Chapter 51: Metronome Dance!
Read up to 30 advanced chapters exclusively on my Patreon at - patreon.com/LoverrBoy
---------------------------------
A surge of intense flames swept past. Liam stood in shock, staring ahead. At some point, a pale blue barrier had appeared before him, enveloping him, his Pokémon, and the Clefairy group, blocking the explosive force of the grenade entirely.
"What just happened?" Liam looked utterly confused, his face full of questions.
"Clef! Clef!"
Hearing the sound behind him, Liam quickly turned around to see the elder Clefable stretching out its finger, its entire body glowing faintly blue.
"Wait! Is that Protect? But how can this Clefable use that move? Don't Clefables usually have a limited movepool? Could it be... Metronome?" Liam was dumbfounded.
He hadn't expected this Clefable to save them with Metronome, a move that triggers a random skill from the vast repertoire of moves.
To pull out Protect at such a critical moment was a rare stroke of luck—one in a million. It was hard to say whether this was Liam's extraordinary luck or the misfortune of the bespectacled man on the other side.
"You dare use grenades?! You guys are beyond redemption! Let's see how I deal with you today! Sneasel! Arbok! You two, go—" Liam's anger was palpable. In the Pokémon world, the regulations on firearms and explosives were far stricter than in the world he came from.
These poachers were already crossing the line by carrying handguns, but pulling out grenades was outrageous. Liam was gearing up to catch them for interrogation when the Clefable behind him stopped him.
Then, to his horror, the numerous Clefairy and the elder Clefable began performing an enthusiastic Metronome Dance.
"What—what are these Clefairy doing? Dancing? Why is it so rhythmic?" The bespectacled man stared in confusion at the Clefairy swaying and twirling in unison. It was bizarrely captivating, almost hypnotic, making him want to sway along with them.
"Clef!"
As the dance ended, the Clefairy stood tall, their bodies glowing in a dazzling array of colors.
Before the bespectacled man and his fellow poachers could react, they were bombarded by an overwhelming storm of moves—flames and hailstones, falling rocks, and lightning bolts—all crashing down on them relentlessly.
When the dust settled, the poachers lay scattered on the now-eroded ground, trembling and incapacitated. They paid dearly for underestimating the adorable looking Clefairys.
Some were charred black with their hair standing on end, others frozen and encased in ice, and one particularly unlucky fellow was buried under rocks, with only a poisoned, purple arm sticking out.
Clearly, his bad luck had reached its peak.
The sheer power of the Clefairy's attack was awe-inspiring. Liam first looked at the defeated poachers with a mix of sympathy and satisfaction before turning his gaze to the collapsed tunnel behind them, now buried under rubble from the onslaught.
His face fell.
"You could've just attacked the poachers—what did the tunnel ever do to you? That was the only way out! Now how am I supposed to leave?" Liam lamented, recalling the hard work it took to carve out that tunnel.
"Clef! Clef!" The elder Clefable called out again.
"This Clefable says it has a way to get you out..." Lulu, visibly drowsy, translated with a long yawn.
The usually sleepy Lulu had been out for far too long and was clearly losing the battle against fatigue. After delivering the message, she flew back into Liam's body to rest.
Hearing this, Liam brightened. "You have a way? How? Is there another exit? Wait, why are you suddenly dancing again? And why are your fingers glowing? Hang on! I haven't recalled my Pokémon yet—wait a second—"
Whoosh!
With a soft sound, the Clefable's surroundings grew quiet. It opened its eyes, glancing around to confirm that the noisy human, his Pokémon, and the defeated poachers had all disappeared.
Then, with a grand gesture, it led the Clefairy away like a flowing river.
Whoosh!
Liam landed safely, and his Pokémon were already behind him, unharmed. The severely injured poachers were piled up nearby.
"Whoa! This Clefable is incredible! It can control what skill Metronome triggers! It just used Teleport, right? I definitely need to catch a Psychic-type Pokémon someday—traveling like this would be amazing!" Liam was still marveling over the experience when he suddenly noticed the surrounding figures.
"Uh-oh..." He looked up to find himself surrounded by uniformed officers holding batons, their eyes fixed on him with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.
"Uh... This is a misunderstanding! I mean no harm—I just accidentally ended up here..." Liam raised his hands in surrender, realizing too late that he'd teleported into the police headquarters.
No wonder they were on high alert.
The officers hesitated, exchanging uncertain glances, unsure whether to trust him.
"Wait a minute! Weren't you the one who left town earlier today? Why are you back? And what's with those bodies? Don't tell me you killed them!" A familiar voice rang out. It was Officer Jenny of Pewter City, who frowned as she examined the scene.
"Uh... You're Officer Jenny from Pewter City? So I'm back in Pewter City? Oh, come on! I spent the entire afternoon trying to leave, and now I'm back again?!" Liam groaned, finally realizing the problem with Teleport: it returns you to the last city you visited.
"Enough excuses! Answer my question!" Officer Jenny's stern gaze bore into him, tinged with concern.
"Ah, these guys? They're poachers. I caught them this afternoon on Mt. Moon. They used illegal weapons to hunt Pokémon in the mountain, and the wild Pokémon there fought back, leaving them in this state. Some are probably still alive, but they'll need immediate treatment, or they won't live much longer," Liam explained with a cold smile, glancing at the defeated poachers.