Dungeon 5 – Thunderstruck: Part 2

The brothers continued on their mission through the cave. Lance ran forward with a serious look, his breaths short and fast. Brain followed behind, an apprehensive look on his face.. The tunnel they dashed through was illuminated only by a light at the end.

“We have to be careful not to be like Bouffalant at the end of that corridor,” Brian said in an attempt to break the ice.

“Brian! We are on a serious mission! We don’t have time to crack jokes!” his brother snapped, turning to face the Zorua.

As they approached the end of the tunnel, they could hear voices ahead. . The brothers stopped to catch their breath and listen in on their enemies.

“You left them in a very precarious situation!” one of the Pokémon said smugly.

“Well, that’s what those useless birds deserve.” the yellow Luxray said, eating a piece of unknown meat.

“They’re not useless…” The newest voice belonged to Lance. The boy approached the cat burrow, his brother tailing behind.

When they heard the Riolu, the Pokemon turned around, seeing the little blue canine. Teslan stood up, analyzing the teenager.

“You two… you’re not from around here, right?” he said flatly, thinking about what he was going to do.

“We are Team Liberators!” Brian said, taking one step forward. “And there’s no way we’ll just watch what you do to those villagers!”

The two brothers were suddenly surrounded by several felines, Pokemon called Shinx. The leader laughed; he was clearly having fun with the situation.

“Tell me… when did you graduate from the guild? How old are you? Children like you should be at home…”

Lance closed his eyes for a moment, ignoring the comment he had received, and opened them, staring at Luxray.

“From what I could see, you are an idiot who thinks you can command others based on your strength… the type of guy I hate the most!”

“What do you think you can do, kid?! You may have passed our guard, but know that I’m not kidding!” he growled, his body shining in a yellow tone.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about… but I’m willing to make a deal with you and your gang. Face me, only me, and if you win, you can do whatever you want with me and my brother,” he pointed to the Zorua.

“Hey, Lance! What are you talking about? Do you want to face this guy alone?! There’s no way I’m letting you do this!” the small fox rolled his eyes, protesting against the idea.

Seeing what the boy said, Teslan laughed until tears came out of his eyes, which he wiped with his paw. He then looked down, still laughing, and then turned his eyes to Lance.

“Are you serious, kid? Do you think you can beat me in combat?”

“You’re pathetic, why use brawn when you can simply use your brain?” he pointed to his head.

Brian opened his mouth to protest but was barred by two Shinx who put themselves in front of him, blocking his way. Lance looked back, slowly tilting his head, as if he wanted his brother to understand. The Zorua then stopped moving, deciding to pay attention to the fight.

“Okay, kid! If you wanna die so badly, who am I to deny you that?!”” the Luxray stepped into fighting position, staring at Lance with a murderous look.

The two were 5 meters apart and remained a few moments in silence. The challenger put his backpack on the ground, taking out an item and enclosing it in his fist. The tension in the cave was immense; they could attack each other at any time, but it seemed that each competitor was waiting for an opportunity to start the fight. Then, suddenly, the lion fired an electrical discharge in the area, causing a huge flash. The spectating Pokémon instinctively covered their eyes. Lance, as he opened his eyes, noticed that the color of the burrow had changed to yellowish tones.

“Electric Terrain,” Lance backed away and took a look around.

“Exactly… now, let’s go!” Teslan roared, his body enveloped by an electric aura as he charged, ramming his body against Lance.

The Riolu hit the wall, falling on his face, and felt the air leave his lungs. On the opposite side, Teslan had paced the cave, shaking his head; his Wild Charge had resulted in recoil damage. Brian just watched, thinking about what he could do.

Lance stood up, spitting out a little blood and wiping his face with his hand. Then he ran, crossing his arms in an “X” shape, and leapt. Teslan saw that and immediately picked up his pacet, his body barely being able to be seen at such speed, hitting Riolu with his head before he could be hit by the Cross Chop.

Lance smiled as the lion hit him, throwing the item he had been concealing in his hand. It created an explosion upon reaching its target, throwing the combatants away from each other.

“Lance!” Brian shouted, trying to run to help his teammate, but he was held by the Shinx.

On the other side, the Luxray got up, panting, breathing in the scent of his burned fur. He growled with rage, furious that he had been deceived by a small child.

“Blast Seed. Who would have thought you had such a thing, huh, kid?!”

Lance stood up, his body visibly bruised, blood starting to flow from his chest. However, he remained standing, determined to end the fight.

His brother had an idea. Brian moved away from the Shinx and concentrated, using his illusionary ability to camouflage himself as one of the members of Teslan’s pack.

“You did well, kiddo. But… Time to finish this!” he said, advancing against the child.

As he walked, he felt a blow to his back, making him stumble and fall face down on the ground. Getting up, he looked back and saw a Shinx staring at him. The feline had on his tail a small tuft of red hair.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” The Luxray growled.

Wait… that’s… Lance thought as he took a deep breath. He had to trust his brother so they could do the job. After all, they were a team.

And part of the trust was going to be tested now. Lance gathered all the strength he had in his body and ran, ignoring the wounds and the pain he felt in his bones. He capitalized on his brother’s distraction, raising a fist. He punched Teslan’s back, blue energy pouring from his hand.

Lance released that energy in the form of a beam, hitting the Luxray with full force and throwing him in Brian’s direction.

Seeing this, Brian jumped, opening his mouth and shooting a shadow sphere at Teslan.

The Luxray hit the ground with a bang, unconscious upon impact. Lance fell to his knees and his breathing accelerated; he was losing blood. Brian ran to rescue his brother, looking around.

The Shinx ran outside; without their leader, they didn’t know what to do. The Zorua ignored the felines and dug through his backpack, taking some strips to wrap around Lance’s wound. Teslan would wake up eventually, but the priority at the moment was to stabilize his sibling.

Placing his brother’s arm around his body, the Zorua started to walk out of the cave. He had to be fast, or his brother would die. Without looking back, the boys left the cave.

Outside, the Ledian spotted them both and, realizing Lance was hurt, ran to take them to the local hospital. Arriving there, the Riolu was put to bed. Brian remained outside, pacing in panic.

“He’s not going to die… he’s not going to die…” he repeated the sentence to himself, walking in circles, time seemed to stand still while he waited.

Finally, after what to him seemed to be hours, a Doduo appeared at his side. One of its heads was smiling, while the other had a frown.

“Your brother is stable,” one of the Doduo’s heads said to the boy.

“He should recover completely in a few days,” the other head spoke.

Listening to what the doctor said, Brian gave a broad smile, wagging his tail. He gave a long sigh, relieved that his brother was well.

“Thanks, doctor… doctors…” he said, lying down.

“You can visit him soon, and… we’d like to thank you for standing up to that gang…”

“Ah! The gang! Quick, can you give me a paper?! And pen made for quadruped Pokemon! I need to send a letter to Thornwell, my hometown, as soon as possible!”

“T-The post office is that way!” he pointed using his head. “But boy! You are also hurt, you need to go to the hospital! I’ll warn the mailman!”

Reluctantly, Brian accepted and entered the office, being attended by some of the birds. Team Liberators had managed to remove the gang from the lives of these villagers, but at the moment, they could only think about their physical recovery and the next step in their journey.