Eric pulled the collar of his jacket up against the chilling Sinnoh wind and tried to quietly slip past the massive blockade of thugs.
He didn't make it ten steps before two burly men in silver-and-blue jackets stepped into his path, crossing their arms.
"Hold it right there, kid," the larger of the two grunted, cracking his knuckles. "Nobody passes this route. The bosses are settling a blood feud. You don't take another step until the glorious Time Gang claims absolute victory. Capiche?"
They spoke like straight-up Yakuza enforcers.
Eric sighed, his deadpan expression showing exactly how little he cared about their turf war. He looked at the crowd. Over 100 thugs.
He could just release Fearow and fly over them. But flying could grab all their attention and make things annoying.
'I'll just wait for a bit and see,' Eric decided.
Without arguing, he turned and walked over to the edge of the route, leaning casually against a large, mossy boulder.
This couldn't go on for more than an hour, right?
At first, the battlefield was relatively contained. Old man Juro and old man Jackman were having a fierce, surprisingly high-level one-on-one battle in the center of the gorge.
But then, a stray Rock Throw from one of the Space Gang's Pokémon bounced off the dirt and smacked a Time Gang grunt right in the shin.
"Watch where you're aiming, you spatial freak!" the grunt yelled.
"Why don't you make me, you ticking fossil!"
A heavy shove was exchanged. A Poké Ball was thrown. And just like a stack of dominoes collapsing, the entire gorge erupted into absolute, uncontrolled chaos. It was a massive, fifty-on-fifty free-for-all brawl.
'This is getting out of hand,' Eric thought, watching the sheer absurdity of the situation. He stayed rooted to his boulder, doing absolutely nothing but observing the chaos.
It was then that a small, frantic movement caught his eye.
Near the center of the crossfire, completely obscured by the dust and the legs of the brawling Pokémon, was a tiny, purple-scaled creature with a yellowish patch on its belly.
A baby Kangaskhan.
Eric's eyes narrowed. Baby Kangaskhan never leave their mother's pouch. For one to be out here, alone and stumbling through the dirt, it meant it had gotten completely separated and was incredibly vulnerable. The poor creature was clutching its head, crying out in absolute terror as explosions rocked the ground around it.
None of the gang members even noticed it. They were too busy screaming about the superiority of Time and Space.
Suddenly, a Houndoom belonging to the Space Gang was knocked backward. It scrambled to its feet and wildly unleashed a massive Flamethrower, completely missing its target.
The scorching torrent of fire barreled straight toward the crying baby Kangaskhan.
"Haunter."
Eric's voice was a quiet, lethal snap.
The shadow underneath his feat advanced forward, blitzing towards the Baby Kangaskhan. Within a fraction of a second, Haunter appeared in between the baby and the incoming flamethrower.
A vibrant, green Protect barrier flared to life, completely absorbing the raging Flamethrower. The flames washed harmlessly over the shield, dissipating into smoke.
Haunter's ghostly energy then spread out, covering the entire battlefield. The quasi-grade 5 energy was no joke, as everyone in the vicinity felt a chill run down their spines. Several thugs stopped their brawling, turning their heads to stare at the grinning, spiky ghost that had just appeared out of nowhere.
Haunter completely ignored them.
Using a gentle, surprisingly delicate manipulation of his ghost-type energy, Haunter scooped up the terrified baby Kangaskhan, floated over the heads of the confused gangsters, and deposited the infant gently at Eric's feet.
The baby was shaking violently, tears streaming down its scaly face.
Eric crouched down, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sweet, pink Poffin.
"Gardevoir," Eric murmured.
The elegant psychic-type materialized beside him. Her eyes glowed with a soft, warm pink light, wrapping the baby in a deeply soothing, empathic blanket. The overwhelming aura of a motherly figure washed over the infant.
The baby Kangaskhan stopped crying. It sniffed the Poffin, then took a tiny, hesitant bite.
Eric patted its head, his eyes cold as he stood back up.
"Oye!"
A thug with a slicked-back pompadour, wearing the silver jacket of the Time Gang, stomped over to Eric.
"Who told you that you can interfere with the Time Gang's business?" the thug demanded, pointing a finger at Eric.
Eric looked at the man with an incredibly cold, utterly apathetic stare.
"You lot were so engrossed in your petty beef that you didn't even notice a baby Pokémon caught up in the fray."
The gang member paused. He glanced down, noticing the baby Kangaskhan happily munching on a Poffin behind Gardevoir's legs. A flicker of genuine guilt crossed his face.
But it only lasted for a fraction of a second. In the criminal underworld, pride was everything.
The thug's face flushed with anger. "Petty beef? You saying our leader's beef is petty?!"
Eric exhaled a slow, deeply irritated breath. He hadn't wanted to fight today. But looking at the reckless, arrogant thugs who had nearly incinerated an infant just to settle a philosophical argument, the familiar irritation from his time in Redwood Forest flared up.
"Haunter. Fearow. Poliwrath."
Eric unclasped two more Poké Balls, dropping them to the dirt.
"Time to fight."
Poliwrath appeared with a heavy thud, dropping instantly into a disciplined martial arts stance. Fearow took to the sky with a piercing, aggressive shriek. And Haunter, who had been waiting for the exact moment to let loose, laughed wickedly as his eyes glowed a dangerous purple.
All hell broke loose.
Eric didn't care about their affiliations. He didn't care if they were Time or Space. If they were in front of him, they were getting crushed.
"Poliwrath, Surf! Fearow, Aerial Ace on anyone who tries to dodge!"
Poliwrath created a giant wave of water that slammed into the charging Pokemon. A lot of them were caught up in the attack, but a few dodged either to the side or into the air.
Fearow, who was silently waiting, folded her wings and dove like a missile at the Pokemon who jumped into the air to dodge. She used Aerial Ace to pick off the Pokemon in the air one by one.
And Haunter was an absolute menace. He zipped through the shadows, appearing behind clusters of enemies, firing devastating Shadow Balls at them.
Eric's Pokemon were a lot more destructive than the brawl the two gangs were having earlier.
The sheer volume of the commotion eventually rippled all the way to the center of the gorge, where the two bosses were locked in their intense battle.
Juro's Bronzong had just deflected a Dark Pulse from Jackman's Houndoom when the elderly man paused, leaning on his cane as he looked toward the back of his lines.
"It's getting noisy over there," Juro grunted, narrowing his eyes at the flashes of ghost and flying-type energy tossing his men into the air. "What say we take a look and then get back to this?"
Jackman scowled, lowering his hand. "Hmph, fine."