, maybe twenty years old. She wears a confident smirk that draws attention to her brightly painted red lips. Yellow makeup shapes her black eyes, matching the colors of fire that mark the Team Burn uniform. She laughs to herself before standing and walking slowly toward them, her confidence oozing with every step.

“Is this all?” she says, her raspy voice rising and falling like music. “The way my team is up in a fuss, I thought there were a hundred of you. Tell me what it is you want so you can get out of here and I can get back to my morning.”

“We’re here to take you down,” Elera says. “To end you and this team.”

The woman laughs aloud. “That’s funny. You think you two and these little pokémon can best me and my army of warriors, both human and pokémon?”

“We got this far, didn’t we?” Matt puffs up his chest in an attempt to look intimidating, but Elera can see the tremble in his hands.

The leader of Team Burn doesn’t even bother to look at him. She never takes her eyes off of Elera. “You did manage to evade my perimeter defenses. However, this is where your little quest ends. You will never make it out of here alive.”

“Who says I care what happens to me?” Elera says. “What’s stopping me from killing you right now?”

The leader’s eyes narrow ever so slightly. “You can try.”

Elera lunges forward without warning. She draws her ax from her hip and swings at the red-haired woman. Elera feels one hand on her forearm and another on her ribs. Before she can register what is happening, she is flipping in the air. She lands hard on her back, her battle-ax wrenched from her grip.

“I’m Raize, by the way,” the woman says as she casually twirls Elera’s ax.

Elera gasps for breath as she tries to figure out what just happened to her. She’s never been so easily disarmed before, even when she was young and just learning to fight. Who is this Raize woman, anyway?

The battle-ax clatters on the ground beside Elera, who snatches it up before Raize can change her mind. Elera pushes herself to her feet, struggling to hide the pain shooting through her hip. “Good move.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Raize says. “But I would be lying. You telegraphed everything you were about to do. Even my Skarmory and Bayleef would have known what you were planning, and they’re all the way up there.” She points above her head, where the two pokémon are circling down toward them.

Elera raises her ax to defend herself, but the pokémon don’t attack. They swoop down in an arc and land behind Raize, who turns her back to Elera and Matt to rub the pokémon on their heads. “Good job, both of you,” she says. “You led these creeps right to me. I’ll handle it from here.”

The pokémon nod and step back in unison. Raize turns back to Elera and smirks again. “So, tell me, why is it you want to take us down.”

“You destroyed our villages and killed everyone in them,” Matt shouts.

“So?” Raize says, so nonchalant. “We’ve destroyed hundreds of popup villages through this region. And we clearly didn’t kill everyone if two children made it out.”

“But, why?” Matt steps forward, only to be halted by Sandslash grabbing his shirt with its claw.

“For the good of the world, of course,” Raize says. “The best thing that ever happened to this world was when it burned. When the people were knocked out, or almost knocked out, at least, the world started to heal, to truly grow into the best it could be, with pokémon to rule it all. I have no doubts that if the pokémon of legends and myths hadn’t been so brutally destroyed, we would have been eliminated completely. As it stands, though, I have taken it upon myself to finish what our ancestors started, to burn the rest of the human population out of this place so that pokémon can live in peace.”

“What about you? Why do you get to live?” Elera says.

“We don’t.” Raize paces back and forth. “Everyone in Team Burn has taken an oath. When we accomplish our goal, we will also be cleansed in the fire cast down upon us by the pokémon. We will see to it that the human species is eliminated.”

“Hold on one moment,” Rotom says, whirring up around Elera to get between her and Raize. “I am new to this time, so I am not as familiar with the current relationship between humans and pokémon. However, in my time, humans and pokémon lived and worked together in harmony. The war was awful, yes. And the worst of humanity made decisions that were truly deplorable.

“But I believe we can learn from those mistakes. If you were to use your power and your influence to teach people how to live with pokémon, to exist together and cooperate to make the world better, you could help make this world better than it’s ever been. Together, we could show the humans how to atone for the wrongdoings of their ancestors.”

“Let us destroy Team Burn,” Elera says. “Then, maybe we can build it up into something new, something better.”

Raize lowers her head. She nods a couple of times. Relief washes over Elera. She is finally be at the end of this journey. She will finally eliminate the group that destroyed her whole life. And she won’t even have to kill anyone to do it.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

Raize lunges forward. Steel flashes in the flickering light of the fires. Elera feels the cool metal on her side before her ribs erupt in flaming pain. She clutches at her side as her gray shirt is soaked in red blood. Raize spins a knife once in her hand and holds it up near her cheek.

“No!” Matt lunges forward with his sword drawn.

Raize steps to the side and extends her leg, tripping him and sending him tumbling harmlessly to the ground. She stands over Elera as her pokémon bar Axey from charging in. “You will be the next in a long line of humans to burn so that the pokémon may thrive.”

A blast sounds from the distance. Raize glances in that direction but pays it little attention. Elera can feel herself slipping as the edges of her vision start to darken. Raize holds her knife above Elera and smirks again. She tosses her long hair back over her shoulder and raises her arm. Elera closes her eyes.

“Char!”

A wave of heat washes over Elera. The stab of the knife never comes. Instead, she hears it clang against the ground beside her. She opens her eyes long enough to see Zara and the other pokémon running to her. Her eyes fall closed again. Everything fades away.

#

A splash of water jolts Elera awake. Blopblop stands over her. It’s covered in scratches and scrapes, but it is standing strong. A burning pain aches in Elera’s side. She looks down to see that her shirt has been torn away. The cut made by Raize’s knife has been burned closed. There is going to be a nasty scar there, adding to her collection.

“Can you move?” Matt grunts from behind her.

“I think so.” She pushes herself up onto her elbows, fighting though the intense pain in her wound. She turns to see Matt holding off a red and yellow pokémon with sharp claws and a long, thin snout. “Matt!”

Elera forces herself to her feet, picking up her fallen battle-ax. She limps forward as Matt is being pushed back. She swings with as much force as she can mange. The ax sticks into the pokémon’s hide. It cries out in pain and lunges swings at her, missing by barely an inch. Matt pushes the pokémon back, giving him just enough room to stab forward with his sword, impaling the pokémon. He is already at Elera’s side and holding her upright by the time the life drains from the pokémon’s eyes.

“Did you do this?” she asks and points to the burn on her side.

“Zara helped,” he says.

“Thank you.” She turns and scans the area to see all of her pokémon friends engaged in intense combat with both humans and pokémon alike. “Where is Raize?”

Matt points to the throne, where Raize sits and surveys the battlefield. “She said something about this being a grand opportunity to watch more humans be removed from this world and then walked up there to watch.”

“We have to get to her.”

“How? We’re barely alive here. We need to find a way to get out of here with our lives.”

“That won’t change anything,” Elera says.

“No,” Matt admits. “But, it will let us come back and fight again when we’re stronger.”

“They’ll be expecting it. We have to do this now. We’ll never get another chance.”

“Elera, come on,” Matt pleads. “Let’s just go. We’ll figure it out.”

“You go,” she says. “Take the pokémon with you. I’m staying to fight.”

She pushes herself up off of Matt and starts to walk away, but he is right by her side. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Matt, just go.”

“No. I’m staying. I’m seeing it through with you.”

She nods and picks up her speed. The adrenaline coursing through her veins dulls the pain in her side. She pulls her ax from the corpse of the fallen pokémon and charges toward the battle. She and Matt swing wildly in every direction, aiming for any enemy they can reach, pokémon or human. They manage to carve a path through the melee by targeting those already engaged in battle with one of the pokémon on their side. Within minutes, they have gathered up with the eight pokémon and formed into a circle with dozens of enemies surrounding them.

“Well done,” Raize calls from above them. “However, you will still fall, as you should.”

“How are we going to get to her?” Matt mutters from beside Elera.

“Duck when I tell you to.”

Elera nods to Axey, who backs into the center of the circle and spins in a circle as green light surrounds it. At the same time, yellow light pulses around it as uses a new move Rotom called Focus Energy. The green light gets stronger as Axey repeats the spin five more times. At last, it looks to Elera and growls.

“Down!”

Matt, Elera, and the pokémon drop to the ground as the circle of enemies closes in on them. “Frax!” Axey spins in a circle as its claws extend into green light. It slices through human and pokémon alike as if they aren’t there. It doesn’t slow until it has done three complete spins and all of the Team Burn attackers lie on the floor, dead. Reinforcements are running toward them, but they’re still nearly thirty yards away.

Raize looks on in shock as Elera and Axey bound up the stairs toward her. “False Swipe!” Elera calls.

Axey lunges forward and slices at Raize with its tusk, impaling her through the midsection but stopping just before delivering a death blow. Raize falls to her knees as blood pours from her wound, in almost the same place she cut Elera.

“It seems our positions have switched rather quickly,” Elera says as she stands over Raize. She raises her battle-ax above her head. “There is one difference, though. I won’t let you escape.”

“No, please,” Raize says. “I don’t want to die. I only did this because it’s what I was born to do. My parents brought me up to be the next in a long line of Team Burn leaders dedicated to ridding the world of humans. I never wanted this. I just want to live.”

“What about your pact to be cleansed in fire?” Elera mocks.

“I changed my mind,” Raize begs. “I want to live so I can truly help the world. Let’s do it. Together.”

“Elera,” Matt calls. “We don’t have to be like them. We can let her live. It only takes one good deed for the world to truly begin to heal. This could be that moment. This could be the decision that leads to real harmony between humans and pokémon.”

“I suppose it could be.” Elera pauses for one breath before swinging down with all of her strength. Her ax buries into Raises chest, killing her instantly as it connects with her heart. “But she deserves to die.”

Elera limps forward as Matt stares up at her in shock. The room falls into silence. Even the Team Burn members look on without speaking.

White light bathes Axey as it grows and evolves into its final form, Haxorus. What emerges is a black pokémon with red, curved tusks, sharp claws, and a tough hide. At over six feet in height, it is a terrifying sight to behold, especially beside the blood-soaked, dead-eyed visage of Elera.

Elera nods to Axey and pats it on the head. She flops into the chair as Axey takes its place beside her. She rotates to face Matt and the other pokémon, who look on in awe.

“Now, let’s get started.”

To be continued…