Saying this, she kept her eyes on Ron as she backed toward the door. Warily watching him, she pulled the door open and quickly slipped inside.
Obviously, a Pokémon Center would never be manned by anyone other than a Nurse Joy. Otherwise, Jessie would have become a Pokémon Nurse a long time ago.
With this in mind, Ron sent out Bellossom. To be safe, he also took out the Frog Egg and the Ice Rod, then walked toward the room.
Inside the room, Lily looked at Abigail, who was tied up on the floor, and said, "Don't make a single sound—otherwise, I can't guarantee that any of you will leave here alive."
Because they had let their guard down at the Pokémon Center, all of the group's Poké Balls were currently in Lily's hands.
The girls exchanged helpless glances, their eyes eventually landing on Joy, who was also tied up nearby.
"Great, that Ron guy just happened to show up too," Lily said with a smile. "Once I snatch the valuables off him, I'll let you all reunite."
With their mouths gagged, the group could only whimper.
"I guess that saves me some trouble," Lily continued. "Otherwise, I would have had to use you guys to threaten him."
Before she could finish her sentence, a flash of purple light burst from behind her. Lily turned her head, only to see the locked door sliced clean in half by a sword-wielding Bellossom.
A sword-wielding Bellossom?
Lily raised an eyebrow and looked at Ron standing in the doorway.
A fresh round of muffled whimpers came from inside the room. Ron couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but he guessed they were calling his name.
"My, you caught me. In that case, hand over all your valuables, or else I'll—"
Before she could finish, a streak of icy light shot from the stave and struck Lily. Before she could even react, the frog idling by Ron's feet opened its jaws wide and swallowed her whole.
Serena, whose heart had been in her throat this whole time, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Because she hadn't interacted with Ron much, she had originally been worried they would only drag him down. Seeing the woman dealt with so swiftly, she blinked, and large drops of tears began to fall.
Ron and Bellossom were busy untying the group. The first to be freed, Abigail stood up, stretched her limbs, and took a deep breath. "I knew you'd come to save us, Ron!"
"Me too." Haley stood up, holding Ron's hand for support, and smiled at him. "You came so fast, Ron."
"I got lucky; I rented a Gogoat to get here," Ron said. Noticing the tears in the corners of Serena's eyes, he asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Serena smiled and reached up to wipe her tears. "I was just a little scared, but I'm okay now—by the way, what is that?" she asked, pointing at the frog, which had grown massive after swallowing Lily.
"It's a creature unique to Pelican Town—well, I suppose you could call it a Pokémon," Ron said after a moment's thought.
Seeing that everyone was untied, and having confirmed that their Poké Balls were still with Lily, Ron commanded the frog to spit her back out.
Lily scrambled to her feet in sheer terror, gasping for deep breaths. She wasn't entirely sure what had just happened; she only knew that a sudden chill had washed over her, followed by a loss of consciousness. When the chill faded, she found herself trapped inside something dark and soft. Waves of digestive acid washed over her, bringing intense stinging pain and a suffocating sensation.
Her mouth opened and closed, about to say something, but Bellossom's blade was already resting against her neck.
As a villain, she instantly recognized the genuine killing intent in Bellossom's eyes. A terrifying thought struck her—this Bellossom might have actually killed things before. Pokémon... or perhaps, people?
The thought made Lily shudder.
"Where are their Poké Balls?" Ron demanded.
"I-In the counter over there," Lily stammered, shivering violently. "They're right in the counter."
As Abigail went to retrieve the Poké Balls, Lily began to beg incessantly. "I'm sorry, I didn't—I didn't even have time to do anything—I'm sorry, please let me go—"
Normally, in a situation like this, it would be best to eliminate the threat entirely to prevent future trouble. However, out of respect for the rule of law, Ron extracted some information about Team Rocket from Lily, then had Joy call the police.
The Bellossom stood guard over Lily with its sword, while Ron sat on the sofa with the four girls and began handing out the life-saving items he had brought.
"I'll give everyone one of these," Ron said. He pulled out four Fairy Boxes and handed one to each of them.
The item wasn't very large. Bonnie held the Fairy Box in her palms. "What a pretty box! What does it do?"
"Hmm—it's also a creature from our hometown," Ron mused. "It can heal injuries."
"It's a Pokémon too? Then is this a Poké Ball?" Bonnie asked. She lifted the lid, and a thumb-sized fairy floated out of the box.
"Wow—it looks like a little person!" As they spoke, the little fairy drifted over to Bonnie's hand. It fluttered over her scraped wrist for a moment; with a few sparkles of light, Bonnie's swollen and bruised wrist instantly returned to normal.
"That's amazing!"
"Are you really giving these to us?" Serena asked in surprise. "Are you sure it's okay?"
"Yeah." Ron had actually put a lot of thought into this. He only gave combat-capable items like the Frog Egg to Abigail.
The main reason, of course, was that Haley didn't like these things; she was rather averse to carrying around a frog she found somewhat ugly, so she only accepted the ornate rod.
Because Bonnie and Serena weren't from Pelican Town—and even though he knew they wouldn't do anything malicious or have ulterior motives regarding these items—his supply was limited. Ron chose to only give them the Fairy Boxes, along with a Warp Totem for emergencies. This was just in case another accident happened while he wasn't around to save them, ensuring they wouldn't be left completely helpless.
Furthermore, if the more dangerous items fell into enemy hands through them, it would be a huge problem. That was why Ron only trusted the heavy firepower to Abigail.
Seeing Ron's response and recalling today's events, Serena roughly guessed his thought process. Realizing he was worried that she and Bonnie might drag Haley and Abigail down if things went south, she couldn't help but cast a slightly envious glance at the two girls.
"Should we hide them?" A thought occurred to Serena. Staring at the little fairy resting on Bonnie's shoulder, she asked, "This kind of Pokémon is probably incredibly rare in Kalos, right? It might attract the attention of bad guys like her."
As she spoke, she turned her head and saw Lily being led out of the Pokémon Center in handcuffs by Officer Jenny. Lily wore a look of sheer relief, smiling brightly as if she had just dodged a bullet.
"I guess you're right," Bonnie said, cupping her cheeks. "But it's just so cute—oh my goodness."
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