APOLLO

The humiliation of being tricked by the Brightflames in Rustboro gave way to excitement and a hint of joy when Apollo Love finally led his men into battle against the armies of Mt. Chimney. If you could even call it battle, he thought. This is a rout.

Neither of the allied armies of Slateport or Mauville had had any break from riding. The winding, rocky hills between Rustboro and Verdanturf had taken them an entire day to navigate, but after that there was nothing but flat land ahead of them as they charged towards Mauville with a head of steam. Someone should cut through those hills, someday, Apollo had thought to himself of that first day's journey.

Apollo was apprehensive about what he would find when he finally arrived at Mauville, but was impressed that the city walls had held as long as they did save the one breach. There weren't five thousand men, not even three thousand, but the men on Flygon increased the value of some of their number. Still, it was not enough to combat the readiness and anger of the combined forces of Mauville and Slateport.

King Marcus Spark was the first man into the battle, when his Manectric came within sight of the city walls the golden armored Pokemon shot like a bolt of lightning into the fray. Apollo's men then broke off from the main host. Spark's men chased after the Mt. Chimney army that had fled at first sight of them (and that was most of them), while Apollo cut off the retreat from whichever stragglers he could find.

Apollo cut down ten common soldiers in battle that day, and Gallade another thirty while the Pokemon accompanying Mt. Chimney's forces fled at the sight of the Psychic Fighter. Strangely, the Chief of Oldale felt pity for these men who fought for whatever their King told them to do, and died at the whim of his sword arm. The blood of these men didn't get Apollo's adrenaline going, they died so easily. This is not even sport, he thought.

He was about to chase down another soldier to increase his total to eleven when the fleeing soldier seemed to grow an arrow out of his neck. Before the soldier was able to make a sound, he convulsed as a wave of golden electricity coursed through his body. He died before he hit the ground.

Apollo turned his head to where the arrow came from and he saw a fair-looking young lady holding a bow astride a Manectric of her own. Though she or her spirit Pokemon were not armored, she had six quivers of arrows draped around the saddle. Two of the quivers were empty. Apollo wouldn't have remembered her face from the feast in Slateport, but it was the Manectric that he was able to remember her as Sarah Spark.

He called out to her from across the battlefield. "The fight is won, Princess, now go back inside before your father loses his beard!"

She must have heard, though she didn't laugh. "I've got at least fifty arrows I need to retrieve, I'll go back when I've found them all."

This one has no sense of humor, thought Apollo. He wondered if she had really slain fifty men with her arrows. Judging from the arrows she was missing, and the precision with which she took number eleven from him, he thought it was likely. In any case, I can't let anybody know I was outdone in battle by a princess.

He smiled as he looked around for any other enemy soldier, or any other man who might give him a worthy challenge. His smile turned around as something caught his eye in the air. He strained his vision against the setting sun. It was a strange shape, flying north with the rest of the Mt. Chimney scum.

"Gallade! Come and share with me what that is!" The spirit Pokemon heard him and stared at the object, focusing on it. Apollo put his hand on the Pokémon's shoulder as they shared what Gallade saw.

"No... No, no, no, NO!" Six Flygon were carrying an unconscious Swampert that dangled from a net. "Girl!" he called to the Princess. He was going to have her shoot down the Flygon, but the Pokemon were moving fast, and the drop to the ground could mean death for the Swampert. If it's not already dead... He decided not to take the chance. "Kevin, KEVIN WOOD!" he called for his second in command. The man arrived in an instant with his Slaking. The huge gorilla Pokémon's fur was spattered with gore while the Chief of Petalburg wiped a drip of blood from his sword.

The rest of Slateport's men had stopped fighting, there was no point anymore, for the battle was already won. The only Mt. Chimney men that were left were dead under the northern Mauville wall, or tied up as war hostages.

"Tell the men to stop counting the dead, we must find my nephew," Apollo said urgently. If the boy was dead, his sister Luna would surely kill him in return.

"That should be no trouble, as we've sustained no casualties."

"Even so," Apollo's voice was shaky with nervousness, "begin a search immediately."

They searched for what seemed like hours as to where the King of Slateport could be. In the rubble of the broken part of the wall, in any of the buildings outside the city walls, in the field among the dead, there was no trace of Chris Marsh.

"My Lord," the voice was Princess Sarah's, he turned and she was accompanied by his nephew's friend and the Wingull. Apollo could tell the fisherman's son had had enough of bloodshed for a lifetime by the way he trembled. "This is Hector, Chris's friend. He said he saw his King astride Swampert's back as soon as the Mt. Chimney men began their retreat."

The boy, Henry, Apollo remembered, didn't even make eye contact with him. That means he didn't disappear long after we arrived, he figured. "Out with it, boy, when did you lose sight of my nephew?"

"O-over there," the poor boy said, gesturing to a huge scorch-mark on the ground.

One of those Brightflame explosives, no doubt...

Suddenly, the Wingull squawked and took off towards a little wooded area, hundreds of feet away from the small crater caused by the explosive. Gallade bounded after the Pokemon, followed by Sarah's Manectric. Apollo knew enough about Pokemon behavior to know that he was to be led to something.

In a tangle of brush, they found the unconscious body of Chris Marsh. His skin was blacked from dirt and sweat, and his right arm was a bloody ruin. He grimaced as Gallade tried to turn Chris over to find that a bone in his forearm had broken and fractured through the skin. How long had he been laying here? Apollo knew many a smaller cut that had turned deadly with sickness.

"Gallade, take him to the nearest healer immediately," he said angrily. The Spirit Pokemon disappeared in a flash of white light with his nephew King. "Boy! Harold!" he screamed at Chris's friend. The poor soul had vomited at the sight of the white bone and blood splatter on his friend, but Apollo didn't let up. "You're spirit Pokemon seemed to see your friend, your King, land here, why is it that you never thought to heed his advice? To look for him when you saw what happened?"

"I-I," the poor kid threw up again, and began to cry.

"If his arm never heals, or festers an infection, what will you have to say, then?"

"Wingull... I didn't... it's not..."

That's when Apollo realized that Wingull was just a companion to this boy, they shared no spirit bond. Still, the boy should have run after his friend, King or no, instead of hiding in fear.

That night, Apollo, Kevin, Sarah, Hector (as Sarah had politely reminded Apollo what his name was), and even King Spark attended Chris as he slept in the chambers. He would make a full recovery, the nurse said, as Gallade's own healing abilities was working wonders keeping infection at bay as the arm was put in a splint.

Apollo Love mentally had forgiven Hector for his incompetence. Sarah had informed the Chief of Oldale that he had witnessed the Prince of Lavaridge himself kill Ryan, the other of his best friends. The shock to one not trained for battle would be mind-altering, he supposed.

I can deal with Luna, now, he thought. The nurse said the pain remedy will wear off within the week, and he will wake then. As long as his nephew was still alive, so was Apollo.

"I'm sure you've heard by now, Marcus," Apollo said gingerly as he gazed guiltily at his nephew. The proud Prince, no, King was only broken for now. He would be back to his old self in no time. "But even though Chris is alive here and now, Carlos Brightflame's forces were able to capture Swampert."

The thought sickened him even more as he clenched his fists. He had seen one King Marsh die in his lifetime, and he had vowed to not have another one die on him during his watch. Yet still, it seemed now that while Swampert was in the hands of the enemy, Chris Marsh's life was in Brightflame hands.

"I know what you're thinking," added Kevin. "But if the Brightflames wanted him dead, they would have killed Swampert by now."

"That's true," nodded King Spark solemnly, for once the joy disappeared from his electric blue eyes. "But how do we get Swampert back?"

Apollo spoke, "I'll begin planning a rescue mission. There's no way we can accomplish such a task with an army. We need secrecy and stealth."

Princess Sarah knelt down by Chris's bed and held the sleeping King's hand. "Count me in," she said as a glimmer of tears played in her eyes.