FSE

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Chapter 19

Almost immediately after having connected with my charge I regret having taken such an action. Right after connecting almost as a matter of recoil against my touch the rogue slams his body against me to try and push me away. Having no strength to resist him and considering how strong he apparently is I slide for about five feet along the ground, my back and sides screaming in pain. I weakly try and stand up to see if he is intending to finish the job but I find that on the other end of the trail of smeared blood leading to me the purple pokemon still stands. The entire part of his body near me looks heavily burnt and one of his eyes seem to be glazed over to the extent that from what I can tell he might now be blind in that eye which would not surprise me.

He is still standing though and no doubt of the fact that he can still move. But I did manage to use that on him even though I know I probably should not have. If nothing else my actions will have opened up a large blind spot and weak spot for the others to try and capitalize upon. I know I have no more fight left in me and he could probably even walk his way back to me before I could even get back up to all fours again.

Thankfully he seems to be in shock after my attack. But it doesn't last long before he roars out in anger and turns his attention towards me. To say he was charging at me would be a bit of an exaggeration since he isn't moving in any sort of smooth or fast motion. It was more of a slow stumbling motion aimed directly at me. But thankfully the fact that he was aiming at me means he's completely forgotten about Sanaline and our pokeballs. Of course it does mean he's heading directly towards me without any way for me to defend myself in any way.

My vision begins to get a bit blurry for a moment before I can feel the pain start to get so much worse. Thinking that he might have caught up to me already I try and struggle but quickly hear Shoul's voice trying to calm me down.

"It's all right. It's just me," he coos in as soothing a voice as he can manage.

"How bad is he?" Allen asks, apparently also in front of me as I can hear the sounds of his attack coming from his mouth again, though not a forceful as his other attacks have been, implying to me he might be running low.

"Pretty bad, but I think he'll make it. That's one hell of an attack I'll tell you. Can you walk?"

I make an effort to try and get up, thoughts on the purple pokemon kept to the back of my mind. If I can get up they may be able to help me get at least into a better position to defend myself a bit better, though I won't really be able to do much anyway. But trying to stand up hurts a bit too much.

"Not really," I grunt.

"Well shit, now what?" Shoul remarks. "Can't attack him anymore, I'm out of juice."

Allen considers for a moment, studying the purple pokemon still approaching us slowly with a look of intense hate on his eyes. But he is definitely not in any shape to get here too quickly, giving us a moment to do something before dealing with him.

"We hold him. Shoul, go get his neck, keep his head still," Allen orders after finally deciding on a plan.

"What? You want me to get closer to the thing we've been trying to avoid this entire time so far? Why do I have to do it?"

Seeing as the balls are no longer the target and probably figuring she can outrace the purple pokemon if it went after them again Sanaline rushes over to us.

"Because," he points at me, "Sunshine here can't do it and Sanaline doesn't have the reach to grab his neck. Look, he's blind in one side. Just approach him from that side. I'll approach him from the side he can see. Whichever gets to his neck first will try and get him down, the other go for the legs. If his head's on the ground and we keep at least two legs from moving under him we should be able to hold him down until help arrives. Sanaline, stay here, look after fuzzbutt."

Shoul shrugs and heads off, grumbling as he does so. Allen takes one last look over in my direction before heading off as well, trying to get the purple pokemon's attention. I try to watch it but I'm just starting to feel very tired as my body has started to shiver. Sanaline looks over at me and I can feel one of her front paws reach at my eye lid and pull it up.

"Are you okay there? Your eyes are looking rather large right now."

I try to make a response but I'm just so tired after my last attack, wanting to take a nap and rest for a little while, hoping this shivering will go away when I do so. I can feel Sanaline's head press against my body as I close my eyes, hearing Allen still trying to keep the purple one's attention.

"You're really cold right now," I hear from somewhere nearby and then a moment later I can feel something slapping me in the muzzle. "Hey! No going to sleep now. Stay with us!" she shouts, slapping me some more. I groan but open my eyes a bit and try to get her to stop but lack the energy to really do so. "Look at the battle, what do you see. Tell me."

I raise my head up and look over at the purple pokemon and the other two. The way the rogue is moving is very much slower, sluggish and strongly favoring the side I had hit. In fact it seems to be making sure that it's good side faces Allen, rather than Allen keeping its attention. But Allen isn't noticing this and isn't trying to take advantage of this fact. But he is still stronger than both of them, and Shoul is unable to really make much of any real advance. They can't actually beat him. Eventually it'll get a lucky hit in and then end the matter or make his way over to us and make things worse and more desperate. But I can hear sounds coming in the distance.

"We can't beat him, even weakened as he is. Allen needs to be trying to maneuver him, kite him around to stall things out. We don't need to beat him, just keep him from running and from attacking," I say before lowering my head back to the ground, my paws and tails feeling rather numb at the moment. "Once help arrives we'll be okay. We just have to last until then."

"Hey!" I get another slap in the face. "What did I just say about you going to sleep? If I find you trying to doze off again I'm going to bite one of your tails."

I grumble again at her and struggle to raise my head up. I'm just so tired right now and it'd simply be so much easier to just go to sleep. I look up at the fight with nothing really to do and see something strange happen. As the purple thing is in the process of trying to maneuver itself towards a point where it can try and bolt a bunch of vines shoot out of the ground, wrapping around each and every one of its limbs. Shoul takes this opportunity to jump in and grab the thing by the neck and help pin it down while Allen does the same with the thing's legs. I can then see a few humans and other pokemon show up, Caleb landing right next to me.

"I got here as fast as I could. It's really hard to try and land enough to get the attention of humans when so far away from my ball. Not to mention how slow they tend to be. Had to practically bite one of them to get their attention and give them the message. If only they could talk like normal people," Caleb says as he looks over at Sanaline and myself. "So what happened here? And I guess over there?"

"Idiot did something stupid and is in bad shape for it, but it bought us enough time for the rescue," Sanaline says before slapping me again as I'm about to try and lie back down with the help arriving. Eventually one of the humans makes their way over to me and crouches down.

"So where's your trainer?" he asks, to which Sanaline somewhat shrugs before pointing at me. At seeing the confused expression from the human she goes into our bag and grabs the little square thing and hands it to him. He picks it up and flips through it a moment, a large frown on his face. After sighing he leans down and touches the side of my body, causing me to flinch and pain radiates through my entire being.

"So what's the situation of the pix? And where's their trainer?" the other one asks while pulling something out of a holster and firing it into the purple pokemon, causing him to quickly become sluggish and then fall down.

"According to this the pix is the trainer."

"You're shitting me," he pauses in putting the thing back into the slot on his leg.

"One of Oak's experiments, apparently."

"Well, shit."

"Yeah. Apparently according to the dex the rogue came out and attacked them and the three of them went off-dex and attacked in a coordinated manner to try and delay it or something. They all kept to long-range attacks which is why the rat didn't get involved, too dangerous. But I'm guessing the Nidorino got tired of their antics and went after their balls. From the carnage looks like the pix stood defense and took at least one attack head on and eventually according to their dex tried to use Overheat, which they don't know. And then fucked it up and exhausted his inner flame."

"He gonna be okay?"

"Nah, he'll be fine. He's cold right now because his flame is exhausted. But he just needs a bit of rest to conserve energy and that'll fix right up. Best thing for the little guy right now is a nap. I would ball him but he's technically the trainer and balling a trainer is illegal, pokemon or not."

"Well I'm done here and we're ready to transport the rogue for trial. Need me to fetch a stretcher for the pix?"

"Nah," the human closest to me says as he reaches down and pushes his arms under me, causing me to whine slightly in pain. "It's just a pix, a small one at that. He's light enough for me to carry." He stands up with me now cradled in his arms upside down, my head propped into the crook of his armpit. The human turns and faces the rest, though I'm starting to fade out of consciousness again. "And I trust that the rest of you will behave and be able to transport your own bag and yourselves without trouble? I'm sure the disciplinary committee might want a word with you all, and without a trainer you can't do anything anyway."

I don't really see what the others do in response to his words. I barely understand much of anything he is saying, human speech is hard. But right now with Sanaline no longer trying to attack me and the human slightly rocking me back and forth I can't help but let sleep finally claim me. The next thing I know is I'm being let out of my ball. I stand up, somewhat dumbfounded as I try to figure out where I am and what all has happened. I seem to be in a human place. And then before I can fully get my bearings I find myself falling over and half spinning, my jaw suddenly hurting a lot. I look up and see that Allen seems to have punched me again.

"What was that for?" I complain.

"That's for all the trouble you put us into."

"Hey! You did hear him right? The only reason that rogue attacked us at all is because of you!" Shoul shouts, pushing Allen away from me.

"That's not fair," Allen protests.

"No it's not. The truth never is. He admitted that he was following us around the time you found me."

"Little before that," I state, rubbing my cheek with a paw, half wondering where Sanaline and Caleb have gotten to.

"Thought as much," Shoul responds.

"What? And you kept that from us?" Allen turns towards me, but is pushed back against the wall by Shoul.

"No! You don't get to shift the blame. I'm not as good at it as he is. He knew where the rogue was, but I could sense he was close. And I could sense from that he was growing bored and was moving on. He was letting us go. And then you had to go and bully Poune again for wanting a break. That is when the rogue had had enough. So if you want someone to blame for us all almost getting killed, the only one to blame is you and you alone," Shoul illustrates the remainder of his point by putting a bit of electricity in his last shove. "Come along, Poune. We should be getting a call soon informing us of our fate."

We move into the next room and I see the other two, sitting around a large screen. "In case you were wondering, Sanaline currently marked as our trainer, thus why we were allowed to ball you," Shoul whispers next to me.

"So you're finally back up and about," Caleb speaks up. "I was so missing the sight of that adorable little fluffy end of yours."

I smile awkwardly at him. Sanaline is acting all high and mighty, having managed to drag out little device to as high of a location as she was able. I get in and take a seat in what looks to be near the center of the room, Shoul nudging me a bit to move a bit further in. At first I wonder why he feels the need to do so but then Allen comes in as well, his face unreadable though I can still smell quite a bit of scorn coming from him. And I can guess that Shoul had me move so that Allen would have no choice but to sit on the other side of him rather than next to me where he could attack me some more. Once Allen sits down one of the humans in the area touches something on a little thin device and the screen turns on. On the other side of the screen looks to be that old human from that building Allen took the ring from.

"Let me start by saying that I am quite disappointed in all of you," he says, though I can't exactly make out all of the words he's saying. I can tell the small words but he doesn't seem to be bothering to keep things simple for me to understand. "And I'm especially disappointed in you," he points in my direction for some reason, causing my head to turn slightly to the side, wondering why he was pointing at me but not wanting to ask.

"The moment you all got into a tough spot you all just threw away all of the rules and just started doing whatever. Not only did you all go off-dex, you engaged on a single pokemon in three on one competition. Add to that," he looks down at the paper, "Poh oon eh? You used an illegal move by attempting to use an attack you didn't know. Ordinarily, any one of these would likely result in a suspension, if not complete termination of your trainer's license. However, these are not ordinary circumstances we're dealing with. That one rogue is responsible for the hospitalization of over fifteen trainers as well as the murder of two people and over forty pokemon. The use of excessive force had been authorized against that pokemon. And even some Gym leaders had gone through the forest trying to root him out to no effect. Further, it was brought to our attention from Sabrina that your group had been given a message informing you that if you fought normally your entire group would be killed. Add to that the fact you immediately went to get help and sought to delay it more than anything is also playing to your favor. No pokeballs were thrown, no items used, just long-ranged attacks outside of the illegal move. And evidence is quite strong that that was only done because it was heading to destroy your balls. Because of all of this, the disciplinary committee has ruled that your trainer license will not be suspended. You'll also be awarded your rightful share of the bounty on that rogue pokemon and will be allowed to sit in on the trial and execution if you so desired."

He takes a moment to breath in and out a few times, his hand moving up to touch his glasses. I only caught bits and pieces, mainly just that what he was talking about is very serious. I'll have to remember to ask Shoul or Sanaline what all was said later. Seems rude to ask now. After a moment he begins again.

"That said, you are not getting off scot-free. The fact remains that though you were told that fighting it normally would have gotten you killed, it was ultimately your own decision to try and actively engage against the pokemon in the manner that you did rather than do anything possible to avoid conflict and everyone try to run to safety. The concern is that as you are only pokemon that you would not understand the gravitas of the rules and why they're there. That it is a sign that you will only obey the rules when it suits you and the moment things get tough again you'll throw them all away. As such it has been decided to put your group into a probationary period of a span of at least two months. Any violation of the rules from this point on, no matter the reason or if it's justified will result in the termination of your license. And you," he points at me again, causing my head to tilt to the other side, "I know what the dex said. But I also know what is the normal outcome of that attack and I did see pictures of the rogue as well as the report of your own injuries. I know full well what you were really trying to do and it wasn't Overheat. You're lucky the dex didn't register what you were doing and I can't prove my assumption. Superheat and all the other forbidden moves are forbidden for a very valid reason. And it doesn't matter why you do it, even attempting to use one will result in all of that trainer's pokemon being put down. So let me be perfectly clear. Unless I've seen the training machine for the move used on you, if I ever see your dex say you've tried to use Overheat ever again, I will report you for attempting a forbidden move. Is that clear?"

I just stare at him, wondering why he's angry at me now. After a moment he rubs his hand against his forehead again and sighs. "Right, you're probably still too young to full understand me yet. Can one of you please inform him what I just said?"

Allen looks like he's about to try and punch me again but Shoul nudges me while also shoving Allen away a bit. "Short of it is we're not going to be directly punished for breaking all of their rules in fighting against that rogue. But if we break any more rules for any reason in the next few full moons then that'll be it for us. And he especially wanted you to know that should you ever try to do that explody thing again that it doesn't matter what reason you did it, all of us will be put to death over it."

I stare somewhat shocked at the statement. I was perfectly okay with the notion of giving my life to protect the others if need be, but to know that even if I succeeded they'd all be killed does definitely put a lot of weight regarding never trying it ever again.

"That's the kind of look I'd expect. Anyway, you all have been informed of the situation. I sincerely want this experiment to succeed, and in order for it to do so we must be able to prove that you are all as capable of behaving as rational individuals who will obey the rules. Society works when the rules work. Anyway, rest up, I expect to see good things coming from you. Or else."