Castol the Charmeleon's Story

Meanwhile, about a block away from the Turf War, a much bigger war raged. Nidorina leaped towards Skyball once more, trying to deliver something...a Bite or A Fury Swipe...anything to hit the much more evasive Emolga. But Skyball was playing his strengths to his advantage and using his speed to dodge every blow the Nidorina threw at him. More importantly, he was playing her to her weaknesses. A lot of her moves were close quarter moves, moves in which Nidorina had to be close to Skyball to hit him. However, the reciprocal of that didn't hold true.

"Gah!" Nidorina cried as she dove out of the way of the brick that Skyball had flung at her. Her glance darted upward towards the zooming Emolga overhead, "What, you're throwing bricks at me now?"

"Eh...y'know," Skyball zipped around, picking up a potted plant in the process and Flinging it at her, "Using my environment to my advantage and stuff."

Nidorina dodged right, the pot shattering upon impact. Soil was everywhere upon the rooftop they were fighting on. She kept a careful gaze on her opponent as she lowered her stance to make it harder for him to hit her.

"How did you guys even find me?" she asked as she dodged left, this time avoiding a torn up Pikachu plushie. Apparently someone had been training.

"We have our leads," Skyball answered back, swooping low to the ground to find other things to throw at her. In all honesty, the forest was their lead. Upon joining the Crimson Guild, he was quite shocked to learn of the network of information they had placed across Ruula. All in the matter of a week. They hadn't even finished building their base yet and they were established as if they had been there for years. It was amazing how a community could come together to abolish a primal evil.

"What are you doing here?" he called back, deciding not to drop the conversation right away as he flung a rotten apple at her. She took that one head-on, the fruit exploding into chunks on impact. However, it did nothing to her. She laughed at the question.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she taunted at him, "Maybe if you let me whisper it in your ear, I could tell you."

But Skyball wasn't falling for her ploy to try and get him within close range, "Ain't gonna happen, sweetie. But you know what is?"

With that, he hurled an Electro Ball at her from the distance. It moved at quite a speed...too fast for her to dodge. The pulsating electricity hit her in the left side, the force of the strike sending her backwards a few feet and causing her to topple. Skyball fluttered to the rooftop and began a slow approach.

"That," he finished simply.

And then Nidorina got up, surprising Skyball with her own burst of speed. She flung herself at him and began swiping furiously. Skyball was hit in the chest once before raising his winged arm and taking another three hits there. By then, he'd swept her legs with his own feet, Nidorina tripping up under them, hitting the rooftop hard. Skyball began to nimbly strike at the grounded Nidorina. She tried to get her own jabs in, but he was just too quick. His Acrobatics outmatched her and when the damage was done, she was beaten to the brink of fainting.

The Nidorina grunted in pain, trying to place herself on her feet once more. But it was certainly a struggle. "D-don't think you've won yet..." her left eye was swollen closed, but her right gazed at Skyball with a menacing hate, "The Psychic Rebellion will have it's victory when all is said and done."

"The Psychic Rebellion will get nowhere," Skyball stubbornly replied, a little bit of Lumi taking over from within, "The good guys will always win...always. Now what are you doing here?"

She let loose a slight chuckle, cut short when a painful cough took over, "Y...you really think...you're on the good side? People...Pokemon...they're all weak to the big picture...the big picture only Psychic-Types can view."

The Emolga raised a quizzical brow, "Then by that logic, you are a weakling to them. You will be nothing more than their pawn in their game. Do you really want that?"

Nidorina only smirked, "There's a pecking order, y'know. Poison-Types are above you Electric-Types. We are warriors. And I'd rather see the face of battle head-on."

Skyball's eyes darkened, "There's a bit of an unfairness about that."

Nidorina shrugged, "The world's not fair."

And then a massive purple light erupted behind them. Skyball whipped his head around to see the effects of it dissipating. Lumi...

A sting in the Emolga's shoulder caused him to yelp in surprise. Nidorina had taken the distracting moment to use Poison Sting on him. Already, he could feel the venom coursing through his veins. Skyball, out of a sudden moment of pure anger, Electro Balled Nidorina in the face, pure and simple. The strike was excessive, having enough raw power behind it to knock out the Nidorina for sure. After giving a glance over the KO'd foe to make sure she was out, he decided it was alright to leave her there for now. He ran to the edge of the roof and peeked over.

The first thing he saw was a multitude of fainted Pokemon on the ground in the alleyway. Among those, Skyball could see his Pachirisu companion out like a light by the dumpster. The four standing Pokemon, A Charmeleon, a Nuzleaf, an Espeon, and a Houndoom, were rounding up the various Pokemon that had fallen and moving at a quickened pace. He saw the Houndoom go over to the Pachirisu and sniff her before turning back to look at the Charmeleon.

"What about her?" he said, "She isn't a Family member or a Crusader."

"Take her with us," the Charmeleon simply replied, "She's gotta have some value to someone."

No.

All at once, Skyball dove into the Houndoom, performing Acrobatics the moment he was in range. The Houndoom reeled back in surprise, glowering over Skyball as he stood in between Lumi and everyone else.

"No one touches her," he spoke darkly, glaring at each of them as they all looked upon this new arrival.

It was the Charmeleon who approached, fist clenched and ready to take down another opponent, "Friend of yours?" he asked coldly. "You should tell her not to pick a fight with someone who's clearly stronger than her."

"She doesn't pick fights," Skyball retorted immediately, "She's better than that. If she fights, it's because someone hit her first. I'm the one who strikes first." He felt his body weaken slightly as the wound on his back pulsed even more. The Poison was starting to get to him and he was going to faint if he didn't do something about that in the next few minutes. But for now, he kept a bold face and didn't bow down to these four.

The Charmeleon chuckled smugly, "You do realize that you're outnumbered here?"

"Nah, I'm not outnumbered," came the reply from Skyball, "In fact, I'm pretty sure I outnumber all of you."

"Oh really?" the Charmeleon edged closed, "And why is that?"

"Because that Espeon is on our side!" he pointed an accusing finger at her.

The three Pokemon looked at the Espeon with a glaring look. The Espeon snapped at them angrily, "On come on, guys! Really?! You seriously fell for that?!"

"They seriously did!" came the call at the end of the alley. Skyball gave a wink as he turned round the corner with Lumi on his shoulders. The Charmeleon let loose a low growl of anger.

"AFTER THEM!" he commanded, the Nuzleaf and Espeon giving chase. The Houndoom began to tear after them, but Castol stopped him. "No, not you. We need to take care of these guys."

"We don't have enough support right now," the Houndoom reasoned, "We can't take any prisoners tonight, not after you sent those two after them."

Castol realized his mistake immediately and punched the dumpster to his right out of pure anger. It made a massive dent in the side. The Houndoom gulped.

"Then just take our guys then," Castol finally sighed in irritation, "Let the PokeCatchers deal with the rest."

The Houndoom nodded and began rounding up his fallen allies, tossing them onto his back. Castol took a couple of fainted Pokemon on his shoulder, a smoldering heart of revenge set in his look.

There would be hell to pay for this night.

---

Pitch and Zap made a careful approach to the amphitheater, unsure of how many Crusaders lurked there. He was pretty sure the Family didn't know about this spot of his, so he wasn't worried about seeing the glowing eye of Dim any time soon. And so long as Castol had his focus spent on the turf war, he wouldn't be after Pitch either. But he didn't take chances. And that was why he was still around today. So that was why he checked corners, crept along the wall, and made a half hour out of a task that would normally be a minute.

Fortunately for them, the purple blast had likely attracted all the PokeCatchers in Nimbasa, meaning they had to deal with none.

"Alright, in here," Pitch motioned as he crept inside, staring around at the blackness that had shadowed the place. It didn't have windows, so the insides of this building was shrouded in darkness with the exception of the safety light that glowed on the stage, a precaution for anyone humans who entered so that they weren't stumbling around in complete darkness.

Pitch's ears lowered slightly in disappointment as he gazed around and found no sign of Glow and the others. "I hope they chose to come here somewhere," the Eevee lamented on his decision, "Glow? Aurora? Mud? You guys around here?"

Glow's ears perked up. " Pitch?" She let out a shocked gasp when her eyes laid on Zap. "Y-you came back?" Aurora and Mud followed out with similar reactions.

Zap glanced around with a sigh. "I-I'm sorry." He added to Pitch "For everything I put you through." He looked at his paws sadly. "It's all my fault."

"Sir, we've seen no signs of the Eevee or any of his ragtag group of friends."

Castol snarled as the sun set below the horizon in Nimbasa. To many, the scene would be a beautiful one...especially with the view he had in Nimbasa City. It was almost like the sun set on top of a neon rainbow, preparing for the night's events as the city truly began to sparkle. For Castol, however, it was a reminder that another day had passed without the oh-so-clever Pitch in his possession. And that made him mad.

A cold, harsh wind blew against the Charmeleon. This made him enraged further, making him heat up the air around him. The Houndoom stepped back, a little scared by what Castol must be feeling and who he wished to take this aggression out on. Typically, it wasn't his right hand man. However, he had failed his master on more than one occasion over the past two days and he was the only Pokemon in sight. He gulped silently.

"Search everywhere," Castol snapped as he began to pace, "Everywhere. All parts of Nimbasa City. Places we've been. Places we have not. I want this little prick in front of me by the morning's dawn or it'll be YOUR HIDE I'M SKINNING!" He roared the last part at him, causing the Houndoom to visibly jump back and run back towards the main hall. His tail was in between his legs, something he almost never did.

Castol turned back towards his perch over the city, his claws still clenched in fists. The night lifers were beginning to make their way out onto the streets to enjoy the rides and games and amusements the desert city had to offer. Some headed towards the amphitheater to witness the glory of a Dean Friday concert. Others took a more "classical" approach and went into the PokeTheater to see a production of "King AZ". A lot of the little kids were wandering around the streets, going to vendors and riding the rides. The whole city could be seen as a theme park.

But Castol wasn't interested in any of it. Castol was interested in finding a little brown furball scurrying through the alleyways.

"I'll get you, Pitch," Castol mumbled to himself through gritted teeth, his fist clenching tighter, "I always get what I want."

---

The crazy span of the day's events had Pitch completely wiped. The weird weapons, the massive ships, the Pokemon retaliation to drive the hostiles out of the city. It was all so new to him...so unique to experience. He'd had more excitement over the past few days than he ever had in his lifetime...and that was saying something.

So it was natural for him to just rest and fall asleep without thinking. It was natural for him to overlook the fact that they would probably need someone to stay awake and keep watch throughout the night. It was natural for him to forget that despite him being in his designated home, he was still in enemy territory and was libel to being caught. It was likely that the others: Glow, Zap, Aurora, Mud, and Fluff, all thought the same way.

So when the Bannette peered through the opening in the ceiling and saw everyone sleeping like sitting ducks, no one would probably notice. No one would probably wake up and look up to see the slinky Ghost-Type examining their surroundings. No one would be able to stop this Bannette as she took off to tell her master their location.

And as such, they would wake up to a nasty surprise in the middle of the night.

Glow twitched peacefully in sleep. She yawned, seeming to wake up, but flopped back over, (may I add looking like a dork)