Red the Conqueror 30

A horde of Pokémon running from any place meant something big, huge, badass or otherwise dangerous had decided to start going on a rampage. And in Kanto, that usually meant one very specific kind of disaster.

"Gyarados," Blue stated, a little grimly, "east of here is Route 12, one of the longest in the Region," she explaiend.

Red in turn gestured to the far south and then swept his hand to the far north, giving the other two something of an idea of just how long Route 12 actually was. He then frowned, it was obvious that on the far east towards the eastern coast, there was a storm going on, they only had to look at the sky to realize it. That meant one thing, and one thing only.

There wasn't just "a" Gyarados rampaging. There were enough to cause a violent rainstorm, rampaging Gyarados tended to congregate when stormy weather assaulted the coasts of Kanto.

"Alright, chances are, people already know this is happening. We can expect backup from the gym quite soon - and now we know why Kanto's electric gym is in Vermillion," quipped Blue. "So do you still wanna go right now or would you prefer to wait until Lieutenant Surge's ready?"

"We can probably keep a lid on the destruction if we go and confront them at the coast... Route 12, that's a sea route right?"

"Yeah, mostly composed of sturdy but wooden bridges," Blue confirmed.

Red shook his head, then raised his hand to the sky.

"Oh! You think we should fight them from the skies? Unstable footing would be an issue," Skyla agreed, "I'm not very good with water," she admitted, shrugging.

"You were doing pretty well before," Blue frowned.

"Yeah, water up to my waist, not water big enough to drown in!" Skyla countered. "Anyway! I can provide some aerial support," she said.

"Then I'll fight from the ground, we'll approach from the coast and draw the Gyarados' attention to us," Elesa said, "and prevent them from rampaging and destroying every part of Route 12, long enough for backup to arrive."

"I'll accompany you on the ground, Red, what about you?"

Red pointed his finger at the sky, pumping his fist and then reaching for his Pokéballs, passing his Nidoqueen to Blue, while Blue passed Latios' Pokéball to Red, the two of them usually exchanged their Pokéballs and as proof of their bond of friendship, the Pokémon had absolutely no problem obeying either trainer regardless of who it currently was that held their Pokéball.

"Alright, then let's save the Route!" Elesa called, putting her hand forward, closed into a fist. Each of them put their right fist into the circle and a four way fist bump heralded them separating as Latios, Latias, Swanna, Unfezant and Woobat were let out of their Balls, the group launching into the sky, Red and Skyla riding on their mounts and taking to the sky, Latias and Swanna rapidly climbing up to cloud level and dipping back under to start heading towards the East coast of Kanto.

Within moments, or at least it felt like just moments, they had arrived, and it became obvious that there were indeed several Gyarados rampaging.

Six of them, in fact... or rather, there were seven. Six regular Gyarados, and an absolutely humongous thing that kinda sorta looked like a Gyarados but clearly wasn't. It was huge, it was bad and it was clearly the leader of the Gyarados group. It was like somebody had decided that a regular Gyarados just wasn't big, mean and scary enough and cranked that bitch up to eleven.

Skyla whistled as she adjusted her goggles on her face, Red hadn't even noticed she was wearing them before, though it was fairly hard to focus on such a thing when one was looking at Skyla. "That's one big bad Gyarados... Is it some sort of regional variant or special evolution?" she asked, looking at the one that was mostly hanging back, while the other six Gyarados fired Hydro Pump into the sturdy wooden bridges that connected the small islands that most of Route 12 was composed of.

They then proceeded to head further forward, generating waves around them as they pushed forward, driving smaller water pokémon out and proceeding to blast directly to the coast, where there were still some Pokémon, mainly the slower landbound types that couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

The pounding rain was making it hard to communicate, and the distant thunder that seemed to be getting closer was frightening as well, but as they flew and provided overwatch, Skyla and Red saw Blue and Elesa reaching the coast, and engaging with one of the Gyarados which drew the others in.

Alright, it was time.

Red raised his hand. While Latias and Latios could read his mind and act on it, Skyla's Pokémon needed the signal. Three fingers raised up, and Skyla nodded, getting the idea. They'd be pulling three. Latios and Latias could each handle a Gyarados on their own, and Skyla would handle the other one with her Pokémon, while on the ground, Elesa and Blue let their Pokémon out.

Nidoqueen, Nidoking and Venusaur took one of the Gyarados, two of Elesa's Emolgas would handle a second, and Elesa's Zebstrika was drawing attention from a third.

They would be overwhelmed if Red and Skyla hadn't dropped by, blasting the Gyarados on the backline with powerful psychic attacks and hurricane force winds. Blitzing the distracted Gyarados gave Red and Skyla a massive advantage from the surprise attack angle, as Skyla's Unfezant and Woobat attacked by creating gusts of wind while Latios and Latias fired their signature psychic attacks from the skies, then Swanna rushed forward, slamming its wings with powerful force against two of the Gyarados as it passed, Skyla making herself as small as possible to optimize her aerodynamics.

Red moved, gesturing to Latios and Blue's Eon Twin moved even before Red completed the gesture, breaking swiftly and blitzing one of the Gyarados.

Already, Red could hear and see the battle joined with the other two, Elesa had a massive typing advantage against the Gyarados but they were in their element, fighting in the water where they could dive and use their superior physical power to their advantage, and on top of that, it was worth remembering Gyarados could fucking fly, which gave them a lot better mobility than they might seem to have at first glance.

Red and Blue dragons broke from each other as Red's plan started to unravel, as all plans did upon contact with the enemy, and it was time for adaptation. Skyla was already busy, shouting orders as her Swanna, Woobat and Unfezant were trying to maintain a circle around their quarry, while Red pulled the aggression from the other two by blitzing past them while riding Latias.

Luster Purge and Mist Ball were being prepared.

Latios who had stayed behind took advantage of the moment the two Gyarados were distracted to blast his Luster Purge onto the back of the head of the one to his left, while Latias did a wide turn to dodge a powerful Hyper Beam from the Gyarados that hadn't been hit, forcing Red to hug her neck and bury his fingers into her downy fur to try to hold onto the Eon Dragon for dear life, and then launched her Mist Ball, which hit the Gyarados in the face and knocked it into the water.

At the same time, several electric type attacks landed on the Gyarados fighting Elesa and Blue not far, as the Emolgas flew around and kept the attention of one of the Gyarados, Zebstrika blasted a second with Thunderbolts, and Venusaur drew attacks to itself while Nidoqueen and Nidoking attacked with impunity.

Skyla's attacks intensified as she fought her own enemy, and Latios and Latias were also thinking they shouldn't be left behind, so Red called for another attack, the two Lati twins blasting Dragon Pulses at the Gyarados from afar, the water pseudo dragons responding with mighty Hydro Pumps that nevertheless couldn't compare to the power of the wandering dragons, as the beam of draconic power overpowered the water, the two Gyarados took it directly in the mouth, on top of the backlash of their own attack, and just like that - the two Gyarados were down.

Skyla took that moment as inspiration because she immediately blasted forward on her Swanna, drawing attention to herself as the Gyarados tried to chomp her down, closing its usually open jaws just behind her, opening itself up for an attack as her Woobat and Unfezant both rained attacks with their wings to knock it out before it could recover.

At the same time, the other three were just no match for the Electric types Elesa commanded, and Zebstrika charged into one of the Gyarados, wreathed in lightning, and knocked it out, while at the same time, Venusaur grabbed the Gyarados that had just attacked it with its vine whips and slammed it into the ground, just in time for Nidoking and Nidoqueen to hit it with twin Thunderbolts, one copying the other to great effect, knocking it out.

And as for the last...

Well, it was currently in the hell known as Volt Switch Madness, Elesa's own personal brand of torture, as Emolga used Volt Switch to move out of the way of an attack and allow an opening for Emolga, who used Volt Switch to move out of the way of retaliation and allow an opening for Emolga, over and over again.

It was hard to say whether the Gyarados was knocked out from accumulated damage, or it just had some sort of organ failure derived from its ever mounting and incredible rage.

"Did we do it!?" Skyla shouted.

No, no they didn't.

Suddenly, a hypermassive Hyper Beam tore through the silence and just barely missed Elesa and Blue, forcing their Pokémon to scatter, and then creating an absolutely ginormous explosion, a dome of yellow that lit up the sky even in the darkness of the storm.

"O-Oh-"

Red and Skyla turned to face the big, huge, dark and badass Gyarados that hadn't moved until now, as it recovered from its Hyper Beam.

"Right. That one," Skyla said. "We're fucked aren't we?"

Red turned to her, then to the Gyarados, which roared so hard it shook the clouds, and then launched another hyper beam - this time sweeping it like a laser along the shoreline, hitting the beached and knocked out Gyarados and obliterating them.

"How cruel, it's horrible," Skyla mused, "its underlings... it killed them like it was nothing!"

Red nodded, then raised his hand and pulled it towards the coast. Skyla nodded, and the duo along with their five Pokémon rushed away as the Gyarados dove under the water, clearly heading towards the coast itself.

They tried to join up with Elesa and Blue but before they could get there, the Gyarados burst from the water and created a gushing tidal wave as it did, the power of its Surf creating a massive multitarget attack that swept everyone aside like they were nothing. Skyla was forced to return her Pokémon and fly away rapidly on her Swanna, while Red sent a message to Latios to rejoin Blue while Latias acted on her own accord, pulling away at high speeds.

Gyarados shot Hydro Pump blasts at the Pokémon and Trainers on the coast, though thankfully Elesa and Blue were more than skilled enough to resist the attacks until Latios managed to run by and grab them both, the blonde mounting the Blue Dragon alongside Blue.

While that was happening, Red had Latias blast Gyarados with Mist Balls, but they did absolutely nothing, it was completely immune to Psychic attacks, which suggested it was Dark Type, so it clearly wasn't just a Gyarados.

That said, it still registered the attacks, and with a tail swipe, it raised another high wave to throw at Latios while exploding into motion, launching as if it was swimming through the air, at speeds so disturbingly fast that Red barely had time to realize what was going on before the damn thing was straight up on him, almost biting his head off, if it wasn't for Latias creating a barrier and then cranking it up to max speed immediately, Red would've been dead right then and there.

Latias' top speed was frightening and normally Red wouldn't be able to survive flight at those speeds, but the Eon Dragon used her psychic powers to protect him, while she might not be able to fight at those speeds, the Lati twins' travel speed was almost entirely unmatched... almost being the keyword, because that motherfucking Gyarados wasn't just keeping up the pace, it was actually gaining on them!

Every moment counted and Red felt Latias' panic through their link, an utterly primal fear, not for her own life but for Red's own, but he transmitted confidence and trust, he had exactly zero doubts that she had what it took for the two of them to make it through that situation, but Latias' panic didn't cease just like that, so he instead submerged himself into her mind and comforted her directly sharing his thoughts and feelings with her, and connecting at an even deeper level.

Latias couldn't cope with her own speed.

But Red could, and when Latias surrendered control of her own body to her trainer, merging her mind to his as a subordinate, the two rapidly and drastically rose in speed, and in what was a sudden change, Red and Latias moved even faster than before, shrinking the barrier so that it was only just over Red's skin, and Red himself almost molded his body to Latias', closing his eyes as he didn't need any of his senses, instead relying on the vastly superior senses of his Eon Dragon.

Returning to reality, Red moved Latias using her psychic power, dodging exactly at the right time as he heard the terrifying sound of the Gyarados' jaws closing and chomping just where his head had been a moment before. Every muscle in his body burned and his bones felt like they had turned to dust as Latias did an instantaneous u-turn. Her psychic power was great and her flight ability was tremendous, but she couldn't just disregard the laws of physics, Red bore all of the pain of the move and then while Gyarados still had its jaws closed, he blasted it with a Dragon Pulse that hit it right in the face.

He then kept pouring that attack along its flank, scoring a gouge on one of its massive head fins and breaking many of its dark blue scales, causing them to flake off, leaving a painful looking gouge and burn.

It was now incensed, furious even, and Red sent a mental message to Latios, who would convey it to Blue and Blue should in turn tell Elesa and Skyla, and while Red continued launching Dragon Pulses to keep the Gyarados' attention, the other three blasted and pelted it with attacks. They weakened it as Red continued to dodge all of its attacks, Latias concentrating on launching all of her attacks while Red took care of their movement as the two worked together at a level so deep that even Psychic pokémon specialists could only dream of.

As a series of Electric attacks hit it near the crest on its head, blasting its horns apart, and revealed something incredible, a gem, shining in rainbow colors, was buried there- it was roughly the size of a fist and it was stuck on the Gyarados' body by what seemed to be a spear that had stabbed into it at some point and been broken off, it still had the spearhead and part of the haft, as well as the gemstone tied to it from a thick cord.

Both Red and Latias were in agreement, whatever that was, it seemed to be the source of the stupidly overpowered Gyarados' power, and they resolved to take it, dodging a Hyper Beam and waiting until another volley of attacks that grabbed its attention before using their shared, tremendous speed, to grab the rock and move past, Red feeling every muscle in his body scream and knowing his shoulder had been pulled out of its socket from the motion... but he made it, he took it by the cord and pulled the spear stabbed deep into the Gyarados' skull from it.

As Red turned away, the Gyarados recollected itself and blasted a Hyper Beam that struck a glancing blow against Latias' flank and managed to hit the coast just beside where the other three were standing, the three women screaming as the attack exploded.

Latias closed her eyes and fell in the water and for a moment everything was white and cold but she recovered and managed to push through the pain as Red's ability to manage it reached its limit, his own pain plus Latias was simply too much, and the two crashed on the shore, their connection breaking just in time to see that Blue, Latios, Elesa and Skyla were all okay, though Elesa and Skyla's Pokémon, as well as Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Blue's Venusaur, Sauria, were all out cold.

"Red!! Red are you okay!?"

He crawled onto the shore from the water and panted, his fingers buried into the sandy dirt, panting and trembling in pain, but he grinned and raised his other hand, which had the rock in his hand, still glowing like a rainbow.

"Oh... what's that? That's a pretty rock, but- Wait, was that in the Gyarados or something?"

Red nodded.

"That's what Latios was talking about then," Blue muttered. "Elesa, Skyla - he's fine," she said, calling the other two and waving them over. "We did it, we managed to stop them!"

"Thank Arceus, I thought I was gonna die for a moment there," Elesa said, sighing.

Skyla giggled. "Ahh, but it was amazing," she said, "the thrill! the power! I've never been so excited and scared at once!"

"But at least it's over," Elesa said, "the coast seems clear and even the storm is clearing up, so-"

With a mighty roar, the Gyarados rose from the water one more time, wounded to hell and back to the form of a regular Gyarados, but still fuckhuge, still powerful, and still with glowing eyes filled with intent to kill, murder, destroy, hurt and obliterate. It opened its mouth, a glowing white-yellow sphere of power gathering in front of it as it prepared for one final Hyper Beam on the defenseless Pokémon-

"THUNDER!!"

And then the skies parted and like the wrath of Arceus' Judgement, a bolt of fury crashed down from above and immediately put an end to the wrath of that Gyarados, the shockwave of the attack reaching even all the way to the shore.

"Uncle Surge!!" Elesa shouted.

Not too far away, standing on top of the hill that separated a lot of Route 12 from the wilderness between it and Vermilion, was the Lightning American, the ex-pat from Unova accompanied by his trusty sidekick Raichu, as he thumbed his nose and offered a confident smile to the four below.

"The cavalry's here!!" he shouted, "all men, advance!!" he shouted. "Secure the shores and take the civilians someplace safe for treatment, patrol and ensure not even a single threat remains!"

"Yessir!!" his Gym Trainers shouted as they got in motion.

Red sighed, and relaxed at last. The mental and physical tax of everything that had happened finally hit him, and he closed his eyes, the relaxation sending him into the deep sleep of exhaustion.

Before he closed his eyes, Latias approached her head to his and bumped her forehead against his, and he knew that never again would their relationship be the same as before, not when they had connected so intimately... he accepted the affectionate gesture and the feelings she transmitted.

He hadn't really thought about how jealous Latias was of his relationship with Blue, but now all those doubts were cleared. Before he slept, he sent her a mental idea - perhaps she could encourage her brother to do something similar with Blue?

He sank into darkness, and knew that no matter what happened, Latias would ensure he was safe and cared for, and Blue would take care of everything else.