Chapter Text
Amethio orders Soublades to break down the door to the facility, watching with contentness as it’s blades slash through the metal door. He’d heard this place deals in odd and eccentric pokemon, so he’s hoping to intimidate them into giving him information on Rayquaza, which he considers both odd and eccentric.
There’s some frantic shuffling and Amethio sees a panicked face peak out from behind one of the doors, eyeing him and Soublades before quickly slamming the door shut. He steps inside towards the door they slammed, but hears the sound of glass shattering on the other side. He opens the door and confirms his suspicion, the window is shattered and the figure is nowhere in sight.
“Cowards” he mutters, mostly to himself but also to Soublades. Not brave enough to face him head on? He turns his head and continues down the facility halls. There’s a locked door at the end, which looks both promising and important.
“Soublades” he says, stepping aside. He doesn’t have to finish the rest. His partner slashes the lock on the door, and it creaks open.
Stepping inside, Amethio holds back a gasp at what he sees. Cages of first-stage pokemon, too weak to defend themselves. He sees a blue Psyduck in one of the cages and a Frigibax in another. Poachers, then. He scowls. Whoever did this is going to-
“What are you doing here, young man” a stern voice calls out. Amethio turns his head, glaring daggers at the man in front of him.
“Are you responsible for this” he asks, waving his arm around the room.
“I am. Pretty neat, don’t you think? They’ll fetch a fair price, but you’re not supposed to be here” The man throws out a pokeball, revealing a Houndoom. Ah, classic poacher pokemon. They’re great and loyal partners, it just seems a lot of shady trainers want to take advantage of that loyalty for their own gain. It’s despicable.
With it’s dark typing, it’s immune to Pyscho Cut, though that’s an awfully risky move to use in here anyway, surrounded by so many pokemon. The other problem is that Houndoom often have the ability Flash Fire, and he doesn’t want to risk powering up his opponent if he hits it with Bitter Blade.
That leaves Phantom Force and Night Slash, both of which Houndoom resists. It’s fine by him, he doesn’t need a type advantage to win.
“Soublades, run forth” He calls, which is code for “Pretend to use Night Slash, then hit it with Phantom Force”
The Houndoom readies itself for the attack baring it’s teeth to counter with Crunch as Soublades runs towards it, then disappears before contact, quickly appearing behind their opponent to slash it.
“Damn it! Use Flamethrower”
It whimpers and turns quickly to attack Soublades, who dissapears into Phantom Force again, leaving the Houndoom firing a Flamerthrower at it’s own trainer.
“Stupid mutt!” the man shouts, stepping away from the attack and making a movement to kick his partner. Amethio narrows his eyes. Forget battle, he needs that Pokeball. He shares a quick look with Soublades, who nods in return.
Soublades starts rapidly disappearing and reappearing with Phantom Force, getting close enough to attempt to land hits but with the real goal of drawing their opponents attention away from him.
Carefully, Amethio puts his skills to good work. Growing up, the consequences for making noise were made clear to him, so he quickly learned to move silently. He’s scared Conia a number of times with this skill of his, but it now allows him to walk quietly and sneak up on the man.
He waits with baited breath for the perfect time to strike. The man shouts “ Use Crunch!” and waves his hand backwards, towards Amethio. The hand holding his Houndoom’s pokeball.
Quickly, Amethio grabs the man’s arm in a vice grip, prompting a startled yelp. He wastes no time in jamming his thumb between the man’s ulna and radius, causing the pokeball to fall out of his hand and onto the floor. Before the man can process or react to it, Amethio brings his heel down onto the empty pokeball, shattering it.
The Houndoom looks up at his trainer, who shoves Amethio off quickly. It stares at the pokeball on the ground.
“Woah now-” the man starts, waving his hands, “-you’re still my pokemon, so you better listen to me”
Amethio makes eye contact with the Houndoom and nods. It growls at it’s former trainer as Amethio steps back.
“I think it’s best you leave now” Amethio advises. The man looks between the Houndoom and Soublades, and swallows nervously. He eyes the pokemon in cages one last time, but quickly makes a run for it.
After he’s gone, the silence in the room is heavy. The Houndoom looks uncertain.
“You’re free now. I’m going to release these pokemon from their cages, you have no obligation to stay.” Amethio informs. He looks around, and finds what he’s looking for. Bolt cutters.
Carefully, he makes his way to each cage and cuts off the lock, making sure not to startle the pokemon inside. The Psyduck coos at him happily, and with its blue coloring, Amethio can’t help but think of Conia’s Golduck.
Thankfully, these are all pokemon native to Paldea. It would be a hassle to relocate these pokemon to the regions they came from. The Frigibax shies away from him when he opens the cage, so he gives it space.
Soublades calls to him from where it’s standing. Amethio walks over, and removes the blanket from on top of the cage it pointed out.
He almost does a double take when he sees the pokemon, as its looks so similar to Liko’s Nyahoja, but after a moment he realizes it’s very obviously a different pokemon. This one has a slightly different shade to its fur, but more notably, it’s eyes are purple and full of passion and rage.
“NYAAAA” it screams, slashing at the cage. Amethio feels a small smile start to tug at his face.
“You’re awfully ferocious, aren’t you? Go easy on me, I get scared easily” he speaks without much thought to it, just wanting to offer conversation while he cuts the lock off the cage. It eyes him while he clips the lock, but struts out of the cage confidently after the door swings open.
He moves around the room, checking every cage and looking under every blanket that might be hiding a pokemon. Once he’s content that the room is clear of pokemon, he motions to Ceruledge to open the door he assumes leads outside.
It’s blades make short work of the door, and it swings open to reveal the natural landscade of Paldea. The Houndoom heads out first, gesturing for the other pokemon to follow.
“You’ll take care of them?” Amethio asks. The Houndoom looks at him, fire in its eyes, “Thank you” be bows, then moves back into the facility. It’s a small place, but he won’t leave until he makes sure they are no other pokemon being held here.
Ceruledge breaks three more doors in their search, which Amethio thinks is a new record for one night. He’s not even checking if the doors are unlocked, these people deserve all the property damage he can offer.
Once he’s content that there’s no other pokemon in the facility, he heads out from the same door they first entered from, and he stares at the mangled metal in satisfaction. Though, they only make it a few steps away from the entrance before something draws their attention.
“Nya!”
Amethio turns to see the little Nyahoja from before running towards them, it’s tail is puffed up and it’s hissing at Soublades. His partner turns to face the little pokemon.
The moment it does, the Nyahoja jumps up and Shadow Claws Soublades directly in the face, activating it’s Weak Armor.
“Harsh. What’s got you so fired up, Bastard-san?” Amethio asks. It just hisses and uses what Amethio recognizes to be Trailblaze. Boosting it’s speed in return, then? Smart fighter.
Bastard-san lands another hit on Soublades, and Amethio nods to his partner, who knocks the pokemon out of midair and into the side of the facility with Night Slash. It tumbles onto the ground, then immediately gets up and fires off an impressive Leafage. That move sure is familiar.
It launches at Soublades again, and Amethio makes a slashing motion with his arm. Soublades meets it’s Shadow Claw with Bitter Blade, sending it crashing into the ground harder this time. The Nyahoja manages to stand up and hiss, but stumbles and falls down again a moment later.
It still hisses even though it’s unable to stand.
“You’re adamant, aren’t you” Amethio asks, stepping towards the pokemon. He reaches forward and flicks its ear gently. It eyes him, uncertain of the touch, but ultimately ruling him as a non-threat. He can’t imagine this pokemon has had a lot of pleasant experiences with people.
He wonders for a moment why Bastard-san had been so determined to fight Soublades, but when he sees the look in its eyes, it becomes clear. It’s looking up at Soublades the same way Amethio looks at Friede when they battle. There’s a hint of admiration, but more importantly, there’s an overwhelming desire for destruction.
“I see, you want to become strong enough to beat Soublades, don’t you?” Amethio asks, and Bastard-san meows loudly in surprise, quickly trying to stand up.
“I take it to mean I’m correct?” Amethio asks. Bastard-san stumbles over to where he’s crouched, and bites his hand. He blinks at it. The bite isn’t hard, nor does he think it’s really intended to cause him pain. He shakes his hand a little to try and dislodge the Nyahoja, but it doesn’t let up.
“Ah, you’re coming with me, aren’t you?” he looks down at the little Nyahoja biting him. Adamant motherfucker. He could order Soublades to remove it from his hand, but that feels unkind. He also doesn’t want to risk this thing actually biting him.
“Nyyya” it mumbles over his hand. Alright then.
With his other hand, he picks up Bastard-san and carries it so it can bite him comfortably, then starts walking back to base.
“Soublades?” his partner asks, following a few steps behind.
“I can respect Bastard-san’s fighting spirit. Besides, I think Conia would enjoy having another Nyahoja around” though, this one may be more aggressive than Liko’s Nyahoja. At least it’s easy to understand what Bastard-san wants.
“Nyaaaa” comes the muffled noise because the motherfucker still won’t let go of his hand, and a moment later he feels the Nyahoja start to . . . vibrate?
It has a little motorboat of a purr to it, and Amethio finds himself absentmindedly stroking the fur on the back of its neck with his thumb. It’s small and sharp, and full of a lot of homicidal urges. Amethio can relate to it in a way.
“Bastard-san, I don’t know if you’re fond of people, but there’s someone who’s really excited to meet you when we get back to base” Amethio explains. Bastard-san lets out a croaky “nya” that he feels against his hand. It’s endearing, though he’d prefer if it wasn’t biting him.