With Guzma at the head of the pack, his underlings were fearless. They never lost a single battle. If one pokémon was struck down, another twice as strong would take its place. The rewards they reaped were great as the name they were making for themselves.

Currently they were undergoing one of the largest and longest battles against a rival gang since taking over Po Town. Pokémon and trainer fought side by side in an awesome display of organized chaos. Everywhere claws rent the earth raw and screeches of agony and rage, both human and otherwise, echoed across the battlefield.

Even Guzma, Team Skull's ruthless leader, was looking a bit out of breath. He was on his feet rather than his usual crouch, steps light as he seemed to move in time with every move his pokémon, Golisopod, made. As he commanded it he shouted above the chaos, grinning sadistically when the enemy's fearow was abruptly knocked out of the sky. He panted, watching the rival gang leader call back his spent pokémon.

Guzma made a taunting motion.

"Come on, is that all you got?" he jeered breathlessly, spreading his arms.

It had been too long since anything had gotten his blood pumping like this. Beside him someone's rattata was knocked sideways, sent tumbling to a stop mere inches from Galisopod's foot. The scream of what could have been an enraged lycanroc split the air as well as the crash of a thunderous attack.

He saw his opponent gesture off to the side and thought nothing of it. As he watched the man take out one last pokeball both he and Golisopod waited eagerly for the next contender to appear.

That's when something struck him from behind.

Sharp claws tore into his hoodie and the flesh beneath. He arched and cried out, whipping around as he tried to grasp the thing attacking him. Something bit down hard upon his shoulder, shaking its head violently. He fell to the ground, crushing the thing beneath him as he rolled, managing to grab a hold of one of its spindly little legs. With a powerful jerk he yanked it off of himself, causing further injury he couldn't be bothered to care about.

He was pissed.

Pinning it to the ground he realized it was a slandit. Confusion furrowed his brow before he looked up, seeing one of the rival gang members sneakily crouched before the bushes nearby. The boy looked startled for having been seen.

It was an ambush. They'd set this up; a final resort for if they should lose.

The slandit clawed its way free, scurrying toward its trainer. An enraged roar from Golisopod signaled its stampede as it charged after the much tinier pokémon.

"Boss!" One of his grunts shouted.

The younger teen came up beside him, looking panicked.

"Yo, boss," he tried to calm himself, "What the hell was that?"

"They set us up." He snarled, getting to his feet. "These… mother fuckers."

Before them Golisopod slammed its giant foreclaw upon the tiny slandit's back. The pokémon's trainer leapt up, pleading for them to not hurt the little creature.

"Golisopod, crush it!" Guzma shouted above him. "Tear it apart!"

The pokémon did precisely as it was told, pinning the flailing reptile between its claws. As one last attempt at fighting back it spit a stream of poison in the bug type's face. The toxic substance splattered harmlessly against its metal armor. With one harsh movement it crushed the poor slandit, bones snapping and innards gushing out of its gaping maw. Only then did it drop the pokémon, allowing it to fall lifelessly at its distraught trainer's feet.

Guzma rounded on the grunt next, "What are you doing still standin' there? Destroy them!" He gestured viciously toward the ongoing war behind them.

In the next moments whatever coordination the fight had disappeared. It turned into an all out war. Pokémon weren't stopping when their opponents fainted. Blood scored the ground and painted the claw marks. They weren't finished until the opposing gang was running for their lives.

As Guzma watched his vision began to swim. He stumbled back. His body felt hot. The places where the slandit's claws and teeth had tore at him burned. Venom was spreading throughout his veins like fire, searing him from the inside. He fell to his knees as the strength left him, the smell of blood and death becoming dull as his senses failed. The one antidote he'd brought to this fight trembled in his hand as he readied to use it, praying it might work on a human as well as it did pokémon. He had little choice but to try; it was either taking this risk, or dying of the venom. He jabbed the needle into his arm and emptied the syringe. Pulling it out he felt consciousness dwindling, panting softly as he hunched over and let the empty syringe fall from his hand. Darkness closed in on his vision and he fell sideways to the grass, unaware of Galisopod's shadow as the pokémon hovered above him, concern seeping from its posture and gleaming eyes.