‘Grim, grim, grim,’ Lamia chuckled, looking at Slumber’s still half-asleep face. Kiran trusted that the Quagsire would wake up properly if they had to deal with something, based on past experience, but Lamia still liked to make fun of his face, since Slumber was somehow always like that.

  The two kids, who’d told him their names were Santino – the boy – and Ashlyn – the girl – were walking on a path on the left of the cavern they were in, while Kiran was on Blubby’s back, with the Walrein swimming through a water channel that went down the middle of the cavern. Lamia was walking on a path on the right of the cavern.

  The kids both had their Pokemon out as well. Ashlyn had a Hariyama and a Mawile, while Santino had a… small dragon? Kiran had never seen this Pokemon before. They were pretty tiny, with a black lower body and gray upper body, complete with some scales on their side and head, along with a tail. Mawile seemed to be the odd one out of the three, looking very disinterested in her surroundings, while the other two mirrored the alertness of their trainers. Ashlyn had probably captured her recently.

  ‘What do I say? I don’t know how to talk to them,’ Kiran thought with a bit of annoyance.

  ‘So,’ Ashlyn said, which caused Kiran to let out a small bit of relief. ‘Are you in the Circuit this year?’

  ‘I am, yeah,’ he replied.

  ‘I’ve never heard of you. You’d think with Pokemon that powerful, we would’ve,’ she said in an accusatory tone. Santino nodded along with that.

  ‘Well, they got over their fear of me real quick, didn’t they?’ Kiran thought, half in amusement, half in annoyance. ‘I’m from Orre. Been battling in their coliseums for a long time now, so I’m not new.’ he explained.

  There was a bit of a pause, and they kept moving deeper in to the cave, and they were now at a point where the light from the sun outside wouldn't be enough to see. Kiran was about to tell Slumber to use Flash to light up the cave, but Santino had already gotten out a flashlight and turned it on.

  ‘Huh, you came prepared,’ Kiran remarked.

  Santino gave him a side-eye before responding. ‘There was a cave near where we live that we regularly had to go to catch Pokemon. So we just got used to bringing one of these along.’

  ‘Had to?’ Kiran asked, confused by that.

  ‘We’ve been apprenticing at the Gym in Dewford Town for years now. They need to catch and train new Pokemon every once in a while, and the Gym Leader put us in charge of some of that in the last few years,’ Santino said.

  ‘Oh, so you two are kind of experienced with battling, then?’ Kiran said. ‘You both looked really nervous when we were outside, so I wasn’t sure,’ he said jokingly.

  Ashlyn threw a glare at him. ‘We weren’t nervous, jerk!’

  ‘Hari!’ said Hariyama while nodding, clearly agreeing with her, while Jangmo-o snarled at Kiran.

  ‘Really. And that’s why you hid behind that shack, right?’

  ‘...okay, maybe a little nervous,’ Santino muttered. Ashlyn shot him a betrayed look.

  ‘Ugh, fine, maybe a bit,’ she huffed. ‘But once we kick ass in the Circuit, we won’t be.’

  Kiran gave a small smile and looked ahead. Ashlyn and Santino were obviously way weaker than him, but based on what he’d seen so far, they were at least determined to do well, so that was good.

  The waterway ended right in front of them, and from there was a stone path that went on for a while in front of them. Kiran got off Blubby and recalled him, then brought out Hound. His X-ray vision would very likely come in handy in any sort of hideout. Slumber could alter terrain with AncientPower and other moves, and Lamia had barriers that she could put up extremely quickly.

  Was he being paranoid? Probably, but being prepared couldn’t hurt, abandoned base or not.

  After about a minute, they had finally reached the end of the path, at which point there was an opening in the rock face in front of them. They stepped through it, and… well, and all three looked quite confused.

  There was a small staircase in front of them, and a pathway leading there, and black walls on either side of them. When they reached the top of the staircase, there was another hallway going left and right, which quickly lead to a dead end both ways. There was a faded green panel on either end of the upper hallway, but they didn’t appear to do anything.

  ‘…is that really it?’ Santino asked. For how timid Santino came across up until now, he sounded surprisingly disappointed.

  ‘Well, you did say abandoned hideout. Unless you want to use our Pokemon to break down walls and see what happens, we should g-’ Kiran abruptly stopped.

  Were… were those voices he was hearing?

  ‘Kiran?’ Ashlyn frowned. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Shhh!’ he said. ‘Keep your voices down for a second.’

  They were muffled, but now they could all hear them. There were people in here.

  ‘Hound,’ Kiran whispered, pointing at the wall directly opposite the mini-staircase. He hummed softly, and his eyes shone yellow, which meant his X-ray vision was on. Ashlyn’s and Santino’s eyes widened for a second at the display. Then Hound looked back at Kiran, still with his eyes shining, and drew a number in mid-air with his right paw.

  1

  2

  ‘Twelve people in there,’ Kiran said in a low voice.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  ‘Twelve?!’ Ashlyn hissed, much more alert now. ‘Who are they?’

  ‘My Luxray can only see heat signatures with his X-ray vision, so I can’t tell. Let’s try listening,’ Kiran said, after which they all put their ears to the wall. The voices were still kind of muffled, so they couldn’t hear everything, but they all heard enough.

  ‘So… want this to be place… make exchanges?’ a deep, male voice said.

  ‘Yeah. It’s… pretty taboo, so… comes here,’ responded a slightly higher-pitched, female voice. ‘Could do more… that’s all for now.’

  ‘Wish we knew who… were,’ the man responded.

  ‘Who cares?’ the woman said gruffly. ‘They work… let us do this.’

  ‘So you have… drugs… next time?’ the man asked.

  That made Kiran and the kids freeze. Drugs? He doubted anyone looking for discounts on health-related drugs would be doing any sort of exchange is such a shifty way, so these were actual gang members.

  Santino had paled at what he heard, but Ashlyn now looked angry. Her hands were balled into fists and her face was still with a silent anger that even took Kiran slightly aback.

  Kiran moved away from the wall. He had heard enough. ‘Guys, c’mon,’ he whispered. ‘We need to get out of here and report this to the police.’

  Ashlyn whipped her head toward him with wide, incredulous eyes. ‘What?! No, let’s kick their asses and take them in ourselves!’ she whispered back frantically.

  ‘Are you stupid, kid? The only proof we have of anything here are muffled voices through wall that weren’t recorded,’ he frowned at the girl. Kiran didn’t know every law in Hoenn, but he felt that was a safe assumption.

  ‘Ash, he’s right,’ Santino said quietly. ‘We have no authority here, so we need to-’

  The wall exploded.

  Large chunks of stone flew outwards from the dust cloud that was formed. Lots of them hit the floor before they could even get to Kiran and the kids, but a lot didn’t, and went further. Kiran and Ashlyn reacted fast enough by shielding their faces with an arm, and jumped back to right in front of the stairs, and Kiran’s hand was already reaching to Cinth’s Pokeball to help, but Santino couldn’t overcome his surprise in time. A large chunk of stone from the wall flew into his head, and caused a sickening crack on contact. He instantly crumpled to the floor.

  ‘No!’ Ashlyn screamed, running up to him and kneeling. By this point Cinth had been released, and Lamia had placed barriers around all three of them, so Kiran felt safe enough to kneel down as well and look at Santino. With a feeling of dread, he realized Santino wasn’t breathing.

  ‘Who the fuck are these?’ came the deep male voice from earlier. Kiran looked up to see a muscular man who was probably at least a head taller than he was. A Machoke stood next to him, flexing his muscles menacingly.

  ‘Two kids… I don’t know who this guy is,’ said the woman he heard. She was wearing a simple T-shirt and baggy jeans, and a bandanna on her head. ‘Whatever, they might’ve heard us. Everyone, kill them. No one can know what we’re up to. Not yet.’

  The ten guards behind them snickered and released their Pokemon. Three Houndoom, a Golbat, three Nidoking and a Mightyena. Kiran instantly flipped to battle mode. These were strong Pokemon in a vacuum, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

  ‘Hound, fry them all. Cinth, blow them all away with Petal Blizzard! Don’t kill them,’ Kiran ordered.

  ‘C-chomps, use Iron Head on Mightyena! Sumo, use Arm Thrust on whoever you can!’ Ashlyn’s voice came from beside him.

  Mawile and Hariyama had impressive strength, but neither of them seemed to do more than push the opposing Pokemon back. Jangmo-o was in the same boat, where he drew upon the ground beneath them to form boulders that he then launched at his opponents with a tiny roar.

  Kiran’s attacks were clearly more destructive, however. Hound roared loudly, and his Thunderbolt caused all but the Nidoking to convulse and then abruptly drop to the ground, unconscious. The wind and sharp leaves generated from seemingly nowhere by Cinth’s Petal Blizzard blew them all back into the far wall of the room the thugs just burst out of, trainers included.

  Sumo grabbed Santino’s unconscious body, while Kiran gave orders to his Quagsire. ‘Slumber, create layers between us!’ He nodded, then raised his arms with a cry, and the ground beneath them rose to form ten walls, separating themselves and the thugs.

  Kiran didn’t know if that would hold forever. They needed to get out of here, fast. Although, it looked like Ashlyn, now that the enemies had been put away, was out of it. She was looking at Santino with trembling lips, and her hand on his shoulder, tears starting to slip out of her eyes.

  Suddenly, Kiran was momentarily transported back to a moment from his childhood. Looking at his own dead mother that way. He shook his head to get that thought out of his head. This wasn’t the time!

  Kiran leaned over Ashlyn while glancing back at the walls that Ancient Power had created. ‘Kid, I can’t imagine what you’re going through, but we need to leave.’

  She took a second more, then seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in and nodded slightly. They all ran down the stairs, and back to the cave part of the hideout. Kiran released Gobi, and the Flygon turned to greet Kiran, only to look at how alert his Trainer seemed, and then immediately ask what was wrong.

  ‘We gotta get out, quick,’ was all Kiran said, and Gobi landed on the ground, and motioned to get on his back.

  Ashlyn seemed to hesitate for second. Maybe because she’d never flown before? Kiran was going to tell her to focus on what’s important, but she snapped out of it and got on Gobi. Kiran did the same, Sumo handed over Santino to Ashlyn gently, and they took off.

  Hopefully, they would get help for Santino in time.

  ---------

  They had been waiting for over four hours, now.

  The Pokemon Center didn’t have human treatment available, and neither Ashlyn or Kiran had been to Lilycove before, so they had to take a few minutes after getting to the Center they were both apparently staying at to ask people where the nearest hospital was.

  And right now, with both of them sitting outside the intensive care unit at Lilycove Hospital, Kiran could only hope that delay wasn’t what was making things take so long now, if there was even any hope for Santino before.

  Of course, Kiran had also called the police as well, to give them an anonymous tip. The people they met had tried to kill them on sight. They couldn’t be allowed to get away.

  Ashlyn was curled up beside him on a couch, chewing on her lips, her legs pulled up so that her arms could wrap around them while she sat. Her tears had dried about an hour ago, but her eyes were still red and puffy.

  They had been pretty much silent this entire time. And what could Kiran even say to her? Her friend was likely going to die, it wasn’t like words were going to do anything for her. To be honest, he didn’t even know why he was still here. Kiran didn’t know these kids, and he had tried to protect them. Yet, here he still was. He didn’t get it.

  But Kiran was curious about one thing. ‘So, that was this Team Aqua, then?’

  Her eyes widened a small amount before responding. Ashlyn was clearly not expecting Kiran to speak after hours of silence. ‘I don’t think so,’ she frowned. ‘Team Aqua had a uniform, these people didn’t.’

  Kiran had experience with gangs. It only took him a few seconds for a light bulb to go off in his head. ‘Oh,’ he realized. ‘A power vacuum, then?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s probably it,’ Ashlyn nodded. ‘I’d heard some stuff in the news about lesser gangs going for power now that the undisputed kings were gone, but I thought the League was handling that.’ She frowned, and hugged her knees even tighter somehow. ‘It’s been ten years, how is the League still having trouble with them?’

  Kiran had no idea. But if this League was supposed to be such a powerful force, and they couldn’t even put down a threat, then something dangerous was absolutely lurking in this region, more than Kiran had assumed.

  Damnit, he came to another region to get away from this kind of danger! He could only hope Nysa wouldn’t get caught up in this.

  Just then, the door to the ICU opened, and a doctor walked out. Kiran glanced at him, and Ashlyn had a much more animated reaction, jumping to her feet and then stumbling when she got there, since her legs were partly asleep at this point.

  ‘Well? Is he going to be okay?!’ she demanded frantically, with wide eyes.

  But Kiran didn’t need to know this doctor well to know what the verdict was going to be before he said it. Downcast eyes, glancing anywhere but their eyes, wringing his hands slightly. Kiran frowned and looked downward.

  ‘Sorry, you two. We tried everything we could, but a head injury like that was too damaging to the brain for us to do anything. He’s dead. I’m sorry,’ the doctor sighed.

  Ashlyn stood there, not moving for at least a few more minutes. The doctor said his condolences and left. Kiran wasn’t quite sure what to do. He didn’t know this girl, or Santino outside of today’s incident, he had tried to save them both. If he was being completely honest, he didn’t really feel as sad as some might expect him to feel right now. But he still felt uncomfortable looking at how devastated Ashlyn was.

  Kiran scratched the back of his head. ‘Look, I’m sorry kid-’

  ‘Why?’

  Kiran blinked. Ashlyn had muttered that quietly, while still staring straight ahead. ‘I mean, scumbags like that don’t have any good reasons for doing these th-’

  ‘I don’t mean that!’ she snapped, stopping Kiran mid-sentence again. ‘First it was Team Aqua and Magma being allowed to nearly kill us all. Then I hear about power vacuums that the government hasn’t been able to nail down for almost a decade. Then this?!’ Ashlyn had gotten increasingly louder over the course of that rant, and her fists were now tightly balled. The employees of the hospital that were close to them were frowning at them, but Ashlyn didn’t seem to care.

  ‘And you,’ she said with venom, now glaring at Kiran. ‘What happened to the guy who said he would ‘keep us beginners safe’? That all just bullshit, then?’

  ‘That wasn’t my fault, there was no way I could’ve predicted things would go down exactly like that,’ Kiran frowned.

  She glared at Kiran for a few more seconds, but then her lips started trembling again. ‘Fuck this, I’m leaving,’ she said in a hoarse voice, turning around and stomping away.

  Kiran sat where he was in silence for a few minutes. He wasn’t wrong, he had done what he could to help in that situation. And after Santino had been knocked out, Gobi had flown them to treatment as fast as possible. Kiran had gotten this far in life by specifically caring about himself and only those who were very close to him.

  But he still felt off. It felt like something was gnawing every so slightly at the back of his brain, and he just didn’t get why he was feeling that way.