Levan and Haxorus weren't expecting Azumi to come charging in at them like that, and so Edward's Head Smash was a direct hit. Haxorus was sent flying, rolling along the pavement for a considerable distance before finally managing to stop itself on its feet...
Levan looked Azumi dead in the eyes, and flashed a wicked grin:
"Azumi, I didn't expect to see you here anytime soon..." he noticed Ray, a couple blocks away, out of the corner of his eye. "What, no Ray? He's just sending you to your death, all alone? Well, that's sad..." Levan gave a sharp, one-handed whistle, and his Feraligatr, who was half a block away, promptly drew back from the body of Grant's now-unconscious Aurorus and rushed over. The alligator pokemon barrelled toward Azumi on all fours, moving toward the battlefield with Levan's signature brand of unhinged aggression - a deranged kind of conviction, designed to instil terror into the hearts of his victims... Even when he was younger, Levan's battle tactics had always been just as psychological as they were physical...
* * *
Ray was in the midst of picking off grunts when he came face-to-face with a couple members of his old squadron...
"Capt'n Ray!" one of them exclaimed, startled by Ray's presence. None of them made any moves to attack Ray - they seemed conflicted... Ray was conflicted as well...
"Look, I don't want to hurt you!" Ray shouted at them, "but my brother's gone mad, and I'll do whatever it takes to stop him!"
"B-but, then, what about us?" one of them responded, worriedly. "Without the gang, there'll be nothing left for us!"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Ray exclaimed, nearly cutting the man off. "That's a load of shit! I used to think that too, but I now know firsthand that isn't the case!" Some more members of Ray's old squadron appeared to have overhead him, and stopped battling to listen to him...
"People may seem hostile to us at first, but that's just because we've never given them a chance! We run away from them at the fist sign of negativity, and say to ourselves: 'well, I guess team rocket is the only place that'll accept me - I guess I'm just stuck here...'
But what the hell do you expect!? That the people who you yesterday stole from, and attacked, are just going to forgive you right there on the spot? Obviously not! Let's face it: we've all done some terrible things, and we all deserve to be shunned, to some extent... so if we want to be accepted by society, we'll have to work for it - we'll have to prove ourselves!" Ray noticed that a small crowd had formed around him, and realized that there was a great opportunity here, for everyone involved...
"Please! Help me put an end to this vicious cycle that we find ourselves caught up in, time and time again! It's possible for us to escape this, and live much better lives! I know how hard it can be to take that first step into the unknown, but trust me when I tell you that it'll be well worth it!"
The surrounding group of rockets, who had really grown to admire Ray as a leader during their previous endeavour in the northern half of the city, cheered in response and stood by eagerly awaiting his orders.
"T-thank you! You won't regret this!" Ray was ecstatic to see that he'd gotten through to them, and led a rocket-vs-rocket charge against Levan's army...