Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Overthrown

[sub]I"d draw the Dewott like in the banner, but we dunno who that is yet[/sub]

You’d really do that? Really?! Wow, thank you!

Umm, yeah, you haven’t seen him yet, but he is going to have an impact on the plot somehow. [sub]One or two more chapters until he gets here, I think[/sub]

So, if you really want to do that, I would be really grateful.

This is a really great fanfic. Thank you for writing this for me and many more people to read.

But who is the Mismagius (I’m guessing by the description)?

Things will be revealed with those who have patience.

Another reader! Thanks for posting, I always love it when more readers make themselves known.

As for your question, well, Shadow summerized it decently. In due time (most) things will become clear.

“And besides, in this business, the unknown variable always controls the status quo. I am that variable.”

Knightfall signing off… ;005;

Chapter Seven: Interlude

[i] “During the chaos following the Falling Star Incident ten years ago, tribute on the Colonists was placed at an all time high. Queen Alexandria Lucario, wife of recently crowned King Nickolas Lucario went on a mercy mission to aid her citizens, in their need. During her stay in the Colonies, a member of the revolutionary group, ‘The Knights of Arceus’, was able to gain an audience with her and subsequently killed her and himself with several Blast Seeds. This proved to be the breaking point. 
 Stricken with remorse, fury, and a desire for revenge, Nickolas levied a crushing tax on the province and all but destroyed their meager rights under Kingdom law. It was no surprise that following the brief period of disorder after the Restoration of Time two years ago that the Colonies seceded from the Kingdom after a series of violent attacks on the Boarderlands.” [/i] 
Excerpt from the Chronicles of King Nickolas Lucario, as recorded by Scizor of the Rescue Team Federation 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I already told you: I’m closed,” Aleck growled as he dumped the day’s meager earnings into a small cloth bag. [i]Why can’t customers come before I decide to close up shop?[/i] The shopkeeper thought bitterly. 
The Pokemon on the other side of the counter was not to be denied however. 

“Please, I only require a minute of your time,” the Pokemon said, trying to hold the shopkeeper’s attention. 

“Sorry pal, I’m not about to waste my time haggling over a price with you. I have to make a living after all. The price doesn’t change!” Aleck yelled as he systematically swiped each item off the counter and into a chest on the ground.

“Wait, please. I just want—” the Pokemon started before being rudely cut off by the Sableye. 

“Go away, I don’t want to hear---” he grumbled as the other Pokemon calmly spoke over him.

“There is a potential for a great profit on your part,” the Pokemon said, tapping the counter with his scythe to get the Sableye’s attention. 

Aleck nearly dropped his sack of Bronze Poke as he whirled around to face the customer, greed flashing in his crystal eyes. 

“Great profit, you say? I’m listening,” the Sableye said, licking his lips in anticipation as piles of Gold Poke filled his thoughts.     

[i]Gotcha.[/i] “Indeed, it requires virtually no effort on your part,” he said, casually sharpening his right scythe on his diamond-like carapace armor.


“Hmmm,” the Sableye thought for a moment, “you say there’s a great reward, but only a little effort? What’s the catch? There’s always a catch. I’ve seen enough of these deals go sour to know that much,” Aleck responded, eyeing the Scyther closely. 

“No catch; just deliver something to a certain Pokemon. And to motivate you to complete the job properly …” the Scyther said, as he produced a small cloth bag on the counter. He watched as Aleck’s crystal eyes grew slightly brighter as he heard the audible “clink” of coins. 

“Are those what I think they are? How in Heatran’s holy mines did you get Royal Poke?” Aleck asked in mystified awe as the stranger chuckled. 

“I see your senses have not dulled at all when it comes to currency. You are correct in your guess, friend. They most certainly are Royal Poke,” the Scyther stated as he carefully sliced the sewn top of the bag open, allowing the Sableye to see the many gold doubloons contained inside.   

“W-what do I need to do?! I-I’ll do anything! Anything! Kill someone?! Hide the body?! There’s some caves nearby in the mountains, no one will ever find the--” Aleck stuttered as the amount of money in front on him nearly gave him a heart attack. The Scyther stopped him before his babbling could continue with a gentle tap with the broad side of his scythe.

“Nothing so morbid, comrade.  Just deliver this parcel to a Pokemon I will disclose to you shortly, after that, you are free to enjoy your reward in any way you like,” the Scyther reassured Aleck as he used his scythes to carefully place down a folded set of papers tied with Caterpie silk. 

“I’ll do it! Just one thing though. Might I ask what is in this parcel you speak of?” Aleck asked as he reached toward the knot on the papers. The stranger swung a scythe down onto the counter, missing the Sableye’s curious claws by millimeters.   

“No. You are not to open it. You are to deliver it and then leave. Nothing more, nothing less. Or else no reward. Got it?” the Scyther growled coldly as he slowly removed his embedded scythe from the wooden counter with a loud crack as the table surface splintered. 

“Y-yes, of course. You shall not be disappointed, my good customer! Weheheheh!” 

“Shut up. Just listen and I’ll tell you where you’re supposed to go.”

“ZT! No. This can’t be! BZT!” Gear exclaimed as his crimson optics scanned over the printed text for the fifth time.
He glanced over to his head deputy; the sentient amalgamation of three Magnemites had already read through the context of the report and was awaiting his superior’s orders.

“Sir? Do I muster the squads? ZT!” the Magneton asked, idly spinning his magnets as Gear slowly rechecked the parchment for any possible sign of error or misprint.

“No. Stay put, Axis. You will do nothing until I give the order. Got it? ZT!” Gear snapped as he started hovering in circles around the room in worry.

“B-but, sir? That report. ZT! I-it’s from the Inner Council! BZT! We can’t ignore an order from them! They’ll deactivate us for dereliction of duty! ZBT!” the deputy screeched as his leader stopped his midair pacing.

“I don’t care what the report says, Axis! ZTT! They are all wrong this time! I won’t do it! BZT!” Gear screeched, his speech processors straining as they struggled to vocalize the officer’s emotions.

“Is that so, Gear?” a voice, a bitter mixture of royal dignity, arrogance, and subtle charm sounded from behind the Magnezone. Gear turned around in a circle to face the unauthorized intruder.

A large falcon stood in the doorway, gold glinted off his entire covering of metal feathers. He slowly walked into the room, as if reluctant to step on “common” ground. An honor guard made up of five Magnemites silently orbited around him, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“Richelieu, it’s been a while hasn’t it?” Gear growled, the static buzz foregone in his hatred.
The Skarmory chuckled as he strutted across Gear’s office.

“It’s ‘Governor’ now, actually. Governor Richelieu, it just rolls off the tongue, or rather, the speech processor, does it not? I was appointed by the king just last week,” he corrected as he eyed Gear disapprovingly.

“I don’t care if it’s ‘Lord’, ‘Governor’ or ‘Janitor’. I do, however, want to know why you’re gracing me with your presence,” Gear grunted as the Skarmory smirked.

“Now, now, Gear. There is no need for such harsh vocabulary. My business in this backwater village does not require your authorization; I am here on assignment from the Inner Council. If you really must know, it was all because of a small incident you had in the Western Quarter. I believe you know what I am talking about,” the golden bird said as he slowly walked over the Gear’s desk, the bodyguards repelling the chief officer a safe distance away from the governor.

“ZT! We were able to contain the incident before it grew out of control, if you remember correctly. BZ!” Gear stated as the bird faced him once again.

“That may be, but it does not change the fact that Colonial terrorists were able to enter your city unnoticed by you or your forces. I’m simply here on behalf of the Kingdom to ensure you are up to the task of protecting it,” Richelieu replied, lowering his neck to stare at the Magnezone.

Gear let out a sound similar to grating machinery as he answered the Skarmory, “We might be even more capable if your Council stopped sending us lists of potential traitors that we have to arrest. Jack, Rhone, Flare, Clip … they were on your lists for no good reason! ZT! Yet we arrested them without giving them a chance to explain the accusations brought against them! BZZT! And your most recent list; those Pokemon are all innocent! ZT!” Gear buzzed, directing the governor’s attention to the piece of parchment on the desk.
Richelieu gently pierced the report on the desk with the tip of his steel wing and held it up to his eyes as to read it.

“I do not make the lists Gear, and the ones that are charged with that responsibility put the names you see on it for a good reason. These individuals have obviously been acting against the wishes of the monarchy, so it is your job to capture them for further questioning,” he said, shaking the paper off his wing as if it was a vile substance.

“ZT! Well, I refuse to do so! The list is flawed; the Pokemon on it are innocent,” Gear stated as all three of his magnets whirled around erratically.

The Skarmory slowly turned to face the chief officer. His eyes glinting with a spark of fury at the officer’s words.

“You … Are you saying you’re disobeying a royal order?” Richelieu asked incredulously, his honor guards buzzing to themselves frantically. Axis backed away from Gear and the governor, bracing himself for the worst.

“Yes. Yes, I am. ZT!” Gear said, hovering so that his red center optic aligned with the Skarmory’s yellow ones.

“Did you forget your place, Gear? You and every single other Magne-class unit were built to serve the Kingdom; that is your only purpose! I’m going to give you five milliseconds to rescind your previous statement or else I will assure your immediate deactivation,” Richelieu said, jabbing the tip of his wing at Gear’s metal front.

“ZT! I am a Pokemon sworn to protect the citizens of Loyalty Square, nothing more, nothing less. I am not some ‘machine’ under the control of the Kingdom, and I will not be treated as such, even by you, Governor. ZT! I will do what it takes to ensure that my citizens’ liberties are not compromised by anyone, much less the discolored, sniveling bureaucrat that is currently polluting my town with his presence. ZT!”
Richelieu recoiled instantly as if the officer’s words were hot steam.

“Why I, never! As Governor of the Between lands, I am enacting Executive Order Forty-Seven. Guards, dispose of this defective automaton,” the riled governor squawked as he retreated a safe distance from the inevitable fight.

The five guards suddenly halted their protective orbit around the Skarmory and advanced toward Gear, their magnets sparking with electricity.
Gear backed away from the guards, analyzing his combatants while also readying an attack of his own. Axis let out a screech in terror and fled to the side of the room nearest the door as the fight commenced.

The Magnezone let out the first shot, a concussion of supersonic air that tore a magnet off one of the guards. Before the others had time to retaliate, he sent duel bolts of electricity into their pack, scattering the units as they swerved to dodge the attack.

Static accompanied the many curses and swears that bounced off the stone walls of the office chamber as Gear turned in a complete circle, firing off quick bursts of electricity from all three of his magnets, keeping the assailants at bay.

“Destroy him! The Kingdom cannot have such abominations within it’s work forc—Ah!” Richelieu screeched as Gear shot a bolt of plasma at him. He bird ducked to the side as the attack burned its way into the stone.

That attack cost Gear as one of the Magnemite managed to land a shot on his auxiliary eye causing his vision to fizzle slightly before stabilizing. The Magnemites charged Gear, their magnets attaching to the Magnezone’s body.

Before he could repulse, them they let loose bursts of electricity that coursed through the officer’s body. Gear swerved wildly in agony, slamming his body into the walls in an attempt to scrape off the Magnemite.
One of the guards let out a garbled scream shortly before he was violently crushed against the wall, his core exploding in a burst of electricity and wiring.

After seeing their comrade destroyed inches from their eyes, the other guards instinctively let up on their assault and retreated. Gear hovered low in the air, heavy static “breathing” emanating from his speakers as he tried to recover from the near short circuit.

The guards quickly regrouped and charged Gear once again. However, this time the battered officer was anticipating such a move. He aimed his magnets at the four remaining guards, and blasted them into the wall with an opposite magnetic charge.

“ZT! You can’t ZT! beat me ZT! Rich. ZT! I will not let you destroy my town! BZZZT!” Gear shouted, as the Magnemite slowly raised themselves up off the ground.

Not giving them a chance to recover, Gear fired another round of energy at the units. The electricity quickly arced through the air like lightning and impacted the group of guards. It was all that was needed to put them out of commission. The increased voltage caused their center cores to smoke and explode.

“ZZZT! My eye! My ZBZBZBT! eye! SZSZZS!” one guard, the only one still alive from the squad, screeched as he whirled around in the air in agony. Fire and smoke hissing from his destroyed center. Fortunately, his suffering was short-lived as his core detonated
with a flash of fire. Small bits of metal shell scattered throughout the office.

His enemies eliminated, Gear rested his chassis near to the ground as he tried to recover his lost energy. His central eye almost shuttered as his systems went into power-saving mode. His rest was interrupted by the grating sound of iron scratching on iron. His gaze wearily looked up at Richelieu, who was slowly clapping his wings together.

“I’m impressed Gear, you managed to hold your own against my most incompetent set of guards. However, there is still the issue of your deactivation that needs to be dealt with; insubordination will not be tolerated,” he said as he walked a wide circle around the injured officer, kicking aside the shattered remains of his honor guard as he went.

“Now listen closely Gear, if you can. I can call my seven other units waiting in the hallway in here, and I think you will know how that will end, Gear. I’m not going to be blunt, either you accept that I am in control here now, or else I will have you killed. What’s your choice, Gear?” the Skarmory asked, his ultimatum working its way through Gear’s damaged core.

“Bzttzt … Errrt … Hzzrt … ZT!” he groaned in response, his voice distorted by his destroyed speakers.

“Erm, what was that, Gear?” Richelieu asked, leaning towards the nearly broken unit.

Gear struggled to reply. After a series of loud static noises, he finally aligned his speakers.
“BZT! What I meant to say was: FZZZT! You!” he shouted as he suddenly rose off the ground and rushed the royal official.

Richelieu’s squawk of surprise was cut short as he was tackled by the equivalent of an enraged Aggron. His golden outer wings crumpled as he was crushed against the stone.
Gear let loose a quick burst of electricity from his exposed circuits, jolting the governor as he struggled to break free.

“SHHZ! Never. Threaten. My. Town. ZT! Again! DZT!” Gear stated, his mechanical breath heavy with static and exhaustion. Just then, the twin wooden doors that separated the office from the main prison burst open as no less then twelve Magnemites rushed into the chamber, knocking Axis aside as they surrounded Gear and the governor. Some where under Richelieu’s employment while others still pledged a grudging loyalty to Gear.

“S-see? He’s clearly corrupt! He’s trying to kill me!” the metal falcon screamed, feigning innocence, as Gear tried to pin him harder against the wall.

“ZT! He’s tryiNG to KILl inNOcent PoKEMon! BBRZT!” Gear grunted as his processors’ volume controls failed completely…
The horde of hovering Magnemite silently watched the exchange as the two struggled to sway them to their cause.

“Don’t let him kill me. Please, I-I don’t want to die!” Richelieu squawked pitifully as Gear sent another jolt of electricity through the bird.

“I can promote you all! Any position in the force! It’s yours! Pay raise included!” the governor bargained as Gear slowly upped the voltage.

That offer did it for the guard corp. Gear’s optic widened with horror as one unit after another let out a yell and tackled the officer, trying to pull him off the Skarmory with their magnets. They all piled on their former chief officer, eventually pealing him off Richelieu.

As soon as the governor crawled to safety, the swarm started attacking Gear. Ripping off his metal armor and frying his inner wiring around his core.

Gear nearly blacked out, his core overwhelmed by the amount of surging electricity coursing through it. Just as his systems nearly failed him, he found the strength to charge up a magnetic pulse blast.

Like before, the guards were forced off Gear’s chassis. However, they recovered and slowly circled around the barely levitating Magnezone. Gear scanned the situation: he’d lost control of his units, Axis, displaying his loyalty as always, was shaking in fear in the corner, and Richelieu wanted him deactivated all because he had refused to obey yet another falsified kill list. Overall, the scenario didn’t look good.

Richelieu had been right; there was only one way he was getting out of here: his core ripped out and destroyed. He could not calculate another alternative, if he somehow managed to win this battle, more Magnemites would pour in from the depths of the prison to dispose of him.

He knew how it was going to end for him, but he would end it on his terms.
With a buzzing sigh of acceptance, he closed his center optic as he concentrated what little energy remained in his power cells into his slowly spinning magnets.

Time seemed to grow slow as sparks danced around the three appendages, rapidly building up a charge. The rebellious units only just now seemed to realize what their former commander was doing, and it was too late for them to change course.

With a pained screech, Gear’s magnets lit up with electricity, making them seem like orbs of white-hot light. Richelieu’s yellow eyes widened for a split second as he scrambled along the floor with his crumpled wings, hiding behind the cowering Magneton.

“BBBZZTTTGGRRHHZZZTT!!!” Gear screeched as his optic flared a bright red; streams of code flashed before his eye as the built up electricity made his body the equivalent of an exploding star.

“ZT! H-He’s Discharging!!! VT!” one of the units screamed as Gear’s body exploded in an almighty wave of pure electricity. The supersonic energy electrified the swarm of Magnemites surrounding the officer.

The arcing voltage ripped apart the mob of Magnemite that were within close proximity to Gear. Their piercing screeches were forever silenced as one by one their cores exploded in a blast of fire and sparks. Shrapnel whizzed through the air and embedded itself in the stone walls with as if they were clay.

The smoke had not yet cleared when a metal-plated avian head popped up from behind the shuddering Magneton deputy. His eyes started watering as the acrid smell of smoldering wiring assaulted his nose. Unscathed from Gear’s attack, courtesy of Axis, Richelieu got to his feet and dusted his wings off.

He glanced around the destroyed room taking in the full extent of Gear’s attack. Every inch of the stone walls were either filled with black scorches or pocket marks from the plasma volleys. The ceiling rafters were cracked and looked ready to collapse. The handsome, wooden desk was aflame and in ruins.

Pity, it was truly an excellent piece of craftsmanship, the Skarmory thought as he walked out from behind a slowly recovering Axis. Richelieu strode into the center of the room, kicking aside the sizzling remains of the guards who saved his life as if they were nothing.

He heard the commotion of the legion of other units from down the hallway; they would be here soon enough and he would have to explain exactly what happened here to them all.

He approached Gear’s ruined chassis cautiously. After examining Gear’s burnt metal body he let out a snort.
“Funny how all fairy tales of rebellions succeeding are just that,” he said with a mirthful chuckle.

Suddenly, Gear’s body let out a spark, followed by several wires arcing as Gear’s cracked center eye slowly lit up once more. Gear’s processor was reeling; against his calculations, he had somehow survived the suicidal attack.

“Ahh, decided to join us once again in the realm of the living, I see. You are one tough Pokemon, I will give you that,” Richelieu said as he slowly walked right in front of Gear’s eye. Gear didn’t even have the energy to respond if he wanted to, but he wasn’t going to give the bird the satisfaction of begging for his life.

“I’m sorry it has to end like this, Gear. All you had to do was obey your superior’s order, but you refused. This is your reward, I suppose. I pray your forgiveness,” the governor stated as he lifted one of his talons and gripped the sides of Gear’s center optic, cracking it even more.

The Skarmory pulled on the eye, ignoring Gear’s weak screeches of protest. To Gear, putting it mildly, it felt as if his brain was being ripped from his head. The fallen officer let all pretenses of dignity behind as his buzzes of pain swiftly turned into screeches of agony.

Richelieu flapped his metal wings as his talon crunched down on the optic and tugged harder on it, exposing bits of internal circuitry. Gear scanned around for anything that could save him, but there was nothing. His power was completely gone, Axis was shaking in a corner, and his units had turned against him. He was utterly defeated.

With one final yank, Gear’s center eye, and the core behind it came loose. Richelieu staggered backwards as the cylindrical core came out in a shower of sparks and trailing wires. The governor turned the officer’s core over in his talon, and gave a satisfied huff before tossing it away dismissively. The metal cylinder clattered on the floor, before rolling to a stop before Axis’s hovering form.
As soon as the deputy saw his former commander’s core, he came out of the state of horrified shock he was in.

“W-what have ZT! you done!” Axis squeaked. His magnets discharging small sparks as he hovered in front of the Skarmory.

The golden bird pushed him aside. “Gear proved to be incompetent and failed to perform his basic duties as a unit of the Kingdom. I used my authority as governor to dispose of him as commander and take complete control of Loyalty’s security to ensure stability in my province.”

Richelieu narrowed his piercing, yellow eyes at Axis. “Transmit that message to every Magnemite within range. And as soon as you are finished with that, I want you to muster the hunting squads. It is my understanding that we have traitors in our midst that must be dealt with.”

The Magneton buzzed in discomfort as he turned his side magnets up in an affirming salute. Pleased with the display of loyalty, Richelieu strutted out of the ruined office and into the assembly areas of the prison leaving Axis alone.

“H-have to ZT! f-follow orders. Follow ZT! orders …”


 If Leo hadn’t collapsed on his shoulder as soon as they started to head back, Jay knew he would have put the Charmeleon under a military tribunal. Frustrated with the fact that he had to carry his wayward team member over two miles through the forest, Jay tried his best to make sure Leo knew his displeasure with a new insult every step he took.

Leo, however, never seemed to notice the Riolu’s anger with him as he drifted in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he only seemed able to mutter a few disjointed phrases before slipping back into whatever fever dream his was stuck inside of. 

Jay began to grow a little concerned when Leo started mumbling about “… not the first…” and other nonsense. If that wasn’t blatantly foreshadowing a bad future, Jay didn’t know what was. With a grunt Jay shifted his partner higher on his shoulders and continued his trek.

The hike through the woods shouldn’t have taken any longer then half an hour, but due to Kelly’s desire to check on Leo every few minutes, it ended up taking much more time to complete. So when they finally entered their base, Jay roughly plopped Leo down against the wall and went to find something to wake him up. 

“Jay, if you hit him with that, I swear to Raikou I[i] will[/i] zap you into next year!” Kelly snapped as Jay slowly lowered the Cleanse Orb clutched in his paw. 
It wasn’t enough that he and Kelly had basically gotten the base for free, it had been fully stocked with several crates of expensive Orbs of all sorts. Luck had somehow favored them that day, possibly trying to make up for the hardship they both suffered before.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to hit ...” Jay said before trailing off as he felt the temperature of the room drop dramatically. His breath turned to mist as he quickly glanced around for the source of the cold, but found nothing out of place in their home. 

“Did Kyurem drop by for a visit?” he asked with a feeble chuckle. He waited a few seconds for Kelly to respond with a standard groan or something of the sort, but when none came, he turned around to her. She was looking at him with an agitated glare, but she did not move.
It was as if time had decided to pause around everything but him. 

“What…?” Jay asked, cautiously waving a paw in front of her face. Nothing. Not even a blink to indicate she was still aware of anything. As confused as any normal Pokemon would be in this circumstance, he ran through the door of the base and looked at the surrounding area. 

Oak and pine trees stood frozen mid-sway, a distant flock of Pidove were locked in their migratory “V” formation, and leaves were paused in the air as the now dead wind blew them across the ground. The entire world, it seemed, had stopped. Except for him.
Bewildered, he returned inside and looked toward Leo and Kelly. 

The Charmeleon was still slumped against the wall, stuck in the unconscious state he had been in previously. Taking a timid step closer to his teammate, he saw that not even his shallow heartbeat was still going. 
[i]What the heck going on here?[/i] Jay wondered as he forced himself not to start panicking. It was then he heard a voice he hadn’t expected to hear again in his life.  
  
[i][b]”Why hello, Jay. It’s been a while. Since our last ‘discussion’, has it not?”[/i][/b] the voice said as the entire room was instantly flooded by a dark mist that poured in from the windows. 

The dim light of the Luminous Orb shards was completely covered up. The only source of light being the gleam of a pair of golden eyes. Jay involuntarily shivered from the increased chill as Kelly and Leo disappeared from his view. 

[i]“Y-you! Why are you here?!”[/i] Jay shouted into the wall of shadow, his voice seemed like it was confined to his mind, like it wasn’t making any audible noise. The voice gave a slight chuckle as the eyes faded, but the voice began to resonate from all around the Riolu. 

[i][b]“You are not pleased to see me after so long? I was merely being polite when we first conversed. I thought you might want to speak with the one who saved your life … Well, whether you want to or not, I believe it is time for a little ‘heart to heart’ concerning recent events, ”[/i][/b] the voice said, taking a hurt tone as Jay stamped the ground with his foot. 

[i]“Saved me?! I don’t think so. I was doing fine until you showed up,”[/i] Jay retorted as the voice let out a roar of shrill laughter. Jay was forced to cover his ears as he waited for the voice to regain its composure. 

[i][b] “I … hehe… I am sorry for that. Truly. It is very unprofessional of someone as high caliber as myself. However, I do recall that imperial soldiers were very close to catching you. If I hadn’t decided to intervene, you would have almost certainly have been incarcerated for your crimes,”[/i][/b] the voice pointed out casually, causing Jay to growl in anger. 

[i]“Hmph! So what? What does that have to do with anything?” [/i] Jay asked as the temperature dropped another few degrees.  
 
[i][b]“I believe that the price of your  preservation is enough reason to listen. You still owe a debt to me for your own survival  for … plucking you from the midst of the chaos in Silver that day,”[/i][/b] the voice responded, a hint of frustration breaking through its calm manner. 


[i]“You’re the one who got me out?”[/i] Jay asked in a mixture of confusion and awe.

[i][b]“If you’d simply allow me time to speak, your questions will be answered, more or less.”[/i][/b]

[i] “What did you have to do with that day? Based on your answer, I may have no choice but to hurt you,” [/i] Jay threatened as the voice chuckled again.

[i][b] “Such a temper, you really should work on that. Anyways, when I saw your … predicament that day. Well, I could not simply let fate take its course. It wasn’t your fault, I firmly believe that. Nevertheless, history cannot be easily reversed. The status quo ante could never be again,” [/i][/b] the voice explained. Jay remained silent after this, which the voice took as a cue to continue. 

[i][b] “I saw potential in you, Jay, much like your friend. You and he share the tenacity to never give up, even when the odds appear to be overwhelming. It was that trait that I foresaw a good use for in these troubled times.”[/i][/b] 

[i] “……Leo? What do you have to do with him?”[/i] Jay asked softly as the voice all too gladly responded.

[i][b] “When I found him, he was on the verge of starvation in the Fields, how he got there even I do not know. However, I saw that he could be useful if he was guided in the right direction. Using my abilities, I altered the nature of the dungeon and allowed him to escape … right where you and the Jolteon were patrolling for minimum wage.”[/i][/b]

[i] “You …You did that?[/i] 

[i][b] “Indeed. And now I must alter the topic of our discussion ever so slightly. If I may be so bold as to ask you a simple question?[/i][/b]

[i]“… fine. What do you want?”[/i] Jay growled as he grudgingly allowed the enigma to explain itself. 

[i][b]“From what I’ve observed over the past few hours, you have been … troubled by your teammate’s actions as of late, yes? His mental state, as it were, correct?”[/i][/b] the being inquired, its voice softly echoing off the dark walls of wherever “here” was. 

[i] “Not so much troubled as annoyed …Wait? What would you know about that? We haven’t told anyone about that. What does Leo have to do with you?”[/i] Jay asked suspiciously as the darkness rippled violently. Jay clutched the Cleanse Orb even more tightly, threatening to accidently activate the sensitive crystal.

[i][b] “Well, you can say that Leo and I have had a … rocky business relationship. He is one of the many focal points of my observation, but regrettably, in his case, direct intervention has been required on multiple occasions to ensure that plans continue as they were. He has been somewhat … resistant of the changes I suggested. So I, in an act of desperation, imposed them without his consent and guided him through the changes more or less successfully,”[/i][/b] the darkness responded, the business-like nature it had originally reappearing. 

[i] “Wait. So you’re the reason why he’s like this? Paranoid, angry, and insane? It’s your fault?!”[/i] Jay exclaimed, as the mist let out a low chuckle. 

[i][b] “You allot me too much credit in your partner’s mental downfall, Jay. I tried to prevent his imminent demise. An endeavor that was successful,” [/i][/b] the being with the golden eyes retorted, staring at Jay once more from within the mist. Jay didn’t talk back, his thoughts were running wild with this revelation about his teammate. 
[i] This is why Leo is this way. This creepy son of---[/i] 

[i][b] “Manners, Jay. Civilized Pokemon have no use for language of that caliber,”[/b][/i] the creature scolded Jay’s thoughts. Jay scowled at the eyes. 

[i][b] “If your father knew you possessed such a colorful vocabulary he would probably have you exiled,” [/i][/b] the Pokemon noted as he let out a small laugh at his own personal joke. 

[i] “Never mind that. Why are you here? I think you’ve said all that you’ve needed to say,”[/i] Jay said, changing the course of their “conversation”.

[b][i] “Ah, yes. My reason for troubling your mortal mind with my higher plane of existence. I am here to make sure that you stay well out of my affairs. That includes your plans for ‘interviewing’ Leo. He is under my influence, and I do not need you interfering more than what is absolutely necessary,” [/i][/b] the being ordered, its tone hardening almost immediately. 

[i] “What are you talking about?!”[/i] Jay asked. Without an answer from the voice, the dark mist began retreating and Jay suddenly dropped to his knees as his mind was violently released from the creature’s control. 

Jay’s world began to tilt and swim. The dark walls of his vision disintegrated into the vague shapes of the center room of the base. Colors blurred as his hallucination collapsed and reality returned with a fresh wave of nausea.  
Retching on the floor, his vision slowly pieced itself back together. 

[i][b] “Remember, the sacrifice of a few is required for the good of everyone.”[/i][/b] 

“Jay?! Talk to me! What’s wrong?!” Kelly asked, standing right above the Riolu with an Oran Berry in her paw. Groaning in pain, Jay snatched the berry out of her paw without even looking at her. Another round of coughing hit him as his head finally cleared enough for him to actually see the room. 

There was no sign of the temperature drop he experienced earlier, or of everything suddenly freezing. It was as if it had never happened. Cautiously getting to his feet, he glanced around the base. Leo was still on the floor passed out, Kelly was waiting his response, and everything else seemed exactly the same as it had been. 

“W-we’re not. Not going to –!” Jay began to say before doubling over as a spark of pain arced through his head once more. 

“Jay!” Kelly yelped as she ran up to her partner, her mind pulling up various treatment options, or Pokemon nearby that could help. When she put a paw on his arm Jay roughly pushed it away with a grunt. 

“I’m fine! J-just no. No more. We leave him alone,”  Jay struggled to say as he weakly pointed a paw at the unconscious Leo. 

“Wait! We need to find out —” Jay abruptly cut her off, pressing his paws against his temples. 
“No! Don’t ask him anything! Nothing!”     

Kelly stood there in disbelief as Jay slowly regained his composure. “What happened to you?” 

“I-I’m fine… Sorry, just … please. Don’t ask anything right now. Let’s just get some sleep, please.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[i][b] “This is no accident, no coincidence, no way this can be: someone knows our trade secrets. They are trying to move Phase Two along ahead of schedule. This individual will ruin it all. This cannot happen. This will not happen. I refuse to allow it …”[/i][/b]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelly drifted along the edge of an uneasy sleep, her head trying to make some sort of sense of what had happened to both Leo and Jay. Leo was her primary concern as whatever was troubling him was going to kill him eventually, but Jay’s sudden shift from wanting to tear Leo apart for information to insisting on leaving him alone was far too weird to be a coincidence. 

As she drifted along her troubled rest, she was unaware of the trace amounts of darkened mist slowly congregating around her. Her nose twitched slightly as the most closed in on her head. A low ramble of strange words in a language she never knew existed was all she heard before the voice made its presence known and the nightmare embraced her fully. 

[i][b] “Introductions are never my strong point, so I will skip those formal pleasantries as this is no occasion to stand on ceremony.”[/i][/b] The Electric Type’s body twitched in her sleep as the voice continued its soft speech.

[i][b] “I come with two urgent messages that you might find being worth listening to.  The first being that you must not worry about your teammates. Though their actions may seem self-destructive, I assure you, they are in good hands.”[/i][/b] 
Kelly wasn’t aware of the voice, but she subconsciously picked up every word it said.  

[i][b] “Your memory will not retain this part of the conversation, but I am guiding them both on path that will lead to relative salvation. I understand your desire to protect them since they are the closest thing you have to a family, but interfering in my business operation would cause more harm than good.” [/i][/b] The voice went silent for a few minutes as it browsed through her memories and experiences as if they were a card catalogue. 

[i][b] “You were selectively chosen to fulfill this role, but if your curiosity gets the better of you, it will kill you much like the figurative cat. I will not allow the mercy of being both alive and dead; I will ensure that you die. So, please, for your own safety, remain out of my dealings with Leo.” [/i][/b] 
The voice paused, as if it was trying to recall if there was anything else on its agenda. 

[i][b] “Oh! Yes, of course. I nearly forgot, almost a fatal mistake on my part, I regret. There is a hunter squad of Magnemite on their way here. They will be crashing down the door to this base in about fifty-five seconds.”[/i][/b]
 
With that final phrase, the dark mist over her mind evaporated instantly. Her eyes shot open as she gasped for air. She looked quickly around her room for the source of the haunting voice she vaguely remembered hearing in her nightmare. 

As she struggled to remember what the voice had mentioned she heard a noise that was far worse than what that voice had put her through. Her eyes widened as the faint grating sound of whirring machinery penetrated the air. 

 [i][b]“So wake up, my dear. Wake up, and flee the corruption.”[/i][/b]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[b] End Chapter Seven [/b]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	
* “Status quo ante” means "the state of affairs that existed previously" I’ll leave you with that.

[b]Author’s Notes:[/b] 

It’s been a while since my last update, hasn’t it? While I did say school would hamper my efforts to write, I kinda let my free time go to other things. 
I promise that the next one won’t be as long of a wait. 

Onto the chapter itself. This chapter proved to be strange to me as I wanted to incorporate some necessary backstory, some character-building, and also a good transition to the next big arc of the story.

I think I was able to pull it off reasonably enough, but I want your opinions on it. 
As usual, I encourage silent or new readers to make themselves known. Every post helps, honestly. 

Well, that’s about all I have to say. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks again to my brilliant beta reader, and my friends on this site. 

Knightfall signing off…

I wish I could give you a more substantial review than this but all I can say is that I really loved this chapter, I just can’t get over how smooth you writing style and overall story line are. Long story short this is the best thing I’ve read in a VERY long time and I get excited for each new chapter! Keep writing.

Why thanks, and don’t worry about the review. The fact that you posted is enough for me.

Anyways, I hope your story is going well, and that idea you discussed with me.

Remember, I like to hear from my readers.

Knightfall signing off…

This is pure epic A

I saw this on fanfiction.net too. I kinda lol’d, but I read it and I was like “omg this is too epic ajdnnfjeisffjjdjs”

Keep writing! ouo because you"re a better author than me omg

bows politely

Why thank you, I take great pride in what I write. That’s why it takes so long between chapters. Don’t worry, I plan on finishing this no matter how long it takes.

I’m glad you like it.

Knightfall signing off…

Chapter Eight: Extradition

[i]“You may ask why I make everything so tedious and drawn out when a direct route is far faster? Simplicity is for the simple-minded and those inclined to be moronic. You brought me under your employment, so you will be content with the way I conduct my business…”
[b]The Vilified One[/b][/i]

He saw me, lost in a sea of darkness. He tried to help me, save me, but I pushed him away. Misguided by my own pride.

“Jay! Leo! Get up!”

Kelly’s panicked voice rang throughout the base, shattering the relative midnight silence.
Leo stirred from his sleep only slightly, his recovering mind not comprehending her panicked call.
In my pride, I tempted him. I told him to do his worst. He did so, if only to show me the errors of my ways.

He vaguely remembered what exactly happened the night before, a sickening swirl of fire, ice, and pain imprinted on his subconscious was all that remained of that lost night.
An idiot, that’s what I was. A fool, blinded by the lies my mind fed itself, believing that he was evil. I paid the price and I fell into the frozen abyss of ignorance. But I learned from my fall.

Until now, as his senses began to register that not all was well within the base, it was as if his mind had shut down completely. Preserving itself from further degradation from what that … thing had done to it.
Fire, ice, electricity…they hurt. Through the pain, I gained humility.

He couldn’t remember how he’d gotten to his hammock in his room from wherever he had been before, but he didn’t care. Sleep was a welcome break after his mind was through those horrors now long forgotten.
He will protect me. He will guide me. Whether I know it or not, I am his servant.

“Leo! Come on!”

Jay’s voice caused another involuntary twitch, but nothing more. Sleep had not yet washed away the exhaustion he retained from yesterday evening. He knew that he had to move, to see what was wrong, but his body refused to move.
He is good.

“Move.”

Without hesitation, his body jolted into action, the back of his mind overriding any feelings of fatigue. The sensation of bitter cold and blistering heat washed over him as the memories of the previous night flashed before his eyes in all their glory.

Leo tumbled out of the hammock, somehow managing to land upright. He shook the horrible images away as the darkened room came into focus. He quickly registered the voices of Kelly and Jay, but there were others. He knew their grating, earache-inducing voices all too well; Magnemite.

Using his tail as a torch, he found his satchel lying dejectedly on the floor. He picked it up with one claw and slung it around his shoulder. Cautiously peering out of the doorway into the hall, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Slowly moving down the hallway, he could see the central room in the light of the waning moon, and silhouettes of Jay and Kelly as they furiously whispered on what to do next. In the midst of his stealth, Leo failed to notice that the hushed mechanical tones from outside had suddenly ceased.

Suddenly, the ground heaved and Leo was thrown backwards down the hall, racing the flying shards of glass and wood to the floor. Dust, eager to join in on the fun, kicked up into the air, blinding its befuddled inhabitants. The Luminous Orb shards were knocked from their holders and blinked out as soon as they hit the floor, plunging the base into complete darkness.

Pushing his arms up, he dizzily got to his feet, coughing on the nearly suffocating dust. Over Jay’s colorful swears and Kelly’s lightning attacks from the central room, he detected the telltale buzzing of the Magnemite squad as they entered the gaping hole that used to be the doorway.

The hovering forms of the infernal metal balls distorted the wall of dust as they searched the premises. The beams of light shining from their center eye slicing through the dust and debris. Jay and Kelly seemed to be locked in a stalemated crossfire with the officers. Kelly’s electricity and Jay’s punches keeping the units at bay.

Leo nearly froze when one of the beams spotted him through the dust, clearly marking him as a target. He saw sparks flying as the twin magnets charged an attack.

[b]“Dash.”[/b]

The near paralysis faded away as he swiftly obeyed the voice without question. He darted to the opposite side of the hall, and dove into a small room. Through the darkness and dust, he saw twin volleys of electrified plasma wiz past where he stood a moment ago. The bolts burned ugly black streaks into the walls.

Leo quickly searched around the small room for an escape as the group of Magnemite hovered closer. Other than a tall wooden shelf against the wall, there was nothing else in the room, and definitely not a miraculous escape route.

He skidded to a stop in front of the shelf, the sounds of chaos outside the room growing louder. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he had to find something, anything that might help him. His claws tore through the contents of the shelf, tossing the miscellaneous items to the ground behind him. As he flung an old blanket out of the way, a glint of bright blue from inside an ancient burlap sack caught his eye. He just grasped the top of the bag with his claws when he heard the unmistakable sound of buzzing directly behind him.

“Don’t move, Charmeleon! ZT!” the lead unit ordered, a chorus of “Rodger!” affirming the order told Leo that there was definitely more Magnemites than he could handle. Still facing the shelf, Leo froze, claw still gripped around the opening of the sack.

“Claws where I can see ’em! ZT! Move it!” the head Magnemite commanded, again accompanied by several static-ridden cries of “Rodger!” Leo’s pulse quickened as he slowly raised his empty arm.

“BZT! Now the other one, Charmeleon!” the unit shouted confidently, buoyed by his success with his previous orders. Leo didn’t move, he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the bag. He tried to think of any way out of this besides another trip to prison or worse, but nothing revealed itself.

“Put the other claw up! ZT! Now!” He didn’t know what possessed him to even think of such a desperate idea. Possibly his addled mind had suddenly shunned all rationality in favor of unrepressed insanity for that instant. Regardless of why, Leo found himself tightening his grip on the cloth sack. He spun around on a dime and chucked the entire bag of primed Orbs at the nearest Magnemite.

In hindsight, it might not have been the greatest idea to activate the bag of extremely volatile artifacts so close to himself, but he had no other choice that didn’t include an indefinite time behind bars.

The sound of shattering glass was the last thing he heard before chaos overthrew normality with an explosion of energy. Time seemed to flash by him in an abstract flurry of rushing colors and sounds as he was swept up in its mighty gale.

His mind was spinning as if someone had stuck it on a pottery wheel, his back ached as if someone had taken a good few kicks at it, and his entire body was covered in fragments of wood and dirt. Leo slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted his blurry vision was the great white ball floating in a sea of absolute black. After realizing that he was on his back, Leo flopped onto his stomach.

As soon as he was able to will his arms to begin raising his bruised torso off the ground, his other senses of smell and hearing became relevant once more. The caustic odor of burning wood and memories filled his snout as the pained screeches of the Magnemite assaulted him from all angles.

Leo tried to move from his position on all fours, but he could not will himself to get up off the dew-painted grass. Strength slowly drained from him as he contemplated simply dropping back to the earth into an eternal slumber, free of the pressures of reality at last.

He was just about to let his wobbling arms collapse when over the sounds of the burning base and police officers when he heard a faint cry. Kelly!

Grunting with a mixture of rage and fear, he pushed his body up off the damp ground to his feet with newfound strength. Once he was standing upright, he crudely brushed off the layer of dirt, grass, and wood splinters. As soon as he turned his attention to the base, he finally processed the full extent of his actions.

Explosions of blinding light still occurred within the remaining chambers of the base. A miniature rain storm battled with a equally small sun in the air above the structure, causing the weather directly above the building to chaotically shift from sunny to driving rain.

The small room he used to be in now had a nicely sized opening to the outside from which smoke bellowed out. His feet seemed to control themselves as they moved forward towards the burning base. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the drops of rain that landed on his tail with a sizzle as he reached the opening in the wall.

The thick splintered wood wall looked as if a cannonball shot through it. It was then that Leo realized that he was that cannonball. Shuddering with the thought of coming within a hair’s length of snapping his spine in two, he maneuvered his way through the smoke and into the base.

Once he pushed through the surprisingly thin smoke, he was able to see the remnants of the small room. The walls were seared black from the sheer volume of volatile energy compressed within the Orbs. Charred pieces of the Magnemite squad lay strewn haphazardly on the floor. Leo narrowly avoided slicing his foot open on the jagged edges of the units as he hiked his way across the room.

Almost on the opposite side of the room, a sudden agonized screech from the hall nearly shattered his eardrums. A Magnemite whizzed around the corner, followed closely by an array of items ranging from Leo’s own bag, to the apples from the kitchen. Regardless of size or inability to move, they raced through the air and collided with the exhausted officer.

“Argghh! ZZZT! Get them off!” he screamed as the weight of the items started pulling him down. Leo, not in any mood to help the struggling officer, found his badge and key necklace on the surface of the conglomeration of stuff piled on the Pokemon.

He plucked them off easily and kicked the roughly sphere-shaped ball of items. A densely muffled curse from within was all that was heard by Leo. Grinning on the inside, Leo returned to the ruined hallway, slipping the key’s chain over his neck.

The roof over the hall was nearing a state of final collapse. The wooden beams that held it up had split and fallen halfway to the floor before being stopped by dragging their broken sides against the walls. Despite the major obstacle now lodged in his way, Leo dropped to all fours and began worming his body underneath the fallen timbers, thankful that his scales provided at least some protection against the debris.

As he inched his way closer to the center room, the sounds of his teammates gradually lessened, replaced by the oppressive static hum of the unexploded members of the police corp. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest, but he forced himself to keep his cool as he clawed at the ground, pulling himself forward.

He could see their search beams; the officer’s lights penetrated the dust and darkness of his half-destroyed home. As he contemplated how to get past the officers that separated him from his teammates, his gaze was caught by a dull blue glimmer from underneath a mound of rubble. Reaching into the dirt, his claws closed on the small crystal sphere whose identity was unmistakable: it was an Orb. Somehow, it had survived the initial explosion that had consumed its brethren inside the bag.

Holding it closer, he could faintly see the slightly cracked surface of the blue sphere. Deciding to keep it for the time being, he squirmed further along under the fallen roof.
He could hear the Magnemite clearly now, and he knew he would have very little time, if any, once he freed himself on the other side of the hall.

With a few more grunts, he was a single timber from revealing himself to the searchlights of the officers, but it also meant he was a single log away from potential freedom. Briefly weighing the odds of each scenario, he figured he might as well make an attempt at an escape.

Taking one last deep breath to calm his racing heart, he gripped the Orb in his claw, and rammed the damaged log out of the way with a hit from his shoulder. In an instant, several blinding beams of light shot his way.

“ZT! Detain the suspect!” one of them screeched as the rest of the floating steel sphere began to cackle with charging electricity. Aside from the fact that Jay and Kelly were nowhere to be found in the center room, his body instinctively tensed for the searing pain of the electric bolts.

“Throw.”

As if it was a spark, his body jolted into action. Time seemed to slow as he raised his right arm, Orb in claw. He trained his sights on a Magnemite directly across the room from him, took a quick breath, and prayed to whatever deity governed the world that this Orb didn’t destroy the base completely.

He swung his arm forward, releasing the Orb from his claws, letting inertia take care of the rest. The sphere sliced through the dust, and collided directly with the center eye of the Magnemite. As soon as the mystical orb shattered, Leo felt himself lurch forward as the room spun itself on its axis.

Leo found himself facing his exit on the side of the room opposite the hallway. He turned his head around to see that all of the spotlights were still focused on where he stood, but there only hovered a very confused Magnemite. They had switched places. Leo silently rejoiced at his luck.
His celebration was brought to a quick close when one of the units found him, the flaming tail not providing much camouflage in the dark.

[b] “Run.”[/b]

Leo did not need any encouragement. He burst through the now empty doorway as streaks of lightning shot by his head. Clutching his nearly forgotten badge, he sprinted out of the base into the moonlit night, no idea where he was going as long as it was away from the base.

In his flight, his foot caught on an exposed tree root and he went tumbling to the ground. Dizzily somersaulting down the grassy slope. As the world once again flew by in flashes of blurred ground, night sky, and his own fiery tail, Leo struggled to halt his roll downwards by digging his claws into the dirt.

Earth sprayed everywhere, coating his scales in a fine dust. Just as he hoped, his body slowed and he was finally able to stop at the bottom of the steep embankment. Despite the fact that his world was tilting more erratically than a particularly clumsy Spinda, he could hear the sounds of pursuing units growing louder as they followed him down the slope.

Lurching from side to side, Leo staggered his way towards the mass of darkness he hoped were trees. He vaguely saw a bolt of plasma shoot past him and into the side of the slope, burning its way several inches into the packed dirt.

Leo shuddered at the thought of what one of those bolts would do to him if they hit. He certainly wasn’t going to give them a chance. Concentrating on the forest before him, he was able to overcome his distorted balance as he staggered into the woods.

As if fate had switched off his luck, he heard the standard whoosh of displaced air that accompanied each attack, but just before he dismissed it as another haywire blast, his entire body flew forward as something extremely hot and painful collided with his spine.
Electrical currents flashed across his vision as his body reflexively contorted in agony. His feet stumbled over the exposed roots of the ancient oaks along the path. Carried solely by the force of inertia, his body crashed forward through the low-lying braches and brush to the ground.

Fallen leaves kicked into the air as Leo went sliding along the forest path, the small circular black mark scorched into his back, his charred scales and flesh smoking faintly as electricity continued to burn through him like rice paper.

His heart, temporarily stunned by the bolt, restarted itself, beating just enough to ensure that its owner remained among the living. Leo tried to open his eyes, but his body refused to listen, instead deciding to give his nerves another jolt of pain. A feeling of cold settled over him as his tail flame faded until only an ember’s worth remained alight.

He heard the radioed cries of the Magne-units as they combed the woods for him and his team. His key, colder than steel, sandwiched between his chest while the ground bit uncomfortably against his body. It stung, but at the very least, it was a cruel reminder that he was still alive, for the time being. His badge was still clutched by his immobile claws.

While his body was still stunned, his hearing recovered enough to provide the sensory details to his brain. Dead leaves rustled and crunched as someone or something stealthily walked over them. Leo’s weakened heart beat faster as the footsteps came closer, causing his chest to spark with pain from the extra strain upon the muscle.

Unable to see little more than a dim patch of blurred forest, he was unable to shift his head to see who the stranger was, but his fears were alleviated as soon as he heard its whispered voice.

“Glad you made it. Kel and I were worried you didn’t get out, especially after that huge explosion near your room,” Jay whispered into his ear, as he ducked underneath the foliage of the forest floor to avoid the wandering searchlights of the officers.

Jay shuffled around the fallen Charmeleon so his body crouched over his weak tail fire, hiding it from detection temporarily. The Riolu’s mask of black fur, faintly illuminated by the flame, added to the furtive feel that filled the air.

“Kelly’s in a glade up ahead. She wanted me to search for you in case you had gotten away, I’d say mission accomplished,” he said with a slight grin that flashed his teeth.

Looking down at Leo, his smile faded. “I saw you get hit. How bad?” Jay asked, his hushed tones barely audible to the Charmeleon.

Somehow, he managed to make his vocal cords work. “I don’t know … hurts,” he croaked.

Jay gingerly brushed off a few leaves that were stuck to the wound by either dried blood or the electrical current. A small blackened circle was the only direct evidence that Leo had even been hit. Jay looked over the wound as best he could in the dark forest. From what he could tell, nothing major had been impacted. The blast had been mostly stopped by his scales and what little power remained had either burned into him or stunned his muscles.

“I know it hurts; I’ve been hit by one before too,” he pointed to a small irregular scar on his left arm. “Fortunately, Magnemite aren’t made to kill outright. You’ll be fine once the paralysis wears off,” Jay concluded as he peaked above the brush to see if the Magnemite were searching far enough away not to hear their talking.

“Can you move anything? Arms? Legs? We have to get moving,” Jay asked as he received only a twitch of Leo’s outstretched claws to show the extent of his mobility.
Jay groaned as loud as he dared, wondering what to do.

“We can’t stay here, our ‘friends’ are going to find us…” Jay shut his eyes and concentrated for a brief moment. Trying to think of a solution to their predicament.

Suddenly, his head shot up. “I’ve got it!” he whispered hoarsely as he rummaged around his torn and slightly charred satchel. He pulled out something small and held it so Leo could see it in the glow of his tail. It was a small crimson berry; a small curly green stem remained on it.

“Please tell me you can still chew,” Jay asked cautiously, hoping the answer was positive. The Riolu breathed an audible sigh of relief when Leo nodded. He dropped the Cheri Berry into Leo’s mouth and watched as the Charmeleon munch on the small berry.

At first, it appeared to have slightly less flavor than the dust he inhaled in the base, but after a few chews his tongue felt like it had been subjected to a once over with a flamethrower. As the spicy juices of the fruit burned its way into his taste buds, Leo felt his muscles and nerves burn with the same heat as they painfully returned to life. The temporary shock inflicted on his body was lifted in a single tongue-scorching bite.

Leo hopped to his feet, tail flaring in response to the sudden resurgence of activity. Despite Jay’s hushed warnings to keep silent, Leo spat the partly chewed berry out and ran his claws over his burning tongue trying to wipe the remaining fire off.

Jay had enough sense to clamp both paws down on the Charmeleon’s snout, silencing his rather loud actions, but unfortunately, he hadn’t the sense to act a few seconds earlier. As if they were center stage on one of the great halls of Silver City, every single searchlight in the forest was trained on the two Pokemon.

[i] “Dodge!”[/i]

All thoughts of pulling Jay’s paws off his mouth were discarded and some force in his body made his claws latch onto Jay’s shoulders and lunge to the side, taking the Riolu along. As the two Pokemon landed in the brush, several spheres of plasma converged into an explosive fireball where they had been standing.

[i] “Run!”[/i]

Not letting the Riolu even get the chance to brush himself off, Leo hauled him to his feet and was almost dragging him through the forest. His mind had shut out Jay’s protests to let go, even as plasma bolts slammed into the surrounding trees with dull thuds. He didn’t know where he was sprinting to, but something seemed to nudge his legs forward toward the western forest, and he didn’t object.

When Jay finally ripped his paw away with a grunt, the Riolu faltered slightly in his sprint at first. However, he was soon nimbly bounding over the thick roots of the dark woods. Leo’s short, reptilian legs struggled to keep up with Jay, the entire scene vaguely reminiscent of a similar scenario a few days before on his way into the Square.

Leo was nearly thrown to the ground as he collided into something metal. Skidding along the leaf littered floor, the Charmeleon clambered to his feet as the lone Magnemite hovered only a few feet in front of him.

“ZT! Suspect found in Valley Forest, Western Sector. Salient divided! I repeat Salient is divided! BZT! Reinforcements requested!”

[b] “That’s quite enough of that.”[/b]

Suddenly, Leo felt as if his lungs had caught on fire. It wasn’t the agonizing heat that he’d felt during his fight with Nexus; it was another, unnatural heat. He felt the heat rise up his throat, and almost instinctively, he let the fire exhale through his mouth. The fireball flashed into existence once it contacted the open air.

The Magnemite only saw the flash of bright orange before the attack consumed his spherical body entirely. The flames did not fade into nothingness as they did before; they seemed to grow in intensity.

The unit screeched as its metal components softened under the scorching fire and the steel shell surrounding the wires at its core began to melt. Electricity sparked erratically as the wires fused with the molten metal. The officer, widely veering around in the air, screeching as his brain solidified. Fortunately, for the Pokemon, a nearby tree took mercy on him and kindly allowed him to collide with its bark and explode.

Leo didn’t waste any time grieving, he sprinted past the smoking remains like a rocket. The smoldering metal crunched under his tread, as the core of wires shattered. He could hear the cries and sirens of the perusing officers close behind him, he clutched his badge tighter in his claws and focused on not tripping on the endless tree roots.

He didn’t notice it in the nearly pitch-black night, but he felt it like the wintery breath of Articuno when he passed through it: a dungeon barrier. The sudden drop in temperature was instantly rectified as he passed into the warped forest. Leo shivered as the coldness exited his body, and he looked around him in a circle.

There was no sight of the Magnemite, even though their searchlights should have been visible in the murky woods. He turned to look ahead of him once more, and to his surprise, he saw a small trail leading through the thicket of trees that hadn’t existed a second ago. When he squinted, he could even see Jay’s form speeding a ways down the path.

No! I am not getting left behind again! Leo thought as he tried his best to keep the Riolu within sight. Unfortunately, the trees had a different plan. As he sprinted down the trail, Leo did not notice that the branches above him began to move on their own accord. He did not notice when the trunks began to widen and compress in ways that defied the laws of nature as they blocked the path behind him. Nor did he notice when vines suddenly started constricting their way around the trees and snaking into the shrinking trail.

Only when the roots began to uplift and rearrange themselves did he finally take stock of the changes. The dungeon was making trying to engulf him. He pushed past the stitch building up in his side and sprinted as fast as his legs would allow. His breath grew thin and labored as his lungs burned.

The dungeon would not be outdone. The branches began to swing downwards onto the path, blocking it much like the roof had obstructed the hall before. Gritting his teeth, Leo kept his speed despite the road blockage. The dungeon had taunted him, and now he was going to accept its challenge.

Never wavering in his stride, Leo quickly approached the organic blockade. The distance lessening with every footstep, Leo knew he had to be accurate or else he would fall face first into the awaiting arms of the forest.

Taking a final breath, he leaped up in the air, the inertia from his sprint catapulting him forward. The night air seemed to go by his head with a whooshing sound as he tried to keep his body upright, no small feat while airborne.

While he may have overcome the first branch, there were others still yet in front of him.
The branches and vines seemed to reach up at him, as if they were taunting him to slip up, to make that one fatal error that sent him crashing down to their slithering tendrils.
As his momentum finally began to wane, Leo knew he wouldn’t make it over unscathed.

His body neared the boughs as an idea popped into his head. It was functional—in theory—and more appealing than being dragged into the depths of the dungeon. As gravity took its toll on his flight, Leo twisted his body so that his feet were behind him.

He touched down on the branch at an angle. Using the basic principles of physics, he pushed off with his claws. The little power behind his push was augmented as he swung his legs underneath him so they were now in front of him. The shift in weight carried enough force to break the downward momentum and launch him over the remaining branches.

He landed on the ground awkwardly, hopping a few times trying to regain his balance as the dungeon shuddered; the trees seemed to tremble as if they were receiving punishment for their failure to detain him. Leo shook his head and continued his run, as the path closed in around him.

He could see a moonlit clearing up ahead, his teammate’s silhouettes moving along the ground. The opening to the clearing was closing rapidly, choked by two huge, contorting oaks. The path had turned into an organic zipper, and Leo was on the verge of being caught up in the dungeon’s rage.

The distance between him and the opening grew less as he sprinted along the final stretch. Vines and shifting roots constantly wiped at each other along the ground, fighting for which would get the honor of ensnaring him.

Vines slithered from their positions in the trees to the ground. Leo felt them writhe under his feet like worms. He didn’t care, he was only a few strides away from the opening and escape. Escape from the Magnemite, escape from the dungeon.

The two oaks beside the entrance suddenly joined at their base and were rapidly combining into a single tree as to seal off the glade. Leo didn’t hesitate. He jumped as high as he could into the air, clearing the conjoined trunk. Before he could complete his nose-dive into the glade, his body was jerked back in midair.

A single, green tendril had saw fit to wrap itself around his ankle and was trying to slither its way around his leg while also pulling him back. Leo let out a pained yell, and in a flash, both Jay and Kelly were at his side.

Kelly stood on her hind legs and tried to hold onto the Charmeleon’s claws with hers; while Jay took a hold of Leo’s other outstretched arm and dug his heels into the ground.
They both pulled on the Charmeleon against the dungeon-spawned vine, stuck on the weaker side of a macabre tug of war game.

Leo kicked his legs in a vain attempt to both free himself and keep the vine from twisting around him further. Jay growled, pulling harder on Leo’s arm as Kelly somehow managed to balance herself on two legs while also pulling against the vine.

The vine, being only a plant, could not hope to hold out against the combined efforts of three Pokemon. After a final tug on its end, the tendril around Leo’s ankle split from the main plant with an earsplitting snap. The victors of the game went tumbling backwards to the ground.

After a minute of awkward untangling of tails and arms, the three members of Team Salient looked at each other with stares of relief, slight irritation, and utter confusion.

“So, does anyone want to tell me what just happened?!” Leo asked, crossing his arms, only vaguely noticing that his badge was still clutched numbly in his claw.

“We were hit by a raid,” Jay said as he noticed the dull glint of Leo’s badge as the weak light of the moon reflected off it.

“Uh-huh. Yeah, I can see that, Jay. I want to know why,” Leo reiterated as he tapped his foot on the ground in annoyance.

“Is that your badge?” Jay inquired, avoiding the Charmeleon’s question completely.

Slightly taken by surprise at the randomness of the question, Leo reflexively opened his claw to reveal the badge fully.

“Great, now hand it over. It has to go,” Jay demanded, holding out his right paw.
Leo drew back his badge, holding it close to him.

“Why? Why does it have to go?” Leo clutched his badge tighter as Jay let out an exasperated sigh.

“Because, they can track you through it!” Jay yelled, pointing vaguely in the direction of the Magnemite, “Believe me, I know what they do. I’ve experienced it first hand,” he said, his voice lowering so his teammates could barely hear him.

“Fine, just get it over with … Wait, you’ve been through this before?” Leo asked, as curiosity rose up inside of him. What else has he been through?

“It’s nothing. Just … just give me your badge, please. We don’t have much time. Kelly, yours too, please,” Jay responded, trying to evade the subject.
Leo remained unmoved and now Kelly was interested in the subject as well.

“Jay? What are you talking about? You’ve never mentioned this before,” Kelly inquired, suspicion worming its way into her mind.

“Seriously, can we talk about this later? Maybe, I don’t know, when we’re not being tracked?!” Jay said; fidgeting as he desperately tried to change the conversation.

“You were so eager to know about my past, now why don’t you tell us yours?” Leo pressed the Riolu, who refused to look at him directly.
“Are you the reason the Magnemite are hunting us? Is it something you did?!” Leo guessed, his voice becoming harsher with each passing second.
Jay suddenly looked up, furious.

“Something I did?! I seem to recall you being in a prison when you were assigned to us. And you’re one to talk about not telling us anything.” the Riolu was as close to screaming as he could get. He marched toward the Charmeleon, and planted a paw squarely on his chest accusingly. “Tell me Leo, who exactly are you?”

He continued. “How do we know this isn’t your fault?! We know nothing about you. For all we know, you’re a convicted arsonist, or a complete psychopath, or both!” Jay narrowed his eyes at Leo.

“Hey! Guys! Cool it, or else we’re going to be heard!” Kelly hissed, though was promptly ignored by the two erring Pokemon.

“Oh please, I told you all everything I knew that night. I have no secrets. You, though, don’t trust us enough to tell us anything!” Leo was lying through his teeth, but he was caught up in the heat of his argument.

“Leo! Jay! Both of you, shut up!” Kelly snapped, once again ignored in favor of their loud argument.

“You know? If you actually told us what is going on in your head, maybe we’d be able to solve your problem. When were you going to tell us tha—” as he yelled at Leo, Jay’s words were suddenly lost as a severe shiver went through him, as if the temperature exclusively around him dropped below freezing.

[b] “Cease. Now.”[/b]

When it passed, he seemed to have lost all malice toward his teammate.
Jay looked at Leo, a subtle mixture of absolute fear and terror was visible in the Riolu’s eyes. Whatever he had gone through had shocked him pretty badly.

“I-I’m sorry, I was wrong to pry into your life,” he stuttered, his words sounding as if he was forced to say them with a knife pressed against his throat.

“But, we do need to get rid of our badges. That’s a certainty. Leo, and Kelly, you too, please,” Jay asked meekly, making sure to keep his voice low.

Leo was too perplexed by what Jay’s complete turnaround in attitude to pay attention when Kelly gently eased his badge from his claws. She tossed the emblem over to the Riolu while she found hers on the ground and once more kicked it over to him, keeping a reasonable distance away from her teammate.

Jay silently nodded as he picked up both of the trinkets as well as a small rock he could hold easily in his other paw. Leo watched curiously as Jay took his own badge and placed it on an ancient stump. Taking the stone, Jay slammed it down onto the back where his paw print was etched into the reflective bronze metal. The metal made a resilient clinking noise with every impact. After several hits with the rock, the metal let out a sudden blue spark, contrasting sharply with the moonlit clearing.

Wiping his arm across his forehead, Jay examined the damaged item. Nodding quietly to himself, he tossed the identification piece over his shoulder and into the forest where it was quickly swallowed up by the shifting trees.

“One down, two to go,” Leo heard his teammate whisper as he watched Jay grab Kelly’s badge and repeat the same process. Hit. Clink. Another hit. Another metallic clink. Until the badge fizzled and sparked.

Leo felt a twinge of pain with every hit Jay landed on his badge, as if a small part of him was dying with every smack. His badge lasted ten hits with the nearly broken wedge of stone before sparking. Having rendered it inoperable, Jay tossed the broken piece of metal behind him.

“Alright, that’s done.” Jay took a quick look around the dark clearing. “It’s still a ways until dawn. I suggest we try to get some sleep. We’re safe from the dungeon in this glade,” Jay reasoned.

“You know? That sounds pretty good. We’ll figure out what to do in the morning,” Kelly agreed, cutting off Leo’s upcoming argument.


The Sableye sat alone behind the counter of his shop. Even though it was shortly past midnight, the small pile of priceless coins still mesmerized the shopkeeper. 

“First I’ll buy out those stupid Kecleon. Without their competition, I’ll raise my prices threefold. Then, I’ll use my profits to buy my way onto the Inner Council, and then, oh Arceus … the possibilities.” Aleck muttered as his claws carefully analyzed each and every doubloon of his ill-gotten wealth. The required task was completed easily enough, slipping the parcel into Gear’s study. [i]Being part Ghost type has its advantages, after all, hehe,[/i] he thought.

His plans for the future were interrupted by a single loud knock on the counter. Slowly looking up from his coins, he saw the silhouette of a Bug type he recognized instantly in the waning light of the moon, a single scythe pressed against the wooden countertop. 

“Why hello, my friend. Are you here to congratulate me on doing an exceptional job?” he said with a chuckle, his crystal eyes glittering slightly.    

The Scyther did not respond. Other then his breathing, he was silent. He drew his scythe slowly across the counter, shaving off thin layers of wood as he passed the appendage back and forth. 

“Shocked into silence at my performance, I take it? I am not surprised; I usually do exceed expectations in whatever I do. So, when do I get the rest of my reward?” Aleck asked as he set about stacking the gold coins in small piles, inches away from the other Pokemon’s moving scythe.

“You don’t.” 

Aleck was shaken out of his monetary trance as he heard his employer’s negative response.
“E-excuse me?! What did you say? I must have heard incorrectly. It sounded like you said that you were withholding my reward.”

The Scyther’s wings twitched as his gaze bore down on the Sableye. 
“You were promised your reward if everything worked out.” The Scyther suddenly lowered his head until Aleck’s face was only inches away. 
“It did not work out.” 

Aleck scrambled backwards from his employer, his claws scratching on the stone ground. 
“I did my part of the job exactly as you told me to. And besides, what went so horribly wrong?” he asked, still trying to secure his reward of Royal Poke. 

“Several vital targets escaped the raids.” 

“Well, it’s not [i]my[/i] fault that your scheme failed. I mean, these Pokemon don’t really concern me in any way,” Aleck muttered. 

“I’m afraid they do involve you; if my observations are correct they were some of your last remaining customers, I believe,” he revealed, causing Aleck to go think for a moment. The Scyther allowed a small grin to escape his emotionless face when he saw the shopkeeper knew which Pokemon he meant.

“No. N-no. Not them! That’s who was on that list?!” Aleck stuttered as feelings of guilt began to eat at him. A rare emotion for him to feel, but the fact that he had helped chase his only customers away triggered it. 

“Yes, it was them, and a few select others who needed to be taken care of. Your insatiable greed made you the perfect choice to be my errand runner,” the Bug type replied, absently sharpening his right scythe on his carapace. 

“But they haven’t done anything that I know of! Why would the Council want them arrested?!” Aleck yelled. [i]What have I done? They’re only kids, and I condemned them![/i] his thoughts screamed, instantly regretting his decision to work for the Scyther. 

The mysterious Scyther looked up from his task with his blade. “Depends on what government you assume I work for.”
It took a few seconds for Aleck to fully realize the meaning behind that statement. 

“Y-you … you’re working the Colonies. You’re a traitor! Gear! Officers—!” The Scyther suddenly lashed forward, his wings propelling him faster than a speeding Sharpedo. He slammed the broad side of his scythe against the small Pokemon’s head. There was a sharp crack as Aleck’s right crystal eye split into several small fragments. The Sableye stood upright for a moment, swaying slightly from side to side before collapsing to the ground in a crumbled heap.  

Quickly looking up from his deed, the Scyther glanced around the street. Not one soul remained out at this late hour, much to the Blade Pokemon’s relief. He turned back to his victim. A low groan issued from the fallen merchant, indicating he was still alive. For now. 

The Scyther acted quickly. He slid his scythe over the counter, knocking the small piles of coins into an open chest beneath the wooden table. Buzzing his wings, he hovered up and over the counter. Bending down, he carefully slid his right scythe into a small pouch slung over is shoulder and skewered a small golden seed, causing small amounts of yellow dust to trickle out. He held the seed over the unconscious Sableye, forcing the dust onto Aleck’s body. The shopkeeper’s body twitched once and then fell still. 

Pleased with the Stun Seed’s performance, the Scyther maneuvered his scythe underneath the small Pokemon and heaved him over his spiny shoulder. Glancing around once more, he deftly sprinted into the shadows of a nearby alley just as three patrolling Magnemite floated down the stone street. 

He watched them, his eyes narrowing in disgust at the retched abominations of the Kingdom’s creation. He remained as motionless as Aleck as the automations hovered by his position. A low groan from Aleck caused the Scyther to hold his breath as the Magnemite quickly lit up their search beams and scanned the area. 

Backup plans raced around his head, he could easily take those two out, but not before they would alert every unit in a ten mile radius. However, his fears were put to rest when the trio of officers abandoned their inspection and continued on their way. 

No longer inhibited by any obstacles, the Scyther leaped from his hiding place and into the street. His clawed feet made minimal noise on the stone as he ensured that no stray witnesses remained. He glanced at his hostage’s limp form, a scowl of disdain making its way across his face. 

“Filthy Kingdom merchants,” he hissed as his wings began to buzz rapidly. He rotated each of his legs once, and, in a blur of green and steel-grey, he was gone into the woods surrounding the town. An untouchable phantom in the moonlit forest.  

“Sir?” the Magnemite asked as he and his two counterparts reported the results of the three raids their new commander had ordered.

Richelieu, despite being exhausted by his efforts to oust Officer Gear from his position of power earlier that evening, slowly rose from his roosting position. His gold-tinted steel feathers clinked against each other as he rustled them.

“Ah, you three. You headed the raids, correct?” Richelieu inquired, blinking as he tried to wake himself up fully.

“Affirmative. ZT!” they all answered at once, causing the governor’s still groggy head to cringe in pain. He quickly shook it off, and put on his usual air of seriousness.

“Good, good. And it goes without saying that you all were successful, correct?” Richelieu assumed, inspecting each of the units.

“Yes, sir! Suspects detained! ZT!”

“Correct! Traitors captured!”

The final unit hovered uncomfortably as he made various noises similar to what a Mareep makes when pitted against a hungry Mightyena.

Richelieu narrowed his eyes and craned his neck forward so that his was looking directly down on the terrified unit.

“That wouldn’t happen to be an issue of conflict would it, officer?” he said, his voice cold. The Magnemite’s center eye shrank even further than the Skarmory thought possible.

“N-no, no, no, no! Not at all, sir! ZT! The raid was a c-complete s-s-success!” the Magnemite stammered, his panic growing. His eye glanced to the sides at his two partners, but they were at the opposite sides of the room, snickering to themselves as they readied themselves for what was going to come next.

Richelieu brought his beak closer to the unit’s center eye.
“You wouldn’t happen to be lying through your speakers now would you? Because I hate—no, I loathe, liars, especially when they lie to my face.”

The Magnemite whirled his magnets around furiously, as his eye tried to look anywhere in the room besides the governor’s eyes.

“You know what I do to liars? I order them to rot in the lowest, most Arceus-forsaken pit for the rest of their miserable lives. Now, would you like to perhaps rectify your previous statement?”

The Magnemite tried to maintain his silence, but he made the mistake of allowing his eye to lock with Richelieu’s piercing gaze.

“Alright! ZT! My team failed! ZZT! Failed to catch Salient! Please don’t deactivate me!” he screeched with the machine equivalent of sobbing.

Richelieu pulled his head back, a smug smile traced across his metal beak.
“I’m disappointed in you, officer. You and your team have just let several individuals who the Inner Council has listed as dangerous escape. You have disappointed the Kingdom along with every law-abiding citizen within its borders.”

The Magnemite let out a small squeak of relief, which was quickly crushed by the Skarmory’s next statement.

“We cannot allow units such as you and your team go unpunished, that is why you are being reassigned to the Sawgrass Town patrol.”

The Magnet Pokemon lost it. “What? Sawgrass? …… No! Nononononononononono! Not Sawgrass! They’ll eat me alive!” he screeched as small spark “tears” flew from his body.

“That is no longer my concern. Axis, go round up the rest of his team and make sure they are escorted to their new assignment immediately.”

The deputy, who had been floating silently outside of the doorway for some time now came inside the room. “Right now, Gea-vernor?” he said, catching himself before he said his previous boss’s name.

Richelieu would have chastised the Magneton for his mistake had he not been occupied in condemning this unit to a living hell.
“Yes, right now. Get to it.”

Axis hovered in front of the shaking unit, and with a barely audible “I’m sorry”, attached his magnets to the officer’s, and promptly short-circuited him. As Axis dragged the unfortunate unit’s chassis from Richelieu’s office, the condemned metal ball spoke.

“ZT! Gear would never do this!”

“Gear is gone now, for good,” the metal bird chuckled.


[i][b] “It has come onto my understanding that my plans, and thus eventual peace are being interfered with. I only ask that you grant me the permission of perhaps … escalating my range of influence.”

… …  ...

“Of course, I fully understand. Those who seek to endanger the world must be removed from it.”[/i][/b]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[b]End Chapter Eight[/b]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[b]Author’s Notes:[/b]

Well, that wasn’t that bad. All things considered, I got that written pretty quickly. 

Anyways, I loved this chapter. It contains many of the rather strange mechanics of the Mystery Dungeon series. For instance, “what happens when a whole bunch of Orbs go off at once”, and “to what lengths will dungeons go to trap you?” 
The first one alone was what made me continue to press forward until I finished it. 

This chapter also allowed me to explore just how Leo’s mind was affected by his “friend’s” actions a few chapters back. I think it’s a twist on the completely paranoid, half-schizophrenic, unstable Leo you all were expecting after that ordeal.  

Well, as always, immense thanks to my beta reader, Shadow Lucario and my friends on here. Brutaka, for all of my amazing banners, and Azurus for just being there to talk and do things with. Thanks for everything; I would have never made it this far without you all.

Knightfall signing off...

It’s a new record! :D

I did wonder about those things too. And you described it very well to make it feel like it would actually happen if you threw all the orbs!

I thought it was because you wanted to make Magnemite battle against Leo.

And I know that a lot of people love crazy Leo!

Don’t forget to give yourself credit for making a great story! I am happy to edit such a great story, and I hope that your success keeps growing!

And yes, commas are the worse nightmare of every writer.

Quite possibly, though Chapter Nine is nearing 10% and it’s only been two days since I posted Chapter Eight.

Heh, thanks. It’s one of the great mysteries of the MD universe. And we’ll be seeing more Orb misuse and explotation later on.

That too. I seem to have somehow caught Leo’s hatred of Magnemites. So, you can be assured of future Magne-destruction. (With the exception of Gear, I hated having to kill him off.)

So do I, though there might be some psychotic breakdowns later on in this story. Strike that, there will be breakdowns. Many, many breakdowns.

Aw, thanks. Though it wouldn’t be nearly as good without imput from all of you. And don’t worry, I plan on continuing this for a long time to come.

Indeed they are. Evil spawns of nightmares straight from the lowest pit of hell.

Knightfall signing off…

Chapter Nine: Perspective

 [b]Executive Order 47[/b]: [i] “In the event any officer of the law becomes malcompliant with established royal doctrines, it is imperative that they be disposed of with extreme prejudice. They are to be imprisoned without the possibility of fair trial. Lethal force is granted for severe cases of insubordination. Regional governors have the responsibility of filling in the position within forty-eight hours from initial disposal.”   	
 [/i]
[b] Opening paragraph of Royal Decree: 47[/b] 

Sunlight softly streamed through the large glass window of the study, lighting up the room with the new morning light. The room was paneled with a rich, dark wood and lined with several handsomely built bookcases. There was a desk in the center of the room made out of the same dark wood on which were stacked several important-looking documents.

A single Pokemon paced slowly behind the desk. Its paws made little noise on the polished marble flooring. He clutched a letter in his paw, careful not to accidently impale it on the boney spike also on his paw.

His red eyes read down the page, shifting as the Pokemon poured over each word several times before moving to the next one. As soon as he was finished reading it, he immediately read it again, hoping that what he read was a mistake.

[i] Your Majesty, be it far from me as a loyal subject of the crown to impose foreboding news upon you, but I am afraid I must. Unfortunately, costs of production of many of the items you import from our facilities have risen, and such the cost of exporting these products to your nation must rise to meet these cost demands.

I realize how crucial it is for your campaign against the Colonies that supplies reach your army in a timely fashion and how strained your treasury is for gold. Therefore, I will offer you a deal:
Grant Trinity Isle exclusive trade with your ports and allow us to collect tolls on our competitor’s ships and we will be able to keep prices from rising on our products.

I severely hope that you see the benefit from accepting these terms. The Kingdom can only prosper from them and we will be able to meet our financial obligations. Otherwise, I will have no other choice but to terminate our existing trade agreement. I do not wish for that to happen, nor do I wish the Colonies to overpower your nation.

Please respond in a timely manner; I have a schedule to keep.

Head Administrator, Constantine Sceptile of T.I.R.A.[/i].

A low growl of frustration came from the Pokemon. His black-furred paw placed the letter down on the desk. He slowly lifted his head, revealing two blue pointed ears and a blue and black furred snout.

“Curse the Legends …” the Lucario sighed as he rubbed his paws against the sides of his head. They’ve got us. The treasury can’t take another price increase …

As the monarch contemplated his extremely limited options, a soft knocking on the doors of the room interrupted him. Pushing aside the troubling news, he regained his regal composure.

“Enter.”

The two wooden doors parted to reveal a small red and white bird carrying several pieces of freshly printed parchment. The Delibird bowed politely, his beak almost touching the marble floor.

“Your Majesty, Lord Darney wishes to speak with you concerning the Inner Council. He is waiting in the reception hall,” he reported quickly. The king’s face darkened slightly at the mention of the name.

“Send him up; I will speak with him,” he said, unable to conceal his disapproving undertone.

“Will you be needing anything else, my lord?” the festively decorated bird asked.

A drink from Spinda’s would be nice. Something very strong … “No thank you, Wevan. That will be all,” he answered with a dismissing wave of his paw.

Wevan simply nodded. “Very well. I will fetch him right away, sir.” With that, he waddled out the door, making sure to close it gently behind him.

The Lucario closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind. He would need every ounce of mental strength not to snap and rip the Lord’s spiny head off his shoulders. The relationship between him and the Lord of the Council had been strained ever since they had come at odds with each other with how to best rule the Kingdom.

He had just finished taking another deep breath when he felt a strong aura of pure contempt waiting outside the door.

“Come in, Darney.” The door slowly opened to reveal a Pokemon slightly shorter than the king. His grass green carapace glinted in the morning sun’s rays as he walked into the study of the palace. The Pokemon, Darney, bowed in respect, his scythe-like appendages extended behind him as he continued the sign of respect.

Once he rose again, the Scyther coughed as he prepared to speak. “Nickolas,” he acknowledged, “I know you dislike being visited by me, so I’ll keep this meeting brief.”

The sovereign was not moved. “Why are you here?” Nickolas asked curtly, looking down at the oversized mantis.

Darney continued, ignoring the king’s question. “As you know, the war effort has gone stagnate. The Colonial lines cannot be broken and our army is just barely holding them back.”

“I know this. I do not need to hear it again from—” the king began, but was cut off almost immediately by the Scyther.

“Meanwhile, the Kingdom is crumbling around us; a dying patient in a hospital. We cannot hope to save it without greater cooperation within the government,” he said, slowly rubbing his right scythe on his left.
Nickolas narrowed his eyes Just where is he going with this? he wondered.

“Ever since the creation of the Council after the chaos of the Time Gear business and your tragic … loss, we have had varying degrees of disagreement on how the government should be run. What actions need to be taken to preserve this fine nation,” Darney said, beginning to slowly circle Nickolas like a vulture closing in on a carcass.

“Nearly every suggestion we’ve put forth has been more or less rejected by you, getting us nowhere, while our enemies continue to wear us down. If it wasn’t for your family, the war would have been over a year ago! Now, we nearly bankrupt and close to the tipping point into anarchy!” He stopped circling directly in front of Nickolas, his eyes red with anger.

“That is why the Council has decided to temporarily decrease your influence in the government until the current crisis has passed. Effective immediately.”

The noble backed away from the king, expecting a response. To the Scyther’s surprise, the Lucario just stood where he was, mouth slightly agape in apparent disbelief.

Darney cracked a slight smile. “You need some time alone with your thoughts, I see. Good day … your Highness,” he said with a mock bow. He then swiftly turned and walked out of the room through the doorway.

“W-what?” Nickolas stuttered as he tried to process what had just happened. He couldn’t believe that the absolute power built up by his family over the course of three centuries was decimated within a minute and a half.

Everything his ancestors, his grandfather, his father, and he had worked for gone in a flash. Governance over his land had vanished just as the light of the sun passed behind a thick cloud. They took it away! My crown! My Kingdom!

The disbelief gave way to absolute rage in one violent scream as Nickolas as he curled his right paw into a fist and slammed it into the nearest bookshelf. The shelf built from wood of the forests of the Far Reach splintered under the heavy blow. Books on the shelf flew to the ground in a flutter as pages of knowledge were torn by the sovereign’s wrath.

“No! No!! NO!!” he screamed as he repeatedly slammed his fist into the fractured remains of the wooden furniture. Suddenly, as the sun again broke through the clouds, his anger dissipated.

Nickolas fell to his knees and let his head drop down towards the hard, marble floor. His entire body shuddered as he attempted to gulp down as much air as he could. He couldn’t take it; not anymore. His citizens were being crushed by injustice, his armies were being crushed by their enemies, his government was being crushed by his own advisors, and right now, Nickolas was being crushed with repressed emotion.

One low sob escaped his throat and it was instantly followed by another, and yet another. Small rivulets of tears made their way down his face from the corners of his closed eyes.
Memories of the happier times before the war, before the Crisis of Time, before the Falling Star, all flashed in front of his eyes.

His father, still in the prime of his health laughed as he waved to the crowds of adoring Pokemon. Celebrating the thirtieth year of his reign.

His mother scolding him as he ran without care through the gold lined halls of the palace. His wife, the love of his life, celebrating their son’s first year of life. The celebration that lasted three days in the streets of Silver.

Then, the memories changed for the worse as his sobs increased. His father, coughing violently as the assassin’s poison ate through his veins. His father, lying on the cold marble floor as his advisors raced for help, whispered his final blessing and bestowing his son the crown with his last labored breath.

His mother, consumed by sorrow, ended her life with an emulation of the poison that had taken her soul mate only a week prior.

Himself, only five years ago when his world collapsed once more. When those ungrateful Colonists took his love away from him forever, stealing away her life.

And most recently, himself once again, refusing to look as he signed the order. The order that made him run away from everything he once knew. That made him a fugitive.

The memories did not subside until he felt the forceful shake of two small wings and the concerned voice of Wevan that broke him from the horrible slideshow.

“Sir? Sir?! Are you okay, sir?! Oh, do please get up, sir! Oh, Articuno, what should I do?!” the Delibird cried as Nickolas attempted to breathe once again. His body slowly recovered with the influx of air and he sat upright.

“I-I’m f-fine. Thanks, Wevan,” the Lucario said in between his panting breaths.

Wevan carefully removed his wings from his king’s back. “Thank the Legends, you’re alright …” the butler sighed in relief that his employer had not yet kicked the proverbial bucket.

“Umm, I’ll go make some Oran tea for you sir. I know you like that. I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” he stated quickly, before hurriedly running out of the study down to the kitchens.

“Yes, thank you,” Nickolas mumbled as he closed his eyes again allowing his thoughts to wander for one brief moment. Oh, Alexandria … What do I do now?”

 
I am dead. Dead to the gods. Dead to those who once knew me. Dead to the false knowledge. Dead to the world above. 
[b] “Dive right! There are patrols on the left up ahead! Keep running!”[/b]

[i] “No! It’s over! It’s all over! There’s nothing left! They’ve all left me!”[/i]
 I’ve become little more than a shadow of my former self. 

Yet I live. Deep within the darkest recesses of the truth, away from the lies above. I don’t know exactly how I became how I am. Yet somehow I did.
[b]“Get a hold of yourself! You must focus! It’s not over! There! A ladder! Climb!”[/b]
 
My mind slips into the insanity that plagues me. Reminding me of my failures.
[i] “No! No! No! There’s nothing! I’m nothing! You’re just a figment of my imagination! Leave me alone!”[/i] Screaming delusions of my tortured mind. 
 
I once obeyed this hypothetical truth. A promise made up by those who wish to repress true knowledge all for the sake of greed and corruption. They controlled me and those who once knew me. And we did not question them.
Days and months passed by, yet I did not waver from the viewpoint they forced upon us. 
[b]“Listen to me! Please! You’re hallucinating again. Just take a deep breath and try to block out the visions! You have to focus.”[/b]
 
I beg you, do not judge me. I was lost in the night of ignorance, without a lantern or torch to guide me.
[i] “I’m not crazy! I’m not crazy! I’mnotcrazy! I’mnotcrazyI’mnotcrazy!”[/i]
 I’m afraid I am. 

I do not know when, but I woke up. Woke up from the moral sleep our overseers had subjected us to. Woken up from a dream only to face the living nightmare that had ensnared itself into our lives so deeply that there was no escape from it.
[b]“Snap out of it! Whether you like it or not, you are insane, at least until we get out of here.”[/b]
 
I dug deeper into the heart of the false truth, while putting on the façade of continued compliance to their immoral orders. Their countless violations of justice; they did not go unnoticed by my furtive eyes. Until I found it. The source of the lies.
[i] “It saw me! The crystal eyes! They’re always watching! Stop watching me![/i]
In my previous position, I would have been most intrigued about the illusions and acute paranoia of a Pokemon’s mind. Now, I have become my own test subject. 

Their greatest triumph.
A heart and mind made of the pure concentrations of their unceasing disregard for justice, truth, and ideology. Contempt for their own founding creed. They created a mind of science.
[b] “You have to focus! Get a hold of yourself! We’re going to be captured if you don’t move![/b]
 
He aided them. He used the overseers to unseat the kings of the past and future. In order to preserve the world. To safeguard it for eternity. What a joke. He was the cartographer of the map to upset the reign of justice.
[i] “Y-you’re right. I- we must keep—There! I saw them! Get away! Get away!”[/i]
 It’s truly disgusting seeing how far I’ve fallen. 

I could not remain where I was. I fled. I evaded the false knowledge. Taking refuge in the last remaining strongholds of truth that remained in this hell. 
[b] “Don’t believe what you see! Listen to me! None of that is real! Just listen to me!” [/b]
 
The variables had not yet been in place. Gone. Unfinished. Destroyed. Hidden from the light of the righteous. Trapped under the lies of our generation.
[i] “How can I trust you! You’re one of them! You always were! Get away!”[/i]
If I can’t trust my own conscious, how can I trust someone else’s?  
 
Heaven shone a light down upon me. It cast me into favor. How could something has pure and innocent as ideology exist in this wasteland of hatred and progress?
[b] “We’ve been over this before! I am not one of them! You made sure of that.”[/b]
 
I dared not question. Not again. Together, we worked. Justice and ideals. To overthrow the false truth and free others from its tyrannical grip.
[i] “That’s just what they would say! Get away from me! I hate you! I hate all you! You-- You’re trying to kill me!”[/i] Trusting a conscious that’s not even my own. 
 
We failed. Together we fled as far as we could, yet the mind of science aided by the spawns of coding barricaded us. Trapped us on the bridge connecting the span of dimensions.
[b] “Just listen to yourself right now! You’re confused. What would [i]he[/i] think right now?[/b]
 
The cold winds of prejudice battered us. Making our wills slip ever so slightly. In our hour of need, a spawn of coding saw through the wool of lies. The wired heart’s eyes were opened to see the evil that surrounded it.
[i] “D-don’t you dare mention him! Not again! Not ever again!”[/i]
 What have I become? All in my quest for the truth...

The heart of wire was not enough to keep the mind of science and the founder of lies attack with the cold winds of prejudice. We fell. Off the bridge spanning the two worlds: knowledge and freedom.
[b] “No! I will mention him! What would he think of you right now?! Accusing me of treachery! What would he say to you?! Tell me!”[/b]
 
Our spirits fell. The abyss of ultimate ignorance awaited us. Its jaws open like a predator. An ocean of darkness accepted the fall of our light. Drowning it swiftly.
[i] “ No! No! Stop it! I can hear him! I hear him! He’s saying I’m a bad Pokemon! No I’m not! You’re lying! You’re lying! Stop lying to me! Stop it!”[/i]
 In the clear instances when my mind is fully mine, I stop to wonder about my predicament. 

I swam, rescuing the heart of wire and the wounded soul of ideals from the ocean of darkness.
Prejudice had left its mark on the ideals and such a way that there was no recovery.
[b] “He’s telling you to snap out of it. None of those visions are real. He’s telling you to listen to me. It’s not real.”[/b]
 
I wandered with the heart of wire and the dying ideals through the lost halls underneath the fortress of lies and inequity.
[i] “N-no! No! They’re real! R-real! R-r-real? N-not real? Not real ... Y-you’re right. I can hear him …They’re … They’re going away. The visions …”[/i]
 I used to be respected! I used to be free! I used to be sane!

It was there, among the halls, where ideals were truly lost. Truth was not enough to save it. The wired heart lead me onwards toward half-hearted salvation.
[b] “Good. Just take some deep breaths. In. Out. That’s it. There’s some Luminous Orbs in the supply room ahead. Those will help you. Come on. We have to climb.”[/b]
 
I found salvation. Salvation in the forgotten knowledge that still existed unmolested under the crushing bastion of false truths.
[i] “I-I’m sorry. For yelling at you. You’re the last friend I have in this hell. I shouldn’t have let those voices get the better of me. I-it’s me. I need the sun, it’s getting to my head.”[/i]
There’s nothing for me, but a hope that’s been shattered and taped back together more times than I can count. 

He found me. The One who has strived to find the balance between truth and ideals. He comforted me in my darkest hour. When my mind could not react according to reason.
[b] “It’s alright. I forgive you. You can’t help it … That’s why we have to climb. So you can get to the surface again. So we can escape.”[/b]
 
He promised that freedom would be at hand. Freedom from the clutches of those who restrain the truth. From those who wish to ensnare the world.
[i] “I know we have to escape, but we can’t leave. Not yet. Otherwise there will be no one to guide the heroes when they get here. They won’t survive without us. They must have a guide.”[/i]
 He visits me every so often. He speaks all proper, like it’s a business meeting. He says the same thing every time “patience”. If only to remind me: 

I ascended into the passages of the false knowledge with the wired heart. To prepare for the coming of the heroes of injustice.
[b] “You’re trying to be a hero, just because of what that thing told you. Listen to me! You’re not a hero! Heroes die!”[/b]
That I [i]will[/i] see the sun again. One day. My mind [i]will[/i] become clear once again. The heroes [i]will[/i] allow me to.  
[i] “You don’t understand… I have to stay. To guide them. Otherwise the world will burn.”[/i]

I [i]will[/i] be free. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Aleck groaned. His body stirred on the floor of the damp dungeon. As his nose picked up the smell of decaying straw, he slowly opened his crystal eyes.
 
He instantly knew something was wrong as soon as he realized that one side of his vision was completely dark. He carefully raised a claw to the darkened eye and to his horror, felt the deep cracks in it. Then he remembered: the mysterious Scyther, the kill list, the money, everything from the night before. 
 
Swallowing his panic, he looked around the room that confined him. It was small, the ceilings barely high enough to keep from smashing his head on it. The walls appeared to be built completely of stone. Though whatever kind it was, he instantly knew it would be too hard for him to dig his way out.
 
He turned his head to the only source of light, a flickering torch in the hallway. He was separated from the warmth of the fire by a gate of iron bars with a firm lock attached to it.
He gripped the bars with his claws and shook them as hard as he could, hoping to attract some attention.
  
“Hey! Let me out of here! Someone answer me!” he angrily yelled. Suddenly, heavy footsteps made him cease his calling.
 
A large Pokemon with a thick hide of purple complete with several pointed spikes stopped in front of his cell. He took his fist and slammed it against the bars.
Aleck leaped backwards in fright, while the Nidoking let out a gruff laugh.
 
“Better keep quiet, little Kingdom rat, otherwise you’ll lose another eye,” he chuckled as he continued his patrol down the hallway, leaving Aleck alone once more.
 
“Oh, Giratina, what have I done to deserve this?” Aleck croaked, holding his injured eye with his claws.
 
[b][i]“You allowed your greed to get the better of your judgment.  This is not the first time that has happened, from my observations.”[/i][/b]
 
“Giratina?! Is that you?!” Aleck gasped, excitedly looking around the dungeon with his functioning eye.
 
[i][b] “Not quite, regrettably. Though I am an emissary for those in high places. Regardless, knowledge of my identity is not required for my purpose here.”[/b][/i]
 
“W-who are you?” Aleck said in a stuttering whisper as the dungeon seemed to grow colder. The slight warmth the torch provided dissipating gradually as the voice’s presence grew closer..
 
[i][b] “You must not have heard me, merchant, when I said my identity is not necessary for this conversation."[/b][/i] 
 
“W-what do you want?! Show yourself, phantom!” Aleck demanded, trying to summon his courage as he faced the unseen threat.
 
[b][i] “I’m afraid I work best from the shadows, Aleck, so I cannot hope to oblige to your demands. I can however, shed some light on the issue at hand. Such as, why you are in a nice, cozy prison cell and not --purely for example-- face down, throat slit in a ravine.[/b][/i]
 
Aleck gulped in fright. “Please, don’t hurt me. I’m only ...” he pleaded, his voice breaking off mid-sentence. He huddled in a corner of the dungeon, whimpering slightly
 
[b][i] “Only what, Aleck? A murderer? A backstabbing thief? A traitor? Neither Derek nor Team Salient got a chance to argue the fate you forced upon them; why should I hear your plea?[/b][/i] The temperature in the cell continued to drop until Aleck could see his own terrified breath turn into mist.
 
“I was wrong! I was greedy! I nearly killed them, but it was that Scyther that—!”
 
[i][b] “Enough! I care not for whom you place the blame for your own mistakes. Tell me, why I should give you the chance that Salient never had?”[/i][/b]
 
“I am sorry! I wish I had thrown the money on the ground! I should have walked away from his deal! What more can I say to make you believe that?!” Aleck cried. A deep mist enveloped the prison cell, making the area around Aleck a wall of pure darkness.
 
[i][b] “I cannot believe anything you say as your lies are hard to distinguish from the truth. I’m certain Derek would be disappointed to see the cesspool of greed and deceit your life has become. Was your ‘friendship’ with him, however brief, nothing? Just a way to advance yourself? A way to temporarily satiate your greed?[/i][/b]
 
“D-don’t mention his name. Not even after all this time. Not after what happened to him.” He whimpered as memories from his distant past resurfaced in vivid detail.
 
[i][b] “Why not? You used him. He was only a tool to pass the blame onto for your mistakes. He took the fall in your place. He got what you and you alone deserved.”[/i][/b]
 
“He was my friend! I tried to save him, but I couldn’t!” Aleck roared, stamping his clawed foot on the stone floor. 

[i][b] “Yet you never felt even the slightest amount of grief or regret afterwards. You never felt--”[/i][/b]

“You don’t know what I felt!” Aleck interrupted, “I lost a friend! You have no idea how much the guilt ate at me! You’re the one who doesn’t know anything! You’re nothing! You’re-- Gaaakkk!” he clutched at his throat as an unseen force crushed it. His vision began to darken as his body suffered from the withdrawal of precious oxygen. 

[i][b] “Do. Not. Insult. Me. Nod your oxygen-deprived head once if you understand. Otherwise you can permanently say goodbye to your motor functions.”[/i][/b] Despite on the verge of passing out, Aleck managed to nod as per the voice’s instructions.

[i][b] “Excellent.”[/i][/b] As suddenly as it appeared, the crushing pressure on his windpipe immediately released. Aleck collapsed to the floor gasping for breath like a fish out of water. 

The voice ignored the Sableye’s weak curses and continued from where he left off.   
[i][b] “So, if given the chance, you would make up for the deed? What would you be willing to do to repay a favor of a lost friend? To repay the debt owed for your life? Hmm?” [/i][/b] 
 
“Of course I would! I would do anything! He didn’t deserve what I made him go through … ” he said with a hoarse whisper.
 
[b][i] “Would you help Salient? Would you help them in their hour of need if presented the opportunity?[/b][/i] 

“Yes! Anything!” Tears began to form in his functioning eye. 

[i][b] “Anything? Do you actually know what ‘anything’ entails?[/i][/b]

“Yes! I do! Please, I swear I will do anything to ensure their safety! To make it up to them!” the merchant cried, praying to the Dragon of the Dimensions to save him.
 
[i][b] “Even at the cost of your life?[/i][/b]
 
Aleck’s heart was about to explode from sheer terror. “Yes! Yes! Anything!”
 
[i][b] “You are a pathetic excuse of a Pokemon, do you know that? You traded not only
Salient’s, but also several other’s lives for what? A sack of metal.”[/i][/b]
 
That was when he saw them; two golden eyes glaring at him with a mixture pure loathing and twisted bemusement. 

[b][i] “Prove to me you deserve a second chance, Aleck. Prove that your life was not squandered on self-gratification and worldly possessions. Can you do that?”[/i][/b]
  
The Sableye fell prostrate on the stone floor as he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Yes! I will! I will! Just let me go!”
 
As if a fire was ignited, the dark mist vanished in a blink of an eye. It left no trace that it had invaded the small prison cell besides a very shook up Aleck who was still huddled in a corner.
 
[i][b] “Well then, we will see just how … repentant you are of your actions, won’t we?”[/i][/b]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
“Alright, so as of now, we’re in the middle of a mystery dungeon. Right about here,” Jay stated, pressing his paw against a clump of green on his torn map that represented the mystery dungeon.
 
After the ordeal of the previous night, they had decided to sleep in shifts until dawn. A plan that would have worked if Leo hadn’t dozed off five minutes into his shift. Fortunately, no interlopers appeared during the night to mess things up even more than they already were.
 
The morning sun was still creeping its way above the eastern horizon, but its rays provided enough light to see. The dungeon forest surrounding the team was calm, as if they only moved during the night hours.
 
“We’re still too close to Loyalty to consider ourselves out of the woods yet,” Jay stated again, Leo almost groaning at his pun. They had all gotten up only a few minutes before and Leo had yet to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
 
His entire body felt as stiff as a board and sore. This was to be expected from sleeping on a patch of particularly uncomfortable dirt. He had woke up with a layer of dew on his scales and had trouble getting the irritating droplets off his skin. They acted like someone poured itching powder on him, causing him to fidget around in discomfort trying to get the stinging water off.
 
“We have few options once we get out of these woods. Depending on how fast word gets out that we’re wanted, we might have very little time. We can’t go east back to Loyalty, so that leaves us with the Ember Mountains to the south, and Silver City to the west,” Jay said, counting off the limited ways they could leave the forest.
 
“I vote we go north; my hometown is near the Borderlands,” Kelly suggested, her voice still sounding exhausted from the previous night’s ordeal. Her scream Leo had heard was due to a delayed Orb going off in the main room. Apparently sandstorms and electric types do not go well together. She had her paw placed near a jagged red line on the northern area of the map. 
 
Jay shook his head in obvious disagreement. “That’s also where the war is. We might as well walk into a military base, because that’s what the Borderlands has become,” Jay responded.
 
“Where do you suggest we go then, Jay?” Kelly snapped, placing her paw down on the map over the jagged red line that indicated the Borderlands.
 
“Simple, we go to Silver. We can hopefully lie low for a bit and fade from their wanted list,” Jay said confidently, placing his paw down on the large dot near the coast that represented Silver City.
 
“You say we’re going into a military base with my plan, when you’re suggesting we go the capital! Do you know how many guards are there on a daily basis? Hundreds, at least! No, we’re [i]not[/i] going there,” Kelly declared, shooting down Jay’s suggestion.
 
Jay crossed his arms in frustration. “Well, we’re not going to Solaceon Town, or whatever it’s called. That’s for sure.”
 
“It’s called [i]Solace Town[/i]. And we’re going there and not Silver,” Kelly growled, the spiked fur on her back bristling with electricity.
 
“How about this town here? It’s far away from the border as well as Silver,” Leo recommended, tapping his claw against a small dot deep within the frontier lands of the Far Reach. Both Kelly and Jay stopped their bickering as they looked at him as if he had grown a third arm.
 
“A-are you joking?! If you’re not, then you’re insane!” Jay shouted, as Leo jerked his claw off the map.
 
“Leo, I’m sorry. Though I have to agree with Jay this time. We can’t go to … that town. No one goes there, not anymore,” Kelly said gravely.
 
“What’s so bad about it?” Leo asked, wondering just what sort of place he had suggested they go.
 
“Amnesia or not, you don’t forget the stories of Sawgrass Town. Nothing can erase those,” Jay said with a tone of finality. He quickly shifted the conversation.
“That aside, we still have the question of which way to go. I still vote we go west to the coast...”   
 
“And I still say we go north. Leo, would you please back me here?” Kelly pleaded to the Charmeleon.
 
“Leo, you gotta agree with me here. Or at the very least suggest something helpful,” Jay asked, trying to restore some of the camaraderie they’d lost only a few hours ago.

Leo took a minute to study the weathered map lain across the ancient tree stump. Its rough depictions of mountains, rivers, cities, and territory boundaries all seemed to swirl into a mess of jagged black lines.
 
After observing the areas where each of his teammates wanted to go, the solution he saw was so simple he wondered how it hadn’t even dawned on Jay or Kelly.
 
“How about we head northwest? We’ll still be close to both areas and far from Loyalty. And when the time comes, we’ll decide which way looks better. We’re still in the middle of a forest that’s trying to kill us, so I’d like to leave it as soon as possible.” 
 
Leo wasn’t sure how Jay and Kelly ended up accepting his suggestion of going northwest, but they had, and that was all that mattered. Against Jay’s wishes, they split the last of their food—a single bruised apple—in what tried to pass itself off as a breakfast.
 
Leo was sure that tempting his stomach with that morsel of food only made his hunger worse for the wear. Despite still being deprived of food and a decent night’s sleep, they had set off from the glade just after dawn.
 
Under the dense treetops, the warmth of the sun was prevented from reaching the actual forest floor. The dew of the night before had accumulated on the trail, mixing with the layers of dead leaves and other refuse on the ground until it obtained the consistency of sludge and made a disgusting sloping noise with every footstep.
 
If the mire that was the dungeon trail wasn’t bad enough, the temperature stubbornly refused to warm the forest below the treetops. This wouldn’t have affected Leo as much if it hadn’t chilled the mud, doubling the feeling of gloom that had settled over the group. Kelly had it worst of all, having to walk on all fours through the cold sludge.
 
And so it remained for the next hour or so: walking, shivering, and occasionally complaining about the mud. When they finally saw the end of the trail and the clear field beyond, they simultaneously started to race towards it.
 
Mud sprayed into the air as the team scrambled as fast as they could down the forest corridor. Despite tripping and sliding face first into the mud several times, Leo continued to run, ignoring the stinging sensation in his tail brought on by the mud.
 
Once they had passed through the freezing spatial boundary of the of the dungeon, they team found themselves standing in a giant field of low grass. The sun, despite partially shielded by passing clouds, had never felt so good. Leo rested on his back in the grass, holding his tail off the ground to prevent a fire, and allowed the sun to warm his entire body. Leo could see Jay and Kelly both copying him, as they warmed themselves and brushed the drying mud off their bodies.
 
Taking a deep breath, Leo sat up and surveyed the field. Fortunately, this field appeared to be nothing like the one he had first woke up in. Small birds chirped as they flew over the pasture, the wind blew normally, and, as far as he could tell, there were no Pokemon, either from the Kingdom or wild, trying the kill them.
Unfortunately, this calm was shattered as a cheerful voice greeted them from the sky.
 
“Hey! There you all are!” At once, they all looked up in bewilderment. A small moving spec in the sky suddenly started to circle downwards towards them. As it got closer to the ground, they could identify the bird’s brown feathers and red crest. Within a few seconds, the bird had landed in the middle of the team.  
	
“Thank Zapdos, I was able to find you all! Lucky you came out of the forest when you did,” the bird chirped excitedly as Jay took a closer look at the Pidgeotto.
 
“Wait a second … Icarus, is that you?” the Riolu asked, realization hitting him like a punch.
 
“In the flesh,” he responded, unfurling his right wing and directed the group to a scar along it where the bone was giving proof of his identity. “Healed quite nicely after our little mishap in Spore Meadows, don’t ya think?”
 
“What on earth are you doing here, Icarus? I thought you were busy with the military or otherwise engaged,” Kelly asked, trying to elicit some answers from their former client.
 
“You were supposed to pay us back for rescuing you,” Jay added, making Icarus cringe with the memory.
 
“Jay, shut up. Forget about that Icarus. Tell us, why were you looking for us?” Leo asked receiving a sharp glare from his team leader.
 
 “R-right. Anyways, after I left you all, I waited a few days for the healers to fix up my wing. Today was my second day back to work, actually. Yesterday I delivered a message to the army camped in the Bronze Valley---” Icarus rambled.
 
“Today, Icarus. We kinda have to keep moving,” Jay snapped at the Bird Pokemon.
 
Icarus flapped his wings once. “Alright, alright. I’m going. Right. Today I had to deliver a message to Gear. Something about potential recruits, I think,” he said, as Kelly immediately pressed him with questions.

“Did you talk to him?! Why did he order us arrested?!”  Icarus put up his wings, indicating to withhold her interrogation.
 
“Please, wait a minute. I’m getting to that. Well, when I arrived his office to deliver the message, I found a Skarmory instead of him. Apparently this guy is the governor of the province,” Icarus explained.
 
“Wait … we have a governor?” Jay asked, tilting his head in confusion.
 
“ I know; it surprised me too. Anyways, that’s not the worst part. I looked at the walls and I saw scorch marks. A lot of them. And I couldn’t get the governor--- Richellie, Richylou, Ricardo--- whatever his name was, I couldn’t get him to tell me what happened to Gear. It was the deputy, Axis, I think, that told me what happened,” Icarus further elaborated, pausing for breath.
 
“So, what happened?” Leo asked, even though he could already guess what happened to the kind Magnezone.
 
Icarus bowed his head, as if dreading the news he was about to reveal.
“He killed him. The governor killed him for not obeying orders. Apparently, there was a list of traitors, your team name was on it along with some others, and he refused to follow it. It was the governor who ordered the arrest, not Gear,” Icarus somberly informed the team.   
 
“He’s gone. He’s really gone,” Jay whispered in disbelief. Leo couldn’t believe it either. Gear had been the first Pokemon he met that somewhat supported him. He had helped him when he was lost and confused. [i] Gear…[/i]
 
“Well, I got outta there as fast as I could. I knew you lot weren’t evil Pokemon, much less traitors, so I went to find you. Your base was completely destroyed, burned to a crisp.  But, I saw a squad of Magnemite still sweeping the area, so I knew you all had escaped,” the Pidgeotto explained.
 
“I spent the last few hours circling above the forest before I saw you all in the field,” he said before continuing.
“You know? You guys were really lucky you came out of the forest where you did. They’ve got patrols along the north and west of here.” 
 
At this both Jay and Kelly’s faces fell. Richelieu had wasted no time in making up for his squad’s failure the previous night. Wanted posters were already beginning to dot bulletin boards across the Between countryside. 
 
“Well, that throws a Blast Seed at our plans,” Jay grumbled, putting his paws behind his head in exasperation.
 
“No kidding …” Kelly sighed in reluctant agreement.
 
“Thanks, Icarus. You kept us from walking straight into two traps,” Leo said gratefully as he gave the bird a pat on the back.
 
“You’re welcome. Anyways, it sounds like you all have no place to go, right?” Icarus asked, quickly hopping away from the Charmeleon.
 
“That’s right,” Leo answered, “or unless they have any other ideas.” He jabbed a claw towards his teammates, who simply shook their heads. 
 
“That’s great! Actually, that’s really horrible, but it’s still great!” Icarus exclaimed, flapping his wings several times in excitement.
 
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Jay demanded, as Icarus slowly gathered himself.
 
“What I mean is that there’s a military encampment a few hours in this direction. The general there often turns a blind eye towards recruits if they have a record, so you all can go there,” Icarus explained, extending his wing down the dirt trail that cut across the field.
 
More than slightly suspicious, Jay wasn’t about to believe a Pokemon that had conned them into rescuing him for free.
“You’re serious, right? No tricks?”
 
“None at all. I still owe you guys a favor, don’t I?” Icarus stated. His expression screamed of a longing to be absolved of his debt to the team. 

“Jay, I think we can trust him,” Leo said,  turning towards Icarus before Jay could refuse. 
“We’d be grateful for a place to stay and be safe.” Despite his beak limiting his expressions somewhat, the tell-tale signs of a smile made its way across the Pidgeotto’s feathered face. 

“Excellent! I’ll fly ahead and let Torrent know you all are coming. Remember, it’s just straight ahead on this path. You should arrive there around sundown if you’re lucky,” Icarus reminded the group before flapping his wide wings several times and made his way into the air.   

After watching his flying form grow smaller and smaller until it disappeared altogether, the team gathered up their meager belongings and started, once again, down the path through the field. 

The lush field offered little cover from any direction save for the tall grasses still growing strong from the torrential summer rains that feed them. The almost noxious aroma of the thousands of grass buds and wild flowers clouded Leo’s head. His footsteps along the dry dirt made a hypnotic thudding noise that only made the trek feel longer.

The the late summer heat took its toll on the team as they trudged through the field. Leo wished that a well of water would appear alongside the path, or anything that could potentially quench his thirst. He thought it was a cruel working of fate that he was stuck in this body. Wanting nothing more to take a plunge into a lake, but also loathing the thought of having water splash onto him. 

His torpid trance was broken only occasionally when he, in his senseless state, stepped off a raised ledge and fell forward, usually giving the ground a nice impression of his face while doing so. Kelly and Jay seemed to have also been taken captive by the same mind-numbing trance as they continued plodding on, Kelly only weakly looking back at him and urging him to get up. 

The cycle continued: walk, heat, thirst, smell, trip, repeat. It was if some sick deity had cut out the same mile of field and made them walk the same stretch again and again for his own personal amusement. Leo shivered, even as the sun scorched his back, thinking of all his experiences in this world so far. 

While the Fields hadn’t actively tried to kill him, they had proved to be both emotionally as well as physically draining. It had truly acted like a dungeon. His luck had continued to go downhill from there when he was arrested and his subsequent first mission with them into Spore Fields. 
He’d very nearly been blasted into nothing if the badges had not reactivated when they had.

[i] It was then, in the infirmary … I first heard him,[/i] he realized as his feet momentarily stopped.  
[i] He told me then to wake up and see past the corruption. The corruption … was he talking about this ‘governor’ person? Killing Gear? What that what he meant?[/i] Leo mused as his thoughts evolved, rapidly putting together the limited pieces he had to this complex puzzle. 

[i]He told me that this would happen! He warned me about the Magnemite arresting that Golduck and the ambush by Nexus. He knew![/i] The revelation hit him like a sack of particularly hard rocks. His feet continued to remain rooted to the spot as Kelly and Jay marched further ahead of him. His mind continued to race toward a conclusion that was nowhere in sight.   

[i]And in the forest! He... the fire and ice … the voice … his voice. He told me not to leave again. Did he know something else, too?[/i] That thing was planning something and Leo knew it. 

[i] Back at the base. That wasn’t me dodging or running. It was something else. It wasn’t me. It was him.[/i]  

[b][i] “I was wondering when you would figure that bit out. I’m glad you have more functioning neurons than Nexus claimed you did.”[/i][/b] The voice had come out of nowhere, and as Leo looked around the grassy field, it remained as invisible as the wind. 

[i] Why?[/i] No other thought was so prevalent on his mind. The wind seemed to whip the reeds as the voice responded.

[i][b] “The how and why of my actions cannot be disclosed at this time due to … well … I’m really not at liberty to say. I have agreed to abide by certain … restrictions, barring my influence over you and some select others.”[/i][/b]

[i]Who? Who else is going through this?![/i] Leo’s thoughts screamed as the voice simply sighed in exasperation. 

[i][b] “Once again, I am not at liberty to say. Now listen closely, Leo, I am asking --quite politely, I might add-- for one thing. Only one.  I am currently … entangled in some rather pressing … matters concerning the ‘legality’ of this operation. All I ask is that you stay the course without needing an … intervention on my part. Can you do this, Leo?”[/i][/b]

“What’s in it for me if I accept?” he whispered, finally finding his voice again. 

[i][b] “It seems that you’re looking to much into the illusion of free choice I have given you. But, if you must, I will limit my intrusions into your addled head if you comply. The longer you follow my directions, the less I will have to …. correct your actions. Do we have a deal?”[/i][/b] the voice chuckled. 

“…Yes,” Leo croaked. 

[i][b] “Wise choice, my friend. I will meet you up ahead...”[/b][/i] With that haunting remark, the presence left, only the torrid sun and tall waves of grass remaining to remind Leo of what was still real. He looked ahead through the rippling grass at the two blue and yellow specks in the distance. He sighed as he found his feet again and began catching up to his teammates. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had finally begun its fiery descent  into the western horizon, painting the sky in vivid colors of fading blue, blazing orange, and an amalgamation of similar colors that would need an expert on the color spectrum to accurately name them all. 

Jay had called a for a break from walking sometime around noon, when the sun was at its hottest. Said “break” that included all three of them foraging among the brush for some edible berries and roots, a loud argument over which round blue berry was poisonous or not, and finally eating the berries that were decided to be non-lethal, and fortunately were.

They were all tired and still caked with dirt from their escape from the forest. The military camp was nowhere in sight; even on top of a ridge nothing remotely resembling a camp could be seen for miles around. As the sun’s rays no longer provided enough light to see, they used Leo’s tail as a torch to guide them. 
The waning moon provided only a fraction of the light it did the night before, making determining their path difficult. The wind barely rustled the grass on both sides of them, causing an eerily haunting sound like the rattling cries of some primal beast. 

At first, Leo dismissed the sounds of the grass as the movement of the unblowing summer wind, but as it continued to follow them as they moved along, he increasingly grew paranoid that something was out there. 

The dry stalks of wild grass rattled against each other. Leo could have sworn that he detected the faintest hint of a shadow darting behind a clump of the plants. He strained his eyes, holding his tail in front of him as a flashlight of sorts to aid in his search. 

Jay and Kelly both halted behind him, sensing the same feeling of being watched. The grass seemed to suddenly cease all movement, causing the three fugitives to form a tight circle in the middle of the path. With only the small area that Leo’s tail lit up to effectively see, they remained silent, hoping to either confirm or deny the validity of being stalked. 

“Who’s out there?! We know you’re there!” Jay shouted at the mass of weeds surrounding them. No voice came forth to answer his demand, only a whisper of wind, and ---what sounded like--- the scurrying of feet over the dew-ridden soil. 

“I-I know you’re there! Show yourself!” Jay screamed again, his apparent confidence betrayed by a slight stutter. 

Against the unspoken arguments of his teammates, Jay stepped forward out of the small circle of flickering light that gave the illusion of safety. Leo held his breath as he waited for something horrible to happen, but nothing happened. Jay glanced around, scanning the grass for any hostile life. He turned around to signal that it was all clear. He never got that far. 

Almost as soon as his back was turned, a green tendril shot out from the thicket and snared the Riolu. It coiled around his legs, tripping him as he tried to walk back to his team. Jay’s cry of pain and confusion was cut off as the vine snapped back and dragged him into the thicket.

Just as Leo braced himself to jump into the brush to rescue his leader, something hard and blunt slammed into the side of his head. He stumbled on the spot, his vision going white for a split second. 

He tried to turn around to face his attacker, but instead of an identity, he was greeted by another blow to the opposite side of his head. Before he could dizzily stagger a single step forward, a small black foot collided with his stomach. Leo doubled over wheezing, but not before the same black foot slammed into his ankles, knocking them out from under him.

Leo couldn’t find the energy to tell his lungs to inhale.  His entire body hurt from the swift beating it endured. His vision blurred and his lungs burned. He could see a blueish figure standing directly above him. The Pokemon snapped something in it’s paws and pressed it to Leo’s mouth and nose. 

His body was begging for air, but he knew he couldn’t breathe in whatever toxin his assailant had. Despite feeling weaker and weaker with every second without air, Leo tried to force the Pokemon off of him by swinging his claws vaguely in the attacker’s direction. 

The Pokemon over him grunted some curse and pressed harder with the toxic seed, but Leo couldn’t comprehend it. His body couldn’t take it anymore. Any notion of free will left him and basic survival instincts took over. Leo’s mouth opened and he gulped in a mouthful of air, dust from the seed intermixed within it. 

Instead of getting clearer, Leo’s vision grew even blurrier as the toxins dulled his senses and relaxed his muscles. Leo felt his eyelids droop lower and lower as weight was added to them. He couldn’t fight it any longer, the fatigue from the night before and earlier that day caught up with him in a single, finishing blow. Leo closed his eyes and allowed his body to drift off into drug induced slumber.  

[b] “They are safe, for the time being. There is no need to worry about them at the moment. I’m afraid we have bigger … tribulations to take care of first, my liege. Seeing as you are rather … occupied at the moment. I see it in my duty to take on the role of arbiter in this conflict.” [/b]

……
“I will do what I can when I must. For lasting peace.”


[b]Author’s Notes:[/b]

Well, I’m certainly pleased with how this chapter turned out. 

As usual, I’d like to thank everyone who gave me advice on this while I wrote it, and my beta reader. My story would look very different if it wasn’t for you guys. Thank you. 

This chapter truly marks the break with the first arc in my opinion. We’ll be seeing a new setting for the next set of chapters. I’m not entirely sure how long this arc will be, but that’s half of the fun, isn’t it? 
We’ll also be seeing some new characters, as well as a reappearance of a few from chapters past. 
Now, I know that the section in the middle with the incoherent rambling doesn’t necessarily follow the rules of grammar, but it had to be like that. It just had to be. 

Well, I have mid-terms in the early part of January, so I’ll be occupied by those when the time comes, but rest assured that I plan on doing a lot of writing during my winter break. If all goes well, I might get it done around New Years. 

Thanks to everyone who has read this so far, and remember, I want to hear from my readers. 

Until next time, and Happy Holidays, 

Knightfall signing off...

Great as always, this story is really starting to pick up pace I am eagerly waiting for more chapters. I seriously can’t make up my mind on whether or not to root for Aleck, at first he appeared to be the stock character "Morally Ambiguous Shopkeeper " but now he seems to be a genuine character I wonder how he will turn out…

Thanks, and it took a while, but yeah. The action is picking up. We’re finally getting into the real meat of the story.

Aleck… he’s one messed up character. His past and actions tell one story, though he seems totally repentant when he’s told of what he did to Team Salient.
He was originally intended to be a minor character with one or two appearances, but I started to like the character and made him somewhat integral to the plot.
I have things planned for him, don’t you worry…

Remember, I want to hear other reader’s opinions. What could be made better? What did you like? What didn’t you like? I want to know.

Knightfall signing off…

Chapter Ten: Memory

[i]” Did you know that the average Grass Type needs approximately seven to nine hours of sunlight per day to maintain healthy cognitive functionality? I found that fact interesting. Tell me, how long have you been trapped here? Weeks? Months? Regardless, your head must be doing torturous things to you. Why not come out of there and you’ll see. None of this is real.”[/i] 
[b][Time and Date Redacted][/b] 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Axis slowly floated down the deserted street of Loyalty; the squad of four Magnemite buzzing excitedly behind him at the prospect of yet another arrest. The deputy scanned the rows of dwellings that lined the main road; the newly mandated curfew had to be enforced. 

Forty-eight hours had not yet passed since Gear’s disposal, and Richelieu had already laid the foundation for a totalitarian state in which he was the dictator. [i]This is only the beginning if the plans I saw on his desk were true,[/i] the deputy thought inwardly. 

The units chattered among themselves as the last of the sun’s rays disappeared from the sky, officially marking the beginning of the mandated blackout that lasted until dawn. Axis switched on his built in searchlights. The lower ranked officers switched on their lights following Axis’s example; their beams sweeping the seemingly empty street for violators of the new rule. 

Despite putting on an act for the governor and the traitors, he was forced to call comrades. He sincerely hoped that they didn’t come across an unfortunate soul who failed to make the deadline of sunset. The beams of light flashed across the stone buildings and dark alleyways, almost as if they could chase the darkness away to reveal a treasure of some sobbing citizen to arrest. 

The moon was obscured by a large bank of clouds, blocking its natural light and making the Square seem even more like an abandoned city than the bustling marketplace it was. Hovering across the open area of the market square, Axis and his squad turned down the right hand road off into the major residential district. 

Axis couldn’t help but think of the possible reasoning behind Richelieu’s plans. Control was the obvious answer, but he knew something else was lurking behind that. Some unseen motive that was almost certainly detrimental to the majority of the populace of the town. Shaking away the thoughts, he refocused himself on the task at hand. His orders from the Skarmory had been little more than to patrol the streets. 

They didn’t get any kill lists anymore, though the lack of specific targets --whether true felons or falsely accused--  essentially made every citizen within the town a target. The Magneton shined his light behind the countertops of the wooden stalls, occasionally flashing his light quickly, trying to send a warning signal to any citizens not yet indoors. 

Focused as he was in his thoughts of the future, the deputy immediately snapped to attention when the sound of clattering metal reached his sensors. Twisting around in the air, his beam instantly centered on a small feline figure frozen in fear. Axis scanned the Pokemon within the same instant; his three cores searching the town census database for an identity. 

The overly curly tail and predominantly grey fur marked it as a Glameow, and the monthly census narrowed down the identity to two individuals, one of whom had recently been gravely injured in a dungeoneering incident. 

[i]Arianna Glameow: 17 years of age. Citizen since birth. Record: none[/i], Axis determined, his brain ninety-nine percent sure of positive identification. The Glameow remained motionless against the stone wall of the house, a small metal plate with various fruits lay forlorn on the ground directly underneath her. Only the telltale signs of her extremely shallow breathing revealed she still had a pulse. 

Her sharp, blue eyes darted from side to side looking for any possible escape route, but finding none that looked promising. Before he could make a formal declaration of arrest, Axis heard the fine-tuned whirring noise from the squad behind him that signaled only one thing. Axis spun around to face the Magnemite who were charging up for a debilitating stun attack. 

“ZzT! Wait! Don-!” he screeched in vain as eight separate spheres of lightning shot by him, superheating the air surrounding the protesting deputy for an instant. The thief’s shriek of terror was quickly replaced by pitiful whimpering and the odor he analyzed as charred fur. Unable to turn around and face the grievously burned and paralyzed female, Axis floated in stunned horror. 

His cores shouted out to him the numerous laws and statutes his officers demolished within ten seconds, but he couldn’t comprehend any of it at the moment. Almost subconsciously he slowly willed his magnets to turn his hovering body to face the injured Pokemon.  

What he saw caused his cores to short-circuit. Arianna’s grey fur was now peppered with small circular bald spots, each one angry red and sizzling slightly. Tears leaked from her eyes as she bit her lip in an effort to not show weakness to the guards by crying. 

Axis was roughly suddenly pushed aside by two of the Magnemites. The Magneton’s speakers failed him as he watched the two brutes each clamp one their magnets over her forearms. Her repressed whimpers turned into screams of agony as the two started to drag her over the cobblestones in the road. 

“I’m so sorry...” he buzzed softly as the thief’s screams faded away as she fell into the abyss of unconsciousness. 

I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, he repeated in his mind; the words sounding more and more hollow every time he said them. 

Leo never felt so free, so exhilaratingly alive, and so curious as he ran through the concrete corridor. The flatlights plastered on the ceiling and walls giving the hallway a clinical feel to it as it lit the area with a stark, white light.

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Immediately cancelling his forward momentum, he slowed to a stop; his well-worn shoes to skidding across the gritty stone floor to stop at a glass window embedded in the wall.

Standing on the tips of his feet, he was able to see down through the glass into the vast room below. Labyrinths of wires and piping began from unseen generators, ran dizzily across the walls, and ended in a tangled jungle on the floor. Over the covering of wires, pipes, and machinery worked several men in lab coats no longer white from repeated stains of sweat, electrical burns, and grime from the machinery.

In the center of the chamber stood an enormous machine of unknown purpose. It stretched from floor to ceiling with wires connecting to it at every possible point. Beneath the machine, under metal grate, a set of wide, metal fan blades sat motionless. Over it, a set of three electrical arrays pointed down from three dirtied, steel arms on the ceiling; each matched up with a receiver at the base of the machine.

Aside from the giant contraption, Leo was fascinated by the dozen men who, despite the chaos, managed to continue working and make progress. He watched wide-eyed from his perch above them as they shouted calculations and directions at each other as they prepared the gargantuan machine in the center of the room for launch. Fortunately for him, there was an air duct grate nearby through which he could hear snatches of the scientist’s commands.

“-- the signal is fading, we have to hurry before it’s gone.”

“-- up to ninety percent. Be sure not to overload it.”

“–must account for the temporal differences.”

He didn’t understand any of their jargon, but he knew they were gearing up for something big. He watched as three of the men pressed sequences of buttons on the many keyboards littered around the lab. Giant mechanical arms lifted the final wires into place, connecting the machine with the power source.

Scientists gathered around the three computer stations spaced about the room around the colossal apparatus in the center of the chamber. Their fingers flew across the keyboards in order to bring life to the metal structure.

“-- start the rotors. Bring the power level to eighty-four point two percent exactly. Easy now, don’t damage anything. We don’t want a repeat of yesterday.”
“-- charge each of the arrays oppositely. The ensuing collision will–”

The wires hummed excitedly as precious electricity flowed through them into the machine. The metal blades at the base of the experiment began the rotate with an almighty shudder that knocked Leo to the floor. Their joints and connectors screeched loudly in protest of movement as they shifted into position.

As Leo picked himself off the floor, he again peered through the window. The steel blades were spinning rapidly, much to the anticipation of the science team. Leo only heard snippets of their orders above the buffered air coming off the spinning blades.

“–reroute power from auxiliary generators if you absolutely have to. Be sure to–”

“–the system can’t operate on that level for longer than–”

“-- override protocol. We have to try this while the signal is still receivable. Otherwise–

The gargantuan machine shuddered as electricity danced among its slowly spinning arrays, bright beams of raw positively-charged power aligning with the negatively-charged receivers. This collision of polar opposites forced the beams to reflect and off each other, making them seem to race about the open center core of the experiment.

“–predictable results so far. Power on the magnetic field; prepare for impact!”

The reinforced glass of the observation window vibrated with the shaking of the experiment. Leo watched in awe as the erratic beams were suddenly compressed into a small electrified sphere, even as the facility shook from the tremor resulting from the activation.

“–align the signal coordinates. Quickly! Before it’s–”

The scientists seemed to be swarming their computer stations like ants, each either typing madly, or making minute adjustments on electrical power levels. The small sphere of confined electricity seemed to ripple and slowly expand as it was held in place by the magnetic pulses. Leo pressed his face against the glass, his breath fogging up the window slightly as he hoped to see whatever was going to happen in the core.

The core of compressed energy glowed as it suddenly expanded to fill the entire open space between the top and bottom of the machine. Leo’s eyes widened as colors began to bleed into the white center of the core, turning it into a canvas of superheated plasma. He could see distinct hues of green and blue congregate at the top and bottom of the core, forming fields of emerald grass and limitless skies of some uncursed world.

“–trace the signal! This is it! We’ve got it! We’ve–”

A violent tremor suddenly rattled the chamber; the machine began to spark as the core misaligned. The picturesque field was torn apart and replaced with the golden sands of a barren desert.

“-- lost the signal! It’s beginning to–”

The arrays started to spew forth lightning as the world within the core altered once again, this time becoming a molten red volcano. Leo could feel the heat radiating through the window an entire floor above.

“–attempting shutdown! It’s not–it’s not shutting down! The system’s–”

The room began to quake as the tremors continued to erupt from the malfunctioning experiment.
Green fields, stormy oceans, mysterious glowing orbs within a night sky, vast clouded mountains, and blue skies all flashed briefly in the center core before vanishing as quickly as they had come. Leo was entranced by the images; all of them far more vivid than anything he’d heard of before in legends.

It only remained for a split second, but a single image was burned into his thoughts forever. A shimmering veil of sky dotted with pure white clouds. In the middle of it, a vast glowing orb, far brighter than anything Leo had ever seen before. Leo shielded his eyes from the intense brightness of the celestial oddity.

He blinked once and the picture was gone. In its place a peaceful looking mountain range and valleys, the strange orb still floated in the sky far above the pinnacles of the peaks. Just as he grew accustomed to the strange thing in the atmosphere, he heard the yells of the science team once more.

“–shut off the power! We can’t take much more of this!”

“–data is unretrievable! We can’t!”

“Do it!”

Leo wanted to see more, he had to. He had only glimpsed the tiniest ray of something spoken in myths. The sphere that floated loftily in the heavens was direct proof that there was more to the legends and rumors. That somewhere there was more than perpetual dull skies. Something greater than a still sea. Something with more life than the dying land. Something that promised freedom to whoever was courageous enough to reach through and grab it.

“-- data! We can’t! Not until we get a proper reading!”

“-- I say. Shut. It. Down.”

Leo pressed his hands against the glass in protest. He couldn’t let these visions of paradise be torn away from him. He slammed his fists into the window, ignoring the stinging pain from the resulting impact. He could only watch in stunned horror as two men in the lab dashed to opposite walls on each side of the room where levers controlling the current were placed. They each grabbed a lever, and even as the machine shuddered once more, they pulled down.

Leo’s world then turned pitch black.


Kelly would never forgive them. She didn’t care what they said in their letters to her; dried ink failed to compare to actually hearing their apologies in real life. They had abandoned her. Left her completely alone. All to pursue a political faction that meant more to them than she did. 

She had spent enough tears over them. She had to learn to adapt and survive. To fend for herself against the odds, even if it meant forming a rescue team with a Riolu she met in order to scrape together a pitiful excuse for a living. 

She could almost see her father sitting in front of her. His black fur contrasting with the dim yellow rings circling his body. 

[i]“We love you, Kel. We did what we did because--”[/i], his soft voice cracked, before she interrupted. “No! I don’t want to hear you!” 

[i]“Kelly, please listen. I only want to--”[/i] he started to say before being cut off by his daughter. 
“No. Not anymore.” 

The Umbreon simply closed his eyes and sighed. He looked back up at his daughter, tears forming in the inner corners of his eyes. Kelly wasn’t moved in the slightest. She returned his pleading gaze with a stare colder than ice. Out of the mists came another figure on all fours. Kelly tried to keep her face stern as she saw a pink-furred Pokemon sit down next to her father. 

“Mom,” Kelly said, barely containing a sniffle as she acknowledged the older Espeon’s entrance. 

[i]”We did what we did. Nothing other than Dialga can change that fact. We only wanted--”[/i]
she explained, her voice oddly soothing to Kelly. It had been a long time since she’d heard either of them, but comfort wasn’t enough. 

“It’s what you wanted?! You wanted to leave me?! For the Colonies?! You wanted this?!”
Kelly screamed at her parent’s illusions, her voice strained. 
Her mother ignored her outburst and walked forward to her daughter. She placed her paw on Kelly’s shoulder, causing her to wince slightly. She saw her mother’s paw on her fur, yet couldn’t feel it. She saw her mother’s head lean into her, rubbing affectionately against neck, yet the touch was not felt by Kelly. 
[i]”We left in hopes that we would return within a week. You can see that didn’t work out.”[/i] she said, pressing her head against her daughter’s. [i]”You have no idea how lost we felt without without you with us. We missed you so much. We missed you, Kelly.”[/i] 

Kelly couldn’t take it anymore, she took a deep break before letting out a soft sob. Her sobs grew closer together as she cried into her mother’s intangible embrace. Her entire body shaking as she gasped for breath amid her breakdown. Eventually, she gathered herself once again. She raised her head to look around, only to find that her parents had vanished from her sight.

“M-mom? Dad? Where are you?! Where did you go?!” Kelly asked the empty space around her, beginning to panic as she shifted her gaze to every possible direction. The misty void around her began to shudder and shake, forcing Kelly to dig her claws into the ground to avoid being tossed around like a child’s toy. 

[i] ”Why do you hate us, Kelly? Do you realize how much it hurts us to hear you say those nasty things?”[/i] her father’s disembodied voice rang out through the void. Each resounding echo growing in intensity rather than fading. Kelly only squeezed her eyes tighter and she clung to the ground even harder as the tremors worsened. 

[i]”Kelly, I will only ask one more time: why do you hate us?”[/i] her father asked, his voice icy and emotionless, contrasting sharply from what Kelly previously heard. Kelly bit her lip to keep from letting the words affect her. 

[i]”Tell me! Why do you hate us?!”[/i] the void screamed at her in her father’s voice, the sound-waves rattling the foundations of the ground. Kelly let out a weak scream as the ground violently lurched forward, tearing her claws from the floor. 

“I-I don’t know...” she whimpered as the demented voices of her parents tormented her further. 
She pressed her front paws to her ears even as her body was slammed repeatedly against the quaking earth. She ignored the pain, but failed to block out the voices. 

[i]”You ungrateful, useless, excuse of a daughter. We cared, sheltered, and nurtured you your entire life, and when we are held up against our will, you turn on us? We should have left you a long time ago!”[/i] This time is was her mother’s voice, shrill and distorted, that berated her. Every hateful word Kelly heard broke her resolve down. She couldn’t believe that her parents could share the hate she reserved for them. 

Tears began to well up in her eyes as her parent’s voices tortured her mind. She failed to see that the ground started to crumble and fall into darkness. Blinded by tears, she tried to run across the falling void; she stumbled more than once on the heaving ground, skidding over the sharp fragments of floor. 

She yelped as she felt her bruised hind legs fall through the floor into nothingness. She clung with all her strength onto the bit of stable ground in front of her, trying to avoid the abyss that awaited her like a hungry predator.  

[i]”You said you hated us! You wanted us gone! You turned on us, your parents![/i] the voice, now an unholy amalgamation of both her mother and her father screeched at Kelly as her grip began to fail her. 

The abyss growled in irritation, it’s deep tone rattling the ground and weakening her grip on the frail patch of stone she clung to in fear. She grunted as she tried to pull herself up, her back legs flailing around in the open air beneath the cliff as she tried to gain leverage. 

The chasm of her nightmare, fed up with waiting, roared with another tremor that shook the entire void. Dust and mist clouded Kelly’s vision, making her eyes sting and throat burn as she had no choice to breath the dirtied air in. Her arms were burning with fatigue as she tried to resist the abyss’s attempts to swallow her whole.  

The bottomless chasm roared again, demanding her immediate surrender. Despite the pain and exhaustion, she refused to give into the void’s desires. She never submitted before, and she wouldn’t now. Nothing would make her, not the void, not the quake, nothing. 

[i]”You are not our daughter. Not anymore. Get out,”[/i] the voice coldly ordered. The mist seemed to channel its tone as its icy embrace wrapped around the Jolteon. Kelly shivered as the chill pressed from all sides. Her claws slipped a few precious inches closer to the edge, making a shrill screech along the floor. The broken stone slicing into the pads of her paws, making small smears of blood appear along the rock. 

[i]”Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out![/i] the invisible voice screamed. That was the final straw for Kelly. Her bloodied claws reached the edge of the cliff with nowhere else to go besides down. She pulled her head up one last time before her grip failed, her tears staining the yellow fur on her face.  

“I’m sorry,” she whispered weakly before her claws broke through the thin layer of rock. The abyss screeched in triumph and hungrily opened its maw wide to receive her.  

Jay panted in exhaustion as he set down the final sack of seed. The sun was starting its nightly journey into the western horizon, signaling the end of the day. Jay checked his surroundings before leaving. The wooden structure his family used to store grain seemed secure enough, and the gates into the fields were all shut tight.

He tried to whistle a tune he had heard earlier that week in Silver’s trading market as he walked back to his family’s small dwelling. The talent was not his forte and the original jaunty tune of the song was butchered by the Riolu’s sad attempt to recreate it.

Jay stopped along the dirt road when a silhouette of two Pokemon appeared on the darkening horizon. They were coming from the capital. Jay knew exactly who they were. Their loud talking and clanking armor plates made them out to be guards of the city. Taking a deep breath, he jogged a little faster along the road, hoping to keep ahead of them. He suddenly wished that his family’s home was a lot closer to Silver.

The guards’ conversation seemed to get louder as they somehow seemed to get closer to him, despite his efforts to outrun them. As quick as lightning, a beige feline Pokemon sprinted past him and quickly turned around, blocking his path. Jay dug his paws into the dirt as he attempted to stop. The marauder was a large cat that he’d run into before and known by name.

“Felix,” the Riolu huffed, glaring at the guard. The Pokemon cracked a shrewd smile, showing off his sharp teeth at the same time. He moved his head to look down on Jay, the ruby red gem embedded on his forehead glinted in the fading sunlight.

“Farm filth, it’s been a time since we last talked, hasn’t it?” the Persian sneered. The guard slowly circled Jay, the metal plate armor on his long back clinking with every careful movement of his legs.

“Hmph, I don’t need to talk to you lot. You’ve already got this month’s taxes from us,” Jay said, stubbornly crossing his arms. The Persian stopped his circling and stared directly at the Riolu, his red eyes boring virtual holes into Jay.

“You’re joking. You’ve gotta be kidding me right now!” Felix exclaimed, the faint beginnings of a laugh easing their way into his words. “Come here, you lot! You guys won’t believe this,” he called behind Jay. Jay whirled around to find that the group of guards now significantly closer.

“Felix? What’sss thisss ssstreet rat prattling on about thisss time?” a long snake-like Pokemon asked, its black and gold form slithering around behind Jay and hissing in the Riolu’s ear. Jay gulped as he heard the Seviper’s poison-laced blade swish through the air and come to a rest, far too close to his throat for comfort.

“Apparently,” Felix said, placing a paw on Jay’s head while the Seviper guard held him in place with the threat his blade. “Our ‘friend’ here doesn’t know the news yet! Can you believe that?!”

The Seviper lowered his head to Jay’s level. “Really? Doesss our friend really not know the newssss?” he asked incredulously, flicking his forked tongue out quickly. Jay struggled against the snake Pokemon, trying to squirm free without slicing his neck on the precariously positioned blade.
“What are you two idiots talking about? What news?” Jay growled, letting every ounce of hatred for the two Pokemon seep into his words.

Felix raised his paw and boxed the side of Jay’s head. “Watch your mouth, dog.” he spat. He backed off and took a deep breath as he calmed himself down. “Well, it appears that your dear father owes the Kingdom quite a bit of money. His taxes have been short these last few collections,”

“No! You’re lying! I saw him pay them myself! They were paid in full!” Jay countered, only earning yet another threatening glare from the Seviper. Felix and the Seviper looked silently at each other for a second before both bursting into laughter.

“Y-you really-- haha — think he paid in full? Oh Arceus alive, you’ve got to be kidding me right now! We wouldn’t be on our way to arrest him if that were the case, now would we?” Felix asked with a sinister chuckle.

“What?! No!” Jay screamed as he ducked underneath the Seviper’s blade and coils. He bent his legs and jumped up towards the Persian, arms outstretched. He hit the guard around his neck and tackled him into the dirt. Jay only saw red, slightly different shades of red, and more red. The Kingdom had taken nearly everything we’ve earned, and now they had the gall to accuse us of not paying enough? he thought angrily as he raised his arm.

Felix had barely time to register what had happened before Jay’s fist collided with the side of the Persian’s head. Not thinking of the consequences, he raised his arm again for another blow, yet he never completed the swing. The Seviper’s tail reached around, wrapped around the Riolu tightly, and pulled him away from his comrade on the ground.

Felix coughed as he dizzily pushed himself up, Jay could see that unless he broke free immediately, life about to get much worse for him. He struggled against the snake Pokemon, trying to free his arms from the merciless coils, but to no avail.

“Let’s go, we’ve got a job to do. Deal with the runt and let’s get on with it,” Felix growled, trying to keep his claws from violently disemboweling the Riolu.

“No! No! No! You can’t!” Jay screamed, kicking vainly against the Seviper’s tightening coil.

“Give him a small dose of poison. That’ll shut him up for a few hours while we finish up this job. We can come back for him later,” the Persian ordered as Jay tried even harder to push against his captor’s bonds. The Seviper nodded to the other guard and raised the blade on his tail. Acidic drops of sickly purple fluid dripped from the point of the blade.

Without warning, the Seviper brought the tip of the blade to Jay’s left arm and dug it into the flesh. Jay screamed in agony as the blade swiftly exited the wound, leaving several drops of potent poison in his opened bloodstream. Jay’s screams suddenly quieted down as all feeling in his arm vanished, replaced by a slight tingling feeling.

He tried to look up at the two guards, but their faces seemed stretched and distorted beyond recognition. He heard them talking, but their indistinct words seemed to be spoken through a film of water. His arms and legs relaxed and suddenly; he wasn’t concerned about that fact that the guards were on their way to ruin everything. He couldn’t have cared even if he tried. His senses drained from his head as the poison shut every inch of his body down.

[b]A Few Hours Later[/b]

Kingdom Army Camp: New Rain: Northern Division

“That’s enough, Leaf. I know it wasn’t your idea. You are excused from this meeting,” said a large light blue reptile as he motioned for the small creature with a large pink flower bulb on its back to leave the tent. The Ivysaur nodded and quickly left, brushing aside the flaps of the tent. The large blue Pokemon then turned towards them, setting his enormous jaw to as close to a frown as he could possibly manage.

Leo looked around the tent. It wasn’t the largest of the cloth structures he’d seen today, but it was spacious enough to fit the Pokemon Jay called a Feraligatr with reasonable comfort. Aside from a small, roughly cut wooden desk and a few wide segments of logs that served as seats, there was nothing of seemingly any real value inside the tent.

He looked to his left. Jay and Kelly both sat on a stump and on the ground, respectively. Both were trying and failing miserably to hide their fatigue evident by their dull expressions and occasional yawn. To his right, though, was a stranger. His skin was about the same light blue as the Feraligatr’s, but that was where the similarities ended. In contrast to the large stature the general of the camp possessed, he was about as tall as Leo. The fin on the back of his head, his webbed feet, and rounded black tail indicated that he was a Water Type, yet another reason why Leo felt uncomfortable sitting so close to him.

The stranger glanced at him for a split second before looking away; going back to his task of feeling the sharp edge of his two schlops he carried with him. The Dewott – or at least, that’s the name Leo heard the Feraligatr yell when he summoned him-- didn’t seem the least bit concerned that the general was glaring straight at him with enough intensity to ignite fires.

While the Feraligatr seemed to be putting his thoughts together, Leo took the time to put his own thoughts together. The last thing he clearly remembered before waking up on a piece of cloth that smelled like rotten fruit next to Jay and Kelly was that they were ambushed somewhere in the fields by a group of Pokemon.

After awakening from their drugged slumber, they were immediately marched through the camp to this tent. Along the way, Leo saw quite a few Pokemon either moving wooden crates into piles or practicing their attacks in a sparring ring, a simply drawn circle in the dirt. Pokemon with natural spines and scales seemed to be a staple of the camp, nearly everyone Leo saw has some type of armor or appendage that could be used for fighting purposes.

With a loud cough from the Feraligatr, Leo’s wandering thoughts were brought back to the present as the general finally seemed ready to speak to them.

“Riolu, you and your team are the least of my concerns at the moment. I will deal with you all after Noah here,” the general announced, causing Jay to exhale a sigh of relief.
The Feraligatr turned towards the Dewott, who acknowledged the general with nod of his head before returning to his shells.

“Tell me, Noah. What exactly were you thinking last night? I want to know what went through your head that made you lead an attack on this team,” the general asked, his gruff voice striking fear into Leo despite not being spoken to at the moment. The blue otter looked up at the irritated Pokemon and raised an furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I was simply carrying out the orders you gave me at the beginning of my watch. It was from those orders that I gained the idea of detaining these civilians who very nearly walked onto Kingdom property without authorization. That’s what I was thinking, General Torrent, sir,” Noah said calmly as he continued to sharpen his shells. Torrent groaned as he rubbed the sides of his head in annoyance. Leo had a feeling that this conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere.

“Noah, my orders said to patrol the camp and alert me if there were trespassers, not attack and knock out the first civilians you saw!” Torrent exclaimed, his impressive jaw feet from the Dewott’s face. Noah slowly took his black paw and wiped several small droplets of Torrent’s saliva off his face before answering.

“Frankly sir, you never clarified what to do with intruders, so I interpreted it in my own fashion and acted accordingly. I was only thinking of the security of this camp, sir. Who knows what these Pokemon might have done if I hadn’t detained them?” Noah replied, the natural air of tranquility around him not punctured by Torrent’s irritation in the slightest. The Dewott looked over at the confused team. “No offense, you guys,” he quickly added.

“What do you mean I never clarified my orders? I explicitly told you what and what not to do while on watch! I never told you to use Sleep Seeds of all things! Don’t you know how potent they are raw? I swear, I’ve met rocks more apt to follow orders then you!” Torrent yelled.

“I very much like to meet those rocks, sir. Perhaps they can teach me a lesson in humility, sir,” Noah responded in as serious of a tone Leo thought impossible to reach. Torrent stood and stared at the Dewott for a moment, not knowing what exactly to make of the statement.

“Just shut up for now, Noah. I can’t talk to you anymore. The camp healer says it’s bad for my health to hold a direct conversation with you for more than two minutes at a time. So, just stay there and stay quiet while I deal with our guests,” he said, choosing to ignore the recruit until later. He turned to the other side of the room where Jay and Kelly were seated. Leo watched as his colossal stature towered over him.

“So, despite what Noah here says about you lot, I’m convinced that you’re not the crazed trespassers he’s made you out to be. Tell me, why you all were heading toward a Kingdom camp?” Torrent asked, directing the question to Jay.

“W-well, sir. We, uh, we were just walking through the fields, yeah. We didn’t know there was a camp here, sir. We were just passing through on our way to Silver City, and then we were ambushed by that lunatic!” Jay stuttered before pointing an accusing paw at the Dewott who simply nodded in return. Torrent narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“That, my friend, is the worst cover story I’ve heard in a long time and I’ve had to deal with Noah for the past few months. Tell me the real story, before I call someone to take you lot back to where you came from,” Torrent demanded, seeing straight through Jay’s poorly built lie.

“I … uh… you see, we … umm…” Jay squirmed in his seat. To Leo, it looked as if his mind failed to think of the right words. Torrent gave up on the team leader, leaving him to quietly sit on the wooden chair. He shifted his glare to Kelly.

“So my dear, would you kindly tell me what you were doing in the field near our camp?”

Kelly was either frozen into silence, or Jay’s failure to get cognitive words spoken had spread to her, only worse. She refused to answer Torrent’s question. Sighing in exasperation, he turned to Leo, who grabbed his tail in fear of the strong Water type.

“So, Charmeleon, are you going to shut up like a Clampearl the same way your teammates did? Or, are you going to shed some light on the situation?”

Leo said nothing, partly out of sheer fear of the roughly seven foot tall general and partly because Jay was discreetly shaking his head telling him to keep his mouth shut. The general lowered his head until he was far closer to Leo’s face then Leo would have ever liked him to be.

“Charmeleon, you do realize that I have the authority to detain you and your friends for up to forty-eight hours simply for being here? I suggest you tell me what you know before that has to happen,” Torrent ordered, his interrogation going nothing like how Gear’s did. Leo gulped and mouthed a silent apology to Jay and Kelly. Alright, he thought, here goes nothing.

“We were escaping from a town to the west of here, Loyalty Square, actually. We were forced out of the town when a squad of Magnemites raided our base. We managed to–” Leo said before Torrent silenced him with by clapping his blue clawed hand onto Leo’s shoulder, the action nearly snapping the Charmeleon’s shoulder blade.

“Say no more, son. That’s all I needed to hear–” Torrent started before he, himself was interrupted when a feathered Pokemon flew through the entrance flaps of the tent and had to swerve to avoid slamming into the general. Leo almost allowed a smile to form when he saw that the avian intruder was none other than their first and only client.

“S-sorry, sir! I-I was completing an errand … when I heard you were talking to … this team. I wanted to explain … them to you, sir,” Icarus said breathlessly, panting in between phrases.
Rather than expel the bird from the tent for being out of conduct, Torrent shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, let’s have it. Why are they here, Icarus?”

“W-well, sir. I was flying above the Valley Forest dungeon on my way back from Loyalty and I saw them marching through the fields. I had found out that they were being hunted from the governor’s deputy, sir. These three are good Pokemon, sir. They freed me from the smuggling ring in Spore Meadows even when I couldn’t repay them, sir. Evil Pokemon wouldn’t do that, sir. I mean, it’s not in an evil Pokemon’s nature to just randomly help out some prisoner when they’re… captured… ring…” Icarus explained, his rambling trailing off into indistinct mumbling as he realized he’d talked too much.

Leo was expecting Torrent to at the least disregard Icarus’s tirade or throw him out of the tent. He sure wasn’t expecting Torrent to smile, teeth sticking out from where his top and bottom jaws met. Icarus seemed surprised at the general’s action as well, flapping his wings once.

“Thank you, Icarus. You’ve just made my job easier, if anything. I’ve known about the corrupt Magnemites for a long time. Ol’ Gear and I had a system where he’d try to get wrongly arrested civies outta town and to me whenever I set up came here. He musta not gotten a message out to me yet about you three,” Torrent explained, seemingly trying to remember the complexities of their plan.

“S-sir, there’s a slight problem with that,” Icarus quietly said, trying to keep as silent as he could in an attempt not to embarrass himself by rambling again. This snapped Torrent out of his reminisce of days past.

“What are you talking about, messanger?”

“Well, sir. Gear … he … um … he’s … been put out of commision, sir,” Icarus reluctantly said, trying to find the right words to say.

Torrent refused to beat around the bush. “So, he was finally taken down, huh? Who did it? Because I’ll rip them apart once I find them. Icarus, tell me everything you know this instant,”

“He was killed two nights ago, sir. The Magneton deputy, Axle, or Axeil or something. Anyways, the guy told me everything. This Skarmory came in claiming to be from the government. He said he was a governor or some fancy title like that, could have been a duke or noble for all I know. The guy was stuck up, had a real attitude, I tell you, I’ve never seen someone any more short tempered–” Icarus elaborated, slipping into meaningless dialogue before being cut off by Torrent.

“You’re going to in a minute, unless you get to the damn point already!” Torrent growled as he cursed at the blubbering Pidgeotto.

“S-sorry, sir! A-anyways, Gear refused to act on a kill list and apparently this Skarmory walks in with a guard of Magnemite and saw his disobedience. In short, Gear told him to fall off a cliff and the governor sent his units to attack him, and turned Gear’s own units against him, I think. The deputy wasn’t entirely sure what happened at that point, or the next few minutes. The next thing he saw was Gear’s burning body lying in the midst of a sea of Magnemite fragments. And then that governor guy ripped out Gear’s eye, I think, I’m not entirely sure I heard that right, the guy seemed pretty nervous when he told me the story. Anyways, Gear was killed and that Skarmory ordered the kill list to be enacted, which lead to the raid on Team Salient’s base, sir!” Icarus finished, gasping for breath at the end of his lengthy exposition, pleased that he hadn’t rambled too much during it.

Every soul inside the tent, from Torrent, to Kelly, even the strange Noah went quiet, as if they all had agreed to an impromptu moment of silence to honor the fallen officer. It was Torrent who broke the silence first.

“He didn’t deserve what happened to him. Anyone but him would have caved to corruption a long time ago. Gear was the best unit I ever served with. He saved my life in the second Bandit War in the Battle Sand Caverns. I’ll never forget that. And when he became sheriff and I a commander in the army, we knew what we had to do to protect the citizens from the Kingdom’s corruption,” he said solemnly, not looking directly at anyone. Leo couldn’t see for certain, but he thought he heard a series of low sobs coming from the mighty Feraligatr.

“S-sir?” Kelly asked tentatively, speaking for the first time since she entered the general’s tent.
Torrent immediately looked up and wiped his face with his scaly arm. Leo could see that his eyes were somewhat red, confirming his theory.

“Errm, yes. Umm, you lot, Salient, we’ll figure this out later. Noah, make yourself useful and show them around the camp and get them situated. Oh, and they’re also sleeping in your tent as punishment for your actions. Icarus, you stay. I have a message that needs to go out. Dismissed,” he ordered. Icarus worriedly glanced over to the team and tilted his head as if telling them to leave now. Noah stood up from his seat and motioned for the team to move as he corralled them through the flaps of the tent.

The group of four stood for a moment in front of the dull brown exterior of the tent, seemingly soaking in all that had happened in the past few minutes. They had been woken up, interrogated, accused of trespassing, apparently saved from a fate of prison by Icarus, and now forced to bunk with a Pokemon who knocked them out and knocked them out them the night before. Leo simply knew this was going to work out perfectly.

“So, um … I’m sorry for ambushing you guys and all that. Are we … good?” Noah asked, extending a nervous hand outwards to Jay. The calm and collected air he had around him inside with Torrent seemed to vanish as soon as they were outside. Jay reluctantly grasped the Dewott’s paw and shook it as he muttered something about it being a regular thing lately.

“If you guys couldn’t tell from back there, my name’s Noah,” he said introducing himself, “I don’t think Torrent mentioned your names, if you have any. I know some Pokemon from the North prefer to use the traditional species name, and all that.”

“Yes, we have names. I’m Jay, and this is Kelly, and Leo,” Jay said, motioning to each of his teammates in turn as he said their name.

“Wonderful! Now I’ll give you the grand tour of the place!” Noah said with a big smile as he walked out in front of them.

“This is Camp New Rain, the northern division. To the northeast you will see the supply tents,” he said as he motioned to a cluster of tents and stacks of wooden crates scattered haphazardly around the area.

“To the southeast and southwest you’ll find where most of us will be sleeping tonight,” he pointed to yet another bigger cluster of tents that made up two-thirds of the camp.

“To the northwest you’ll find the training areas and the mess tent where dinner will be held soon, hopefully,” he informed, directing their attention to yet another cluster of tents, but this time they were spaced out among smoking sand pits and blackened boulders, evidence of the moves being practiced there.

“And that’s your tour. Welcome to Camp New Rain! You’ll quickly learn why most fugitive Pokemon would rather go to jail then here,” he said with a grin, even as the team’s spirits fell yet again.


[b] “Move! They’ve found us![/b] 

He could barely breathe, his lungs were on fire. The faster he tried to run, the harder it became to get a single mouthful of precious air. His feet slapped along the stone corridor as he ran from the ever pursuing sentinels. 
[i] “It doesn’t help that you’re so… uggh … heavy! Why am I carrying you?!” [/i] he screamed as he sprinted down the hallway, his arms aching with the added weight of his companion. 

[b] “Because I can’t move as fast as you can. Now shut up and pay attention! There should be a branching pathway coming up. Don’t miss it or we’ll be doomed.”[/b] 

He grunted in irritation, but knew that the answer was true. Pushing the pain as far back into his mind as he could, he tightened his hold as he continued to run. His gaze darted from left to right, trying to distinguish the path his friend told him about from all the other identical patches of stone wall and crystal wiring. 

[b] “Approximately twenty-two point seven meters to go until the passage... Wait! I’m detecting something! Tri-Attack beams coming up fast on your left! Dodge them!” [/b] 

[i] “Got it,”[/i] he said as he lurched his sprinting body to the right, nearly slamming into the rock walls of the passageway. He watched in smug satisfaction as he saw several beams of red, yellow, and blue light go whizzing by him and fizzled into nothingness against the stone floor. 

[b] “Be careful! There’s an intersection ahead with sentinels on the left and right![/b]  

[i] “Whatever you say...”[/i] he whispered as a plan began to formulate in his sun-deprived mind. He’d be ready for whatever was there.

[b] “I’d tell you we’re doomed, but that only makes you get creative.” [/b]

He smiled as he reached the intersection. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw several sentinels on either side. He knew he literally only had one shot for this to work, if it didn’t … well, he didn’t want to be reminded again of the possible fates that awaited him if he failed here. 

[b] “This will be the death of both of us...”[/b]

[i] “Here goes nothing![/i] he screamed as he leaped into the air, the momentum of his sprint carrying him forward. He vaguely saw the hailstorm of plasma energy passing underneath him, nearly burning tips of his feet as the sentinels fired at him. 

The forces of gravity and friction eventually brought his flight to an end. He stumbled slightly as he tried to regain his balance and run at the same time. He nearly grinned as he escaped yet another death trap. 

[b] “Don’t think we’re out of this yet! There’s the path to your right! Take it now!” [/b]

He didn’t think twice, he immediately changed direction, his feet scraping against the stone. He tossed his heavy friend into the opening and then dived into the almost invisible hallway. He watched breathlessly as several bolts of plasma shot past it, fizzling as they harmlessly hit the stone walls. 

[b] “Don’t stop! Keep running! Keep running! Pick me up and run! Run!” [/b] He dashed over to his friend and hefted him into his arms. Looking down the dark hallway, he knew whatever was done there was infinitely more desirable than the plasma of the guards. 

[i] “I’ll never stop running. Not until I see the sun again.” [/i]

“The Kingdom … is weak. It’s a sandcastle built up over time by passing children, just waiting to be decimated by the advancing tide of time.”

“When will the tide come in and end our suffering? We have suffered too long underneath the tread of the Kingdom. When will the tide come in, master?”

“… It will come when the moon aligns and the arbiter has made his decision in our favor. When the king of the sand crumbles like his palace, that is when the tide will come in.”

“But what of the envoy to the false arbiter?”

“What about the envoy?”

“If his message is delivered, then the tide will freeze and retreat and we will never be free.”

“… Don’t worry. I have spoken to our benefactor concerning this. They have arranged everything. The envoy’s message will be lost in the tide.”

[b]End of Chapter Ten[/b]

Author’s Notes:
Man, oh, man! Wow! I knew I’d get a chapter written by the end of my winter break, but I never expected it to be done before New Year’s!

Well, aside from that record-shattering speed, I quite enjoyed this chapter. I was able to introduce the final main character as well as a few minor ones which I had fun writing.

As per the advice given to me last chapter, I really tried to put more “stuff” in this chapter, other than dialogue. And to that point, I think I succeeded a little bit. I’m pretty sure there isn’t as much of the dialogue as last chapter, and I made sure to put in “stuff” scenes.

And, regarding the last chapter, I was also able to expand on quite a few of the back stories of my characters, which should be a relief for some of you. I’m a little worried this chapter might seem “fillerish”, but I honestly tried to make it not so.

Well, other than that, I have an exciting bit of news! PMD: Overthrown has gotten its first piece of fan art! My eternal thanks to the extremely talented ~mystic-blat on DeviantArt for creating Leo and company.

Also, many thanks to my amazing beta readers Brutaka, Shadow Lucario 50, and Azurus for all their help throughout the year and putting up with me and my insanity. And, many thanks to my reviewers such as Sid87 and Sidewinder for helping make this story the best it can be.

And finally, thank you to all my readers. It’s only because of you all that my story has gone from the simple story it was in February to what it is right now. You’ve all helped make this a great year. I hope to keep on writing quality work for you all come 2013.

Knightfall signing off…

that is way too long

I’m really sorry if this comes off as rude but books ARE long. The typical chapter in the first Harry Potter book was about 3300 words long, and thats considered short by some.

Well, that’s just my style, and I’m sorry you don’t like it. I write so that I can add description and build the world and history of my story and characters. I just can’t get that done in a smaller chapter.

So, again, I’m sorry that you don’t like it, but no one else has complained of the length as of yet, so I’ll take this with a grain of salt. I’ve been fairly successful with this story, thanks to people who read and enjoy it. Thank you for leaving your feedback, good sir. I hope you have a swell day elsewhere. Good-bye.

And thank you, Chaos. My chapters usually reach anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 words apiece, so yeah. Just think of it like this: it’s more time for you all to see my characters. Yay!

In other news, exam reviews are being a bear, so the next chapter might be delayed somewhat.

Knightfall signing off…