Curt’s brow furrowed when he heard Marzipans little “Rat” comment, it was one thing to insult him, it was another to insult his Pokémon.
“Raviel, match it with a Thunderbolt”, Curt instructed the Lightning Pokemon. Immediately sparks began to dance around Raviels spikes as he shot the lightning attack at the dark mass, using a little more force then necessary. Curt guess Raviel took a little offence at being called a rat, the resulting collision scattered dirt and grass everywhere.
“Phantom Force”, he heard Marzipan say as a follow up to the Shadow Ball attack. Like some sort of black magic, Curt and Raviel watched as the manically grinning pumpkin seemed to disappear into the shadows. Curt had to admit, Jack looked intimidating, in fact, he seemed to send a chill through Curts entire body
“Smart, Raviels speed isn’t worth much if he can’t locate his opponent”, Curt though, his anger at Marizpan’s pervious “Rat” comment beginning to fading. Still, the moves Jack was using told Curt thing exact thing he wanted to know about the Gourd Pokémon since he first saw it. Whatever species of Pokemon it was, it was clearly a Grass and Ghost type. Will-O-Wisp, Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, all well-known ghost type moves, that and the whole “Jack-O-Lantern” appearance helped tip him off. He had to suppress a shiver
“Raviel, try and stay calm, just keep an eye on your surrounding, and hold your fire till I say so”, Curt advised his partner, who returned the humans instructions with an incredulous look, “trust me”, Curt finished, giving Raviel a quick, but reassuring smile.
Returning his trainer assurance with a quick nod, Raviel began surveying every corner of the area for any signs of the Ghost Gourd, but Shadow Sneak was not so easily avoided. Raviel was only able to turn around just in time to see Jack upon him, his hair-like appendages already beginning to wrap themselves around Raviels feet in an attempt to immobilize him. He began to struggling, desperately fighting the urge to strike back at the Ghost Pokémon as it began dragging him closer to it, but Curt told him to wait, so that’s what Raviel did.
Curt’s eyes widened as he saw the Gourd Pokémon step from the shadows and begin entangling Raviel in its hair. It was not what he was expecting Jack to do, but they weren't done just yet. He just need to get his timing right, it was do or die for them, and they both knew it.
“Wait Raviel, just wait, Curt said trying to reassure his Pokemon, he was almost close enough, Alright, Raviel, SHADO-“. But Curts command was cut short by the sounds of another battle, only this one sounded more, chaotic.
Curt was able to turn his attention away from the battle just in time to see a member of the Kyandi security team strike Cassie with his taser, and what followed that was true mayhem. Ryu and Nine immediately returned the assault on their trainer by let losing their wraith on the security team. Meanwhile, Marzipan was heading to confront his father, leaving Jack to toss Raviel to the side and attempt to follow his trainer.
“W-wait, hold on, I-I, what the Hell are you doing”, Curt yelled as he approached Lord Kyandi, stepping between Jack and the noble, with Embertail following him closely. Marzipan was already confronting his father, Curt saw the young lord defy his father, but Lord Kyandi was not a man to be refused anything. He hadn’t seen much of the Lord before tonight, but something in his stomach told him that Marzipans defiance had made his father angrier than he had even been in a while.
“Kyandi, what’s going on, why the HELL did you have your security team assault Cassie”, Curt yelled at Lord Kyandi, his voice actually carrying some form of force to it, “I refuse to continue this battle until I have answers and Cassie is tended to!”. Most people who knew Curt would have been very surprised at the normally passive boy’s powerful outburst. Unfortunately, to Adair, Curt was just another angry commoner who needed a good shutting-up.
He brought his face so close to Curt’s, he could almost swear they should be touching, and locked his cold blue eyes with Curts’. He had already been pushed to his limit by his son’s outburst, and now a commoner, one not even native to the Kalos region, dared to speak to him in such a way?
“The only answer you should be looking for is how to make that worthless Jolteon of yours defeat my sons, less than worthless, Gourgiest,”, Lord Kyani said, almost whispering with his voice dripping with malice. it took all of Curt’s nerve to not break his gaze from Lord Kyani’s.
“Now, you are going to follow my pathetic excuse of a son back into the battlefield and crush him, or I will have you thrown in jail for the rest of your life”, Adair said, his voice not rising a single octave, before returning his attention to his son. Curt attempted to re-confront the man, until Embertail began to tug at his leg.
“Embertail, is this real-“, Curt began to say, before he was cut off by a loud burst of energy, quickly followed by an even louder howl of pain.
Raviel was a brave Jolteon and held fast when Curt told him to wait to attack, even as Jack was pulling him closer and closer to him mad, grinning face. But the moment the other fight started, Jack ended up unexpectedly chucking him half-way across the field. At first, Raviel thought it was some sort of attack, but after taking a second to stop his head from spinning, he began to see what the situation had become.
Everyone had forgotten about the battle, even Curt, even his opponent Jack, who wasn’t even looking in his general direction anymore, instead trying to find a way to get to his trainer. Raviel gritted his teeth as his eye’s formed a harsh, almost feral glare at the Gourd Pokemon, the act of turning your back to your opponent was insulting, to say the least. But the the thing that really set him off was seeing Lord Kyandi, his opponent's trainers father, threatening Curt. He didn't completely grasp what was going on yet, but it didn't matter, no one threatened his trainer!
This time, The Lightning Pokemon didn’t bother waiting for Curt’s orders. Raviel normally tried to fight fair in battles, but he had spent most of his life in the harsh back-allies of Celedon city, looking over his own little group of stray Pokemon before Curt, Embertail, and the rest of the team came along. If there was one thing he learned in those allies, it was that those who always fought fairly, often lost fairly.
Black, almost electric-like energy began to faintly crackle among Raviels spikes, as he let out a low growl. Raviel was smart enough to know he couldn't directly attack Lord Kyandi without getting Curt into even deeper trouble, but, despite whatever was going on, it didn't appear that anyone called the match yet. His spikes pointed forward as he took careful aim at the Gourgiest.
The Shadow Ball hit its mark.
Curt could only stare, wide eyed as the Gourd Pokémon fell face forward to the ground, even Embertails jaw slacked wide open. The Shadow Ball had struck Jack dead on from behind, and with his guard down, the already super-effective move did even more damage. To Jacks credit, he did make a solid effort to pick himself up, almost did to, but in the end, Raviels attack just did too much damage, and Jack ultimately collapsed back onto the ground.
Raviel just stood there for a moment, a cock-sure grin plastered on his face, before meandering back to Curt and Embertail, a little bit confused as to why they weren't thanking him for his surprise attack. The two could only stare at the scene before them, the sounds of approaching footsteps barely even registered to Curt or Embertail bewildered minds.
“Well, well, I take back what I said about the Jolteon, Raviel was it?”, Adiar said while throwing a wide, haunting grin at the Jolteon that made his fur stand on end,” a clever Pokemon indeed, knows when to take an opportunity when it presents itself, doesn’t he?” Lord Kyandi wasn’t laughing, but he might as well have been. Curt felt sick, and Kyandi’s complete attitude shift towards him only helped fueled that nausea.
This wasn’t right, Cassie had been attacked, Marzipan and Jack had both shifted their attention to help her, just like Curt and Embertail had. If Raviel didn’t get chucked across the field, then he’d probably be with them trying to face Kyandi down. Curt knew he couldn't accept this, he needed to ask Kyandi for a rematch, or something! They didn't win, everyone just got confused by the chaos and Raviel made a lucky shot, and even the Jolteon was beginning to think that he may have made the wrong move attacking Jack.
“T-that wasn’t fair, h-his back was turned, Jack was worried about his trainer, t-there was so much confusion that-, Curt could barely stutter out before Adiar cut him off once more.
“It was completely fair, it was Marzipans fault for letting his Pokémon drop his guard, if he had kept his focus on his Pokémon instead of Miss Micheals, he wouldn’t have lost”. Every word Kyandi said made Curt want to vomit. He didn’t even notice as Adiar reached into his pocket, pulled out a checkbook and, a few wisps of a pen later, handed Curt a check.
“For a job well done, now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a talk with my….son”, Kyandi said, the grin never leaving his face. Eventually, Curt came back to reality, and took a good, hard look at the check the noble gave him. The amount Kyandi gave him was more than enough to end his families financial trouble, to say the least. Lord Kyandi had paid him more than enough for his family to keep their house. Hell, they could probably pay off the damn thing, and maybe even have enough left over to fix it up a bit. All his families worries, over just like that.
“Well….here it is, this what we’ve been looking for”, Curt muttered as he stared at the check. Curt looked over at Cassie, still safe in Ryu’s arms with Nine guarding her, an intense glare in both Pokémon’s eye’s. Curt thought he saw Cassie coming to, but he couldn’t tell for sure. Then he looked at Marzipan, despite what Kyandi said, his son had astounding potential as a Pokémon trainer, more than Curt had that’s for sure. The way he managed to form a bonded with a Pokémon he just met was incredible, and never once did he lose his cool in battle, despite the fact that Curt was almost certain he never actually battled till tonight.
Curt grasped the check with both hands, he took a hard look at it, then he look at Embertail, and Embertail looked at him. The Charmander had been a part of Curt life, a part of Curts’ family, for as long as he could remember, and the Lizard Pokémon’s face told him all he needed.
Curt took one last look at the check, and then tore it in two.
