As Alex entered the base, everyone who had been training immediately turned to him with sharp, appraising looks. It didn't take them long to realize he didn't belong. None of them bothered to ask questions. They simply raised their weapons and opened fire.
"Kill them all," Alex ordered coldly.
His Pokémon scattered from their defensive formation, swiftly dodging the hail of gunfire heading their way.
Alex moved as well, slipping away without giving further commands. His Pokémon didn't require orders to deal with humans armed with nothing but guns.
He disappeared into the shadows, watching the battle unfold as his Pokémon tore through the base.
Raticate and Arcanine tore through the densest enemy clusters, striking fast and hard to shatter any attempt at forming proper firing lines. Flames and fangs carved a bloody path, denying the enemy the chance to coordinate their attacks.
Kommo-o and Togekiss hunted through more scattered pockets of resistance, overwhelming them with sheer destructive force. Earthquakes split the ground, Clanging Scales rattled through walls, and Breaking Swipe crushed anything daring to stand its ground. Every strike was thrown to maximize destruction.
Dusknoir and Ceruledge stalked through the shadows, hunting down the farthest shooters hiding behind fortifications. With Phantom Force and Shadow Sneak, they made sure the enemy's range advantage meant nothing.
Meanwhile, Altaria, Alcremie, the Maushold, and Weezing moved as a coordinated unit, focusing solely on neutralizing opposing Pokémon. Their role was to keep the battlefield clear, ensuring the others wouldn't get pinned down while maintaining their own survival.
Steelix remained close to Alex, rampaging through anything nearby to prevent any concentrated attacks if Alex was spotted. Even as the bulk of enemy gunfire focused on him, he pressed forward without hesitation. With Alex's steady stream of Heal Pulses mending every wound, Steelix stayed in peak condition and crushed everything in his path without slowing down.
While Alex and his Pokémon rampaged through the base's courtyard and training area, Varek Moln watched the chaos from his office. Specifically, he was watching Alex like a hawk.
He was impressed by what he saw. If he fought Alex head on, he would surely lose. Alex simply had too many Elite ranked Pokémon.
Fortunately for Varek, he never fought an opponent head on. He always watched and learned from the shadows before even having any intention of moving.
So, he quietly watched through the window how Alex's Pokémon fought, how they were already maxed out when they came in, only to rampage with wild abandon, and how Alex was able to keep his Steelix alive through their own weapons. He watched as Alex and his team were slowly losing stamina due to fighting at maximum stacks for prolonged periods.
Finally, Varek formed his intent. He would do the same as Alex and buff up his team before charging straight for him. He would wait until they spent the majority of their stamina before making a move. He would then strike when he was most vulnerable.
The fighting raged on as Alex hid in the shadow of a collapsed building that Steelix had just smashed through, clearing out the large number of gunners firing from its windows. He continued sending out Heal Pulses to keep Steelix at peak health and maintain his Sturdy ability. Alex also noticed they were close to finishing the battle, as the frequency of heals Steelix needed had begun to lessen.
He didn't let his guard down, though. He had a bad feeling ever since the fighting started. Something within the base made his instincts scream at him to stay cautious.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't call Gardevoir over until he had seen Varek and secured his capture. For all he knew, Gardevoir and Varek might already be fighting above ground. He had no choice but to walk into the trap, keeping his guard at its highest.
But that didn't mean he would walk in blindly. He intended to make his enemy work for it.
He noted that the enemy's Pokémon had already been taken out. With the battlefield clear, he made his way toward the center of the base, where his neutralizing team stood on standby after their fight.
Suddenly, Alex's instincts flared as an attacker lunged from the shadows behind him, ghostly energy swirling around its claws.
Aegislash emerged from Alex's shadow at that exact moment, intercepting the strike with King's Shield. However, the attack tore straight through the shield and struck Aegislash hard. It was Phantom Force, a vicious blow from a Sableye, breaking through the defense and dealing severe damage.
Alex's guard stayed sharp. He sensed another strike coming from behind. He spun around, twisting his guns into a reverse grip and crossing his arms to block like tonfa as he leapt backward.
But his makeshift defense was no match for the full force of a fully stacked Elite ranked Weavile's Night Slash. The brutal strike severed both his arms at the elbow, sending them flying and knocking Alex to the ground.
Fortunately, help arrived just in time to stop a follow-up strike. Arcanine blitzed through Weavile with Extreme Speed, slamming it away from Alex before it could strike again. Snarling with fury, Arcanine launched a relentless assault on the Weavile that had dared to harm Alex, tearing into it with savage rage.
Sableye was kept occupied by Aegislash, who was barely holding on.
Meanwhile, the neutralizing team rushed in to defend Alex but were cut off by a Boomburst from a Toxtricity, forcing them to rotate Protect to withstand the deafening shockwaves.
At the same time, Ceruledge was ambushed by a Night Slash from a Honchkrow, knocked out in a single clean blow after already being weakened from the earlier battle. The Honchkrow then turned its sights on Dusknoir, pinning it down and preventing any assistance.
Togekiss was also attacked, struck by a Cross Poison from a Crobat. Though the hit was vicious, it wasn't enough to knock Togekiss out. However, the damage it took tipped the fight toward a losing battle.
Kommo-o came under fire as well, targeted by a devastating Flamethrower from a Houndoom that kept its distance, weaving between debris to avoid any counterattacks from Vacuum Wave.
Despite his injuries, and with adrenaline surging through his veins, Alex remained calm. If anything, he was even calmer now that the trap had been sprung.
He kicked his severed arms into his space bag for storage, quickly rising to his feet to issue commands. But before he could speak, a sniper's shot from a distant window tore through his shoulder, forcing him to dive behind cover.
Gritting his teeth, Alex calculated the angle of the shot and shouted his command.
"Steelix, use Dig! Bring down the buildings on the opposite side of the base!" he ordered from behind cover, rolling aside just as another shot obliterated the spot where he had been hiding.
Steelix burrowed into the ground and made his way to the other side of the base, where he began to use Bulldoze to burst through one building after another before using Earthquake to bring down the already weakened structures.
He didn't notice a shadow leaping from a top-floor window of one of the buildings, and simply kept rampaging, smashing through even the debris that rained down on him.
Weavile, being an Ice type, was the first to fall. Arcanine clamped down with crushing force, Fire Fang blazing through its flesh. Then, with a savage snarl, Arcanine violently whipped its head from side to side, unleashing a stream of Flamethrower mid-thrash, tearing and searing through flesh and bone with each brutal jerk of its jaws.
Even after Weavile fainted, Arcanine didn't relent. He kept tearing and thrashing until every last sign of life was gone. Then he spat the mangled corpse aside with disgust before vanishing in a blur of Extreme Speed, closing the distance to Sableye. He sank his fangs into it with Crunch, delivering a devastating blow and saving Aegislash from being finished off.
Toxtricity didn't last long against the sheer number of enemies it faced. It was poisoned, paralyzed, taunted, encored, then brutally beaten down without mercy.
Meanwhile, Dusknoir reversed its tactics on Honchkrow, stalling it with Gravity, Pain Split, and Will-O-Wisp, ensuring Ceruledge's fainted body remained protected.
Kommo-o, unable to handle Houndoom, shifted its focus to Crobat instead, launching relentless Vacuum Waves, while Togekiss used Life Dew to keep them both standing.
It was clear who would win the engagement, but just as quickly as the ambush had started, the attackers retreated.
Weavile, Sableye, and Toxtricity didn't make it out. All three were killed by their opponents.
Arcanine wasn't about to let the others escape. He took off in pursuit with Extreme Speed, chasing down the remaining foes as they scattered, fleeing the base in haste. The others quickly followed, hell-bent on stopping their ambushers from getting away.
Meanwhile, Alex was struggling to grab a spray bottle of potions, awkwardly using his feet and teeth. He wasn't having much success.
"Need a hand?" a dark ominous voice came out of the darkness followed by the barrel of a gun pointed directly at Alex's head.
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