Lawrence and Agnes, after staying a while longer, left the restaurant to head home. Somewhat nearby was a Surskit, whom Agnes let out after the two paid for their food and left. Lawrence occasionally shot glances at the water strider, making sure it kept its distance from him; he always maintained a phobia of bugs, not helped by his newfound sensitivity to most of them. Even Agnes seemed unconsciously apprehensive around the water-type bug at times, much to her irritation.
Agnes looked around, thinking of the exodus of some of the other patrons at the restaurant. "You said something about an event?" She asked, curious.
Lawrence shook his head. "It's not important. We're probably too late for it, anyway." He didn't expect her to take an interest in the event, expecting her to be like him and head home. He felt too uncomfortable around others---especially now---and could still never get used to the hot, humid Alolan weather. In hindsight, he shouldn't have found it jarring that she was different; she always was.
"Are you sure? You can't tell me anything?"
Lawrence shook his head. "Let's... let's just go home."
"Might as well see what's up while we're out," Agnes said, beginning to walk in the direction of the town square. "Are you coming?"
Lawrence hesitated. "Erm... sure. Sure, I'll go." Even if he didn't want to go, he also didn't want to be separated from her sister, for both of their sakes.
---
By the time they approached the town square, it was a far different sight than anticipated. They heard what sounded to be like battles, but had no full context until they got closer. The siblings stared at the chaos as if watching a car wreck, before the two began to take steps backwards from the scene. A man began walking to the two Pokehumans, an intimidating air giving the two a sense of uneasiness, but not enough to act upon. Lawrence turned to the man: "Hi, we were walking thr-"
It was hard to maintain benefit of the doubt once the stranger grabbed Lawrence by the collar of his shirt. The little color in the part-Zorua's complexion faded as the two realized that they should've gone with instinct. The man stared down Agnes, whose eyes darted between him and the boy he was holding as her Surskit looked ready to murder. "Get.
Now," the grunt snapped, looking at the chaotic mass and back at her, as if signaling her to join them.
Eventually, Lawrence spoke up, but in a tone almost inaudible to even himself. "Uh... sir, we were just heading home," he croaked, immediately met with a face of pure anger mixed with an urge to laugh at him. "No, you aren't," the grunt said, and began to reach for a Pokeball at his belt. "
Get," he repeated to an uneasy Agnes, who slowly began reaching for the stick in her tail.
Lawrence tugged at his shirt subtlely, testing how strong the stranger was holding onto him. No use---his grip was tight. "Not happening," the grunt replied, noticing. The Pokehuman looked back up at him, appearing as if about to say something. The grunt waited for whatever dumb comment the boy would give next, only to be answered by a sudden, surprising blow to the cheek---the brat had Feinted him! In an instant, his grip on Lawrence loosened, allowing the part-Zorua valuable time to get away from the man and run. Agnes and her pet followed suit, but were eventually accompanied by a Yanmega and a very, very angry grunt.
As Lawrence looked behind him and noticed the Yanmega quickly closing the distance between them, his eyes widened in fear, and he beelined into the crowd to try and lose it. Anything, anything but the possibility of it flying into him, buzzing into his ear,
biting him! He had to lose it somehow; there was no way he could outrun it and he absolutely didn't want to test fighting it. Agnes noticed her brother's sharp detour and yelled after him to no avail. She took the stick out of her tail and fired an Ember from its tip to try and distract the bug, but it nor its owner didn't seem at all concerned with her. This was personal. Agnes, Surskit in tow, ran after Lawrence and the grunt into the crowd.
Lawrence continued to run through the crowd, swerving, bumping into others, and barely dodging an Ice Beam as he attempted to lose the dragonfly. Occasionally, he looked behind him, glimpses of the green bug and its indignant owner slowly becoming more uncommon, replaced by glances from other grunts too preoccupied to focus on him. As he ran, the air became noticeably colder, the sounds of small objects plopping onto the ground slowly becoming more frequent. The part-Zorua eventually began to slow down, putting his arms above his head and looking around, out of breath. He was almost certain he'd lost them, and if he hadn't, there was no way they'd want to follow him in here. The hail hurt, but he was safe. Safe from
it.
Agnes, meanwhile, was unable to track down her brother in the crowd. Not only was he too fast, but he seemed to have developed an uncanny ability to blend in with his surroundings, and to almost appear as if he was heading in different directions. Eventually, she was ready to give up---whenever the coast was clear, she hoped he would find her instead. She scanned her surroundings one more time, seemingly forgetting that many, many of the people and Pokemon here were fighting Pokehumans like her.
One of the grunts, or one of their Pokemon, seemed to take notice of this. While the part-Braixen's back was turned, a Fire Blast hit her on the back of the head. While the move itself wasn't too painful, it caught the girl by surprise and knocked her to the ground. She quickly tried to get back up again, glancing around at her surroundings to try and find the culprit, her Surskit doing the same. She eventually found a Pokemon who she thought could be responsible in a Salazzle, her wand's fire beginning to take on a pink glow as she prepared to pay it back. She focused as much of her energy into the wand as possible before letting loose a Psybeam aimed at the lizard.
