Chapter Text
“Get down!” yelled my husband, Steven Stone. His voice was unusually assertive, and he followed his command by shoving me onto the floor and lying on top of me. Admittedly, I was intrigued. We were, after all, celebrating Juan’s birthday in a gathering of friends in the Sootopolis Gym, and although Steven was quite bold in the bedroom, I haven’t seen him so confident in public. But I wasn’t complaining; I’m rather fond of the attention, I must say.
Then, the situation hit me - literally and figuratively. As the entire Pokemon gym shook and a loud, deep explosion reached my ears, I recognized that Team Rocket had returned.
As a couple of explosions followed - all louder and more powerful than the first one - and a sharp, powdery scent filled the air, I knew that the Elite Team Rocket Grunts had arrived with their usual playbook - their hideous clown costumes and their ear-splitting firecrackers.
Thank Arceus that this was a Water Pokemon gym. Despite all the fireworks that the clowns have used, nothing caught on fire.
Once the explosions had stopped, Steven rolled over and stood up. We were both wearing our white Archon regalia to show that we were part of the traditional protectors of Sootopolis, and while the color choice is rather elegant, it is terrible at hiding wounds. While there was so much chaos all around - I found out later that Team Rocket had used a special emitter to send the Pokemon back to their Pokeballs and to lock the Pokeballs that had already been closed - the first thing I noticed was that Steven had a wound on his torso.
I wanted to say something, do something - anything. But I was paralyzed by fear, and I just lay on the ground and watched. Okay, I also protected Alexa, Steven’s Rotom Pokedex, so perhaps I was doing something useful, even though it was all I could do.
Steven, who seemed to not have noticed that he was hit, ran over to the James Sycamore, the leader of the newest Hoenn Pokemon Gym - Pacifidlog Gym. A bunch of Elite Rocket Grunts were throwing punches at him and called him a traitor. Steven, who wanted none of it, drew his Skarmory-feather knife and tore out one of the clown’s throats. (This is Exhibit A of why it’s a bad idea to mess with the Sootopolitan Archons.) Once he was done with them, he went over to help Narcissus, one of our Draconid friends who had been cornered by a pair of clowns.
In the corner of the gym, Professor Birch was being chased by an Elite Rocket Grunt, which resulted in both of them running around in a circular path. In response, Norman Takahashi Ariztegi, one of my best friends, tripped the clown and sent her into one of the gym’s many pools. Juan also was joining in the fray; he managed to hold of two of the Elite Rocket Grunts with a mini fire extinguisher. Even Spark was holding up his own against a clown.
Suddenly, another series of booms filled the air. That was when everything went dark.