PokèDruids [PkmnWattys2016]

Revelations

Dusk was following the Murkrow for hours, ceasing to rest while Hank followed behind. They didn't make exceptional speed, causing the Murkrow to circle back a few times so they could keep up, but the two have made considerable distance towards Ashport. The sun was setting, causing the amber sky to almost tint the phantasmal body of the Murkrow.

"We approach the town
And it will not be long till-"

"Still can't speak to Pokemon, Dusk."

Dusk opened his mouth, but said nothing, as there was no worthwhile return for any further conversation.

Minutes later, the two were inside the town, looking around for Eros with their eye-holes. Although the phantom had led the two to the edge of the city, it had immediately flown back to the scarab and painfully crawled back inside as soon as the two had set foot on pavement.

It didn't take long for Hank and Dusk to find Eros, as the gym had resided in one of the main streets, the location the two decided to search first. As Hank came walking around the corner, he was greeted by Eros and Sicily sitting on a bench, both enjoying an ice-cream cone. Although one would assume the two would be having a great time (when have you ever seen someone sad eating ice cream? That is, unless they're eating it from a tub), the two had a look of grief or exhaustion, not unexpected for the circumstance.

Hank ran up to the two, leaving Dusk a small distance behind. He grabbed a Pokeball from his belt, releasing Surge from inside and preparing for combat. "Sicily, you jerk! What have you done?"

Eros turned to Hank, retorting, "Hank, it's alright. We-"

"Eros, she attacked Cer- you know who." Hank avoided saying the name, as to avoid drawing any association to himself with the aforementioned witch. "Under any other circumstance, yeah, that might be forgivable. But she hurt my sweet- ahem, Cer."

"Yeah. She told me. But, to be fair, she was manipulated."

"Are you INSANE?" By this time, a scene was being made, as having both trainers have Pokemon out while arguing in the streets generally led to a battle; Hence, there was a crowd about the two. "That's the problem! She's gone crazy! And even if she could recover, you don't just get better in a day!"

"She wasn't crazy. She was just upset. You know, like having a tantrum."

"You understand why I find that hard to believe, right?"

"I suppose." Eros looked over to Sicily, who was afraid of doing anything; On top of that, she was badly injured, making any success fighting Surge improbable. "I'm not going to fight you, though."

"You don't have a choice. Surge, use Iron Tail!" As the last words came out of his mouth, Surge started to lean heavily on his hind legs, setting his tail aglow, the sheer possible force of which could simply be told from its presence. The force in Surge's rear legs was released as would from a cocked spring, and so did he fly through the air, spiraling once or twice before landing on Sicily with the force of his metal tail.

Sicily reacted naught to this, simply taking the blow and crashing over the back of the bench. The crowd was a bit distraught at this, slowly dissolving into the normal flow of traffic, as if watching this was a sin unto itself. Surge hadn't a way to land properly after this, crashing into the bench and tumbling out of it. Sicily was, once again, knocked out, lying on the ground.

Eros, in response to this, looked at Hank in bewilderment and said, "I-I said I didn't want to fight!"

"You're coming back, now."

"Sicily's not dangerous!"

"How can I trust you?"

"Because, Hank, if she really was dangerous, I wouldn't go back!" Hank looked at Eros with disgust, upset at the decisions he was making. Even so, Hank was starting to become less aggressive in his tone of voice.