Pedestal: Chapter 111

Nathan kept me wrapped up in his jacket and had one arm around me at all times. The other was still on his gun. That made me nervous. What was going on that he thought he needed it?

I peeked up out from under the hood and thought, rather naively, that I was safe because no one was looking in our direction. They were all looking at something else, away from us. That made me more confused. Nick Sayre had just been in the city, and its citizens were distracted by something else. What could do that?

I think I knew what it was, deep down. It was the moment I had been dreading since the media turned nasty, since the public turned away from us.

I heard a scream, high and long, that managed to rise up over the crowd. I knew immediately I could not ignore it. I didn't immediately recognize who it belonged to, but I recognized the note in it. It was terrified, desperate, a call for help.

I consciously realized what was going on when Alicia barreled through the crowd in front of me, snarling, "Move out of the way! Move it, heifers! Kaili—hold on—Get out of the freaking way!"

It was the attack on the Gym trainers.

On us.

Nathan must have had psychic powers, because he was already leaping for me as I lunged after Alicia. He caught me around the waist rather awkwardly and we both went down, half-collapsing on another person. I kicked and fought as best as I could, but he had height and weight and training on me, not to mention my legs pinned. "Hold still, you little—! Don't make this worse than it already is!"

"They're—" They were what? I still had no idea what was happening, except for the fact that this was turning nasty in a way I couldn't begin to describe, even to myself. There was a primal sense of danger here. I knew something was wrong, someone was hurting, blood was being shed.

"You can't do anything!"

"Alicia went in there!" I cried, clawing at the pavement in a vain attempt to get out of his grasp.

Our shouting drew attention, naturally. Nathan swore violently as people noticed us—noticed me. I only caught on when someone's heel came down on my hand and I felt something crack. My guard jumped over me and kicked the person away from me, gun pointed outward. But he couldn't focus on a single person. They were backing off at the sight of the weapon, but never for long. I got onto my knees and cradled my hand. I had been injured enough to know broken bones when I saw them.

"Get away! The cops are on their way and you'll be arrested for assault!" Nathan threatened, baring his teeth. That, combined with the tone in his voice, reminded me strongly of Ike.

I knew it was next to suicidal at that point, but I took his back to me as an opening. With my good hand, I clumsily fished around in my pocket. Nathan shouted after me but I was already gone, trying to make my way through towards where Alicia had disappeared.

The noise of the crowd was starting to build the deeper into the mass I went. I had no idea what I'd find at the center. People were starting to recognize me on my way in, too, which made the going difficult. I didn't want to release a Pokemon just yet—Des would be too big, Carlita would freak out, Ike would be a very bad idea right about now, Konstantin would also freak out, Alice would freak out, Zarek was still a baby—but I was more or less going to have to if I wanted to make it through. Especially when people started getting outwardly violent. I gave a startled yelp as the hood was yanked (along with no small amount of hair) off my head. I barely caught my balance, and next thing I knew, someone's fist made contact with my cheek.

I immediately tasted blood in my mouth. I was more shocked than anything, though it definitely hurt, too. "You little punk, what are you hiding from us?" the man who punched me demanded.

"What are you talking about?" I growled, holding my cheek, definitely tasting blood now. I sloppily spit some out, but it mostly just dribbled down my chin. Great, now I looked worse than I was and that would add fuel to the fire.

It also, evidently, made them think I was physically weak. I ducked under another punch, having seen it coming this time, and resisted the urge to try attacking on my own. But no—I had to make it to the center. I had to make it to where Alicia went in after Kaili.

Suddenly, a Steelix blossomed over the crowd, and screaming redoubled. I took advantage of the shock and chaos and ran for it, recognizing Benjamin clinging to the metal snake. I got tripped on the way there, and I drew my hands in towards my body on reflex this time.

All this time, I could only think oh god. I know it wasn't the best summary of what was happening or the most useful thought process for the situation, but it was hard to think anything else. People were attacking us. But no—now that a Pokemon was thrown into it all, even if it was just an escape, it was considered fine. Pokemon flashed out of their pokeballs all around us, and the real fray began.

I scrambled to my feet and kept as small as possible. I barely managed that before I was shoved roughly to the side again. I found myself staring into the wide, blank eyes of a Medicham, and rational thought went out the window.

Kamala.

It was years since I last saw her, I know. And I know she was dead. But as I said, it was irrational.

I probably would've been psychically mauled to death by it and the angry Sunyshore citizens had my savior not appeared at that point. With a screech of metal and with feathers turned into swords in his hands, Vaikuntha dropped down from Koel and landed lightly in front of me. He blocked the Medicham's first blow, took the second, and then shoved it away with the flat side of the blade. "Brother, we have to go!" he shouted.

I jerked up, dragging myself back into the rather dangerous present. "What—? Vai? Wait—where's Alicia?" I asked with more desperation than I'd intended.

"I have not seen her. She is here as well?" he asked in alarm, looking over his shoulder at me. I nodded, my throat catching at the worry in his eyes. This was bad. If Vaikuntha was worried, if he wasn't smiling, this was bad. He shoved both of the feathers into one hand and took my good one in his other, and started pulling me through the crowd. Koel landed ahead of us and kept the way clear for us, not nearly as afraid of lashing out as his trainer was.

"Vai, what's going on?" I burst out.

"Bad things."

"Vai, tell me!" I all but shrieked.

"Benjamin had parents who were part of Team Galactic and Kaili was a Pokemon thief and an illegal breeder! I—" He bit his lip and looked back towards Koel for a moment. "Or… that is what the news articles said. Then we were told to stay in our rooms by Fantina. Keith and I left anyway."

"This is the media's fault?"

"…Yes," he responded after a beat.

A Gastrodon swept us off our feet with some sort of water attack from the side. Koel chased it off and Vaikuntha and I tried to stay on track. The second we were away from the water Pokemon, I released Des, size be screwed. He immediately cleared a space for us and I clambered up onto his back. "Des, no time for questions, but go that way! Towards the Steelix! Vai, come on!"

"No, brother, I will stay behind and keep them away!"

"No Vai, I'm not leaving you behind! You'll be torn apart out here!" It was becoming more and more apparent that the center was our only chance for answers—for safety. Benjamin's Steelix was keeping the space clear just ahead of us, and from my position atop Des, I could see that Keith and Kaili were by him, their own Pokemon out as well.

"I am going to try to find the Gym leaders."

"That's no—"

"What the hell are you two doing here?" I flinched and Des sucked in a breath below me, preparing for fire. We all turned in relief to see Sela literally punch people out of her way, her Lopunny daintily skipping behind her. I was worried that that would turn bad, until it froze the Medicham from before solid with a short-range Ice Beam. "I thought we were having our last stand in the center all together!"

I had no idea whether or not she was trying to be funny. I hugged the volcano in front of me. "Sela, thank—"

"Get moving!" she barked at us, forcing Vaikuntha up onto my Camerupt behind me. Koel took to the sky above us, circling high to keep out of range of the mob below. Sela turned, red hair flying, and kicked a man who moved to pursue us between the legs. Vaikuntha and I couldn't help but wince. "You stay away from them!" she screamed. She could give Alice a run for her money.

"Trainer, we have to get moving," Des said breathily, exhaling embers while he tried to keep the fire inside. "Release Kostya."

"What—?"

"I do not want you out here without more backup!" he demanded. As an afterthought, and on a much softer note, he added, "Please."

Konstantin came out, and I saw that Vaikuntha also released Ranga, his Lucario. This was getting terrible. We still hadn't made it to the center of this madhouse, and more people and Pokemon were appearing with every second.

I don't know how, but after winning a bellowing match with a Tauros and Ranga beat back a Gallade, we broke out into what could only be called a no-man's land. Benjamin, Keith, Kaili, Alicia, and Archie were all hunkered down with various Pokemon, several of them sporting obvious injuries. Des marched as quickly as he could over to them, but Vaikuntha and I were already sliding off of him and running to the last allies we had in this crazy town.

Without thinking, as Alicia got up, I threw myself at her in a tight hug. She was safe. She tensed at first, but only for the briefest of moments, and then wrapped her arms around me as well. I had forgot how nice hugs could be—even in the midst of this battlefield.

That was, until Archie pulled me off of her and nuzzled into my hair, crooning, "Oh, my hero and all that. About time you got here."

"We are not the end of the, ah, cavalry is the term, yes?" Vaikuntha said, watching us with a curious expression.

"Huh?" Kaili stood up as well, a little wobbly on her feet. Alicia immediately was at her side, and I noticed that her leg was scraped pretty badly. Kaili was a Pokemon thief and Benjamin had Galactic connections. But right now, all I saw was a scared brunette who could barely stand on her own, and a trainer younger than myself gripping his Steelix so tightly he was shaking. Vaikuntha and Keith were immigrants, Alicia and Archie had problems, the least of which were their sexualities, Sela was a feminist and Lola was a goth, both of them temperamental. I was best friends with the worst serial killer in the history of Sinnoh.

The rest of our cavalry caught up with Sela broke through the edge of the crowd, hair a mess and missing a tooth. Her Lopunny leapt out after her, pirouetted in midair, and used an Ice Beam to make an ice shield that would buy us a little time on that front. The two jogged over to us, both chests heaving.

"Okay," she panted, putting her hands on her knees, "…Looks like we're missing two kids here."

"Lola and Challenger," Keith supplied. "C was back at the hotel when we were there. I'm not sure if he was headed this way or not. I don't know where Lola is."

"If she was in this mess, she would have made it to us already," Kaili pointed out, glancing over her shoulder rather nervously.

"What is this mess?" Sela and I said in unison.

Benjamin slid down off of his Steelix, though didn't let it stray far from him. "It's not my fault. You can't blame me for this." He sounded so defensive, so desperate, I couldn't bring myself to reply. He glared angrily down at his shoes. "It wasn't as if I asked for this. My parents—they were both in Team Galactic, okay? But mom was executed and dad's still in jail, so it's not like they're still terrorizing these panicking idiots!"

"They're not panicking, they're mad," Sela growled, lip curling right over her missing tooth. "They're tired of waiting. They want Gym leaders to take care of problems, not cause them. They don't want alcoholics or criminals or us. They just want Nicholas Sayre to disappear, no more killings, and for life to resume as normal."

"That's never going to happen again," Keith snapped and crossed his arms. "Sayre changed training, whether we're ready to admit it or not. They don't trust us because we're trainers, good ones. They don't want more of him."

I could understand that at face value, but this was totally different. "I was punched in the face! How the heck do they justify that?" I exclaimed.

"And to think, they don't even know you yet," Archie chimed, terribly unhelpfully. I glared at him and stepped farther away. "What I'm wondering is where Lola and Challenger got off to, and perhaps even more pressingly, where the hell the Gym leaders are."

"Or our guards," Kaili sighed. I winced guiltily. Still, what Nathan had said before came back to me. We were good trainers, good people, who happened to do bad things and have bad things happen. That was life. Vaikuntha was a saint and Benjamin couldn't help his parentage. I could have prevented Nick from falling and it would have been really nice right about now if people didn't think Kaili was a thief.

"I… I don't know if this can be salvaged anymore," I started unevenly. I felt their eyes on me, only adding to the pressure of the moment. To my left, the Ice Beam barrier was broken through, and Benjamin's Steelix was dealing with an Infernape on my right. "But we have to try. That's why we're here. We have to take charge, even if they hate us for it. We'll probably get kicked out of here soon, anyway. Might as well defend ourselves for real and stop worrying about stepping on people's toes."

"I knew I liked you," Sela said with a roguish grin. Alicia smiled—the smile itself was warm but her eyes were sad—at me and Vaikuntha glanced back out at the Pokemon trying to keep people away from their trainers.

"Let's not start just yet." Eight heads turned in surprise as Challenger very calmly strode towards us. Behind him, his Golem created a fissure in the ground that separated a great deal of angry mob from us, something I was grateful for. He gave us each a once-over—my bloody chin and broken hand, Kaili's hurt leg, Sela's missing tooth, Benjamin's bleeding nose and black eye and then returned his attention towards the crowd. "You couldn't start without me is what I was aiming for, but it seems as if I'm not the last one to arrive."

"You don't know where Lola is, either?" Alicia asked in surprise. He shrugged and shook his head. I could only hope the crowd hadn't gotten to her, but then again, I was sure we'd have seen more lightning in the sky if she had been in any sort of danger.

All thoughts of Lola went far, far out the window once the television took back over. There was an electronics store at the far end of the plaza where we were located, but worse than that was the large TV on one of the skyscrapers towering over us. Usually it was harmless advertisements or the news.

I almost preferred it when I saw two teenage girls take it over than what I was seeing now.

A solemn-looking man with graying hair was seated behind the desk, and the headline read "SUNYSHORE AT WAR?". (They caught on quick, apparently.) But what was far, far worse than that was the fact that the volume suddenly seemed much too loud. Someone had to have turned it up to gain the attention of the people here.

"And after the shock of hearing two of the so-called 'Gym race trainers' had somewhat darker pasts than what we were used to, SCB only discovered more danger. We have to wonder if this is what the Gym leaders had planned. Hiring the son of infamous Galactics as our new leader? A Pokemon thief in our midst? An alcoholic as a role model for our children? But no, ladies and gentlemen of Sunyshore, what has been found out goes much deeper than that."

My throat went bone dry, but I couldn't swallow. The camera switched to an aerial view of us, huddled and terrified in the square, and zoomed in on me and Challenger. It was our turn now.

"The Gym leaders have evidently decided it would be alright if the known friend and ally of Nick Sayre not only escaped arrest and questioning, but is here among us. And as if that wasn't enough to contend with, and as if the son of one of the evil Teams wasn't enough of a blow to the integrity of Sinnoh's trainers, we have a Rocket."

The blood drained very rapidly out of Challenger's face. I couldn't breathe. For a moment, the chaos around us was drowned out by thundering in my ears. That couldn't be my heartbeat, no, because I was sure it had just stopped.

Then the first gunshot was fired and reality caught back up with us.