For Team Toxic, the most frustrating thing wasn't just a giant beast falling from the sky and making their dispatched squad disappear without a trace. It was the fact that after their executive and grunts were captured, their Pokémon actually defected to the enemy—openly and without shame!
"Damn it! What kind of trick did they use?"
A Team Toxic executive stood just behind the territory line, glaring forward. At the street corner where a sentry post had been established, behind a massive, mysterious crater, the Skorupi and Stunky that once belonged to Team Toxic were now playing peacefully with a group of local children.
They looked harmless now, but the moment anyone from Team Toxic dared to cross over, these Pokémon would instantly form a defensive perimeter. They showed no mercy, spraying toxic gas and Pin Missiles at their former masters.
The former was especially troublesome; somehow, the toxic gas they sprayed could be ignited into a makeshift Flamethrower! The sight of a perfectly synchronized wall of fire had left the invaders charred and bewildered. Back at their own base, they tried to replicate the tactic, but it never worked—it was as if there was a fundamental, qualitative difference between the Pokémon on the two sides.
And the Stunky were the least of their worries.
Team Toxic knew all too well that a terrifying, colossal Steelix was lurking beneath the earth. Its mere breath could send men and bikes flying a dozen meters, and when it stampeded, it was more frightening than an armored construction vehicle at full speed. Trainers who specialized in Poison-types like them simply stood no chance.
"Demon-wood..."
Recalling that horrific encounter, many Team Toxic grunts refused to go back to their deaths. They felt like even ten lives wouldn't be enough to survive another run-in with him. The high-ranking members of Team Toxic were also nursing massive headaches; they had intended to pick the "softest target" first, but they had accidentally bitten into a piece of solid steel.
Yet, they weren't willing to give up just yet. Or rather, they couldn't. Having already launched an attack, retreating now would make the other factions see them as weak—if they couldn't even take down a crippled Team Snagem, they would quickly become targets for invasion themselves.
Thus, they decided to cooperate with several neighboring factions to launch a multi-pronged invasion. No matter how strong Demon-wood was, he was just one person with a handful of Pokémon. He couldn't be everywhere at once, could he?
He'd eventually drop from exhaustion!
With the mindset of "go big or go home," Team Toxic went all in. They mobilized almost their entire fighting force and coordinated with nearby gangs to swarm the former Jackal Gang territories, clearly intending to crush the resistance through sheer numbers.
But they never expected that the defense wouldn't even rely on many trainers. They were held back by wave after wave of Pokémon acting on their own. Even without trainers barking orders, these Pokémon displayed power far beyond what they had shown when they were owned.
Through their united front, the invasion met an unprecedentedly stubborn resistance. Even the civilians found the courage to take up whatever they had on hand, fashioning weird, improvised weapons to join the fray!
In the past, whenever gangs clashed, civilians would scramble for cover, fleeing in panic or hiding in their homes, living in constant fear. Now, they were actually fighting back.
This was something the coalition led by Team Toxic had never anticipated. The civilians and the highly autonomous Pokémon used the terrain to their advantage, pulling the invaders into the meat grinder of urban guerrilla warfare. The fierce will to resist caused the invaders' numbers to dwindle time and again.
A war of attrition—something even Team Snagem hadn't managed to inflict—was now dealing a devastating physical and psychological blow to the rabble of Pyrite Town, all under the subtle guidance of certain individuals.
Of course, Kashiwagi, riding his colossal Steelix, remained the ultimate nightmare for every invader. Whenever the ground began to tremble, they knew the Steelix was near. But just as they started trying to predict his position based on the tremors...
Kashiwagi would silently have the giant Steelix take to the sky, raining down attacks like an aerial battleship. By the end of the day, the invaders hadn't gained an inch; instead, they had lost a significant portion of their manpower.
However, just as they were preparing to sound the retreat and try again another day, their own home base was raided.
It started with a group of unidentified individuals attacking their skeleton crew. Simultaneously, the normally submissive civilians seemed to have gone mad. Screaming slogans like "Punish the leaders and reclaim our homes," they seized several key facilities.
Team Toxic immediately tried to fall back to defend their base. Kashiwagi, who had just returned from his own counter-raid, moved to intercept them, but to his surprise, the Team Toxic coalition was blocked by a group that even he didn't expect to see.
High in the air, Kashiwagi stood atop Steelix's head, looking down at the skirmish below. Beside him stood N, his expression serene and unreadable, looking every bit like a mastermind behind the scenes.
"People from the Colosseum?" Kashiwagi noted with surprise.
N tilted his head. "The Colosseum?"
"The strongest faction in Pyrite Town I told you about. They've actually given up their internal power struggle and started moving against the other gangs." Kashiwagi squinted to get a better look. "It's not an impostor group. I recognize the one in the lead; I saw him often when I was fighting at the Colosseum. He's like a manager there."
N didn't respond. He was deeply weary of human-on-human conflict. It didn't stir his heart nearly as much as the sight of Pokémon and humans working together as one earlier that day.
Indeed, the reason the Team Toxic Pokémon had defected on the spot, and why so many Pokémon were fighting with strength far beyond their normal levels, was entirely due to this "Son of Pokémon."
Perhaps some of his unique techniques would be nothing special to a trainer from a mainstream region. But here in the "backwater" of Orre—against a group of thugs who held high-tech gear but lived with a tribal mindset—they were absolutely devastating.
And the reason these techniques had taken effect in such a short time was simple:
"Trust."
N told Kashiwagi that Pokémon are lifeforms capable of creating miracles, each possessing nearly infinite potential. If you give them your trust, they will do everything in their power to repay it. You might not trust any human, but you must trust your Pokémon.
Kashiwagi couldn't agree more. Aggron and the others had already taught him that lesson many times over.
Before long, the battle below concluded. A rabble, no matter how numerous, remains a rabble—especially a group like Team Toxic that had spent the entire day playing "hide and seek" with angry civilians and autonomous Pokémon on unfamiliar turf. The so-called coalition collapsed into dust before they even had a chance to disband.
-----
Shortly after the fighting stopped, Kashiwagi received a call from Frobo.
Frobo informed him that they had just finalized a cooperation agreement with Duking, and that reinforcements would be sent to help. They should be arriving any moment.
"They're 'arriving' now?" Kashiwagi said helplessly. "The fight's already over."
Frobo was momentarily embarrassed and quickly explained that Duking must have acted on his own initiative, which was why word of the intervention hadn't reached them until the dust had settled. It certainly wasn't an attempt to sabotage Kashiwagi.
"He's a bit of a maverick, isn't he?"
"That's how people in high positions are—power changes them. I'll tell you a secret though: Wes actually had to beat Duking in a fight to convince him."
"Beat him as in... a Pokémon battle?"
"Including, but not limited to."
"Wes is a bit of a badass, then."
"He did take down Team Cipher single-handedly back in the day," Frobo remarked. "He's got the skills."
Taking down an entire organization by himself...
Kashiwagi was filled with admiration. In the games, Team Cipher only had a few members, but in this world, they must have numbered in the thousands. Even if Wes had only targeted the leadership, the feat was nothing short of legendary.