FireBolt M3 Ch4

The party of Rogues was mostly quiet, some team members quietly speaking to each other here and there, as they crossed the expansive coastal meadow. Kumar stayed ever-present at Devonshire's side but spoke to no one, only staring at the black orb in the Sableye's hands, eager to see it put to use.

About 60 feet away from the tower, Devonshire suddenly stopped. Startled, the others stopped and looked around, wary.

"Qué?" Azul asked, surveying the area. "Trouble? Why did we stop?"

Everyone continued to watch out for signs of trouble, be it the Rescuers or the Merchants or both. After a moment, Eva came closer to Devonshire. "Is it the Terrakion?"

Kumar looked at her. "Terrakion?"

Gasser guffawed. "You didn't come here clueless, did you?"

Devonshire explained before Kumar could react rashly. "To find out what we needed to do with this Dark Stone, Gunpowder visited Terra Cave after carrying your unconscious body back to the village.

A few Rogues chuckled. Kumar tried to ignore them and listen.

"In the cave, Gunpowder met Degue, a powerful Pokémon called a Terrakion and one of the legendary Three Musketeers. Degue warned him not to bring the stone to the altar in the tower's basement."

"Why?" Kumar asked.

Devonshire simply replied, "He doesn't trust us."

"Is he here now?" Mars questioned.

Devonshire stared blankly into space. "I don't know if it's him, but someone else is here. That much I'm sure of."

Everyone held their breath and waited. The silence thickened as stillness took over. Nobody could see or hear anything…

And yet Kumar thought he had felt something. A sensation so small and faint that it was almost undetectable. From the slight stirring of the other Rogues, he knew they could feel it, too. It grew steadily with each passing second.

Gazing around, Kumar still couldn't see anything, but the strange feeling persisted. It moved through him like vibrations. Where was it coming from? Kumar held perfectly still, save his tail flame, to strengthen his sense of touch. A slight breeze passed through the air, but nothing out of the ordinary came with it. The source wasn't in the air. No, now that it was getting stronger he could feel it starting at his feet. The ground beneath him was…

"Dig!" Azul shouted.

"Scatter!" yelled Eva.

The Rogues did scatter, and just in time. The earth at the center of where they once stood together exploded upward. Dirt and grass flew everywhere. The Rogues blocked their eyes from the oncoming debris.

In the slowly-receding dust, a figure appeared. Blue skin, orange pointed gills, black fins, light green scarf. As soon as it came through the dust, the Marshtomp shot a piercing jet of water at several of the Rogues, who quickly got out of the way.

An ambush, Kumar thought, well out of the water's way. One of the guilds must be attacking us.

"Defense!" Devonshire hollered, still clutching his treasure.

A small piece of earth exploded in front of the Sableye. Before he could react, a Gible with orange Krokogoggles and a blue bandana shot into the air and head butted him with an Iron Head. The attack partially hit the Dark Stone as well, and the black orb flew up into the air. Devonshire gasped and watched it sail overhead.

Team Caliente saw the flying stone and prepared to catch it. Unwittingly, they crashed into another team that had crawled out of the Marshtomp-dug hole – a Jigglypuff wearing a red bow and a Pecha barrette, and a Chikorita bearing a yellow messenger's bag. The Jigglypuff took a deep breath. With her exhale came a powerful, hot pink Flamethrower, forcing the Rogue duo back. At the same time, the Chikorita summoned Ancient Power to reinforce the Flamethrower, doubling the damage. Bona and Mars crashed to the ground several feet away, then struggled to push themselves back up.

At the same time, Kumar also saw the orb falling and rushed for it. As gravity pulled it down faster, he leaped forward, arms outstretched. The Dark Stone fell safely into his hands as he slid on the grass on his belly. Standing, he looked at the orb. A strange sort of mysterious aura emanated from it – he didn't have to be a Lucario to feel that. This thing…it's really going to awaken that dragon? Then…

"Don't let them get into the tower with that stone!"

Kumar looked up. He knew that shrieking voice. From the hole created by the Marshtomp, a familiar Kecleon had appeared. PK, holding her own stone, this one a light gray. She crawled out, clutching the stone and barking orders to the Merchant teams that attacked them.

In the next instant, a jet of water plowed into Kumar, knocking him off of his feet. Groaning from the super-effective hit, he stood, still holding the stone, and looked in the direction it had come from, expecting to see the Marshtomp facing him now.

The Marshtomp wasn't there. Instead, a Frillish with a white ribbon tied above her collar faced him. He could barely make out a second Pokémon, a shiny Petilil, hiding behind the Frillish. Holding tight to the stone, Kumar glared back.

The Frillish began to glow light blue. She bowed her head forward, allowing the center of her crown of tuft to point straight at Kumar. Bubbling forth with more than enough power to shatter a window, a Water Spout emerged from the "crown's" center and shot toward the Charmander.

Rather than feel worried, Kumar felt excitement boil within him. A real chance to train, he thought. Moving the orb under his left arm, he powered up his right fist with electricity until the whole arm was covered with dancing sparks. Timing his attack to the last second, he threw his Thunder Punch forward, straight into the oncoming Water Spout. While he couldn't stop the blast of water from hitting him, he did manage to weaken its strength. The electricity from his fist traveled up the spout at nearly lightning speed, connecting with the Frillish and zapping her. With a short cry, she collapsed on the ground. A few sparks danced across her smooth pink body as she tried to get up but could not. Quick to react, the Petilil, also wearing a white bow, came closer and lightly touched her partner. Her body began to glow light green as she performed Aromatherapy.

As much as he wanted to finish the fight, knowing full well the Frillish was not defeated yet, Kumar knew he had a bigger job to do. Holding the stone in both hands again, he darted back toward Devonshire, who had apparently been watching Kumar the whole time.

The Gible that had attacked the Sableye was now fighting with Team Risen Rage. Nearby, the Marshtomp took on Team Kick Gas, having a bit of a hard time due to Gasser's stench, and Team Caliente retaliated with Paybacks and Take Downs against the Jigglypuff and Chikorita. With everyone busy, Kumar had no trouble reaching Devonshire.

"Good job," the Rogues leader said. "Let's keep this out of their… Watch it!"

Kumar turned in time to get a fury of Tail Slaps to the face. He staggered back, holding his arms up to block the sudden onslaught. Feeling that it had ended, he lowered his arms to see Chill, holding a white stone and a black stone. The Minccino had stolen the stone from him during the attack.

Kumar growled angrily at the Rescuer leader as Devonshire stepped forward. "Give back the Dark Stone, Chill."

Chill smirked victoriously. "Now why would I do that? So you Rogues can take over and cause more trouble for everyone? That wouldn't be cool."

"Stupid Rescuer!" Kumar charged and swung an Iron Tail at Chill. The attack hit, but when he looked he saw his tail had connected with the fist of a different Pokémon. A Riolu had blocked his attack using Quick Attack and Shadow Claw. Kumar's thoughts went straight to Axel. Taking another look, he saw that it wasn't Axel, but a different Riolu, one with orange eyes instead of red and a wing-like marking over his left eye. Another Rescuer, he decided with a growl.

As Kumar powered up a Thunder Punch, another Pokémon – a Lopunny – darted around the Riolu and struck him in the chest with a powerful Return punch. The Charmander tumbled backwards head over tail, finally stopping on his back, wincing from the attack. Added to the Water Spouts from earlier, the damage he had taken was severe.

"Great, dudes!" Chill exclaimed. "Let's climb that tower!" Joined by the Lopunny and Riolu, he started for the entrance. Devonshire quickly blocked his path, ready to fight all three of them if he had to. A long shadow crawled up to his right and reformed into PK. The Kecleon kept her distance from Devonshire, making it clear that she was not there to help him but to help herself.

As the guild leaders faced off, Kumar tried to pull himself back up to his feet. That Return had knocked the wind out of him, but he wouldn't let himself be defeated. Certainly not that easily. Grunting and groaning, he slowly got back up, though he hunched over in obvious weariness. The flame on the end of his tail burned brightly and he could feel the fire within him strengthen. Blaze had awakened. Injured as he was, he still had an extra boost of strength to push him onward before he was totally out.

He looked to his left just in time to see a small Pokémon hurling toward him, its body covered in sparks. He dodged, and the Pokémon – a Tynamo – crashed its Spark attack into the grass. The Tynamo grumbled in frustration, turned herself about, and threw herself toward Kumar again, this time with a regular Tackle. Instead of blocking her, Kumar swatted her away with his tail. She landed a several feet away, crying out in disappointment. A Numel came up beside her and looked down at her.

"Don't just stand there!" she shouted. "Attack him before he attacks us!"

The Numel looked up at Kumar and began to power up a Lava Plume.

Kumar knew that wouldn't be as effective, but he couldn't risk knocking himself out in battle. He had to conserve his energy to help Devonshire – and himself. My mistakes in Creeping Forest won't happen again.

He took a deep breath, but instead of firing a Flamethrower to counter the Lava Plume, Kumar exhaled a thick Smokescreen. The smoke quickly consumed the two Pokémon. When the Lava Plume was unleashed, it missed its target entirely.

With his attackers struggling to find their way out of the Smokescreen, Kumar ran back to Devonshire.

The Sableye jumped back from a double Blizzard by Chill and his Lopunny bodyguard. Catching Kumar's approach out of the corner of his eye, Devonshire turned for brief moment. "Kumar!"

Kumar stopped to see his guild leader hold up an Oran Berry – where he had gotten it, Kumar wasn't sure. Devonshire pitched it toward him. The Lopunny jumped after it; seeing this, Kumar went for it also.

Knowing the Lopunny would likely reach the berry first, Devonshire created light blue flames of Will-o-Wisp around him. Directing the Will-o-Wisp with his hands, he threw the attack toward the unsuspecting Lopunny. The Lopunny cringed at the sudden burning sensation all over his body and fell to one knee on the ground.

The Lopunny distracted by his burns, Kumar had no trouble grabbing the berry first. He consumed it immediately and took a deep breath of relief as he felt his body strengthen. Turning his attention back to Devonshire, he saw that, for turning his attention away from the other Pokémon, the Sableye had suffered a hit from PK's Shadow Sneak. Deeply irritated with the constant meddling, Kumar charged forward as if to take on both opposing guild leaders at once.

He fired a Flamethrower at PK, hitting her dead on. Her charred body stood still in a defensive posture when the flames disappeared. To Kumar's shock, PK suddenly burst into light and vanished.

"Nice try, shrimpy!"

Kumar turned to see the real PK standing far behind Devonshire, who was recovering from the previous attack and defending himself from the Riolu at the same time. Hissing in frustration, he wheeled around to find Chill. The Minccino was making a run for the tower's entrance with both stones still in his possession. Kumar didn't hesitate to give chase, but he stopped at a sudden shout.

"Incoming!" came Gasser called, amusement rich in his voice.

Chill stopped and looked up, but he was not fast enough to react. The Marshtomp came crashing down on top of him with a whumph! Both stones rolled away from the incapacitated Rescuer.

Kumar reclaimed the Dark Stone. Sneering at Chill, who tried to claw his way out from under the dazed Marshtomp, he kicked the Light Stone away. He then turned to find his guild leader again. Enough of this. It's time to awaken that damn dragon!

Within only a few steps, Kumar was forced to stop again. A Chimchar with a small necklace and a Treecko with a black scarf wrapped around the top of his head stood in the way.

Revved for battle, the Chimchar bolted forward with a Scratch ready. "Out of our way!"
Kumar powered up another Thunder Punch. Before he could throw it, however, a tall blue Pokémon landed on its feet in front of him. Without missing a beat, Azul ducked low and swept a leg out against the Chimchar's legs. The Low Sweep knocked the surprised Chimchar onto his back.

Seeing this, the Treecko ran in to help his partner. Before he could get close, Sludge fired through the air at him. He jumped back, barely evading the attack. Gasser floated up next to Azul, his scarf moved down to allow him to spit his poisonous attacks.

Azul glanced over his shoulder at Kumar. "You and Devonshire, get inside the tower. Vaya!"

Kumar nodded but said nothing. They had him covered. Now he and Devonshire could complete the mission.

A small hand touched Kumar's shoulder. Flamethrower ready in his mouth, he whirled around and prepared to fire.

"Don't attack! It's me!"

Devonshire had raised his arms in the air in surrender, hoping not to get blasted. Kumar sighed. "Don't sneak up on me."

Devonshire took the Dark Stone from him. "We should go now while the other guilds are distracted."

Kumar looked around. Indeed, each team was fighting with another. It looked like war, except that no one had been killed. Even the other two guild leaders were too busy with one another to notice the missing Rogue leader.

"The others will make sure they stay out of our way for now," Devonshire said. "You and I will go ahead to the altar. Come!"

Kumar didn't need an order; he almost passed Devonshire as the two ran to the tower's entrance. Nobody stopped them from going in this time.