Haruki looked to see Almond's actions, and she put away her pokeballs and held up her hands peacefully as well to show that she too meant no harm. She looked to the stranger who spoke up and she answered him sincerely, "No, we're not. We're just two very new Pokemon trainers, and we thought we should give a gym battle a try. OK, so this may not be a good time considering what we've heard has been happening, but we don't want to hurt anyone," 

She then stated "I think introductions are in order. I'm Haruki, and this is Almond. His Bulbasaur is Walnut. We're new to Pewter City," She hoped that introducing the three of them to the strangers may help calm things down if they knew their names. She then asked, realizing something important, "Wait...Why would you think we were with the shadows? Was someone or something....[i]with[/i] the shadows?" It was a curious thing, if it wasn't just the stranger being paranoid.