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"submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2772/2772639_Apachy_a_tale_of_fire_grass_chapter_9_premonitions.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2772/2772639_Apachy_a_tale_of_fire_grass_chapter_9_premonitions.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2772/2772639_Apachy_a_tale_of_fire_grass_chapter_9_premonitions.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "", "description_bbcode_parsed": "", "writing": "[center]WARNING: This story contains no sexual content and injuries such as a broken leg and gouging of the eye (Not terribly detailed.) A recap of this chapter will be available in the following chapter for those uninterested in such scenes.[/center]\n\nJake's hands balled into fists as he saw those black figures descend into the smoke, knowing that he could repay those two, or at least their teammates, for giving him his new powers, whether they were by accident or not.\n\n``We've got familiar company, guys.'' He chided. Grovyle grimaced as the last of his wounds sealed themselves and gradually faded to his normal skin tone.\n\n``You mean those Plasma guys are out there?'' He asked after massaging his aching muscles. Their recent defeat left him rather sore\n\nJake nodded, seeing several red lights flash briefly in the accumulating smoke. At the mention of Team Plasma, Tirtouga began to visibly glow while his expression hardened.\n\n``Then we should head out then.'' Tirtouga muttered, beginning to waddle his way towards the door.\n\nJake stopped him with his foot. ``Two wouldn't be so bad, but I definitely saw more than that coming down, and they might not even be those two from earlier.''\n\n``I won't let some greenhorn criminals destroy my gym!'' Gardenia blurted out with gritted teeth. ``Everyone, le-'' She spun about to begin addressing her team only to gasp in horror, prompting Jake and his companions to turn about and see the protective vines had begun to writhe and quiver violently.\n\nSmaller vines fell off in withered clumps, their lush green skin cracking into arid brown as they hit the ground and broke like twigs. All the pokemon in the bleachers rushed towards the vines with distraught expressions, the Bulbasaurs getting especially close to nuzzle the vine without fear of getting hurt. Their evolutions stepped in to pull them away before that could happen though. \n\nThe door behind them slammed open as Gardenia burst out from the gym into the dense smoke in a full sprint.\n\n``Fuck. everyone, let's go!'' Jake swore and began to follow her. Pichu stuck close to Jake while Grovyle took the time to try and pick Tirtouga up, only that just by putting his claws near the turtle's shell scalded his skin painfully, making the grass-type hiss and reel back.\n\n``S-sorry Grovyle!'' Tirtouga offered an apology as he broke into a sprint with astounding speed, quickly overtaking Jake within a minute of leaving. Dawn was too slow to react as she followed them out, and quickly lost them in the fiery smoke.\n\n``Damn, guess We'll be on cleanup duty.'' she released her Piplup, given that he was her only current water type. ``Alright bud, we've got some fines to clear!''\n\nDeep within the smoke, Jake looked back to see Grovyle and Pichu were both starting to overtake him and willed himself to take Quilava's form to not lag behind. His body began to glow, but it suddenly fizzled out barely a second later, sucking the energy from his body and leaving him feeling weak.\n\nHe stumbled as he took a smoke-filled breath, falling to his knees while he covered his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. Seeing their trainer fall, Grovyle and Pichu immediately turned back to help him, both asking ``Are you alright?'' with surprise.\n\n``I'm.... I'm fine. I tried to... transform, but I can't for some reason.'' The smoke played hell with his lungs and eyes, both burning painfully. He waved them off. ``Go... on ahead, I'll catch up...''\n\nFar ahead of them all, at the divot of the flower hill, a raging battle was ongoing. Their entree had been perfect, met with literally no resistance that gave them precious time to cover every direction with their teams and defend against the nearby trainers and gym members. And surprisingly there were quite a few of both who had shown up within the first minute to contend them.\n\nOver thirty pokemon encircled the top of the hill, launching attack after attack at anyone stupid enough to fight back, beating most away while others managed to retaliate with their own ranged attacks. The inside of their circle was hardly easier, as Emily and Jerome's teams were busy fighting off vines thicker than their arms while the latter's Durant, who was gnawing away at the stem of the central flower with violent ferocity.\n\n``Two-o-Clock, more vines are sprouting up!'' Emily shouted towards Jerome, her whole team entwined in their brawl with another batch. The only way they could even tell that these violent green stalks were coming up was the trembling of the dirt shortly before they came up.\n\n``On it!'' He yelled back as they finished scorching the last grouping, turning around to shoot this one down as well. The vines were a step ahead of them though, as three vines, thinner than most others, burst up and speared through a Galactic grunt's chest. This marked their second casualty thus far, and the problem only grew from there.\n\nThe grunt's team, upon seeing their beloved trainer fall without so much as a sound, howled with rage and lunged towards their nearest opponent, fueled with feral mania. Some turned onto the trainer's fellow teammates and tore one another to shreds, leaving those still sane to fight them as well.\n\nJerome's Heatmor turned the murderous vines into ashes with a quick Flamethrower. By now the entire flower field inside the divot had been scorched into a smooth black crater ever since they started fighting these mysterious vines. The intel they got was that they should expect heavy resistance from the local grass-types, more so from a rare pokemon supposedly hidden deep beneath that could essentially turn the outcome of the op into a coin flip. And so far, they were right.\n\nAs for why command was so willing to spend precious troops for this nectar was beyond him, although a faint thought of stealing just a few drops did bounce around in his head for a while. After all, he could always use some more rules to break. Jerome looked to his Durant to see how far it had gotten and was surprised to see they were barely a couple inches into the stalk. To think a flower would withstand the ant's steel bite better than natural stone made him more than a little uneasy.\n\nAt that moment a much greater commotion came from behind him as three of the people defending that direction were suddenly flung into his view, tumbling and rolling with contrails of smoke coming off their burnt uniforms. He and Emily both looked at the new gap in their defense to see a furious gym leader looking down upon them from atop a tower of vines, surrounded on either side by her full team that shared the same expressions. Animosity.\n\n``Fire!'' Gardenia shouted with hysteria, prompting a barrage of glowing attacks that clogged the air and peppered their frontline with wild abandon. Jerome dove for cover before he was turned to swiss cheese.\n\n``Fucking bitch! I didn't want to have to use this...'' He bit his lip while pulling out another detonation charge. They weren't easy to come by, given how difficult they were to make. But now wasn't the time for him to be sparing when the leader of the gym was breathing down their necks. Muscle memory took over his free hand as he set it to a timed detonation, eyeing the base of her vine platform.\n\n``Squads four through seven, converge fire on the gym leader!'' he radioed across their channels. There was no way in hell he could throw it all the way up to Gardenia herself (as much as he wished he could), both because the distance was too extreme and that the charge would get shot out of the air the second it left his hand.\n\nThe teams followed his order and shifted her attention to them, while Jerome crawled up to the lip of the hill. Detonations sounded as the two groups exchanged fire, attacks colliding mid-air and filling it with even more blinding smoke. Seeing his opening, Jerome took the risk to stand up and side arm the explosive where he had last seen the vines' base, now obscured in an even thicker cloud of smoke and dust.\n\nThe timer started the moment his fingers left the activation switch, lighting up a dull blue counter starting at 0:05 and rapidly blinking down to zero.\n\n...\n\nJake's team were halfway up the hill when a powerful explosion rocked the ground, bits of dirt flying their way yet mostly harmless. Even with the bright flash, with all the dense smoke around limiting their vision to just barely five meters around them, they could just barely follow the incline of the hill to where they needed to be.\n\nTirtouga continued to lead their little posse without pause, unaffected by the burning air or the intense heat. This also meant he missed the sight of a colossal column of burning vines collapsing directly over him. Grovyle was lucky enough to notice the growing light in the haze above them and dashed forward with all his strength, scooping the turtle up and out of harm's way.\n\nThe fiery vines crashed to the ground with a haunting crash, cracking the ground into a spider web of uplifted dirt and blackened grass. Tirtouga felt a rush of hut air and embers waft over his backside, knowing he had been saved.\n\n``Whew, thanks Grovyle...'' He began to thank, turning towards the grass-type and seeing him with an agonized expression while clutching his hands together. The green skin had been turned a horrible dark mossy color, peeling back slowly as it began to split and crack.\n\n``I-I?ll be fine, just wait for Pichu then go on ahead.'' He said while heaving a breath. What he didn't say was that not only the skin, but even some of the flesh and bone felt like they had been flash fried after holding Tirtouga for barely a second. \n\n``I-I-I'm so sorry!'' Tirtouga still apologized. He realized that being fired up for a fight wasn't helpful at all, and that he shouldn't be thinking that this was just like any other battle. The heating problem had returned and was beginning to cook him from the inside, even after he had released so much during the last battle.\n\n``Alright, I will.'' he finally replied to Grovyle's request after a moment of confusion. Then, Pichu's voice was overheard and caught their attention.\n\n``Hey! The gym leader needs our help! Follow the vine!'' She shouted loudly to let her voice be heard over the distant sounds of battle. Tirtouga looked to Grovyle for guidance, who waved him off with a crispy hand. Following his advice, the turtle ran off into the smoke, leaving Grovyle to nurse his wounds.\n\nPichu and Tirtouga met up at the end of the giant vine, where Gardenia and her pokemon were loosely grouped up over a surprisingly undamaged patch of flowers. The woman's leg was bent in a painfully odd direction below the knee, tears streaming down her bloody cheeks as she bit into her bundled-up cloak. Her Torterra was the one to greet them in her stead.\n\n``Thanks for showing up so fast'' He looked genuinely relieved to have them here. ``We were fighting with some guys trying to hurt Momma, but we can't leave Gardenia injured and alone out here.'' His voice cracked at the mention of his trainer.\n\n``Where's your trainer? Surely he's got enough talent to stop those shitheads from doing something they will regret.'' \n\n``He got slowed down halfway, told us to go on without him. We'll do what we can against Team Galactic, but with only two it won't make much of a difference.'' Tirtouga shook his head.\n\n``Hey... I'm hearing something... strange, what's going on?'' Pichu asked. Her ears twitched a couple times as she glanced downward. A haunting expression formed on Torterra as he looked down as well, fearing what he would see. The grass was trembling.\n\n``This is bad, she shouldn't need to do something like this!'' his voice grew louder with each word, until he was yelling. ``We need to move, now!''\n\nDuring their conversation, Gardenia was grunting in pain and righted the bone with her bare hands. She screamed into her wad of cloth and cried from the pain, silently thanking her military service for how to handle pain, even if it didn't nullify it by much. Everyone sucked in a breath when they saw her set her leg back in place.\n\n``Torterra, get us the hell out of here!'' She said through gritted teeth ``This hill isn't going to stay here much longer!'' She reached for the edge of the giant turtle's shell and began to climb up, aided by a few pencil-thick vines of his until she was weakly clinging to his tree. The rest of her team got up from their brief rest and began to dash back down the hill, Torterra following in back along with the confused Pichu and Tirtouga.\n\n``What about Grovyle?'' Pichu yelled, looking back to the still-burning vine.\n\n``His legs are fine, just not his hands!'' He yelled back, quickly convincing her that Grovyle would surely notice the ground was rumbling and clear out before something bad happened to him. And not far ahead of them was Jake wearing his jacket over his face to block out most of the smoke.\n\nHe could hardly breath and just barely see through a thinner layer of the jacket's back, but neither burned as much, and he could still at least try to catch up with his team. Yet barely twenty steps in, the sound of stomping stopped him in his tracks and focus on the smoky haze before him. Soon a green blur quickly came into view, barely giving Jake enough time to dive to the side and avoid a full throttle Torterra leaving wheel sized indents in the dirt.\n\nHe only began to slow after he had passed Jake, going from a sprint to a trot then finally to a stop, panting for breath while Gardenia slid down his side with the assistance of his vines. Lagging far behind them was Tirtouga, Pichu, and Grovyle, who were all similarly gasping for breath from struggling to keep up.\n\n``Why are you guys running from Team Galactic- Woah!'' Jake lurched when a powerful tremor shook him like a rattle. Gardenia's reply was to look up and point towards where the flower hill once was.\n\n``That's why.'' That sentence stuck in Jake's mind as her voice was swiftly drowned out by what could only be described as a mountain shifting, piercing through the air when the hill at the gym's center began to rise. Clumps of dirt larger than a fully-grown man fell down to the ground like raindrops while clouds of dirt washed over the entire gym.\n\nAtop the rising hill was pandemonium. Team Galactic grunts were flung into the air when the ground beneath them suddenly began to rise, sending some several feet high with little warning. Those who were lucky landed back down within seconds and at best suffered a bruise or sprain, while others were catapulted off their vantage point along with their teams beyond the hill. Such a height offered far more serious injuries for them.\n\nGusts of wind began to circulate, further clouding everyone's view. It billowed upwards as if trying to escape what was surfacing itself in the building's center. What was once a slow, hazy black cloud of smoke rising from the destroyed dome turned into a swirling tornado of brown, black, and green. A few terribly unlucky Galactic members and pokemon were sucked skyward with the turbulent wind.\n\nEveryone clear of the hill clung to the ground purely out of fear of joining those less fortunate souls. Finally, after a minute the winds died down, taking with it the last specks of dirt and smoke clogging the air. Even the fires spread out around the grassy fields were snuffed out with the violent winds, leaving those still within the gym a clear view to be in awe of what laid, or rather [b]stood[/b] at its center.\n\nMossy clumps of dirt clung to its shadowed green legs, slowly coming undone and crumbling away as the slumbering beast's skin shifted slightly. Its rough, scaly skin was pocketed with innumerable scars that formed a continuous jagged net of pastel green lines that could only add to the contours of the hulking muscles that were capable of moving such a staggering mass.\n\nAbove its four skyscraper-like legs was naturally the pokemon's wide and round underbelly, densely covered by endless lines of vines wrapping themselves around the berth of its chest, similar to a rope shirt. Only these ropes squirmed and pulsed with vigor as they moved about the pokemon's body like oversized Arboks.\n\nAtop its chest was an overshadowing canopy of leaves that draped over top its four limbs. These leaves were in much the same shape as their legs, marked by a wide array of holes and slashes lined with brown rot that further signified its vast age. Another batch of leaves with much more vitality curled around a thick stalk that couldn't be measured by its onlookers, only that it held much the same magnitude as the rest of its domineering form. Atop this stalk was none other than the flower that once shaded the hill's flower field and dominated any flower in comparison. Near the midway was a clear cut on either side, below which was maybe four feet of extra length.\n\nAnd finally came it's wide, sharing every characteristic of its other limbs and more. A wide, angular jaw lined with rounded yellow teeth loosely crisscrossing across both sides of its lips. Above this was an almost unnoticeable pair of nostrils beneath a diamond-shaped scale a shade darker than its skin. The upper half was accompanied by two smaller scales that outlined its otherwise flat nose. Atop its forehead was a faded pink flower similar to the one on its back, nestled between either of its two floppy pointed ears.\n\nYet what struck out the most was its eyes, which were closed as it arose but now slowly opened to reveal a stunning emerald gaze that felt it could see through anyone into their soul. A shimmer of sage-like wisdom gleaned through its eyes as it blinked away the dirt from its eyelids.\n\nThis towering behemoth of a pokemon had laid beneath everyone's feet for many years, its flower witnessed by hundreds of passers-by with none the wiser to its existence. It was by far the largest pokemon Jake, and really everybody, had ever seen. Gardenia and her pokemon were naturally the ones with almost no reaction to the pokemon's sudden reveal.\n\n``[i]that's[/i] the Venusaur you wanted to fight, Jake. Still up for the challenge?'' She offered a light laugh as she looked at the magnificent animal that captivated everyone. How long had it been since she was the center of attention? A year? Ten? But her glory days were long past, and she could only hide away and watch over her family from below, this they both knew.\n\nFor a brief moment the world felt still as a picture, no breath taken for it was stolen by the Venusaur's magnificence, and no finger moved for none dared to be its focus out of fear or reverence. Then, she made the first move by clearing some of the dirt from her body with a quick shake.\n\nThose still atop it, that being the Team Galactic grunts including Jerome and Emily, could not maintain their position any longer as the ground beneath them shook from side to side. This motion was certainly small in the Venusaur's eyes, but earth shattering to the small bugs atop it. The two Plasma members and a few of their cohort Galactic goons had already returned their pokemon and clung to what seemingly solid ground they could find before the shaking began.\n\nAlthough they were thrashed by the sudden movement, the soil atop the Venusaur's back remained well rooted, and acted as their bastion to ride out the waves until they subsided. When the shaking stopped, Jerome was the first to get back on his wobbling feet.\n\n``Anyone still on the hill, focus all your attention to incoming vines. Emily, you and I are taking down this flower and completing our objective, oversized pokemon or not!'' he barked into his mic while summoning his weary team back out.\n\n``What about the others?'' A static-laden voice came over the line, probably from one of the grunts still with them.\n\n``They don't matter! They have flying pokemon and should have the brains to either gut up here or the hell out, now move!'' Jerome snapped back, pointing to the cut in the stalk they had wd\n\nworked so hard to get.\n\nDown below, Jake and everyone else, which now included Dawn and her full team finally, gazed up at the Venusaur while it shook off people like fleas with terrifying ease. It lifted a foot, flecking up mounds of dirt with its claws in the process, and slowly turned to face them. Each footfall rattled their teeth until it could tilt her head down and cast her gaze upon the small group of people, of which a third she clearly recognized.\n\nJake felt a shiver run along his spine as her gaze seemed to briefly focus on him, feeling like a piece of meat being assessed at a butcher's shop before the feeling passed. \n\n``Hello, little ones.'' She greeted them with a soft voice, fittingly like that of a mother. Her delicate tone felt soothing and calming, as if the scene a minute ago had never occurred in the first place. Everything felt... serene.\n\n``Hi Momma, apologies for looking so sorry for your big debut.'' Gardenia huffed with a wave.\n\n``Can you understand her?'' Dawn asked to Gardenia, which prompted a bit more laughter.\n\n``Of course not, but I've been with Momma my whole life, so it isn't exactly hard to tell what she's saying''\n\nJake almost had a heart attack when Dawn asked that question, having never thought that maybe he wasn't alone with these freaky powers of his. He didn't know whether to be relieved or depressed that she wasn't like him, but maybe he simply was thinking too hard on a simple question.\n\n``I care little for your appearance, only your wellbeing and the children of mine you protect.'' Momma gave a radiant smile to bring the point across. ``Although it would seem you've fared better than today, no?'' she added with a hint of sass, glancing around at the scorched grass across the gym.\n\n``Sorry, just s-'' Gardenia began to apologize when Momma's eyes grew wide, a pained hiss and a grimace coming together and cutting off the gym leader.\n\nShe shook herself more than once. ``Curse these vile humans!'' she finally proclaimed. The sudden change brought Gardenia to her feet with hysteria.\n\n``What's wrong?'' She yelled before falling down with a pained expression thanks to her rash decision to apply any amount of weight on her still-broken leg. She balled a fist and slammed it onto the ground with a frustrated huff. ``I'll kill every last one of those bastards!'' Although her tone was ripe with promise, when she looked to Dawn and Jake there was only anguish revealed in the way she looked.\n\n``Please, help Momma! It's all I would ever ask of you, please!'' She undid her belt and tossed it to Jake with clear desperation. ``Take my team with you, they're the best I could ask for. And guys...'' she turned to her pokemon to give them the one order they needed.\n\n``Protect Momma.''\n\nClutching the belt, Jake hesitated for only a moment before tightening his grip on it. ``Got it.'' He said, beginning to return each of her pokemon then looping the belt slightly above his own. Her whole team, excluding the two they had already seen, included a Cherrim, Bellossom, and a Roserade, and every single one of them were a mystery for him to command.\n\nHe would have to hope they could work with minimal guidance from him, as he already had to tackle the impossible task of scaling ``Momma'' to stop whatever it was that Team Galactic was doing to her. The first issue was that she was thrashing far too much for them to even consider getting close, let alone try to climb one of her legs at the expense of his strength. Nor did either teams have a flying type to forgo the issue entirely.\n\n``Hey, I do have a flying type that can carry at least one of us up to Momma, but I'm not really sure how long she can do it.'' Dawn spoke up after a minute of thinking.\n\n``It's... better than nothing... Get Jake up there first if you can.'' Gardenia huffed with each word, the pain in her leg continuing to wear her down with each passing second. Dawn nodded a few times before reaching into her pocket, pulling out a blue and black Pokeball that released a dark purple bat with two sets of wings.\n\n``Alright Crobat, nap time's over and we need your help.'' The pokemon stifled a yawn but nodded with a smile afterwards.\n\n``I kinda figured that.'' She quipped back.\n\nDawn pointed over to the squirming Venusaur. ``We need you to bring Jake to the top of that Venusaur then come get me to do the same thing.'' Her request prompted the bat to look in Momma's direction and stagger back with surprise and a well justified ``Holy shit.''\n\n``Uhhhhhh....'' Crobat looked from Jake to Dawn, back again, then at Momma in the distance before sighing. ``Fine, but I better be getting some good treats for this when I get back.''\n\nShe stretched her wings out to their full span a few times before presenting her back to Jake. ``C'mon, hop on. Don't have all day.''\n\nHe quickly called back his team before following her instructions, briefly wondering how a pokemon smaller than him could handle flying with him until she added another comment: ``Hang on tight!''\n\nCrobat began to beat her wings furiously, lifting them off the ground with ease and prompting Jake to hug the bat as hard as he could for obvious reasons. Dawn and Gardenia grew small as she picked up speed, bringing a deep sense of nausea in the pit of Jake's stomach.\n\n``Don't go shitting yourself, otherwise I'm dropping ya'.'' Crobat commented when she felt his grip tighten surprisingly hard around her best.\n\n``Hey, I'm just not good with heights!'' he shouted back over the wind. ``Seriously, please don't drop me!''\n\n``Woah, wait, can you understand what I'm saying?'' she replied, bewildered. \n\n``Y-yea'' was his reply after looking down for the briefest of moments and regretting it entirely.\n\n``Damn, that's crazy. We're already pretty close to the big girl, so get ready to hop off''\n\nJake had no clue what Team Galactic were up to ever since they had arrived, and now that he had some height and a clear view, it was a bit more obvious. The remaining members on the Venusaur were in a frenzy of fighting off countless vine encroaching on their position around the grand flower. The stem was beginning to wilt as more attacks chipped away at it, bringing it dangerously close to falling.\n\n``Land a little away from them, I'll need to release the teams before taking them on.'' He pointed out a spot not too far from where they were.\n\n``Oh, really? I was thinking of just dropping you off in the middle of a bunch of crazy murders. You know, for kicks.'' Was her snarky reply before she began to descend, swiftly landing just south of the defending goons.\n\nJake jumped off her back with shaking legs. ``Th-thanks Crobat!'' She was already beginning to take to the air when he collected himself.\n\n``Don't mind it, just tell Dawn that I was super brave and deserve all those snacks she has in that bag of hers.'' \n\nJake smiled and nodded, watching her climb further and further into the air before refocusing on the task at hand. He spun on his heel and began to run towards the flower, releasing each pokemon from both belts as he went; a substantial crowd of pokemon surrounding him by the time he reached the battlefield.\n\nJerome, too busy dealing with swarming vines thicker than his torso, didn't notice the object of his ire sprinting towards them nor did he hear the calls of his teammates about the same issue. Thankfully Emily was more receptive to the radio chatter, and immediately delegated two other grunts to assist her to fight their approaching foes.\n\nThe remainder stuck close to Jerome's team, which had continued to focus their full attention on the stem. Now, each attack was causing it to start swaying, yet still managing to surprise them all with how it could hold up such an immense weight with only just a few inches holding it all up. Momma's cries of anguish were growing fainter as the lifegiving energy her flower gave was thinning, which meant her vines began to slow and thin with lethargy.\n\nGardenia's team knew the importance of her flower, and immediately wedged themselves into the battle with no reserve and little care for themselves. Jake's team could only support them from afar with how chaotic it had immediately become. Pointing out key targets was all he could do, and they were pushing towards Jerome at a moderate pace. \n\nIf only they had been quicker.\n\nA deafening crunch brought all their struggles to a halt and brought their attention to the flower, whether they wished to or not. And for a moment, all was still in the world. But it could not stay that way, as the flower began to tip backwards following a resonating *CRACK*!\n\nThe stem, once a lush and vibrant light green, rapidly shriveled into a brown husk as it fell, like its moisture had been sucked dry by an invisible straw. The wild manner Gardenia's pokemon had taken thus far returned with a violent resurgence, unwilling to wait for the flower to finish falling before they pressed towards it.\n\nThe battle began to slow when only Jerome and Emily were left to defend, a swath of mercilessly felled pokemon and Galactic grunts bloody and, if lucky, breathing. But this small victory had cost almost all of Gardenia's pokemon going down with them, all save Torterra, blind in his left eye and matted with blood, both his own and otherwise.\n\n``Torterra, back off! We'll take care of those two!''\n\n``I'd like to see you try, kid!'' Emily shouted back, whipping out a knife and twirling it in her hand. It was mostly an empty threat, since most of her team was on the brink of going down. That and command had strictly said no murders for this mission, but since they hadn't made mention of the possibility of being stabbed to death by killer vines, she assumed any rules were null and void right now.\n\nThe crunch of the flower falling behind her set everyone off once more, albeit with far less vigor and speed. While Emily had them preoccupied, Jerome returned what pokemon he couldn't use anymore and had his last two guard him all the way to the flower head.\n\nTirtouga spat globs of magma at the Heatmor that had joined Emily's side with more strength and energy than most others could bring out, letting his anger towards those two trainers boil him alive. Although he had never met them, he felt that they were the same two who had hurt his friends on the road. And he hated them for it, for making him feel useless when everyone else was fighting.\n\nThat anger, although meager, fed his flames better than any other, and now he could vent these frustrations with reckless abandon. Both Pichu and Grovyle kept very clear of both him and his attacks, as being more than a foot away from either still made then feel like they were standing in front of a roaring fireplace.\n\nTheir battle was interrupted for a moment when Momma's whole body quivered beneath them all of the sudden, briefly sending them into a freefall before crashing them against her back. To those not on her, the shockwave of her crumpling to the ground was enough to shake their entire being...\n\nJerome dashed over to the head of the flower with his last pokemon, a Zoroark, acting as his vanguard for any potshots that might be flung his way. Or pursuing pokemon.\n\n``Hold them off for a bit and then we can get the hell out of here!'' was his command as he went around the huge flower petals. But for a moment he got a peek behind him to see a crimson and enraged Torterra barreling down on him like a freight train. Although he had faith in his Zoroark's capabilities in battle, he had a feeling that nothing would stop that turtle from getting to him.\n\nAnd so he pushed his legs to move faster, unsheathing the knife at his belt to hack away the tiny vines giving a token's effort to impede him, and at long last reached the bud of the flower. From his bag he pulled out a specialized grabber fitted with a large enough tank to hold a few nectaries that had what they needed. Slowly moving towards him was Jake and Emily duking it out with their last remaining pokemon.\n\nTirtouga's both natural and unnatural defense, that being his shell and the fiery aura bathing him, kept him better off than Pichu and Grovyle, who had been returned after exhausting their attacks and strength moments before. Emily's Arbok was in far worse condition, having suffered severe burns that left it half-blind and a smattering of burned flesh across its coils. In short, Jake had a much better chance of winning this fight, even if Tirtouga's fireballs were now barely the size of a golf ball.\n\nSeeing her inevitable loss, Emily broke away and returned her pokemon, resorting to a mad dash towards Jerome since hand-to-hand combat with any of Jake's pokemon was an absolute death sentence. Her partner had just finished collecting the third and final nectary and sealed the tube to keep it from rotting away while they escaped.\n\nLooking over to his pokemon, he just barely caught the final attack that put down the Zoroark and saw Torterra turn his murderous gaze over to him. A chill ran down his spine as he saw this and Emily, who was madly running his way with Jake and his Tirtouga in hot pursuit. To further the issue, further back he could see the Crobat that had dropped Jake off saddled with a much more energized Dawn on approach. He took a step back out of fear, grabbing the mic under his mask and switched it to the all channel.\n\n``Everyone, evac, now! We have what we need!'' He barked before spinning on his heel and begging to run. ``Emily, get my pokemon on your way out.'' He tossed its ball behind him.\n\nEmily offered no sass in her reply. ``Alright.'' But before she could return his pokemon, there was a turtle she had to slow down. The girl tossed her blade into her left hand and into a backhand stance as she approached the turtle, pulling back her arm then planting it all the way to its hilt in his one remaining eye just as he began to break into a sprint. The sudden strike left him howling in pain and utterly blind, stumbling sideways and falling to the ground.\n\n``Keep it, my treat'' She spat with a sinister smirk, barely breaking stride as she plucked Jerome's pokeball up and smoothly recalled his pokemon before pulling out a jet-black ball and summoning her escape pokemon. A Fearow popped out of her ball, and she quickly mounted it before taking off through the hole in the ceiling, following Jerome's own flying pokemon.\n\nAround the gym, several other grunts who were lucky enough escaped through the same method and swiftly turned into dots in the sky. As their figures shrunk, Tirtouga and Jake slowly stumbled to a halt. Jake fell to his knees, the energy in his body sapped away as he stared at the dots in the sky. Everyone had entrusted him to save the day, to stop Team Galactic no matter what. And he had utterly failed.\n\nTeam Galactic had won today.\n\nTo Be Continued...", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
WARNING: This story contains no sexual content and injuries such as a broken leg and gouging of the eye (Not terribly detailed.) A recap of this chapter will be available in the following chapter for those uninterested in such scenes.


Jake's hands balled into fists as he saw those black figures descend into the smoke, knowing that he could repay those two, or at least their teammates, for giving him his new powers, whether they were by accident or not.

``We've got familiar company, guys.'' He chided. Grovyle grimaced as the last of his wounds sealed themselves and gradually faded to his normal skin tone.

``You mean those Plasma guys are out there?'' He asked after massaging his aching muscles. Their recent defeat left him rather sore

Jake nodded, seeing several red lights flash briefly in the accumulating smoke. At the mention of Team Plasma, Tirtouga began to visibly glow while his expression hardened.

``Then we should head out then.'' Tirtouga muttered, beginning to waddle his way towards the door.

Jake stopped him with his foot. ``Two wouldn't be so bad, but I definitely saw more than that coming down, and they might not even be those two from earlier.''

``I won't let some greenhorn criminals destroy my gym!'' Gardenia blurted out with gritted teeth. ``Everyone, le-'' She spun about to begin addressing her team only to gasp in horror, prompting Jake and his companions to turn about and see the protective vines had begun to writhe and quiver violently.

Smaller vines fell off in withered clumps, their lush green skin cracking into arid brown as they hit the ground and broke like twigs. All the pokemon in the bleachers rushed towards the vines with distraught expressions, the Bulbasaurs getting especially close to nuzzle the vine without fear of getting hurt. Their evolutions stepped in to pull them away before that could happen though.

The door behind them slammed open as Gardenia burst out from the gym into the dense smoke in a full sprint.

``Fuck. everyone, let's go!'' Jake swore and began to follow her. Pichu stuck close to Jake while Grovyle took the time to try and pick Tirtouga up, only that just by putting his claws near the turtle's shell scalded his skin painfully, making the grass-type hiss and reel back.

``S-sorry Grovyle!'' Tirtouga offered an apology as he broke into a sprint with astounding speed, quickly overtaking Jake within a minute of leaving. Dawn was too slow to react as she followed them out, and quickly lost them in the fiery smoke.

``Damn, guess We'll be on cleanup duty.'' she released her Piplup, given that he was her only current water type. ``Alright bud, we've got some fines to clear!''

Deep within the smoke, Jake looked back to see Grovyle and Pichu were both starting to overtake him and willed himself to take Quilava's form to not lag behind. His body began to glow, but it suddenly fizzled out barely a second later, sucking the energy from his body and leaving him feeling weak.

He stumbled as he took a smoke-filled breath, falling to his knees while he covered his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. Seeing their trainer fall, Grovyle and Pichu immediately turned back to help him, both asking ``Are you alright?'' with surprise.

``I'm.... I'm fine. I tried to... transform, but I can't for some reason.'' The smoke played hell with his lungs and eyes, both burning painfully. He waved them off. ``Go... on ahead, I'll catch up...''

Far ahead of them all, at the divot of the flower hill, a raging battle was ongoing. Their entree had been perfect, met with literally no resistance that gave them precious time to cover every direction with their teams and defend against the nearby trainers and gym members. And surprisingly there were quite a few of both who had shown up within the first minute to contend them.

Over thirty pokemon encircled the top of the hill, launching attack after attack at anyone stupid enough to fight back, beating most away while others managed to retaliate with their own ranged attacks. The inside of their circle was hardly easier, as Emily and Jerome's teams were busy fighting off vines thicker than their arms while the latter's Durant, who was gnawing away at the stem of the central flower with violent ferocity.

``Two-o-Clock, more vines are sprouting up!'' Emily shouted towards Jerome, her whole team entwined in their brawl with another batch. The only way they could even tell that these violent green stalks were coming up was the trembling of the dirt shortly before they came up.

``On it!'' He yelled back as they finished scorching the last grouping, turning around to shoot this one down as well. The vines were a step ahead of them though, as three vines, thinner than most others, burst up and speared through a Galactic grunt's chest. This marked their second casualty thus far, and the problem only grew from there.

The grunt's team, upon seeing their beloved trainer fall without so much as a sound, howled with rage and lunged towards their nearest opponent, fueled with feral mania. Some turned onto the trainer's fellow teammates and tore one another to shreds, leaving those still sane to fight them as well.

Jerome's Heatmor turned the murderous vines into ashes with a quick Flamethrower. By now the entire flower field inside the divot had been scorched into a smooth black crater ever since they started fighting these mysterious vines. The intel they got was that they should expect heavy resistance from the local grass-types, more so from a rare pokemon supposedly hidden deep beneath that could essentially turn the outcome of the op into a coin flip. And so far, they were right.

As for why command was so willing to spend precious troops for this nectar was beyond him, although a faint thought of stealing just a few drops did bounce around in his head for a while. After all, he could always use some more rules to break. Jerome looked to his Durant to see how far it had gotten and was surprised to see they were barely a couple inches into the stalk. To think a flower would withstand the ant's steel bite better than natural stone made him more than a little uneasy.

At that moment a much greater commotion came from behind him as three of the people defending that direction were suddenly flung into his view, tumbling and rolling with contrails of smoke coming off their burnt uniforms. He and Emily both looked at the new gap in their defense to see a furious gym leader looking down upon them from atop a tower of vines, surrounded on either side by her full team that shared the same expressions. Animosity.

``Fire!'' Gardenia shouted with hysteria, prompting a barrage of glowing attacks that clogged the air and peppered their frontline with wild abandon. Jerome dove for cover before he was turned to swiss cheese.

``Fucking bitch! I didn't want to have to use this...'' He bit his lip while pulling out another detonation charge. They weren't easy to come by, given how difficult they were to make. But now wasn't the time for him to be sparing when the leader of the gym was breathing down their necks. Muscle memory took over his free hand as he set it to a timed detonation, eyeing the base of her vine platform.

``Squads four through seven, converge fire on the gym leader!'' he radioed across their channels. There was no way in hell he could throw it all the way up to Gardenia herself (as much as he wished he could), both because the distance was too extreme and that the charge would get shot out of the air the second it left his hand.

The teams followed his order and shifted her attention to them, while Jerome crawled up to the lip of the hill. Detonations sounded as the two groups exchanged fire, attacks colliding mid-air and filling it with even more blinding smoke. Seeing his opening, Jerome took the risk to stand up and side arm the explosive where he had last seen the vines' base, now obscured in an even thicker cloud of smoke and dust.

The timer started the moment his fingers left the activation switch, lighting up a dull blue counter starting at 0:05 and rapidly blinking down to zero.

...

Jake's team were halfway up the hill when a powerful explosion rocked the ground, bits of dirt flying their way yet mostly harmless. Even with the bright flash, with all the dense smoke around limiting their vision to just barely five meters around them, they could just barely follow the incline of the hill to where they needed to be.

Tirtouga continued to lead their little posse without pause, unaffected by the burning air or the intense heat. This also meant he missed the sight of a colossal column of burning vines collapsing directly over him. Grovyle was lucky enough to notice the growing light in the haze above them and dashed forward with all his strength, scooping the turtle up and out of harm's way.

The fiery vines crashed to the ground with a haunting crash, cracking the ground into a spider web of uplifted dirt and blackened grass. Tirtouga felt a rush of hut air and embers waft over his backside, knowing he had been saved.

``Whew, thanks Grovyle...'' He began to thank, turning towards the grass-type and seeing him with an agonized expression while clutching his hands together. The green skin had been turned a horrible dark mossy color, peeling back slowly as it began to split and crack.

``I-I?ll be fine, just wait for Pichu then go on ahead.'' He said while heaving a breath. What he didn't say was that not only the skin, but even some of the flesh and bone felt like they had been flash fried after holding Tirtouga for barely a second.

``I-I-I'm so sorry!'' Tirtouga still apologized. He realized that being fired up for a fight wasn't helpful at all, and that he shouldn't be thinking that this was just like any other battle. The heating problem had returned and was beginning to cook him from the inside, even after he had released so much during the last battle.

``Alright, I will.'' he finally replied to Grovyle's request after a moment of confusion. Then, Pichu's voice was overheard and caught their attention.

``Hey! The gym leader needs our help! Follow the vine!'' She shouted loudly to let her voice be heard over the distant sounds of battle. Tirtouga looked to Grovyle for guidance, who waved him off with a crispy hand. Following his advice, the turtle ran off into the smoke, leaving Grovyle to nurse his wounds.

Pichu and Tirtouga met up at the end of the giant vine, where Gardenia and her pokemon were loosely grouped up over a surprisingly undamaged patch of flowers. The woman's leg was bent in a painfully odd direction below the knee, tears streaming down her bloody cheeks as she bit into her bundled-up cloak. Her Torterra was the one to greet them in her stead.

``Thanks for showing up so fast'' He looked genuinely relieved to have them here. ``We were fighting with some guys trying to hurt Momma, but we can't leave Gardenia injured and alone out here.'' His voice cracked at the mention of his trainer.

``Where's your trainer? Surely he's got enough talent to stop those shitheads from doing something they will regret.''

``He got slowed down halfway, told us to go on without him. We'll do what we can against Team Galactic, but with only two it won't make much of a difference.'' Tirtouga shook his head.

``Hey... I'm hearing something... strange, what's going on?'' Pichu asked. Her ears twitched a couple times as she glanced downward. A haunting expression formed on Torterra as he looked down as well, fearing what he would see. The grass was trembling.

``This is bad, she shouldn't need to do something like this!'' his voice grew louder with each word, until he was yelling. ``We need to move, now!''

During their conversation, Gardenia was grunting in pain and righted the bone with her bare hands. She screamed into her wad of cloth and cried from the pain, silently thanking her military service for how to handle pain, even if it didn't nullify it by much. Everyone sucked in a breath when they saw her set her leg back in place.

``Torterra, get us the hell out of here!'' She said through gritted teeth ``This hill isn't going to stay here much longer!'' She reached for the edge of the giant turtle's shell and began to climb up, aided by a few pencil-thick vines of his until she was weakly clinging to his tree. The rest of her team got up from their brief rest and began to dash back down the hill, Torterra following in back along with the confused Pichu and Tirtouga.

``What about Grovyle?'' Pichu yelled, looking back to the still-burning vine.

``His legs are fine, just not his hands!'' He yelled back, quickly convincing her that Grovyle would surely notice the ground was rumbling and clear out before something bad happened to him. And not far ahead of them was Jake wearing his jacket over his face to block out most of the smoke.

He could hardly breath and just barely see through a thinner layer of the jacket's back, but neither burned as much, and he could still at least try to catch up with his team. Yet barely twenty steps in, the sound of stomping stopped him in his tracks and focus on the smoky haze before him. Soon a green blur quickly came into view, barely giving Jake enough time to dive to the side and avoid a full throttle Torterra leaving wheel sized indents in the dirt.

He only began to slow after he had passed Jake, going from a sprint to a trot then finally to a stop, panting for breath while Gardenia slid down his side with the assistance of his vines. Lagging far behind them was Tirtouga, Pichu, and Grovyle, who were all similarly gasping for breath from struggling to keep up.

``Why are you guys running from Team Galactic- Woah!'' Jake lurched when a powerful tremor shook him like a rattle. Gardenia's reply was to look up and point towards where the flower hill once was.

``That's why.''  That sentence stuck in Jake's mind as her voice was swiftly drowned out by what could only be described as a mountain shifting, piercing through the air when the hill at the gym's center began to rise. Clumps of dirt larger than a fully-grown man fell down to the ground like raindrops while clouds of dirt washed over the entire gym.

Atop the rising hill was pandemonium. Team Galactic grunts were flung into the air when the ground beneath them suddenly began to rise, sending some several feet high with little warning. Those who were lucky landed back down within seconds and at best suffered a bruise or sprain, while others were catapulted off their vantage point along with their teams beyond the hill. Such a height offered far more serious injuries for them.

Gusts of wind began to circulate, further clouding everyone's view. It billowed upwards as if trying to escape what was surfacing itself in the building's center. What was once a slow, hazy black cloud of smoke rising from the destroyed dome turned into a swirling tornado of brown, black, and green. A few terribly unlucky Galactic members and pokemon were sucked skyward with the turbulent wind.

Everyone clear of the hill clung to the ground purely out of fear of joining those less fortunate souls. Finally, after a minute the winds died down, taking with it the last specks of dirt and smoke clogging the air. Even the fires spread out around the grassy fields were snuffed out with the violent winds, leaving those still within the gym a clear view to be in awe of what laid, or rather stood at its center.

Mossy clumps of dirt clung to its shadowed green legs, slowly coming undone and crumbling away as the slumbering beast's skin shifted slightly. Its rough, scaly skin was pocketed with innumerable scars that formed a continuous jagged net of pastel green lines that could only add to the contours of the hulking muscles that were capable of moving such a staggering mass.

Above its four skyscraper-like legs was naturally the pokemon's wide and round underbelly, densely covered by endless lines of vines wrapping themselves around the berth of its chest, similar to a rope shirt. Only these ropes squirmed and pulsed with vigor as they moved about the pokemon's body like oversized Arboks.

Atop its chest was an overshadowing canopy of leaves that draped over top its four limbs. These leaves were in much the same shape as their legs, marked by a wide array of holes and slashes lined with brown rot that further signified its vast age. Another batch of leaves with much more vitality curled around a thick stalk that couldn't be measured by its onlookers, only that it held much the same magnitude as the rest of its domineering form. Atop this stalk was none other than the flower that once shaded the hill's flower field and dominated any flower in comparison. Near the midway was a clear cut on either side, below which was maybe four feet of extra length.

And finally came it's wide, sharing every characteristic of its other limbs and more. A wide, angular jaw lined with rounded yellow teeth loosely crisscrossing across both sides of its lips. Above this was an almost unnoticeable pair of nostrils beneath a diamond-shaped scale a shade darker than its skin. The upper half was accompanied by two smaller scales that outlined its otherwise flat nose. Atop its forehead was a faded pink flower similar to the one on its back, nestled between either of its two floppy pointed ears.

Yet what struck out the most was its eyes, which were closed as it arose but now slowly opened to reveal a stunning emerald gaze that felt it could see through anyone into their soul. A shimmer of sage-like wisdom gleaned through its eyes as it blinked away the dirt from its eyelids.

This towering behemoth of a pokemon had laid beneath everyone's feet for many years, its flower witnessed by hundreds of passers-by with none the wiser to its existence. It was by far the largest pokemon Jake, and really everybody, had ever seen. Gardenia and her pokemon were naturally the ones with almost no reaction to the pokemon's sudden reveal.

``that's the Venusaur you wanted to fight, Jake. Still up for the challenge?'' She offered a light laugh as she looked at the magnificent animal that captivated everyone. How long had it been since she was the center of attention? A year? Ten? But her glory days were long past, and she could only hide away and watch over her family from below, this they both knew.

For a brief moment the world felt still as a picture, no breath taken for it was stolen by the Venusaur's magnificence, and no finger moved for none dared to be its focus out of fear or reverence. Then, she made the first move by clearing some of the dirt from her body with a quick shake.

Those still atop it, that being the Team Galactic grunts including Jerome and Emily, could not maintain their position any longer as the ground beneath them shook from side to side. This motion was certainly small in the Venusaur's eyes, but earth shattering to the small bugs atop it. The two Plasma members and a few of their cohort Galactic goons had already returned their pokemon and clung to what seemingly solid ground they could find before the shaking began.

Although they were thrashed by the sudden movement, the soil atop the Venusaur's back remained well rooted, and acted as their bastion to ride out the waves until they subsided. When the shaking stopped, Jerome was the first to get back on his wobbling feet.

``Anyone still on the hill, focus all your attention to incoming vines. Emily, you and I are taking down this flower and completing our objective, oversized pokemon or not!'' he barked into his mic while summoning his weary team back out.

``What about the others?'' A static-laden voice came over the line, probably from one of the grunts still with them.

``They don't matter! They have flying pokemon and should have the brains to either gut up here or the hell out, now move!'' Jerome snapped back, pointing to the cut in the stalk they had wd

worked so hard to get.

Down below, Jake and everyone else, which now included Dawn and her full team finally, gazed up at the Venusaur while it shook off people like fleas with terrifying ease. It lifted a foot, flecking up mounds of dirt with its claws in the process, and slowly turned to face them. Each footfall rattled their teeth until it could tilt her head down and cast her gaze upon the small group of people, of which a third she clearly recognized.

Jake felt a shiver run along his spine as her gaze seemed to briefly focus on him, feeling like a piece of meat being assessed at a butcher's shop before the feeling passed.

``Hello, little ones.'' She greeted them with a soft voice, fittingly like that of a mother. Her delicate tone felt soothing and calming, as if the scene a minute ago had never occurred in the first place. Everything felt... serene.

``Hi Momma, apologies for looking so sorry for your big debut.'' Gardenia huffed with a wave.

``Can you understand her?'' Dawn asked to Gardenia, which prompted a bit more laughter.

``Of course not, but I've been with Momma my whole life, so it isn't exactly hard to tell what she's saying''

Jake almost had a heart attack when Dawn asked that question, having never thought that maybe he wasn't alone with these freaky powers of his. He didn't know whether to be relieved or depressed that she wasn't like him, but maybe he simply was thinking too hard on a simple question.

``I care little for your appearance, only your wellbeing and the children of mine you protect.'' Momma gave a radiant smile to bring the point across. ``Although it would seem you've fared better than today, no?'' she added with a hint of sass, glancing around at the scorched grass across the gym.

``Sorry, just s-'' Gardenia began to apologize when Momma's eyes grew wide, a pained hiss and a grimace coming together and cutting off the gym leader.

She shook herself more than once. ``Curse these vile humans!'' she finally proclaimed. The sudden change brought Gardenia to her feet with hysteria.

``What's wrong?'' She yelled before falling down with a pained expression thanks to her rash decision to apply any amount of weight on her still-broken leg. She balled a fist and slammed it onto the ground with a frustrated huff. ``I'll kill every last one of those bastards!'' Although her tone was ripe with promise, when she looked to Dawn and Jake there was only anguish revealed in the way she looked.

``Please, help Momma! It's all I would ever ask of you, please!'' She undid her belt and tossed it to Jake with clear desperation. ``Take my team with you, they're the best I could ask for. And guys...'' she turned to her pokemon to give them the one order they needed.

``Protect Momma.''

Clutching the belt, Jake hesitated for only a moment before tightening his grip on it. ``Got it.'' He said, beginning to return each of her pokemon then looping the belt slightly above his own. Her whole team, excluding the two they had already seen, included a Cherrim, Bellossom, and a Roserade, and every single one of them were a mystery for him to command.

He would have to hope they could work with minimal guidance from him, as he already had to tackle the impossible task of scaling ``Momma'' to stop whatever it was that Team Galactic was doing to her. The first issue was that she was thrashing far too much for them to even consider getting close, let alone try to climb one of her legs at the expense of his strength. Nor did either teams have a flying type to forgo the issue entirely.

``Hey, I do have a flying type that can carry at least one of us up to Momma, but I'm not really sure how long she can do it.'' Dawn spoke up after a minute of thinking.

``It's... better than nothing... Get Jake up there first if you can.'' Gardenia huffed with each word, the pain in her leg continuing to wear her down with each passing second. Dawn nodded a few times before reaching into her pocket, pulling out a blue and black Pokeball that released a dark purple bat with two sets of wings.

``Alright Crobat, nap time's over and we need your help.'' The pokemon stifled a yawn but nodded with a smile afterwards.

``I kinda figured that.'' She quipped back.

Dawn pointed over to the squirming Venusaur. ``We need you to bring Jake to the top of that Venusaur then come get me to do the same thing.'' Her request prompted the bat to look in Momma's direction and stagger back with surprise and a well justified ``Holy shit.''

``Uhhhhhh....'' Crobat looked from Jake to Dawn, back again, then at Momma in the distance before sighing. ``Fine, but I better be getting some good treats for this when I get back.''

She stretched her wings out to their full span a few times before presenting her back to Jake. ``C'mon, hop on. Don't have all day.''

He quickly called back his team before following her instructions, briefly wondering how a pokemon smaller than him could handle flying with him until she added another comment: ``Hang on tight!''

Crobat began to beat her wings furiously, lifting them off the ground with ease and prompting Jake to hug the bat as hard as he could for obvious reasons. Dawn and Gardenia grew small as she picked up speed, bringing a deep sense of nausea in the pit of Jake's stomach.

``Don't go shitting yourself, otherwise I'm dropping ya'.'' Crobat commented when she felt his grip tighten surprisingly hard around her best.

``Hey, I'm just not good with heights!'' he shouted back over the wind. ``Seriously, please don't drop me!''

``Woah, wait, can you understand what I'm saying?'' she replied, bewildered.

``Y-yea'' was his reply after looking down for the briefest of moments and regretting it entirely.

``Damn, that's crazy. We're already pretty close to the big girl, so get ready to hop off''

Jake had no clue what Team Galactic were up to ever since they had arrived, and now that he had some height and a clear view, it was a bit more obvious. The remaining members on the Venusaur were in a frenzy of fighting off countless vine encroaching on their position around the grand flower. The stem was beginning to wilt as more attacks chipped away at it, bringing it dangerously close to falling.

``Land a little away from them, I'll need to release the teams before taking them on.'' He pointed out a spot not too far from where they were.

``Oh, really? I was thinking of just dropping you off in the middle of a bunch of crazy murders. You know, for kicks.'' Was her snarky reply before she began to descend, swiftly landing just south of the defending goons.

Jake jumped off her back with shaking legs. ``Th-thanks Crobat!'' She was already beginning to take to the air when he collected himself.

``Don't mind it, just tell Dawn that I was super brave and deserve all those snacks she has in that bag of hers.''

Jake smiled and nodded, watching her climb further and further into the air before refocusing on the task at hand. He spun on his heel and began to run towards the flower, releasing each pokemon from both belts as he went; a substantial crowd of pokemon surrounding him by the time he reached the battlefield.

Jerome, too busy dealing with swarming vines thicker than his torso, didn't notice the object of his ire sprinting towards them nor did he hear the calls of his teammates about the same issue. Thankfully Emily was more receptive to the radio chatter, and immediately delegated two other grunts to assist her to fight their approaching foes.

The remainder stuck close to Jerome's team, which had continued to focus their full attention on the stem. Now, each attack was causing it to start swaying, yet still managing to surprise them all with how it could hold up such an immense weight with only just a few inches holding it all up. Momma's cries of anguish were growing fainter as the lifegiving energy her flower gave was thinning, which meant her vines began to slow and thin with lethargy.

Gardenia's team knew the importance of her flower, and immediately wedged themselves into the battle with no reserve and little care for themselves. Jake's team could only support them from afar with how chaotic it had immediately become. Pointing out key targets was all he could do, and they were pushing towards Jerome at a moderate pace.

If only they had been quicker.

A deafening crunch brought all their struggles to a halt and brought their attention to the flower, whether they wished to or not. And for a moment, all was still in the world. But it could not stay that way, as the flower began to tip backwards following a resonating *CRACK*!

The stem, once a lush and vibrant light green, rapidly shriveled into a brown husk as it fell, like its moisture had been sucked dry by an invisible straw. The wild manner Gardenia's pokemon had taken thus far returned with a violent resurgence, unwilling to wait for the flower to finish falling before they pressed towards it.

The battle began to slow when only Jerome and Emily were left to defend, a swath of mercilessly felled pokemon and Galactic grunts bloody and, if lucky, breathing. But this small victory had cost almost all of Gardenia's pokemon going down with them, all save Torterra, blind in his left eye and matted with blood, both his own and otherwise.

``Torterra, back off! We'll take care of those two!''

``I'd like to see you try, kid!'' Emily shouted back, whipping out a knife and twirling it in her hand. It was mostly an empty threat, since most of her team was on the brink of going down. That and command had strictly said no murders for this mission, but since they hadn't made mention of the possibility of being stabbed to death by killer vines, she assumed any rules were null and void right now.

The crunch of the flower falling behind her set everyone off once more, albeit with far less vigor and speed. While Emily had them preoccupied, Jerome returned what pokemon he couldn't use anymore and had his last two guard him all the way to the flower head.

Tirtouga spat globs of magma at the Heatmor that had joined Emily's side with more strength and energy than most others could bring out, letting his anger towards those two trainers boil him alive. Although he had never met them, he felt that they were the same two who had hurt his friends on the road. And he hated them for it, for making him feel useless when everyone else was fighting.

That anger, although meager, fed his flames better than any other, and now he could vent these frustrations with reckless abandon. Both Pichu and Grovyle kept very clear of both him and his attacks, as being more than a foot away from either still made then feel like they were standing in front of a roaring fireplace.

Their battle was interrupted for a moment when Momma's whole body quivered beneath them all of the sudden, briefly sending them into a freefall before crashing them against her back. To those not on her, the shockwave of her crumpling to the ground was enough to shake their entire being...

Jerome dashed over to the head of the flower with his last pokemon, a Zoroark, acting as his vanguard for any potshots that might be flung his way. Or pursuing pokemon.

``Hold them off for a bit and then we can get the hell out of here!'' was his command as he went around the huge flower petals. But for a moment he got a peek behind him to see a crimson and enraged Torterra barreling down on him like a freight train. Although he had faith in his Zoroark's capabilities in battle, he had a feeling that nothing would stop that turtle from getting to him.

And so he pushed his legs to move faster, unsheathing the knife at his belt to hack away the tiny vines giving a token's effort to impede him, and at long last reached the bud of the flower. From his bag he pulled out a specialized grabber fitted with a large enough tank to hold a few nectaries that had what they needed. Slowly moving towards him was Jake and Emily duking it out with their last remaining pokemon.

Tirtouga's both natural and unnatural defense, that being his shell and the fiery aura bathing him, kept him better off than Pichu and Grovyle, who had been returned after exhausting their attacks and strength moments before. Emily's Arbok was in far worse condition, having suffered severe burns that left it half-blind and a smattering of burned flesh across its coils. In short, Jake had a much better chance of winning this fight, even if Tirtouga's fireballs were now barely the size of a golf ball.

Seeing her inevitable loss, Emily broke away and returned her pokemon, resorting to a mad dash towards Jerome since hand-to-hand combat with any of Jake's pokemon was an absolute death sentence. Her partner had just finished collecting the third and final nectary and sealed the tube to keep it from rotting away while they escaped.

Looking over to his pokemon, he just barely caught the final attack that put down the Zoroark and saw Torterra turn his murderous gaze over to him. A chill ran down his spine as he saw this and Emily, who was madly running his way with Jake and his Tirtouga in hot pursuit. To further the issue, further back he could see the Crobat that had dropped Jake off saddled with a much more energized Dawn on approach. He took a step back out of fear, grabbing the mic under his mask and switched it to the all channel.

``Everyone, evac, now! We have what we need!'' He barked before spinning on his heel and begging to run. ``Emily, get my pokemon on your way out.'' He tossed its ball behind him.

Emily offered no sass in her reply. ``Alright.'' But before she could return his pokemon, there was a turtle she had to slow down. The girl tossed her blade into her left hand and into a backhand stance as she approached the turtle, pulling back her arm then planting it all the way to its hilt in his one remaining eye just as he began to break into a sprint. The sudden strike left him howling in pain and utterly blind, stumbling sideways and falling to the ground.

``Keep it, my treat'' She spat with a sinister smirk, barely breaking stride as she plucked Jerome's pokeball up and smoothly recalled his pokemon before pulling out a jet-black ball and summoning her escape pokemon. A Fearow popped out of her ball, and she quickly mounted it before taking off through the hole in the ceiling, following Jerome's own flying pokemon.

Around the gym, several other grunts who were lucky enough escaped through the same method and swiftly turned into dots in the sky. As their figures shrunk, Tirtouga and Jake slowly stumbled to a halt. Jake fell to his knees, the energy in his body sapped away as he stared at the dots in the sky. Everyone had entrusted him to save the day, to stop Team Galactic no matter what. And he had utterly failed.

Team Galactic had won today.

To Be Continued...", "pools_count": 1, "title": "A Tale of Fire & Grass Chapter 10: Eterna Gym", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "90" }