Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 46: The Battle of Lumiose City Part 1

Bonnie felt guilty about it right away, but she knew she had to do it. She knew that if she hadn't bolted away from the group as soon as they spotted Team Flare approaching, Clemont would have banished her to the Pokemon centre. He would have gone on about how she wasn't safe if she was outside fighting. She didn't care about that, though. Without Ash, they had little hope of winning. They at least needed a couple extra Pokemon, and Bonnie had Dedenne and, even more importantly, Squishy.

After she'd been running for a couple of minutes, Bonnie heard the sounds of fighting. The battles around Lumiose City had begun. She even thought she could hear Clemont calling out to her, but she didn't know if that was her imagination or not.

When she'd gotten far enough away, Bonnie decided she needed to get to one of the other entrances. She didn't run away just to let Team Flare come waltzing in. She ran so she could fight.

"Dedenne? Squishy?" Bonnie looked down into her bag. Immediately, both Pokemon responded. Dedenne hopped up onto Bonnie's head, while Squishy jumped out onto the ground. "Squishy wait-" Bonnie started, expecting that Squishy was going to run away, but instead he closed his eye, as if focusing. Lights immediately started flowing towards him and he glowed in a bright light. A moment later, and he was in his dog form.

Squishy looked at Bonnie and she suddenly realized he was looking fairly pleased with himself. He was actually trying to impress her? He then nodded to his back and looked at her again and she realized he wanted her to hop on his back. She did so, realizing she was slightly too big, but apparently it didn't matter to Squishy, as he immediately started running at an impressive speed.

It only took a minute before they encountered their first enemy. A fat Team Flare man, with patches of black hair spotted throughout his head, was trying to sneak into the city while the battling went on outside. He noticed Bonnie as she started to charge out, and apparently he didn't care that she was a little girl. Presumably, because of the rare Pokemon she was riding. He called out a Feraligatr and quickly ordered it to use hydro pump on her.

Bonnie just went with instinct. She didn't even know if Squishy was obeying her order or if he was doing it of his own accord, but he did it nonetheless. "Dragon pulse!" Bonnie shouted, and Squishy's jaw opened and he unleashed the dragon-shaped pulse of energy which smashed back the hydro pump and rocketed into the Feraligatr, who subsequently crashed into his trainer. As she and Squishy continued running, Bonnie felt a pretty big rush of satisfaction. If Squishy had indeed listened to her order, she had accomplished something only a handful of the top trainers throughout history had done. She'd commanded a legendary Pokemon.

Bonnie looked at her surroundings and her satisfaction quickly disappeared. The few trainers that had stayed in Lumiose City, were heavily outnumbered. There were countless battles of two and three versus one. Surprisingly, though, the Team Flare members weren't rushing forward. They seemed content to fight their outnumbered battles before gaining ground.

Bonnie then looked ahead to where Squishy was heading. She had no idea what he was doing, really. He definitely had some place in mind. She then looked up for the first time and realization hit her.

Perhaps it was the sounds of battling that had made Bonnie not notice the helicopters up above, but she couldn't believe she had somehow ignored that Zygarde was right there with them. No wonder the Team Flare members were taking their time. They had a clear backup plan in case anything went wrong.

Squishy barked and then Bonnie finally understood. His plan was to fight Lysandre. She felt her heart hammer against her chest. Why had Squishy decided she should come? Was he more comfortable with her? Was it because...he felt like she was his trainer? She shook her head. No, that was ridiculous.