Maverick Renos
Kanto Enclave​

There were only a few Mechanists left, and then there were less, and then there was only one. Maverick looked around. The area was filled with the corpses of the weak Mechanist ambush force. Maverick turned his eyes to the Kurgas and saw that the Tangrowth had a Nuzleaf squirming in his tentacles. Maverick held up a hand, "Everyone, cease everything. We have a captive. We're not proceeding until we learn the current state of the enclave."

Maverick walked over and had Kurgas free the Nuzleaf from his tentacles. He looked her up and down. In all honesty she didn't look like much. She wore a bandanna around her neck as well as a band of cloth around her right arm. Maverick narrowed his eyes and grabbed hold of the cloths and ripped them off her body. He let them fall to the ground and proceeded to put his feet on them and rub them all over the ground. "How your kind sleeps at night I have no idea." He muttered. He looked over the assembled Knights, "Ludo, take your group and position them throughout the forest. We won't let another ambush take us."

Ludo simply bowed and directed his Knights to move around as he too disappeared into the forest. Maverick dragged the Nuzleaf over to a tree. "Kurgas, if you would be so kind?" The Tangrowth chuckled and wrapped the Nuzleaf to the tree extra tight. Maverick stared down at her, "Now, you will tell us what security is around your enclave as well as where your map is."

The Nuzleaf stayed silent. Maverick sighed and nodded at Kurgas. The Tangrowth let one of his vines wrap around her neck and began to squeezed. The Nuzleaf gasped and struggled in the vines. Kurgas pulled his vine away. "Kurgas will continue to squeeze your neck for longer periods each and every time you do not give us the information. Now, tell us." Once again she shook her head and cried out as the vine squeezed her neck once more.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damon Malruth
Birch Enclave​

Damon waited. Only eight showed up, one of the being the Gallade from before. Damon looked around and stood up on his hind legs, "Thank you for coming everyone. We... have less here, but that won't stop us! We have all the supplies you need right here. Just grab a mask and you'll be good."

Damon and Urta put theirs on and waited for the others to do the same. "We have one way to get in. Our psychic here, Brian, will lead us in and get us out." The Alakazam stood next to Damon and nodded to the group. "Remember, our only objective is to get Matthew. Don't worry about fighting the Knights. Just distract them." Damon looked over them once more. "Many of us will die. Let it be for a good cause!" The Mechanists nodded and Damon gave the signal to Brian. The Alakazam's eyes turned blue and suddenly a bright light enveloped them.

Location: The Council Chambers​

The light dissipated and Damon saw they were in a hallway. Just on the other end was a small group of Knights. Damon didn't know why he moved first but he did. He grabbed one of his smoke grenades and threw it into the Knight's area. Instantly smoke filled the area, "Push forward!" He shouted as he ran right into the smoke. Being small he could easily move forward and not worry about running into someone when he could just move in between their legs. Urta ran in as well and punched the first Knight she came across. This seemed to knock the Knight's out of their haze as they immediately began to unleash attacks in the Mechanists' direction.

Caedmon Yeonart
Kanto Enclave​

As the battles quickly ended, very much in favor of the knights, Caedmon ended his current fight against a Flaffy with a quick twist of his ankle, his paw pressed against it's neck on the ground, which resulted in a nasty crack, and the Pokémon falling silent.
His eyes shone with their light-blue glare as he activated his ability once more, his consciousness reaching out to scour for more mechanist auras, but as he only found one that he did not recognize, he simply assumed that this was the captive he had asked for them to catch.

He moved out of the undergrowth and through the small clearing they had wandered into, not caring which of the corpses he stepped on, though looking a little surprised to see an Ursaring in the middle of it all, his brow raising a little.
His black and blue armor was spattered with blood, and had only received a couple of small scratches in the fights, Caedmon himself having sustained no damage at all.

After a short walk, he returned to the remainder of the knights, only a fair few having sustained serious injuries, though they were tended to. He walked over towards where Maverick, Alice and Ribibin were standing, giving them all a faint nod, glancing towards the Nuzleaf. He moved over to stand next to Ribibin, and without wanting to disturb Maverick's interrogation, he murmured under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear.
"I noticed you taking care of this one earlier. Am I wrong in assuming you managed to capture this Mechanist?"

He glanced towards her after having asked the question, his arms folded across his chest, clearly not minding the blood spattered over his armor, and partially over the fur where it was exposed, his expression a rather business-like one, seemingly not caring much for all of the Pokémon who had just lost their lives in a seemingly needless effort.

30 minutes to get ready to invade a heavily guarded fortress. It wasn't what Luna thought would be a walk in the park, but then again, who said it was? She walked out of the building and looked around. There were Mechanics running around everywhere. Who knew what they were doing? Where they were going? Being underground made Luna feel a bit claustrophobic. She missed the outside, but she still knew better than to just walk out into plain sight. Spying an empty bench, she strode over and sat down to just think for a moment. How were her friends doing? Had they become knights yet? She wondered how she would react if she saw one of her friends as a knight fighting against her. Would she even be able to bring herself to face them, let alone attack them? Especially Sahil, since his family had been the one who had adopted her when her mother died. "Why am I thinking about this?" she suddenly hissed in frustration, "I'm a medic. I'm not going to be fighting." She got up to walk back into the building, but then sat down again as she admitted that she was lying to herself. "Even if I am a medic, everyone on this hit-and-run team will have to see battle. Would I help Sahil if he's there? What should I do?"

Instead of going back to the room, Luna teleported herself on top of the building and laid down. "Just a little nap," she told herself, and fell asleep. Moments later, she was awoken by a blue light emitting from inside the room. "Overslept," she joked dryly as she jumped off of the roof and ran inside. It was too late, however, as Brian the Alakazam had just teleported the group away. "Shhh-" She cut herself off and went over to put on a mask. "This is going to get rough," she muttered and started to visualize the Council building and where she wanted to go. She's seen pictures of it and was able to construct a decent vision before emitting a minty green light and disappearing.

Council Chambers​

As her vision came back(a side-effect of her imperfect teleportation), she saw that the area was already full of smoke. Good thing I decided to put on the mask beforehand, she thought as she looked around. Behind her were the knights guarding the Council and in front of her was the entrance to the chamber. Uh... Oops! she thought and turned around to find the Mechanists fighting with the knights. Damon was zooming past the knights as fast as he could. A medic wouldn't be much help in this situation, thought a nervous Luna, before realizing that she could help with her pellets. She grabbed a few pellets off of her string and chucked them into the crowd of knights. The effect was instantaneous as some knights fell asleep while others cried out in pain as their eyes started burning. "Score!" Luna whispered.

As he stood with the other volunteers, Chauncey did his best to repress the anxiety over what exactly he was volunteering for. There were only thirteen Pokemon, thirteen Pokemon to invade a fortress and kidnap a member of the opposing government. A few of the Pokemon next to the Togetic tried advising him to stay back. Nevertheless, Chauncey knew that sooner or later one side of the conflict was going to do something bold; if the Council acted first, a great many would die. And besides, with so few going they'd need all the help they could get.
While the others moved to get their gear at Damon's instruction, Chauney sat back in his chair to wait, making sure everything in his pouches and pack was in order and where it should be. Seeing all was as ready as he could get, the tiny medic followed outside to wait for the other volunteers. When the time came to go, only eight of the volunteers returned. It seemed the others had been convinced to reconsider. He looked over at Damon as the Linoone thanked everyone for showing up and distributed the masks. Putting his own on, Chauncey had little time to acclimate to the headgear before the group was starting to move. Brian, the Alakazam, was to take them there and take them back. If anyone was missed when the time came to leave- Chauncey tried not to think about what the knights would do. As the psychic's eyes lit up and the area exploded with bright blue, Chauncey flinched.


In a flash they were there. Chauncey opened his eyes, seeing the hallway. Barely having time to act before Damon smoked the knights, the medic tried to bring together what focus he could under the stress of the situation to manifest a Reflect. A thin, blue, bubble-like membrane spread out over the Mechanists' skin- or exoskeleton, or fur, or whatever each Pokemon happened to have. Opening his eyes, Chauncey saw the Kirlia from earlier had appeared in the hallway with them while he was concentrating. Thankfully, the effect had reached her as well. With the mask and Reflect as protection, Chauncey ran through the smoke after Damon and Urta. He was bumped into by a falling knight who'd been hit by the Kirlia's sleep pellet, and smacked into the wall. Ducking around a knight crying out in agony due to tear gas, the medic was smacked in the back with one of their flailing limbs and knocked forward out of the smoke. Getting up, the Togetic looked for the Forces' leader, or any wounded Mechanists, in the confusion of smoke and fighting.

Caedmon Yeonart
Kanto Enclave​

Caedmon continued looking down at Triss, even as she twitched ever so slightly. A lower-ranking knight might not have noticed it, but Caedmon had. He had learned to look for the small things in what makes a person tick. Mostly enemies, or when interrogating of course, but it was a skill that was hard to put away and not use.

"Your assumption is not wrong, knight-commander. I can't promise you that she'll really be useful though, This machinist is stubborn." She replied, looking rather steeled. Caedmon couldn't help but nod a little in acknowledgement, though he, as usual, didn't show any more emotions than a brick looking kinda happy.

Looking back to the captured Mechanist that Maverick was currently in the process of 'having a chat' with, Caedmon responded to her, standing as rigid as he always had. "Very well. Don't worry Triss, Maverick has a way of getting people to talk, so we should simply leave things to him until he asks for our assistance."
Pausing for a moment, he sent another glance to her, giving her a firm nod. "Good job, Triss." His voice sounded earnest, and not a thing about him seemed to say that he was just telling her what she wanted to hear, or that he was regretting to tell a woman that she had done well.

A few moments passed before Triss spoke again. "You're not injured, are you?"

Caedmon's ears twitched ever so slightly, turning his head again to glance down at her, his expression looking somewhat mildly surprised, before he glanced down himself, at his bloodied armor. He gave a shake of his head, waving a paw dismissively. "No, no. None of them as much as put a dent in my armor. They were patheticly weak, not at all suited for guarding an enclave… there may be more behind this than we'd like to think. They might've been a diversion."

He looked ahead again, as if thinking, for a couple of moments. It was tough to say if he had heard the faint worry in Triss' voice, and he didn't seem inclined to share if he had or not. A couple of seconds later, he looked back to her. "I was forced to dispose of some fleeing Mechanists rather swiftly, so they wouldn't be able to report back to the enclave, if it is indeed here. And when you do something rushed, you get… imprecise, I'm afraid." He gestured down his armor before his lips twitched up into a smile.
"But thank you for the concern. I take it you came out of it all without much difficulty as well?"

Maverick Renos
Near Kanto Enclave​

"You're quite stubborn, I have to give you that."

The Nuzleaf was panting heavily. The torture had gradually evolved from simply choking her every so often to bruising her body and now there was blood smeared on her body from the various cuts Maverick had inflicted onto her with his sharp leaf blades. The helmet that shielded his face blocked the frown he sported. This Mechanist was quite skilled. Most of the Mechanists that were picked up usually screamed out whatever they needed to say within the first hour or so. This one was different.

Suddenly the Nuzleaf began to chuckle and soon burst into giggling laughter. Maverick frowned, apparently her mind was starting to crack, and not in the way he wanted. If her mind broke now into insanity it was highly possible that they would have to spend the rest of the day trying to seek out this enclave.

The Nuzleaf looked up with a bright smile, "You don't get the joke do you?"

Maverick crossed his arms, "Never crossed my mind that there was a joke in being captured and interrogated."

The Nuzleaf coughed up some blood and just laughed, "Why do you think we were waiting her for you?"

"Waiting?" Maverick echoed, still not sure what the Mechanist was insinuating.

Her smile grew wider, "Yes, waiting. How could we know you all were coming? How could our enclave have send out soldiers as weak as us unless it was for something else? And how could I and the other pokemon I fought with be so well trained for interrogation? You know... you were wasting some time here..."

Maverick's arms fell limp to his sides as he realized what the Nuzleaf was saying. "...Traitor..." He whispered softly. He quickly turned to the Knights. "Knights, on the double straight ahead now! Kurgas keep the prisoner!" He didn't wait to see his orders followed out as he dashed through the forest at a breath neck speed. His legs burned as he headed to the area right where the Council had said it was at. He slid to a stop as he saw the large hole right in the ground. There were no sentries at the hole entrance, that couldn't be good. Without waiting he dashed right inside. The tunnel wasn't that long but he suddenly the tunnel opened up to a huge cavern. There were buildings... lights... everything that was evil was in this place!

The area itself looked deserted however Maverick could see some movement up ahead. As he charged up he quickly ducked behind a building as a electric bullet shot past him.

Two soldiers in the Declarum Forces had been busy evacuating another building but had to stop when they spied Maverick. The Pinsir clicked his radio, "Sir, Knights incoming!"

The radio buzzed, "Keep them there Randal! We haven't finished the evacuation yet! Only half of the city is out!"

The Dewott smiled at Randal, "Let's make sure these Knights know what they're dealing with!" Both begin to fire rapidly at the building Maverick had hidden behind.

Maverick kept his back against the wall as he spied the Knights entering through the tunnel, "Ludo! Get your men and circle around! Slay any you see! And for Arceus' sake find that map!"

The Mienshao led his men down another area of the city. "Caedmon! Help me take these two down! Knight-Commanders, get your Knights anywhere you can! Stop these evil scum from leaving!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damon Malruth
Council Chambers​

The air was thick with smoke and it was taking all of the speed Damon had to dodge all of the feet and legs that threatened to stomp him dead. It was hard being small, but it did have it's advantages, such as being able to sneak up on others whenever they are blocking his path.

Damon launched himself at one such Knight in his path, a Marowak and headbutted him right in the side. Normally, Damon would have tried to hit the stomach, but that armor would have given him a serious concussion. The Marowak wasn't even fazed and tried to hit Damon with his bone, but the Linoone dodged. The Marowak swung widely and managed to slam his bone into Damon's head. Damon groaned and fell onto his back as he saw stars. His vision began to clear up as he saw the Marowak standing over him raising the bone up high. If that bone hit him then it would be over. In his desperate state of mind a plan quickly came to Damon's mind. In a split second Damon raised his tail and swirled it around the Marowak's armpit, which luckily was not covered in armor. The Marowak burst into laughter form the Tickle and happened to drop his bone as he wrapped his arms around his chest. Thank you Arceus! Damon thought as he stood up and launched another headbutt right at the Marowak's chest, managing to knock the Knight back a bit, but hardly damaging him. Damon quickly moved back into the smoke as he looked around trying to get his bearings back and dashed forward.

He had to get the Council itself quickly, at this rate the Declarum Forces would be decimated.

"Push through!" Damon shouted as loudly as he could.

Caedmon Yeonart
Kanto Enclave​

"If I didn't disagree with what they are doing so much, I'd almost pity them for being so weak."

Caedmon nodded a little and looked back to Maverick as he interrogated the Nuzleaf. He completely agreed with Ribibin on this point. The survival of the fittest seems like a fine way to put the relations between the Knights and the Mechanists, and these poor souls had taken on the fittest of them all.
He continued watching Maverick, who kept looking increasingly unhappy, until a few certain words slipped from the Nuzleaf's mouth. Caedmon's ears twitched and his eyes narrowed, but he was unable to hear what she had said. But it was evident from how Maverick froze and tensed up and his shocked expression that something bad had happened.

"Knights, on the double straight ahead now! Kurgas, keep the prisoner!" the supreme commander exclaimed before dashing off. Caedmon stayed behind to make sure every one of the knights had gotten the message, before sending a glance to Ribibin and exchanged a nod with her, letting her deal with her own squad as he dashed off in the direction of Maverick, surprisingly silent, for wearing the armor he was.
Behind him, he heard Ribibin speaking about how the knight-commander for her squad had disappeared. Caedmon had noticed it, but hadn't said anything. He had felt her aura after the battle had ended, so she was somewhere. She was known for being both strong and rather cunning, so he felt she needed to take care of things in her own way, exactly like the Demon did it his way, and Caedmon his.

As they arrived at the massive hole that made up the Enclave, Caedmon's eyes widened a little, but he quickly snapped back to reality as he spotted Maverick pinned down behind a wall with an Oshawott and a Pinsir shooting their horrible electric contraptions at him.
"Caedmon! Help me take these two down!"

He didn't have to say that to him twice. Caedmon lept into the hole, landing with ease, straight in the middle of the "road" within the town in the underground tunnel, if you could even call it a road. The Pinsir pointed towards Caedmon. "Him! Get hi- ****, it's the second in command! Keep him at bay, I'll keep the other one back, Abraham!"
The Oshawott looked stunned and rather frightened at the prospect of fighting against one of the top commanders, but quickly wiped the insecurity and fear away, turning himself around as he began firing in the direction of Caedmon.

As the two talked, Caedmon channeled his energies, his eyes shining their soft, blue glow, preparing himself for the battle ahead by steeling his mind. An orb of lightning then flew at him and he dashed off to the side, running in a wide arc to try and get around the Oshawott. Sadly, he was a little too clever and aimed on a spot in front of Caedmon, the dirt flying everywhere as he covered himself with his arms. A moment later, the dirt had disappeared, but another orb of electricity flew directly at him, slamming against his chest, sending him skidding backwards, gritting his teeth in pain.

As the electricity subsided, Caedmon shook himself, his eyes narrowed at the Oshawott, who had paused his attacks to see if it had affected his enemy. Caedmon knew that these two weren't in the same class as those in the forest, and he made a mental note not to underestimate them again.
Abraham lifted his cannon again and was about ready to fire, but Caedmon was a tad quicker this time. He thrust his arm back, collecting blue energies within it and around his paw before pushing It forwards, a blue beam of energy erupting from it, hitting the ground directly in front of the Oshawott, blowing dirt everywhere.

"An eye for an eye." He murmured to himself as he bent over and dashed at an extreme speed forwards, towards his enemy. The Oshawott had backed a little away to get away from the dirt, but as soon as he could see again, Caedmon burst out of the falling lumps of dirt, and before he could do anything else, Caedmon had delivered a firm blow to the side of his head, spinning him around 90 degrees before falling over.
Randal saw his friend falling and shouted out a "No! You son of a-" and spun around, firing several orbs of electricity at him.

Caedmon, his senses heightened due to his natural abilities, ducked beneath one and jumped to the side to avoid the other orbs, his paws collecting together as dark-blue energies collected around them. A second later, he shot a ball of blueish black energy at the Pinsir who only barely managed to dodge the attack, looking positively pissed at his friend falling over. He was, however, starting to get back on his feet, groaning.
Caedmon was happy though. He had gotten the heat off of Maverick and he would be wailing on the Pinsir soon enough, and when he did, he would return his attention to the Oshawott and finish the job. His eyes shifted towards the street down along the city, a couple of thoughts crossing through his mind, but he didn't pay them much attention at the time. For now, they had to finish this, and quickly.

Maverick Renos
Kanto Enclave​

Maverick nodded to Caedmon and sprinted on ahead further into the underground city. As he ran a new series of bullets were fired into his path. The Grovyle took cover yet again behind another building. A group of five Mechanists were aiming their guns, but unlike that last batch these were actually waiting for him to step out of cover to fire. Lucky for him a group of his Knights led by Ludo had managed to send off some ranged attacks to the group's flanks. With the heat off of him Maverick ran forward and powered up his leaf blades, slicing down two of the Mechanists. The other three, while they put up a good fight, were quickly felled by Ludo's forces.

Maverick turned to Ludo, "You found the map yet?"

The Mienshao shook his head, "No. I have no clues as to its whereabouts either."

Maverick frowned, "Fine. Slaughter the majority of these... corrupted pokemon. If you can take hostages, take them."

Ludo saluted, "It would be my honor."

The Knights quickly dispersed to the now unguarded sector of the city. Screams quickly rose up as the Knights charged into the buildings and found the pokemon that had hidden away in the corners or in darkened rooms. Maverick continued to move through the city and due to his delay ended up being near the rear of his forces. Still, he would come across a Mechanist or two and didn't waste any time in slicing their throats. Maverick raced up through the city along with the rest of the Knights, but it seemed the Mechanist forces were thinning. Maverick soon found out why. Near the other end of the cave was another hole, and by the looks of it many of the Mechanists had managed to escape. Maverick punched the rock wall and turned to a Bibarel, "Find my Knight-Commanders and have them bring their forces into the middle of the city." The Bibarel nodded and headed off.

Maverick made his way to what could be considered the town square and had Ludo put the captives he had managed to secure right on the ground. There were only a few, each of them sporting bruises or cuts. Maverick crossed his arms and patiently waited for the Knight-Commanders to come.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damon Malruth
Council Chambers
​

Damon moved as fast as he could. He couldn't stop, no matter what. He was Urta and a Gallade... this would have to do. Damon led on and soon he was out of the smoke. The doors were right there! Damon didn't waste any time to charge right into them with a headbutt. The doors were thrown open and there they were. The Council. Damon only wasted a second looking at them and seeing their shocked expressions before he grabbed a smoke and tear gas pellet and threw them into the room. The Council quickly began to gasp and cough as the tear gas burned their eyes and throats. Slowly each and every one dropped to the ground.

Damon made a move to charge forward, but then he felt something hit his side. Blinking he turned to see a small Abra had thrown a package of papers right at him. Suddenly a light bulb turned on in Damon's head as the Abra too gave into the fumes and fell unconscious as well. Damon grabbed the papers and looked at them for a few seconds. Urta meanwhile charged forward and grabbed the Alakazam and slung him over her shoulder. "Come on!" Urta shouted as she ran out of the room. Damon followed right after her and Brian appeared out of the smoke, "We need to leave now!" Urta shouted. Damon couldn't agree more.

"D.F.! Form up on Brian! Disengage now!" Damon shouted into the smoke. All they would have to do now was wait for the Mechanists to form up again.

Brenn Turow

Brenn quite enjoyed tossing these knights out of her way as she trailed Damon and his group. The Linoone was heading straight for the council with the intention of grabbing Mathew, but Brenn felt pretty bad for storming into his meeting and kidnapping him. He was one of the only reasonable people in the council, but they would not be going through the trouble of abducting him if he wouldn't understand the Mechanist cause.

Brenn did her best to follow Damon, but he much was smaller and swifter then she. Brenn's hulking Crawdaunt frame forced her to push away any enemies in her way, but as a nice consolation this was incredibly entertaining for her. The Knights put up a valiant fight, but Brenn was in her element when she was right in the face of her opponents. The Crawdaunt knew she could not seriously harm the knights right now, but she wanted to give them someone to be weary for next time they tried to stand in her way. With much effort Brenn finally pushed herself out of a group of knights when she was met with the visage of Damon headbutting his way through the large set of doors leading to the council.

Brenn performed the Dragon Dance, a move taught to her by her mother, and dashed with increased speed towards the large door. A few knights stopped to try and block her path, but Brenn performed a Super Power and knocked the burly knights aside before continuing her charge towards the building. Brenn was glad to have a tough outer shell, or else she would probably have been cut to ribbons by now. She slid through the open doors of the building just as Damon shouted,
"D.F.! Form up on Brian! Disengage now!"

Brenn continued her frenzied charge until she was with the rest of the Mechanists. The Crawdaunt skidded to a halt in front of Brian just as the burst of energy from the Dragon Dance technique wore off. Brenn looked up at Urta to see that she carried Mathew over her shoulders. Brenn nodded to the Blaziken before focusing her attention to the smoke enveloping the room. Brenn slipped on her mask (it felt really silly to wear for her due to the odd shape of her face) and clicked her claws menacingly to anyone who would attempt to stop them from teleporting their way out of here.

Chauncey Parks​

Finally spotting Damon, Chauncey wondered if he should follow or help the stragglers. Seeing the Mechanists struggling to hold off the knights, the Togetic opted for the latter option. Focusing, he brought up a Light Screen to complement the Reflect already up. As he was about to move, he was slammed into by a Blitzle's Quick Attack, which smacked Chauncey into the wall before he could react. The sleep pellet he had in his hand dropped to the floor, creating a cloud of spores around the recovering Togetic. Thankfully the mask filtered them out, but the Blitzle was turning around for another run. It looked young, and might have still been in training, but that Quick Attack still packed a punch. Chauncey ran back into the nearest smokescreen. Hearing Urta and Damon shouting, the medic ducked behind one of the sleeping knights Ken's pellets had knocked out and took out a Potion to spray his wound. Not a second later the Blitzle came sprinting by, scrambling to stop once it reached the other side of the smoke without colliding with its target.

Taking advantage of the chance, Chauncey dashed towards Damon and Urta's voices. Seeing the Crawdaunt from their group rushing through the knights, Chauncey hurried through the momentary path in her wake, tossing sleep pellets at the knights. He soon ran out, however, and broke into a full-out sprint. As the Togetic passed through the last smoke cloud he was smacked from behind by a knight who'd been following him, sending him tumbling and rolling out of the smoke. He landed, his vision spinning, in front of the other Mechanists with a half-healed wound in his side from the Blitzle's horn and a nasty blow to the head. Soon after he passed out from the pain.

Luna was in a daze. Fighting just wasn't her thing. She noticed Urta and a Gallade running with Damon as they passed her, but wondered whether or not they saw her. Assuming they didn't, she turned to follow them, but was stopped when she was encased with a blue light. The Kirlia knew by instinct that this was Sahil. She let herself be carried by the Psychic until she could see Sahil's figure. Behind a fallen Beartic and a frenzied Crawdaunt wearing a mask(which made Luna smile a bit) sat a concentrating Medicham. She broke free of the Psychic easily and walked the rest of the way towards Sahil. "What do you want?" she asked tentatively. Sahil didn't look up. Instead, he inquired softly, "Why did you leave?" Luna hesitated as she lay against the Beartic, hiding herself from view. "Because I had to," Luna finally replied. Sahil thought about this for a moment. The smoke didn't seem to affect him as much as the other Pokemon, for he could see with his mind's eye. "No, you didn't," he stated, then continued, "but now you have to. They're calling you a traitor. I wouldn't believe it, until now. You've gotten braver, coming to infiltrate one of the most heavily guarded places in the whole kingdom. But you still seem to be afraid of something. What is it?" Luna was a bit surprised at Sahil's words. Her, brave? That wasn't how most people saw it. But she focused on formulating an answer for Sahil. She thought of her parents, and was thinking about it when Damon yelled, "D.F.! Form up on Brian! Disengage now!"

Sahil opened his eyes and stared right at Luna. "Are you going to go?" Without a second's hesitation, Luna replied, "Yes. I can't stay now can I?" The Medicham kept looking at his old friend. "No, I suppose you can't." He looked towards the corridor that had become a battlefield. Luna couldn't tell what he was thinking of, but she had to leave. As she stood up, Sahil said quietly, desperately, "At least answer my question." Luna sighed and responded carefully, "The truth." With that she prepared her Teleport. Teleporting the short distance to Damon and the others would be effortless, even if she was completely distracted. This was fortunate for her as, right before she Teleported, Sahil said, "You may be a traitor, but your no orphan." Luna stumbled out of her Teleport in front of a Togetic passing out. Seeing a knight right behind him, she instinctively used her Thunder Wave, and dragged the Togetic back into the Mechanists' ranks, where she began healing with her Heal Pulse, all the while pondering over what Sahil had said.

Caedmon Yeonart
Kanto Enclave​

As Maverick headed onwards, the Pinsir looked after him for a moment, but decided to focus all of his powers on Caedmon, lifting the rifle-like weapon to aim it at him again, narrowing his eyes. Caedmon heard the Oshawott moving about behind him, a plan sneaking into his mind. He slowly began edging to the side, eyes locked with the Pinsir. To prevent him from figuring out his plan, he decided to taunt the already angered Pokémon.

"I suppose you think you are both heroes for holding me back for this long. Allowing your friends to escape to be able to "Fight the good fight" and destroy your "Opressors", right? I would not be so optimistic if I were you. We obviously had Pokémon prepared in other locations for such an event. All of those you see…" he lifted a paw, pointing to the far end of the tunnel, where a couple of Pokémon are crawling out into the daylight, though without breaking eye contact with the Pinsir, who just seemed to get more and more angry from every word he heard Caedmon say.

"… Are running right into our reserves. Your friends, colleagues… and family, are being slaughtered, as we speak. And you live, trying to be the hero and saving them."
Caedmon was, of course, bluffing, but the Pinsir couldn't know. And from the look of things… he didn't. The Pinsir seemed on the verge of simply running ahead and tearing off Caedmon's head with his bare hands, but Caedmon only readied himself, standing still now, cocking his head a little to the side, adding quietly.
"… But we can rectify that."

"Shut up, you bastard! We'll hold you off for as long as we can, if it means saving the others!" and he promptly fired off three shots of electricity. Seeing his opportunity, Caedmon lept into the air, the orbs of electricity flying right underneath him, just as the Oshawott, who was now placed directly behind Caedmon was staggering to his feet.
"Ngh. Where d-" were the last words he uttered as one, two and three orbs of electricity shot into the water Pokémon, causing him to scream in pain, spasming on the spot. The weapons had been used on knights, who could somewhat withstand the attack, but on mechanists… they were quite the bit more effective.

The Pinsir stood in shock and horror and watched his friend spasm a last time before falling over, his heart stopped. "A… Abraham, no!" He lept forwards, running only a few steps towards his fallen comrade, before Caedmon landed firmly on the ground again, one leg slightly bent as he dashed off at high speed at the Pinsir, who only managed to stop slightly in his tracks as Caedmon bent slightly down and delivered six, swift punches to his chest and belly, a gurgled yelp escaping him. After the sixth punch, Caedmon pulled his arm back, gathering up energies within it and pushed it towards his chest, his eyes staring up into the Pinsir's wide, hazed and fearful eyes before sending out a blast of energy, blowing a hole in it's chest and causing it to collapse next to him.

Caedmon stood up and looked back and forth between the two, glancing down at his paw for a moment. He closed his eyes for a moment and muttered a low prayer before opening his eyes again, glancing to the end of the tunnel, his gaze slowly gliding to the sides, looking over the houses. His eyes then glowed their firm blue as they did whenever he used his powers, this time, to sense auras. He dashed off into one of the houses and began slowly working his way up the street. It seemed that all of the houses were connected in at least some way, so it made it somewhat easier for him to travel from house to house.

In some of the houses, he met resistance, but he made quick work of it. In most of them, there were no Pokémon left. Whenever he found Pokémon who were unarmed and not willing to fight, he ordered them into the street and promptly found a knight to "escort" his prisoners to the square. There weren't a lot, but a little was better than nothing.

Eventually, he entered a house and made his way upstairs, where a Minccino was pressed against the back of the room, along with a Vigoroth. The Vigoroth was standing slightly in front of the Minccino, which probably meant that it was the male. Or at least braver than the other one. Caedmon's eyes narrowed, which sent the Pokémon pushing back against the wall, looking extremely afraid for their lives.

"… Follow me into the street, I will escort you back to the square. You are both prisoners of the Knights now. If you do not resist, no harm will come to you, I promise you this."
Caedmon had no trouble fighting back and even brutally murdering mechanists who openly opposed the knights, but there were Pokémon who had been forced into this, or simply didn't wish to fight. It didn't make who they were aligned with any better, but where no blood need be shed, none should be.

He turned around to guide them outside, but just as he did, the Vigoroth collected all of his courage and lept forwards, roaring out at the top of his lungs, swinging a wild, Dynamic Punch at Caedmon, while the Minccino screamed out, covering her eyes.
His abilities still at their height, he sensed the attack coming in time for him to be able to dodge the clumsy attack. In the moments it took Caedmon to turn around to face his enemy, the attack and his enemy's surprise at not hitting revealed that he wasn't a fighter. Simply someone protecting their friend. Or lover.

This, however, did not make Caedmon hold back. He had given them his terms, and the Vigoroth had broken them. Caedmon always upheld a promise, but it also goes the other way.
He swiftly spun around after the attack had missed, his paw lifting to grasp the Vigoroth by its throat before tossing him against the back wall, right next to the Minccino, the Vigoroth leaving a dent as it grunted in pain, starting to fall over. But before he could hit the ground, Caedmon had delivered and elbow straight for his chest, the crack of bones sounding from his chest as Caedmon let him fall over in a heap.

He took a moment to make sure his enemy was dead before turning to look at the Minccino with his always-stoic expression, though the blue glow that almost looked like flames which erupted from his eyes made him look incredibly sinister. "… If you do not resist, no harm will come to you."
The Minccino quickly nodded her head, her paws slapped in front of her mouth, staring down at the broken body of her husband, a little whimper escaping her.

Several moments later, Caedmon arrived at the town square where the remainder of the prisoners had been sat down, both from himself, Maverick, and the other knights. He pushed the Minccino towards the others and got her to sit down with them. There were around twenty or so in total, but it was a decent number. He folded his arms across his chest and glanced over the prisoners for a moment before looking around. They were apparently waiting for the remainder of the commanders.

"I'll slay you!"

Caedmon's ears twitched a little, but he wasn't exactly alert. At least not more than he usual was. The voice had been too light to have been of any worry, probably from a child. He turned his head and glanced over to Ribibin and the squad she had taken temporary command over, his eyes gliding from the Weavile, to the Riolu being held by one of the other Pokémon. He stood still, staring as the little Pokémon struggled against his captors.

His mind went back to the vague memories he had of his early childhood. Happiness, warmth, laughing, sunshine… and in the next moment… screaming, crying… blood, laughing… and then it all stopped. And he had been found by his mentor. Caedmon's eyes flickered for a moment, the usually stoic expression faltering for a moment, making way for a couple of conflicting emotions, but as he noticed that Ribibin was glancing in his direction, he pulled himself upright again, giving her a nod as if to say "Good job", turning on his heel to move a little away from the waiting crowd of prisoners and the knights. He moved over to the side of the street and sat himself down against one of the buildings, crossing his legs over one another and leaning his paws on the ground beneath him, tilting his head a little back to stare into the ceiling of the cavern, his mind full of questions.

Maverick Renos
Kanto Enclave​

Maverick watched silently as prisoners came forth to gather in the square. Maverick cast his eyes over them. Most seemed to be frightened but some were shouting back at the Knights. Maverick watched silently as the last of the Knight gathered. "Knight, we have won!" A collective cheer came out and Maverick smiled slightly. He looked over at the Mechanists before he turned back to his Knights, "Today, we have scored a major victory for the Council! Starting this day the Mechanists will fear us even more! They now know that their precious cities are no longer a refuge. We will find all of them and uproot this disease from out cities!" Another cheer broke out.

"What disease is that!?" Maverick frowned and turned to a young Mechanists that had stood up. The Mankey didn't look the least afraid. Maverick walked over to him, "The disease that is surrounding us at this very moment. This... machinery. Nothing is natural about it. It is a blight upon our land." Maverick reached forward and lifted up the Mechanist. "And you shall join the purge." Maverick lifted his leaf blade and sliced it across the Mankey's throat. The Mechanist fell to the ground dead as Maverick looked at the now fearful crowd. "The only way to cleanse this area is to purge those that have sinned. And you all are full of sin."

The Mechanists looked around in fear as the Knights slowly began to close in. A Minccino looked over at Caedmon, "You promised!" Maverick raised an eyebrow and looked at the Lucario, "Promised? What did you promise Caedmon? That she would be safe? That she would be let go? You know protocol, we cannot let them live. Knights... keep one of them alive." Maverick watched as the Knights let out a barrage of attacks into the crowd. Screams echoed out as blood flew. Maverick cast a glance around and saw Ribibin holding a Riolu. He made his way to stand right in front of her, "Ribibin, slay him. Now."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damon Malruth
Council Chambers​

Damon watched as more Mechanists came through the smoke, still that wasn't everyone. Utra grunted, "We need to go now!" Damon shook his head as he peered into the smoke, "The others are still in there!" Urta shook her head, "They're dead. Now everyone grab hold!" Brian held out his arms so that everyone could grab hold. Urta grabbed Damon and touched Brian. "No! We still have time!" There seemed to be a shadow emerging from the smoke as the Marowak from before ran right at them and swung his bone with intent to hit Damon, only to fall onto the ground when the entire group teleported away.

Birch Enclave​

Damon blinked his eyes open and sighed in relief. There were right in front of the Declarum Forces building. Damon worked his way out of Urta's grip and Urta put down Matthew. It took a moment for Damon to realize what had happened before he turned back to the others. "... Alright, um, everyone... get cleaned up..." Damon was in a daze as he walked to Urta, "This was worth it... right?" Urta nodded, "Let's get Matthew to the hospital. We need to wake him up." Damon nodded weakly and turned to the others, "Uh... do what you want for now." Urta grunted as she picked up the Alakazam and walked away with a wobbling Damon following beside her.