RD: Tales of the Abyss ch.9

RD: Tales of the Abyss
Ch. 9

By the time the team of Jenna and Raphael had reached Veilstone, the entire city
was in a state of complete pandemonium. The gravel streets were torn apart by massive fissures in the ground. Screams and the blare of emergency sirens filled the air. Destroyed and burning buildings replaced the once proud and tall skyscrapers of the metropolis, smoke and embers painting the sky an ashy gray. This was clearly the handiwork of Delganos and his minions. Vincent, Rupert and Veruka gazed out at the scene of destruction in horror.
"Dear Arceus...." Vincent breathed. "How could one pokemon do all of this? I mean he had help of course, but this......this is just crazy...."
Neither Veruka nor Rupert replied. They were too shocked  speak. An ear piercing shriek cut the atmosphere, sending a chill down everyone's spine. Raphael pointed towards the direction of the shrill cry. They knew that sound all too well. "He's over there! Hurry!" The two trainers and their pokemon raced to the Veilstone gym as fast as they could, ducking and dodging multiple attacks from aerodactyl and skarmory from the sky. Raphael released Victoria and Zane from their poke balls and motioned to their attackers. "Keep them busy while we go for Delganos!" They nodded, and Zane threw victoria into a fleet of skarmory, a hyper beam charged in her jaws. She grabbed as many as she could in her coils and opened her mouth wide. "Pucker up, boys!"
The others didn't see the attack, but they sure heard the explosion. Raphael grinned with grim satisfaction "Your terrible Victoria."
"She sure is tenacious isn't she?" Jenna said. "You have no idea." Raphael replied. "Before I caught her, she didn't even discriminate between male and female using that attack." Jenna was about to say how much that disturbed her to the core when the pillar upholding the left side of the gym collapsed, nearly falling right on top of her. Behind it, was none other than Delganos, fighting it out with the gym leader's medicham. In all truth, it wasn't much of a fight. The mighty earth snake wasn't even scratched. The same couldn't be said for the battered and bloody, half-conscious pokemon battling him. The medicham leaped into the air and came down with a high jump kick right on Delgano's forehead. The beast was unfazed, snatching his opponent out of the air and throwing it through a crumbling wall.
"No! Hang on!" Vincent yelled out of concern and anger, charging Delganos head on. Before he even knew the lucario was there, he got a fistful of focus punch right in the jaw. The blow seemed to do nothing more than irritate the creature however. He turned to his new adversaries with a look of unconfined loathing. With a roar, Delganos brought his massive spiked tail down on top of the three pokemon....... Or so he thought.
He lifted his tail to view yet another satisfying kill, only to find the flashing and holographic images of Vincent, Veruka and Rupert completely unharmed. Grunting in confusion, he tore the already decrepit gym to pieces trying to find his prey. He found something, but not the pokemon that had eluded him before. Like a streak of black lightning from above, Matthew swooped down with wings spread wide. Delganos lunged out at the ebony figure, but Matthew was quicker. Barrel rolling to the side, he tucked his wings in and launched his body right into the gut of the horrible creature. The impact sent both adversaries sprawling to the ground, grappling in gritty hand to hand combat(something Matthew was surprisingly comfortable with). "NOW!" a voice called out. In an instant Vincent, Veruka, Rupert and Elizabeth fell down from a skylight in the ceiling, attacks charged and at the ready. Delganos didn't have time to react, and was hit  hard with a merciless barrage of power gems, metal claws, blaze kicks and shadow balls.
All four collided with their target simultaneously, resulting in an explosion of humongous proportions.
Panting heavily, the four pokemon stared into the smoke with grim satisfaction. Nothing moved within. "I think we got him....." Vincent said smiling tiredly. Veruka and the others began to smile along with him. "I actually think we got him!" The four practically cried out with triumph at their hard fought victory. Vincent ran up to Veruka excitedly, almost bouncing up and down with energy. "Veruka wasn't that amazing?! I mean you and me and the others looked great out there, we finally-" He was suddenly cut off by Veruka wrapping her arms around him and kissing him tenderly on his soft jackal like lips. Without even thinking, his whole body relaxed, leaning into the kiss and pulling her close. The goofy lucario's mind raced with questions. "Why is she kissing me? Does she really mean this or was it a spur of the moment thing? Did I finally win her? Is this a dream?" As amazing as this felt, he needed answers. Putting his paws on her shoulders, he gently pushed her away. She seemed almost reluctant to break away, like she was enjoying it as much as he was....
When they finally broke away, Veruka had the strangest expression on her face. She looked puzzled, almost hurt, as if breaking the moment between them was like an insult to her. Veruka put a hand on Vincent's soft furred cheek. "What's the matter? Isn't this what you've always wanted?" Vincent put an arm around her and pulled her close. She lay her head on his unseemingly muscular chest. It surprised her how strong he was. "Of course it is, This is like a dream come true for me." He replied softly. "I just need to know.....is it the same for you?"
Veruka never got the chance to answer that question. From out of the smoke, a long bladed tail shot forth. The two of them just screamed, knowing they weren't fast enough to avoid it. Vincent hugged Veruka to him tightly and waited for the killing blow to come. He waited for something that wasn't coming however. As he slowly opened his eyes, the image of Dante could be seen pinning the giant blade to the ground with his jaws. With shocking strength, the houndoom threw it to the side, growling with contempt. "It's not nice to pick on happy couples. Don't you know that?"
Delganos glared vengefully at Dante through his glowing purple eyes. Yet unbeknownst to anyone except him, something else hid beneath that glare. Something that had been unknown to the ancient being for eons. Fear. For the first time in over a thousand millennia, he actually feared this pokemon to some extent. He could sense the power inside him, feel it's tenacity radiating off of the houndoom's body. He would need to get stronger if he was to defeat him and the other wretched scum that dared to stand in his way.
Just as the others of Jenna and Raphael's team showed up to help out, Delganos unleashed an ear splitting screech, calling down another fleet of aerodactyl. While our heroes battled it out with Delganos's make-shift air force, the beast tunneled down into the earth once again, followed by whatever remained of his minions. Raphael immediately took out his tracker radar, which was blinking in the south eastern direction........headed right for.......the ocean.

End of ch.9