Chaos Ablaze

From the warehouse the underground coliseum was held in, the flames spread through the freightyard and then through the rest of the industrial area of Palo Vista’s east side. Warehouses, shacks, and work sites caught ablaze by the inferno, fueled by the madness that gripped Ratt and Frel, and soon spread out into the residential areas that bordered the industrial zones.

A quiet, serene evening in Palo Vista was torn apart by the crackling of flames, the screams of the people, and the wailing of sirens. Police officers arrived on scene to try and cordon off areas and maintain control of the situation. Medical personnel followed, to keep watch for the wounded, and then the fire brigade - humans and Water-type Pokémon Aura Linked together - to fight the hungry blaze.

Carea Cancerix - Team Rocket Executive Cancer - watched her handiwork from the safety of her rented penthouse suite, the highrise giving her a sweeping view of the city and the flame, but felt only annoyance in how things were playing out.

The latest batch of her **** was a success in some sense of the word, as it clearly enhanced the Aurality of two degenerate losers without a whiff of talent between them, but it was evidently clear they had also gone utterly berserk in the process. Either the Aura production and intensity was too much for body and mind to handle, or it lowered inhibitions too much, or it heightened the subject’s emotional state too much - some some combination of the three - for this version of Wrath to be finalized. That would mean back to the drawing board, back to the lab, back to clandestine testing.

“The bio feedback is still valuable, no need to fret.” Said Grotta, as she snuck up behind Cancer, seemingly reading the thoughts just by the reflection she cast in the window. Reading her placid face half-covered by the mask she wore. Grotta’s expression was just as inscrutable, the Grimer woman wearing a full hazmat suit and mask to contain her toxic, sludge-like body. In her hand, she held a tablet, only idly looking at the information on it at best.

“High Aurality production from both human and Pokémon, strong density of Aura particles, high sync rate - what’s more, these stats have been rising. They’ve only gone up in the last hour.” Grotta explained to her partner. Cancer grunted in return, eyes locked and unmoving on the conflagration so far away. “Perhaps any issues are due to the subject’s lack of… quality, shall we say.” Grotta’s voice was smooth, rich, and silky, deep and oozing, flowing as freely as her unrestrained body would. And it was just as toxic as her body, too. “The test pool is still small enough, I believe this iteration of Wrath still has merit.”

“It still puts us behind that dimwit Taurus and his insipid plan.” Cancer said in her muffled, reverberating voice. The mechanics of her mask huffed, dispelling gas, making it seem as if she was sighing. “And I for one am tired of playing second fiddle to that lech.” She saw Grotta’s reflection shrug in an exaggerated manner. Her body language was often exaggerated, to make up for the fact almost no one saw her face.

“His Rocket Girl plan is good for us in the short term. Our research will be key for the long term. Let him bask in the sun for now. Cancer Squad will win the day for Team Rocket, to be sure.”

“Hmm.” Was Cancer’s noncommittal response. She continued to stare out in the flames, her handiwork, as Ratt and Frel rampaged because of her. As homes were burned and lives were lost or forever changed. Because of her.

Not that anyone would ever know. She would cover her tracks to ensure no one would ever realize what had truly happened this night.

And not that it really mattered, in the long run. A few dozen casualties versus the fate of the world. What shortsighted fool would make the opposite choice or feel guilt over this situation? Leo had given her a mission and she would see it through, no matter what the cost. That was something Caner had decided a long time ago.

“Send the data to our main server.” Cancer ordered, after a long period of silently staring at the fire. “Then, send the kill code to the probes mixed in with the **** before scrubbing that tablet of anything incriminating. When you’re done with that, call the driver. It’s time for us to leave this place and get back to HQ.” Grotta obeyed her squad leader without a word, doing the four tasks in order with efficiency one only had through repetition. “You made an excellent point of the potential of this variant, Grotta. But also, it may have uses even if we can’t figure out how to perfect it. Tomorrow, we’re going to see if this can be aerosolized and weaponized, and if it works on non-Linked subjects, as well.”

“I will begin procuring more guinea pigs at once, then.” Grotta replied, once more lightning quick with the tasks given to her.

Orange and scarlet flames, rising and writhing skyward like **** hands trying to take hold of the stars or moons, the flickering colours reflected off of Cancer’s pale skin and dark eyes, as she remained impassive and motionless before the carnage she created. Despite witnessing such wholesale destruction, Cancer’s placid nature made it look as if she was bored by the whole affair. Not untrue, seeing as how Palo Vista wasn’t the first sitting she had inflicted such a riot upon.

Pyrite, Po Town, Cordovan City, Spikemuth, Blackwood… well, there had been so many already she had forgotten more than a few. Such as it is. Such is the price of progress.

By the time she was back in her lab in twelve hours, Carea Cancerix would have forgotten most of the details of her time in Palo Vista. Only the hard data of her testing and the memory of the dancing flames would remain.

/////

The air was heavy and hazy, blazing hot and choked with smoke. Crim came to coughing and hacking, pulling himself up from the streets as the fire raged all around him.

He remembered… fleeing the underground fight club with Joy, managing to stay with her as they were swept up in the huge crush of people. They rushed away from the old warehouses back into the city proper, with the flames always on their heels, spreading mercilessly from building to building, periodic explosions causing them to bloom and jump their way down town. Sparks and rubble rained from rooftops.

He remembered… he was wondering if there was any chance the trains or buses would still be running in all this chaos, as the fire and commotion woke people up from their sleep, just in time to see their apartment buildings catch aflame. Surely the buses would be interrupted in their service, by the subway had to be okay, right? Right. They just had to find a station, get underground, and they could escape all of this.

He remembered… emergency services arriving on scene: police and medics and firefighters. They attempted to take control of the situation. Crim and Joy were about to approach one to ask for help, when a loud, maniacal laughter was heard over the crackling of the fire. The silhouettes of Ratt and Frell stood starkly against the inferno they created, the berserk Battler duo looking as if they were challenging the assembly of police officers and firefighters. Some reached for their weapons, some charged their Aura, but the two pyromaniacs were quicker on the draw.

Crim remembered… a sharp whistle piercing the air, drowning out the roaring flames and the mad laughter. Frell had conjured missiles of flame and launched them into the air, peeling upwards at a frantic pace. The barrage of missiles smashed into nearby buildings, exploding the top floors and sending the rubble cascading all along the street. Something at that moment possessed Crim to grab joy and run down a side alley in the vain attempt to escape the falling concrete. The emergency workers, Crim, and Joy were all caught in the rock slide.

His entire body ached, even as he was wracked with an awful cough, but Crim was able to stagger to his feet. The sound of roaring flames and wailing sirens filled the air. Fortunately, it seemed that Ratt and Frell had moved on. Somehow, Crim was all alone, having slipped through the alley and then blown onto the other street by the **** of the explosion. But where was Joy? Joy, Joy, Joy… he had to find her! It was his fault she was in this mess, if anything happened to her because of him, then…

“Help… please… someone…”

The weak cry was barely audible over the din of the chaotic evening, but Crim heard her nonetheless. Renew vigour spurned his body to move to the sound of Joy’s distressed cry, finding her buried up to waist in rubble. Her face was sooty and bloody, but she still smiled all the same when she saw him. Either the rubble pinning her down wasn’t too heavy for him, or the adrenaline and guilt fueling his body made him strong enough to move it. Regardless, Crim had Joy free in minutes. Her left ankle was swollen and bruised.

“Okay, okay, nice and easy…” Crim huffed out in exertion, as he hooked one of Joy’s arms over himself. He managed to get both of them vertical. It looked like she could put some weight on her ankle, but not much. “Alright, upright and all right…” Crim joked with a weary smile, maybe more for himself than for joy. “Now, let’s get going and…”

“And…” Joy followed on where Crim trailed off. “Where are we going, what are we doing?”

Crim’s head swiveled around the inferno they were standing in. He wasn’t too familiar with the city’s east side to begin with, and combined with the burning hellscape that had consumed it and the fact he just woke up from being knocked ****, he had no bearings, no idea where they were or where anything was.

“West… go west…” He finally said, trudging along while supporting Joy. “Away from the fire. We’ll find someone, something. EMTs, a station, a shelter… it’ll be all okay…”

“Yeah, all okay…” Joy nodded along, speaking softly. “After tonight, it will all seem like a bad dream, right?”

Crim nodded grimly, doing his best to ignore everything as he took one step at a time. His body was sore, his breathing ragged, his mouth was as dry as a desert. But he never complained once, never stopped for more than a moment. He had to get out of this hell and, more importantly, had to get Joy out of it, too. He was too close to his dream to fall now. He had to find a way back to safety, he just had to!

He didn’t survive the destruction of Cordovan City just to die in another freak Aura attack.

The shadows of his past licked at his back, almost as scorching hot as the flames. But things were different. He wasn’t a kid like he was twelve years ago. He was a man, eighteen, and almost a full-fledged Battler himself, just like the hero of the day.

Escaping both the fire and his past, Crim and Joy tirelessly and wordlessly marched forward, slipping through more alleys to avoid more rubble, more ruin, a few burnt out cars, and some hotspots. The sweltering heat was oppressive and Crim wasn’t sure if they were moving away from the blaze or simply staying one step ahead. Finally, Joy took out her phone, miraculously intact despite everything that had happened. Emergency services had halted the spread of the flames and were doing what they could to fight back, but more importantly, beyond their cordon they had set up a triage station for the wounded and were advising anyone still in the streets of the affected area to get to that station. It was six blocks away. They were close, so close.

Then, not one block later, emerging from an alley Crim had used as a short cut, they ran into Ratt and Frell again. The sight of the Magmar’s wild flames exuding from her body caused Crim’s heart to sink.

Fortunately, it seems they had caught the pair in the middle of something, as the two were fighting several yakuza thugs in suits, an even number of humans mixed in with Mightyenas and Liepards. They were fighting, Pokémon versus Pokémon and human versus human. And even though Ratt and Frell were both outnumbered six-to-one, it looked like they were winning handedly.

The thugs came at them with knives, chains, clubs, and brass knuckles, and Ratt - skinny, pasty, strung-out Ratt - was holding them off with punches, kicks, and elbows, whirling around like a crazed dervish. Frell was similarly unapproachable, as she wildly unleashed her flames all about her in wide arcs. A new smell - burning Liepard and Mighthyena fur - entered Crim’s olfactory memories, and he really wished it hadn’t and that he could forget it.

In a matter of minutes, Ratt and Frell had chased the group of thugs away. Crim (and by extension, Joy) watched it all happen, paralyzed with fear that they were once more face-to-face with the source of this chaos.

“Huh? That’s it? That’s all you got!?” Ratt screamed at the fleeing thugs. “All that big talk and you run away! Well, be sure to tell your boss - tell Kurotame that I’m coming for him! Before this night is done, me and Frell are gonna torch the bastard! Get our ****! You hear me!”

“Hear him!” Frell echoed in a pained, strained voice. “Burn them! Torch them!”

Glittering motes of red and orange gathered around Frell, and that almost made Crim fall over in shock. Aura particles. Aura particles on the visible spectrum! Only when they were so dense and so intense were Aura particles visible to the naked eye. What in the world had happened to this poor Pokémon that she could muster this kind of power?

The glimmering grew in intensity, a shimmering haze of colour around Frell, as the aura condensed and flickered into a halo of fire. With a great roar, the fire exploded outwards in all directions, a wave of flame so bright and so hot and so fast that Crim could only gawk at it as it surged towards him and Joy.

But then, instead of being roasted by the expanding arc of fire, something bodily hurled itself into Crim (and, again, by extension, Joy), knocking both of them to the ground. This something that collided with them pressed itself atop them, pinning them down, even as the wave of flame passed over them. Crim felt the surging heat, felt his skin redden and prickle at the sensation, but did not catch aflame and burn as he thought he would.

“Whoa! That was close. Are you two okay?”

When Crim regained his senses and looked up, he saw that the something was someone - specifically, the busty Pokemon girl with the white muzzle and hoodie who sat next to them at the arena! She gave him a reassuring smile and he tried to return it in kind.

“You two should get out of here, we can hold him off…”

She then pulled herself away from Crim and Joy, allowing Crim to sit up and see that now someone else was engaging with Ratt and Frell. An Alolan Ninetails woman with her lustrous, icy white fur sparkling in the firelight, dressed in a leather jacket and ripped jeans, was duking it out with the two rampaging pyros. And she seemed to be doing a better job than the thugs, trading strikes with Ratt while dancing away from Frell’s flames whenever she interjected.

For some reason, Crim could now see things much clearer than before. Ratt and Frell were strong, fuelled by some sort of ****, but they fought without discipline or thought. Ratt’s long, lanky limbs lashed out like limp noodles, whereas the Pokémon's strikes and blocks were precision blows. Frell’s flames came out in great gouts of superheated fire, but she was slow and lumbering in her movements, both to position herself against the nimble Ninetails, and to try and hit her. Maybe they were strong, but for now, the Ninetails was elegantly dancing around the two crazed Battlers.

And then the hoodie girl came in, light on her feet despite her voluptuous frame, almost flying, as she scooped up Frell by the armpits and dragged her away from where Ratt and the Ninetails were brawling. The cotton hoodie she was wearing began to fray and cinder from the sheer convection Frell’s body was putting out.

“Mirai! Be careful!” Suddenly, appearing from the same alley Crim and Joy had used, another Pokémon woman suddenly appeared, this one a Braixen with a dark red mane to contrast her tawny fur. “Without Aura, you can’t handle that heat. And Reiko - oh gosh! Now that I’m up close, I can see it! There’s something very wrong with this man’s Aura! It’s all corrupted and twisted, pouring into the Magmar like a surging flood!”

“Tell me something I don’t know!” The Alolan Ninetails, Reiko apparently, grunted out while she blocked a flurry of blows with her arms. “But all it means is I just have to knock this sucker out to cut off the flow!”

“Who sent you, huh? Who sent you!” Ratt cried in a hoarse voice, foaming at the mouth as he relentlessly attacked Reiko. “Kurotame - it was Kuro, right!? That bastard, get him, burn him…. Ahahahahhahahhahaaaaaa!!”

“Crim… who are they?” Joy asked in wonderment, Crim once more engrossed in the action before him.

“I don’t know… Vigilantes?” He had heard reports of Aura Battlers assuming identities and alter egos to fight crime in other cities, but… no. He was pretty sure these two Pokémon, Reiko the Ninetales and Mira the unknown, weren’t using Aura. So then, who were they? What were they?

But questions aside, a dreadful realization set in for Crim, as he watched the skirmish unfold, as he watched the mysterious hooded Mirai barely dodge blistering fireballs and the stunning Reiko exchange blows with Ratt. If they weren’t Aura Linked, they had no form of protection against Frell’s flames, and it also meant that Reiko’s blows didn’t have any power behind them. Especially worrying considering Crim and Joy had just watched Frell take a beating from that roided-up Mudsdale and shrug it off like they were nothing.

All Mirai could do was dodge, barely keeping ahead of Frell’s ****. And Reiko began to openly wince and grunt, holding her arms after blocking a few of Ratt’s strikes. Whoever these women were, there was no way they could win this fight.

And despite the danger, despite Joy’s safety being at risk, despite the fact that they were so close to getting to safety, Crim found himself desperately wanting to help these two strangers as they brawled with the rampaging Battler duo. But he had to consider his safety, and Joy’s. Not to mention, he knew nothing of street-fighting. He would have less of a chance against Ratt and Frell than these two.

Should we escape? Or do we just become a target if I try it? He thought to himself, helplessly watching the fight play out before him. His legs were quaking and he could feel his heart sinking into a deep, dark pit. He felt so helpless!

Then, as if the universe around him answered his ****, panicked prayer, the Braixen woman reacted to something. Unlike her comrades, she had been observing the fight with the same amount of desperation and worry as Crim. But then, her ears perked up, waggling for a moment before standing upright. She turned to face Crim and Joy for the first time, violet eyes glimmering in the night and falling on Crim with certainty and determination. Crim shivered when those eyes fell on him. There was something about him, something reverberating in them that felt… strange.

“You! You have Aura! A good amount of it, too!” She blurted that out as if it explained anything before rushing up to Crim. She wore a pouch on her belt and quickly began rummaging through it, pulling out a scrap of paper and an ink brush. Despite there being no ink on the tip of the brush, as she swished it across the paper, black lines began to form and take the shape of some esoteric rune. “Pardon, but if we’re going to get through this, we need to borrow your Aura.” She slapped the paper - symbol and all - to Crim’s chest, perfectly sticking there.

“Wha…? What is this?” Crim exclaimed in utter shock and confusion, staring wide-eyed at the strange marking on his chest. The edges of the black paint began to glow in a dull, red light!

“An Aura glyph. Like they used before Aura Link technology.” The Braixen explained, as she drew to more identical glyphs. “They won’t fully empower my friends, but they’ll give us a fighting chance against this maniac.” Holding the two pieces of paper in her hands, fanned out, the Braixen snapped her arm dramatically towards the fight, the two marked cards flying from her grasp. Unbelievably, they both soared directly to Mira and Reiko and adhered themselves to their bodies, as fastly and snugly as the one on Crim.

The glyphs began to glow as well, the red light harmonizing as the three were linked. Crim felt a sensation, as if he were being forcibly pulled upwards and towards the two Pokémon, not in mind but in spirit. It was different then the tests he had done at school, but he did feel the tingling threads of energy now connecting the three.

Both Mirai and Reiko must have felt it, too, as Reiko gave a fierce grin, canines flashing along her narrow, elegant snout. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand and made her move, charging full-bore at Ratt, moving faster than she was just a moment ago. Within a heartbeat, she cleared fifteen feet and caught him right beneath the chin with a rising knee strike, the smashing blow enough to bowl the man over. Reiko hurtled over Ratt’s prone form and didn’t break stride when she landed, still running at full speed, now aimed at Frell. Despite the intense heat radiating from the Magmar woman, Reiko charged in without hesitation, flying once more and slamming into the chest of the Fire-type with a flying kick. It didn’t knock Frell down, but it did stagger and wind her.

“”Mirai! Back off and take a breather. I got this one…” Reiko ordered her companion without even looking back, her wine red eyes narrowed and locked on her foe. Frell was huffing and puffing, venting steam and heat, but she likewise glared back at Reiko.

Another arc of flame flew through the air. Reiko ducked and weaved beneath it and closed in, striking with two quick jabs straight to Frell’s job. Her fur was not burning and smoldering from convection and contact, and Crim was sure that was only because of his Aura coating her, offering her some protection.

Reiko stayed close to Frell, making sure she didn’t get room to launch fireballs, fire jets, or any sort of fire projectile. Crim had never seen a Ninetales - Alolan or otherwise - with such aptitude at brawling and striking, wanting to stay in close and scrap with her opponent. Wouldn’t it be better to try and pin Frell down with some sort of elemental move, even with a type disadvantage? But, almost instinctually, Crim realized the truth. The glyph binding them just wasn’t giving enough Aura to Reiko so she could use her elemental powers, Ice or Fairy or any other type she had affinity for. This was the only means she had of fighting back.

Rocking from a series of blows, Frell groaned, which turned into a high, keening cry, and then to a roar. Flames exploded along her body, a bright orange corona enveloping her and forcing Reiko to pause her **** and keep her distance. Wisps of fire spiralled about Frell, snaking down her body and up her arms, before settling at her hands, transforming into spheres of burning fire, miniature suns in the form of boxing gloves! Frell then took a lumbering step forward and punched at Reiko with her new armaments.

Reiko squared up like a boxer, shoulders clenched, head low, fists up, fearlessly darting forward and avoiding the fiery punch before landing her own counterstrike. Reiko had speed and technique on her side, and now that she had Crim’s Aura, her power was enough to make Frell balk. And while the latter might finally be slowing down after running hot for over an hour, Crim could tell from a glance, one errant blow from those pyro knuckles and Reiko would be down for the count.

“Bitch… ah… ah! Bitch… that hurt!” While the two Pokémon scrapped, Ratt was finally beginning to stir, lurching from prone to an upright position in one fluid, unnatural movement. “Gonna get her… yeah! Gonna get her…” Ratt staggered forward, something in his right hand flashing in the firelight. He had a knife, and he was stalking towards Reiko!

After this evening, for the rest of his life, Crim could not recall what **** him into action. Why this was the moment that got him to move and get involved, other than beyond fear for his life, the life of his best friend, and these strangers. Why did he get up, leave Joy, and start to run towards Ratt, instead of calling out to Mirai or the Braixen? And why now, of all times, did he recall that if Ratt and Frell were still Aura Linked, all they had to do - all he had to do - was cut that Link? He had no answer in the moment, and he never would have an answer, all Crim did was start moving, already at full sprint before his mind realized what his body was doing. Ratt was staggering forth, so Crim got the jump on him in no time, snatching him by the right arm. Not going after the knife, but instead for Ratt’s Aura Driver.

Aura Drivers were the devices that induced an Aura Link, the modern, high-tech equivalent of the glyphs currently connecting Crim to Reiko. They came in all shapes and sizes, the most common being a pair of glasses, but Ratt’s was a large wristband with a watch-like face mounted to it. It was undoubtedly the nicest thing Ratt owned and wore. And Crim was just lucky he wore it on his right wrist, same side as he wielded his knife…

Crim pounced onto Ratt, catching him completely unaware. Both of his hands immediately fell onto the Driver and yanked backwards, forcing Ratt’s arm to extend out at a downward diagonal, fully straight and extended. At the same time, Crim put his shoulder into Ratt’s back, using all of his weight, momentum, and leverage to shove Ratt down and try to knock him off balance, all the while fumbling with the latch on the Driver.

“What the hell… Get offa me!” Ratt took a moment to react to Crim, stumbling on one foot as he tried to maintain his balance, while at the same time trying to pivot or turn away so he could get a good shot at Crim with his knife. But Crim had the good sense to keep that right arm all but paralyzed, making sure he could not get him with the knife.

“Sonuva… kid… stupid brat!” Ratt thrashed about, tugging and yanking at Crim, finally turning away and forcing Crim to face him head on. The knife gleamed wickedly as it stood in between the two, aimed at Crim’s stomach. Ratt seized Crim by the collar, taking control of the grapple…

But, instead of going for the killing blow, forcing Crim forward onto the point of the knife, Ratt instead shoved him away, forcibly pushing Crim to the ground. Because Ratt, in his delirium and paranoia, thought Crim was just after the knife and wanted to get it away from the kid. He never even once considered his Aura Driver.

And Crim, in all of that, never let go of the Driver. The watch-like Aura Driver than now was held in his hands and no longer on Ratt’s wrist!

“I have the Driver!” Crim cried out, as loud as he possibly could. He still felt like he couldn’t be heard over the chaos. “They’re no longer Linked!”

As Crim yelled out, Frell made for another lunging blow against Reiko, but the latter made no attempt to dodge the burning orbs which encased her foe’s hands. The burning orbs that began to flicker and wane and sputter, gutting out entirely before they even touched Reiko. Frell’s punch lost all strength, all but a love tap as she hit Reiko gently in the collar. She had put everything into that blow, extending her back and arm fully and dropping her guard. Even if she hadn’t, Frell stared in a blank daze, unable to comprehend what had happened.

Reiko showed no mercy to her confused, de-powered foe. She dropped the blade of her elbow on the back of Frell’s head, driving the wind from the Magmar in a pained gasp. She followed up with another rising knee strike, the combination coming in perfect timing, the knee striking up as Frell’s head came down from the elbow strike. Then, as Frell wobbled on her feet, and as Reiko stood on one leg with one knee upright, the Ninetales leapt up once more, bringing her entire body into the air and using her momentum to send her into a spinning tumble. For the third time, she connected with Frell, planting a spinning heel kick to the temple of the Magmar woman, who immediately collapsed to the alleyway like a heap of bricks, groaning and steaming, but immobile and fully out of it.

“Look what you… look what you did!” Ratt, shrieking with rage, wheeled the knife up and lurched towards Crim, looking to avenge his fallen partner. Deer in the headlights, Crim went pale before the sight of the knife-wielding maniac when, out of nowhere, Mira appeared behind Ratt and smashed him in the back of the head, likewise knocking him out, same as his partner.

Crim let out a shuddering, gasping breath, having all but narrowly avoided a gruesome fate, as the world fell silent save for the crackling flames and the emergency sirens blaring somewhere in the distance.

The glyphs attached to Crim, Reiko, and Mira sputtered out, the papers crumbling to ash, as the connection broke.

After a long moment, punctuated by the relieved sighs and exerted breathing of the five people in the alley, Joy worked up the nerve to ask, “Who are you three…?”

As if she was ignorant of the presence of the two humans, Reiko’s eyes narrowed and her ears lowered.

“We’re getting out of here.” She said in a low voice, already stalking away. “I suggest you two get somewhere safe. The safety cordon shouldn’t be too far, I think.”

“Nice seeing you two again!”

“And thank you so much for your assistance.”

In contrast to the sharpness and wariness of Reiko, Mirai and the nameless Braixen were full of gracious cheer. From what Crim saw, it looked like neither of them wanted to depart at all, at least not immediately, but were goaded along by Reiko. The three Pokémon vanished, just as they had appeared, going away from the cordon and deeper into the warzone.

It took some time for Crim to work up the energy and confidence, to settle his nerves, needed to get up, pick up Joy again, and make it the few blocks to the safe area. Fortunately, things were calming down now that the culprits were down and out, control slowly being restored to the areas that Ratt and Frell had wrecked, but it was a hollow comfort to Crim after what he had experienced. Equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. An impromptu Aura Link, scuffling with a rampaging crook, facing the shadow of his own mortality.

And, worse of all, getting Joy involved in all of this.

He felt numb. Like he had witnessed a very intense action movie. Like the last hour of his life was something detached from the rest of him. He hardly remembered much else after getting to the EMTs in the triage area, remembering nothing besides handing Joy off, heading home, and immediately falling asleep.

And one other thing, fortunately.

“I’m sorry about all of this Joy…” Crim said in a soft, almost defeated tone, after they started moving again. “It’s all my fault…”

Joy looked around at the smashed streets, burning buildings, and raging fires still abound.

“Crim, we’re safe. You did good.” Joy replied, her voice just as soft (it felt wrong to speak loudly, still in the midst of the chaos) but firm and supportive, still as strong and forceful as ever. “And… I don’t think those three vigilantes could have stopped those two without you. You’re not to blame. You’re a hero…”

A hero. Crim always wanted to be a hero, more so than even being an Aura Battler. It was a nice thought, and Joy’s words would sit with him for a long time to come, but he certainly didn’t feel like a hero tonight.