MATURE: Pokemon Lucario's Trail

[Ratchet573]

This is a direct continuation of a work I wrote a year and a half ago. It was posted somewhere way back in the forum. You don't need to have read the whole thing to get this, but it may help.

Pokemon: Lucario’s Trail
Act One: A Chance Meeting Between Selves
It was a chance meeting between selves. A stray Lucario, skinny and shaggy looking, passed by the man with medium sized black hair and a cigarette dangling from his lips. There was an instant of recognition in which the Lucario turned to the man and the man turned to the Lucario. Their eyes met and an electric shock shook each of them. The man smiled and blew a stream of smoke from the side of his mouth before approaching the four foot tall Pokemon. He placed his hand atop the creature’s head and pet it. The red eyed Lucario didn’t really mind this; it felt good to have human contact after a year and a half of living in the forest. The smell of cigarette smoke was not the most pleasant, but reminded the creature of the human world he had run away from.
“Who are you?” The Lucario asked through telepathy. He hadn’t spoken to anyone in a long time. This contact was making him feel happy, something he only felt in the forest when he was with his friends.
“My name’s Sean Ratchet.” The man patted the Lucario’s head. “I don’t know why I felt compelled to talk to you. I got to get to work though, so hopefully you don’t mind. Do you have a master?”
The Lucario thought of Tsubaki, then Jenny, then shook his head both to answer the question and get rid of the memories. “I don’t.”
“It’s strange to meet a wild Lucario on a public street, and one so willing to speak to a human.” Sean did an about-face and started off in the opposite direction. “If you’re still around after my shifts over I’ll treat you to dinner.” With that, Sean disappeared.
The Lucario found himself sitting beneath an oak tree. That man…
Sean Ratchet was the name of the human Lucario had been. The body of Sean was the exact same as the one the Lucario had inhabited for seventeen years before the Godstone’s power took his mind and soul and placed them in another vessel. In the body of his Lucario.
“Why am I still roaming around? I threw my body on a pyre two and a half years ago.” Lucario blew out a breath. “The moment I enter society is the moment it all starts again. I should have stayed in the forest.”
“What’s wrong Luc?” Came a voice from above Lucario. He looked up the length of the oak tree to find a Treecko sitting on a branch, a piece of grass clamped in its mouth. It flung itself off the branch to land gently beside Lucario. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Treecko sat down next to Lucario and flicked the end of his grass playfully.
“I did.” Lucario muttered, shifting uncomfortably.
Treecko looked at his friend quizzically. “A Gengar? Or a Hauntor?”
“No, a human ghost.” Lucario replied. “A person I watched die a few years back.”
“That’s weird.” Treecko closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head. He crossed his feet and reclined backward, yawning loudly. “You gonna take a nap too? I heard tonight there would be fireworks so we probably will have a hard time getting shut eye. May as well make up for it now.”
Lucario nodded and decided it best to not think too hard on why his human self was walking around. He’d get his answers later when he had dinner with himself. For now, he figured he may as well take a nap. He yawned and closed his eyes, letting the darkness take him in its warm embrace.

Cristian took a bite from the plump red apple, the juices dribbling down his chin, before lobbing it over the waist high concrete wall he was using as cover. He threw it westward and ran eastward the moment the apple made an impact against the warehouse floor. The Yakuza stood and aimed at it, some squeezing the triggers of their Uzi submachine guns and others attempting to track Cristian. He got behind a wall of boxes between himself and his enemies. He checked his pistol’s clip and muttered a curse. He had five bullets left. He’d already expended twenty-five.
How had he ended up in this predicament? Easy, he had decided to waltz in on a meeting of the Miyagi family and a shipping industrialist who were working in tandem to export performance enhancing drugs for Pokemon. As a detective for Cherry Grove City’s police department, he felt it was his personal responsibility to put this to an end before any deals could be struck. He’d tell the police later, he preferred to work alone anyway. He did his best work that way.
He looked up and noticed a Pidove sitting atop the boxes, staring down at him. He flashed it a smile before pointing his pistol at it and letting off a shot that turned the creature into a cloud of blood and feathers.
He then figured out what the motive behind this Pokemon being there was. A distraction from the forklift being driven into the boxes.
Cristian ran aside as the boxes of drugs tumbled everywhere and the lifts of the forklift meet the wall of the warehouse with an ear bleeding clang. Uzi fire trailed behind Cristian, embedding in the cement walls as he made his way toward the open metal door leading onto a long wooden dock. He jumped out of the door and let out a sigh of relief.
“That was a close one.” He muttered as he took a Pokeball from his belt. He pressed the button on the center of the ball and a red stream streaked to the ground in front of him, the red resolving itself into the form of a three and a half foot tall Pokemon with braided red hair. The Zoroark had a violent smile upon her face.
“You were my last resort Zoroark, but I don’t seem to have any other way of taking care of this situation.” Cristian turned to the door as a man peeked his head around the corner. Cristian’s pistol was up and a bullet had left the barrel before the Yakuza could even think about bringing his head back inside. The bullet pierced through the Yakuza’s forehead, scrambled his brain, then exited out the back of his head, leaving a trail of pink in its midst.
“Dark pulse! Go!” Cristian stood back as his Zoroark produced a wave of darkness in front of her that smashed against the concrete wall of the warehouse. The wall crumbled and blew chunks of itself into the bodies of the Yakuza. Without its front wall, the warehouse became unstable and started to crumble into itself. Cristian smiled and turned toward the beautiful blue ocean. He made Zoroark return to her Pokeball before releasing another of his Pokemon, a Gyarados. It splashed into the pure waters and Cristian hopped on its back as the sound of police sirens grew closer and closer.
“Let’s get out of here.” He muttered. “I got a good look at the stickers on the sides of the boxes. I know who’s supplying the drugs. Let’s take him out.”
Gyarados let out an approving roar before taking his master away from the warehouse.

“We’re here to collect this month’s protection fee.” Jirou said, seating himself across from the twenty year old woman. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was disheveled. She was raving mad. Jirou hated dealing with her because of this. Her restaurant was still a popular spot in Cherry Grove City, despite the fact she was not in the dining room flashing her lovely smile anymore. She had a waiter who worked the front and she stayed in the back where she cooked alone. Most people knew it had to do with the loss of her Lucario. The two had been bonded much more closely than any other master/Pokemon relationship known. The loss of her Pokemon had left her a mess and shattered her brain. The same did not apply to the Pokemon, he was the one who broke the bond. She was the one who had the chain yanked from her chest that connected them. He still dragged it to connect with another.
“Ma’am, the money?” Jirou had been in the Yakuza for five years. He had been a member of the Kishimoto family before it had been assimilated into the Miyagi’s. Now a collector, he made his money off property owners by making them pay exorbitant fees for Yakuza protection. If they failed to pay, they were beaten up until they did. If they never caved in, they died. Simple as that. It was blackmail, sure, but it was mutually beneficial.
Tsubaki threw a white envelope on the table and stood, turning away from the Yakuza. “Get the hell out of my restaurant.” She muttered.
Jirou nodded and slipped the envelope into his jacket. “Have a good afternoon.” He left Tsubaki alone in the room. She sat down in a booth and released her Zangoose. The Pokemon loved his master deeply. He hated Lucario for leaving her like this. He swore that if he ever saw the blue bastard, he would tear him to shreds. Until that day came, he tried to comfort his master. He snuggled up to her and fell asleep right beside her in the booth. He could hear her cry. It wasn’t just over Lucario though. It also had to do with the Yakuza being so powerful.
Lucario had left at a vital time. The Miyagi family was the most powerful crime syndicate in the world. Johto was theirs to control. If Lucario had stayed, he could have helped prevent this. Instead, he left.
Where he was, nobody knew. A year and a half later, and he was still gone. No sign of him.

“Wake up!” Came a feminine voice from above Lucario. He opened one eye to find Gardevoir standing over him, looking down at him with a friendly look. She seemed to be smiling at him. He smiled back. Ever since they had met eight months back, she had been like an authority figure in his life. She woke him up in the morning, she pushed him to swim in the river, she told him when it was a good time to go to bed. Like a nagging mother.
“Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” Treecko muttered from Lucario’s side. “You’re interrupting.”
“You get up too Treecko! I got us some berries and thought we could have lunch together.”
Lucario stood and stretched, yawning widely. Treecko didn’t move an inch. Gardevoir was about to poke him when he started speaking.
“I stayed up all night looking at the stars. So let me sleep. It would make me happy, and isn’t my happiness all that matters?” He smiled. “You two lovebirds eat lunch together.”
If Pokemon could blush, Lucario and Gardevoir would have done so. Instead Gardevoir simply grabbed Lucario by the arm and dragged him into the forest. “He’s so annoying!” She exclaimed. “Every time I try to be nice to him I get shot down. I should just stop trying.”
Lucario tried to keep up with her. Why she was running so fast he had no idea.
“Oh well, I was hoping he’d say that anyway. It means more for us!” She looked over her shoulder and regarded Lucario for a brief moment while he wasn’t paying attention. When he looked up at her she quickly turned away and continued to drag him toward the river.
“So why are you feeding me today?” Lucario asked as they stopped by the river.
“Because it’s what a friend does for another friend, right?” She stopped at the river side and pushed aside a flat rock that sat over a big hole in the ground. Inside of it were berries and a small bag of Pokechow. Lucario smiled.
“I know why you didn’t want Treecko to come. It’s hard to come by this Pokechow.”
“A little girl in the park gave it to me. I didn’t think Treecko would come so saved it for us.” Her words got a little muddled at the end.
The two sat down and started eating. They talked about themselves and watched other Pokemon roam about the forest. When they finished their lunch they stood up and Gardevoir hugged Lucario. He was taken by surprise but didn’t complain. It was the first time in a long time he had felt the embrace of someone, the first time in a long time he felt like someone really cared about him. He liked her. He had at one point been a human but he had lost taste in human women over the years. Well, since Jenny. Now he was more like a Pokemon than ever. He still retained his human memories and some of his human ways, but he had given in to being a Pokemon. He had a lot of fun this way too. Staying out of human affairs and making friends with other Pokemon had been the only thing keeping him sane.
“I, um, wanted to talk to you about something.” Gardevoir said as they held the embrace.
“What is it?” Lucario asked.
She hesitated. It might ruin their friendship if she asked. She was scared to do that. He was the only friend she had other than Treecko, but he only counted one percent of the time. She really cared about Lucario and protected him a couple times from violent Pokemon causing trouble. She cursed herself in her head for not having the strength to ask him, but did blurt out something at least.
“I l-l-like you.” She muttered and looked down.
“I like you too.” Lucario nudged her with his nose playfully. “You’re my best friend.”
“Will you…um…watch the fireworks with me tonight?” She asked. “We can go to the park and find a good spot.”
“I’d like that.” Lucario disengaged from the hug and smiled the best a Lucario could. Gardevoir found the facial movement cute.

“Good afternoon gentlemen.” Cristian smiled kindly at the lady behind the secretary desk of the software firm. Four men sat in comfortable chairs in the reception and recreation room. They all regarded Cristian with more than just contempt. He knew he was entering the beehive. He was ready for anything though. His pistol had a fresh clip and a couple more sat in the pocket of his blazer. His Blaziken’s Pokeball was clipped to his pocket beside his right hand. If the shit hit the fan, he was prepared.
“What might your business be here detective?” The secretary asked.
“ I got a shipment in my mail of some sort of…enhancement drug. Had a label on it saying it came from here. I figured I’d return it since it was obviously sent to the wrong address.”
“So you’re the asshole..” Before the man with the Mohawk and dirty jacket could finish his sentence about the destruction of the warehouse, Cristian had released Blaziken into the room. The Pokemon kicked the man underneath the chin, sending him flying into the air, his face smashing against the low ceiling. The three other men had no time to get up and help their comrade before Blaziken had roundhouse kicked two of them in the face and kneed one in the groin so hard one of his balls popped.
The secretary was cowering in her seat, Cristian’s pistol pointed at her pony-tailed head. “Turn yourself into the cops. Either that or your kneecaps will become spaghetti sauce. Got it?” The woman nodded, tears in her eyes. She probably had no idea what was going on, just a secretary for a tech firm, but she needed to talk to the police nonetheless.
Cristian looked at his watch. Seven o’ clock. Night was falling.

“Chairman Miyagi, I’m sorry.” The kid bowed his head deeply. His body was covered in bandages. The one man who had survived the destruction at the warehouse was a short kid, maybe eighteen. Miyagi pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a breath. He was mad. That was for sure. But he had no reason to be mad at this kid. Nonetheless, he needed to be taught a lesson. Failure in the Miyagi family was unacceptable. Miyagi pulled a bottle of scotch from his desk. He opened it, took a swig, then set it on the desk along with a large butcher’s knife. The kid looked at it, scared. He knew what he was being made to do.
“The rest of the men you were with paid with their lives.” The chairman said. “You are lucky to walk out with only minor scrapes and bruises. A missing pinky is not a bad price to pay for surviving and continuing your life as a Yakuza.”
The kid walked forward slowly, his legs shaking. He wanted to run, but knew it was useless. He’d be shot. He was dedicated to the organization to a certain degree, but the pain he had inflicted to himself was getting to be too much. He’d already been shot in the stomach once. He was sick of being in pain. Losing his pinky would just add to it all.
He took the scotch and downed the whole bottle before wrapping his left hand around the knife and putting his right hand on the top of the desk. He placed the knife in between his ring and pinky finger. His hand was shaking. He couldn’t bring himself to do this.
“I’ll do it.” Miyagi said, walking around the desk and grabbing the handle of the knife. He pressed it against the kid’s pinky, drawing blood. He then brought it up and dropped it like a guillotine. The kid fell over screaming as his pinky was severed beneath the fingernail. He clutched at it as blood spewed from the wound. Miyagi took a white handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped the severed finger in it. He then lifted the receiver of his black phone sitting on his desk.
“Yes Mr. Miyagi?” Came the cute voice of his receptionist.
“Bring in the doctor.”
“Yes sir.”

“So you’re here.” Sean Ratchet said, not surprised that the Lucario standing on the sidewalk where they had met nine hours before was there. The prospect of free dinner probably brought him. Sean was happy about it though, it meant he would have company. He was planning on eating at the restaurant alone before he had met the blue Pokemon.
“I’ve been waiting for you. I really wanted to talk to you.” Lucario followed beside Sean, matching his strides. “I wanted to learn more about you. About your life and all of that kind of stuff.”
They crossed an intersection. While Onyx City wasn’t large, it wasn’t small either. Cars passed by on the street, quite a few people roamed the sidewalks.
“Well, I don’t remember much about my past. Two and a half years ago I remember being in Sinnoh. I just kind of woke up. There was this guy— he was with a strange Pokemon that looked like a Mew—who told me to get out of Sinnoh, war was coming. So I moved here and became an assistant at the Pokemon Center. It’s kind of weird, I know. I don’t know why seventeen years of my life just disappeared. The guy said I hit my head really hard and am suffering a severe case of amnesia.”
“The scientist had black hair? Curly?” Lucario asked.
“Yeah. Just that.” Sean lifted an eyebrow. “You know him?”
“Daylan.” Lucario muttered. “He was experimenting with synthetic Pokemon.”
“Really? So that Pokemon he had…”
“It’s called Mewtwo. An imperfect clone of Mew.”
Sean nodded. They made it to the restaurant and walked inside the giant double doors and into the dining room. It was fancy, lots of fish tanks and pillars and foliage. The duo got seats next to one of the tanks. Sean ordered water and Pokechow for Lucario and a steak for himself.
“So what about you?” Sean asked in between bites of steak. “What’s your story? You’re awfully intelligent for a Pokemon. You seem well versed in human affairs.”
“I read the newspapers.” Lucario replied.
“You can read?” Sean’s eyes were wide. “I work with Pokemon every day. I’ve never seen, nor even heard of a Pokemon who could read.”
“I can speak English too. Do Pokemon speak to you normally?”
“Lucario’s are hard to come by, but they are supposed to be able to speak in a person’s language by telepathy. Basically, you think the words in your language, I receive the words in mine. So do you actually know English then? Who taught you?”
Lucario had a hard time answering that question. “Um, I used to have a master. He taught me.” He lied.
“You’re a strange Pokemon.” Sean said. “Don’t think I’m weird or anything, but I feel like I’ve met you before.”
“No, I don’t find that weird at all.” Lucario ingested a mouthful of Pokechow. “I feel the same.”
After another twenty minutes of talking, Sean paid the check and patted Lucario’s head as they headed out and prepared to part ways.
“Maybe we can talk some more tomorrow. If you want to meet again.” Sean said.
“Sure.” Lucario replied. “Thanks for dinner.”
“No problem buddy. See you around.” Sean waved and started toward his house. Lucario headed to the park. Night was falling and the fireworks show was going to start soon. People were already filing toward the waterfront to get the best seats. Lucario went against the tide of people, the lone Pokemon getting strange looks. What was a lone Pokemon, let alone a social pariah like a Lucario, doing in a big crowd of people?
Regardless, he made it to the park.

“The Lucario?” Daylan asked into his cell phone.
“I think he’s the one you’ve been after.” Sean replied. “Why is he so important?”
“He did some things in Sinnoh. You probably weren’t paying attention to the news back during the war. He was there though.” Daylan’s voice was happy. “And now we’ve found the bastard.”
“How did you figure he would see me and latch on?”
“A guess.” Daylan snickered.
“Are you going to…kill him?”
Daylan laughed. “No, I’ll just use him for scientific experiments. Your obligation to me is over. Never call me or speak of me.” Sean started to reply, but was answered only by the beep of a dead line.

“Bugger off mate.” Devon sneered, stuffing a tiny sandwich in his mouth. “Can’t you see it’s tea time? Right Bellossom, love?” He grabbed his Pokemon from the seat beside him and rubbed his nose against her. “Your colourful flowers never fail to grant me the courage to continue.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt your tea and crumpet time…”
“It’s tea and little sandwich time asshat.” Devon took a sip from his tea cup.
“I wouldn’t speak to me that way.”
“Or what? You and your mates will proceed to jerk me off vigorously? You lot do look like arse bandits.” Devon smiled. “I’m trying to enjoy a meal here and I’ve got you retards watching me like I’m some sort of celebrity. I’m not paying the Yakuza to take care of my problem. Quit eavesdropping between me and my wonderfully amazing Bellossom or I’ll rip your fucking ears off.”
“Okay asshole, if that’s what you want…” The Yakuza grabbed Devon by the shoulder but quickly regretted it as Devon grabbed Bellossom and shoved her in the man’s face.
“FLOWER POWER!” Devon yelled and Bellossom shot poisoned powder from the red flowers atop her head. The Yakuza screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his eyes as they burned like volcanoes. The other two Yakuza quickly pulled pistols from their jackets but Devon was fast.
Holding Bellossom to his chest he threw his cup of hot tea at one of the men. It smashed against his face and he screamed as it burned his skin. Devon then grabbed the hot metal tea pot and threw it at the second man. The man swatted it away with his pistol but was quickly met by Devon holding two little sandwiches. He shoved one into the barrel of the pistol and another into his enemies mouth. The Yakuza attempted to shoot, but couldn’t.
“Bellossom!” Devon’s little green friend said and sprayed poison all over the man. She then sprayed it on the man clutching his tea burned face.
“Well wasn’t that all over the shop?” Devon asked Bellossom before paying for his meal and leaving the restaurant, heading into Cherry Grove City.

Cristian sat back and watched from the catwalk as his Blaziken made short work of the men in white jumpsuits working the conveyor belts beneath the software firm. They’d stop producing the enhancement drug now. They had no chance of even thinking before his Blaziken was on them, almost as fast as a fighter jet as it kicked them around like bags of dirt. When there were only a couple left, Cristian sighed, pulled his back from the wall he rested against and uncrossed his arms. He made his way down and found a man who seemed to be older, maybe a foreman, maybe just an older worker. The man was scared shitless, literally as the brown stain in the back of his white pants attested. Cristian grabbed him and took him to one of the conveyor belts. Beside the belt was a control panel that had a lever that adjusted the speed. Cristian pushed this to full throttle and the room resounded with the sound of whirring from the conveyor. It was going fast, really fast. Cristian pushed the old man’s head close to it.
“You tell me what I want to know and you keep your face. If I think you’re lying or bullshitting me I’ll sharpen your head to a point. Got it?”
“Y-YES!”
“Tell me everything about this operation. Who runs it, who buys from you, where you get the product to make these drugs. You lie, you die. Got it?”
The man nodded and told Cristian everything he wanted to know.

He met Gardevoir at the park. They found an open area near to the water that gave a very good view of the sky where the fireworks would go off. They huddled close as a cold breeze blew by. Gardevoir put her head against Lucario’s shoulder and they sat like that, watching the display.
As the finale started, the fireworks being shot off like crazy, exploding into a rainbow of colors competing for space in the black sky, Gardevoir looked at Lucario and mustered up her courage.
“Um…Luc?” He looked at her and she started to stammer out what she had been meaning to say for weeks but never could. “I-I-I love…”
There was a shot and Lucario threw himself on top of Gardevoir, putting an aura shield around them. The bullet bounced off and Lucario cursed.
“Luc?” Gardevoir was wide eyed. He looked down at her and grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
“It’ll be okay. Whoever these bastards are they’ve fucked with the wrong person.”

 

[Ratchet573]

Act Two: The Capture Of Lucario
Michaels wore a balaclava over his face and carried a machine gun in his hands, the stock pushed against his shoulder, the sights lined up with the Lucario’s head. The moment the Pokemon let go of its aura shield he would take it out. He shook a bit as a cool breeze swept through the forest. The Lucario sat in a clearing surrounded by thick foliage. It had been a simple matter to surround him. Only two people were meant to shoot though. The other three would be back up in case the Lucario went on a rampage. Michaels was one of the shooters, the other on the opposite side of the clearing from him. The Lucario couldn’t hold his aura shield for much longer, it would cost him a lot of personal strength just to repel the two bullets shot at him. At least, it should have. The Lucario didn’t appear to be losing any strength and the shield stayed up, unwavering after even two whole minutes. This was unheard of.
“Omega Team, copy?” The voice of Holliday intruded Michaels’ thoughts. Michaels pulled the tiny microphone connected to his earpiece closer to his mouth.
“Copy Holliday, this is Michaels over.”
“The Lucario is protecting a Gardevoir. I say we lob a grenade at them. That should kill the shield.”
The Lucario stood and the shield continued to envelope him and his companion who clung to him tightly. They began to run for it and Omega Team followed him, keeping their weapons trained on the shield.
“How do we proceed?” Michaels asked.
“Follow him. Don’t let him out of your sights. He has to let up the shield at some point.”
“Yes sir.” Michaels ran as fast as he could, his boots pounding against the ground. The rest of Omega Team followed suit.
Running parallel to Michaels was Holliday who flashed him a look and then nodded at him. Michaels nodded back and pulled a tube from his belt that he attached to the bottom of his machine gun. He then grabbed a grenade and let it slide into the tube. They exited the forest and entered an open playground area. It was abandoned but for the Lucario and his companion in their shield. Michaels aimed his machine gun upward and prepared to fire his grenade at the duo when he felt an impact against his forehead and toppled over backward. He pulled the trigger and the grenade flew wide, blowing up a swing set.
“Michaels respond!” Holliday screamed into his microphone. It was no use. Someone had shot and killed Michaels. Holliday grabbed his Charizard’s pokeball. There was someone else out there who was defending the Lucario.
“Release your fire types and burn the forest opposite. Got it?”
“Yes sir.” Came a trio of responses.
Holliday found cover behind a tree in the forest on the opposite side of the enemy shooters, as did his men, and let loose his Charizard as the fireworks display that had helped drown out the sound of the violence ended. Holliday gave his orders to the orange dragon and watched it take off, meeting in midair with another Charizard, a Dragonite, and a Salamence.
They opened their mouths to turn the forest into a raging hell but were stopped by a creature flying out from the edge of the foliage. It exuded a purple aura that was almost like smoke. Holliday wanted to scream. It was like a devil.
It threw out aura spheres that flew at the speed of light. All of the Pokemon flying before it ate a mouthful of dark energy that blew apart upon contact, taking the upper half of their bodies. Blood and gore spattered everywhere, plopping against the Lucario’s shield as it stood in the center of the playground, nowhere to go. The bottom half of the dragon’s bodies splattered against the playground, the Dragonite’s lower half hitting the top of the slide and leaving a trail of blood and guts on its way down it.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Davidson asked over the radio.
“The devil.” Holliday replied.
The creature landed in front of the Lucario’s aura shield. He punched it and it exploded, throwing the devil to the ground. Lucario ran at it and the devil was up, an aura sphere let loose. Lucario spun, the sphere passing his fur by centimeters. The devil crossed its’ arms in front of itself as Lucario punched at its’ chest. When the fist connected with the devil’s arms, he pushed the Lucario backward and started a volley of punches of his own.
Davidson returned on Holliday’s radio. “The Lucario was protecting a Gardevoir. Permission to engage?”
“Go ahead.” Holliday replied and continued watching the battle between the Lucario and the white devil.
The moment Davidson moved out of his cover behind an oak tree to aim at the Gardevoir both the Lucario and the white devil had turned to him and shot off an aura sphere. The aura spheres smashed against the man, one disintegrating his face, the other leaving a basketball sized hole in his stomach. He died instantly.
“Dammit!” Holliday cried. The Lucario and the devil had resumed their fight.
That’s when the three men on the opposite side of the park came out into the open. One of them wore a lab coat and carried a rifle. The other two held machine guns not unlike those carried by Holliday’s men and wore fatigues and bulletproof vests. They stood to either side of the scientist who ran a hand through his curly black hair. He looked at the Gardevoir and she back at him. He shook his head and started toward her. Lucario wanted to go and protect her but fell to his knees as the devil’s fist met his solar plexus.
“I assume you and the Lucario are an item.” Holliday heard the scientist say. “I have no intention of harming you, nor him if you submit to us. If you can’t convince him to give up like a good little boy than Mewtwo will have to bloody him up a bit. No matter what path he chooses the men shooting at you will be taken care of. Our interests are polar opposites and I fear that my former employer is going to get in my way if he continues this behavior. And it is never a good idea to get between a mad scientist and his experiment.” He directed this toward Holliday whose neck hairs stood straight at this sentence.
“You put the guns down and we’ll spare your lives!” Holliday cried back.
“Oh, hollow threats from a dead man. I love them. Are you new to the organization? I hadn’t heard much about it after Sinnoh. Everyone was told it had fallen apart, your leader had died, and there was no hope of a restoration. I knew better than to think that.” The scientist turned toward the Lucario. “A strange inconsistency in the story of your leader’s death is the fact that he was shot through the head multiple times. By the Lucario, the only one in the vicinity. Now tell me something, how does a Lucario shoot a submachine gun?” He turned back to Holliday. “It’s simple really. He didn’t shoot. Your boss shot at the Lucario and missed. The Lucario inflicted massive amounts of physical damage but never used a projectile weapon. On top of that, the police reports stated that your boss’s body was burned in a fire, thus the reason there was no trace of his body. The only fire in the area had been an illusion brought on by my Darkrai clone. In other words, if Ketchum thinks he’s being sneaky and expected me to be stupid enough to think him dead, then he’s more of an idiot than I would have thought. After all, I was the one who injected him with nanomachines that would suppress pain and heal his body at one hundred times the usual rate.” The scientist smiled and opened his arms theatrically. “Then again, he thought I had died as well.”
“Who are you?” Holliday asked.
The scientist glanced at Mewtwo and Lucario, still fighting. Lucario seemed to be backing toward Gardevoir. The scientist turned back to Holliday. “The short answer, I’m a ghost. The long answer, I’m the original Daylan Hernandez. The one whose arm had been cut off and later killed by a Gengar was a clone I created, much like the Darkrai and my own Mewtwo. The problem with clones being you can only make one from a single specimen. If I spliced my genes and screwed with my blood and brain waves any more I’d end up killing myself. Not only that, but I’ve realized that cloning does not produce the perfect replica of a person’s brain. It can create a perfect copy of the outer shell, but the inner clock work is only seventy-five percent correct.”
“So you’re the Daylan who worked with our boss two and a half years ago?” Holliday asked.
“I’ve already stated, that was a clone. All the money made from that operation was funneled to me. Whether it failed or not had no bearing on me. I still got my money, I got to test my clones, and I was able to raid the Team Rocket facilities after they were disbanded and take all the tech I wanted.”
“The boss is gonna kill you!” One of Holliday’s men cried out.
“Does he still wear that pathetic white mask? Is he still an angsty bitch who can’t get over his wife’s death?”
“Asshole!” Daylan’s provocation worked. Both of Holliday’s men ran out from the forest and shot wildly at the three men around the Gardevoir. Daylan raised his arm and shook his sleeve back to reveal a long bracelet. Suddenly, the trio and the Gardevoir were enveloped in an aura shield like the Lucario had been holding. The shots bounced off and Daylan smiled sadistically. His men took aim and when the Team Rocket soldier’s clips ran dry, the shield was taken down and Daylan’s men took them out with precise shots. Dark spheres of aura exploded from the weapons and Holliday then noticed that they weren’t normal machine guns.
The clips contained some sort of black, mist-like substance. The aura that surrounded Mewtwo.
The aura spheres that tore through Holliday’s men literally disintegrated their skin to nothing but bone. Holliday wanted to run for it. This wasn’t part of the mission. His boss would want to know everything that transpired, would want to know about Daylan and the Mewtwo. The mission had failed, Omega Team was done.
“Fuck!” Holliday cried and ran the opposite way of Daylan.

Daylan let him go. There was no harm in letting him tell his boss that their operation had been a failure and the better man had won. Now Daylan could focus on Lucario and his apparent girlfriend. He turned to the green Pokemon and offered her his hand. She looked at it, then up at his face, her eyes full of fear. Daylan blew out an annoyed breath.
“I’m your friend. I wish you no harm. Maybe you don’t understand me, but I want your boyfriend to stop fighting. And if you can stop him, I’d be happy. It would save him a lot of pain, would save me some time, and would get you two back together much faster. Nod if you understand me.”
The Gardevoir nodded and Daylan offered her his hand again.
“I can’t call off Mewtwo. He’s a creature of bestial instincts.” Daylan explained as he helped the Pokemon up. “He follows me, but he doesn’t obey me all the time. Especially when it comes to someone trying to kill him. He doesn’t take it lightly.” He nodded toward Lucario and Mewtwo’s fight. While Lucario had been trying to get close and protect Gardevoir, Mewtwo had turned him around and backed him as far away from her as he could. The Mew clone was smart, that was for sure.
“Mewtwo! Let him submit!” Daylan yelled and Mewtwo looked over his shoulder with a sneer. Daylan whispered to Gardevoir. “If Lucario submits, Mewtwo will at least give him that. Mewtwo knows the mission isn’t to kill Lucario, but will stop at nothing to get him as close to death as possible without actually killing him. Submission is the only way to stave off this fate.”
Gardevoir nodded and started yelling at Lucario. It all came out as “Gar-gar-gardevoir” to Daylan, but to Lucario, it meant a lot more.

“Please stop fighting Luc!” Gardevoir said, her eyes filling with tears when she saw Mewtwo’s fist meet Lucario’s muzzle. Lucario was seeing stars and nearly fell over. “I love you! I don’t want to see you in pain!” Lucario stopped and let the words settle in his head. “Don’t do this to me! You’re hurting me as much as you’re hurting yourself!”
Lucario looked over Mewtwo’s shoulder at Gardevoir and dropped to his knees, putting his hands behind his head. Mewtwo frowned, wishing for the fight to continue. Lucario looked down at the grass and smiled to himself.
Mewtwo pulled him up and dragged him over to Daylan. Lucario fell to his knees again and the two men guarding Daylan secured a pair of flexi-cuffs around his wrists. Lucario looked at Gardevoir.
“Everything will be explained later.” Daylan said as the two guards hefted Lucario up and started him out of the park.
Daylan turned to Gardevoir. “We’ll drop him off here in the morning.”
Before Lucario could disappear from her sights, he turned to her. He gave her a longing look.
“I love you too.” He said and disappeared into the night with the three men.
Gardevoir fell to the ground, tears stinging her eyes.
Treecko later found her there, along with the bodies of three men and four Pokemon. He took her away from the site of all the violence before the police could take her in.

“So what is the Gardevoir to you?” Daylan asked, sitting in the backseat of a jeep with Lucario, his cronies taking the front seats. Lucario had been rather solemn. He stared at his feet and looked as if he were in deep thought. Daylan knew he wouldn’t try to escape though. Mewtwo sat atop the Jeep, just waiting for him to move.
Daylan knew pretty much everything about Lucario, had been following his trail ever since he had become a Pokemon. He knew that Lucario wanted to get away from the human world and Daylan had tried to track him but had only been able to figure out his general vicinity. So he had used the ashes he found at the pyre where Lucario had burned his body and created a new Sean Ratchet. He knew that this would lure Lucario out at some point.
And it had.
Daylan asked his question again. “What’s the Gardevoir to you?”
“None of your business.”
“I’m not your enemy. If you think I am then you are sorely mistaken. If I was, I wouldn’t have saved you from Team Rocket and left the Gardevoir alive. You can trust me. I am only an enemy to those who incur my wrath. You have not.”
“Then why have you taken me?”
“I want to examine you. I know everything about you Sean Ratchet. I was the one who created the clone of your human self. My clone of myself and the Darkrai were not under my control. They were directly under the influence of Ash Ketchum. If they hurt you, I apologize. It wasn’t what I wanted.”
“You worked with Team Rocket. You’re my enemy.” Lucario had figured out that his human self was a clone the moment Daylan got involved. He had been lured out. Daylan had gotten what he wanted.
“I’m a free agent. I work for whoever pays me. You of all people should understand that. I believe you were a member of Team Plasma before you…”
“Shut the fuck up.” Lucario muttered.
“Why not talk about Team Rocket instead then. I figure you heard my conversation with the Rocket hit man. It should have come as no surprise to you that Ketchum was still alive. They say you shot him and burned his body in the flames the Darkrai produced. So you didn’t actually kill him. Did you know he survived? Did you intentionally leave him alive?”
“No. I thought he was dead. His heart rate stopped. I felt it.”
“It’s a rare quality to be able to stop your heartbeat.” Daylan laughed. “Ketchum’s better than I thought. So the whole time he survived and the media tells us he died and Team Rocket fell from power. It did fall from power, but it was still operating on a much more underground level than before. I think the government was covering up. They wanted everyone to feel secure after the war so lied through their teeth. Now he’s back and he apparently has been tapping into my phone conversations.”
“Everything’s catching up to me.” Lucario muttered.
“That’s why I was asking about the Gardevoir. I fear for her safety as much as your own. Mewtwo said that you were also friends with a Treecko. A little birdy also mentioned a Lopunny had been seen travelling with you the first half of your time in the forest. You two were alone. She took care of you. What happened to her?”
“If you know so much, then you tell me.”
“Well we were under the assumption she disappeared.”
“She did. I don’t know what happened to her.”
“You two were lovers? Or just good friends?”
“We had gotten to the love part by the time she disappeared.”
“And you and the Gardevoir? Is she your new girlfriend? Are you moving on?”
“I love Gardevoir, but I don’t understand how. Maybe more as a mother figure than a mate. Lopunny…”
“You came to Onyx City to find her. You travelled the forest to find Lopunny.”
Lucario nodded.
Daylan exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Would you join me if I could promise to find Lopunny for you? I will expend all of my resources in securing her if you will do a simple job for me.”
“What?”
“Protect me. If you follow me and work with Mewtwo as my guards for the next couple days I will find Lopunny for you.”
“There’s a catch.”
“There always is.” Daylan smiled. “I’m going to Cherry Grove City.” Daylan stopped to allow Lucario to feel a pang of nostalgia. That was where Tsubaki lived. It was where Jenny had died. “I know you have a past there but you will be able to assist me in taking down an enemy who I know you want dead. I’ll be working with a group of rebels who want rid of the oppressive nature of the Yakuza. You can help me help them kill Chairman Miyagi.”
That name sent hundreds of images through Lucario’s head. The party. Jenny’s death. Kishimoto being thrown into the rotors of a helicopter. The Ronin assassins.
“You promise me Lopunny, I promise you Miyagi will die.” Lucario said, baring his fangs.
“It’s a deal.” Daylan pulled a knife from his pocket and took the flexi-cuffs from Lucario’s hands. They shook hands. “I still want to perform some experiments on you. Nothing severe, just X-rays and such. In the morning I’ll allow you to tell your friends that you’re off. Then we’ll head for Cherry Grove.”

Lucario knew something was up, but didn’t know what. How Daylan knew so much about him, especially his time secluded in the forest, was something that was up for debate. Nonetheless, the prospect of having Lopunny back in his arms was something he couldn’t refuse. He had been searching for her for a long time. Gardevoir knew but had fallen in love with him while helping him search. And the cherry on top would be getting his hands on Miyagi, the bastard who had killed Jenny.
Lucario would do anything to get Lopunny back.
Even help a scumbag like Daylan.

Devon sat his feet up on the table and perched his saucer with a tiny cup of tea atop it on his chest. He watched the television sitting on the table and pointed his direction. The news was on. A dashing reporter spoke of things that weren’t quite as lovely as her countenance. Dead Pokemon at a playground, bodies lying about, the kidnapping of two ten year old trainers by a man on the sex offenders list. Devon shook his head and switched the channel to a game show where men dressed in Pokemon outfits ran around slapping each other with fish. Devon took a sip of tea and laughed as a man was slapped so hard with a fish he fell down.
“What the hell are you watching?” Cristian took a seat beside Devon, a cold beer in his hand.
“Eh, I’m waiting for a guy to get hit in the bollocks. That’d be entertaining.”
“You’re an idiot.” Cristian took a swig from his beer.
“Would you rather I turn on the soaps then?” Devon grabbed for the remote beside his feet but Cristian got to it first. He turned the television off and threw the remote aside.
“The supplier is coming tomorrow. Let’s stop screwing around and get some work done.”
“Hey mate, I beat the crap out of a couple of Yakuza at the tea and sandwich place.”
“And I shut down a drug production plant.”
“Fucking overachiever.” Devon muttered. “If I were a cop I would be able to do that much. But I took the easy route and became a trainer. What about the other people? What have they been doing?”
“Posing as another Yakuza family and fighting Miaygi’s men.”
Devon wasn’t listening. “I’ll rally all the men here. I apparently don’t do enough so better show my worth.” He drank the rest of his tea and stood, making his way into the next room in the tiny apartment.

Lucario was asleep. Daylan had injected him with a tiny dose of a drug that would keep him in dreamland for at least the next eight hours. That was all he needed. He started taking X-rays and began to take what he needed from the creature’s body. Some blood, a bit of fur. As far as the brain was concerned, Daylan could use a generic. All he wanted was the creature’s body and powers. Mewtwo watched the whole ordeal with not the least bit of interest. A few scientists milled about, helping with the proceedings, but it was otherwise a boring night in the laboratory.

N handed a stack of bills to the lead investigator, a balding man in a leather duster and old fashioned pinstriped suit, and ducked under the yellow DO NOT PASS tape. He passed all of the bloody playground equipment and made a beeline for the bodies of the human men. He stopped next to the first one he saw and the Officer Jenny in charge of the crime scene came to stand beside him.
“He was shot through the forehead by a fifty caliber sniper bullet that we found embedded in the ground behind him. The shooter was in a tree, probably that large oak, and took him out.” The Jenny watched as N bent down and pulled the man’s black bullet proof vest off exposing a big red letter.
“Team Rocket.” N cursed. “Why are they still around?”
“That,” Jenny had a wide eyed look on her face, “is a good question.”
“Holy shit. Why was a Pokemon doctor called here? This is disgusting!” The voice belonged to a twenty year old man in a white coat and a sleepy look on his face. N turned toward him and got a good look at his face.
“Holy shit is right.” N said, replacing his expression with Jenny’s. He now had a wide eyed look while she had no expression.
“What?” She asked.
“If that’s who I think it is…”
“Day’s breaking. I’m heading out for doughnuts. You have any specifics you want N?” The lead investigator asked.
“Get me a bear claw.” N said, trying to dismiss the man.
“You got it. Black coffee, right?”
“Yeah.” N moved him aside and started toward the black haired man inspecting the bodies of the dragon Pokemon.

At daybreak Lucario awoke in the back of the Jeep with Daylan beside him and the two cronies in front. He had spent the whole night dreaming of his time in the forest with Lopunny and realized how much he missed her. He couldn’t wait to have her back. He hoped that Daylan could be trusted to keep his word. Because if Daylan didn’t bring Lopunny back to him, he would kill Daylan.
“Here we are. Hurry please. The park is closed due to the police investigation of last night’s activities. She shouldn’t be too far from the spot you left her.” Lucario nodded and one of the cronies opened the door for him and watched him head for Gardevoir.
“Everything is going according to plan.” Daylan said, yawning. “I’m tired. Wake me up when Lucario returns.”

He found her with Treecko. She lay asleep against a tree. Treecko sat next to her and looked up as Lucario approached.
“I’m leaving.” Lucario said.
Treecko smiled. “The past just won’t leave you alone, eh?”
Lucario nodded and looked down at Gardevoir.
“I’ll take care of her for you.” Treecko said. “I’ll explain everything. You’ll be back, right?”
Lucario knelt beside Gardevoir. “I don’t know.” He pushed his mouth against her forehead in the Pokemon equivalent of a kiss.
“You never explained the past to her, did you?” Treecko asked.
“I still don’t want her to know.”
“She had a lot of questions about what happened last night. I had no idea how to answer her about your powers and why you could fight like you do.”
“Leave it a mystery. Please.”
“So what are you doing?”
Lucario explained everything.
Treecko nodded and put his hand out. “Good luck Luc. Come back with Lopunny. I only knew her for a couple of weeks, but I could tell you two were made for each other. Whatever happened to her, I’m sure you two will be reunited.”
Lucario took his hand and shook it. “Thanks for everything. Tell Gardevoir I love her.”
“You got it.”
Lucario started back toward the jeep when he heard a scream coming from the playground area. He dashed that way.

N punched Sean in the stomach, doubling him over.
“Why’d you leave?” N whispered in his ear. He stood aside and let Sean fall to the ground. “Why’d you leave me to tame two gods? Why’d you leave Plasma?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sean wheezed.
“Bullshit!” The police wanted to intervene, but decided against it. The only reason he paid a bribe to the police was because they felt that if they were caught being bribed to let a criminal in, it would sound better than letting him in because they were scared.
“Please, I have amnesia…”
“Zekrom bonded with me and Reshiram was bonding with you. When you left it went on a rampage! It nearly destroyed Unova! Plasma had to move to Johto because it destroyed our whole fucking facility! Zekrom hurtled into a volcano with it and they both died! You did all of this to your own brothers, to your father, to your mother? You did this to Reshiram?” N kicked Sean in the side repeatedly. Sean screamed.
“Bastard! Fucking! Die! Worthless! Piece! Of! Shit!”

Lucario had heard everything. He ran past the police and the yellow tape and tackled N.

“I meant for Team Plasma to fall. I meant for you and both the gods to die.”
“We were best friends! We were brothers!” N said as Lucario punched him in the face. He had no idea that Lucario was the one speaking and not Sean.
“If Team Plasma ever rears its head again, I’ll destroy it!”
“I’ll kill you Sean!”
“Try it.” Lucario knocked N out and stood, grabbing Sean and giving a feral look to the Jenny’s coming to restrain him.
“I’ll kill all of you if you interfere.” Lucario bluffed. The Jenny’s reached for their pistols, unphased.
Lucario sent an aura sphere at their feet that blew the ground out in front of them. He dragged Sean toward the Jeep.

“What the fuck is going on?” Daylan asked as Sean got into the backseat.
“You already know each other.” Lucario said. “So no need for introductions. We’re taking him to Cherry Grove City.”
This threw a tiny wrench in his plans, but Daylan didn’t think it mattered if he helped transport his Sean clone.
“Why is he coming?” Daylan asked.
Lucario explained. Daylan nodded and frowned.
Now Team Plasma was involved. An unknown variable. Daylan hated unknown variables.
“Let’s go.” Daylan said and the jeep started on the long road to Cherry Grove.

 

[Ratchet573]

Act Three: Return To Cherry Grove City
“What do matters in Johto have to do with Sinnoh?” Nichelle asked, sitting back in the red leather sofa facing the desk of the president of Sinnoh. The president wore a typical suit, but unlike her suit, her demeanor had changed over the last few months.
She had a hole that needed to be plugged before it could leak. This man had been the one who helped put her in office. Now that he had moved out of Sinnoh, now that his facilities had been moved, he had no use for her. She had to send a hundred thousand dollars to a bank in Onyx City every month in exchange for his not revealing how she got into office using illicit means. Sinnoh was falling into bankruptcy. She couldn’t afford to send money to a criminal using money that should have been going to pay all the debt the country was incurring. Like it or not, Team Rocket had kept the country stable. They had been excellent in the political field and while they had done a lot of terrible things, they had also done some great things like free health care and better Pokemon Centers. The moment they disappeared and the new president was put in power was the moment Sinnoh started to fall apart politically and monetarily.
“Does it matter?” President Sillindra asked, her voice tense. “Go to Johto and kill Daylan Hernandez. I want his head on my desk within the next two days. If you fail…”
Nichelle stood and pulled a pistol from the folds of her jacket, aiming it at the president’s head. Secret Service agents had been told to stand outside of the room, Sillindra did not want to be overheard. If this assassin wanted to kill her, she could. She wouldn’t make it out of the president’s mansion alive, but she would have at least killed the leading political figure in Sinnoh.
“I don’t fail.” Nichelle said. “And even if I could, I would see a bullet through your skull before you could even think about having me killed.” She put her pistol back in her jacket and stood. “Daylan will die.” She exited the room and the secret service agents escorted her out. The Secretary of Defense glanced quickly at them before entering the presidents room.
“How are you doing?” He asked, leaning against the sofa.
“I need something for my migraine.” Sillindra muttered, setting her head on the top of her desk.

Devon and Cristian stood in the cramped little apartment with seven other people. They milled about, waiting expectantly for somebody to pipe up and say something interesting. Devon was going to take it upon himself when Cristian put a finger to his lips. He didn’t need the man to say anything stupid. It was bad enough living with the guy and running an underground military operation that could be considered a terrorist group with him. He’d insulted enough people in the group over the past year they had been operating together. Every time Cristian even thought about killing Devon though, the man exhibited this strange, childlike behavior where he fondled his Pokemon and danced with them like they were at a club. Then Cristian was made to look at his own moral values and realize he couldn’t kill a man who was obviously retarded.
“Hey mate, I have something I want to talk about. You can quit holding onto my dangly-bits like a wife with her husband. Let me speak.”
Cristian looked at Devon with a sly smile. “Every time you speak you say something offensive and I am not going to allow you to insult anyone here, okay? Last time I let you speak to a group of people they threatened to kill you if you didn’t shut up. Last time a woman was over here you scared her away by talking about…something.”
“I said, and I quote, “Wow, look at her like a dead heat in a Zeppelin race”. How was she insulted when she didn’t even understand what the hell I was talking about?”
“I still don’t know what that means.” Cristian said.
“I was obviously speaking of her bristols.”
“What?”
“Her boobs you wanker!” Devon sighed. “Christ, how a girl can be insulted by something when she doesn’t know what it means…”
“You proceeded to grab them and fondle them yelling “Bellossom, oh how I love you!”.”
“I was drunk. Bugger off.”
“Drunk on tea and crumpets?” Cristian asked.
“Well look at bertie big bollocks. “Oh ho ho, my foreign friend likes his tea so let’s exploit it at every given opportunity”. I’m done having verbal diarrhea with a marmite miner.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?” Cristian asked before a woman of about medium height with long, flowing black hair approached him and took him aside, leaving Devon alone. He walked into the kitchen where a fat guy was searching for something to go with his beer.
“Bugger off.” Devon got him out of the way and started making tea.

“A woman checked into a hotel downtown. She came with a duffel bag that seemed to weigh a lot more than it should. One of our guys was walking the street when he saw her. He’s a friend of the owner of the hotel and found out that her name was Lucy White. He has a strange feeling that she’s here to talk to the Yakuza so I decided to have the guy who first saw her follow her around discreetly. I had another guy ask around about her. Apparently she came from Sinnoh on a cruise ship. The ship goes back in about thirty-six hours.”
“You think Miyagi is moving into Sinnoh?” Cristian asked.
“Could be.” Lily replied, tapping the heel of one of her combat boots against the tile floor. She was covered in tattoos, had piercings all over her body and wore black, tight clothes typically. She wasn’t exactly Cristian’s type, but she was still pretty hot in his opinion. She avoided Devon at all costs, finding that as far as leaders go, Cristian was the only one. Devon was only a co-leader to meet some sort of quota concerning disabled people she figured. She wasn’t the only person who did not understand what the hell Devon was doing as the leader of the organization. Everyone was wondering.
“He’s actually useful sometimes.” Cristian had told her after Devon had drunkenly fondled her breasts which led her to avoid coming to meetings for a month. They spoke at a restaurant during a hot summer day. “Despite all his eccentricities and his…foreignness…he’s actually a good tactician and a useful member of the organization. He was the one who planned the creation of a fake Yakuza to lure Miyagi’s forces away from Cherry Grove so we could focus on killing him.”
Three months later, Miyagi was still alive and the organization had not really gotten anywhere. This was why Cristian has started getting into contact with Daylan. If this man could supply them with what they needed and take down Miyagi, then they would finally end their cause and Johto would be free of the problems associated with the Yakuza.
“When’s he supposed to meet us?” Lily asked.
“In three hours. That’s why I got everyone together. I need everyone to start scouting the area where the deal will go down. I also need guards to set themselves up. I don’t trust this guy at all.”
“You want me to tell everyone to quit getting drunk and start working?”
“Yeah.” Cristian patted her shoulder. “Thanks Lil.”
“No problem.”

“Your first job as my bodyguard will be to protect me from an assassin.” Daylan explained as they neared Cherry Grove City. “Believe it or not, one of your older friends was actually an acquaintance of mine. Scientists of course tend to be friends with each other, especially distinguished ones such as myself and Sillindra.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Have you ever wondered how a lowly scientist is able to enter the political field and in a measly three weeks attain the seat of presidency held only by an elite few, typically with experience in politics?” Daylan poked his chest. “I pulled some strings, I completely erased all of her records and replaced them, and I released some inappropriate pictures of her political rivals with prostitutes, as well as put a file of child pornography on a particularly qualified opponents laptop.”
“And in return?”
“She gave me a million dollars straight from the pockets of Sinnoh’s voters and sent me one hundred thousand dollars every month ever since to keep me quiet. She’d have quite a problem if I decided to leak how she got in office. Can you not believe that your friend did that?”
Lucario shook his head. “I never much trusted Sillindra. To her I was a science experiment. I was nothing more. I knew when she became the president of Sinnoh there was some bullshit politics involved. I never thought you were involved. Anyway, shouldn’t you be keeping this secret?”
“Not when she sends an assassin after me.” Daylan took a bottle of water from the cup holder jutting from the car door to his side and took a long gulp of the cool liquid. “I think it’s about time I send everything to all the newspapers in Sinnoh and Johto.” He said as he screwed the cap back onto his water bottle.
“How do you know she sent an assassin?” Lucario asked.
“Her Secretary of Defense told me. Just as she was put in the position through illicit means by me, so was he. He was insurance. All he had to do was tell me when she ever thought of attacking me or he ever saw anything strange. He said he did see a woman leave Sillindra’s office and gave me a description. On top of that, a bullet was left on her sofa that she neglected to notice. It had initials on it that the Secretary found no value in, but helped me pinpoint who the person who left her office was.”
“Who was it?”
“Nichelle Grazer. A rather well known assassin in Sinnoh. Well, as well known as an assassin can be. Originally, get this, a member of Team Rocket back when Giovanni was in control.” Daylan pulled a laptop from under the driver’s seat in front of him.
“Mmm…” Sean slumped against the door, asleep. He had been like this the whole trip. Lucario sat in between him and Daylan. Daylan appreciated the fact the clone wasn’t speaking and was sleeping. It allowed him time to speak to Lucario.
“Why now?” Lucario asked.
“Sillindra’s probably getting caught on to, either that or she has finally decided that she doesn’t want to pay me for something of this nature when I’m an unknown variable and could leak the information anyway. She’s smart; just like me she hates unknown variables.”
Daylan pulled up a whole file on Nichelle and turned it for Lucario to read.
“Left the organization after Giovanni’s execution. Has hit a few big targets. Owners of businesses mostly. Never a political target. Sillindra must find me a really easy target. She’ll be surprised.”
“Are we there yet?” Sean asked sleepily. “I want to get back to work.”
“I have already emailed the Pokemon Center in Cherry Grove. You will have a job there, rest assured.” Daylan said. “Now go back to sleep. You had a long night last night.”
“You’re telling me.” Sean murmured before returning to dreamland.
“I’m going to start working on compiling all of my evidence of Sillindra’s illicit activities.” Daylan said, setting his laptop in his lap and moving his fingers across the keyboard deftly. “Rest up. I have a feeling we’re in for a long day.”

Nichelle had noticed her tail all morning. He wasn’t very good. He ducked into dark alleyways and would look at the wares being displayed in windows while she made her way around the city trying to find leads. She had thirty-five hours to find Daylan. It wasn’t a very long time considering he could be anywhere in Johto. She believed she’d find him though. He couldn’t be that elusive.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder, seeing a figure run into the doorway of a restaurant. Nichelle smiled and did an about-face, walking toward the doorway. The man peeked out and his eyes got buggy when Nichelle came toward him. He attempted to enter the restaurant as nonchalantly as he could but couldn’t pull it off. Nichelle kicked him in the back and threw him, sprawling, to the wooden floor of the restaurant. Inside, a waitress of about nineteen with long blond hair and a pink and white waitress outfit on was refilling an elderly man’s coffee cup. Everyone stopped what they were doing as Nichelle grabbed her tail by his collar and lifted him from the ground.
He flailed around as Nichelle brought her knee into his kidneys, knocking the breath from him. She looked over his shoulder and saw the waitress running to the kitchen and her eyes slit. She didn’t need the police being called or anything getting in between herself and the target. Time was ticking and she knew that this tail was going to make her lose a lot of time.
People were pulling their cell phones from their pockets and Nichelle hurried along with her interrogation.
“Who the hell are you?” She asked, pulled a pistol from her jacket and shoving the barrel against the man’s forehead. He started to shake and sweat.
“I’m just a member of a resistance group. Don’t shoot!” He panicked.
“What resistance?”
“Against the Miyagi Yakuza!”
“Do you know of a man named Daylan? Answer me right and I’ll spare you. Answer me wrong and I’m sure you know what will happen.”

Tsubaki cracked an egg onto the griddle and started to flip hash browns when Amy ran inside in her cute waitress uniform, her tray pressed tightly against her breasts. She started to explain what was happening and Tsubaki looked at her with that glazed over expression she always seemed to have. Zangoose stopped chopping up vegetables and meat and looked at the waitress. The girl seemed visibly shaken. Violence wasn’t something she was used to.
By the time Tsubaki got the motivation to see what was happening, the attacker had disappeared, but the attacked lay in a pile on the floor. She started toward him, Zangoose at her side.
The door swung open and a man with curly black hair strode inside with three other men. Following on their heels were two Pokemon. Tsubaki took an instant interest in one of them.
“Lu-lucario?”

Lucario hadn’t wanted to enter the building for a quick breakfast but everyone else in the jeep wanted something to eat and knew that what had once been called The Golden Kitchen and was now known even less originally as Tsubaki’s, complete with a new paintjob and a refurbished inside, was the best place in town to grab some grub. Lucario was not allowed to stay in the jeep, as a bodyguard he had to stay with the man he was guarding at all times. Lucario thought it might have been something Daylan had devised for whatever reason.
The moment he entered he saw a man lying on the ground in pain. He was back in the world he had been avoiding and everywhere he turned there was someone in pain, a dead body, and someone who either wanted him or wanted him dead.
Daylan didn’t mind the man on the floor and neither did the bodyguards. Sean gave the man a cursory glance before sitting at a booth with everyone else. Mewtwo was watching Lucario with all of his might. He didn’t trust him. He didn’t know why his master wanted the wild card along for the ride. Maybe Daylan had bigger plans.
Lucario held a paw out for the man on the ground. The man thanked the Lucario as he tried to stand erect but his knees buckled. Lucario helped him to the booth everyone else was sitting at.
“Please, get me out of here. The police will show up and…”
“Let me deal with them.” Lucario told him, setting him down. Daylan and the man made eye contact and the man pointed a long finger at him.
“You’re the supplier.”
Lucario was about to sit down when Zangoose prodded his foot with one of his claws.
“Fucking fucker fuckity fuck.” Zangoose said.
“I see your mouth is still a hole filled with filth.” Lucario murmured.
This confirmed he was Lucario and not just a random one.
“I see you think you can just walk in here without letting me beat the shit out of you.” Zangoose hopped in the air and his claws flew toward Lucario’s neck. Lucario created an aura shield around himself and Zangoose bounced off of it, doing a backflip to the floor.
“You left us! You left Tsubaki! You worthless bastard!” His claws flashed out again and Lucario dodged every slash.

Mewtwo was about to enter the fray but Daylan held out his hand.
“I didn’t think you wanted to protect Lucario.” Daylan smiled. “Are you getting sentimental?”
Mewtwo growled. Daylan chuckled.

Tsubaki stood, transfixed. Some of her customers were leaving, muttering about the unsafe conditions they were eating their meal. Some stayed and enjoyed the battle as a kind of show to go with their food. She watched her Zangoose score a hit above Lucario’s eye. A couple drops of blood splashed against the wooden floor.
“S-stop.” She whispered.

“You left Tsubaki a wreak! You left everyone behind! Miyagi owns Johto because you didn’t fight! You ran away the moment your stupid ass girlfriend died! You asshole!” Zangoose was stopped as Lucario lifted his paw and an aura sphere manifested itself in it. A feral look crossed his face as he watched the remaining people in the room run for the door. The aura sphere was growing larger and larger and Zangoose knew he was dead.
He closed his eyes, figuring it was all over. A few seconds later he opened an eye and saw Tsubaki hugging Lucario tightly, the aura sphere becoming a tiny ball at Lucario’s side that eventually disappeared.
“Please…stop fighting.” Tsubaki managed to get out. She hugged Lucario tighter than Zangoose thought she should. This was the guy who ruined her past eighteen months. How could she be so accepting of him?
Zangoose couldn’t help but smile when Tsubaki smacked Lucario across the snout, snapping his head ninety degrees. He nodded his approval.
“Why’d you leave me?” Tsubaki asked. “At least you could have told me what you were doing before you left or come by every once in a while. I was worried about you!” She hugged him tighter, tears falling down her cheeks. “This is your home and you shouldn’t run from your home.”
Lucario closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.” He muttered. “I was grieving over Jenny. Then I met a girl, Lopunny. We became best friends. And she disappeared from my life. She made me happy. We were…in love. And it was something we could actually have. I had to search for her. And now the search has taken me here.”
Tsubaki looked at the men Lucario had entered with and picked out one of the faces. “Is that you?” She asked in a whisper. She didn’t seem to be able to speak in anything more than that.
“There’s a lot of things I have to explain to you.” Lucario said. “But right now, could we just get breakfast? I have a job I need to do in a half an hour. After that, I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”
Tsubaki released Lucario from her hug and Zangoose saw something spread across her face that he hadn’t seen in a year and a half. A smile. He shook his head. She was being too nice to the asshole.
Amy stopped at the table with menus. After coffee had been distributed to the men, the chief of police waddled into the restaurant.
Lucario took him aside. The chief was surprised to see him but happy. Lucario had been given a badge. After Lucario explained everything the chief nodded and told him he’d come up with an excuse for what took place. They parted ways, but not before the chief offered to take Lucario out for drinks some night.

Sean Ratchet had been left behind by all of Daylan’s group, sitting with half a plate of eggs. Amy started clearing plates and occasionally snuck a glance at him.
“So, why’d your friends leave you behind?” She asked, just as much out of curiosity as her want to strike up conversation with the man.
“We’re not friends.” He answered. “They just bussed me here so I can start work at the Pokemon Center.”
“Do you know where it is?” Amy asked.
“No. Can you give me directions by chance?” Sean prodded an egg with his fork.
“Better yet, I’ll take my break and walk you there. How about that?”
Sean looked at the waitress. She was his age, had on a cute waitress outfit, had a cute face. He may as well see where this led him. He was starting a new life in Cherry Grove City. He had an apartment that Daylan had rented for him, as well as a new job. Maybe the waitress was a gift from the fates for all the crap he was going through.
“I’m Sean Ratchet.” He said.
“Amy Archer.” She beamed. “Give me a few minutes to get these out of the way and I can take you there.”

Sean’s spot in the jeep had been replaced by the resistance fighter. Daylan had questioned him thoroughly and learned that he had cracked under the pressure and told Nichelle absolutely everything. She would be gunning for Daylan at the meeting, a meeting that was only two minutes away. She had committed one of the gravest errors an assassin could commit. She left a man she had gotten information from alive. That meant he could tell the other people involved and prepare a counter-attack.
“Be prepared for anything.” Daylan told Lucario.

“The scouts are patrolling?” Cristian asked Lily as she finished her inspection of the area. The place chosen for the negotiations over the weapons was a small stretch of beach. Cristian had no idea whether the beach was the greatest place to conduct what should have been a secretive exchange or not, but nonetheless, it was where he chose to do it and there was no turning back now. Devon was splashing water playfully on his Bellossom while all the big boys did their work. Cristian didn’t care, it kept him out of the way.
“Scouts are all in place. Two minutes until they should be here.” Lily held a pistol in her left hand. She checked the slide and made sure a bullet was in place before starting toward the point she was to guard.
Cristian held a silver briefcase in his hands. It weighed a ton, all of the money he had saved up from all the campaigns against the Yakuza was in one place, waiting to get in the hands of a supplier who could screw him over for all he knew.
But it was his last choice. If the resistance’s battle with the Miyagi family went on any further, they would surely all die.

The jeep stopped at the curb and Daylan got out and looked around. A set of stairs led down to the beach. He peeked over a railing and down at the assembled mass of resistance fighters. He noticed a couple were staring at him from across the street. He nodded and his bodyguards came out and opened the trunk, pulling three cases out. Mewtwo hopped off the top of the jeep and Lucario got out. They met next to Daylan who pointed at the ground at his feet. The two nodded and Daylan and his bodyguards made their way down to the exchange.
“If anything happens, let me take care of it.” Mewtwo said.
Lucario laughed. “I can take care of it.” He pointed at the scratch above his eye. “This is nothing.”
“I worry for you. Who knows how sentimental you’ll get when you find out the assassin is a long lost cousin.”
“Fuck you.” Lucario started to walk away. “I can take care of this.”

“He has two bodyguards, a Mewtwo and Lucario.” Nichelle said. Sillindra held the phone tight against her ear. The mere mention of a Lucario brought images of Sean Ratchet to her mind. If it was Sean Ratchet that was with Daylan, which was a distinct possibility considering the fact they knew each other from Sinnoh (well, Sean knew Daylan’s clone). If the Lucario was Sean Ratchet, that was a problem. That Lucario had proven itself to be more powerful than any Lucario Sillindra had ever seen. If Nichelle were made to fight him…
“Don’t go headfirst. Use a long range weapon. Whatever you do, do not engage the Lucario!”

Across the sea, approaching the exchange on a boat she stole from a mansion along the beach, Nichelle smiled and ended the cell phone call.

Lucario was the first person to notice the ship as he walked away from Mewtwo. It was close to the shore and Lucario did not like the look of it one bit. He noticed a woman with binoculars in the cabin. She turned the binoculars on the exchange, then on Mewtwo, then started searching for Lucario.
He hopped over the railing, landing softly on the beach. He started to run for the boat. A sudden spray of machine gun fire stopped him.
The assassin was here.

Mewtwo watched two vans approach from the left. One of them slowed down and the driver appeared to ask the two resistance members on guard duty for directions. Before they could answer his question their heads snapped back. The shooter sped forward and the second van followed closely.
Mewtwo ran for them, sending an aura sphere into the air.

“What’s that?” Cristian asked, watching the aura sphere explode in the air.
“The alarm system.” Daylan answered.
“Sir!” One of the resistance guys pointed toward a boat down the beach.
“Why’s Lucario alone? Where’s Mewtwo?”
“Cristian!” Lily held her radio in one hand and her pistol in the other. “Robinson and Cruz aren’t responding.”
“They’re topside too!” Cristian cursed. “Split up! Support the Lucario and the Mewtwo!”
Daylan kept his guards down at the exchange as insurance. Just in case things got out of hand.

“Shit!” Nichelle wanted to scream. Things had gotten way out of hand. The Lucario and Mewtwo were supposed to be distracted by the Yakuza she had tipped off above. That was when she would drive by in the boat and take out everyone in the exchange.
She had a machine gun trained on the Lucario and squeezed the trigger, hoping to hit it. It had a shield up though, a huge black globe that surrounded it in pure energy. All of the bullets bounced off.
She was going to have to change to Plan B.
She steered the boat out into the ocean, hoping the Lucario didn’t have the ability to fly God forbid.

Mewtwo sent an aura sphere at the lead van. The moment it smashed against the white vehicle’s side it flipped over. Mewtwo brought up an aura shield as the men in the second van started streaming out, machine guns raining lead at him.
He felt a tiny impact against his shield and looked to find the hand of a man with green hair and a Bellossom tight against his chest on it. “You mind if you share that mate? I came up for a towel, not to be killed.”
Mewtwo sighed and ran at the Yakuza.

Nichelle stood on the keel of the boat, a rocket launcher aimed directly at the exchange. She saw the Lucario in her way and smiled. That would be another problem out of the way.
The aura sphere he was holding started to grow in size, becoming enormous. He aimed it at Nichelle’s ship.
She shot the rocket launcher and Lucario let off the aura sphere.

The rocket met the aura sphere and exploded. The resulting explosion created a giant wave that smashed against the side of Nichelle’s ship, capsizing it and sending her into the ocean.

“Excellent job Lucario.” Daylan said, picking up his briefcase of money. “Let’s see how they’re doing topside.”

Daylan, Lucario, and Mewtwo sat in the backseat, the two guards up front.
“It appears the assassin tipped off the Yakuza to our location. Thankfully, Mewtwo cleaned that up.” Daylan had the briefcase of money open on his lap. “Sillindra will be out of office in another couple of hours. I can assure you of that.” Daylan sighed. “The assassin is probably still alive. It’ll be a long swim to shore, but we may have to deal with her again.”
“So is that it?” Lucario asked.
“Far from it. I’ve sold your services to the resistance.”
“You what?”
“You will be working with them for a while. Meanwhile, I will search for Lopunny and return her to you while you finish your obligation to me. By the time everything is over, we’ll all be happy.” Daylan held out his hand as the jeep stopped. “Lopunny will be returned to this restaurant when we find her. “
Lucario put his paw in the man’s hand and they shook. Lucario got out of the jeep and it sped away. He entered Tsubaki’s and sat down in a booth. The waitress was out, so Tsubaki was waiting on people. When she saw him she finished what she was doing and went to his booth.
She slid next to him and hugged him. “Welcome home Lucario.” She said. “Your spot on the couch has been left untouched.”
“Where did the waitress go?”
“Amy? She went with um…you. Can you explain what’s going on?”
Lucario nodded. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you after the shop closes. Maybe over dinner.”
Tsubaki smiled. “Are you back for good? Please say yes.”
Lucario closed his eyes. “I don’t know.” He saw Tsubaki’s sad look and shook his head. “But I hope so. When Daylan brings Lopunny to me, we’re going to need somewhere to stay.”
“You can stay with me!” She exclaimed. “You two can share the couch!”
“Thank you.” Lucario said. “I might have to take you up on that offer.”
Amy came in and Tsubaki stood up to meet her.
“Did you hear what happened at the beach?” Amy asked. She then looked at Lucario and let out a cute little “eep”.
“I can explain everything.” Lucario said.

“So what’s next?” The bodyguard in the driver seat asked, turning down Main Street and starting toward Daylan’s laboratory in Goldenrod City.
“We have the Lucario’s DNA.” Daylan motioned toward the trunk. “We need to start work on the clone. While that’s being produced we’ll head back to Onyx City and take it easy.”
“Will we transport the Lopunny back to Lucario?”
“Two days. That should be enough time.” Daylan sat back. “We’ve got the Lucario back into the middle of everything.”
“Not cloning the Lopunny?” The bodyguard in the passenger seat asked.
“What’s the point?” Daylan asked. “She has no value to me. As long as Lucario doesn’t screw up my plans or get in my way, I don’t care how happy he is. I’m not in the business of killing innocent Pokemon or cloning them and handing the clones to people for whatever reason.”
“What about the assassin and Sillindra?”
“Sillindra will be out of office in another hour, if even. The assassin has no reason to continue after me. Though I feel for reasons concerning pride she will attempt to kill Lucario.”
“By having the Lucario in the middle of everything, what are you hoping to accomplish?” The driver asked.
“It means business will go up.” Daylan laughed. “Watch Ketchum come after me wanting help.”

“Sinnoh’s president has been taken out of office in handcuffs after it was exposed that she gained the office through help from a wanted criminal and terrorist.” The newswoman said. Lucario was only half paying attention as he explained everything to Tsubaki, Amy, and Zangoose. It took him a half an hour to tell them everything. When he was done, Tsubaki pulled out a Pokeball and shoved it in his face.
“If I have to shove you in this thing, I will. Don’t leave without telling me first. And don’t leave for a year and a half.”
“You got it.” Lucario didn’t realize how much he missed his life with Tsubaki. Now that he was home, he did see how much he missed being with his gentle trainer and the potty-mouthed Zangoose. And Amy was a really nice person too.
They talked for a couple of hours before going to bed. The sofa was the most comfortable place Lucario had slept in a long time. He had happy dreams of Lopunny and him living in the house together.

“He’s more like a Pokemon than he was before.” Tsubaki told Zangoose as she lay in bed.
“That’s for sure. He isn’t in love with a human girl. He’s in love with a Lopunny. That’s enough to prove he’s getting to be more like a Lucario.”
“Do you think he’ll ever totally change? His mind will just become that of a Lucario?”
“No. I think he let that change in mindset come on himself. He wants to remain somewhat human in mind, but wants to act like a Pokemon more.” Zangoose shrugged. “He’s weird.”
“Will he leave?”
Zangoose shook his head. “I think he missed us more than he realized.”
Tsubaki smiled and fell asleep.

 

[Ratchet573]

Act Four: Lovers and Enemies Reunited
He stood in the forest, the sun breaking through the leaves and providing a bit of warmth. Beside him, her hand around his stomach and her cheek against his shoulder, Lopunny felt like this was the perfect moment, the kind of time you just wish everything would slow down so you could enjoy it even more. She felt warm against Lucario, not only warm on the outside, but on the inside. It was a strange feeling that she’d never felt before, the kind of feeling she guessed came with falling in love. She’d never been in love before, nor had she ever thought she’d fall for the blue Pokemon that she now clung to. They had been good friends for the past few months. She had really liked him, but it wasn’t until he saved her from a colony of Beedrills that she fell in love with him. He protected her, he took care of her. She hadn’t realized that normal friends didn’t stand so closely together and follow each other everywhere. She’d never really had any friends. When she asserted her true feelings for him it had been embarrassing to admit, but he accepted them wholeheartedly and even expressed that he felt for her as well. Since that day, she’d never felt so warm. Since that day, she’d never known she could love a person as much as she loved Lucario. He was all she cared about.
He looked up through the leaves at the perfectly blue sky. Lopunny did as well. He had a habit of doing that, just pointlessly staring at the sky. Maybe he was just thinking. She didn’t want to intrude upon his thoughts if he was, so never asked. She didn’t particularly care either, it gave her more time to hold onto him. His arm wrapped around her and she was pushed even tighter against him as he stared to the heavens. Lucario turned to look at her and smiled as best he could.
“I was thinking about all of the places I want to take you.” Lucario said. “To the beach. There are these huge canyons up north and a jungle with three waterfalls that are right next to each other. They say it’s beautiful.”
“You’d really take me to all those places?” Lopunny asked.
Lucario nodded. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
Lopunny turned Lucario around and their mouths met.
“I don’t care where we go, as long as I’m with you.” She said after pulling away from his face. They stood in a tight embrace for a long time before they decided to lay against a tree together and take a nap. Lopunny rested her head on Lucario’s shoulder and he rested his head on her head.
When he woke up, she had disappeared with the signs of a fight. Grass had been cut up, there were flecks of blood. Later on, Treecko, who had been sleeping nearby when Lucario and Lopunny had decided to walk together, told Lucario he heard a scuffle.
It was then he began his long search for Lopunny.

“She will have no memories of the past eight months. She’s been in a coma essentially.” Daylan took a bite from his sandwich and tapped his pencil against his chin. “When we give her to Lucario she will have no idea of what took place. She’ll know she fell asleep for a very long time, but she won’t know the circumstances. Lucario will never be able to find out that we in fact took her to lead him on.”
“Why did we take eight months to finally get him into the thick of things?” Sven the bodyguard asked. “Why wasn’t this automatic?”
“Simple.” Daylan set his sandwich aside. “It’s the perfect timing. All of the sides are in place and Lucario is in the middle. The moment he starts fighting every side is the moment I start getting calls from prospective clients wanting to pay exorbitant fees for either lab Pokemon or weapons. That’s why I created the Gardevoir clone to lead him on. I didn’t know they’d build a strong relationship, but that doesn’t matter. She did her job. She took him to Onyx City at the exact moment she needed to. Now, everything is coming together.” Daylan started to type away on a computer console.
“She’ll be asleep for another few hours. I expect you to get her to Cherry Grove City in that time frame. Drive like an idiot if you must, but she should not wake in the back of the jeep. She won’t be able to say anything to Lucario about what happened, he’ll just figure that we found her and brought her back, but I want you to personally tell him she was in a coma. We don’t know why she was in the coma or who took her to the Pokemon Center in Goldenrod City. That should clear everything up.”
“Yes sir.” Sven watched as Daylan hefted the brown furred Pokemon from a standing table she had been strapped to for almost a year. He handed her to Sven.
“Don’t let the Lucario catch on.” Daylan turned around and left Sven to complete his task. He nodded at his boss’s back and took the Lopunny out of the laboratory and to the jeep.

“So are you attracted to humans or Pokemon?” Amy Archer sat across from Lucario in Tsubaki’s, a cup of coffee in front of her. He also had coffee but had to drink it out of a straw. It had been two days since he had gotten back to Cherry Grove City and in those two days he had accomplished very little. He’d met with Cristian once who told him that at this point in time they were focusing on training with the new weapons he acquired from Daylan and the resistance didn’t need him. Cristian seemed nice enough and wanted Lucario to have some time to catch up with everyone. Lucario had told him what had been going on and most of his backstory, just so that Cristian didn’t feel like a mole was infiltrating. Everything had gone well and Lucario would be called on when he was needed.
Right now he was relaxing and getting used to being in civilization and living with his master again.
Amy wanted to learn as much as she could about him. She had learned his whole story, minus the fact that he was once Sean Ratchet. Instead Tsubaki came up with a fake name. She had learned that Sean Ratchet (the clone) and Amy were hanging out a lot and didn’t want her to feel weird about anything. Lucario was happy to answer all of her questions and realized that if he were still a human, he would be attracted to her. So it was fairly obvious to understand why his clone was attracted to her.
“I still understand attraction to human females. I can tell that you are attractive.” Amy blushed slightly. “But I feel more for female Pokemon.”
“How do Pokemon, you know, date? Humans go out to restaurants and Pokemon battles…”
“I know,” Lucario cut Amy off, “I was human.”
Amy blushed. “Sorry.”
“Pokemon don’t date per se, but when two are in love they tend to travel around together. They stay close almost like a married couple of humans. Eventually they mate.”
“So there’s no courting ritual? You don’t get married?”
“If two Pokemon love each other enough to stay together after mating, they develop a special bond. Pokemon aren’t well known for staying with each other after mating but a few do and most leave because they don’t want to be bonded.”
“What do you mean bonded?”
“it’s like a Pokemon/trainer bond. It means nobody can capture you, it means you are exclusively under the control of whoever you are bonded to.”
“Wow, that’s really cute. Humans can just go out and party and have sex with whoever after they get married. But if you stay together after mating, you have sworn to always stay with each other no matter what.”
“Pretty much.”
“So did you and Lopunny…”
“We did plan on staying together.” Lucario said, his voice growing somber. “When she comes back, we’re going to bond ourselves.”
Amy smiled. “I can’t wait to meet her. I bet she’s really cute. And the two of you together! You’d be like a big ball of love and cuteness.” She clasped her hands together and wiggled like a worm.
“What’s wrong?” Lucario asked.
Amy blushed again. “Sorry, cute things just make me do that.” She took a drink of her coffee then smiled. “So, do you like being a Pokemon better than being a human?”
Lucario gave that some thought. “They each had their advantages and disadvantages. I liked having opposable digits. I liked being tall. But at the same time, I really like being a Pokemon. I just feel…like a belong in this body if that makes any sense. Back when I was a human, I wasn’t the most social creature, I wasn’t the most outgoing person. I didn’t have many friends. When I became a Pokemon I got friends, I got a family. I was getting things I was missing in my life as a human. And I like this lifestyle. I don’t have to work, I can just sit around and be as lazy as I want.”
“If you could, would you turn back into a human?” Amy asked.
Lucario thought again. “No. I have Lopunny and I have Tsubaki and I have a home. I prefer this life. I prefer being a Lucario.”
“Lopunny must mean a lot to you.” Amy said.
“When you meet her you’ll see why.” Lucario’s voice was happy.
“I can’t wait to meet her! And I want you two to hug and let me take a picture! It will be so cute!” She started wiggling again. Lucario sighed.

“We pay your salaries! How dare you have one of your men destroy one of our operations and then be caught in a transaction with a wanted felon! What kind of police precinct is this? There are more criminals in here than there are on the streets!” Chairman Miyagi was fuming, smoke was literally coming out of his ears. He stood in an interrogation room with the chief of police. He wore a black suit and was leaning heavily on a cane. Two of his bodyguards stood outside of the room, each carrying two pistols and a grenade.
“The only reason you pay our salaries Chairman,” the chief said the last word sarcastically, “is because you run the g0vernment. If we had a government not run by criminals then the department would be paid by the taxpayers. You can’t boost our salaries and expect us to turn a blind eye to the law. We have a code, and that code is more important than the money we make. If it weren’t for the fact you have political immunity, we’d take you down and put you on Steel Island where your ass belongs.” The chief smiled and sat back, steeling himself for the shit storm Miyagi was about to spew.
“You touch me, and you will die a thousand times over!”
The chief nodded. “And you touch anyone in the precinct, and I will personally come to your door and blow your brains out. I don’t care how powerful you are, you’re scum. You touch Cristian Hernandez and this whole precinct will follow me.”
“You don’t care that he was negotiating with a wanted felon?”
“Why should I? Nobody else caught it but you. And I could just as easily tell the whole world that you sent men out to kill him and caused the ruckus two days ago. It wouldn’t look good for your public image.”
“You asshole.”
The chief smiled. “I don’t like you. I don’t like the Yakuza. That’s all there is to it. I’ll not talk about two days ago, but if you fuck with my guys again…”
“So you are in on the resistance?” Miyagi asked. “That’s why they get away with what they do.”
“You gonna claim police corruption? Who will listen to that?”
“You understand I run Johto’s government. I’ll see you taken down.”
“Good luck finding any proof to show.”
“I don’t need proof. All I need is money.” Miyagi stood and hobbled out of the room.
A couple of minutes later Cristian walked in with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. He set one in front of his boss and took the seat recently evacuated by Miyagi.
“I’d assume it didn’t go well.” Cristian blew out a breath. “Sorry about all the trouble. I didn’t want the precinct to get in the crossfire. I was hoping this would be over before he started threatening your job.”
“I won’t let that gimp take me down. I’ve done too much for this city to let that asshole take me down because I’m doing my job. I’m not going to fire you or throw you to him because of what you do. I want to keep everything you do off the record though. I don’t want anybody else knowing I endorse what you do. I’m essentially endorsing terrorism.”
“Thank you sir. And I feel you have the right to know that the guys and me are attacking Miyagi’s mansion tonight.”
“Oh crap.” The chief shook his head. “I don’t want to go to another funeral for a friend.”
Cristian smiled. “That deal that went down two days ago netted me some invaluable weaponry. These things haven’t been patented and cost an arm and a leg, but they are fantastic.”
“What are they?”
“I don’t know the physics behind it, but it creates aura, like the kind a Pokemon can collect and send in a ball. The gun can be used in three ways. One is as a machine gun, shooting tiny blasts of aura. The second is as a shotgun, shooting normal sized balls of aura like a Lucario can. The third is as a rocket launcher. It takes about twenty-five seconds to create it, but the ball is large enough to destroy half a house.”
“So you can charge it to make the ball larger?”
“Right.”
The chief nodded. “That’s pretty damn cool. So can you charge it past that rocket launcher stage?”
“No. You do that and the whole gun will overload and BANG! there goes your arms and probably the rest of you.”
“Anything else?”
“We have a Lucario.”
“Oh God!” The chief laughed. “So that’s why Lucario came back? You should have been here when he destroyed Kishimoto. Holy shit! Kishimoto had a nice mansion, but I have to say that after Lucario painted it red, it looked gaudy.”
Cristian smiled. “So he’s not a normal Lucario? He came as a bonus of the deal. I figured he was just a Lucario, nothing special.”
The chief laughed. “That Lucario is like a demon. The body count he’s racked up is incredible.”
“So you know him?”
“Yeah, he’s a cop. I gave him a badge and everything.”
“You…gave a Pokemon a badge?”
The chief stood and slid his chair under the table. “As you’re surely soon to find out, he’s more than a Pokemon.”

“So here’s the deal mate,” Devon plopped onto Tsubaki’s sofa and crossed his legs, “we’re attacking Miyagi’s place tonight. We need you to come with us and spend the afternoon getting all the tactical crap out of the way and we’ll have a nice supper before we go get our bollocks blown off.”
Lucario shrugged his shoulders, loosening his joints. “You don’t think we’ll win?”
“We’re running in like a bunch of eejits to get our nadgers kicked in a swedge.” Devon said. “Of course we’re going to lose.” Lucario stared at him with wide eyes. “What, are you a smacktard like the rest of ‘em? Don’t understand my foreign speak?”
“No, but you remind me of this one guy I knew. Used to call me an uphill gardener.”
Devon laughed. “So you understand me! Thank God…”
“I don’t understand you. I don’t even know what an uphill gardener is all these years later.”
Devon stood up and stomped out. Lucario followed behind him.
“Bloody wankers don’t understand anything.” He muttered. “An uphill gardener must be a friendly lad, right Lucario?” He asked over his shoulder. Lucario shrugged. “It means you take it up the arse!”
“You should write a dictionary for this kind of stuff.” Lucario replied.
“And you should quit being a wanker!”

“Is he always like that?” Lucario asked Cristian at the tiny apartment that served as headquarters. There were a few people milling about but it was an otherwise tiny meeting. If this was the whole group, Lucario had to agree with Devon that they were screwed. Miyagi’s mansion would be highly guarded and reinforcements could come at a moment’s notice. Six people and a Lucario against probably a hundred was not good odds. On top of that, Lucario had a feeling that Miyagi had some weapons that were a little more than machine guns. Like tanks. And maybe even a chopper. This man was paranoid about his protection. It had shown at Kishimoto’s party a year and a half before.
“Devon is a strange guy.” Cristian looked at the green haired man fondling his Bellossom. “He does that a lot. He’s also hit on me more times than I wish he would. He’s…um, grabbed my thighs once. It wasn’t happy for me.”
Lucario laughed. “So is this whole resistance that crazy?”
“No!” Cristian quickly said. “I’m a police detective. I’m straight-laced and I can show you all of my mental records if you’re questioning my sanity or level of mental capability.” He rested his hand on Lucario’s shoulder. “The chief said some good things about you. I can’t wait to see what you do tonight.”
A black haired, goth-looking girl approached Cristian. “We need to get started.”
Cristian looked at his watch then nodded. “Everyone shut the hell up and get over here. It’s time to get to work.”

Lucario ran to the perimeter wall, putting his back against a blind spot underneath a security camera swerving back and forth. Blaziken quickly joined him. Lucario watched the camera swerve to the right and he looked through the gate to his left quickly. A garden complete with fountains and statues and hedges clipped to look like Pokemon sat in perfect silence. A couple guards patrolled, a dull red glow coming from their cigarettes. Lucario moved back under the camera as it made its way leftward.
“Four guards.” Lucario said telepathically. Blaziken nodded and waited under the camera with Lucario for a few minutes more. They couldn’t get onto the wall without tripping sensor plates and waking the whole place up. They were to wait for Cristian and the rest of the resistance to get into position.
Cristian would be the one to wake the place up.

Cristian sat on a tree that hung over the wall of the mansion. He smiled slyly to himself. Whoever had fortified this mansion was stupid to leave a tree in a place that would allow intruders inside. He had a pair of night vision goggles on his head, courtesy of Daylan, and could see that it would still be a pain in the ass to get inside the mansion proper if you got over the tree. There were five Houndours in spots you wouldn’t be able to see at the gates. There were also four guards equipped with pistols and what looked like knives. And this was just the backyard. The front was even larger and Cristian hadn’t taken a gander at what to expect up there. He figured about ten guards and a lot of Houndour’s though.
“Swellow!”
Cristian looked up and saw a red and blue bird flying by. The guards all looked up at it and reached for their pistols.
“Oh bugger.” Devon said beside Cristian.
Cristian started charging his gun. “I guess we better get started.”
Devon shot the Swellow through the breast. It dropped like a rock, blood and feathers following as it fell.
The ball on Cristian’s weapon got larger and larger. He counted the seconds and stood on the wall, not caring if the alarm went off. The moment his foot touched the top of the wall, spotlights turned on, an alarm bell went off, and he heard the bark of the Houndours.
He jumped to the ground and let loose the giant ball of pure aura, straight at the back of Miyagi’s mansion.

Lucario and Blaziken got away from the wall and Blaziken ran to the gate, his foot combusting as he brought it up and around, slamming it open. He ran inside and Lucario followed suit then stopped.
“Holy shit!” He exclaimed as he saw the back of Miyagi’s mansion crumble, bricks and piping and glass cascading to the ground, obscuring whatever was left of the back of Miyagi’s home in dust.
Lucario quit staring in awe at the destruction and began his work.

Lily followed Lucario and Blaziken in through the front gate from the darkness she and the rest of the resistance had been hiding in. Their weapons were up as Houndour’s attacked from all sides. Shots rang from every corner of the backyard. She followed the route she had been given at the briefing, past two fountains and onto a cobblestone path flanked by hedges. A Yakuza guard appeared at the end of the hedges and Lily brought her machine gun up, sending tiny aura bullets at the man. All five shots hit, leaving pen sized holes in his chest. She stepped over his body and made her way to the remains of the back of the mansion.

“That was the most fucking amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my bloody life!” Devon said. “Holy shite!”
Cristian opened one of his Pokeballs, releasing Zoroark from her slumber. The Pokemon looked around and smiled at the destruction. She turned to her master.
“Get rid of as many as you can.” Zoroark nodded and ran to engage the Yakuza streaming in from the front yard and the remains of the mansion.

“Sir!” Jirou, Miyagi’s most trusted lieutenant, pulled the chairman from his bed. The man was visibly shocked. He wore a red robe and needed help getting into his slippers. Jirou took his cane from beside the wall and handed it to him. The sound of the mansion falling apart was deafening, as was the sound of the alarm.
“Is the helicopter being prepared?”
“Yes sir!” Jirou looked out of Miyagi’s bedroom and motioned for his chairman to follow.
“You have approval to use the tank.” Miyagi said. “Whoever has destroyed my mansion will die like dogs! Also, call the pilot. Tell him to prepare the guns!”
“Yes sir!”

Lucario leapt over a pile of rubble and landed in a huge bathroom. Tons of granite, pillars holding up the ceiling, gold everywhere. A bathtub fit for a king, a spa, two showers, and a toilet with a television in front of it. Lucario padded through, entering a hallway where three men were coming his way, weapons in their hands. Lucario brought up his aura shield and ran at them as bullets panged off. They screamed as he blew the shield up in their faces, sending them flying down the hallway, missing limbs stopping just short of the bodies.
Lucario leapt the bodies and entered a living room, sliding on the tile floor behind a sofa as machine gun fire tore into the wall behind him. The sofa was quickly becoming terrible cover as it blew apart, stuffing falling on Lucario. He was about to bring up a shield when Cristian entered the room, his weapon letting off a shotgun blast of aura that blew the shooter to pieces. He grabbed Lucario’s arm and hefted him up.
Lily ran in and Cristian gave her a thumbs up.
Lucario started toward the front of the mansion from the right. Cristian and Lily went from the left. The rest of the resistance began streaming into the mansion, sweeping it for enemies.

Miyagi hobbled out of his mansion and toward the helipad on the left side of his front yard. Jirou held his cell phone to his ear, listening to reports from his men on an open channel. They were being pummeled. And there weren’t even very many people attacking supposedly. He cursed into his phone as he helped Miyagi to the helipad.
Then the Lucario appeared.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and Lucario hopped from foot to foot as the men gelled together, their weapons trained on the Pokemon.
The close proximity of the men was exactly what Cristian had been hoping for.

Devon stood in a library on the top floor. A giant picture window sat behind an antique desk. He had shot the window and now crouched on the remnants of it, his weapon aimed at the group of men about to take out Lucario. Sitting at the end of the barrel of his weapon was a giant aura sphere.
A rocket.
He let it off.
“Hell yeah!” He pumped his fist as all twelve men in the group exploded into bits and pieces.
“Bellossom!” Bellossom piped up excitedly.
“I love you too honey!”

Lucario ran toward Miyagi and Jirou. Cristian and Lily ran into the front yard to engage the surviving Yakuza.
Miyagi’s helicopter was starting. Cristian’s plan was to take it out with the combined blasts of three of the aura guns.
That plan was completely shot to shit the moment the tank left one of the three hangars on the opposite side of the yard from the helipad.

“Aw buggeration and fuckery!” Devon exclaimed as he saw a line of headlights on the street leading to Miyagi’s front gate.
Things were getting a little out of hand.

Miyagi got into the chopper right as Lucario reached the helipad. The blades started whirling. Jirou turned to face Lucario as the chopper began its ascent to the sky. A thick cloud of dust flew against Lucario, causing him to raise his arm to cover his eyes.
That’s when Jirou’s Lucario attacked.

“Oh bugger!” The helicopter turned to face Devon and it’s chain guns focused on him.
An explosion rocked the mansion as the tank shot at Cristian and Lily.
“Oh double bugger!”
And then he saw Lucario and…Lucario fighting on the helipad.
“Bellossom, love. I think we’re fucked!” He grabbed his little green companion and ran for it as the chain guns tore into the library, taking apart books and shelves and sending chips of the wood floor flying into the air.
“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” Devon felt one of the bullets scrape his side and he slumped over a metal railing. Below him was a giant entrance hall.
“Oh fuck.” He said and fell over the railing to the hard tile floor below. Bellossom landed on top of him lightly and lifted her arms in a ta-da pose.

Cristian grabbed Lily and threw himself to the side with her as the tank’s shell smashed against the pavement beside them and exploded gloriously. He was nearly deafened and felt chunks of asphalt rocket into his body. Cristian landed in a heap with Lily. Somewhere during their escape from certain death, Lily had pressed her lips against Cristian’s. He felt warm blood against his face and other gooey substances.
He saw that Lily’s left eye had been sliced open by a sharp piece of asphalt. That was the blood and other juices dripping onto his face.
He followed Lily’s example, and passed out.

Lucario felt the other Lucario’s fist against his snout and saw stars. He staggered backward and started to breath heavily. He’d seen Cristian and Lily nearly get blown to pieces, saw the chopper more than likely take down Devon.
They were fucked.
Lucario then heard the crash of the front gates being ripped from their hinges.
“Dammit.” He muttered, ducking under a left hook from his opponent and lashing out with his foot, somehow hitting the evil Lucario’s side. It was weak though and the Lucario didn’t seem to feel any pain. It called an aura sphere to its paw and shoved it toward Lucario’s face.
There was the ring of a shot and the enemy Lucario dropped, half its head missing.
The Chief of Police pulled himself back into his police car, giving Lucario a thumbs up. Behind him was the whole police precinct, men streaming out of the cars to arrest any survivors. Lucario swayed back and forth and wanted to pass out. He was tired, the enemy Lucario had been strong. Well, Lucario would have been stronger if he hadn’t been fighting vigorously for fifteen minutes straight before this climactic battle.
Lucario saw Jirou pulling a pistol from his jacket and dragged himself toward the man.
“Wake up Lucario!” Yelled a familiar voice.
“Tsubaki?” Lucario slowly turned around. He heard the click of the hammer being cocked and saw Tsubaki and a form in her hands.
He suddenly could see straight. He felt adrenaline pumping through his system.
The bullet left the pistol, but missed Lucario by a foot.
He appeared beside Jirou. The Yakuza lieutenant turned, bringing his foot up in a roundhouse kick. Lucario ducked under it and an aura sphere developed in his paw.
It was the biggest aura sphere he had ever produced, let alone had ever been produced by a Pokemon.
When he let it loose it enveloped Jirou and left nothing behind. It continued past the helipad and straight into the tank.
The tank exploded brilliantly. Devon would have been proud.
Zoroark led two resistance members out of the mansion and Blaziken had Devon thrown in a fireman’s carry over one shoulder, Bellossom in his arms.
“Oh man.” Lucario yawned, the adrenaline wearing off. He then fell over and passed out.

Devon awoke in a hospital bed, his stomach wrapped in bandages as well as his head. He hated hospitals. The only bright spot in the otherwise drab setting was his Bellossom sitting on his lap, staring at him. He reached for her and squeezed her gently. She squeaked. He then rubbed his cheek against her. “Oh my Bellossom. My sweet, sweet Bellossom…”

Cristian and Lily lay in the room next to Devon’s, their hands laced together. Lily’s eye had been cut open and it had to be removed. Cristian himself was just beaten, battered, and bruised. His Zoroark sat beside him, watching him with a look of pain. She should have been there to protect him. Instead, she had let her master and Lily get hurt.
“It’s okay Zoroark.” Cristian had said. “Don’t blame yourself. It’s my fault.”
The doctor came in to take Lily to the surgical ward. Before she was wheeled off, she squeezed Cristian’s hand.

Lucario awoke to see Sean standing over him, pressing a wet cloth on his forehead. Sean smiled at Lucario as he looked around. Tsubaki sat at his feet on the sofa, watching him. His whole body was immobile. He’d expended too much energy the night before. He was lucky he wasn’t dead.
“Luc…don’t die. I just got back. Please be okay!”
Lucario looked beside Sean and saw a face he hadn’t seen in eight months. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“Lopunny.” Lucario said and his paw tried to reach out to her. She grabbed it and pressed it against her cheek.
“I’m sorry I can’t hug you…” Lucario said, tears in his own eyes.
“I still can.” Lopunny wrapped her hands around Lucario’s chest and pressed her mouth against his. “I missed you so much. I was stuck in a coma for so long. I just wanted to come back to you.”
Lucario tried to lift his arms to hug Lopunny back. Amy suddenly appeared and helped him put his arms around his lover.
“Aww, you guys are cuter than I ever thought!” She wiggled about as she pulled her phone from her pocket and took a picture.
“Oh, come on Amy. Do you need a picture? That seems like a little too much.” Amy pouted at Sean and he hugged her sweetly. “Take pictures of us, not those two. Are we not cute enough?”
Lucario and Lopunny stayed in an embrace for a long time. She stayed by his side the whole day and they talked about everything that had happened over the past eight months. Lopunny talked about her dreams of going to the beach with him and he talked about how he was made to fight the Yakuza.
When night fell, Lopunny rolled onto the sofa and under the covers next to Lucario.
They were finally back together again. And they were both happier than they had ever been.

Miyagi was madder than he had ever been.
“Goddammit! Those bastards!” He threw all the paperwork off of his desk and felt like flipping it over as well. “They destroyed my mansion! They killed my men! They destroyed my tank! They killed my lieutenant! DAMMIT!” He kicked the desk with his good leg.
“Sir, will we retaliate?” Lieutenant Kazumi asked.
“Of course we’ll fucking retaliate! Send the chopper to the Cherry Grove Police Precinct! That’s our first course of action!”
“Yes sir.”

Nichelle had watched the whole mansion incident from the branch of a nearby tree. It had been a hell of a show.
She’d gotten to see the Lucario’s true power.
She had a lot of preparing to do before she could take him on.