Cape City
The Inferno had no chance to dodge the attacked that the Infernape was launching towards him. He brought up a wall of his dark, corrupted flames in the chance it would lessen the impact, but the bulk of the attack broke through either way, and pounded at his body from the front. When she got in closer for a Close Combat, the attacks too hit their mark, the body of the Inferno noticeably making a crunching sound as a few bones broke in certain areas. As Wildfire ended with a finale of her moves, by now Inferno had already dropped his arms and ended trying to block or dodge, as the Typhlosion realized no good would come of it, it seemed. They impacted him on all sides, causing immense damaged, which the Sentinel took, fresh scars, scrapes, burns and bruises forming all across his body. He bled from open wounds, and the charred black skin was present across his body.
But his eyes, the dark eyes that formed from the chaos form was still present. And the mighty Sentinel, after all the punishment his body was put under, was still standing. Guardia gasped as the smoke cleared to see the sight. The amount of damage he was put under would have easily killed a hundred Typhlosions. In fact, if he didn't have his eyes open, and was standing now, she would have assumed that he too was dead now. For half a minute, the Inferno merely stood there in silence, not moving a muscle. Guardia moved in a bit closer, trying to see what he was up to. The closer she got, the more she was beginning to think that he was already dead, or at least unconscious. A moment later, as his body was suddenly but slowly beginning to move again, his very movements appeared to be forced, as if he himself wasn't doing it any longer. Perhaps, Guardia thought to herself, he was already dead on the inside, and whatever this hold on his was clinging to the last bits of his life force to use it all up.
It seemed to be just that, but his following attack gave no indication that he had lost any of that immense power. Raising his bloody and burnt hands, the Inferno targeted the three Gold Tribe members before him: Wildfire, Hoodhide and Guardia. He opened his mouth, black smoke escaping from it before it turned to the dark fire that he now commanded. The same eruption of flames came out of his arms and back. They engulfed his body, and then expanded around him, forming an expanding ball of dark ember. The fire multiplied in size by the second, but continued to cling around the Typhlosion's body in a perfect circle, only increasing in size. There was moments where the flames pushed forward, claiming the debris of any surrounding objects or buildings, and forcing them to the flames. They were sucking them in, and the Typhlosion deliberately held them there. But Guardia knew that such an concentrated amount of energy could never be held for very long. She had an idea of what he was about to do.
"Oh no..." She said aloud to the other two. "He's...he's going to cause and explosion in the entire area! He's going to destroy Cape City!"
***
Scar picked up only in the last minute how Blitzkrieg cut himself off in the last second to launch a pair of blasts at him. Scar put his weight on his legs and leaped with all of his might out of the way, spinning into a roll as he avoiding the two attacks as they came for him. He looked back, the blasts burning through the buildings and leaving two large holes. He grinned, knowing if the attack had hit him, they would have been potent. Bits of rubble from his previous encounter with the crashed building had made their way across his shoulder, so he be began to wipe them out as the Golduck began to speak to him. Scar brushed himself off while he listened, raising an eyebrow while he listened to him.
"Gold crystal? Silver Crystal? Being? What in blazes are you talking about?" He asked him, as he finished brushing himself off, formed another stance to prepare an attack from him. Having no knowledge of what they spoke of, Scar dismissed it as some sort of distraction, though he couldn't quite grasp what it was meant for. That is, until the team of psychics approached and began their combined assault on his mind. At the moment they had begun their assault, Zane ran forward as well at Penance's call, and positioned himself close by. "What are yo-" Scar questioned, before the Pokemon around unloaded at him, bombarding his mental shields and collapsing them as they made their way inside of his mind. Scar struggled, falling to one knee as he tried to repel his attackers, to no use.
The familiar scene shifted, and for those who had been apart of the psychic infiltration team in his mind found themselves in the similar scene of the white blank room, with themselves on one side, and with Scar on the other. The being shrouded in darkness, like with Deluge, closely embraced the Mienshao inside of his mind, his grasp not willing to be easily loosened. Then once more, as before, the light of golden energy penetrated the white room, and the darkness loosed his grip, bringing one arm away from the Mienshao as the purification began. On the outside, Scar's eyes blackened for mere moments, and then began violently changing between those and normal ones. He struggled to repel the Psychic forces inside of him. But another, deeper side of him also struggled to remove the darkness that crept further inside of him. He couldn't explain it anymore. He didn't understand what he was supposed to be fighting. That which felt like the enemy now seemed to be doing more good than harm, and that which he clung to, the thoughts he had for years now, seemed like a nightmare put inside of him. He screamed. The Psychics continued.
As if on cue, the darkness which came as smoke began to approach in a rapid motion over the skies of Cape City. Zane noticed it, and called out to the others. "Here it comes!" He yelled, but the smoke came much too fast, and he wasn't sure if the others would get a chance to react. It's target set, the dark smoke fluttered towards the Mienshao in hopes of going inside of it. At the last moment, Zane threw his body in the way, and the smoke infiltrated inside of him. He fell from his jump on the ground, but quickly popped up and placed his arms on his head. His vision blurred, and his head felt like it was being split open. It was lurking, moving inside of him. He wasn't sure what it was, but it stung deeper and deeper. He could almost feel it physically moving in his brain. Then, everything went dark. His body on the outside collapsed, but his mind continued to wander, deeper and deeper. He suddenly found himself viewing a variety of scenes. Pokemon fighting, talking, laughing, crying. He recognized some, as some were his memories. Others he didn't remember seeing, but recognizing some inside. Then there were others, scenes he had never seen before, nor did he know who they were. Memories fluttered by his vision by the hundreds, if not thousands. Then suddenly they all stopped, and it was all brought to one memory.
Green plains, as far as the eye could see in one direction. Mountains providing fresh, cool air in the other. In the far back, the outline of a city was seen. A group young Pokemon were overseen by two older ones, while they fought with a larger one. He remembered this scene. It was he as a young Gold Tribe trainee. Guardia was with him then too. The exercise was the small group of trainees against a full-fledged veteran Gold Tribe member. The point of the exercise was to teach them about teamwork. But their opponent also turned out to be their teacher, Gallant, who was a Pokemon who gave no nonsense or breaks. Zane watched as the young Pokemon were thrown back, unable to do anything against the veteran Sawk.
"Come on, you maggots! Show me what you're made of!" He yelled at them. The younger Zane and the others once again charged, and once again were tossed back.
"Alright," the other Gold Tribe member said as he stepped forward, who was none other than the leader himself, Adam "Rey" Reed. He had taken the day off of his schedule to examine his daughter's progress in her training. Zane remembered how Guardia was so happy that he was coming to watch her. She wanted to impress him with his strength. Rey held up a hand to stop them from continuing. He looked across the group of young potential, and spoke up again. "Can anyone tell me how he beat you?"
"He's...too strong, too fast," the young Guardia piped up. "I'm not strong enough. Not yet." She said, panting.
"Hmm," Rey said, examining his daughter. "That is true. Perhaps individually, you aren't. But then again, the point of this exercise wasn't to beat the opponent to begin with. This was a team-building exercise, the first of many you will be apart of." Rey walked back and forth, examining each face as he walked passed them. "But the main reason that you did not win was belief."
"I believe!" Guardia quickly yelled, smiling. I know what I fight for, and I believe in it! I believe in myself too!"
"Belief doesn't come just in one form. You're not supposed to believe just in what you fight for, but also
who you fight with." Guardia's smile dropped, and she tilted her head. The young Zane of the vision watched the leader and listened, as did the other young Pokemon. "Confidence is nice, but against a strong opponent, confidence can also be arrogance. Do not let pride guide you. But more importantly, never discredit those who stand beside you, no matter what. Any opponent can be defeated, any obstacle can be overcome, if those who fight against it fight as one, think as one,
believe as one.
"That, is what is meant to be in the Gold Tribe. We are not elite warriors showing off our strength. We are a team, the greatest team because we all fight on the same page, and we trust and believe in each other. We are family. And that is a bond you should
never break, no matter the circumstances."
Zane's vision blurred again, and the memory collapsed around him. He began blinking, and once again he was in Cape City. He watched as the dark smoke which penetrated his body had already began to dissapear out of his body, as if there was a negative effect of being inside of him. It traveled through the air in pieces, but didn't go far, as it slowly disintegrated into the atmosphere, leaving no traces behind. Meanwhile Scar was still struggling now with the psychics. But then, at once, he stopped screaming, and his body dropped to the ground.
Inside of his mind, the white room collapsed as the dark being that engulfed his body was finally destroyed by the combined efforts of the infiltration team and the gold light. No trace remained, as if it had all been purified.
The Nightmare is over for him. A voice said from inside of Zane's head, which felt as though someone had poked around up there. He grasped his head in pain, and observed the unconscious body of the Mienshao, the Sentinel. It appeared, hopefully, that he had been freed. Zane dropped onto the ground on his behind, catching his breath. They may have just won a great victory in the battle, but the war still commenced.