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Maddy shrugged and placed her hands on her hips.
"I guess I work myself too hard sometimes."
She let out her own Axew and watched as he tackled his brother.

"We all do sometimes," he replied, sympathetically. He hugged her tightly, laughing as he watched his Axew get tackled. The two brothers hadn't seen each other in a while, and it was nice to see them reunited. "Just take it a day at a time." He turned to Allen and took a pokeball in his hand, ready to go. "Are you ready?"

Maddy gladly followed the other two, excited to get out and have some fun with her friends.
"Any idea where we will go?" She asked them.

"Aye aye." Allen shrugged, walking from the base towards the city.

Allen followed behind Cody, Shuppet sticking close to him, still nervous around others. When Cody mentioned it, he looked at the man, feeling a bit unnerved at the look of him. "He does seem familiar, if not him, his outfit..." His eyes narrowed, squinting for a better view. "Shuppet, stay close." She nodded, huddling even closer to her trainer.

Cody took off into the chaos-filled streets, pushing and shoving as he made his way through the crowds. Sometimes, it seemed the only thing keeping the man in his sights was the red hood he wore, which hadn't fallen off yet. People gasped and shouted profanities as Cody forced them out of his way, and almost lost the man once more as he turned into a narrow alley, lit only by the light of people's windows from several stories up. As the boy pursued, he started to notice the dampness of the ground lingered in this alley from the rain they had earlier, and he used that to his advantage, especially as he came to an intersection where six alleys seemed to branch out from a common intersection. He took a ball from his belt and through it in the air, releasing Poochy into the night. "Find our run away, Poochy!" he told her, pointing at the ground. "Find his scent."

Poochyena sprinted into the darkness after the man, using her pristine hearing and smell to pinpoint the man's location. As the duo ran through the maze, Poochy sped up with each turn, which alluded to Cody that they were getting closer. They turned a final time to see the man resting against a wall, breathing heavily. "Nowhere to go!" Cody shouted. Poochy ran around him to block the only other exit, and growled, bearing her teeth.
"Fine, it's gotta come to this," the man replied, standing upright and pulling a pokeball from his pocket. He tossed it underhand in front of him, and revealed his first pokemon - a Slugma.

"Perfect," Cody said as a smile crossed his face. He grabbed Staryu's ball and released the pokemon, calling for a quick attack. "Mira, Water Pulse!" Slugma shot a fiery blast to block the attack, but the jet of water cut right through it, and hit Slugma hard. It was obvious that it was struggling to hold on, but consumed its Sitrus Berry, and was ready to keep going. With a quick gesture, Slugma hurled rocks in Staryu's direction, but the Water Type brushed off the attack, firing another powerful shot of water at Slugma, and KOing the pokemon.

The next pokemon Cody's foe sent out was a Golbat. The pokemon came at Mira with a powerful Aerial Ace, hitting the Staryu hard, but it certainly wasn't ready to give up. It shot a powerful Confusion in retaliation, changing its red gem in the center of its body to blue and illuminating brightly in the dark alley. It caught the Golbat as it came back for another attack and hit it with a Psychic contraction, squeezing its body tightly. The bat pokemon let out a shriek of pain, and fell to the ground, obviously struggling to get back up. It quickly consumed a Leichi Berry, raising the struggling pokemon's attack, and connected with a powerful Poison Fang, digging its fangs deep into Mira's body, and severely poisoning the Staryu. As it went to attack, the poison sunk in, immediately dropping Mira to the ground. Cody sent out Sparks in her place, quickly dropping the Golbat with an electric strike.

The hooded figure grumbled something under his breath before shouting, "This is where it ends!" He threw his final pokeball into the air, releasing a Macargo. He gave a maniacal laugh, ordering for it to use Amnesia. Pikachu hit first with a Thunderwave, paralyzing its foe, but Macargo was still able to clear its mind, raising its special defense sharply. Pikachu swung its tail, contacting hard with a fierce Iron Tail, but Macargo seemed unphased, and retaliated with Earth Power, hitting Pikachu in close range. Sparks flew back, but struggled to her feet, firing off an Electro Ball in Macargo's direction. Before the attack hit, Macargo regained some HP with its leftovers. The Fire/Rock pokemon seemed to shake off the attack again, and fired an Overheat, lowering its Special Attack, but knocking Sparks out immediately.

Cody growled and grabbed Axew's ball, knowing his baby dragon wouldn't let him down. He couldn't. "Axew, let's get out there!" the boy called, noticing Macargo gain another bit of HP using its Leftovers. Axew slashed at Macargo with its claws, illuminated with dragonic energy. This seemed to have hit a soft spot, due to the foe's reaction. The hooded figure knew Macargo couldn't hold on for long with more attacks like this. Macargo launched its body at Axew, trying to land on the pokemon for a Body Slam, but missed, and was hit hard with a Rock Smash, which finished the match. The man shouted a profanity at the boy as he recalled his third fainted pokemon, The man reached for his belt, pulling a gun on the unarmed trainer, and growled. "Like I said, it ends here. One way or another."

Cody lowered his pokeballs to the ground and held his hands up, surrendering to the stranger. "Take it easy, man," the boy said, trying to stay calm. "Poochy, disarm!" he shouted, dropping to the ground. Startled, the man fired a shot, but missed, as Poochyena launched at the man, biting hard on his hand with the gun. It dropped to the ground and fired again, breezing by Cody's head, just missing. The boy got up and tackled the man to the ground, quickly reaching in his pockets, looking for some kind of identity. He found nothing, and the man shook the boy off, rolled him over, and punched him hard in the mouth before getting up and taking off into the darkness. Poochy ran over to his trainer's side, hoping the boy was ok. By the time Cody had regained his bearings, the man was gone and his lip had stopped bleeding. "We just have to find the gang," Cody said to his pokemon, returning her to her pokeball.

Cody pulled a water bottle from his pack as he rested against a brick wall, still in the alley. He poured a small bit into his hand, and used it to scrub off some of the dried blood on his chin. "I've gotta find Allen and Maddy," he thought out loud, making his way back into the crowd, looking disheveled and completely out of it. His hair was a mess from the tussle and two of his four pokemon were KOed. He needed to find a pokemon center quickly, as he was sure this wasn't the last he would see of the trio. With enough searching, he stumbled upon his team, almost by accident. "Guys, I think I know who those guys worked for, but I'm not sure," he said, recalling seeing a similar outfit while fighting off a gang raid on his hometown.

"Let's hit the pokemon center," Cody suggested, looking at the pokeballs on his belt. "I don't know about you, but my pokemon need help, and we can figure out our next move while we wait." Cody wrapped an arm around Allen, helping him stay steady until he was sure he could stand on his own. "What happened to you?" the boy asked as they headed toward the pokemon center.