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Part 6 of 8 for the June tasks. I must say, this was the longest, yet most exciting part to write. I really hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.

Luis looks pretty beat up doesn't he? I wonder what happened. I guess you better read it and find out.

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Story by me
Art by

Luis watched as Anther grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until eventually, he vanished from view, most likely when he turned a corner.

“So tell me,” Phaze asked from behind. She had probably been watching Anther as well. “Who are you, exactly? I mean, I know your names, but I haven’t seen you around here, and that’s almost impossible since this is such a small town.”

“We’re not from around here, we’re rescuers from Tao” Luis answered, turning to the Lampent. He had not wanted to talk to her since they met, mainly because of what Huckleburry had told him. This was the vigilante he was talking about after all. He wasn’t quite sure what a vigilante was, but he knew it must have been bad. He was also partly confused, because she had seemed so nice up until now. But he knew he couldn’t let his guard down.

“Huh, you don’t say?” she replied, a tone of surprise in her voice. She appeared as if she was going to say something more, but she hesitated at first. “So you’re from Tao huh? You didn’t come all this way to help save little Timmy, did you?”

Luis shook his head, “Not really. We originally came out here because we heard there was work to do. That’s when the Golurk guy… Andy I think it was, told us about Timmy. We came here as fast as we could.”

“Andy?” the Lampent asked in disgust. “Don’t tell me you are one of those visitors following the commands of that Shuppet of a Slakoth.”

Luis figured that she was referring to both Andy and Jury with this comment. It sounded as if she wasn’t quite fond of them. For a moment he considered backing off, but then he remembered that at this moment, Anther was probably working hard at finding Timmy. He might as well also do some work, and perhaps try to complete the vigilante task while he was busy. Who knows, maybe he could do it before Anther came back. Maybe Anther would even be impressed that he managed to pull it off on his own.

“Yeah,” he said, once he had managed to gather his courage. “They’re the ones who asked us to work. What don’t you like about them?”

“What don’t I like about them? The question is what is there to like about them!” she said, her fire growing an orange colour as she let her emotions show. “I mean, I’m relatively new in this town. All the old people seem to accept him as the mayor. But I don’t even have a clew why. He hasn’t done a single thing for us since I’ve been here. All he’s been doing is spending his sweet time in some sleep-induced comma or something stupid like that. And in the mean time, criminals have been running around doing whatever they feel like, not even caring for the welfare of others.”

This was a tough answer to respond to. Luis had been thinking of things to say in his head for a while now. But now that he was in the argument, he realized that he was very unprepared. “D-don’t you think… that since he’s awake now, that you should let him take over, though? I mean he must be mayor for a reason.”

“No! I see no reason for him to be-” she paused to glare at Luis for a moment. “Hold on, are you actually telling me to step aside for Jury? He told you to come down here and tell that to me didn’t he? That’s why you’re down here. You’re didn’t want to save Timmy, you came here to stop me!”

“N-no! That’s not it! We’re here to save Timmy too!” Luis said frantically. If there was something he didn’t like it was a misunderstanding. As a Zorua, he was misunderstood enough already. “We just… were told to try to convince you to let Jury handle things now.”

“Listen kid,” Phaze said, pointing at him with one of her arms. “This town would be nothing like they way it is today if it weren’t for me, and other likeminded Pokemon. We worked hard to make sure this town was a good place to live. And how to we get thanked? By getting told we’re no longer needed? Well I say no thanks! I’m going to keep doing what I feel is right, and no stupid inadequate mayor is going to send some little kids, who are not even from this town I might add, to tell me otherwise. If Jury really cared that much, he can get off of his lazy ghost ass and say it to my face!”

Once again, Luis found himself without words. What could he say to that? At this rate, they were heading for a fight, but that wasn’t allowed. And she did a good job at sounding like she was in the right, even though she was a vigilante. But he really wanted to get this done before Anther returned. He glanced down into the tunnel; there was still no sign of him. What would Anther say? He seemed pretty smart. He probably would have known exactly what to say.

“How can this town be peaceful,” Luis said, thinking on the fly, “if you’re going to be fighting the mayor all the time? Maybe you don’t like him. But he’s the one in charge, now, and you’ll be the one causing the problems if you keep doing this, forcing him to have to deal with you along with all the other issues the town has.”

“Back off kid,” the ghost type said, her voice sounding increasingly dangerous. “What does an outsider like you know about this? I guess I misjudged you when I first saw you. I thought you were decent mons. Now I know you are nothing more than an extension of Jury’s arm.”

“If you keep doing this, then you’re no better than the criminals!” Luis blurted, in a final effort. However, he regretted those words the moment they slipped out of his mouth.

“You know, you are really pushing my buttons,” Phaze said, as her flame became in increasingly vibrant orange. “If you don’t like what I’m doing, then you’re going to have to stop me by force.” She gestured to him, indicating for him to approach her. “Well then, you little runt. C’mon! Bring it!”

A strange feeling overcame Luis once the Lampent had made her taunt. A feeling of anger overcame him that he had never felt before. He wanted to attack her, make her regret underestimating him. The next thing he knew, he was charging at her, toxic poison dripping from his teeth as he lunged forwards.

A blur of black and purple followed as her cloak blocked his vision. Before he could think, he felt a searing hot pain as something hit him on his back. He came to a rough landing on the damp and slippery floor before he stood up to get his bearings.

What had just happened? He clenched his teeth in pain as he realized that the searing pain had not gone away. A burn! She must have burned him! He looked up to see that she had gone on unscathed. She must have dodged his attack, and then used some type of fire move to cause this burn.

Why had he even done that in the first place? That was not the way to fight, his brother, Royal, had taught him this. His style was using tricks to deceive and confuse the foe, not attack them up front. Somehow, she had managed to get the better of him. And now he was burned because of it.

He looked over to the flooded tunnel, still no sign of Anther. As he looked, Anther’s messenger bag caught his eye. There were berries in there, that’s what Anther had told him. If he could grab a rawst berry he would be alright.

“Give up now kid, don’t make this any more hard than it needs to be,” the vigilante said as she approached him.

Instead of responding, Luis dived for the bag. His burns were screaming in pain as the skin on his back stretched, but he knew he wouldn’t need to feel that for much longer. He opened one of the compartments, reached in and pulled out the familiar blue berry, then stuffed it into his mouth.

Or at least he would have. The moment he had brought the berry close to his mouth, a purple glow surrounded the berry, and flung it away. Luis dived after it as it rolledacross the cave floor, but once again, it was became surrounded by that purple glow, and this time was flung into the water. Once again his burns stung as he turned around to face his opponent. She must have had something to do with it, he was sure of it.

“I’ve got you right where I want you. Are you really willing to go through all this for Jury?”

A little part of him wanted to give up. To tell her she had won. He wasn’t doing this for Jury. He didn’t really care about him. Deep down, he wanted to impress Anther, to show him he could be cool too. He wanted to complete this task, so that when Royal came back, he could tell him all the things he had done. That was really why he was fighting, and he wouldn’t back down because of a few measly burns.

His eyes glowed green as blades of grass emerged from the ground beneath Phaze, snagging onto her cloak and causing her to collide with the cave wall. It was a weak attack, but it bought him just enough time to dive into the shadows to hide. The moment he was hidden away, he took some of his energy and merged it with the nearest inanimate object he could find. In this case, it was a rock. The rock glowed dimly for a moment before assuming the same appearance as him. He could already hear a growl of frustration from the vigilante as she burned the blades of grass that had caught her. Now was the time to act.

He took to the shadows as he moved from rock to rock, keeping out of the Lampent’s vision. At the same time, his substitute jumped out from his previous hiding spot, eyes glowing green again as it appeared to use grass knot. Not to be tricked again, Phaze instantly moved away from the floor, making her motions erratic as to make her a difficult target to hit.

As soon as he had her in a good spot, the real Luis jumped out from the shadows, and, with all the dark thoughts he could muster, released them towards her. She had just enough time to see it coming before it hit her directly and was sent tumbling to the ground. Luis landed in front of her as she looked up, but she flinched from the shock of the attack. Luis used this time to hit her once again with another pulse of dark thoughts, this time even more powerful than before.

Luis turned to the flooded tunnel as the Lampent tumbled backwards. There was still no sign of him. What was taking so long? It would have been cool if someone were around to see his first victory. He was positive that last attack had gotten her. He tensed up again as his burns continued to sting. Every time they were getting worse and worse.

He looked back to where he had attacked the vigilante only to find that there was nothing there. “What the-” he said, vocalizing his thoughts. Before he could finish the thought, a searing pain hit him a second time, this time across the side of his neck. As he stumbled sideways he realized that she had hit him again. Now the burning sensation was covering even more of his body.

“I’ll hand it to you kid, that was a clever trick,” the Lampent said, as she appeared in front of him. “But you’re not the only one with tricks up their sleeves.” She proceeded to reveal a greenish looking heal, with two red claws, dangling from one of her arms. Somehow it must have protected her from his last attack, though it was obvious that she too was on her last legs. “Also, it’s never smart to turn away from you opponent before the battle is over. Are you ready to give up?”

Luis growled in response. That was all he could do, he didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore. He had spent all his energy with his last attacks; all the while his burns were constantly ebbing away at his strength. It was actually frightening how full extent of these burns had snuck up on him. But now, all he could do was sit there, helpless, as he did nothing beyond making faces at her.

“Hmph… I’ll take that as a no?” She raised one of her arms, on the end of which, a small purple cloud of shadows began to form. As it increased in size, it assumed the form of a ball. “Is that your final answer?”

“Hey!” a voice called from the side. With effort, Luis turned his head to see that Anther had finally emerged from the flooded tunnel. Walking between them, he looked back and forth from Luis to Phaze. “What in the torn world is going on?”

Description
Part 6 of 8 for the June tasks. I must say, this was the longest, yet most exciting part to write. I really hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.

Luis looks pretty beat up doesn't he? I wonder what happened. I guess you better read it and find out.

Previous: [link]
Next: [link]

Story by me
Art by

Luis watched as Anther grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until eventually, he vanished from view, most likely when he turned a corner.

“So tell me,” Phaze asked from behind. She had probably been watching Anther as well. “Who are you, exactly? I mean, I know your names, but I haven’t seen you around here, and that’s almost impossible since this is such a small town.”

“We’re not from around here, we’re rescuers from Tao” Luis answered, turning to the Lampent. He had not wanted to talk to her since they met, mainly because of what Huckleburry had told him. This was the vigilante he was talking about after all. He wasn’t quite sure what a vigilante was, but he knew it must have been bad. He was also partly confused, because she had seemed so nice up until now. But he knew he couldn’t let his guard down.

“Huh, you don’t say?” she replied, a tone of surprise in her voice. She appeared as if she was going to say something more, but she hesitated at first. “So you’re from Tao huh? You didn’t come all this way to help save little Timmy, did you?”

Luis shook his head, “Not really. We originally came out here because we heard there was work to do. That’s when the Golurk guy… Andy I think it was, told us about Timmy. We came here as fast as we could.”

“Andy?” the Lampent asked in disgust. “Don’t tell me you are one of those visitors following the commands of that Shuppet of a Slakoth.”

Luis figured that she was referring to both Andy and Jury with this comment. It sounded as if she wasn’t quite fond of them. For a moment he considered backing off, but then he remembered that at this moment, Anther was probably working hard at finding Timmy. He might as well also do some work, and perhaps try to complete the vigilante task while he was busy. Who knows, maybe he could do it before Anther came back. Maybe Anther would even be impressed that he managed to pull it off on his own.

“Yeah,” he said, once he had managed to gather his courage. “They’re the ones who asked us to work. What don’t you like about them?”

“What don’t I like about them? The question is what is there to like about them!” she said, her fire growing an orange colour as she let her emotions show. “I mean, I’m relatively new in this town. All the old people seem to accept him as the mayor. But I don’t even have a clew why. He hasn’t done a single thing for us since I’ve been here. All he’s been doing is spending his sweet time in some sleep-induced comma or something stupid like that. And in the mean time, criminals have been running around doing whatever they feel like, not even caring for the welfare of others.”

This was a tough answer to respond to. Luis had been thinking of things to say in his head for a while now. But now that he was in the argument, he realized that he was very unprepared. “D-don’t you think… that since he’s awake now, that you should let him take over, though? I mean he must be mayor for a reason.”

“No! I see no reason for him to be-” she paused to glare at Luis for a moment. “Hold on, are you actually telling me to step aside for Jury? He told you to come down here and tell that to me didn’t he? That’s why you’re down here. You’re didn’t want to save Timmy, you came here to stop me!”

“N-no! That’s not it! We’re here to save Timmy too!” Luis said frantically. If there was something he didn’t like it was a misunderstanding. As a Zorua, he was misunderstood enough already. “We just… were told to try to convince you to let Jury handle things now.”

“Listen kid,” Phaze said, pointing at him with one of her arms. “This town would be nothing like they way it is today if it weren’t for me, and other likeminded Pokemon. We worked hard to make sure this town was a good place to live. And how to we get thanked? By getting told we’re no longer needed? Well I say no thanks! I’m going to keep doing what I feel is right, and no stupid inadequate mayor is going to send some little kids, who are not even from this town I might add, to tell me otherwise. If Jury really cared that much, he can get off of his lazy ghost ass and say it to my face!”

Once again, Luis found himself without words. What could he say to that? At this rate, they were heading for a fight, but that wasn’t allowed. And she did a good job at sounding like she was in the right, even though she was a vigilante. But he really wanted to get this done before Anther returned. He glanced down into the tunnel; there was still no sign of him. What would Anther say? He seemed pretty smart. He probably would have known exactly what to say.

“How can this town be peaceful,” Luis said, thinking on the fly, “if you’re going to be fighting the mayor all the time? Maybe you don’t like him. But he’s the one in charge, now, and you’ll be the one causing the problems if you keep doing this, forcing him to have to deal with you along with all the other issues the town has.”

“Back off kid,” the ghost type said, her voice sounding increasingly dangerous. “What does an outsider like you know about this? I guess I misjudged you when I first saw you. I thought you were decent mons. Now I know you are nothing more than an extension of Jury’s arm.”

“If you keep doing this, then you’re no better than the criminals!” Luis blurted, in a final effort. However, he regretted those words the moment they slipped out of his mouth.

“You know, you are really pushing my buttons,” Phaze said, as her flame became in increasingly vibrant orange. “If you don’t like what I’m doing, then you’re going to have to stop me by force.” She gestured to him, indicating for him to approach her. “Well then, you little runt. C’mon! Bring it!”

A strange feeling overcame Luis once the Lampent had made her taunt. A feeling of anger overcame him that he had never felt before. He wanted to attack her, make her regret underestimating him. The next thing he knew, he was charging at her, toxic poison dripping from his teeth as he lunged forwards.

A blur of black and purple followed as her cloak blocked his vision. Before he could think, he felt a searing hot pain as something hit him on his back. He came to a rough landing on the damp and slippery floor before he stood up to get his bearings.

What had just happened? He clenched his teeth in pain as he realized that the searing pain had not gone away. A burn! She must have burned him! He looked up to see that she had gone on unscathed. She must have dodged his attack, and then used some type of fire move to cause this burn.

Why had he even done that in the first place? That was not the way to fight, his brother, Royal, had taught him this. His style was using tricks to deceive and confuse the foe, not attack them up front. Somehow, she had managed to get the better of him. And now he was burned because of it.

He looked over to the flooded tunnel, still no sign of Anther. As he looked, Anther’s messenger bag caught his eye. There were berries in there, that’s what Anther had told him. If he could grab a rawst berry he would be alright.

“Give up now kid, don’t make this any more hard than it needs to be,” the vigilante said as she approached him.

Instead of responding, Luis dived for the bag. His burns were screaming in pain as the skin on his back stretched, but he knew he wouldn’t need to feel that for much longer. He opened one of the compartments, reached in and pulled out the familiar blue berry, then stuffed it into his mouth.

Or at least he would have. The moment he had brought the berry close to his mouth, a purple glow surrounded the berry, and flung it away. Luis dived after it as it rolledacross the cave floor, but once again, it was became surrounded by that purple glow, and this time was flung into the water. Once again his burns stung as he turned around to face his opponent. She must have had something to do with it, he was sure of it.

“I’ve got you right where I want you. Are you really willing to go through all this for Jury?”

A little part of him wanted to give up. To tell her she had won. He wasn’t doing this for Jury. He didn’t really care about him. Deep down, he wanted to impress Anther, to show him he could be cool too. He wanted to complete this task, so that when Royal came back, he could tell him all the things he had done. That was really why he was fighting, and he wouldn’t back down because of a few measly burns.

His eyes glowed green as blades of grass emerged from the ground beneath Phaze, snagging onto her cloak and causing her to collide with the cave wall. It was a weak attack, but it bought him just enough time to dive into the shadows to hide. The moment he was hidden away, he took some of his energy and merged it with the nearest inanimate object he could find. In this case, it was a rock. The rock glowed dimly for a moment before assuming the same appearance as him. He could already hear a growl of frustration from the vigilante as she burned the blades of grass that had caught her. Now was the time to act.

He took to the shadows as he moved from rock to rock, keeping out of the Lampent’s vision. At the same time, his substitute jumped out from his previous hiding spot, eyes glowing green again as it appeared to use grass knot. Not to be tricked again, Phaze instantly moved away from the floor, making her motions erratic as to make her a difficult target to hit.

As soon as he had her in a good spot, the real Luis jumped out from the shadows, and, with all the dark thoughts he could muster, released them towards her. She had just enough time to see it coming before it hit her directly and was sent tumbling to the ground. Luis landed in front of her as she looked up, but she flinched from the shock of the attack. Luis used this time to hit her once again with another pulse of dark thoughts, this time even more powerful than before.

Luis turned to the flooded tunnel as the Lampent tumbled backwards. There was still no sign of him. What was taking so long? It would have been cool if someone were around to see his first victory. He was positive that last attack had gotten her. He tensed up again as his burns continued to sting. Every time they were getting worse and worse.

He looked back to where he had attacked the vigilante only to find that there was nothing there. “What the-” he said, vocalizing his thoughts. Before he could finish the thought, a searing pain hit him a second time, this time across the side of his neck. As he stumbled sideways he realized that she had hit him again. Now the burning sensation was covering even more of his body.

“I’ll hand it to you kid, that was a clever trick,” the Lampent said, as she appeared in front of him. “But you’re not the only one with tricks up their sleeves.” She proceeded to reveal a greenish looking heal, with two red claws, dangling from one of her arms. Somehow it must have protected her from his last attack, though it was obvious that she too was on her last legs. “Also, it’s never smart to turn away from you opponent before the battle is over. Are you ready to give up?”

Luis growled in response. That was all he could do, he didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore. He had spent all his energy with his last attacks; all the while his burns were constantly ebbing away at his strength. It was actually frightening how full extent of these burns had snuck up on him. But now, all he could do was sit there, helpless, as he did nothing beyond making faces at her.

“Hmph… I’ll take that as a no?” She raised one of her arms, on the end of which, a small purple cloud of shadows began to form. As it increased in size, it assumed the form of a ball. “Is that your final answer?”

“Hey!” a voice called from the side. With effort, Luis turned his head to see that Anther had finally emerged from the flooded tunnel. Walking between them, he looked back and forth from Luis to Phaze. “What in the torn world is going on?”