Chapter 6: This Means War

  Alley walls rushed past, only illuminated by small lights that glowed white.  The sounds of the chaos were faint and muffled now that I was far from them. I heard something, or someone, crumple to the ground. Whatever it was, it released an audible groan and began to breathe heavily. I saw a dim energy appear from the ground. The energy took shape of a Charizard. The flame on the Charizard's tail revealed that it'd been released from its Pokeball. I realized I was lying upon the back of a Skarmory. Luberon lay on the ground with his chest heaving.

  My instinct told me to kill Luberon, that he was a threat. I attempted to spring forward, but the terrible sensation once again flared through my leg causing me to collapse.

  "Stevie, calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. If I was planning to hurt you I would've done it already." Luberon seemed to choke out every word. He slowly sat up and buried his face in his hands. His arms trembled. Luberon was shivering. His Charizard held its flame closer to him. I watched as the rain immediately evaporated before it touched the fire. The Skarmory brushed past me and began to try to comfort Luberon. I crept closer to him and heard that he was talking.

  "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Luberon repeated. The rain made it almost impossible to hear him. He looked up. I couldn't tell if tears or rain had drenched his face. Luberon reached into his coat and produced a small roll of gauze. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing multiple gashes on his arm. He wrapped the gauze around his arm.

  Luberon began to gauze my leg. I wondered why I wasn't regenerating.

  "The bullets, they can kill you. Halvin developed them while you were sedated. They temporarily disable your regeneration and your immunity to pain. He didn't have enough time to make the effect permanent, thankfully." Luberon explained while he worked. I watched his gentle yet swift movements. It seemed as if he'd been doing this for his whole life. He rarely reverted his eyes from the task at hand.

  "Stevie wonders why you aren't taking him back." I questioned. Luberon stopped what he was doing and made direct eye contact. The minimal amount of light on his face gave him a sort of intimidating dead look; like someone had opened the eyes of a corpse.

  "I don't want to take you back. Halvin will-" Luberon clenched his teeth and didn't continue. He finished bandaging my wound and stood up. He slumped against the alley wall and recalled his Skarmory.

  "Stevie thinks we should get out of here." I advised. I attempted to stand, but this thing apparently called pain rushed through my leg. I flopped on my side again.

  "I know, but you're in no condition to go anywhere. My Skarmory is too tired from carrying the both of us, my Charizard is too small to carry a burden, and the rest of my Pokémon are too small. Plus, I want to get you out of danger. But I think that is inevitable due to you shooting Halvin. It's no fault of yours, it isn't your mistake that this whole thing ended up happening. You just tried to help a Pokémon, you don't deserve this." Luberon sounded like he was being strangled, like each word was tightening the grip around his neck. He let out a few ragged breaths and sat down, withdrawing his knees against his body. "It's hard. I made the decision to betray Halvin, and I didn't expect it to be easy, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult either. He's my brother after all, and after this is over with I don't think he'll care for me anymore, if we both survive that is. He never really was the forgiving type." Luberon sighed and closed his eyes.

  I crawled over to Luberon and sat next to him. My instinct was no longer screaming at me to kill him. He glanced over at me and gave me an exhausted smile. After a few minutes his breathing took on a pattern, he'd fallen asleep.

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  I'd stared at the opposite wall for the remainder of the night. The rain had lightened up and became a slight drizzle. The clouds were now light grey, allowing me to see. Luberon stirred beside me. I nudged him and woke him up

  "What do you want?" Luberon sounded groggy. I nudged him again. "You want to wake up now? Okay, but let me check your leg." Luberon lifted the gauze from my leg. There was no trace of the wound, and no pain either. "Thank Arceus it's healed."

   Luberon and I stood up. He recalled his Charizard.

   "We're leaving, I've decided what I want to do." Luberon declared. "I think it was bound to come to this, but we have no choice. It pains me to accept it, but this is what's going to need to be done. We're going to have to go through measures, no matter how drastic, to get Halvin to disband Cipher." Luberon froze for a moment and tensed up. "I don't want to do that to him. I really don't."

   "Stevie wonders why you would plan to do it if you don't want to."

   "I want Halvin to leave you alone. He's out to kill you now. I'm not going to let him though, I want to prevent your death at all costs." Luberon bit his lip. "I can't bear to see death anymore. I've seen too much of it."

   "Stevie asks where you saw all the death."

   "Halvin's a mass murderer."