Chapter 8: Escape

They had just run out of the gated perimeter of the house. Christopher did not back. It was difficult for him to run while holding two bags. Although he had the shoulder strap of the bag on, he clutched the bag of pokémon eggs to his chest. Katherine ran along beside him, looking around for anyone following. A few feet in front of them were Katherine's bayleef and duskull, making sure that their trainer and her friend remained away from harm.

Since the battle was making so much noise, the whole town seemed to be waking up. Lights were being turned on inside every house. Some people came out of their houses to see what was going on. Looking over at Marie Parry's house, they could see and hear the ongoing battle. Then looking between the two lines of houses they could see two teenagers running with two pokémon.

"We need to get to the Rest House," Christopher said, panting. "We can call Florville for help from there." He was trying to ignore the citizens of the town as they were trying to ask them what was going on. He yelled to them as he continued running. "Please return to your homes. It's too dangerous out here."

"Chris!" Katherine said, grabbing his shoulder to halt him.

"What is it?" he asked. Although he welcomed the rest, he knew that they needed to get out of there. "We need to run for help."

"Why? We can just ask one of these nice people to use their phone."

Christopher looked around and realized that the whole town was probably now awake. There was no point in going any further. "Oh yeah," he said with a little embarrassment. "Let's ask them then."

"Hold it right there, you two!" someone yelled out from behind them as they were about to ask any one of the town citizens. "We're tired of this. Now give us what we want or else."

Christopher turned around to see two of the masked men who had attacked them back at his grandmother's home. "What do you want?" he said. "These eggs? Why? What do you need them for? And who are you?"

"That's none of your business, kid," the same man said. He seemed to be the leader of the small group that had attacked. "Just give us that bag and maybe we can avoid some unnecessary violence."

The man had an untrusting tone. "No! If you want this bag, then you'll have to take them from me."

"Well, if you insist." Both of them each threw a poké ball. "Let's get this over with, sneasel!" His partner also brought out his own sneasel.

Two short dark-colored pokémon appeared. They had thin maroon tails and a long ear of the same color. They stared wickedly at the teenagers. They could smell the fresh lives that were concealed in the pokémon eggs. They wanted to feed on them. But their trainers needed the eggs, so the sneasel knew that they had to refrain. The one sneasel that belonged to the leader raised it right paw and smiled at the two that stood before it. Extending quickly from its paw was its long and sharp claw. Its other claw protruded from its left paw, and the other sneasel did the same.

Christopher looked at the two sets of claws nervously. They glinted ominously in the little light that shone. Then he gasped as he looked wide-eyed up to the sky. The moon was visible again. The moon was shedding some light on the side of a massive object in the sky. The airship now loomed high above the town just behind the two mysterious trainers with their sneasel. It was following them.

"What's going on here?" It was an elderly man who had been standing on his lawn and watching the whole thing. "How dare you young people disturb the peace of this town. You kids have no respect these days."

"Shut up, old geezer! We'll get what we want, and then maybe we'll leave without causing too much damage." The lead trainer turned his attention back to the teenagers. "Come on, kid, hand it over. You have no chance against our sneasel." The boy in front of him just held the bag tighter and stepped back. "Okay, kid, you asked for this. Both sneasel, take them out and get the bag!" Both sneasel reacted quickly and sprinted side by side at the boy. They held their claws back as they ran, ready to strike.

"Bayleef, vine whip!" Katherine yelled.

The bayleef cried out as its two vines shot out and went straight for the quickly approaching sneasel. Just inches before the vines would hit their targets, both sneasel jumped to the side in opposite directions and continued towards the boy with the bag.

Katherine did not hesitate. "Quickly, bayleef, attack the one on the right. Duskull, use your shadow ball on the one on the left."

Bayleef quickly swung its vines to its right at the sneasel. But the sneasel was too fast and easily dodged both whips. Bayleef did not quit, and just kept whipping its vines around to keep the sneasel from getting closer. Meanwhile, duskull was having a hard time with the sneasel that belonged to the enemy leader. Duskull had already attacked with several shadow balls, but the sneasel just used its claws to cut right through the attacks with ease.

"Sneasel, take out that bayleef!" commanded the leader's partner. His sneasel moved quickly to avoid the vines. It was much faster than the bayleef. Then it picked up speed and appeared a few feet to bayleef's side. It pounced.

"Watch out, bayleef! Try swinging your vines around in a circle and use them as a shield," Katherine said, and then looked over at her duskull's battle. Her duskull still was unable to put a scratch on this sneasel. Now, the sneasel's claws were glowing an evil black, and it was furiously slashing at the duskull. "Duskull! Use your future sight!" For a moment, duskull's red eye glowed white and returned to normal before it was finally struck down by the sneasel. The sneasel's black glowing claw had left a weird gash in duskull. Duskull fell to the ground and from its cut, a thin black vapor of its ghostly energy poured out. "No! Duskull, return," Katherine shrieked as she held out her pokémon's poké ball. Looking over to her bayleef, she saw that there was a small red scratch on its back. "Bayleef!"

Christopher stood behind Katherine, shaking. He felt helpless. All he could do was watch as Katherine tried to protect him with her pokémon. It just got worse after seeing her duskull taken down and her bayleef being beaten. He was too engrossed with watching Katherine's bayleef desperately fight the agile sneasel that he didn't notice the other one coming at him.

"Chris, watch out! To your left!" Katherine cried out. While keeping one vine fighting one sneasel, her bayleef shot its other vine towards the other sneasel that stealthily moved towards Christopher.

It was to no avail. The enemy leader's sneasel dodged the vine and lunged at the boy with its arm held back, preparing for its attack. The sneasel would aim for the boy's arm and force him to let go of the bag. But he stepped back to avoid the attack. Sneasel swung its claw and only was able to leave a gash that broke through the bag's material.

"Watch it! We need those eggs," the leader roared furiously. "Now attack and get it right!" His sneasel sprung forward and this time aimed for the legs.

Christopher tried to evade again, but tripped over his own foot from panicking and fell to the ground. The sneasel now had a clear shot and took it eagerly. Christopher tried to move back while still on the ground, but he was too slow. He could only watch in fear as the sneasel kicked off the ground into the air and fell down towards the boy with its razor-sharp claws ready to strike. This time it would not miss. Suddenly, a bright white sphere came out of nowhere and struck the sneasel in mid-air and impaled it into the ground before exploding. The other sneasel stopped fighting bayleef and looked over to where its partner lay.

"What happened!?" the leader yelled angrily. He kept ordering his sneasel to get back up, but it did not.

"Ha! You forgot about my duskull's last attack," Katherine remarked. "That was its future sight."

He cursed in anger as he recalled sneasel into its poké ball. "Gengar!" he called into the night. Nothing happened. He looked back towards the house where he left the rest of his men to fight. "Gengar, get here now!" He had left his ghost pokémon to fight the trainer with the alakazam. Normally, his gengar would appear to him whenever he called. Now, there was no response. And there were no more signs of fighting.

"What's wrong?" Katherine asked mockingly. "Your pokémon not answering your plea for help? Maybe it was defeated."

The leader was about to yell at her when a pokémon appeared out of nowhere and floated toward him. "Ah, gengar, now that you are here, you can take care of these pests." Looking over his pokémon, he saw that his gengar seemed to be struggling to stay afloat. It then collapsed to the ground and stopped moving. "Get up! Get up and fight!"

Behind where the gengar lay, a group of people appeared in a broken stream of light. Standing at the head of the small group was an alakazam with its trainer standing beside it. Christopher was quickly on his feet and was overjoyed with the sight before him. His mother and grandmother were all right as well as his brother. Katherine sighed with relief. Both of the masked trainers stared wide-eyed.

The leader tried to shake off the fear and look poised. But he was still in disbelief. "You're still standing? You couldn't possibly have defeated all my men and pokémon." He sounded unsure of himself.

"My alakazam is pretty powerful. He didn't have to show his true power to defeat them," Nicholas said with confidence. "And with my grandmother's umbreon and vaporeon, we were more than a match for them. All of them ran away when they were defeated. Then we followed this gengar here."

The leader was stunned into silence. He could not believe that these people took on a horde of pokémon and defeated them. "I-impossible..." His head snapped towards the man beside him, who had just yelled. The man had an expression of horror and was shaking uncontrollably. He was looking up into the sky towards the airship, which had stopped above them during the battle. The leader looked up towards the airship and back at the terrified man. "What is it, you fool? You shouldn't show your fear in front of your enemy." All the man did was shake his head and unexpectedly turn away and run. He darted past Christopher and Katherine and continued running with his sneasel not far behind. "Come back here!" his leader yelled.

"Are you sure you do not want to join that coward, and the rest of them? They were all easy to scare," said a woman's voice deep inside his head. He felt a shiver move down his spine and became terrified of the familiar voice. "I suggest that you do if you do not wish to suffer. Your men were smart to run." A violet light that kept his body from moving now surrounded him. "Consider yourself and your men," the voice said as the man was raised from the ground, "fired."

He cried out in pain as his head felt like it was being crushed. Then he was flung back and fell hard onto the ground. The violet light disappeared from around him. He feebly got back up. He flashed a fierce look towards the boy with the pokémon eggs and the trainer with the alakazam. "I'll be back. Mark my words. I'll be back." He recalled his gengar and struggled to run to leave the town.

"What was that all about?" Nicholas asked, confused. He erased all the trouble that happened that night from his mind and looked over at his brother with content. "Glad to see that both of you are all right -"

He was interrupted as a pokémon teleported in-between him and his brother. Both vaporeon and umbreon growled at the newcomer and alakazam readied itself for battle despite its faint trace of tiredness from its last battle. Katherine's bayleef also prepared for battle, but it was exhausted and weak from the damages it took.

Silently standing where it had teleported was an elegant pokémon. It had the appearance of a pokémon wearing a long, slit white dress that hid its thin white legs. The pokémon's thin light green arms hung at its side. Protruding through its back and chest was a red plate. Its large head was down and it had its eyes closed. It was a gardevoir. Everyone was silent and watched it nervously. They did not know whether it was friend or foe, or just a wild pokémon that ended up in the town. Several people gasped when the mysterious pokémon turned its head towards the group with the alakazam. Its eyes burst open, revealing its red eyes that shot a threatening look towards alakazam. The attack was quick and unexpected. A powerful wind struck alakazam and everyone behind it, sending them flying back.

"No!" Christopher cried out. He was about to run to his family when the mysterious pokémon turned in his direction, making him stop. The bag in his arms glowed purple. Christopher held on to the bag tightly as it seemed to be drawn to the psychic pokémon's outstretched arm. "Stop it!" As much as he tried to anchor himself onto the ground with his feet, the pull was too strong. He was only a few feet from the gardevoir's hand when something wrapped around his waist and slowly pulled him back in the opposite direction. It was Katherine's bayleef. But the psychic pull was much stronger, and bayleef was starting to be pulled forward with Christopher.

"Let my brother go." Nicholas was back on his feet. His alakazam joined him at his side. Behind them, Nicholas' mother was helping up her mother-in-law. Umbreon and vaporeon were at their owner's feet, making sure she was all right. "Alakazam, help him."

Alakazam sent a pulse of psychic energy at the enemy psychic pokémon. The attack struck a barrier. Gardevoir still remained facing Christopher, pulling him towards it. Katherine was trying to help her bayleef by pulling on the vines wrapped around Christopher. Alakazam tried several more psychic attacks, each of them having no effect. But it seemed to slow down gardevoir's progress.

"Alakazam, try another one of those psychic balls," Nicholas suggested. "This time, more power."

Alakazam held out its spoon-wielding hands. Its whole body sparked with psychic energy, with most of it concentrated on the space a few inches in front of the spoons. A violet sphere began to form, and then it dramatically grew in size. This time, gardevoir's attention was caught. It released its psychic hold on the bag of pokémon eggs, sending the holder falling backwards by the sudden end of the forward pull. Gardevoir slowly turned around as the large sphere of psychic power speedily hurtled at its target. Gardevoir quickly raised one arm, and its red plate flashed bright red. The dark orb stopped abruptly just a few inches from gardevoir's arm.

"Come on, alakazam, push!" Nicholas cheered on.

Alakazam concentrated on pushing its attack. Gardevoir did not seem to be struggling at all. It brought up its other arm, and then pulled both arms back. Its plate flashed red again. It was going to send it back. No matter how much energy alakazam used, the psychic sphere did not shift. Even though it had not used much of its power in its last battle, it still had expended some and did take minor damages. Gardevoir was about to send alakazam's own attack back when it sensed something approaching. It quickly put one arm back and put up a barrier just in time to shield itself from several blue blasts of water. Alakazam took advantage of this distraction, and with a burst of its power, the dark orb broke free from gardevoir's hold and hit it squarely on the chest before exploding.

Christopher and Katherine turned around. Those water attacks had come from behind them. They saw a beautiful pokémon with a long, sleek body a few yards away. It had two long red antennas that went out and around its long head from above its dark, red eyes. Its body had light-colored skin with the latter half having a scaly patter of blue and red ending with a fan-like tail of the same colors. Christopher instantly recognized this familiar pokémon and the trainer that stood beside it.

"Milotic, another water pulse," Whitney Green said.

Her Milotic fired another powerful blast of water at the smoke that engulfed the gardevoir. Before it hit, gardevoir dispersed the smoke, revealing that it had taken damage. It had bruises all over its body. It did not move as it put up a shield to prevent the water attack from hitting. It was evident that gardevoir was annoyed by all the intrusions. Its red plate was pulsing brightly.

"Whitney," Nicholas said quizzically. "What is she doing here?"

"I guess we never told you that Whitney's parents had finally chose to live here in Lilac Town," his mother said from behind him. "She is visiting them."

"Okay, I have a plan then." Nicholas looked back at umbreon and vaporeon. "I'll need your help, you two. Vaporeon, you go over there," he instructed while pointing at a location, "and use your water attacks. Umbreon, I need you to move to the opposite side and tackle gardevoir."

Umbreon and vaporeon moved to their positions at the same time. Gardevoir sensed the movement and tried to attack only to be hit by a psychic attack from alakazam. But it was weak and gardevoir shrugged it off.

"Vaporeon, use your water gun," Nicholas said. Vaporeon shot out continuous blasts of water at gardevoir, which was hit by a few of them before blocking them with a psychic barrier. "Now umbreon, quick attack!"

Gardevoir kept the barrier up and quickly turned to face the umbreon that was speeding towards it. Gardevoir was about to stop it, but was distracted again by the milotic and alakazam's attacks. Gardevoir had to strengthen its shield to deflect them. It tried to stop umbreon as the pokémon pounced, but umbreon went unaffected by the psychic attack and broke through the shield, tackling gardevoir. Gardevoir fell to the ground with umbreon pinning it down.

"Whitney, take Chris and Katherine to safety," Nicholas yelled over to Whitney. As much as he wanted to know how she's been doing, this was not the time. "Take them to Florville for now. I'll catch up to you guys later."

Whitney did not want to leave her friend and his family behind, but she believed Nicholas knew what he was doing. She recalled her milotic into its poké ball. "Come on, you heard your brother. Let's go!"

"You need rest, bayleef. Return," Katherine said, holding out bayleef's poké ball. She turned towards Whitney and pulled on Christopher's shirt. "Come on. Your family will be fine with your brother."

Christopher nodded and ran away with Katherine and Whitney.

Gardevoir was now angry. A burst of its psychic energy sent umbreon flying. Gardevoir raised itself into the air. The plate on its chest was now glowing a bright red that surrounded its body. Red sparks began to radiate from gardevoir.

Nicholas struggled to breathe as he felt the atmosphere begin to thin. He looked around and saw that everyone who was still outside their houses were gasping for breath as well. Alakazam had its eyes closed in deep concentration. It did not need to breathe as much while it was meditating. This time, alakazam drew on all the power it had. It was trying to reverse the atmospheric field gardevoir had created. Nicholas was able to breathe again, but only in short, weak breaths.

"Venusaur, help us out here," he whispered, weakly, while holding out a poké ball. Before venusaur was fully out of the ball, Nicholas said, "Vine whip. Quickly."

As soon as venusaur appeared it already felt the thin air and quickly shot out many vines at the gardevoir that hung in the air, glowing an evil red. Venusaur was soon struggling to breathe, but did not let up. It kept whipping at the barrier around gardevoir and started to combine it with razor leaf. But it still had no effect. Venusaur's attacks were weakening. Nicholas and his pokémon were suddenly surprised when other pokémon had started to appear around them. The town citizens with their own pokémon were trying to help. Some of the newcomers were striking gardevoir's barrier with their own attacks. There were also other psychic pokémon trying to help alakazam. Gardevoir's shield was becoming weaker as it struggled to maintain it. Gardevoir tried to fight back, but there were too many and attacking them all would result in loss of much needed energy. Then the attacks stopped. Gardevoir figured that they had either passed out or knew that it was useless. But it was wrong. Several bright hyper beams shot right at gardevoir, breaking through the shield and exploding on impact with gardevoir, bringing it down from the sky. Before gardevoir hit the ground, it teleported and was nowhere to be seen. The air was returned back to normal.

Meanwhile, Whitney was driving Christopher and Katherine in her car. They had departed from Lilac Town. They had felt uneasy when they saw a bright red light in the sky above where they had left everyone. They also saw the great explosion and the disappearance of the red light. They were unsure about what had happened. Whitney wanted to turn back, but she knew that she had to trust Nicholas.