Pokémon Odyssey: A New Beginning [T] [Best Veteran 4Q '12]

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

Guardia moved across the battlefield towards the torturehouse. There were still plenty of Ancients around, but many of them were beginning to fall already thanks to the advancing Alpha Alliance armies. Guardia slashed at any Ancient that stood between her and the torturehouse, letting their bodies fall after every powerful swipe she made. She hoped the other two Sentinels were watching too, just so they would know she wasn't someone to mess with. It was perhaps a bit of arrogance on her part, and her acting a bit of a show-off, but that's the way Guardia was.

She nodded in response to Snype, agreeing that it was time to let the others know for sure about their switch. However long this alliance would last, Guardia wasn't sure, but she could hopefully expect no resistance while the Silver Tribe remained. She hoped. "I'm Lyn, by the way. Lyn Reed," She wondered if the two would have heard of the last name, as her father was the former Gold Tribe leader. "But the Gold Tribe calls me Guardia,"

"The Deceiver?" She wondered what exactly went on inside of there. "What exactly happened there? What was he planning? Was the explosion apart of that plan?" She asked, a bit frantically, hoping all was well with her friends and brothers. She expected she would soon find out, though, as they were just in front of the torturehouse now.

Snype grinned to Lyn, not really willling to offer something like a handshake at the moment. "Snype. Remember the name. Kehe." Snype said with a smirk. The group eventually made it in front of the torture house, about ready to help everybody out. Guess since he was switching, Snype would be best off letting Guardia know what was going down inside there and just what the Gengar was planning.

"You know how these places work I'm sure. Deciever told me that they torture the victims inside. But theres more to it then that... and I'm afraid they may have found out already. Some of the victims that go inside change. Deciever told me that they torture victims into turning to the Silver Tribe. Since this Silver Crystal is involved, I'm afraid that they've taken in the victims and tried to get them influenced by the crystal." Snype said adding a pause to his sentance.

"...Basicly, they could be making more sentinels. The Gold Tribe might be intended targets if they fall for their traps. Judging by the explosion, maybe they got through it alright. I don't know if they can cure that kind of mind control or whatever. Guess we'll just have to find out." Snype said calmly.

Genevieve L'esprit
Plains outside the torturehouse of Silver City

So much chaos. What with the explosion at the torturehouse, and what she could see of the battle near the skyscraper, and the clash of armies itself, Genevieve wasn't sure where she was needed most. As the tides of battle moved, she moved along with it, keeping the Ancients surrounding her at the front line where they and the opposing Ancients could impale themselves on each other.

As it was her network, Genevieve distinctly felt it when three of the Gold Tribe's minds were snuffed out. All three, from fighting one Sentinel. That spoke of either the three elites' incompetence, or the Sentinel's power. Shuddering, Genevieve checked elsewhere. One Tribe elite had been fighting a Sentinel, from the looks of what she'd been tracking, only now there were two Sentinels. And all three were heading for the torturehouse, instead of staying in one place.

The Gardevoir suddenly bent over, hands flying to her head as it ached. Sentinels... Auron... Scar... Sovereign... The Siren... Hanso... Vera... Genevieve... No...no!! With a mental blast, Genevieve fried the minds of the Ancients under her control; her eyes stared at nothing as they crumpled to the ground. Her memories still hadn't come back to her in full force, but she remembered now...

~~~~~
Hanso SharpEye and Varren
Near the ruins of the Silver City torturehouse

"Must we?" the altered Gallade asked, grinning despite his slightly labored breathing. "They're not actually in the battle now, are they? The citizens can find their way from here." Varren knew the Goldie-boys would do so anyway; he just felt like verbally jabbing them a bit. The Gallade's hands moved up, in Hanso's control for the moment, and formed another Heal Pulse that washed over the gathered elites.

"So you all lived to escape the torturehouse." Genevieve's voice resonated in their heads, flat and emotionless. Hanso could sense a bit of anger behind it. "Status?"

"We got the citizens out," Hanso replied, his own voice echoing in the network. "I'm not sure about the Deceiver. I couldn't tell if he died in the explosion or not." In a personal channel that the others couldn't hear, he asked, What's wrong?

You didn't tell me who I was during the war, Hanso. What I did.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

Guardia listened to Snype's explanation of the Deceiver's plan inside the torturehouse. "So that's why they were bringing citizens in..." She muttered. If what he said was true, he only hoped that the others were successful in bringing out the others from the influence before it was too late. She didn't know how exactly the process worked, but if they were able to do it on Sentinels before, then citizens should have also worked. Or at least, that was what she hoped.

But if the Gold Tribe were also intended targets, as Snype suggested, then that would definitely be trouble. "I guess we will..." She replied back, looking around the ruins of the rubble, hoping for a sign of any of them. Directly in front of the torturehouse, there didn't appear to be anyone around. It didn't seem like there was any movement coming from inside either, which made her begin to worry a bit. She looked around the area, trying to hide her worried expression from the two ex-Sentinels, as she didn't want to show any weakness in front of her. Yet she knew, she was slowly failing. With no one around the area, she began to wonder if her brothers made it...

"Guardia!" A voice shouted from the left of her position. The Zangoose turned, and saw in the distance a group of Gold Tribe Pokemon, including Vigil, Gallant, and the one who shouted at her, Sword and Shield. Penance was also among them, as well as the Keeper, TrueStriker and many unconscious Pokemon citizens. She sighed in relief, and headed over to their direction. "Thank Arceus," She whispered to herself and approached the others.

"Heh...good to see you haven't blown up!" Guardia teased, with no signs of her having been worried only moments before. Zane grinned at her, before turning his eyes to the Sableye and Jolteon with her. "And these are?"

Guardia turned her head back to the pair. "Oh, right. This is Snype and...uh, another. They're both Sentinels," Zane tensed up for a moment, as did Gallant and Sword and Shield. Zane looked puzzled at Guardia, who lifted up her claws to calm them. "Ex-Sentinels. They found out about the Silver Crystal and are willing to help."

Zane eyed the two of them. If it weren't in these desperate times, he would have been more skeptical to trust right away. Quickly, he found the paradox at that thinking, as perhaps it is exactly in these times that he should have been more careful who to trust. But if Guardia was vouching for them for now, he supposed that was enough. "Right, well. If you say so. I'm Vigil." He said, pointing at himself, then going down the aisle at everyone else present individually as he introduced them. He eyed the Sableye for a moment longer, for some reason he seemed a little bit familiar to him, as if he had seen him before.

He stopped at TrueStriker after all introductions were made, and eyed him suspiciously after the remark he made, even after he began a Heal Pulse on the gathered. "So..." Zane began as he continued to gaze upon the Gallade. "What exactly's going on with you and...whatever's inside of you?" He asked a bit rushed. He still remembered in the back of his mind that there was a battle going on, that they soon would have to rejoin if the Alpha Alliance hoped to win. While they recovered their breath and were being healed up though, they had a few moments. Nevertheless, Gallant and Sword and Shield already began coordinating with surrounding soldiers to help clear out the citizens from the area and out of the action.

Penance and Blackguard : Part 1​

Penance groaned weakly as they ported away. Judging by the loud explosion he heard that meant that something in the torture house had blown up, but it had mostly likely been Deceiver. Slowly he rose up and coughed a bit. His head throbbed... and he was still alive. The mass of bodies around them indicated that at least most of the citizens has been ported. That was something Zane really pushed for as did the other psychics. There were groans and whimpers from the citizens as could be expected, they had been puppet to some mad spirit after all!

He took in a gasp of air and tried to stand, only to fall back down. He felt Malphus grab him and raise him up, "Here we go, over him Penance." Malphus dragged him out of the piles of bodies and after getting a little bit away set him back down. "You good?"

"Yeah yeah." He coughed. "Just a bit drained. Surge back there?"

The Marowak shook his head, "I felt him... must have ported back to Cape City."

Penance nodded weakly, "Yeah, I guess so. It's how he is, hehe. Lashire should be getting up soon then. I just need to walk for a bit, get some air in my lungs you know."

Malphus helped up the Golduck and Penance walked around a bit. He put his hands behind his head and took in a few deep breaths to clear his jumbled mind. "Well, the only thing left is Auron I imagine." Then he heard a loud roar. Glancing over he saw two dragons battling in the air, "Ah, Ragnaros. He'll be fine." The Golduck waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, we're all good. Make a note Malphus as to check on Saul. That explosion wasn't expected, could be there are more traps here and there."

Malphus nodded, "Aye, that's true, at least we won't have any more troubles before Auron." The Marowak chuckled.

Meanwhile, above them, another figure loomed. Blackguard stared down at the Madman and his Affiliate from high above, hidden in the clouds. This was his next target. The Madman was no simple foe though, and Blackguard knew it. The Golduck was a mastermind, most unlike any Pokemon in the world today. It would take all of his power to outsmart this duck.

"Now then, let's get this show on the road."

Blackguard dropped his flames, and for a moment, he floated in the air without any support, before he began tumbling down to the ground like a renegade meteor.

Penance glanced all around and was about ready to contact who needed to be contacted when suddenly Malphus grabbed him and pulled him as fast as he could. The Golduck snapped his head up and he smirked at the being coming down, "Ah I miss-" He didn't get to finish as the Golurk slammed down. Both fell to the ground with thuds as even the surface of the ground seemed to ripple. Cracks broke open in the ground while Penance got back up.

"Well... someone else I missed?" He asked irritably.

Malphus was quick to rise as well and readied his bone. "Penance... something is unnatural about this one." He muttered. The Marowak rubbed at his head, "Doesn't look like this'll be easy."

Penance glanced toward the hole, "Yo. Big guy. You gonna sit in there or what?"

Nothing but a heavy cloud of dust was visible inside the crater created by the Blackguard, obscuring him. Suddenly, fire began pouring out of it. Not just any fire, but a green, unnatural fire that scorched anything it touched instantly. The streams of flame waved around, until they seemed to lock onto the Madman.

Penance smirked as he held his hands high above his head. His eyes glowed a deep purple hue as he shot out several Water Pulses. Before they could get too far the Pulses burst open and the water glowed the same purple color. The water formed something akin to a barrier over him. "Really? That's all tin man? Seriously I thought you might have more. But I spy with my little eye a familiar face! Palwow wasn't it?"

"Oh, believe me, Penance Malum..." A booming voice rose from the deepest part of the crater, as a shadowy figure became visible through the cloud of dust, slowly working his way upwards by climbing the sides. "You haven't seen anything yet."

Just as he said that, Blackguard used the propulsion from his jets to shoot up from the crater, and land right in front of the protected Madman.

"You think you're safe inside your little bubble, Malum?" He mocked.

Penance gritted his teeth as the Golurk appeared right at him. At that moment he pointed both hands right at the Golurk's head. The barrier of water squeezed down to a ball that wrapped around the Golurk's head. Penance smirked, "No, I think I'm safe out of it actually."

He jumped back and looked at Malphus, "Stay back, he's corrupted alright. Skin tone, red eyes, all classic signs!" He said with a smug smile. "So, gonna kill us eh? It'll take more than that you know!"

Blackguard grasped at his head. He tried to say something, but all that arose were small bubbles inside his little ball of water. He grasped at his neck for air, and gagged, and tried to scream, but the voice only came through as a muffled howl. But suddenly, he stopped all of that, and simply looked at Penance with a bored expression, his head cocked to one side.

Then, he did something odd. Blackguard pointed his own arm at his own head, and used a Flamethrower. His small head was, for a moment, invisible among the green flames, but soon enough the flames stopped, and there was Blackguard's face, totally unscathed. Above his head, a small cloud of evaporated water floated away into the sky.

"Whoever said I was gonna kill you?" Blackguard cracked his overgrown knuckles, each crack sounding like a dozen firecrackers popping at once. "That's too easy."

Without warning, Blackguard shot out at Penance, using his jets for extra speed. The Golurk's larger figure loomed over him before long, beginning his onslaught of Shadow Punches.

Penance gritted his teeth yet again as the water ball dissipated. This Golurk was something else! More powerful definitely than the other Sentinels. It had freaking attacked itself and left no marks! He took a step back as the Golurk spoke. Malphus frowned, "Penance... we may need some assistance here."

Before long the Shadow Punches came and Penance quickly put up another water shield to protect himself, but the first two managed to dissipate his shield. Penance did his best to dodge, but as one slammed into his gut the others quickly followed. One after another they punched into him and he ended up being shot back and rolling along on the ground. Quickly Malphus got in front of him and held his bone defensively, "You're not touching him."

Blackguard stepped backwards, and began lifting one leg up. With tremendous force, he brought the leg crashing down to the ground, the impact creating a large crack in the earth beneath him. For a moment, it seemed as though that was it, but suddenly, the earth began to turn on its inhabitants, shaking with incredible force. A very powerful Earthquake was underway. One that would shake the very foundations of Silver City itself. In the distance, buildings could be heard collapsing onto each other like dominos falling over.

"Are you sure about that?" Blackguard grinned.

Malphus cried out as the earthquake happened. He fell to a knee as the attack hit him hard. Shakily he rose again, "I-I'm sure..." He said with gasps in his voice.

Penance slowly managed to lean up. He got back onto his feet though his legs shook underneath him. "I"m fine... here Malphus." He gasped. "You." He narrowed his eyes at the Golurk, "We go one on one. You say you don't want to kill me... so I assume something worse is in store for me." He tightened his muscles, "I may not be true Gold Tribe... and maybe I'm just a bit different. But that doesn't mean I'm a push over. Just keep hitting me and the Affiliates will keep rising up."

At this, Blackguard burst of laughing. The laugh was both one of amusement and insanity, and when he was finally able to calm himself down, he looked at the poor Golduck, already battered and beaten as the earth threatened to collapse beneath him.

"Brave words for such a coward!" Blackguard began his slow, intimidating approach at the Madman and Malphus, the shaking ground not seeming to affect him at all. "Despite all your plans and all your words, you can't escape who you really are. I know who you are, Penance Malum. You are... like me, as much as you may hate to admit it. Even if that wonderfully intellectual brain of yours hasn't realized it yet. So, join me... together, we can bring chaos down upon all of Valkaria, and beyond."

Penance frowned, "Yeah... I'm not a puppet." He shook his head, "I don't wish to bring chaos lug head. Yeah, chaos is all fine and good sometimes, but most Pokemon can't stand it." He waved a hand at Blackguard. "So... I don't know, go back into your hole or something and sleep for a thousand years or whatever. You're just a puppet yourself, controlled by the Silver Crystal." He crossed his arms, "You're in denial to think that you'll be in control. Auron will smack you to the ground once he's done with you."

Blackguard stopped his approach. He stood still for a moment, and then he laughed again. "PFFFAHAHAHAHA! You think that I'm like the other Sentinels? HAHAHA! I am so much better!" He resumed his approach, as he was almost upon them now. "I am no pawn. Quite the opposite. They are my pawns. My agents of chaos, though they may not realize it. Denial? Please. I know what I am: pure, rotten evil. I AM the Silver Crystal, Penance! The Silver Crystal in different body. A much better body..." He glanced at his arms, then at his torso and his legs. He flexed his muscles a few times, as if he was testing them out for the first time.

"No. I'm afraid it's you who is in denial, Penance." Blackguard stopped his approach right in front of the two Pokemon. "You say you are different... and you are! Deep down, beneath all the logic and the plotting, you long for chaos. Paladin did too, though he may not have been aware of it. Nobody is until they face a crucial moment in their lives in which they are forced to choose. Choose between the boring old good side, or that longing for chaos that resides deep within them. Paladin's moment was his fight with Sovereign. He chose me."

"This is your moment."

Penance began to sweat and stepped back even more. He could feel his heart beating faster as what the Golurk said resided in his being. "... You want to take me over." He croaked out.

Malphus raised his bone. "You get away from us right now! We'll take you down!" He snapped out.

"Malphus... run." Penance gulped, and in one of the few moments it was clear fear had taken over, "This being is right from the Silver Crystal... he can kill both of us easily enough." Then Penance whipped up a hand and shot out a Water Pulse at the Golurk's face. At that same moment Malphus ran behind the Golurk and whacked his back with his bone.

"Plan twenty-four, pretend to be scared." He crackled with laughter, "You'll have to take me down before you even think of taking control of me!" He said. "Let's party!" With that he raised up both hands and shot a multitude of Water Pulses at the Golurk.

Blackguard chuckled lightly. "I don't want to take you over," he said, as the Water Pulses pelted his body, he felt little more than a slight pinch. Turning around, he saw the determined little Affiliate named Malphus with his bone, ready to try and take him out.

"I only want to..." Blackguard quickly lashed out at the Marowak, Shadow Punching him and then making a grab for his much smaller form. Holding the struggling Malphus tightly in his hand, he turned back to Penance.

"... Awaken you." As he said that, he tightened his hand around Malphus's body, as the sickening snaps of several cracking bones could be heard, including that of the skull he wore on his face. The skull fell off, revealing his true visage. Malphus struggled some more, until finally, the life faded from his eyes.

Any smirk that Penance had quickly faded as Malphus died there in the Golurk's arms. His hands fell and he stared for a while, almost as if trying to comprehend what had happened. Instincts took over and the Golduck reached down to rub the colored bracelet that he kept on his wrist... the very one that he had thought he had outgrown during this entire Odyssey.

He let his head hang for a bit then he snapped it back up. Without another word he formed a Water Pulse in his hands and began to infuse it with psychic energy. "Want to awaken me huh?" He asked as he closed his eyes, a small tear slowly leaking down a cheek. "THEN AWAKEN TO THIS!" He screamed out in rage as he threw his Water Bomb right at the Golurk. As soon as it hit the water would break open and smack that Sentinel with psychic energy. As soon as it was launched Penance followed it up with Water Pulse after Water Pulse, screaming out in rage at the loss of one of his closest friends.

The Water Bomb was unexpected. Blackguard's first attempt to rid himself of it was to use both his arms as Flamethrowers to try and dissipate the water into gas, but the psychic energy seemed to be resisting against the heat. The water reached him, and instantly it gathered around him, obviously controlled by some sort of psychic power, and began to weigh him down. At first, he was able to resist, and simply approached Penance - who only struck with more Water Pulses - but eventually Blackguard was forced to kneel down. He grunted, trying to resist the immense power. Indeed, this Golduck was a far more formidable foe when his psyche was put to the test. That made Blackguard's plan all the more risky.

He had to focus. The only way to fight this psychic power was with his own mind, and so he did. He focused all of his dark energies on the psychic force that held him down and managed to corrupt it, turning it to his advantage. He stood up, grinning.

"It seems you've chosen then. No turning back now."

Blackguard shot the psychic force that had once held him down back towards Penance, using it to ensnare him in a net of corruption. Seemingly instantly, Paladin kneeled down before the trapped Golduck. However, instead of lifting an arm to deliver a finishing blow, he simply placed his hands on the Golduck's head, and closed his eyes.

"We shall continue this battle... elsewhere. Let us see what you're hiding in here."

Penance watched in pure horror as his own attacks were turned against him. He cried out as the corrupted psychic energy came and wrapped around him keeping him held against the ground. He squirmed about wildly, especially when that Golurk made his way to him.

His heart beat in his chest as he felt that hands against his head and screamed out as he felt his mind being penetrated. All at once the surrounding area disappeared and he found himself standing on stone. The Golurk was here as well... and his doors were. There were many staircases, each leading to a memory or a thought that the Golduck had experience once. Some led to chains of memories or thoughts, but he knew how to protect them. Having several psychics work on keeping his mind secure sure did help.

He grunted on the ground and slowly staggered up. "This is my mind." He glared at the Golurk. "Think you can take what you want? You'll have to work for it."

"We'll see about that," Blackguard said. He gazed around at the scenery before him. It was a maze of stairs and doors unlike anything he'd ever seen. However, he had planned for such a situation, as it was obvious that Penance's mind would be well guarded. "Well, you may hide. I will seek. But know this..." he lifted a finger, "Your mind will never be the same when I am done here, regardless of the outcome of this 'battle,' if that is what you will call it."

Penance smirked and then held out a hand as he threw out a Psychic at the Golurk. "Oh? Well I bet ya I can beat you! This is my mind and I can do whatever I please!" He chuckled softly, "If you think you can beat me here, then you are sadly mistaken. I've had training from numerous psychics, I know every single trick in the book!" He pointed at the doors, "Just try it... and you'll be sorry."

"Every trick in the book, huh?" Blackguard effortlessly deflected the Psychic, and turned to face a door. This one looked old and tattered, and what appeared to be a carving of a Golduck's face stood out on its surface. "I don't follow the book."

He made his way towards the old door. Slowly, he reached for the handle, but as soon as he laid a hand on it, it became black. Dark vines appeared to extend from Blackguard's hands onto the handle, and then they crept their way further up the door until it was entirely covered.

Blackguard turned back to Penance. "You really think I'm stupid enough to open one, Penance? No, no. If there is anything that is more formidable than your mind, it is whatever tricks and traps may lie in wait inside it. We'll just let the corruption do its work, slowly. It will spread, without even opening a single door, until finally... it will all collapse at once."

Penance blinked in surprise as the Golurk did not open the door, instead some vines crept out and to his horror the door turned black. He had to rub at his eyes to see if he was hallucinating. No... the vines were real. "Collapse? But... but you came in here to find out what I knew!" He snapped. "Why make all my mind collapse!? Such an event could clear my mind! You wouldn't find anything! It would all be destroyed!"

"Would it really?" Blackguard retracted his hand, poised to use one of his jets. "You see, I am also quite a formidable foe when in the mind. The mind is my birthplace, after all." From out of the hole in his arm came a most terrifying sight: a Dark Beam. The shining line of black shot out at lightning speed towards Penance, ready to steal his life away.

Penance readied his legs, and then smirked as he just disappeared into thin air.

"Remember, this is my mind." Penance's voice sounded behind Blackguard, "Imagination rules here." With that Penance suddenly raised the steel sword he now had and slammed it into Blackguard's face.

He disappeared into a shadowed corner... and reappeared one of the staircases hanging from the ceiling, upside down as well. "Madness require a lot of creativity, you know that right?" He smirked, "When's the last time you ate a pasta bowl of crickets?" He burst into loud laughter and quickly formed another Water Bomb, sending it down at Blackguard.

Blackguard was slightly disoriented by the hit to his head, and stumbled to the side a bit. That was why, when the Water Bomb came, it very nearly hit him, but he managed to roll out of the way just in time.

"So, you use the shadows, do you?" Blackguard mused, backing into a shadowy corner. "Darkness is a fine thing. Much more mysterious than boring old light. It's the same with evil," he disappeared. "But the difference between you and me is that you merely adopted the dark..." His voice resonated throughout Penance's entire mind. "I was born in it... molded by it."

Blackguard reappeared behind Penance, also standing upside down, and tried to launch another Dark Beam. Knowing his attempt would most likely fail, he followed up with a second Dark Beam from his other arm, and then another, and another.

Penance quickly turned about as the Golurk appeared. He lifted his hand up into the air as the stone on the staircase rose up in between the two and took all the hits from the Dark Beams. "Hehe. I'm more than those that you've fought before." He made his way to a nearby door. "Want to really see what I got?" He winked and closed the door behind him.

Blackguard used a single Shadow Punch to destroy the wall that had been generated between them, causing rubble to fly in all directions. He looked on to see Penance disappearing behind a door.

Blackguard looked downwards, at the door which he had corrupted. It was already starting to crumble, and the vines were beginning to spread their darkness upwards, onto the walls and the stairs. Blackguard contemplated going after Penance, but he was almost entirely sure he would be struck by a trap. He had to be very careful here.

Deciding he'd have to wait for the corruption for a while longer, he went for the door. A Shadow Punch, and the door blasted open.

As soon as he did so he would see Penance on the other side. The room was empty... except for the small shards of glass he now levitated. "Hehe, here ya go!" Penance pointed his finger right at the Golurk as the glass shot out at him. Most of it aimed for his face with the other shards would slam at his joints. "Eat your supper now! It's what you wanted after all!"

Blackguard shot out a couple of Flamethrowers from his arms, aiming them at the flying shards of glass. It reduced the first few shards to ash, but two of them managed to hit his knees. Though they should have just bounced off, Blackguard was surprised to find that they became firmly lodged into his knees, causing him to fall down.

"Argh!" He grunted. Two more shards of glass lodged themselves into his shoulders, causing him to shout out in pain. With some difficulty, though, he lifted his right arm and used Flamethrower on his shoulder, melting the shard and causing his wound to instantly heal up. He repeated the process with his shoulder and knees until he was fully recuperated.

"Is that all you got?" He mused. Then, he spread his arms out wide. The walls of the room began to shake, and then, Blackguard smashed his two arms together furiously. Instantly, two large metal spikes extended from the walls, straight at Penance.

Penance readied himself, bouncing on his feet as the wounds healed up. "So you know how to heal eh? Many don't know that trick." He watched as the Golurk shot out spikes at him. He held out his two hands, his eyes glowing a bright blue as his psychic powers grabbed hold of the spikes and tried to slow them down. He grunted a bit as he began to strain. "You're strong." He admitted.

He finally rolled out of the way as the spikes shot past him. "I have tricks as well!" He pointed at the ground the Golurk stood on and suddenly ice began to form up his legs, quickly working to encase him. "Hope you like brain freezes." The Golduck chuckled.

Blackguard tried to move his legs as the ice slowly worked its way upwards, but he couldn't. Instead, he aimed his arms at his legs and used Flamethrower to try and melt the ice. Indeed, it melted somewhat, but still continued to make its way upwards, reaching his torso. Still, he used Flamethrower with one arm and tried to punch the ice to pieces with the other, but to no avail. The ice reached his arms, and soon they were encased as well.

Blackguard said nothing as the last of the ice wrapped around his head, turning him into a popsicle. For a few moments, nothing happened, but then a large crack appeared in the ice. The crack spread, dividing into several smaller cracks, and Blackguard began to move inside his icy prison, until finally, the ice was sent flying in all directions, shattered to pieces.

"Impressive. But not impressive enough."

Blackguard shot out another Dark Beam at Penance, followed up by a Flamethrower that burned an eerie green.

Penance was quick to dodge the beam, knowing that a Flamethrower wouldn't be as effective against him. He sent out a few Water Pulses at the Golurk in return to try and lower the flames. "Flames are nothing against me." He said with a cocky grin. "I wonder how young you really are. You don't fight like some old fart." He put both of his hands to his gem and he shot out a psychic pulse at his enemy.

The Water Pulses did little to affect the flames, which were only meant as a distraction, but the Psychic Pulse that came rushing forward struck Blackguard straight in the chest, causing him to stumble back somewhat. Grunting, and dusting off his chest, he spoke.

"I am older than time itself... and more powerful than it too." He put out his Flamethrowers and stared straight at Penance with those soulless eyes. "Ah, time. It works quite differently in the mind... funny how quickly it can be rewound..."

Suddenly, the glass shards that littered the room began to rise up, and come back together, like puzzle pieces. As soon as they fund the right fit, they were welded together, until eventually a large, jagged shard of glass the represented one of Penance's memories stood before them.

Then, Blackguard sent the shard of glass flying straight at Penance.

The Blackguard vs. The Madman
Round 2

The room around the two disappeared for a moment and the combatants found themselves in a house. A young Psyduck was busy eating a bit of food at the table while a female Golduck was forming a ball of water over a Murkrow that appeared to have a burned wing and gently set it over the burn. "Now don't move. How you kids get these injuries I'll never learn," the Golduck said.

The Murkrow shrugged, "We were just playing."

"Yeah, playing around fire is such a good idea." She said with a bit of light hearted sarcasm in her voice. The Golduck made her way to the Psyduck, "Now Penance, you know that you shouldn't do that again? Do you?"

The Psyduck nodded his head as he ate another berry, "I'm sorry mom... but Francis-"

"I don't care what Francis said. He's a fire type, he can't be burned as easily as you all can be," she huffed.

Meanwhile Penance himself stared aghast and turned to Blackguard, glaring at him. "Get out. Now!" He readied a psychic pulse and shot it right at him with a scream of anger.

"Hehe," Blackguard snickered. Penance's anger did so amuse him. He swiftly dodged the psychic pulse, allowing it to crash into the wall of the house. Instantly, the young Penance, his mother, and the injured Murkrow reacted, running away screaming. However, before he went out the door of the house, the young Psyduck looked back, staring at Penance and Blackguard as if he could actually see them. Then, he trailed after his mother.

Penance slowly stepped back, frowning, "How... did this? No... we just did this..." He shook his head a bit, "I... remember though...." He looked back up at the Golurk as the scene changed yet again. This time... it seemed they were in some sort of hallway. Doctors and nurses walked around the two and sometimes right through the two as they went about to various rooms. Near a wall was a bench where a young Psyduck sat. He was sobbing lightly and every so often glanced up at a door.

Penance quickly put himself in front of Blackguard and tensed up, "Don't. You. Dare," he warned. His eyes began to glow a bright blue as his anger rose.

Blackguard chuckled lightly, and began making his way towards the door. However, suddenly, Blackguard was lifted by what appeared to be psychic energy, and sent flying back down the hallway. He skidded along the floor, before crashing into the wall at the far end.

His laughing or even grinning had now faded, replaced with an annoyed expression. Activating his jets, he rocketed towards Penance and the door at full speed, with passing doctors and nurses screaming and running away as he did so.

Penance braced himself as he was tossed back. At that moment the small Psyduck had gone into the door he had been staring at and Penance shakily rose up. "Get out of my head!" He screamed. His eyes glowed blue yet again and he held out both hands at Blackguard, attempting to keep the Golurk in place and halt his advance.

The psychic force held Blackguard back quite a bit, slowing his flight so that it was about charging speed. Still, he advanced, and eventually made it back to where Penance stood. Working against the force to stretch out an arm, he Shadow Punched the Golduck, sending him crashing against the wall. However, all the psychic energy from before now pushed once more, and Blackguard was sent flying backwards again. He used his large fingers to dig into the floor, coming to a halt as he skidded along the floor, and advanced once again on Penance and the door.

Penance cried out as he was slammed back, but still his psychic powers kept him protected. He grinned as the Golurk was flung back, but he saw that his enemy was far more competent than he imagined. He began to sweat as he tried to keep him back. "No... don't..." Penance said, though it sounded more like a plea now. He began to shoot out multiple Water Pulses at the advancing Golurk, trying to knock him off his balance.

Blackguard struggled against the psychic, but he managed to avoid the first few Water Pulses, until one hit him in the leg, knocking him off-balance slightly and causing him to be pushed a ways back by the psychic. However, he resumed his approach. Then, he extended an arm and used Flamethrower, burning any nearby Pokemon and scorching the walls and floor. The Flamethrower didn't reach Penance, but it was so large that it obscured Blackguard from Penance's view, causing the psychic to break. Then, when the Flamethrower began to dissipate, out came Blackguard flying incredibly fast. He managed to crash into Penance this time, sending them both flying into the room.

Penance fell back against the door and crashed onto the floor. He quickly glanced over to where the female Golduck was in bed, looking rather sick. The Psyduck from before was there, gripping onto her flipper as he cried.

"My Penance... remember..." The colored bracelet that she wore was pulled off and handed to the Psyduck, "I'll always be with you." The Psyduck glanced down at the bracelet, but before he could say anything he saw the two crash inside and his eyes widened at the sight of Blackguard.

The Golurk smashed into the wall beside the bed and the Psyduck, creating a hole leading into the next hospital room. For a moment, nothing was heard but screams from the people in the other hospital room, before Blackguard walked through, his red eyes scanning the room. His opponent, Penance, lay on the ground rather damaged, and the younger Penance stared at Blackguard with wide eyes, clearly terrified. Blackguard also noticed another Golduck, Penance's mother, laying on the bed, apparently very sickly.



Blackguard walked over to the other side of the bed, right beside Penance's mother. Slowly, he extended a large finger down at the Golduck, pushing onto her throat and causing her to begin choking, gasping for air.

"Penance..." He began, looking at the young Psyduck. "I am Blackguard, harbinger of chaos..." The chokes of Penance's mother filled his ears as he spoke, "Remember that name."

Then, silence.

The Psyduck stared in horror up at the Golurk, a few tears leaking down his face, and then the Psyduck screamed. He began punching at the Golurk's leg, screaming at the top his lungs as he punched at the Golurk. This continued for a while before the Psyduck collapsed, sobbing at the top of his lungs.

Slowly the Golduck got up and glared back at Blackguard. "I... remember..." He slowly got up, "It was you... IT WAS YOU!" The Golduck shot out multiple Psychic pulses as the environment around them began to shift. "I HATE YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. His blue eyes glowed brighter all the while as he aimed to destroy this Golurk.

While the memory shifted to another one, Blackguard unleashed a Flamethrower in order to hide himself in the fire, causing most of the psychic pulses to miss. All the while, he laughed.

"HAAAAAAHAHAHAAA! HEHEHAAAAHAHAAAA!"

Then, they were in some sort of warehouse. Blackguard glanced around. A big area indeed. Activating his jets, Blackguard flew up into the air, stopping and staying in place right below the warehouse's roof.

"Come up here then! Avenge your mama!"

Penance screamed out as he shot up Water Pulse after Water Pulse. A few tears leaked down his face as his anger began to blind him. Most of his Water Pulses actually whizzed past the Golurk and slammed into boxes and the ceiling.

Water Pulses just kept coming at Blackguard, and eventually one struck him in the chest, causing him to come down a bit. The pulse was far more powerful than the others he'd been hit by; a testament to Penance's anger.

"Yes, that's it..." Blackguard boomed, "Unleash your anger. Your hunger will only grow..."

Blackguard began to fly around Penance in circles. With one arm, he used his Flamethrower to set some boxes and the floor of the warehouse alight, creating a circle of green flames around Penance. Then, he descended, but outside of the ring of fire, making it impossible for Penance to see him.

"Where am I?" Blackguard mused, his voice seeming to be coming from all directions. Then, suddenly, he came flying out of the fire and straight for Penance. Not waiting to see if he'd hit him or not, he flew back into the fire, out of sight.

Penance glanced around as the fire surrounded him. He looked about and once the voice spoke out he quickly sent out a mass of Water Pulses, but he was looking at the wrong place. He felt the large mon slam into his back and he fell to the ground. He slowly struggled to get back up, the battle in his mind starting to weaken him already. He closed his eyes tightly and gasped for air. The fire was now spewing out smoke and he fell to his knees as he coughed and hacked. The smoke stung his eyes and obscured his sight.

Still, he kept shooting out Water Pulses as best as he could. But eventually he had to stop as he doubled over on his knees as he hacked louder and louder.

"No! Nononono!" Blackguard quickly flew back into the ring of fire and landed beside Penance, grabbing the weakened Golduck by his neck. "You're not dying yet! We've only just begun!"

As the Golurk flew next to him, a smirk formed over the Golduck's face and an eye twinkled as he aimed a hand right at him, "You can't choke in your own mind idiot." He pushed out a powerful Psychic pulse right at Blackguard and stood back up, "It's the illusion of death... an illusion that so many fall for, only those of strong mind can fight against it." He chuckled again, "Surely you would know that?"

Blackguard grunted as he was sent flying back by the surprisingly powerful psychic pulse, and once again he disappeared beyond the flames.

"Like I said..." He began, "We've only just begun!"

Out of the flames came the flying Golurk once more, ready to ram into Penance.

Penance smirked, this time more than ready to dodge the Golurk. He pointed a finger up toward the ceiling as the sprinkler system came on. Water fell down to take out the fire. "Hehe, too easy." He watched as the fire died off and looked at the Golurk, "Why... why kill my mother?" He narrowed his eyes, "I don't know how you traveled into the past... but all this time... I've been trying my best to find you, and now I have." Penance squeezed his fists together, "I'll make sure to break every bone in your body."

"Haaahahahaaa!" Blackguard laughed, as he gazed down at Penance from above. "Just try!"

He hovered right below the ceiling again, but this time he shot down small, fire-based projectiles at Penance. These projectiles burned with the intensity of a furnace, and scorched any boxes it came into contact with to a cinder.

As the area around them burned more and more the scenery began to fade away, though as the scene shifted the remnants of conversation could be heard.

"So we'll set it up here then?" A voice asked.

"Right. When the Marrow gang comes by there, we hit them with the water. Funny thing is that sprinklers aren't seen as major threats... hehe, the acid in them will quickly kill most of them. We'll find survivors and have them put down. Murder of innocents is not something I want in this." Another voice said. "Any signs?"

"None Penance. Just like last week."

"I see... anyway, once we get them down we'll need his bone. Bones are durable so it shouldn't dissolve...."

The voices finally faded away with the scenery and both would find themselves in the memory room again, though it looked a bit different now. The memories now had different still images on the glass, though to Penance it would still look the same. The Golduck shot up a Water Bomb at the Golurk and narrowed his eyes, "You want to experience my memories so bad? Why so? What do you get out of it!? Answer me now dammit!"

Blackguard launched a Fireball at the Water Bomb, and the two collided, creating a large explosion that sent Blackguard and Penance crashing against the walls of the room. Blackguard rose and dusted off his body, attempting to look beyond the hot steam that had now filled the room. As expected, he saw shattered glass littering the room once more.

"You want to know why? Because I CAN!"

Penance groaned as he peeled himself off of the wall and had to kneel a bit while he gathered his energy again. He looked up and he saw that glass was all around them yet again. Penance rubbed at his head and glared at him, "Get out of my mind you freak. What are you even gaining from this!?"

He stepped back a bit and cast a glance at the door, "I won't let you find anything!" He said as he ran to the entrance.

"Oh, won't you now?" Blackguard used a Shadow Punch on the floor, causing it to ripple up as if it were some kind of wave and knock Penance off his feet. Blackguard then rushed through the door, and back into the staircase world quickly.

Looking around, it appeared the corruption was doing its job quite well. The dark vines had spread very high now, leaving several doors wide open and the walls around them pitch black. "Soon, you will be mine..." Blackguard muttered.

Penance and Blackguard : Part 3​

Penance cried out as he fell onto his stomach and watched in horror as the Golurk ran out. Penance got back onto his feet and followed after him. He looked on anxious as the corruption spread around. "No... NO!" He screamed out in denial. He clutched his head and then glared at the ground type. "I won't let you find them!" Penance took in a deep breath and let out a high-pitched shriek. The noise shot out to two rooms across from them and the sound of shattered glass reached their ears.

Penance narrowed his eyes, "You can turn back time, sure. But it'll take time to look at each memory!" He grinned a bit at that, "At the very least, I can force you to spend your time here."

Deep down, Penance knew he was stalling only a bit. Time in the mind ran far different as compared to outside it. An hour outside could be anything in the mind. It could be five minutes, it could be equally an hour, or it could actually be a year. Only talented pokemon could control the flow of time in their minds. In such a case like this, Penance's mind had actually been made so that a few months could pass inside it before even a minute would pass in the outside world. He would need all of that time to fight back against his intruder and ensure he could not find any important information.

"I don't think so!" Blackguard shouted angrily, turning to Penance and Shadow Punching him once more. Then, he used his jets to fly upwards, gazing around as he did so to find an open room with some possibly valuable information. Most of the rooms he flew by had information that was destroyed from Penance's shriek, but some still had their information intact. Blackguard knew he would never be able to spare the time to repair each memory and go through it looking for information; instead, he had to find the right one, and soon, because wherever he went, Penance wouldn't be far behind.

Blackguard looked to his right, and there he noticed a black door hanging ajar with a particularly large, thick shard of information inside. Instinctively, he flew towards it as fast as he could.

Penance fell, but was quick to get back on his feet. Adrenaline pumped through his system now, and he ran right after the Golurk. He was pleased to see his memories shattered here and there, but there were some rooms that had shards and some that didn't, and even some that still had information intact. He couldn't stop to destroy anything else right now, the most important thing was to find Blackguard and send him out of here.

Unfortunately the Golurk had disappeared into a door that hadn't been hit by the corruption yet, but strangely the door itself was naturally black in color. Penance stopped as he stared at the door. He knew what was behind it. He took in a deep breath and stepped inside. Once in he saw that the memory was already in full swing. There he was as a Golduck sitting against a wall. He was balled up at that moment, shaking with sobs.

He remembered... the day his ambush went awry for the Gold Tribe. It was the day that his Affiliates were massacred. He realized also that there was information around them. These were his personal quarters... the ones with the maps of all of the tunnels, and there were even lists... lists of those who would take over when he left. Yeah... he had left afterwards, and his list had been complied that day. His hands balled into fists as he quickly glanced around. "Where are you!?" He shouted out angrily.

"Come out right now!" He screamed. It was obvious that he was not in this room, so he quickly ran out of the room into the tunnels. His eyes scanned around, helpless right now to wander where in the expansive tunnels his enemy was now.

Back in Penance's private quarters, something stirred. The wall began to shift, and out from it emerged Blackguard, having used his intangibility to hide himself inside the wall. He snickered as he looked around the room. Penance - the one from the past - sat there, balled up, and clearly not about to do anything other than sob for the moment. Blackguard had to crouch slightly to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. Examining some papers, he found what appeared to be a list of names. Some names were crossed out, but others were encircled.

"Hehe. Interesting..."

Penance stalked around in the tunnels, his eyes and sense constantly on alert. Since he hadn't been in the other parts of the tunnels that day no one else appeared in them. It seemed to be a ghost town, but with his knowledge of the tunnel system all of the tunnels still appeared, every room the same as before the flooding.

Where was he!? Surely he couldn't be that hard to find. "Come on out!" He shouted. "I'm right here! Come and fight me you coward!"

"Oh," Blackguard put the paper back down, having memorized the five circled names on it. He approached the exit of the room, "Sounds like he's itching for a fight."

Blackguard lifted his foot, and then proceeded to stomp it onto the ground, generating a powerful Earthquake that rocked Penance's mind. The tunnels around Blackguard quickly began to collapse as he advanced, hoping to draw Penance out to his location.

Penance felt the ground shake underneath him, as well as around him. He cried out and ran around the falling rocks, trying his best not to get squished. As the tunnels collapsed blackness was shown where walls once stood. It seemed the memory itself was collapsing in on itself. As he ran back to his private room he stopped as he saw Blackguard. It was only a moment's hesitation before he fired psychic wave after psychic wave at the monstrosity.

Blackguard didn't exactly have much room to dodge the Psychic waves, so he ended up getting hit by them. One struck his shoulder, causing him to be pushed backwards, and another hit his leg, causing him to fall over. However, as more waves came at him, he used a Flamethrower to hide himself, and sent the flames coming at Penance full speed.

After the flames dissipated, Penance would see no more of Blackguard. He had vanished.

Penance gritted his teeth in anger just as the rest of the tunnels collapsed. Penance saw himself back in the room along with Blackguard with the image of the memory having several cracks over it now.

"You... you...." He was too angry for words now, so he just settled for firing more psychic bursts at the invader.

"HAHAHA!" Blackguard now had room to avoid the psychics, but he did end up getting hit by a couple, which sent him flying out of the room. He tumbled down the stairs a bit before he got up and recollected himself, then activated his jets to begin flying upwards once more.

Penance quickly ran out after him and ran up the stairs. He jumped up onto another staircase and passed countless rooms that didn't have the doors on them anymore. He couldn't stop, not now. He could tell that Blackguard was going to his personal room now... the one with information he wanted. He glanced down and smirked. As the Golurk passed by one staircase suddenly several webs shot out and wrapped around him. "Looks like you're kind of caught there!" He shouted back at the large pokemon.

Blackguard tried to get out of the web. He struggled and clambered around, but as soon as he got an arm out of one bind he got it stuck between two more, not to mention the entire thing stuck to him and seemed to close around him, becoming tighter and tighter. Finally, he managed to get one arm free without getting it stuck again, and used a Flamethrower, which instantly set the web on fire. Before long, it had disintegrated, and Blackguard was sent tumbling down. He scrambled in mid air for a moment, before reactivating his jets and rocketing upwards once more.

Penance glanced back, frowning as he saw the giant hurtling toward him yet again. He picked up the pace as he headed down the staircase to the large door that held something rather dear to him. Before he got to the door he paused and looked back at the Golurk. "Come on big guy... show me what you got."

As he said that, Blackguard got to the level at which he stood and launched a couple of Fireballs at Penance to distract him. Thinking, he realized there must have been a reason that Penance chose to stop right where he was. It seemed like he was protecting a door. And that meant it must've been exactly what Blackguard was after.

Without further ado, Blackguard flew full-speed at Penance and the door, firing fireballs as he did.

Penance waited a bit for the Golurk to come and he fell down at the last so that the enemy flew over him. His eyes glittered and as the Golurk past by him Penance snapped his fingers. All at once small wires would fall down and wrap tightly around the Golurk's body. Penance held out his fingers and wiggled them about and the Golurk would find his body being manipulated by the strings.

"This one is quite a doosey. Imagine invading someone's mind, but instead you're the one at their mercy? Want to make others puppets? I think you should feel what it's like!" He pulled at the strings and tugged at his arms to force him to slap himself, "What? Don't like it? Well you force it on others! And I think they don't like it either."

"You're kidding yourself, Penance," Blackguard said as he was held up by the strings. "I don't need to make you a puppet," he pulled back one of his arms down with tremendous force, causing the wire to which it was attached to snap. "You already are a puppet. A pawn of insanity, of chaos!" He pulled with his other arm, managing to free it. Then, pointing both his arms at Penance, he unleashed a Flamethrower that distracted Penance long enough for him to get free completely.

Penance frowned as he tried to have the strings move the Golurk away. Unfortunately even in this regards he was too powerful. The strings were nothing more than a delay and soon flames were poured out at him. He had to step back to avoid the high temperature and called back to him, "I am not a puppet! I am free and always will be! You take other's bodies... you force them to act against their will! Just look at the form you have now! Controlling that Golurk's body like a puppet master, forcing him to move however you see fit!"

He formed some Water Pulses and threw them at the flames to quell them. "Your Sentinels are but helpless before you... pawns of your reign. I won't allow you to enslave any more!"

At this, Blackguard laughed.

"HAHAHAHA! As always, Penance, you have it completely wrong."

Blackguard turned to the door that Penance had been guarding, and touched its handle. "I don't control anyone. I simply... bring out their dark side. Use it as a weapon to use for my own gain. Make it stronger, make it faster, and make it better. Because you see..." Vines extended from his overgrown hand, and they quickly began spreading over the door, turning it black. "Evil has so much more potential. So much more power."

"That is why you cannot stop me Penance. We can stay in here for months, fighting, but eventually the corruption will win, and I will get what I want. Because you refuse to give in... to your true nature."

Penance frowned, "You're... you're as bad as the Gold Tribe..." He shook his head, "They too do the same thing. Make you 'better' to serve their needs. You're just like them!" He accused. "I HATE the Gold Tribe... so theoretically I must hate you too." He readied another psychic surge and threw it at him. "They make others puppets... not able to be individuals anymore, to be FORCED to serve a group cause for the rest of their lives. You just admitted you are the same."

Blackguard almost dodged the surge, but it grazed his side slightly. "Grrr," he grunted. "As usual, wrong. Actually, maybe you're a little right there, Madman. The Gold Tribe bends others to their will to serve a cause which they believe is righteous and just. I, on the other hand, serve no cause. I just bring what comes naturally: chaos. It resides in all of us, but it's hidden very deep in some individuals."

Blackguard held up a finger and pointed it at Penance. "That's not the case with you. Honestly, you call yourself the Madman. How much more obvious can it be? For some reason, though, you just can't accept it." He put down his finger and looked back at the door. The corruption was progressing nicely. "That's why I'm here. To MAKE you accept it."

Penance frowned, "Accept it?" He looked at the door that now puffed into dust. He narrowed his eyes and then held out a hand to hold back the Golurk, "Oh no, that's not your place to see!"

"Hehehe." Before Penance could do anything, Blackguard dove into the room.

Inside, unlike the other rooms, were rows upon rows of memories. In other rooms memories had ben gathered together in sequence, but here every single crystal was smaller. Also to help out was a sign on the wall that indicated this was Penance's 'Planning Room'. Every single plan that the mad man had thought up of was here. With a few images Blackguard could see still frames of a Psyduck, indicating them to be from Penance's early days.

There were a few with a Golduck in them, but some shined golden. In them could be seen a certain Bisharp and other members of the Gold Tribe, possibly indicating plans he had for them later on. But something would catch his eyes. There were several glass panes that showed Silver City itself and maps overlaying it.

Before Blackguard could get further the ground suddenly opened underneath him, dropping him down on the room underneath. A memory began to play showing Penance in the Thieve's forest. It was the ambush that the Sentinels had played on them and from behind several Water Pulses hit into him. The present day Penance smirked at him, "I think I'm about ready to kill you off."

Blackguard turned around swiftly, ready to avoid more Water Pulses if need be. When he locked on to Penance, he fired a couple of Fireballs, and jumped up, using his jets as extra propulsion for a very high jump. He landed right behind Penance, and attacked with an onslaught of Shadow Punches, one after the other, without stopping for anything.

Penance had been waiting for the Golurk to move and so he sent out Water Pulses to counter the fireballs. The steam rose up and for a minute it obscured the Golduck's vision, enough so that the Shadow Punches took him by surprise. He cried out as his back was hit up and down. He tried to stay strong, but in the end he fell to the ground with a few coughs. He slowly began to crawl away from the Golurk, now realizing how tough his enemy was.

"HA! And now he tries to get away," Blackguard chuckled. He approached slowly, pointing an arm at Penance as he did so in case he tried anything. "Or... is this a trick? Knowing you..." Blackguard fired a Dark Beam at Penance. The beam instantly scorched all plant life around it as it shot out at him, ready to steal his life away.

Penance cried out as the beam hit him. The pain grew intense and he clutched at the ground, screaming louder and louder. He felt his will drain and even his ability to stand soon was gone. He could only lie on the ground, groaning as the memory soon faded away to show them back in the room. All around them the corruption had spread and everything was a deep black color. He tried once more to stand, but fell to the ground whimpering a bit in pain. "Go ahead... finish me..." He croaked. "I... I couldn't stop you...."

"Well, that's unfortunate for you. But I don't want to kill you."

Blackguard turned around, leaving the crippled Penance lying on the ground. Without another word, he exited the room and used his jets to fly up a room, finding the corrupted Planning Room right before him.

"Jackpot," he smiled.

The Blackguard vs. The Madman
Round 4

Penance felt the black marble underneath his body and slowly he got up. He hung his head and panted softly. His vision was a bit wobbly and he had to stagger over to a wall as he felt his balance coming back to him. That beam had taken a lot out of him, but he still had enough left to do what needed to be done. He just had to hope he hadn't been out for too long and that there was still something to protect. He made it out to the hallway and glanced around at all the open rooms. "C-Come out!" He gasped, "I-I ain't done with.... you yet." Penance had to double over and take in some much needed air as sweat dripped down from his head.

Meanwhile, Blackguard stood in the Planning Room, looking around at the various things Penance had prepared. Indeed, his reuptation as the Madman preceeded him. He had planned for every single occassion. Even one such as this. But of course, nothing could have prepared him for Blackguard. What he was about to do next, though, was clear enough.

"Perfect..."

Blackguard exited the room, and made his way down to where Penance lay, barely able to stand up. It was almost pitiful.

"Don't even bother, Penance. I know all your secrets."

Penance glared up at him and tried to stand, but quickly had to grab onto his knees, "N-No... you don't... y-you can't..." He shivered a bit there as he felt oddly cold. "C-Come on... I... I can sti.." Penance had to stop talking as he coughed a bit. He blinked his eyes to readjust his sight. "I..."



"What does it feel like, Penance? Dying? Not so good, I'd wager." Blackguard extended a hand, and grabbed Penance with it as if he were some kind of doll. He lifted the Golduck up until they came face to face. "But I can save you..." he began, "If you'd only... accept it."

Suddenly, dark vines extended from Blackguard's hand and began to creep their way up and down Penance's body, growing thicker and thicker. However, as they did so, life returned to Penance's eyes, and he stopped coughing. Power returned to him.

Penande gasped out as the power was pumped into his body. He gasped and then he looked at Blackguard, "You made a grave mistake." He held up a hand to the Golurk's face and shot out a psychic pulse at point blank range. He freed himself from the grip and landed back on the ground, "You do do ya?" Penance smirked, "Well I'll have to change tactics then. Have to change the plan I had." He grinned wider, "Let's have this last tango, shall we?"

Blackguard was shot back backwards, tumbling over and beginning a rather rough descent down some stairs. He finally landed with a thud against the wall. To his surprise, he felt his face to find that a small chunk had been blown off!

No more games. "RRRRAAAARGH!" He screamed, as he charged at Penance. However, instead of ramming into him, he made a sharp turn into the Planning Room, expecting Penance to follow.

Penance glared after him and ran inside. "You already know of my plans do ya? That's no good here!" He grinned and shot out several psychic pulses that flew through the room shattering the glass images quickly. "I won't let you see anything else though! This entire mind is mine! In fact..." Penance opened his bill and let out a loud Shriek empowered by his psychic energies. The shriek flew out of the room and bounced around in the hallways. It bounced into other rooms and the sound of shattering glass echoed all over.

Penance chuckled at the Golurk, "You're getting nothing else, but now..." He shot out more and more psychic pulses at the Golurk, "I kill you and stop this all!"

The psychic pulses traveled through Penance's mind much faster than they had before, making it much harder to dodge them. Blackguard avoided the first two, but three more hit him in the chest, directly on his seal, creating a small crack on its already broken surface. Blackguard extended his arms, and summoned twin Flamethrowers that hid him from sight. Then, he used one arm to shoot out Fireballs, which came from random areas in the fire and went straight for Penance. Without waiting to see if they had hit, Blackguard used his jets to launch himself out at Penance.

Penance smirked as he held out his hands and created a psychic shield around himself. It quickly caught the flames that were shot at him. As soon as the flames and fireballs were collected Penance formed an entire barrier around them. The jewel on his forehead poured out psychic energy, more than he would usually have. "Hehe! You shouldn't have given me this power!" He said gleefully, "Now, to wipe you out!" As the Golurk charged at him Penance aimed his captured fire and released the top of the barrier letting everything thrown at him fly right at the Golurk.

Blackguard was surprised by the strategy Penance had used against him, and soon he was shot out of the air by his own fireballs, falling to the ground with a large crash. He got back up quickly, shaking off the damage and glaring at Penance angrily. Behind him, though, something stirred in the shadows. A shining red pair of eyes started to form in the shadows, followed by what appeared to be a bill, but soon disappeared once more.

Blackguard stomped his foot on the ground angrily. What may at first have seemed like the start of a temper tantrum soon evolved into a full-blown Earthquake that rocked the entire room, and caused the ceiling to start coming down on the two. Blackguard picked up several pieces of glass that littered the floor with his hands, and swiftly sent them flying at Penance. Expecting another counter-attack, he cloaked himself in flames once again with Flamethrower, and also directed the blast at the rest of the room, setting the floor and the walls on fire and causing the glass on the floor to melt.

Penance quickly raised his hands above his head to put up a large shield that protected him from being crushed. He grinned as the flaming rubble landed on it and around a set perimeter. He gripped the pieces with his powered up psychic powers and threw them some distance away. He then set out a large psychic bubble to protect him from the glass and quickly work his way through the flames.

"This ends now! I'm powerful enough to stop you now!" He narrowed his eyes, "Feel ready to face oblivion." However, behind the Golduck the darkness slowly rose up. As the Golduck put his hands to his gem his eyes glowed a bright blue as he began to build up a powerful psychic attack. As more and more energy was pulled in however the being behind the duck slowly began to take shape. A head began to form and slowly the body began to form as well.

"You ready to die!?" Penance shrieked out at the Golurk.

"Come on, then! If you think you're so powerful!" Blackguard chuckled heartily. "HAHAHAHA! COME ON THEN! HIT ME!" He stood there was the flames erupted around him and the ceiling collapsed onto him, with his arms spread as if he was a target.

"FINISH THIIIISSSSS! LET CHAOS HAVE YOU!"

As Penance continued to power up the attack the figure behind him slowly gained legs and feet. The webbed toes wiggled a bit and now the dark being slowly began to make its way to the Golduck, the bill on its face slowly forming into a smirk as he looked beyond the Golduck at the Golurk and gave a small wink.

Penance built up the attack more and more. "You're dead!" He screamed. He pointed both hands at the Golurk and fired out a large purple psychic ball built up with energy.

The attack hit Blackguard with enormous force, and exploded right on him. The explosion was huge, and sent both combatants flying backwards. The explosion was the final push for the collapsing room, and sent the entire thing falling down onto the two, burying them deep in rubble.

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence. A heavy cloud of dust hung thick over the room, obscuring most of it from sight. An arm crashed out from under the rubble, followed by another, and they pulled up a torso by grabbing some heavy boulders. Rocks slid to the side as Blackguard's form emerged from the rubble, heavily scarred, and with certain chunks missing. Regardless, he was alive, and he stood tall. His red eyes scanned the room, looking for any sign of his opponent.

At that same moment a purple light shined through the rubble and Penance emerged, covered with a psychic box that had protected him. He chuckled as the box disintergrated, "Well, a bit scratched aren't we?" He said with a smug grin. Penance spread his arms, "I'll be fighting you for months in here you know! I'll wear you down piece by piece!"

Unknown to the Golduck, the same black shape that had slowly taken his form appeared behind him, this time the shape was now complete. Every single inch of the corrupted clone looked exactly like the real Penance and the clone grinned evily as he eyed Penance.

Blackguard looked at Penance's body. "You think? Look at yourself."

"You honestly though all I came in here for was information? No, no, no." Blackguard approached him, and at the same time, so did the dark Golduck behind Penance. "Your life has been leading up to this, Penance. Your feelings, your mad emotions are just one big Paradox. Think about it. You despise the Gold Tribe, and yet, you are a part of it, but you do not hate yourself. It stands to reason that if you do not hate yourself, you cannot hate the Gold Tribe... and yet, you do. So much complication, so much confusion. You use your smug, arrogant attitude to cover up who you really are, and who you really will be... a madman."

Blackguard stopped approaching, and stood right over Penance, his giant form casting a dark shadow over the Golduck. "All you needed was a little push."

As it was, Penance's body was covered with the vines of corruption. They had grown dark and thick, and seemed to be turning his blue skin darker and darker. "You've accepted it."

Behind Penance, Chaos extended an arm, using its dark flipper to cover the Golduck's mouth, and using its other arm to grab his chest. Penance's speech became muffled as he struggled, trying to free himself, but he couldn't. Then, slowly, Chaos dragged Penance back into the shadows with him, grinning at Blackguard.

The Golurk made his way out of the ruined room, and gazed up and down. The stairs, the walls, and all the open doors were completely black, vines running along them wildly. Every single door was now gone, and the rooms inside, totally empty apart from the corruption that had taken them over.

"Looks like you win, Penance. You finally win."

As the two faded into the darkness of the mind the scene shifted. Barely a few seconds had passed since Blackguard had worked his way into Penance's mind. The Golduck's eyes snapped open, his red irises a deeper shade of red now. He burst into laughter and slowly rose. As he rose the Golduck's body underwent a quick transformation. His normal blue skin tone shifted to a deep jet black. The muscles on his arms, chest, and legs began to grow a bit and took on a more firm shape. For the finishing touch the color in his eyes shifted so that both eyes now glowed a deep shade of red.

The Golduck glanced down at his body and flexed his biceps, a grin forming on his bill. "Well well, this body ain't half bad with my adjustments." He looked over at Blackguard, grinning all the while, "I shall be now known as... Paradox!" The Golduck burst into mad laughter and looked about eagerly, "Where should we spread some chaos!?"

--------

Back with Zane and the others Lashire slowly began to awaken, groaning softly as he looked about, "Oh... what happened?" He asked out loud as he rose up. The Pawninard looked a bit out of it, but also ready to keep on fighting.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

After another clash between the two Scizors, Sentry doubled back and examined the state of the battlefield. The Alpha Alliance army had pushed forward and turned the tables in the battle. Despite having superior numbers, the Ancients had lost footing, and now they were just about to lose the battle. Shifting his eyes, Sentry then gazed upon the destruction that enveloped the torturehouse. A large chunk was missing, and smoke was rising steadily from the large building. What was more, Sentry couldn't get in any contact with the Deceiver, Rector, and saw no trace of Snype or Levina. Yet this scene before him, of his force losing and his fellow Sentinels falling didn't cause him to panic. In fact, it let out a very contrasting action from the Scizor.

He smiled. And that was because darkness grew still, in other parts of the battle. He scanned the area where a Golduck and a Golurk, if they could even be classified as that species anymore, did battle. Beyond that too...

"I suppose that'll do it," He said, seeming to have no more interest in the battle at hand. He turned to the Swift, and sighed. "I'm afraid I have to cut this battle short...there's much to be done. Oh, but I will see you later, you can be sure of it," And with that, before the Swift had any chance to respond, he was gone. He blurred away, heading toward the two who did battle, towards Blackguard and...Paradox. He stopped in front of them, examining their new forms, before looking on to the battlefield. The Alpha Alliance pushed forward, now taking out the bulk of the Ancient forces. In front of him, the armies of Auron fell, and they fell swiftly. He made no attempt at a friendlier greeting, or even an acknowledgement of the new Paradox. He simply spoke as if they were with him the entire time.

"...the two of you should head to Silver City. The Alpha Alliance has finished off the Ancients, and we need to prepare." Sentry turned as he heard reactions from the Alpha Alliance army as they brought the last of the ancients down around them. They had won the battle. They had taken the battle of the plains. Sentry proceeded forward toward the army, leaving the two new Sentinels on their own to return to the city.


Zane didn't know how much longer he fought after they had successfully gotten the citizens off of the battlefield. It might have been hours, maybe a few there, but it felt longer. Despite the Sentinels seeming to be out of the picture, there were a lot of Ancients to go through. A few questions still occupied his mind, like what was the state of Penance, as he didn't see the Golduck around anywhere anymore, as well as what was going on inside of TrueStriker's mind, as he never got an answer back before they had to rejoin the battle. Zane was also worried a few times upon the battle, feeling large tremors from certain areas, and being unable to see certain of his brothers and sisters for quite a long time now. But he had to focus.

With the General's leadership, and with the Gold Tribe at the head of the hammer, they smashed upon the Ancients, and pushed them back. Soon, after a bloody and gruesome fight, the last of the Kabutops fell, and the last of the Aerodactyls fell from the sky. The Omastars littered the plains, and the Archeops all fell to join them. The Ancients lay dead upon the now-red plains of Valkaria, and the Alpha Alliance armies stood victorious over them. General Belas roared in victory, and the soldiers followed in their commander's footsteps, howling with delight. Zane and the Gold Tribe rose their fists in victory, all the while Zane looked around the battle in search of the others.

He found a few of them, but others were missing. He found no signs of Penance. He didn't see Bane, the Shadow Protector, or Speculum. There were also no signs of his friend Paladin still. General Belas and Hazone stood near the front of the army, close to Zane, exchanging heartfelt embraces of their victory. Their cheery disposition put him a bit at ease, but what he saw next, didn't. Approaching the army was a lone Pokemon, and from what he could make of him, he was recognizable almost right away. The Scizor walked casually the the massive Alpha Alliance army in front of him without a care in the world, or so it seemed to be. It was strange, but whatever he was planning, it couldn't be good.

It was a scene of contrasts, the lone Pokemon approaching the army, yet it was many in the army that were shaken, that were frightened. They didn't understand, and not one dared to attack. Not yet. Sentry approached in front, standing only a few paces away from the Generals and the rest of the Gold Tribe. Then, what followed was silence. A few moments of it, where the Scizor eyed individuals within the army, and the army stared back. Zane's hand tensed, and he felt for a moment that he might strike at him, but before he could give it more thought, the Sentinel spoke.

"I'd like to formally invite the Gold Tribe and their...close associates to Silver City. Lord Auron is expecting you." He said casually, as if they were exchanging pleasantries upon the plains. Generals Hazone and Belas exchanged glances, before the Metagross's voice boomed in.

"Oh, we'll go to Gold City, Sentinel!" He began, gritting his teeth. "And we're bringing the entire might of the Alpha Alliance with us! Your time is at an end!" He yelled, and the Alpha Alliance armies behind, for the first time, seemed to find the courage to give a shattering yell toward Sentry. The Pokemon screamed, yelled, howled, and roared in delight. They felt themselves infused with energy and strength, enough for anything. Or so they believed.

Sentry examined the armies of the Alpha Alliance, looking past the soldiers before his eyes caught with a few of the Gold Tribe Pokemon. The Gallade, the Bisharp, the two Salamence, the Sawk, the Infernape, the Snorlax, the Lilligants, the Zangoose, the Alakazam, the Blissey, and the Scizor. He even eyed the traitorous Sableye and Jolteon. He waited for the cheers of the Alpha Alliance armies to die down, and once more he spoke. "...Oh, I don't think you'll be joining us, General. Neither will your armies. You'll be a bit preoccupied, I imagine," He looked to the left of the armies, staring at something in particular that raced through the skies.

Zane looked over to the skies curiously, wondering what he was staring at. He tried to follow his vision, and from a far distance, could see a long Pokemon, flying in as fast as he could. As he got closer, he noticed that the Pokemon was not flying straight, as if it was wounded or something. He got closer, and Zane found it to be a Staravia, one he briefly recalled in Eternity City.

Will Sky flew as fast as he could with a damaged wing and the bruises that existed across his body. He spotted the army, positioned not too far from the city, and flew down. Taking a dive, he couldn't pull his wing fast enough and crashed right in front of the army. He struggled to get up and approach the generals. He began muttering some things, and some Pokemon around approached and tried to see if he was alright. The Generals went by him, as did the Healer check on his injuires. Zane ran over as well, eyeing the Scizor suspiciously.

"Are you alright, son?" General Belas asked, while the Pokemon tried to catch its breath. "Calm down, take a deep breath. What is going on?"

The Staravia tried to calm down, but failed, taking heavy breathes while trying to have the words come out. "E-eternity City. I-I-I was in Eternity, and I went for help to Albia. B-but..."

"Calm down, soldier! Just let it out, what's happened!?" General Belas boomed, which did nothing to calm him. But the Staravia seemed to have enough in him to finally burst it out.

"W-we're under attack General!" He yelled, to the surprise of the Generals and to Zane. "Eternity City...the Ancients they came, came in the darkness and they struck! I got out and tried to get aid from Albia...but...but...it's the same there! And in Shine City! And in Gravel! And in Cape City! Valkaria is under attack again, sir!"

"WHAT!?" General Belas yelled. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Zane thought he felt a lump in his throat. As if someone had just struck him by lightning and he was paralyzed, both to speak and think, and to move. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't. He couldn't picture once more as the cities they fought so vigorously to take were shrouded in chaos once more.

In all their surprise and shock, they had almost forgotten the Scizor who stood before them, but he reminded them as he spoke. "Of course, you can all come and try to demand Auron's head, but then you'll leave the citizens of Valkaria to the brutality of the Ancients in the meantime. Conversely, the Gold Tribe too can come with you to help in your battles, but by the time you would have arrived, we would likely have taken all of your cities back, and Silver City would be once more brimming with Ancients. All your effort to try and stop Auron will have been for nothing."

Sentry turned, preparing to leave. The soldiers around began to chatter and murmur. Many held looks of astonishment, sadness, and anger. Many couldn't believe what was happening. All their work over the past months was being unraveled. "Your choice. Lord Auron awaits. I wouldn't keep him waiting." And with that, the Scizor rapidly sped away, just as General Belas launched a Psychic at him to try and harm him in his anger. He was too slow, and the Scizor escaped unscathed.

"ARCEUS DAMN IT!" Belas yelled at the top of his lungs, smashing his leg into the ground and causing cracks to form around. He fell to the ground in disbelief. Hazone in the meantime stared off into the distance, unable to grasp what had just happened. Zane fell to the ground. He already felt as if they were defeated. As if all of their work, all the sacrifices they had made along the way, as if all of it was for nothing. Belas continued to strike at the ground. But he suddenly stopped as the wrinkly hand of the Keeper met the shoulder of the Metagross.

"General, there is still a chance. We can still stop all of this," He said, his voice strangely stern, but also calm despite the news. Belas breathed heavily. "The armies of Valkaria can stop the Ancient's advance, or at least hold them off until the Gold Tribe shall defeat the wielder. But they cannot march without you two Generals to lead them! You must press on!"

Belas continued to breath heavily. Hazone looked over to the Keeper. "We won't even be able to reach the cities in time! Eternity is one thing, maybe we can march and help there. But Albia? Shine City? Gravel City? Eternity City? They're too far away. By the time we reach there..."

"Trouble yourself not, General. There may be a way I could teleport your armies to the cities. It would...take quite a bit of my mental process, as well as the assistance from the all Psychic Pokemon within the area, but I could do it, though I would be unable to assist in the final battle with the Gold Tribe."

General Belas looked over to the Keeper, then exchanged glances with Hazone. "You must handle the defenses of the cities. All you can do, the only thing you can do, is believe that the younger warriors can stop what is to come."

General Belas suddenly snapped up. He seemed to be a Pokemon on a mission. He turned to the Staravia, who was getting medical attention from the Healer. "What's the situation in each of the cities?" He asked sternly, expecting a quick answer. Will Sky had calmed down enough to give much fast answers.

"Eternity City was hit first, from what I know. They're getting hit hard and if we don't hurry, they'll breach the wall soon. Albia, Shine City and Gravel City have a lot coming at them too. We repaired one of the watchtowers on Albia earlier, but they're still getting hit pretty hard. Cape City is taking the worst of it. I don't know how long they'll hold, but its invasion was the most recent."

Taking all of this into consideration, Belas began exchanging ideas with Hazone among themselves, before they quickly came up with a plan. He turned to Zane and the others of the Gold Tribe. "We'll split the armies into four sections to be teleported out," Hazone began to say to Zane. "I will go to Eternity City and Poseida and try to hold with my section of the army. General Belas will go to Cape City. We'll send the third section under Commander Riken toward Gravel and Shine City together, and the fourth section will go to Albia."

General Belas chimed in now. "Thieves will probably go help in Albia too. They have some sympathies there, I imagine. Though maybe a few will tag along with you to Gold City. But...dividing our forces like this means that we won't be able to win in any section. The only thing we can do...is hold them off for as long as we can. That's all this is, Vigil. A delaying tactic. A delaying tactic for you and your brothers and sisters...to give you chance to end this all."

General Belas turned and began giving the orders for the armies to divide into the four seperate sections, while the Psychic Pokemon around surrounded the Keeper as he prepared to mass-teleport the armies away from Silver City. General Hazone turned to the Gold Tribe now. "We won't have another chance at this. We can't recover enough to do this all again. If you don't succeed. If the Ancients take our cities and you fail...that'll be the end of it."

Zane eyed the General grimmly, then nodded. Hazone sighed, extending his arm to the golden Bisharp, who took it immediately. "It's been a pleasure to fight alongside you," He told Zane, then turned to the other Gold Tribe members. "All of you,"

General Belas had finished dividing the armies, now being in four separate sections. He went over to Zane, who thought he would also give him a handshake, and he prepared by extending his arm, but was surprised as the General went in for a tight embrace, squeezing him tightly. Zane was caught off by this, but quickly returned the embrace. It was a strange thing. Belas was never a Gold Tribe member, yet he felt as close to him as one of his own brothers. "Good luck to you, Vigil," He said in the embrace, then to the rest of the Gold Tribe. "Arceus protect you all. And knock Auron the hell out for me!"

Guardia grinned, nodding in response. "We'll get it done, I promise!" Zane knew she was putting on a brave face, as he could hear the slight crack in her voice. Having known her for so long, he could usually tell with these slight things.

"Yeah, well if you don't, I suppose we'll see each other in the afterlife. If that's the case, drinks are on me!" Belas boomed. Zane weakly smiled back, and as the Keeper and all Psychics present concentrated, the large armies disappeared in brilliant flash, leaving the remaining Pokemon standing around among the field of Ancient bodies. As he saw those who remained, he noticed that it was true that faces were missing. If they weren't among the army, and they weren't here, Zane had a feeling he knew their fates. But he had to be sure. Before they proceeded to face Auron, they needed everyone.

He turned to TrueStriker beside him, wondering if he was still acting strangely as before for only a moment. "Hey, do you think you can sense where the others are? They're not here...Speculum, Bane, Shadow Protector, and Penance..."

As he asked this, he began to walk forward, Silver City in their sights, with the fate of Valkaria resting on their shoulders.

Accatosh "Blitzkrieg" Corronis

The battle that happened was rough but from what would be seen they had come out on top, Accatosh looked through the crowed of pokemon listening to Sentry invite the gold tribe to Gold City... and the report on the attacks on the other cities, Accatosh ran some mental head counts, most of the group was there but the Shadow protector was gone, as were a few others and Penance.

Accatosh took off without warning to the sky and flew around searching for Allora and the others. he searched the remains of the torture house for any sign of them, Accatosh searched underneath any rubble that he could move untill he found Allora's body. Accatosh was saddened by this and angered, however he needed to morn later, he gently lifted her battered body in his jaw and held it secure in his mouth, then he flew back to the group

When he got back to the group instead of landing directly he circled three times over their heads then landed near the other gold tribe members, "Vigil," he called after he had gently placed the body on the ground and forced a clearing to open up, "Allora's dead... the others I'm not so sure of..." he choked overcome with sadness, tears flowed from his eyes, he bowed his head low enough for his snout to touch the ground then let out a pained roar, as a send off.

For a while he just sat there saddened. then, he stood, cleared his eyes, and stood tall, "this has gone to far, long enough... this ends now!" the anger and determination in his voice was clear, nobody was going to cause any more suffering ever again.

Hanso, Paradox, a Few Others, and an Alarming Discovery
~~~~~

Paradox flexed a bit more and felt an need to try out this new body of his. He wanted to see how far his powered up psychic techniques could go. He wanted to see if he could lift skyscrapers, invade a thousand minds at once, or even reach out and with a single flick of his claws cause dozens of hearts to explode all at once. He never got a chance to relish that however. He recognized in a way the Scizor that appeared to them. Sentry... although he didn't have a personal link to this one's mind he could feel the Ancients swarm around them. Ancients were almost everywhere. It was funny in a way.

Sentry stated that they should head over to Silver City. Penance smirked and grabbed onto Blackguard, "Shall we?" With that the Golduck performed a new move that had been imparted onto him. In a blink of an eye he Teleported with the Golurk all the way to the city. The two reappeared in the streets. There was silence all around them. There were no ancients on patrol... no Sentinels moving about... all there was were beings he could sense in their homes, cowering behind locked doors and barred windows. Yet... he could feel it as well. The darkness around them. He could feel these citizens getting closer and closer to understanding. The corruption was slow on them right now... but it was working its way though their systems.

He took in a deep breath of air and walked on over to a nearby park. He raised out a hand and smirked as he used a Water Bomb. In what would have normally taken weak Penance some time to form the Water Pulse, infuse it with enegery, and then launch it, it took Paradox only a brief second to fill the ball with a huge amount of energy. As it hit into the trees the whole area exploded outwards. Tree were uprooted and flew out to slam into buildings. Various benches flew high into the air and fell down on rooftops... it was a success.

The Golduck flexed a bit and then burst into laughter, "Ah yes. I can't wait to see how my other attacks fair... but for now." He turned his glowing red eyes to Blackguard, "We need to plan."

---------------

Lashire was silent though the whole conversation going on. Everywhere was hit? No... that coudln't be right! They had just left Cape! The Affiliates would protect it, he knew that much. The other cities he wasn't so sure about now. And now a dragon came down with a battered body. Though now, he had to talk to Zane more than ever.

Lashire glanced over at Zane and made his way over to the Bisharp. Slowly he bowed his head and spoke up, "Mr. Zane. I need a word with you. I... I need to inform you of something very important." He looked back up. "I know Penance wanted to keep it a secret, but it's too important right now to not tell you. Penance laid psychics in each and every city a week ago. He created a psychic network if you will. One of his secondary concerns was that the cities would be overtaken again with most of the army on the move. Have you ever playing tabletop strategy games? It's a simple strategy. Wait for an opponent's army to move, let them get smug, then attack their weaker cities with an army you've been hiding. For the soldiers that get there, they need to connect with Penance's psychcis. From there they'll be able to hear everything going on in the other cities. It is but a suggesstion sir."

"Hey, do you think you can sense where the others are? They're not here...Speculum, Bane, Shadow Protector, and Penance..." That was what Zane had asked him.

"No worries, Goldie-boy," Varren answered, still in control of the Gallade's body, "Lover-boy and his girlfriend are on it."

"She's not my girlfriend," Hanso interjected flatly.

Genevieve had not moved since Sentry's announcement. Upon hearing the names Zane uttered, she turned her head in his direction. "I'm afraid those first three are dead." Her voice was cold; Genevieve hadn't lightened up to anyone since remembering her previous place in the war. "Killed by a single Sentinel. As for Penance, we have not determined yet where he is." To add evidence Blitzkreig flew down and had Shadow Protector's body with him, but what was important now was to find Penance.

It was Hanso first whose scan reached into Silver City. The Golduck's mind had disappeared from the list of those elites whom Genevieve had been keeping track of, some time after they'd left the torturehouse. Hanso was somehow able to not focus on his frustration at the renewed invasion. His mind came closer, closer...

Paradox was about to lay down the plan he had in his mind when suddenly something caught his attention. Something... was coming. A smirk formed on his bill and he let out a light chuckle. "Hold up for a bit Blackguard. I have a... guest to entertain."

His red eyes glittered and he closed them but for a few seconds... in that moment he felt the opposing mind hit him and a sense of familiarity hit Penance as well. The Golduck knew this invader, that meant he could very well be Gold Tribe. He waited for the mind to try and connect fully and at that moment he tightened the noose. With that first step into his corrupted mind Paradox sealed the door shut behind whoever had stepped in. Whoever this mind belonged to would no doubt end up collapsing on the spot he stood. A body needed a mind to pilot it after all!

As he felt the presence he realized who this was. Back when he had been birthed from Blackguard, the Golurk had seen this Gallade before, in the Gold Tribe. In Penance's memories that the Golurk had seen this Gallade was also in the thieves forest during the ambush. Amusing... a friend coming to look for dear old Penance. Not only that, but Penance had many... interesting memories of this Gallade as well.

Right before Hanso's eyes would appear a large wooden door. Grass and dirt appeared underneath him and all around were grasslands that led to nowhere.

At first the Gallade had begun following Zane and the others as they moved toward Silver City. Then his eyes widened suddenly. "Whoa." Varren fell to his knees, hands on the sides of his head as something akin to a headache assailed him. "Something ain't right here."

Hanso couldn't agree more, even though he couldn't feel his body or hear Varren anymore. One moment, he'd found the Golduck's mind and had just connected in order to ask what happened. The next, here he was. "...This is too similar to be a coincidence," Hanso muttered, staring up at the wooden door before looking around to check for anyone or anything else.

There was no one around. In fact, his only companion right now was a light breeze that blew through the grasslands. Almost in regards to his words the door slowly creaked open. In the small crack he would see through, there would be no light. There were no shapes moving either, so it shouldn't be that frightening for brave Hanso to enter... no?

That, or he would be curious or reckless enough to enter anyway. The Gallade slowly stepped forward until his hands met the door and pushed it further open. Hanso remained in the doorway as he prepared his mental defenses, waiting to see if anything more would happen.

As soon as he pushed open the door the entire room lit up. He would see that the door led into a hallway that had several old styled candles lit upon the walls. Hanso would be able to see all the way up to the end of the hallway and right there was a white door. A white door with a black handle on it.

Something had happened to Penance, or he wouldn't be messing with Hanso like this. He took a few moments to observe the hallway, a black ball forming in one hand. "Let's see what happens," Hanso muttered, drawing his hand back and rolling the large ball down the hallway.

As the ball rolled down... nothing shot out. No traps sprung out... no laughter echoed out. Finally the ball hit the door and just glowed there for a bit. No reaction to the presence of mere energy. Hanso rolled his eyes; he'd have to spring whatever traps there were by going in himself. The Gallade began walking down the hallway, alert for anything.

As he moved down the candles went out behind him, one by one, always waiting for him to pass. Even though the candles shut off he could still see that the door behind him was wide open and spilled light into the hallway from behind. Even when he got up right to the door, nothing happened. All he would have to do now is see what was behind this door. Hanso's eyes still saw better in the dark than he originally had. He turned his attention to the previous door, wondering if it would close on him. Then again, that was more or less away from Penance's mind. The Gallade took a step back and used his mind to turn the handle and open the door before him.

Once the door opened he could see that the room was some sort of dining room. There was a table decorated with all sorts of foods and two chairs were there... but none of them were sat on. There was still no sign of the Golduck, but Hanso could see another door on the other end of this room.

It was what Hanso would have expected Penance to set up. Or someone of a similar mind; Varren had set up a ball-room, for one thing. The Gallade took a step inside the door and looked around the room again. There had to be something he wouldn't immediately see.

As soon as he stepped inside, the very thing he had prepared for so much happened. The floor under him pushed down and the Gallade would hear a clicking noise. Instantly black strings shot down and stabbed deep into his skin in less than a second. The strings dug deep into his joints, attaching to his muscles and digging right into his bones no doubt causing a mass of pain. The only area not hit was his head, but that was not the end. All at once the black strings pulled at his limbs and despite the pain they forced him to walk to the table and sit down on the closest chair. The Gallade would find himself putting his arms down on the armrests with his feet planted firmly on the floor.

As the strings shot down into him, Hanso immediately fired quick psychic cuts at them, only to growl in pain. The strings absorbed the attack, leaving him to watch as his 'body' acted against his will. This was in a way even worse than Varren controlling his physical body! Wincing as his arms and legs planted themselves, Hanso formed blades of dark energy to slice at the strings and free himself.

As he tried to slice at them, a headache would ring in his mind as he suddenly found himself unable to remember how to use his dark energy.

"Disable... a wonderful move in my opinion." A familar voice said. Out from the darkness in the room came out a familiar Golduck, except he was different. He was far more muscular, his body was jet black, and his eyes glowed an ominous red tone. He made his way to the open chair and sat down. "Hello there Hanso... a nice name I say." The Golduck held out his hand and the Gallade would find his own hand moving out, the strings attached to his fingers forcing him to shake the Golduck's.

The Golduck leaned back, "I haven't met you proper though. The name is... Paradox."

Hanso's teeth gritted against the pain of his hand's movement. He wouldn't be able to use his power for a while now, and the psychic attack had done nothing for him. Until he found a way out of the strings and back to his body, he was stuck. "Paradox. Not Penance." Hanso considered the possibilities of what could have happened, then let out a frustrated sigh. "On the opposite side now, are you?"

Paradox shook his head, "No. I am not Penance. This is Penance." Besides the Golduck shadows opened up. Inside them was the Golduck Hanso knew. Multiple dark tendrils were wrapped tightly around him and some even snapped his bill shut. The Golduck looked up shakily, pure fear in his eyes. As he recognized Hanso though the shadows quickly swallowed him up again.

"Ah, but he did give me this great body. Of course I altered it to suit me a bit more." Paradox crossed his arms with a smirk. "For your knowledge, I am a being from the Silver Crystal... well part of him." He chuckled softly. "Penance is my latest host now. Hehe, in a way a puppet to Chaos. Just like you will be soon." He stood up and Hanso found the strings pulling at him, forcing him to stand as well. "Come." He made his way to the door and opened it up. It led to a very large room and as Paradox walked the puppeted Gallade was helpless to follow.

Paradox stopped and spread his arms, "Look around Hanso. Penance's mind is wiped clean. A slate for me to use as I wish." He glanced back at the Gallade with a smirk. "I have multiple rooms now. In fact... I could keep you as a guest for quite some time. You see... we'll need some help. You have quite a load of psychic energies." He snapped his fingers and suddenly Hanso would feel the strings on his body piercing in deeper and a surge of psychic energy being sucked out. "Energy.. that I can use. You get it yet?"

A groan escaped Hanso's mouth as he felt his energy leave. "Right, keep me here until I'm either drained or corrupted." What more was going to happen today?! From the looks of it, there was yet another Sentinel, though this one was different from the originals. And yet another was on the way, if Hanso didn't find a way out.

This was all in the mind; maybe... He tried simply imagining the strings letting him go, putting mental effort behind it. "And you're gonna go on extrapolating and all, if you're anything like Penance."

Paradox smirked and closed his eyes as the strings gave an extremely painful shock to the Gallade. "This is MY mind after all Hanso. I know every single little thing you're thinking." A door appeared in the room suddenly. "That door... leads to your mind even. Of course Varren's I can't see. You're not connected to him." He walked up to it and Hanso found himself following. "I wonder... if I wiped it all out... and planted a seed in it... would you beg me not to?" He cast a glance back at the Gallade with a twinkle in his eyes. "So warrior, how far will you go to prevent being corrupted?"

Hanso returned Paradox's glance with a glare. He had walked right into a trap...well, that thought had come across his mind earlier, but how to get out of it was circling around in his mind since then. "Obviously, I don't want it to happen. One more Sentinel for the others to deal with. Or...whatever you call yourself. What, you waiting for me to pledge allegiance of my own will or something?"

Paradox chuckled and walked around the Gallade, letting his claws idly flick along the strings that held him. "Oh no. I know you would never do that." His eyes glittered a bit more, "I want you to hand out a message. Think you can do that?"

"Only with a channel back," Hanso retorted, his head turning as far as it could to follow the Golduck.

Paradox smirked wide at that, "Ooooh, that could be a tough pickle... but I suppose I could try it." He leaned in close, "Make sure you get this down Hanso... I'm sure little Lashire will put two and two together. Hehe. Get ready." He leaned in closer to whisper into Hanso's ear. "I'm... still... connected." His eyes glittered and he pulled back, "You got that?"

Hanso kept his thoughts blank of all but the three words, repeating round and round in his head. "Got it. Releasing me, or just opening a channel, or what?"

Paradox smirked as the strings suddenly contracted, digging in real deep and sucking out a huge amount of energy from the Gallade before pulling out and letting him fall. Paradox caught him and grinned at him, "Let them know Hanso. Oh, and they have five hours or I'll do it." The door behind them suddenly burst open as a great wind blew out. It didn't affect Paradox in the least, but the Gallade would find himself being sucked out of the room... and right back into his own mind. Everything that had happened though... had only happened within the span of five seconds he would quickly find out.

The Gallade's body, though Varren had shakily gotten to his feet in those five seconds, suddenly rocked backward onto the ground as Hanso returned. "Whoa there, mister, what's the rush?" Varren asked, his grin gone.

"They've got Penance," Hanso immediately relayed to all of the other elites, closing off all other mental connections. "They bloody, **** corrupted Penance!" If it wasn't for the energy drain, he would have gone on to call Paradox and the Silver Crystal's prisoner several strong names.

Varren whistled, eyebrows raised. "Rather strong, comin' from you. So what if they have him?"

"He's a planner. He's the planner. His plans have plans. If that encounter was any indication, so is that **** Paradox. He gave me a message for everyone, especially Lashire." A second passed before Hanso spoke again to the other elites. "It's, 'I'm still connected.' And, Paradox sucked a lot of my energy before letting me go. He also said they, or we, have five hours or he'll do it."

Genevieve, who had stopped in the first place when the Gallade had first doubled over, felt rattled. Why would this Paradox let Hanso go without trying to corrupt him? Or would he? "And, do you plan on doing something about this?"

"**** right, I am." Hanso didn't show it, especially as Varren was the one who stood back up and brushed himself off, but...for more than one reason, he was scared.

Lashire stopped at those words though. "Connected!?" He asked, his eyes going wide. "No... no!" He screamed out. The Pawniard began to pace in place, "Oh **** this isn't good! This isn't ******* good!" He paced more and more and bit down on one of his claws. "P-Penance had a plan... he-he..." The Pawniard began to sweat as he took in deep gasping breaths and doubled over, almost looking like he was going to faint.

"Hey, snap out of it, would ya?" Varren stepped over and pulled Lashire's head back up. "What plan would this be that's so bad?"

"Connected...oh--" This time, Hanso did let out several swear words in regard to Paradox.

Lashire looked up at the possessed Gallade in fear. "P-Penance had a plan. He did some thinking about the Gold Crystal... he saw that it could react to peaceful feelings and feelings of general well-being. He sent his psychics to each city... to talk to the inhabitants. They didn't say they were Affiliates, but explained that to help the Gold Tribe in the final battle... the inhabitants were to connect their minds to the psychics. It was a surprsie on Penance's part, something to hit Auron with when he encountered him. He would connect Zane to the links and all of those positive thoughts would be shot to him to power up the crystal. Now... now everyone is connected!"

The Pawniard flailed his arms, "Every single citizen that was convinced would be connected in the web! If he... if he sends the corruption to the psychics, the psychics in turn send that corruption to everyone they are connected to! It means that in one fell swoop... all... all of the cities..." Lashire paused, "It'll all be gone."

"Oohhh..." Varren had the audacity to grin. "Now that is some **** good planning on his part."

"Oh, shut it," Hanso said wearily. Inside his head, where the others couldn't hear, he added, I need you to share energy with me, if you don't want to hamper all of us. I need to make a connection. Varren clicked his tongue in disagreement, but relented all the same. Hanso immediately began reaching out toward Cape City with his telepathy. It would take a few minutes, but he had to find her now.

"So, in the meantime." Varren clapped his hands together as he looked at those who had stopped to watch the show. "Shall we move on?"

Meanwhile Paradox smirked to himself. "Well... will they speed up and throw caution to the wind? Or will we spread the corruption?" He chuckled and looked over at Blackguard, "I think... we shall ensure that one stays alive. He's too much fun in all honesty. But for now, I just need to ask Him a few questions..."

Blackguard
Silver City

Soon enough, Blackguard and his latest creation, Paradox, found themselves back in Silver City. Blackguard looked around; it seemed they were alone for now, while all of those pathetic worms were still at the torturehouse. They would all be crushed soon enough, Blackguard thought. Stretching his arms a bit, he reached for his temples and rubbed them, trying to relax his brain. The mental battle had taken quite a toll on him, at least for a little while, but it was all worth it. Blackguard watched as Paradox quickly got to work.

Five seconds later, Paradox's eyes snapped open. Blackguard presumed that everything had gone according to plan, as the Golduck had a large grin plastered on his bill.

"Do what you want with the Gold Tribesman, Paradox. We only need the other."

Blackguard switched into flying position, readying his jets.

"You know what to do. Meanwhile, I have some other business to attend to. Try not to have too much fun without me?"

Without another word, he rocketed away into the sky. From the ground, some Pokemon would be able to see a large, dark figure with a trail of smoke behind him flying away from Silver City, towards the mountains...

Plains of Valkaria - En route to Silver City

TrueStriker, or rather the 'other' in control of his body announced he would go check on them, but Blitzkrieg was quick to announce the demise of Allora, the Shadow Protector. Genevieve confirmed it, and also told them of the deaths of the others that Zane mentioned. He didn't know why he was surprised. When he saw that they weren't present, he had already suspected as much, but as the leader, he supposed he just had to confirm, just to be sure. It was a sad thing, for them to fall when they were so close to their goal, when they were so close to Gold City. Though he doubted it, he hoped the comfort of the city they loved in their sites helped them in their passing. He silently vowed to give them their proper burial in the golden gates of Gold City's cemetery.

Zane walked over and helped the Keeper up, who was having trouble walking from the mental strain he had placed on his mind with the mass teleporation. Zane was still somewhat surprised he was able to pull off something like that on such a massive scale. Thankfully they had brought him along from the catacombs after all. "Are you alright?" He asked the old Alakazam.

"Mmm..." He nodded his head, smiling at the Bisharp which helped him. "I am fine, young one. Just...a bit tired. I am not young as I once was...it may be that I might have to sit out your confrontation with the wielder before I will assist."

"Assist in what, exactly?" He inquired, still unsure what the Keeper had planned. The Alakazam only smiled at Zane.

"Why, assist in our plan, young one. If this is how it must be, then we will use this other way. But you must prepare yourself. Much will be expected of you, beyond anything ever before. You must be ready,"

Zane expected he wouldn't get the cryptic message of the Keeper before the time was right. Whether that was how he was, or simply just a method to keep them prepared for the first of their struggles, he wouldn't know. It did clear Zane's head enough to know what must be done now. Suddenly, Hanso tripped on the ground, for a moment, muttering something about something not being right. Zane walked over to him as he remained on the ground, but he was only there for a few moments. When he rose again, TrueStriker communicated news that he didn't want to hear.

"...Penance? No..." That was all that came out of his mouth. It was as Hanso relayed in their minds. Penance was their planner. It would have been one thing for him to die. But to be turned? To be corrupted? That was a worse fate. And it was bad news for the Gold Tribe. Still, what could be done about it now?

Yet to make matters even worse, TrueStriker relayed a message to Lashire, who instantly was able to interpret it, and it was even more bad news. With everyone connected, it meant that the corruption could spread all throughout the cities. Zane could only shake his head in amazement as he saw how the best of their plans, of their possibilities, was turned into their worst fears.



But really, what more could be said now? It was piling up more troubles and more weight on their already heavy shoulders. The armies had left to defend the cities as best as they could. Now, they were fighting not only for the citizens' livelihood, but also their freedom, their minds. He silently looked upon the others, Pokemon he had fought with and bled with, some since the very beginning. They were the best Valkaria had to offer, the best chance for the Alpha Alliance. They had come a long way to get to this point, to get to a point where they had a chance. And it might very well be their only chance. After it, they would likely not get another. If he was truly going to lead them to this end, if he truly was going to put the burden of Valkaria on their shoulders, if this truly was going to be the end of them, of the Gold Tribe, then he was going to lead them with their heads held high.

Zane "Vigil" Tyrael shook his head. "This changes nothing," He began, looking over all of them. He had a fiery determination in his eyes, one he had not had for a long time. Was it blindness now, which gave him this look, or was it clarity? "Whether it's by death, corruption, or enslavement, Valkaria is in our hands one way or another. I don't have to tell you that. You all know that," He turned around, examining the Silver City, which was right in front of them now. The city had the damage of past battles inside of it, and fresh ones which only recently began. It was a surreal experience, being back where it all began, or perhaps where it all began to end. He continued to talk to the others.

"But I will tell you one thing...Rey had us retreat from the final battle months ago, to live to fight another day. This time...I'm not leaving," He said sternly, as he took the first steps into the city, into their city.

"One way or another...it ends."

Paradox​

Paradox frowned a bit as he talked to the Dark One. At first, he had been a bit elated. The answer he got first was very good. It was just what he would have thought of. The second question... was more along a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand he knew a part of the plan would go very smoothly. That one part was in the bag easily... on the other he was also anxious in a way. There was an element that stood out... that he had no control over. Paradox knew such feelings were only the result of taking over this host, but still, he understood clearly now why his host would act this way.

Penance always wanted control, and although Paradox was fine with letting the Dark One formulate his own plans, he also felt a bit left out. The Dark One was specifically leaving a piece out from him, but he would go for it for now. It meant it was one less thing for him to try and plan with. Finally the rest of his questions were answered thankfully with positive results. He closed his eyes and sent Blackguard the plan he had formulated, knowing that he would be alright with it.

Chaos... that was what they were all after, and so he had one thing to do. Paradox made his way deep into the city, casting his eyes here and there as he connected a bit with the minds of those he passed. Paradox paused in front of one building and glanced toward the window. A smirk formed over his face and he held out a hand, his psychic pulse shot out and tore the door to pieces. He made his way in as the residents inside cowered. There was a Oddish and Gloom huddled in a corner, a Raticate that shivered against a wall... and finally what he sought.

The black Golduck stopped in front of the shivering Sandslash. "N-No! Don't! Please!" The Sandslash cried out in pure terror. Just seeing a Sentinel so close was making the young male so fearful that he actually started to cry. Paradox smirked and planed a hand on his forehead, "Do not fear anymore... your only objective now is to embrace Chaos!" His red eyes shined down on the Sandslash and the ground type's eyes suddenly widened and his pupils dilated. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The two stayed like this for a few seconds before Paradox took his hand off of him.

Instantly a black aura shined around the Sandslash and he let out a loud cry. His once brown eyes now shined red, his body gained more muscle, his quills lengthened and even grew sharper, his claws on his hands and feet grew longer, and finally his normally brown body became a jet black. The Sandslash hung his head for a while and looked up with a smirk, "Ah... it feels good... this vessel..." The Sandslash raised a claw and experimentally wiggled them about. "I am... hm..." The Sandslash cocked his head as he thought up a name, "Aha! I shall be known as Ironhide!"

Paradox smirked. This was in a way all thanks to Hanso and his generous gift. Normally it would have taken far more energy to spread a seed of Chaos... but the pokemon here were a special case. Not only had they been slowly corrupted by the Silvery Crystal, but unknown to them, each of them carried a seed of Chaos, ready to burst open, all it needed was a little push.

Paradox glanced at the terrified residents of the room, "You can do with them however you wish. After that though, head down into the ground. We will make a little trap for the Gold Tribe." The Golduck left the house as he heard the screams of the last residents inside echo though the abandoned street.

Still... he had a half of Hanso's energy left. He didn't want to afford to use his own energy in case he would need everything he had. Hm... what species to choose? He slowly walked along the town, glancing around as he felt out with his mind. He stopped at an intersection and smriked as he felt Ironhide's presence moving under the earth. Perfect.

He walked around a bit more, then grinned at a house. From the look of it, it seemed the Ancients had gone in and killed everyone inside. He idly walked among th dead bodies, stopping at the carrpet. He flicked a finger and the carpet moved out of the way to reveal a hidden door. He opened it up and jumped on down, smirking when he saw the dug out tunnel. "Hoping to escape were they?" He mused to himself.

He made his way down the small tunnel and turned a corner. There were a few pokemon there trying their best to break through the rocks. He coughed a bit and every single head turned, "OH SHI-" The Graveler didn't get a chance to finish as Paradox reached out with a telekinetic hold and shattered his body. That was the signal for the others to start shooting out attacks. Paradox just held up a psychic shield, letting it absorb all of the attacks and cocked his head, "You all quite done? I am only here for one of you anyway, I won't hurt any of the others."

He smirked as he laid eyes on the Garchomp there. "You." He pointed to the dragon, "Come or your friends will die one by one." The dragon glanced around nervously and slowly made hsi way over. "We're not afraid of you." He growled at the Golduck.

In turn Paradox smiled, "You shouldn't be." He held out a hand and the Garchomp's eyes widened. He fell to the ground and let out a loud roar of pain as Paradox traveled along his mind. Again it was only a few seconds before the Garchomp laid his head forward. Just like with the Sandslash his skin turned a deep jet black. HIs eyes began to glow a bright red and his body gained a load of muscle mass. He rose and let out a loud roar that shook the cavern. "I... I AM REAPER!"

Paradox smiled as the last of Hanso's stolen energy was now gone. "Good. So Reaper would you mind taking care of those insects? Afterwards you can fly up and perch on top of a building. I know you want to spread Chaos, but the best way right now... is to wait for the perfect moment, but for now have fun."

The corrupted dragon didn't have to be told twice and as Paradox began to turn he saw a piece of an arm fly past him. He just chuckled to himself and headed back up. As he got of the house the whole building collapsed behind him as the dragon flew up high into the sky and toward a building a bit of a distance away from where Auron was. Surprise was key to all of this. Paradox reached out to connect all four minds, Oh Blackguard... welcome our new allies.

By this time Paradox had begun making his way to where Auron was... but waiting back a bit in an abandoned building. He would see how Auron faired and he had three allies now to aid him in defending the Silver Crystal. The more the merrier.

Snype and Levina kept silent as they tried to get everything in their head. Just when he thought he was winning, the Silver Tribe had pulled another trick up their sleeve. The other major cities were being attacked right under their noses! And here Snype thought they were losing... this was pretty insane. The news that really hit him was Penance. He never did catch that Golduck's name... but it seemed like the same one. Snype found all of this cruely ironic. Penance was the one warning him about the Silver Crystal and he goes and gets himself turned! What a twit... and this psychic link he had was the worst part of it all. Five hours and he'd do it... he'd send the corruption to everybody linked to him.

Snype had alot of stuff on his mind... alot on his conscience. There were alot of things the Sableye was thinking about. Part of him felt like this was his fault for not getting this information before turning sides. Though he'd probably be found out. Whatever Penence... no.. Paradox was up to, it would mean trouble for the group. It was just as he thought. The whole thing was a trap... he didn't predict this outcome though. Snype felt guilty. If he saw Penance again, he really wanted another whack at him. Snype said he'd meet him again on the battlefield if he turned. Needless to say, it looks like that was just what happened. It was a matter of fate now.

Snype simply listened to the crowd and kept his mouth shut for once. He wasn't comfortable around a group of Pokemon who were supposed to be his enemies. But he curiously took a look at the Gardevoir... Genevieve... that name! Another Sentinel in the group? But that was impossible! She was connected with the Silver Crystal! She had to be! He needed answers so he crawled over to her quickly as the tribe entered the city. For all he knew, she was undercover.

"Hey you. Your name's Genevieve correct? I got some questions for you." Snype said with a serious tone. "So, how'd they convince you to switch sides huh? You hated my guts last time we met." Snype said, recalling back to their first meeting. He looked up into the sky and noticed something flying away from Silver City toward the mountains... it looked like some kind of jet... a sentinel?

"Hey Zane, take a look up there..." Snype said, pointing up to the sky.

Mountain Ranges

Despite the raging battle a few miles away in Silver City, the mountain ranges were all but chaotic. Peace and tranquillity reigned supreme here as wild Pokemon at the foot of the mountains continued their daily lives. No sign of civilization was to be found here, apart from the odd outpost, all of which were currently deserted.

However, the peace was suddenly disturbed as the sound of a large, resonating boom that could be heard for miles around pierced the silence. For a few moments after the explosion, all activity ceased as wild Pokemon stared up to the sky, futilely trying to locate the source of the sound before returning back to their activities.

However, soon afterwards, a figure soared by hastily, splitting apart clouds as it did so. The figure - revealed to be a Gliscor upon closer inspection - could have been enjoying the sights that the sky had to offer, but he was in a hurry. Gliding higher, he soon disappeared above the clouds, seeing nothing but blue sky and a mountain's peak ahead of him. The peak, caked with snow and riddled with ancient passageways, was this Pokemon's home. However, it was not his alone.

In one of the passageway entrances stood a Toxicroak and an Emboar, who also occupied these places. They watched as the Gliscor approached, his wings slowly becoming coated with light-falling snow.

"I'm cold. Heat me up," the Toxicroak ordered.

The Emboar obliged, extending a hand towards the Toxicroak and touching her with it, causing her to instantly heat up.

"Thanks, Biff. It's a good thing we got you here," the Toxicroak smiled heartily.

Biff only nodded and turned his eye back to the Gliscor who, now that he had gotten closer, looked panicked.

It wasn't long before he flew into the passageway, shivering. A Ground-type could not easily handle the cold, especially that of these high mountains, and even after years of hiding up there, the poor 'mon still hadn't gotten used to it.

Biff extended a beefy hand towards the Gliscor and patted him on the back, which soon warmed him up. Together, the three of them went deeper into the tunnels until the cold was not so intense.

"What news, Ven?" The Toxicroak asked. "You seem flustered."

"It's grave news, Taint. Very grave indeed! The battle for Silver City has begun!"

Taint and Biff gasped.

"The rebels... they made it this far? But how is this grave news?" Taint asked hastily.

"I'm not done. The cities that have been won over by the rebel Gold Tribe's efforts... are under attack. Thousands of Ancients have been divided amongst them and are reducing them to dust."

"Auron... that sick bastard!" Taint barked, clenching her fist. "Maybe..."

She reached into a pouch that she had strapped to her waist, removing a small golden emblem from it.

"Maybe it's time we stopped hiding... the final battle has begun, and we can help..."

"No! Are you crazy?!" Ven huffed, making rather dramatic pincer gestures. "We'll be killed!"

"Of course we will," Taint placed the symbol of justice back in its leathery resting place, "but we will die having fought for what we once believed in. We will have died helping to save Valkaria. Doesn't that mean something to you anymore?"

"No. No, it doesn't. All I want to do is to stay alive. That's all that matters anymore." Ven turned his back to Taint and Biff. "You can die if you want, but I'm making the smart choice."

Biff fumbled uncomfortably with his fingers, apparently upset that the two were fighting, but not saying anything. The mute Emboar never could talk, but for some reason his silence had always seemed as significant as words of wisdom from an elder to his companions.

Taint let her hand drop, and her mixed expression of anger and determination was replaced by one of disappointment. "I can't believe you were once-"

She never got to finish that sentence, as a loud, primal shriek came from the entrance to the tunnels.

"CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Ven snapped to attention. "An Ancient! It must have followed me back here!"

The three ran back to the entrance as fast as they could, and sure enough, an Archeops stood perched on the edge, its soulless eyes staring straight at the three deserters.

"Let's take it out!" Taint ordered, and all three charged at it, Ven taking to the air.

However, before anything else could happen, the Archeops was suddenly grabbed. From out of nowhere, a giant dark hand had come and grabbed the Ancient by the neck, causing it to writhe and struggle, attempting to get free. Soon, a body appeared to accompany the giant hand, and legs, and a rather diminutive head. When the black Golurk had manifested completely, he jerked his hand slightly, snapping the neck of the Archeops and releasing it, letting it plummet to the ground.

Blackguard turned his head to the three, his red eyes instilling fear in their hearts.

"Hello again."

"Who the hell are you?!" Taint exclaimed, she and her partners still staying on their guards.

Blackguard did not reply, he simply brought forward one hand, which held a small, shiny object, and threw it to the ground, allowing it to fall right in front of them.

Before the three lay a golden emblem with a shield engraved onto it.

Taint looked to the emblem, then to the Golurk, then to the emblem again. "P-Paladin?" She stuttered, all three of them looking stunned.

"Not quite..." Blackguard grinned.

Activating his jets swiftly, he charged at the Toxicroak, using the eerie green flames as a boost. He slammed into her before the others could do anything about it, sending her flying backwards and crashing into the far wall. She was instantly unconscious.

The others snapped to action, with Biff firing a Flamethrower straight at him and Ven swooping in to deliver an X-Scissor. Blackguard swatted the Gliscor aside, preventing the X-Scissor from hitting. Biff's Flamethrower barely left a mark on Blackguard's body, a mark which was quickly dusted off.

Ven got back up and mumbled to himself "What the hell-"

But he never finished, as Blackguard used one of his jets to turn himself around almost instantly and then jump straight at the confused Gliscor, Shadow Punching him at close range to take him out.

Biff only stared at his former friend in horror as the Golurk turned around and began towards him. After the initial shock had worn off, he began frantically firing Fire Blasts at Blackguard one after the other, without stopping. Most of the blasts either missed or barely affected Blackguard, not even doing so much as knocking him off-balance. His steady approach turned into a speedy one, and the drained Emboar backed away, fear overtaking him. Blackguard's shadow was soon upon him, and with demon eyes, the dark Golurk stared down at him.

"Hehehe... perfect..."

Hanso SharpEye and a few others
~~~~~

First, there was the distance itself that delayed Hanso as he reached for Cape City. Then it was delayed again as his telepathy looked for his twin-sister. It might even take longer if Brynn didn't recognize Hanso's mind and make the connection herself. This was urgent, though, enough that—

Hanso ran up against what seemed to be a black wall that immediately began to drain his energy. In the moment before he could pull away, a message played: Hey there! You tried to reach an Affiliate, unfortunately no psychic messages can get to them other than from Paradox. Please try again later. And thank you for the donation.

Back in his body, Hanso let out a mental growl of frustration. It appears you ran into some sort of safeguard, Genevieve noted, speaking only to him and Varren. I'd wondered about that, seeing as he told us about the Psychics.

He couldn't keep doing this; Hanso didn't have much energy left now. A black wall, plays a message, only Paradox can reach them psychically. Drained more of my energy.

Soooo, gonna try to break through it? Varren asked, his grin ever present.

If he wasn't this weak, Hanso probably would have. …There are citizens connected to the Affiliates, aren't there?

~~~~~

A Growlithe cowered in the back corner of his house, jumping as the sounds of fighting outside seemed to intensify every now and then. He wanted to do what those psychics had said, but it was plain scary now.

"Question." The Growlithe yelped as the female voice sounded inside his head. "I apologize for the fright, but would you happen to be connected to the psychics at this moment?"

"Y-yes," he answered hesitantly, trying not to run in circles.

"Good. I need to speak with one of them, but she needs to be the one to connect. Just ask for Brynn, and tell her that her brother is around."

~~~~~

Thanks for the support, Genevieve.

You really need to stop running into these sorts of things, dear. Have you tried thinking ahead, hm?

That's what I'm trying to do now.

Bad timing, brother. Why didn't you make the connection yourself? Hanso felt relief as Brynn made the connection with his mind while he'd waited.

Paradox, of course. Chaotic version of Penance, which makes him even worse than Penance.

What? The surprise in Brynn's mental voice was evident. You mean to say they…

I'd hoped to never say this…but it's time, sister.

There was silence for a few moments before the Gardevoir sighed. I'll see what I can do, brother.

Then Varren spoke up. Hey, while you're at it, could you—Hey! Why'd you cut me off?

Because that was all she needed to hear. More talking with Brynn, and Paradox might've heard something more he could use, if he knew to listen in on us. Genevieve, we have some work to do.

~~~~~

In the physical realm, Genevieve looked down distractedly as Snype crawled up to her. "Hey you. Your name's Genevieve correct? I got some questions for you." Snype said with a serious tone. "So, how'd they convince you to switch sides huh? You hated my guts last time we met."

The Gardevoir sighed. "I'm afraid, that was the Siren you spoke to. I apologize if I don't call you by name, but my memory's still hazy. I don't recall exactly how they convinced me, either."

Elsewhere in the group, the Gallade had moved up beside the Keeper. He had a sack hanging half from his back and half at his side, one hand holding it still while the other held a bar that Varren munched on. "I'd really hoped Miss Affiliate had heard me ask for some more food," Varren muttered before taking another bite. "Even if it's only a substitute for the rest hero-boy here needs."

The Gallade shook his hand to free it of leftover crumbs before clearing his throat. "So, librarian, Hanso wanted to ask something, but he's busy at the moment. Y'know, how much you knew about trapping other beings inside a crystal an' all."

Silver City

Zane's eyes followed where Snype pointed up to, noticing an object in the sky. He couldn't make out the Pokemon, but it was large. He wasn't certain, but it appeared in the shape of a Golurk. "Paladin?" Zane wondered in a whisper. Whether it was he or another, Zane wondered where the Pokemon was going. From what it appeared, it was heading somewhere to the west.

"Keep your eyes open," He relayed to the others, trying to get them focused instead on what lay inside the city now more than outside. Gallant nodded in response as he walked beside Zane, with Guardia a bit further to the left of them. The Cleric walked to the right of the group, her eyes scanning the familiar sights of their city, while Sword and Shield walked beside her. The Keeper now walked further to the back of the group, the strain of the large amount of Psychic energy it took to use the teleportation seeming to take a toll on his body. He panted somewhat heavily, but he seemed to be able to keep up enough. He cocked an eyebrow when Varren in TrueStriker's body approached the elder Alakazam.

"Other beings, you say?" He inquired with a smile. His heavy breathing continued for a bit, but he did his best to monitor and contain it while he spoke. "I suppose...I know more than most...being one of the few that has seen it done." He answered. "But know this. Attempting anything of the sort is not to be tried lightly. To have such power over another Pokemon, an equal or more amount of power must be given. Keep this in mind, young one."

The group proceeded further into Silver City, and still, no sign of the enemy came. What Zane did see were heads poking out of their homes to see them pass by, but many were still too frightened to step out. Zane imagined being under the rule of Auron and the Silver Tribe for months at a time
would do that for you. Yet as they proceeded forward, Zane thought he had begun to hear whispers coming from somewhere. He looked around, wondering if the Pokemon citizens were the source of this, but from what he could tell, they weren't. It felt like the whispers increased in pace, until it felt like multiple conversations occurred at once. It started small, but slowly expanded in his head as more conversations joined. It was muddled, Zane being unable to distinguish any particular conversation. He clutched his head, continuing to walk forward. Then, flashes of light occurred all across him. Pokemon, somewhat transparrent and faded, were all around the city. He looked into the others eyes, but it didn't seem like they could see them at all. Zane continued to press forward, looking across the faces of the many Pokemon around, some of which talked with others, some who trained, some who walked casually in the city, some who seemed to be on patrol. Yet all of them had one thing in common.

They all wore an emblem somewhere across their bodies. They were all Gold Tribe. Some, Zane even recognized. Others were unknown to him. He clutched his head once more as the voices drowned out all others that would have been talking. He felt them swim through his head, with nothing he could do to make them stop. He closed his eyes, but still pushed forward, gritting his teeth as he did.

Then, all at once, the voices stopped. He opened his eyes, and the images were gone. It was dead silence all across, and on his shoulder, the paw of his friend Guardia was placed. He looked into her eyes, as she showed an expression of concern. Zane nodded, letting her known he was alright, before both of their eyes looked to where they now stood.

The group stood right in front of the Citadel, the tallest building in Silver City. Before, it was the home of the Gold Tribe, their residence quarters and a gathering place for the tribe. Now, it was the official palace of the Silver Tribe. Zane could see the building begin to crumble and rot from lack of care, just as many of the other buildings in Silver City. It held damage from attacks along the outside too, some which were older, and some which were fresh. Zane looked over the others briefly, before approaching the large door. He unlocked it, the cool air of the inside blowing out in a sweep, giving the opening an ominous feel. Zane thought for a second he heard a deep, deep voice among the wind that blew.

Peering inside, Zane could see the familiarity of the Citadel through the darkness, as nothing much was lit inside anymore, relying on the holes and openings that covered the outside to provide the lighting. As on the outside, there was no movement, and no signs of any Pokemon present. Cautiously, Zane stepped inside, and moved forward. He was watchful of his surroundings, trying to ensure the group didn't fall into another trap, but from what it appeared, there really was no one here. He felt uneasy being inside. The Keeper, who was still recovering from the mass-teleportation he unleashed, stood in the first room of the Citadel and remained there. He then leaned against the wall before sliding down to the ground. When asked what he was doing, he merely smiled.

"The power I unleashed seems to have taken quite a bit of a toll on me. I shall rest here for a while longer, but have no fear. I will come to you when it is my time. Go ahead, I will be along shortly."

The group wandered further into the Citadel. Zane was reminded of the times he had in this place. Not just during the final battle, but the good times before the invasion. He had traveled to Gold City many times in the past for assignments and meetings with the leadership. Here, he conversed with many of his brothers and sisters, laughed merrily with them. Now, many of them were dead, and nothing more than a memory. All the while, the feeling that something was...twisted here continued to grow.

That feeling, however, grew more ominous was they approached the large doors to the main chamber. Even with the door closed, Zane felt something on the other side. He couldn't explain the feeling, but he knew something was beyond this door. Something dark. Voices poured through his head for a few brief second again as he approached the doors to the chamber. They soon died down, replaced with a strange noise, like a low breathing in his skull, like a beast, breathing in and out heavily, as if stalking its prey. With each step, the breathing increased. He though he heard low drums now, beating away with each leg he brought forward. Zane placed his hands on the large doors. The drums replaced with a deep, humming noise, as if it came from a great distance, even though Zane was certain it was in his mind. He pushed forward, with the creaks of the iron doors emanating through the halls. The deep humming increased. A crease was visible from the other side of the door, but only darkness was seen from there. Zane opened the door further, peering inside but still seeing nothing. The deep humming increased. The creaks of the old, rusty hinges were fully pronounced with each inch further opened. The deep humming in his mind increased.

Then finally, the doors swing fully open, and all sound was drowned out. On the other side, Zane saw the sight of the main chamber, noticing as he proceeded inside of the sign of battle, fresh battle. Pillars were knocked over here and there, and rubble littered the area. Large portions of the roof had fallen onto the ground, with pieces peering into the high level. The chamber was relatively lit, but it dimmed the further the path went toward the end of the other side. And in the dark shadows at end of the chamber, a single Pokemon awaited.

Even from a distance and from the shadows upon which he sat, Zane Tyrael saw clearly who it was. He sat upon the throne like he had owned it, and perhaps he did. His dull, dark yellow-green skin complemented the darkness, blending into it as if he belonged. The only portions which stood out is the red which filled his body, the tips of his claws, and his scythe-like tusks. Even for a Haxorus, he was massive, larger than others of his species. But it wasn't his size which caused Zane anxiety. They had faced enemies larger than him. It wasn't even that Zane knew that he could back up his size with his immense strength. It was what the Haxorus represented.



In the last two years, his name had morphed from one which brought Pokemon hope to one which brought Pokemon despair. The citizens of Valkaria had come to fear his name beyond any other. They would cower at the very mention of it, hoping not to invoke his wrath. The soldiers of Valkaria had come to despise his name beyond any other. They would curse his name to their last breath, hoping for the day they fight to the end of his reign. The Ancients of Valkaria had come to worship his name beyond any other. They would bow to his will, and listen to any command which would escape his mouth, no matter their own fate. But the Gold Tribe had come to understand his name, and what truly lied beyond it. The Dark One had chosen him as the Lord of the Sentinels, and in order to save Valkaria, his name had to be ended.

Whatever shadows had covered him were soon removed as a bright shard of silver became known to the rest of the room. It hovered above the ground beside the throne room, covered in some sort of dark energy in a sphere, as if protecting the crystal from others' touch. But the Haxorus did not touch the crystal. He left it where it floated. Instead, Luphen "Auron" Augustus rose without uttering a single word, and proceeded down the steps of the throne, with each mighty thump causing Zane's heard to almost jump.

But he did not back down. Now that they had come so far, they only had to go a bit further, and Zane had no intention of leaving. He bent his knees and formed his stance. Guardia who stood right beside him, joined him in a fighting position of her own. Sword and Shield pounded his chest ferociously as he prepared to face the legendary fighter among the SIlver Tribe. The Cleric began to form leaves across her body in preparation of her attacks. Dryad prepared her own energy for an array of attacks she was about to unleash. Gallant cracked his knuckles, and moved his torso to a position in response to the Haxorus' approach. Zane looked across the faces of his allies, those of the Gold Tribe, and those not of the tribe. Whoever they were, wherever they came from, Zane had the feeling that they understood the stakes of the fight, and they understood who they fought.

For Auron was no mere Sentinel. He was a demon among Pokemon, one who was said to be unkillable because of his sheer power. He would be the biggest test they would face yet, the strongest Pokemon of those they had run into. And almost immediately, he intended to confirm that reputation. With a large stomp of his right foot, the entire Citadel began to shake around them uncontrollably. The roof above them started to collapse and fall, and the ground below them because to break apart chaotically. The Earthquake expanded across the main chamber and beyond, shaking the entire city with its might. Pokemon on the inside of the Citadel would get the worst of it, the mighty ground attack not being so potent that it was capable of causing damage even to those who had the capability to fly. The was the power of Auron. That was the will of Auron.