The night was quiet and carried a cool breeze. Darkness had enveloped the world, save for the bright moonlight and the glow of street lamps across the sea. Right now, William was standing in front of a place he had visited earlier today—Matthews Zoo.
William wasted no time. He threw out his Pokeball and gestured toward the large iron gate in front of him. Muscles bulged, and with almost no resistance, the gate was blown off its hinges.
"Thanks, Lochness," William said.
"Swamp!" Lochness grinned at the praise.
He strode into the zoo as quietly as possible, Lochness trailing not far behind him like a bodyguard. He wanted to get this over with quickly; his backpack was heavy, and his shoulders were beginning to ache.
He walked past all the other habitats, where Pokemon of all different types were trapped in their little makeshift dens. William wasn't lying when he spoke to Shelly—these Pokemon were trapped, but right now these Pokemon weren't his top priority. The other Pokemon wouldn't serve to benefit him in any way. The Water-type Pokemon would, and one specific Pokemon in particular would benefit him greatly.
William found that target quite quickly. It was hard not to find them. Amongst the sea of all different shades of blue, it was very easy to spot the white shade under the gaze of his flashlight, especially the fin which stuck out like a sore thumb. The bright light from his flashlight seemed to have woken the Pokemon up. Its wide, uncanny eyes stared at him with an indecipherable look. It reared its head and submerged out of the water to get a better look at him.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" William asked the Pokemon. "Do you like doing party tricks and people clapping at you? Do you like it here? It can't get any worse than this, can it? Right now, I'd say you're at rock bottom. Right now, I'd say you're at…zero."
A sudden shift from the Pokemon.
His suspicions were confirmed. They had been raised earlier in the day when he initially saw the Pokemon for the first time. He recognised the way it moved, the speed at which it moved, the way it easily responded to its trainers' commands despite being from another region. He realised this Pokemon was trained for battle. It must have previously belonged to another trainer before somehow being caught up in this mess.
William held out a Pokeball. "If you come with me, I promise I can make you a hero again. No pun intended."
And that was all the words that were needed.
The Pokemon nudged William's held-out Pokeball and disappeared in a flash of light.
One beep, two beeps, three beeps. Click.
The Pokemon had been caught. William almost couldn't believe how easy it had been to get his hands on a Pokemon of this calibre. A Pokemon this rare and this powerful in a zoo of all places. William laughed at it all. Hoenn had practically served him a powerhouse on a silver platter. Now he just needed to test it out.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
And there was his test subject.
The guard, unlucky enough to be working that shift, kept shouting at William before grabbing a Pokeball from his waist and sending out a Mightyena.
The grey and black wolf mirrored its owner's mood, growling and barking in an attempt to intimidate William.
"I'm placing you under arrest for the illegal capture of a Pokemon! Mightyena, restrain him!"
The Pokemon responded, charging toward William. But before it could tackle him, a large two-legged figure emerged from the shadows, grabbing the Pokemon with both of its gigantic hands.
Compared to Lochness, the wolf looked like a baby. Lochness' figure was large and imposing, and if William gave the order, he could snap the Mightyena in half—but he wasn't that cruel. Besides, he needed to test out his new companion.
Following the same train of thought, Lochness threw the Mightyena back toward its owner.
He threw his shoulder back and sent out his newly acquired companion. Palafin erupted in a flash of white light as its form came into view…flopping on the floor.
Across from him, the security guard chuckled. "And here I thought you came for something valuable. Of all Pokemon, you got the one who does circus tricks! What are you, a part of a show?"
"Mightyena, use Bite!" the guard shouted.
"Palafin, dodge it," William commanded.
To its credit, Palafin tried, but the unnaturalness of land for the sea creature made it hard for it to utilize its speed. The Mightyena's jaws clamped down, and Palafin let out a sharp cry. Palafin was sent flying backwards. The security guard laughed.
"Finally realized how useless that Pokemon is now, huh?" the guard taunted. "Send out your Swampert—not that it will do you any good. The cops are already on their way."
Without a word, William withdrew his Pokemon.
William then smirked, his expression calm and unshaken. "Who said I was done?"
William sent out his new Pokemon again, but this time…it looked completely different.
Whereas before it had been a docile and derpy dolphin, it now stood as a powerful and muscular creature,—much more human-like in appearance—exuding an aura of absolute confidence. It puffed out its chest which had turned a dark red surrounded by white. Previously, it had struggled to operate on land, but now its fins had been replaced with powerful limbs made of seafoam which made battling on land no problem at all.
It had gone from 0 to 100—or 0 to Hero.
"You seem like a guard who enjoys a power trip, using what little authority you have to feel better about yourself," William chuckled. "Let me show you the true meaning of a power trip."
"Palafin, use Jet Punch."
The Pokemon in question nodded, leaping from the ground with a tremendous burst of speed, cracking the pavement in the process. A powerful torrent of water swirled around Palafin's right fist—like a miniature whirlpool. It condensed and gathered energy and with a massive bang it was released.
The Mightyena didn't even have time to react. One moment it was standing proud, and the next, a fist made of water slammed into its body, sending it sprawling across the pavement. The Mightyena let out a small whimper before its eyes turned white. It was over before it even started.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," William said. "Though I suppose it's to be expected—it was a security guard's Pokemon. Two completely different worlds…"
Meanwhile, the security guard could only stare in shock.
"Palafin, knock him out," William said. As the guard mentioned, the cops were on their way—he needed to be quick.
With a punch—which was most likely a very light tap for Palafin—the guard slumped to the floor unconscious. William, who had abandoned his backpack against the side of the aquarium, jogged on over to it. He climbed up one of the ladders leading to the top, backpack in hand, and dumped the contents into the aquarium.
Lochness jumped up alongside him and began communicating with the water-type Pokemon. William didn't know what he was saying, but he was sure it was a damn good speech. Looks like he took after his owner. After a few minutes, most of the Pokeballs had been willingly used, leading to the capture of a majority of the Pokemon here.
His Swampert grabbed the wet Pokeballs floating at the top of the water, and they began stuffing them into the bag. It was like a GTA5 heist, only instead of stealing money, they were stealing—or rather liberating—Pokemon.
Just as they finished up, they heard the sound of sirens. Jennys.
"Time to go, guys," he said to his partners.
"Thanks, buddy." William said, withdrawing his starter.
He turned to the Palafin. "And thank you, friend." The thought of gaining another juggernaut was still unbelievable to him.
"Huh. Juggernaut. Do you like that name?"
Palafin nodded enthusiastically.
"Well then, looks like that's your new name." With a smile he withdrew Juggernaut into his Pokeball, and with a backpack full of freed Pokemon, ran off into the night.