The night had broken exceedingly cold and gray, there were clear night skies and everything, including Aiiran and I received an intangible pall over us, a gloom that made the night seem darker than it already was, due to the absence of the sun and the presence of the half-crescent moon. This fact did not make me nervous, I was actually used to the darkness, Miir Cyraa wasn't the brightest place on Earth, we had as little light as possible so we wouldn't be somehow noticed from the surface and I have grown accustomed to this darkness.

I stared up at the face of my opponent, willing to take my life in an instant. It pained me to know how the humans desired to kill Pokemon, and just by looking in his face I could see all of the human nature, the nature to keep themselves the dominant species on Earth.

A cold wind blew past Aiiran and I as we stood there in attention, ready for one or the other to attack. My PDF jacket blew wherever the wind blew obediently. We both stared at each other with blank faces, almost trying to read each other's minds. This was the conflict of Pokemon versus Human, why did it all have to be this way? Why couldn't we just live in peace? I almost tried to extend my hand out to Aiiran for friendship. I lifted my right arm but rested it back at my sides almost instantly. I knew he, as a PEF, would never extend his hand to me, that must be the reason he joined the PEF, the Pokemon Elimination Force are people who hated Pokemon, they didn't kill us just for the money.

I challenged my mind and tried to think of a good strategy, I didn't want to run in there like an idiot, this guy could be dangerous... I guess there is no way to find out until I've actually fought him. "I can't be wasting time like this!" I yelled in my own mind, trying really hard to decide if I should stay and fight or run. I had this sudden urge to just get up and run away to go help Belisivious and Yurrei... even if I didn't have any real evidence that they were in trouble, I just assumed that could be the case and that they could defend themselves.

I had to say the scenery was really one for a battle, the night's moon looking over us, the dead plants and trees that surrounded us. Then there comes the nearly annihilated buildings all around us, all working together to make everything here very exciting and dangerous-looking.

"I have never even dreamed to meet you here of all places... and to think I almost refused on going on this mission..." Airran proclaimed, playing around with his katana, "I'm curious, what makes you think that you can defeat me with a blade alone?" I asked, really wondering what was going through this guy's mind when he decided to take me on with that sword, "If I want to kill you, I want to do it on equal grounds, close range to close range" he explained, now placing his katana on his shoulder with the reverse side resting on it.

"...and what if there are interruptions...?" I asked, "I can't promise anything about that, if you are killed by another PEF soldier... well then I don't have control of that" he said, almost making it sound like he didn't care if he killed me one way or another, but I knew by that look in his eyes that he really wanted to kill me, now I was beginning to regret ever going to Sootopolis, then I probably wouldn't have been in this situation.

"Fine then, if you don't make the first move, I'll have to do it myself!" Aiiran yelled, charging towards me with his katana reversed, his handle pointing towards me. I lifted my right arm to block his sword from causing any major damage to my body. My claws were just like his sword, except for each arm I had 2 blades, in a Zangoose term, "One Claw is the 2 blades on one paw"

My claws were as sharp as a real sword but dull at the sides. It probably wasn't very smart of me to have engaged in battle with this guy when he clearly has the advantage with that sword of his, but then again, I had my hereditary moves which gave me a high advantage over Aiiran, how could I have forgotten about that?

The force from his strike caused me to slide across the ground a few inches until he launched another attack that went straight for my legs, he swung in a horizontal pattern, the first thing I did was jump over the blade and attempt a left handed attack with seemed like the perfect move, but I was mistaken when he was able to block with such great speed. The next thing I knew, he was actually lifting me up with his sword itself, I cut the weapon deadlock and attempted a kick to his stomach, of course we somehow found a way to repel that with the handle of his katana. In a desperate attempt to get me away from him, he re-sheathed his sword and un-sheathed it quickly, somehow turning the sheathing into an attack to my stomach. A successful attack as well.

I never knew how much a katana handle could hurt, blood rushed up my throat and escaped out of my mouth once I stopped sliding across the floor from the hit, "God damn, he's fast..." I muttered to myself, wiping some dripping blood off of my chin.

I looked up to see Aiiran standing there with his weapon drawn and placed near his right hip, he lifted it up in the air and pointed the tip right at me signaling me to attack. I knew exactly what to do at that moment: I began to claw at the ground so I could receive the element of surprise. There was no way he could detect me from under.

I quickly dug into the ground, moving at a speed that I've never achieved before, I could detect Aiiran's presence on the surface and I saw that he was just standing here with his sword still pointing at where I just was.

I came up from under him and attempted to use my Crush Claw against him, but before I even had a chance to equalize my eyes to the moon's light, I felt his foot ram into my face in an upwards direction, causing me to fly straight up. All I knew at that moment is that he had me right where he wanted me. My chin was pointed straight up from the force of the kick, my eyes closed shut from the pain, I couldn't move my arms or legs fast enough to block any attacks he had for me.

Without any mercy, he shoved his right foot right into my stomach, my eyes almost crossed towards each other from the pain, then out of nowhere another kick ram into my stomach in the same exact spot from the previous attack.

Again my mouth opened and more blood escaped from it, my stomach began to ache and burn as even more blood escaped, I knew that if this were to continue... this fight would be over.

My body collided with the ground first, then came my head afterwards, ramming against the cold and wet dirt and bouncing up once again. I was taking way too much damage, and the battle has only just began, if I keep underestimating this guy, I'm going to die here. Plus, now I couldn't get away, I could already see the conclusion to that decision. By looking down at his waste, I saw a nine-millimeter or 9mm pistol on his belt, along with several grenades. By retreating I would just seal my own fate.

I became angry when I looked back up at Aiiran, he had this confident smirk on his face, that just makes me go ballistic when people think they have the upper-hand on me. This guy did not know who he was dealing with!

I got back up and rushed towards him with another attempt with Crush Claw. He quickly swung his sword against my Crush Claw, causing a temporary weapon deadlock, "He fell for it!" I thought when I realized the strategic opportunity I was given here. I took the liberty of ending this fight once and for all with another Crush Claw with my free arm, "Say 'Bye' bitch!" I yelled as I prepared the attack. The curse just slipped out of my mouth there as I swung my Crush Claw into his body, this lead to both of my arms facing Aiiran directly, kind of like I was trying to keep him from getting any further.

My eyes widened as I realized what had happened, "...what? Impossible!" I yelled loudly, dealing with the fact that Aiiran blocked both of my Crush Claws by evenly distributing his katana to each one of my arms, it was like that sword was the perfect size to have blocked both of them at once. He pushed me away and quickly reached for his belt. "Oh shit..." was the first thing that came to my mind as he threw a grenade directly towards me, he began to walk away as the grenade hit the floor and barely sunk into the wet dirt.

"Oh, for the love of..." I yelled as I tried my Agility and quickly zig-zagged away from the grenade before it exploded.

I felt the waves from the explosion ram against my body, causing me to lose my balance and fall face first into the dirt, scraping the hell out of my chin.

Smoke began to rise from the explosion, I couldn't see what Aiiran was doing back there so I decided that since my Agility was still active, to just sprint through the smoke and attack him if he was still just walking away.

I ran through the smoke only to see Aiiran walking into the hospital from whence I met him, I decided quickly to intercept him at the top but climbing up there with my claws. I took off my PDF jacket before I leaped on the building. This thing was just way too heavy to be wearing in battle, this will probably increase my speed by a small amount, but what I didn't understand was how Aiiran was moving so quickly, yet he had all of this PEF equipment on.

As I began to crawl up, one by one I dug my claws into the cement with sheer force and then continued the cycle upwards. The cold wind's speed seemed to have increased

I was right about intercepting him at the top, that was exactly where he was going and that is exactly where I found him one I reached the top. I could tell he wasn't expecting me up here by that confused look on his face, but that confused and helpless look turned into that calm face he has had for almost the entire battle. He charged at me with his sword reversed once again, this time I didn't let him cause a weapon deadlock, I split my legs apart and ducked, just reflexes, I didn't do the splits just because I thought it would be cool to dodge a sword swing like that. The human's speed was remarkable, once I looked up to see where he was going to attack next, he was already in the process of a vertical swing towards the floor which I successfully dodged as well by leaping over to the left, spinning sideways like crazy.

As I hit the floor and retained my balance, I saw that Aiiran was charging me once again, but this time he took out a second katana, pointing one at me and one away from me as he charged, "A second one? How come I didn't see that coming?!" I yelled aloud, barely dodging the first strike, but then came the second strike which I blocked, but once again I forgot about the right handed weapon which slammed down against the ground, of course I barely dodged it once again with that same "spinning away" technique.

"This guy is crazy!" I thought, watching him swing his left handed and right handed sword at me like a maniac, they were both perfectly in sync, I was having too much of a difficult time dodging them as they whipped through the air and rushed towards me. I was wondering why my lungs weren't hurting at this moment, I began to feel pain there when I was digging under the Verdanturf town walls, and this is taking up even more of my energy, how come I'm not feeling it?

"This is just getting ridiculous, how is this guy so damn fast?" I asked myself, once again barely dodging another swing towards me, this time I bent my spine backwards to dodge it, all I knew is that if I didn't do that my head would have been swiped clean off.

I knew that if I were to just stick with close ranged melee attacks this wouldn't end well, so I resorted to using Ice Beam. I don't normally use Ice Beam but I knew that it would have a super effect on him as a human.

I couldn't see much for the incredibly cold beam was slipping through my throat and creating this really bright light in my face, "Get out of here!" I heard Aiiran yell as he ducked under my Ice Beam and rammed both of his katana handles against my stomach. "Holy... crap!" I yelled as I found myself falling off the hospital's roof. It only took me half a second to figure out what I could do to save myself, and that was clawing at the cement while I fell to slow down my descent towards Earth's surface.

Sparks began to fly out from the walls as my claws scratched against the cement, "...It's working!" I thought as my falling rate began to slow down, good thing too, I slowed down enough so colliding against the ground wouldn't be as severe as it could have been.

The force still made me lose my balance and fall over on my rump, I had to say that was some quick thinking, I didn't know how I was responding so well to this type of fast action all of a sudden, just a few moments ago I could barely even defend myself against that Sandslash and now I'm using my claws against a building to weaken the falling rate of a decent?

I stared up at Aiiran who was looking down upon me, his sword glimmering in the moonlight. I began to realize how powerful this guy was when he began to step back and run towards the edge of the building, jumping off right at the edge with both of his weapons pointing towards me. I yelled in surprise as he flew towards me, the evil look on his face was so vile at this point. He looked like a white-haired winged demon ascending towards me at full speed.

I quickly got up and prepared myself, positioning myself just right for the impact by sliding my right leg over so it looked like I was stretching it out, and my left leg bent over the opposite way. I clawed at the air once with my right arm as Aiiran got so close to me that I could see the green of his eyes.

My left claw collided with his right sword and my right claw collided with his left. I couldn't hold it there for long, his entire body was assisting him on this one, eventually I ended up pulling back from the pressure of his swords against my claws, I knew if I were to try fighting back his force, I would have ended up losing the weapon deadlock, causing me to lose my balance... giving Aiiran the perfect opportunity to slash both of his blades through my furry body.

As I regained my balance, I noticed Aiiran charging towards me once again, this time sheathing his left handed sword as he advanced on me. I jumped up, trying to dodge his attack but I realized I jumped up way too soon and his blade went straight for my stomach, I blocked it with both of my claws, the force pushing me back, then came more strikes from Aiiran, he didn't even let me hit the ground before he unleashed his full speed against me.

His blades slashed away at me at this incredible speed, I was so grateful that my reflexes have kicked back in ever since that Sandslash, I blocked every one of the strikes perfectly, but the force from each strike grew in power, eventually it became a requirement for me to block it with both of my claws.

He finally pulled back long enough for me to hit the floor, but once I did, I lunged myself forward when I saw a small opening in his defense. I charged at him with Crush Claw one more time, but this time he didn't even bother to block it, he just evaded it and traveled around me before I had a time to recover from my attack, he landed a kick to the back of my knee pads, causing me to fall over.

I saw he was aiming to stab me while I lay on the floor. I rolled away from his strikes and got back on my feet as fast as I could, following it up by charging my Focus Punch and preparing to launch that into his stomach. Aiiran quickly sheathed his right handed katana and waited for me.

I felt the power charge in my right paw as I ran towards Aiiran, yelling as I went. Once I forwarded my arm, I realized what he was planning all along, he moved out of the way at the last second and by doing so he has revealed the power box to the building, "Are you serious?!" I yelled in disbelief when I saw this, if I were to ram my Focus Punch into that power box, I would pretty much be taking a Fire Blast to the face.

Thankfully I was able to move my arm out of the way just in time, smashing the Focus Punch against the cement wall, little stones flew out and clapped against the ground.

I turned around to face Aiiran, trying to catch my breath in the process. He once again un-sheathed his right handed katana and pointed it towards me, the same way as before, "The way you do that is really starting to piss me off!" I yelled in frustration as he revealed that same annoying smirk once again, "That's it!" I yelled at him, using Agility again, zig-zagging towards Aiiran in an unpredictable fashion.

I knew that his reflexes are not good enough to visualize exactly where I was going to strike when I was going at this speed.

"You're dead!" I yelled.

I knew this was going to hit as I stopped zig-zagging towards him and launched another Crush Claw towards him.

"...what...?" I thought as everything went white all of a sudden.

"...he...there's no way..."

He actually pulled his katana out at the last second and bashed me in the face once I got near him with his katana handle. The pain from that blow was almost too much to handle, it was like someone pulling out all of my fangs at once.

I flew away from him, the breeze almost changing my direction. The moon's light shimmered as I blinked slowly, my hair fluttering around my face. It was like everything went slow after I was struck by Aiiran's katana.

I felt myself collapsing onto the ground, making the pain even more intense.

I looked up to see Aiiran walking towards me slowly. An evil grin on his face, "So, that was Jherek Kuhn? The one who killed my father? I didn't even have to use my gun on you..." I heard Aiiran proclaim, but how did he get my last name? Wait a second, how did he get my first name?

"I had to say, I was expecting more speed and power from you... but before I kill you, I might as well tell you how I got my revenge on you" Aiiran chuckled, sheathing his weapon once again.

"What... what did you do?" I asked, barely even able to speak properly.

Aiiran picked me up by my throat, I grunted as he squeezed against my neck, making it harder and harder to breathe. He once against un-sheathed his right handed katana, and pointed it towards me.

"Well, you see... I know about your past, you used to have a trainer named Cindy Ihley too, I believe" Aiiran whispered into my ears.

"...what... what did you do with her?" I asked almost fearing the answer, sweat rolling down my face and soaking my fur. I could barely hold my breath any longer

"Well, I wouldn't want to bore you with the details, let's just say she's now lying face down in a pool of blood with 2 bullets lodged in the back of her head" Aiiran menacingly whispered, poking a small hole in my throat with his sword.

"You... you killed her?!" I yelled suddenly, my entire face still aching from Aiiran's blow. I began to kick around to try and get free of his grip. Everything began to become unfocused, Aiiran's face blurred out for a bit.

"No need in struggling anymore... it's over" he whispered, pulling his sword back and thrusting it towards my neck.

I don't know the details about what I did next, but all I knew is that I blocked the sword's thrust with my claws and somehow broke the katana in the process. Aiiran backed away from me in shock as his sword fell apart. My knees hit the floor first when he dropped me. I felt a tingling sensation all over my body as my rage built up, my entire body heating up in the process as well, suddenly that tingling turned into burning.

"What... what's happening to you?!" Aiiran yelled at me, his eyes widened until they couldn't widen anymore, "What is he talking about? What IS happening to me?" I asked myself, suddenly hearing my voice go deeper in the middle of that sentence.

"Oh God...!"

I began to scream in pain as the burning grew more and more intense every second, "Are... are you... are you even a Zangoose?!" Aiiran yelled, his tone turned to fear. I lifted my right arm and I couldn't believe what I saw, where my white fur was, there was black, and where my orange fur was, there was dark red.

"Wait... is this... 'Inner Rage'...?" I thought fearfully, remembering what my father told me about this unique hereditary move.

"The move 'Inner Rage' is a unique move that your mother and I must have passed on to you by mating, no other Zangooses have this move except the ones from our family, it increases your body's heart rate by almost 500, it causes you to go into an Adrenaline Rush for as long as you are in this state, your reflexes will drastically increase and your power will increase tenfold. This move is only triggered by extreme shock, say a loved one died, you might go into this rage. But heed my words, son, if you go into this state too many times, you will rapidly age and soon you will be reduced to dust..."

This was it, the move my father warned me about so many times and here I never thought I would be able to use it.

"You killed... my trainer... you have crossed the line when you told me that information, you just made a big mistake pal!" I yelled with this devilishly demonic voice, I sounded scary even to myself.

"If you wanted to see the real Jherek Kuhn, then attack me now!" I yelled with great beast-like vigor.Chapter End Notes:March 13, 2098: This guy... this guy killed Cindy?! Was THIS his revenge? I could have reunited with Cindy after all of this time... but he's ruined those chances! That's it! I'm going to tear this guy apart!!




Next Episode: The Kuhn Hereditary Attack: Jherek vs. Aiiran (Part 2