Jay Wolfe
The trip hadn't gone as smoothly as we all had planned. Valhalla had attacked the ship, though there were only minor casualties and one or two deaths before they were beaten and retreated. Soren had gotten a riolu, which he had named Foxy, though I wasn't sure how well it would do in battle. The first thing it had seen after hatching was its trainer being murdered. Still, at least it hadn't been killed or taken to be used against others.
"This place is... really run down looking." Freya commented as we passed another building with rusted trash cans in the alleyway . "Or maybe just grungy. I'm surprised considering there's a gym leader here."
"I know." I responded as I looked around as well. "Feels like a place people shouldn't go outside at night unless they want to be shot, stabbed, or robbed."
"I wouldn't trust not getting attacked in the daylight either." Soren muttered as a rattata scurried in front of us before disappearing down another street with a meowth on its tail, though it wasn't long because a squeak was quickly cut off a second later.
"Yeah... guess you're right." I sighed, tensing as a loud clang rang out before seeing it was only a purrloin and snubbull fighting.
Soren pressed closer to me anyway as he looked around. "We should all stick together, it wouldn't be good if we were attacked on our own by some drug dealer or something."
I nodded and took his hand reassuringly, though I doubt it eased his tension that much. "Come on, we should find the gym and Pokémon Center before it gets too late."
"It was supposed to be around here according to the person we asked at the pier." Freya commented as she slowly kept walking and searched for the familiar looking building. "Do you think we passed it?"
"Maybe it was a trick." I didn't want to think about that but considering the sign and bright red roof wasn't visible... maybe the Pokémon Center wasn't around here.
"Eon." Curse flattened her ears against her head at the thought and pressed closer to my shoulder.
We continued traveling in silence as we searched for the Pokémon Center. I was about to give up and suggest heading back to the port where it would at least be cleaner to sleep outside when wild barking and growling came from up ahead. Freya immediately ran ahead and I followed close behind with Soren to see what was going on. I nearly ran into her as she came to a stop and moved to her side to get a better look at the scene in front of us. Three men with various dog like pokémon attacking a single houndour, which was chained to a railing without hope of being able to run away. It was obvious by the fierce, merciless, attacks on the weakened pokémon that those trainers were part of a pokémon fighting ring, which was only backed up by the types of pokémon they were using.
"Think we can take them?" Freya asked as she started pulling out a pokéball.
I nodded. These types of pokémon were tough in a fight but they would never work together like ours would. "Yeah. I'll take the one on the left, you and Soren can get the other two."
Soren pulled me back as I started moving forward. "Wait, I'll go first, they could be armed."
I twisted out of his grip but Freya was the one who spoke up. "I can defend myself against them, we have pokémon for a reason after all, I'm sure we'll be fine unless they notice we're here!"
I sighed in irritation before letting Sköll, Hati, and Torracat from their balls while Curse jumped down from my shoulder to join them on the ground. "Come on then!"
Freya was right at my side, releasing her charmander and pikachu to fight as we ran. I heard Soren give a curse behind us as he followed with Finn, Hoodini, and Slash to take on his own opponent. The three men turned as they heard our approach and their pokémon: mightyena, manectric, growlithe, houndoom, absol, lycanroc, and granbull growled as they awaited the command to attack.
The man in the middle gave the signal and the pokémon split up and lunged at our pokémon, working to split them up and fight individually. I slipped to the side as the mightyena leapt at me before being dragged down by Torracat and Curse as they started fighting, switching between the fire type's fire fang and the shiny's swift. Sköll and Hati were together taking on the growlithe, which seemed to be less experienced than the other pokémon here. Soren's pokémon were taking care of the lycanroc and granbull, which had left Freya with the manectric, absol, and houndoom.
I was about to suggest sending a pokémon to help her even out the numbers when the houndoom jumped over her pikachu and bit down hard on her arm. Soren moved to her aid, sending out Schicksal, and I turned away to get to the injured houndour. The men noticed and I froze for a second as they started heading for me before darting forward again before they could grab me.
"Mightyena, stop playing with that cat and stop her!" The man in the middle shouted again.
I glanced back to see the dark type shake Torracat off before tossing Curse aside as well and rush at me. Soren was still focused on helping Freya and I wasn't about to ask for his help either, Soul could deal with this mutt. "Soul, come out and use quick attack!"
Soul came out of his ball and didn't waste a second to follow my command, slamming into the mightyena before the two became a rolling mass of black and white fur on the grimy street. This battle was just turning into a massive pokémon fighting ring. I scowled at the thought before setting to work helping the houndour, which flinched away as I approached... What had these people done to it?
"I'm just going to help you..." I slowly reached for the chain attached to its neck.
The houndour was tensed but didn't attack as it watched my movements. Obviously it wasn't wild considering the collar but I doubted it had a pokéball either considering the men didn't seem to have any on them, these pokémon were all just trained to obey them without the need for a ball to carry them in. The heavy chain fell to the ground as I unclipped it and the houndour moved further away from me, crouched close to the ground in fear, before slowly getting up and edging closer curiously. I didn't move, worried I'd frighten it and possibly be attacked, and allowed the houndour to sniff me as it continued limping closer.
"Jay!" Soren shouted at me and I jumped, turning to look over my shoulder as the men started taking out their weapons as they saw they were losing.
"You kids think you can just get in our business. Well, let me teach you what happens when people stop us from showing our pokémon what is expected out of them!" The man on the right shouted as he and the middle man went for Freya and Soren.
The one on the left gave a cruel laugh as he slowly made his way towards me, the houndoom at his side. "No one stops a punishment. That mutt needs to learn what happens to those pokémon who lose a fight."
I backed away, aware there wasn't anywhere to go and that our pokémon were currently still occupied by the other dog like pokémon or unconscious. The houndour behind me growled in defiance and crouched down again before leaping at the houndoom as it prepared to use flamethrower. The two pokémon were instantly at each other's throats as they began circling and snapping at each other, though I was sure the houndour would never win against its evolution, but I still had the man to deal with. It wasn't the best thing for people to use pokémon to attack other people but at the moment I didn't really think anyone would care. These people certainly didn't.
"Ralts, use magical leaf!" I tossed out his ball and Ralts attacked the man without question before fully taking in the situation and freezing up again, scared of what was going to happen.
I hadn't expected him to be fine yet after what he went through, though it would be helpful, but all I needed was a distraction to get out of the corner. I returned him to his ball once I was in a more open space and started back towards Soren and Freya, who had started fighting back with their own pokémon as well. We all glanced at each other for a second as if asking how we would get out of the fight but the answer came from an outside force.
"Run!" The three shouted in unison as a shadow passed by overhead.
We took the opportunity to regroup and I looked up to see an aerodactyl preparing to land as the pokémon fighters and their pokémon ran off down various alleyways, scattering like scared mice. I could feel Soren's tensed arm pull me closer to him as we watched a new man jump down from his pokémon and walk over.
"Sorry about that." he spoke up. "I'm afraid I just can't purge Iron Well of people like them... You must be here to challenge my gym."
"Yeah." Soren nodded, still not relaxing. "We got directions to go this way and ended up getting lost."
Oris sighed and shook his head. "So, now they're trying to attack trainers too... I'm getting too old for this."
He didn't look that old in my opinion but maybe he was just using the saying. Either way, it didn't really matter. "Can you take us to the Pokémon Center? We were looking for that too."
"Of course, follow me, it isn't too far to backtrack to." Oris returned his pokémon to its ball and started leading the way, stopping to wait as we returned our own pokémon.
A whimper came from the houndour and I glanced back to see it trying to follow us as we left the area. I moved back over and picked him up, which was somewhat hard with his wounds, before following Oris again. "Alright, I've got you..."
"Dour?" The houndour seemed mildly surprised as I helped him before relaxing in acceptance that he wasn't about to be attacked again.
After Oris showed us to the Pokémon Center and left we gave our pokémon to Nurse Joy and waited out in the lobby. Freya's hand was bandaged in gauze from where she'd been bitten and despite our questions she claimed it didn't hurt. I stood up as Joy came out with the houndour, who had clear scars now that the mess was cleaned up off of him and I knew he'd probably get several more from his new wounds.
"Scourge will be fine." Joy informed me as she put the houndour down to go free. "I'm glad you brought him in... I'm afraid most of the time patients like him are found too late. I know Oris does his best but it isn't enough to stop the dog fights unfortunately."
I knelt down as the houndour sat in front of me, about to ask Joy about the name she'd given him, before seeing the name was on the collar around his neck along with a mega stone. "You can't change people if they outnumber you and support the cause."
Nurse Joy nodded and left once more to finish treating our pokémon, leaving me with the other two and Scourge. The houndour was still staring at me as if waiting for something before finally seeming to grow impatient and knocked me off balance as he tried climbing into my lap. I grunted as his paw went into my stomach as he whimpered and tried pulling at my bag on my back and nosing my belt where my pokéballs were normally kept.
"Will you get off?" I pushed him back enough to sit back up, though he continued waiting expectantly at me, hope in his eyes. "You want to join me?"
"Hou!" Scourge barked in agreement, his short tail wagging.
I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not considering his background but he was young... he didn't seem aggressive like the other dog pokémon that attacked us. I reached out and petted him. "Alright, hold on."
He stepped back as I pulled out a pokéball and tapped it on his head. The ball clicked a second later and I held it for a second before letting Scourge back out so he could lay on the couch beside us as we waited. Soren glanced at Scourge for a moment before reaching out and putting his arm around me and I laughed at his actions.
"You act as if he's going to bite." I smirked and leaned against Soren while petting Scourge, who was still laying there contently.
Soren scowled slightly. "Well Torracat doesn't exactly let me get away with anything, and Curse doesn't do anything other than encourage it."
I shrugged, he did have a point. "Fair enough... guess it's too late to train. You want to train tomorrow or just challenge the gym?"
"Well we can't take it on together because Oris is the only leader..." Soren sighed and pulled me closer, ignoring the annoyed look Freya sent as she tried to pay attention to the TV. "I can train you after I beat him if you want."
"If you beat him." I teased.
"You're so mean." Soren complained as he shifted again to put his feet on the coffee table. "I don't go saying you're going to lose."
I smiled. "Well, guess I'm just not a nice person."
"I see." I thought he was about to say something else but instead with that but instead he changed the topic again, his grip on me tightening as he pulled me onto his lap to hold me against him completely. "I should have been able to stop them today. You could've been killed and so could Freya. I'm sorry."
I shoved away slightly so I could look at him. "It's fine, what could you have done about it? You didn't know they would attack."
Freya scoffed. "Yeah, besides, I think those losers would've been toast even if Oris hadn't shown up. Maybe we would've gotten a few more scrapes but Pikachu would've shocked them really good given a little more time."
I could tell he wasn't convinced and mentally sighed before resting my head on his shoulder again while Scourge moved to squeeze onto my lap, still wanting to be in contact with me as if I would disappear if he wasn't close enough. I wish we had hurt those people more, they would've deserved it for what they did to pokémon like Scourge. If I ever saw them again while we were here... I'd let my pokémon attack them as much as they wanted.