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

Hanso SharpEye
Plains outside the torturehouse of Silver City

"You set up a network?" Hanso asked when he heard Genevieve's message. After knocking down a Rampardos with a critical blow it its knees, the Gallade tapped into Genevieve's network. The burden of maintaining it was immediately divvied between the two Psychics.

"How nice of you to finally help." That had to be sarcasm on her part. "I'm keeping an eye on our elites and those Sentinels I can find."

" You'll have to keep watching by yourself, actually. Sounds like a Sentinel found me." Hanso wasn't sure where the cackling came from. There was too much background noise, and another Kabutops was charging him. A teleport later, it died from a Psycho Cut to the back, allowing Hanso to pivot and throw it at another pair of Ancients, one of which was blasted by his previous Future Sight.

As the eyes appeared, Hanso heard a warning chuckle in his head. Ever fought a Gengar before?

Not any near Levin's level. Of the original Sentinels, Levin Gannon was the one whom Hanso knew the most. They had gone through training together, and they had both turned out to be excellent fighters. Under any other circumstances, Hanso might have hesitated to fight Levin. That Levin was long gone, however, replaced by this Deceiver.

While the Deceiver revealed himself, Hanso fired off a Future Sight attack with the Gengar in mind. Firing blasts of Dark energy at each part of the Confuse Ray before they hit him only lessened the effect. Hanso stumbled slightly as the battlefield seemed to spin around him. Several pairs of Gengar eyes surrounded him, at which he fired a Psycho Cut, two spears of Dark energy, a Heal Pulse?, two more Psycho Cuts.

Rusty on fighting confusion, distracto-boy?

~~~~~
Genevieve L'esprit

"A Sentinel, you say?" The lack of response on SharpEye's part made Genevieve wonder. Checking the area around his mind, she found the mind of another Sentinel. No way at this time to really tell who the Sentinel was, but the term itself felt like it had more connected to itself in her memories. The Gardevoir was distracted for a moment as she fired a Thunderbolt through a new gap in her wall of Ancients to beat back an attacking Bastiodon. She then redirected several more nearby Ancients to join her wall.

That flying Sentinel that had downed the skyscraper now seemed to be near an elite, near the skyscraper. If it had done that by itself… "Elites, two or three of you need to head to the collapsed skyscraper now, one of ours is facing a Sentinel. Let me know who's heading there."

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

The Gengar quickly doubled back to try and avoid the attacks the Gallade had sent at him, though they were far too clumsy to hit him directly. He laughed out loud at his efforts though. "Always a stubborn and reckless one, aren't ya, ol' buddy? Heeheeheehee!" He laughed, watching Hanso struggle. He looked over to his side, where the torturehouse stood, and cocked his head. "Eh?" He noticed Pokemon in front of it, surprised. "That was faster than I thought...hehehe...looks like I have to leave for now, TrueStriker. I'll see you on the inside, alright? Don't keep me waiting now, we wouldn't want those poor citizens to suffer longer...heeheehee!" And with the last bit of laughter, he disappeared from sight.


Guardia grinned delightedly as her attack managed to draw blood on the Sentinel Jolteon. She took a step back as the Jolteon spoke. "Hah...hah... is that all you got...? Psh..." She was panting, but she still remained up. She definitely earned her Sentinel class. She was tough, definitely more than the Ancient around. If Guardia hadn't gotten stronger during her time with the Gold Tribe, she didn't know if she would have been able to beat her. She was definitely strong than she was in Eternity City, when she first met with the Gold Tribe again.

"I'm just warming up, Sentinel!" Guardia yelled back, determined to win this fight. The Jolteon immediately charged up a Thunder to attack with, and Guardia stepped back and fired her own Thunder to respond, though she used hers in a defensive manner as her family did it. The two jolts of electricity clashed with each other, bits of volts and energy sparking all across from the super-heated strikes of yellow, jagged energy. Guardia could feel her Thunder faltering a bit, being a bit less proficient at it than a Jolteon would be.


The two Scizor clashed in the middle of the battle, their very speeds propelling each other forward, and it was only at the singular moment when the two clashed that they were visible to the rest of those who would gaze upon them. Sentry's claws met with the Swifts, in the middle, as he grinded his claws upon his opponent. Surprisingly, the Swift managed to resist him, which took Sentry off guard. "You're stronger than I gave you credit for," Sentry said calmly at the moment of their clash.

"But you advantage isn't your lack of speed. Even if you do falter there. Your own disadvantage is your lack in knowledge. You really don't know who you're dealing with," He said to the other Scizor, before thoughtfully adding. "Even though...perhaps you know better than most..." His voice trailed off, remembering a memory from what seemed like a lifetime ago. He shook his head, and pushed the Swift off of his claws, ending the clash, and upon ending it, fired a Razor Wind at him, the sharp edges of the air cutting through the very plains that sat below him with ease, and now on fast approach to him.

Another pair of Kabutops were brought down after their entanglement with the Gold Tribe Bisharp. Zane quickly stepped over their bodies and proceeded forward. The Alpha Alliance, despite their disadvantage in numbers, were relatively successful in pushing forward to the torturehouse. Obviously, they had the assistance of the Gold Tribe in the vanguard to assist in the charge. Yet even so, the bravery of the soldiers should be commended. Zane found himself deep inside enemy territory now, but soldiers from both sides now fought across the battlefield. He pushed forward with a handful of soldiers, until he found himself right in front of the enormous entrance of the torturehouse.

From other paths of the battlefield, his fellow Gold Tribe members also fought to get to this point. While many of them were still battling on the outside, the rest of them would have to proceed deep inside, and help whoever they could. Right beside him now was Gallant, who had just come from checking on the General, who was hurt by Belas earlier. He seemed to have recovered enough to continue his command, something the soldiers really needed, so Gallant proceeded forward to assist. Also beside Zane now was the ever-reliable Sword and Shield, the sturdy Snorlax who had been with him since the very beginning in Liberty Town.

"You know what this place needs? Streamers!" Penance came on walking up with his posse and looked back at the torture house, "That, and pink. I don't know why, I just see pink being the color here. What do you think hero boy?" He asked as he glanced at the Bisharp, "Nah don't tell me, you'll just get into boring territory and I'll fall asleep yadda yadda. So... you gonna crack open the doors? Anyone have a champaign bottle on them to do it right?"

Lashire looked up at the tall building, "I imagine whatever is in there is not good in the slightest. It looks rather big...."

"That it does!" Malphus scratched at his back with his bone, "So look out for corners and that stuff."

Zane didn't initially see Penance as he started talking, so he was a bit startled at first. He wanted to tell him now to get serious, but he assumed that Penance always was ready anyway, and this was just the way he was, despite the situation. Zane and Sword and Shield walked over to the door. "Alright," The Bisharp began, placing an arm upon the large handle. His Snorlax brother did the same to the other one. "Everyone be ready," He said, as he forced open the large doors leading into the torturehouse. Immediately, Zane expected trouble, but all that came was a wave of air at the group just outside. It was particularly warmer than the air on the outside, feeling almost as hot as a furnace inside.

Zane took the first steps after a bit of silence, and the others proceeded after him. They began to walk through the dark, dimly-lit metal floors, and almost immediately, the sounds of Pokemon in the distance could be heard. They were scream, howling, yelling at the top of their lungs. Zane couldn't tell immediately if it was from pain, or fear, or something else.

Penance followed after, cocking his head at the noises. Out of his grouop only Lashire showed any fear. "Uh... that's not good." The young Pawinard croaked out. "I don't think we should go in further..."

"Relax Lash." The Marowak said off handedly, "Nothing in there will be as bad as what I've seen in my past. We'll be fine. Just take a deep breath and focus. Sounds like more killings going, so there should be some Ancients in there right?"

Penance smirked, "That... or someone else... new recruits." He said with a sing song voice. "Just keep your heads level... and kill those who come after you, right Zaney boy?" He chuckled. He patted the sleeping Abra on his back, "Besides, we have a secret."

A secret? Zane thought to himself. He wondered what the Golduck was planning. He always had his plans and secrets that he seemed he didn't always like to share to him, maybe because he was with the Gold Tribe, or maybe because he simply didn't want to. Either way, it made him curious. Still, he tried to put it out of his mind, and focus.

"Hehehehehe..." A deep, cackling laughter pentrated the dark halls of the torturehouse. The screams combined with the laughter, the two sounds seeming to complement each other perfectly. "Caught a few Rattatas in my little trap, eh? Welcome to my little experiment!" The voice continued to laugh loudly. Because of the way the walls echoed the sound, Zane couldn't tell where it was originating from. But it seemed to be from somewhere close.

"Show yourself!" Zane yelled, as he walked down one of the hallways where he assumed the sound was originating from.

"Heeheeheeheehee! Come and find me, if you can. But you have to come deep! Deep within my home!" The voice howled back.

"Deep and deep eh?' Penance said. "You know, it's not that bad. You really shoud put up a shag rug." The Golduck said as he walked after Zane. "Still, I know your secret little ghostie, hehe. Not yourself are ya? Been having a nice rest lately?"

Malphus sighed and glanced around, "Really? We're heading for him? It's what he wants."

"So let's do somthing unpredictable!" Penance finished off. He turned to a wall and without warning shot it with a psychic blast. Lashire followed up with a cut to his claws to the wall to see if they could at least slice through it.

"HEEHEEHEE!" The laughter cackled following the explosions of the blasts hitting the walls. The blasts themselves left dents upon the walls, but very little beyond that. "Don't expect it would be easy to make a hole in a prison! After all, that's what this was when Frost first built it! A prison...with benefits....hehehehehehe...HAHAHA!" The laughter crew louder now, and it almost felt too close. Suddenly, the malicious Gengar known as the Deceiver appeared behind the group and targeted them with a Confuse Ray. Then, he quickly dispersed into the shadows.

Penance and the others were hit, but he had experience with such moves. He knew what he had been hit with, so he closed his eyes tightly and put himself against the wall. Likewise Malphus followed suit. They couldn't risk opening their eyes and trying and fight the ghost. They would just hit themselves.

"Close your eyes Lashire! Don't attack anything and wait for it to end."

The Pawniard blinked as he looked around, seeing a Gengar before him, "But he's right there!"

"LASHIRE! Close your damn eyes!"

The Pawninard shut his eyes after a while, just standing there, but shaking a bit in fear.

Zane was hit by the confuse ray, as was his fellow brother. He tried to hold himself against the wall and contain the effects, but he found himself getting dizzier. Gallant experienced the same effects, as did Sword and Shield, who angrily bashed himself against the metal walls and the empty cells made of metal bars. All the while, the cackling of the Gengar was not far away. He floated above their position, not five meters away from them as he rolled in the air and laughed in amusement at their situation. "Heeheehee! What's the matter, Alphas? You seem a bit messed up. Maybe some familiar faces will put you at ease...come on! Catch me if you can!" He began to run through the corridors in a swift motion, heading deeper and deeper into the torturehouse, and laughing all the while.

At those words Penance's eyes shot open. He could feel the confusion slowly fading but he had to speak. "Zane... don't go."

He sighed, "He said familiar faces... Zane, it was the power of the crystal being activated that brought the Ancients back to life. It's possible... that with our own dead... if Auron has been close to the crystal all this time, those that died by our sides have risen from the dead as well."

He closed his eyes again, "Zane... if we meet with Auron you must know that the powers of the crystal have grown on him. The psychics at least think that the cyrstal's effects are now endowed on him. It is to the point that if he touches as so much in battle, we could end up possessed as the Sentinels are." He looked at the Bisharp, "If you have any sanity left, do not go. Their spirits are long gone. Leave it at that because you'll be fighting former bodies that have been trained to battle. They are mindless like the Ancients now. Don't go." He said with a frown.

"You are wrong, young Psychic," A voice said to the group. It was the Keeper, the Alakazam had apparently followed them into the torturehouse. "All roads convulge here, and you must proceed onwards, despite the difficulties that lie ahead." He walked up to them, casting a strange psychic wave on them which began recovering them from their confusion, slowly. Zane opened his eyes and felt himself become calmer. "Do you not think that, should your theory be correct, that you would have been feeling the effects of the crystal before? No...you are, all of you, safe from it's effects." He walked up to Zane, tapping the bright crystal hanging around his own neck. "And as long as he is with you, you will continue to be safe from them."

But before another response was made, Zane noticed something else. The laughter that had been permeating his ears since walked into the torturehouse was gone. It was silence that replaced it, until he began to hear the patter of footprints toward their area. Pokemon began walking toward them from the shadows, all of which had a strange glow from their eyes, the likes of which Zane had noticed before, from chaos forms of the Sentinels. But these Pokemon weren't Ancients. They were Machokes and Pidgeottos, Ratticates and Sandslashes, Kadabras and Mienfoos. They were the citizens brought into the torturehouse, but now, they weren't citizens any longer.

Penance let out a soft cough, "Yeah... remeber how two minutes ago I told you Auron could make us mindless puppets? Yeah... just saying." Penance frowned, "But the gold crystal can't be as strong as the silver one, so we're boned. Anyways I'll let you have fun with this." He tapped the Abra on his back, "Malphus, Lashire, this is not your fight. And really isn't mine either now that I think about it. Oh, by the way Zane, if you take out Auron first... these citizens could be saved, just saying, and I'm off to do that right now... if you want to come with then all the merrier!"

The Keeper walked behind the other Gold Tribe members as Pokemon from all across the large torturehouse went to their positions. Zane looked around, horrified by what he was witnessing. "I can't believe Auron would do this..." He muttered. The Keeper stared across at them with solemn eyes.

"Not Auron!" Penance pointed out. "The being in the crystal! Anyways, last chance to port out with me and head to Auron, just saying~."

"'Tis a shame that has caused this to happen, but if you will not fight these Pokemon, then at least you can save them. And for that, young Vigil must remain here, as will I to assist in the cleansing. If you wish to leave and to face the wielder on your own, then I will let you depart on your foolish errand. But..." He looked up, across the room they occupied, as well as the entire torturehouse. "...a strange presence resides in here, something that, as you will find, will prevent teleportation within and without. A smoke of strange origins, something I know you have seen before. Your only way out is through now." Zane nodded his head, and turned to Penance.

"Even if we had our differences, I always thought that you were an ally worth fighting around because you cared what happens to the citizens of our country. Even if you don't believe in the Gold Tribe, I thought you fought for Valkaria. We can do it, like we did with the Sentinels!" He exclaimed. "Clear their minds, banish the corruption!" The chaos-formed Pokemon slowly diverged on their positions.

Penance was silent for a moment, "I do Zane. Why else do I fight for? Why else not go to Auron himself to stop this? Should been our first thing." He held up a finger, "But Zane... even if we cure them... then they will turn against us again. Don't you see? Once the Gold Crystal is out of their way... they are open once agian. Also I call hax on that teleportation thing."

Still Penance sighed, "Fiiiine, we'll die in the mosh pit, and if that smoke hits us then we'll be evil as well you know." He crossed his arms, "We need a sure fire way to keep them from being repossessed. Lashire, be our tank won't you?" The Pawinard nodded and moved forward, casting yet another Iron Defense on his body.

"In the meanwhile, Malphus and I will find this smoke. I know what it looks like so you guys hold them off. There are many paths but we'll find our way. I've psychically marked you Zane, so we'll find you easy. Let's go Malphus!"

The Marowak nodded and headed out and the two went down another hallway to find the Gengar who was in control right now.

Eternity City

It was night, and like most nights in the retaken city, it was quiet. The calm breeze hit the top of the outpost just right, giving a touch of cool on an especially warm night. This was enough to relax Will Sky, the Staravia of the Alpha Alliance. He was taking his shift on guard duty tonight, alongside his friend Jack, a Tailow. The two of them belonged to the 2nd Division Aerial Assault Team under General Hazone. They had fought in the war to retake Eternity City almost two months ago. They had their moment where together the entire 2nd Division helped the Gold Tribe in their battle with the Sentinel Noxious, the Poison Queen. For his part in convincing the others to assist, General Hazone offered Will the position of head of the 2nd Division, which would command over a quite a bit of aerial units. However, Will refused to take the position, for a few reasons. The first was that taking the position meant he would have to continue to march with the armies in recapturing the other cities. He was a simple Pokemon born in the outskirts of Eternity City. He fought to take back his home so that his family could return, and their lives could resume. Beyond that, he was afraid that with each battle he would participate in, the likelihood he would live would diminish.

So in the end, Will ended up declining, and was put on guard duty over protecting his home, how he would have wanted it. Still, a part of him regetted never taking that position. While his fellow soldiers now fought and bled in Gold City, he was here, relaxing in the night. Will shook his head, trying to put it out of his mind.

"I wonder how the army's doing," Jack said to Will, who merely shrugged in response.

"They took every city they went to. I like our chances," He replied finally after a bit of silence between the two.

"Yeah, yeah I guess so," He replied, yawning. He flapped his wings once. "Well, I'd better hit the hay. My shifts over. I'll send Rob over," He said, as he took off into the city. Will nodded in response, looking out into the darkness of the plains outside of the walls of Eternity City. As many nights before, it was quiet. There was no reason to think anything would be different.

A few minutes went by, and no other Pokemon came by now. Will yawned, getting a bit tired. He wondered if it would be alright if he could get a few z's right now. No one else was likely to pop around for a while, and Rob was always lazy, he would be a while anyway. The soldiers started settling into his spot, taking a few glances out into the wildnerness of Valkaria.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open as he thought he saw some sort of movement across the plains. Typically, it wasn't a rarity for refugees to come over the the bigger cities after they were taken. Refugees had been pouring into Eternity City for the first two weeks after it was taken back. The flow had been slowed down, but occasionally there would be stragglers who would show up for help. The General's order were always to help those in need, so Will prepared himself in case it turned out to be a Pokemon in need.

Surprisingly, though, no Pokemon came over for assistance. In fact, no more movement occurred beyond what he first saw. Will was beginning to wonder if it was his sleepy eyes playing tricks on him. As he began to roost back into his perch on top of the outpost, a strange-colored light in the distance caught his eye. It was a small light, maybe a few miles away from the city. A single, small light, surrounded by the darkness of the plains. Will watched the light curiously, wondering if he should report it. Then, two more lights blinked on around the first one, followed by two more. This was followed by a few more, then a dozen more. In seconds, a hundred lights flickered to life around Will, followed by a hundred more...

Levina spat on the ground and gritted her teeth at Guardia's defense Thunder. Levina took this chance to run toward the Zangoose and pounce her. She wasn't doing any specific attack, just swatting at her with her paws and trying to mix in a bit of electricity at the same time. Her coloar was extremely sharp as well as various parts of her fur. Levina kept on swatting over and over as much as she could, screaming at her opponent.

Snype eventually arrived at the location of the fight. Levena was getting vicious! For now, Snype remained hidden and waited to strike... and he began to think about what deciever told him. Knowing about this Silver Crystal now and the whole thing of turning the people in the torture house over to the Silver Tribe... were they really using torture? What if this silver crystal was related? Anything was possible but he was unsure... The Gold Tribe already got into the torture house so it looked like they would find out soon enough. Snype had to assist in there and get Levina out of this spot.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

The Razor Wind clashed with the Silver Wind, the two attacks danced together in the air, striking at each other as if they were two separate entities having their own battle. Eventually, the two attacks countered each other out, leaving the two Scizors at a standstill once more, but not for long. The Swift rushed forward again, angry and in pain, as the scout of the Sentinels noticed, but he didn't react in an emotional manner besides preparing for the next attack. Sentry rapidly moved his feet and wings simultaneously, attempting to dodge the incoming attacks the Swift sent forward at him.

The Sentinel flowed through the air as he narrowly avoided each blow, barely enough to handle each movement, and moving to the next available spot to dodge. Yet, surprisingly, one of the blows of the Bullet Punch landed, hitting Sentry directly in the chest. He grunted for a moment, looking down at the claw impacted on his body, quite surprised he managed to land a blow, even if it only was one out of the group. With a stare that screamed death, Sentry's eyes shifted from the claw at his chest back to the one who dealt it, before he struck at the Swift with a powerfully monstrous Metal Claw.


Guardia was caught off guard at the Jolteon's pounced. She gritted her teeth in pain and anger, falling to the ground at the sharpness of the electric Pokemon, combined with her slight but strong shock she mixed in with them. The Jolteon screamed angrily and kept on colliding with the Zangoose, and at the moment Guardia was unable to recover and get a counter-attack in, so she tried to take the attacks as best she could and hope for some opening when she would expect the Jolteon to get tired. She held up her arms, the Jolteon's swats now drawing blood. Finally, seeming to have enough of the pain and seeing a chance to striek, Guardia pushed her opponent back, and tackled right into her with a Take Down, hoping to knock her down for a while and give Guardia a chance to catch her breath.

Starring Zane, Hanso, and Penance! The three stooges warriors!​

The Gengar's eyes disappeared as the Deceiver left, so Hanso just stopped, closing his eyes as he waited for the confusion to wear off. Except he couldn't just stand there; he could sense the minds of a few Ancients heading in his direction. Hanso half-turned and fired several Psycho Cuts in their direction, having to rely on the position of the Ancients' minds. His head still felt dizzy.

A roar met his ears, and Hanso opened his eyes as he turned around to find a Machoke and several soldiers smashing into other Ancients. "You all right, sir?" Vanni asked, a ThunderPunch landing in a Kabutops' face.

"Waiting for confusion to wear off," Hanso answered, closing his eyes again. It was clearing up, but a new message in his head felt ear-piercing.

"What happened, SharpEye?"

"Deceiver confused me before taking off, Genevieve. He said he'd see me on the inside."

"Well, a group of elites entered the torturehouse a minute ago. Are you going with them, dear?"

"Don't call me that." To Vanni, Hanso said, "Thanks for the help. Keep it up." The Gallade turned and began running through the fray, avoiding Ancients where he could and fighting through those he couldn't. It was taking too long... Hanso vaulted off the back of a Rampardos and grabbed the talons of an Aerodactyl, imposing onto its mind the need to fly to the torturehouse.

About a minute later, Hanso let go and landed before the doors. Memories came streaming back, reminding him why he hated these buildings. If Zane and his group hadn't come along and freed him and the other prisoners, it could have been so much worse... Time's a-ticking, better move it, don't you think?

You better have been doing something better than sitting back, Varren. Hanso shook his head to clear up the memories and walked through the open doors. As he proceeded deeper, he diminished his connection with the outside until the only line left was to Genevieve. She would know Hanso had gone in.

The screams were not a welcome reminder. Hanso's arm-blades remained unsheathed as he sent out mental sensors to locate the other elites. It didn't take long to find them, and those that were surrounding them. This is what Penance meant, isn't it...

It was around that time that Penance had started to run off that he caught sight of the Gallade. "Hanso! Buddy boy! Number one, I told you so. Number two, come with me. We need to find Deciever and get rid of him, he's the prime suspect causing all of this, so let's run and chat eh?"

Malphus nodded, "We need to move! The sooner we find him the sooner this can end!"

Penance, Lashire, Malphus, Zane, Sword and Shield, the Keeper, Gallant. Marked. Hanso didn't want to fight through the citizens; he attempted to teleport to Penance's side in order to pass them up. Nothing happened. Oh, for the-- Something was blocking his teleport attempt. The Gallade began running around the possessed Pokemon, heading for the Golduck's location.

Penance sighed, "Actually go back Hanso!" He shouted out to him. "Just find a stair case and go up! There are multiple hallways!" Penance and Malphus turned about and ran down the corridors of hallways and reached out to the minds here. Well this is lovely isn't it? Just like I told you Hanso! Anyways, let's talk a bit. How about these guys eh? Why take them over now and not before? I mean the head honcho had tons of guys under his command and in the cities, why not possess them as well? Oh by the way Hanso, Deciever has some of that smoke that possess pokemon with him. That means he could possibly try and use that smoke on us. That means guess what? We could end up possessed. Zane can't be in two places at once you know, either he helps down here or helps us not get possessed.

Anyways, that's that. And by the way, Snype is with us along with that little Jolteon of his. He's so insecure! Doesn't want me to tell anyone. Hehe. Well he must have known about this so I say screw that!

And then Hanso would hear a thought all by his own, You know... there is someone else in there. What? You didn't think the underground WOULDN'T be laced with psychic traps to read minds and such? When one sends all their psychics to cities, they must leave traps to protect themselves. I can't WAIT to meet the other person you have in there!

Hehe, nice to meet you, rogue commander! Varren said, somehow reaching through to Penance's mind. Been wanting my own impression of you, this boy here has had some very--

Not now, Hanso interjected, overriding Varren's words. He was already running up a staircase, keeping track of Penance and Malphus as he looked for a corridor that would let them meet up. I'd tell you to keep quiet on this, Penance, but you have your own agenda. Inside his own head, Hanso added to Varren, Can't you keep your mouth shut for once?

I would have, if Mister Rogue there hadn't figured out I was here.

Laughter echoed across the torturehouse. Sometimes, it sounded like it was far away. Yet moments later, it felt as though it was right next to the Pokemon. It didn't seem to have any origin, probably a tactic the Gengar was using to throw them off. "Heeheehee!" He cackled. "Noisy little Pokemon shouldn't be speaking so much, even in the mind! It's not safe anymore for you, not at all, heeheehee!" The Gengar laughed away, continued to pressure the group forward. At the sound of his laughter, as if some sort of trigger, the possessed Pokemon attacked the group, firing all manner of attacks from elementals to physically slamming into them. They were wild, crazed, uncaring for the state of their own bodies as they unleashed everything they could upon them.

For a moment, the Deceiver appeared from above in all of the confusion, firing another Confuse Ray upon the group.

Penance and Malphus kept running along on the second floor, glancing around for any signs of the Gengar. Penance could feel Hanso was rather close... but the walls were twisting and turning and prevented him from getting to him.

Well Hanso, we'll meet up whenever. Anywho how are ya Deciever? I'm fine and dandy, but you know now that you are a puppet now, like those down there. Hehe, guess your mind is in a fog just like Scar's was eh? Yeah.. I get what your feeling... almost like a dream isn't it? Well we all are like that, every now and then, but you'll die by Auron's hand or Arceus' once he comes down and destroys the planet and has to restart everything again. So you get about two years of fun and then dead. I guess if you want to die that much I suppose it can work... anywho we'll find ya and kill ya if we have to Would have loved to see how you were before you were possessed, but I guess I won't now huh?

"Hehehehehe...HAHAHA!" The Deceiver howled with laughter, the echoes so loud now that there was no question that he was hanging around at a close distance. "Look at the smart Golduck, having all the answers! He knows more than the rest! He knows more than I do probably! But you know, I don't care anymore! Heeheehee! I'm having too much fun to care!" The Gengar swooped down again, sending a group of Shadow Balls at the group. For a moment, his eyes changed color to a deep purple, and so too simultaneously did the possessed Pokemon. They attacked once more, throwing their bodies carelessly at the intruders.

There was no point in talking to the Deceiver if bringing him out of the crystal's possession was the goal. Though apparently that wasn't possible with the remaining Sentinels. No, it sounded more to Hanso like Penance was talking simply because he was...Penance. As he rounded a corner, Hanso skidded to a halt as several possessed Pokemon stood in his way. Without hesitation, they charged him with attacks, forcing the Gallade to throw out several Psycho Cuts to deflect the ranged attacks.

A Pidgey and a Mienfoo were moving in for direct hits. Hanso blocked the bird's dive with a brief shield of Dark energy and backed up as he deflected the Mienfoo's punch. There was another corridor behind him, empty for now. Throwing out several illusions himself in a Double Team to try distracting the citizens, Hanso turned and ran the other way. Some yards ahead was another corner; Hanso skidded to a halt in the middle of the joint as he looked ahead.

What do you know, you found the rogue Golduck. Bravo, and all that.

Penance braced himself as the ball hit into his chest. Likewise Malphus skidded back as well. And just luckily behind them came some of thse crazy citizens.

"Malphus... needs of the many."

The Marowak gripped his bone, "Outweigh the few." With that Marowak ran up to a Bulbasaur and had no qualms with smashing its head so hard that the skull broke open. As that one fell he turned his sights onto a Tyrogue and slammed his bone against his jaw, the sound of teeth shatting reverberated and was quickly followed up with slamming the bone into the throat with the sound of the spine snapping accompanying.

As the Marowak fought back the citizens Penance shout a Water Pulse up at the Gengar. "Hehe, I see that he has full control now? I know who you are! I've known since Cape. Hehe... actually a bit before you know. If you want slaves then you REALLY should have chosen more sturdy ones."

Zane, Gallant and Sword and Shield ran through the torturehouse, avoiding all possessed Pokemon they could, but they eventually couldn't avoid them, and so they had to start blocking some of their attacks, running from them whenever they could find and opening, and in some case fighting back, but only to knock them out. He didn't want to do any permanent damage, and judging by the way his fellow brothers fought, he could tell they felt the same way.

All the while, they tried to follow the cackling of the Gengar. The Keeper tried to guide them through, but he mumbled something about his mind being too jambled, like too much was going on. Zane felt a similar feeling inside of him, probably due to all of the effects of the Silver Crystal around. Still, he could see the Keeper trying to slowly wiggle free some of the possessed Pokemon, but he wouldn't be able to push back the corruption all on his own. He was a powerful Psychic, but he needed some assistance.

They headed up the passage, the cackling of the Gengar far in the background. A group of possessed Pokemon now stood in their way. A Rattata, Wurmple, and two Poliwag were in front. The three Gold Tribe members engaged, neglecting to use their attacks and instead focused on pushing them out of the way and proceeding forward. From the distance, they could hear the fighting of another group. "Penance!" Zane shouted, seeing if he could get a response.

By this point Malphus had given up on trying to kill the pokemon and instead worked to cripple pokemon. It was tripping them and when necessary breaking kneecaps to get them to fall on top of each other and thus build up a sort of wall that others would have to climb while those under them would struggle under the weight.

Penance shot out a Confusion at the Gengar and shouted on back, "Yeah yeah, get in here already gold guy!" He remained on the balls of his feet, ready to dodge a attack that would eventually get thrown at him.

That hadn't taken long for them all to meet up again. Hanso backed up toward Penance and Malphus as the citizens whom he'd met came around the corner, running into a face-full of Psycho Cuts and Dark blasts. There was no going around the fact that Hanso had to use lethal force in order to stay alive. Unless...

"We actually gonna try freeing these citizens or not?" Hanso mentally asked the others, deflecting part of a Water Gun with crossed blades.

Zane and the rest of the Gold Tribe ran over to where the action was happening. About two dozen of the citizens were in the immediate area, and Zane could feel the Deceiver close by as well. The Keeper approached Zane for a moment, tapping his shoulder, he gave him a smile, then tapped the Gold Crystal around his neck. A bright gold energy was held at his fingertips, then he released a confusion attack all across the area, but instead of going for a damage-centered attack, the confusion targeted the possessed Pokemon's minds. Almost all at once, the Pokemon began to hold their heads from the infiltration, but the Keeper knew it was not enough. Some of the Pokemon still struggled forward, as if two polar opposite thoughts crawled into their skull to give them opposite commands. "I cannot do it alone, help me purge the corruption!" The old Alakazam implored the other Psychics.

Meanwhile, Zane, Sword and Shield, and Gallant held off any of the possessed Pokemon still trying to attack, buying time for them to prepare to free them. They also kept a watchful eye out for the Deceiver.

As the Keeper spoke, Hanso was already joining up with him to target the citizens' minds. Many of them had stopped, so he wasn't needed up front with Zane and the two Tribesmen. Hanso spread his effort across the gathered Pokemon, feeling the strain of trying to free many at once. Watching for the Deceiver as well, aren't you?

Stop talking so I can.

Penance paused and sighed, "Fiiine." He closed his eyes and held up his hands while he helped the Gallade and the Keeper with their work. Meanwhile Malphus kept up his bone, still doing his best to halt any advances made by the possessed mon. Lashire postioned himself in front of the Keeper, the young Pawniward keeping his eyes out for the Gengar.

The possessed Pokemon struggled in their minds. The Keeper found penetrating their minds much easier than he anticipated, as they were only recently tainted by the effects of the Silver Crystal. He went inside, purging all the effects of the crystal he could find. A bunch at a time, the Pokemon found themselves being cleansed of the effects of the crystals. But where some were saved, more came to take their spots and attack. Zane and his brothers pushed them, back, hoping the Psychics could do their handiwork fast enough for however many were coming, but as Zane saw, plenty more were on the way. It would probably be a big strain on the Psychic's minds if they would be able to pull it all off.

"Just how many citizens did they bring in?" Zane wondered aloud to himself. Right after he said this, a scream came from above him, from the Deceiver, but not as a laugh.

"NOO! You're ruining it! You're ruining everything!" He fired a group of Shadow Balls at the group below, angrily.

As Malphus had been trained to do, he dodged right into Penance to take the hit for him. Likewise Lashire acted by jumping up and slamming against the wall as the ball aiming for the Keeper hit him. Unfortunately Surge was too lazy to protect Hanso.

Still Penance smirked, "Don't like it eh?" He chuckled darkly, "Makes you squirm eh?" He pressed on with his mind, "I bet you're squirming so much."

The Gallade jumped to one side before a Shadow Ball could hit, but Hanso wasn't the one who'd reacted in time. Time I stepped in while you're busy, hm? His left eye turned a brighter red while his right swirled into a mix of gray and red, and the Gallade's body took on an undertone of black. "Guess who!" Varren grinned as he fired spears of Dark energy at the Deceiver.

Meanwhile, Hanso could only watch as it finally happened. The only thing going for him was that Varren had done it in the interest of keeping the Gallade alive. That's what it seemed like, anyway. Now that he didn't have to watch out in the physical realm, Hanso doubled his efforts in cleansing the possessed citizens.

Penance grinned and even though he was busy on his side he crackled with laughter, "Hehe! I am the rogue leader indeed! Go ghost boy! Possess that body like a boss!" He looked over at Zane, "Oh, sorry, thought you knew there was someone else in there. Well now you do!" He crackled at the event and the thought that Hanso would be angry that another had control over his body only fueled up Penance's engerness so he worked double time to get these citizens cleansed.

Zane, completely clueless about the situation, eyed the altered TrueStriker and Penance while simultaneously holding back possessed Pokemon who would try to attack the other Psychics, though it seemed by the way that Hanso was acting that he wouldn't need it. It appeared as though there was someone else inside with him, from what Penance was talking about, but the nature of the Pokemon eluded him. He would have to ask him about what was going on after. For now, he focused on the citizens.

The Psychics seemed to double their efforts and were rewarded by the cleansing process being increased, even as more citizens were coming at them. Many fell to the ground unconcsious, while others fell back and clutched their heads. As they continued, it looked like most of the Pokemon brought before them in the large room were either being cleared by the Psychics, being affected by them, or were already free. They were making progress. And that didn't sit well with the Deceiver.

Deceiver narrowly avoided the spears set towards him, twirling his body in a circle to avoid each one as it flew to him. In the darkness of the corner, he begrudgingly retreated into the metal, and seemed to once more disappear, only to reappear when he saw fit.

Varren chuckled some more as Penance spoke, continuing to fire spears at the Deceiver until the metal got in the way. "I'm sure this secret-keeper would have told you sooner or later, Goldie-boy. But no, he had to focus on training first."

"Stop distracting them, Varren," Hanso retorted, his words reaching the minds of the others. He'd allow a moment to speak up as it became clear that most of the citizens present were more or less cleansed now. Hopefully he'd be able to take back control once they had only the Deceiver to worry about.

Penance felt the darkness dissipating and smirked as he gently lowered his psychic powers. "Hehe, he would have... eventually. Anyways how's that bod? Bet you can't wait to try it out by smashing that Gengar's face in eh?" He winked at the possessed Gallade, "Just leave some action for me." Penance then grinned as Hanso broadcasted the ghost's name. "Varren eh? A fine name I must say myself! Hehe, Hanso can be such a stick in the mud you know! Lighten him up a bit I say. I'm sure he won't mind if you pilot around for a bit like that. You've been in the back for far too long!"

He chuckled, "So then, i guess Hanso is fuming now that I'm talking to ya eh?" He glanced around as Malphus and Lashire formed back up to defend the psychics. "Can't wait to get to know you better after this is all done!"

Varren? Zane overheard as Penance and the different Hanso speak, and the name seemed to register somewhere in him, though he wasn't sure where. He thought he had heard it before. Ignoring the thought, he looked on ahead, noticing Sword and Shield holding back two more possessed Pokemon, but beyond that, most inside the torturehouse were being taken care of. In fact, it was humourous how in this clearing piles of the citizens now lay, most free from the control of the silver crystal. Many of them now were unconscious, yet some managed to avoid slipping entirely into darkness and were still bewilderdly looking about.

The Keeper placed his hands down, now stopping his Psychic flow of energy and approaching the downed citizens. He looked back at the others. "An excellent job, young ones," He began, before his face seemed to sour and become serious once more. "But there is still another to deal with, before we can go onwards."

The Gallade stretched his arms as he made an exaggerated show of loosening up. "Yeah, yeah, librarian. I'm sure Hanso will wait until we deal with the ghostie before blowing up." Varren continued to do a few stretches and exercises in place, trying out the body he had possessed, grinning all the while.

...Not gonna let go without a fight, are you?

Nope. Unless you want your body to suffer from the internal struggle, you'll have to let me have my time.

Now that the battle was done, for the moment, he walked on over to the Gallade and watched the show, "Hehe, a good body you have there Varren. Well now that we've formerly met, I can say that I like you far more than Hanso. Have some fun in that body while you can! I'm sure Hanso will fight as hard as he can to take control of it back." He rubbed underneath his bill. "Hanso, if you can hear me, I say let the ghost have his fun! He doesn't have his own body, and you must have let him in, so live with the consequences!" He grinned widely at the Gallade, "Glad to know ya Varren. And glad you're on our side!"

Stage Two: Laughter Among Chaos

The Gallade burst into laughter. All this laughter was really getting on Hanso's nerves. After trailing off, Varren said, "Whoever said I was on your side, rogue? For all you know, I might decide to change sides while I'm out. Oh, no worries, Goldies, I have no reason to."

A growl of frustration reached the elites' minds. "Am I the only one who's worried that the Deceiver will hit us in the back while you're chatting? That ghost could be anywhere now!"

Penance in response held up a hand and flapped his fingers almost as if making it look like a flapping mouth. "Hanso, be a good puppet and let Varren pull the strings on your body. We'll sense him soon enough. Not much we can do but wait for him to come back out anyways. And we have an Alakazam here to feel for him." He spread his arms, "Not much he can do to us anyhow."

At this moment, the Alakazam snapped up, his senses picking up something on the move...and on fast approach. "Be ready."



Soon enough, the Deceiver familiar voice pierced the walls and traveled through the group's ears. "You...you ruined them. You ruined them all. They were just the way he wanted, and you had to go and ruin it!" He appeared out of the wall, floating above them and held a sour look, pouting at all of the Pokemon on the ground. He looked angry for a moment, but that moment passed quickly, and his trademark grin returned to his body, followed by his cackling laughter. "HEEHEEHEE! Auron won't like that, not all all! I'm gonna have to deal with you guys for him then! And we were having so much fun! Sorry!"

The Gengar continued his laughter, forming out of the walls and towards the group. He stepped with one foot onto the ground, the other at his side, before stepping with that one too onto the cold metal ground. "Time to die it seems!" He outstretched his arms, with shadowy energy beginning to pour from the walls and towards him. The shadows looked similar to the smoke the group encountered along their travels, especially against Sentinels. But this smoke seemed to catch even the Gengar off guard, not enough for him to worry, but enough for him to wonder what was going on. The shadows engulfed his form, clinging to him like glue, and then permeating his ghost-like exterior. His eyes changed color for a moment, becoming a deep, purple/black, but strangely still bright, like bright purple lights. His whole body shined in this color for a moment, before the color changed to a darker tune, and the shadows consumed inside of him. His eyes returned to a somewhat normal form, but they were darker than usual.

"Heeheehee!" He laughed. "Looks like I'll be getting a bit of help on this one, then! Brace yourselves, Alphas!" He lifted his arms, and fired at the group with a Dark Pulse, the attack seemed to be expanded by the shadows, enough to target all of the Pokemon at once in one, mighty swoop. Zane noticed the walls condensed and strangely...move as the Dark Pulse passed them on its way to them. It was as if the Dark Pulse was able to bend the metal surroundings of the torturehouse. Or was it simply some sort of illusion? Either way, he braced himself for an attack he seemed to be unable to dodge, but only try to hold off or block.

Right after the Dark Pulse was fired, a light-blue ball of energy appeared behind the group as it headed for the Deceiver. "Hehehe...forget something, ghostie?" Varren jibed, throwing a jolt of Dark energy into the Future Sight attack as it bolted past him and through one edge of the Dark Pulse. It wasn't possible to teleport the group out of the way, Hanso knew that, but Varren could at least make more of an effort!

Penance smirked at the sight, everyone was so panicked, except the cool Varren,... and while he had wanted to wait for it he had to use it now. Without so much as a cry Penance grabbed Surge and threw him forward, "Go at it Surge!"

It was as if the words casued the Psychic's eyes to snap open and instincively he threw both hands out as a large psychic beam that was as large as the hallway flew out and hit into the ball. Surge screamed out as the beam actually began to push back the shadow ball back at the Gengar, but before it could hit him the ball exploded from the force of the beam hitting it.

It was now a combination of fire, darkness, and psychic energy all heading right at the Gengar with no signs of stopping from Surge. In a blink of an eye Surge dissappeared from their sight as the beam kept going on. He reappeared behind the ghost and held out a finger as serverl hundred pink psychic bolts flew out and began to impale the ghost all over.

Penance proudly smirked at them, "I taught him that neato trick of explosions! Hehe, he's a natural! Though we can't use him for the final battle since he'll have to go to bed, bummer isn't it?"

"Damn kid," Gallant muttered under his breath as he seemed to singl-handedly repel the primary blast from the Deceiver. But the Gengar didn't seem worried, he only began laughing harder. Zane wondered if it was because he had an ace up his sleeve, or if he was slowly loosing whatever sanity he had left to the madness of his new personality and the affects of the Silver Crystal.

The Deceiver, combined with the effects of the shadows augmenting him, fired another Dark Pulse to meet the combined fire, psychic, and darkness energy heading toward him. This Dark Pulse was stronger, being able to bring down the set of attacks for him, though he dodged any that went past his attack, laughing as he did so. From behind though, when the Abra reappeared, the shadowy Gengar was hit by the first few set of bolts, before catching what was happening and turned, firing Shadow Balls to meet with them. He laughed now, shrugging off any injury as if it weren't targeting him. He didn't even seem to care anymore whenever his body was damaged.

That showed up again when from his back, the future sight attack struck him directly. The shadows began to appear at his back to lessen the blow, but the attack had struck him directly. Not missing a beat, the Gengar turned again, cackling as a bit of blood seeped from his mouth, and fired upon the first group again, dozens of Shadow Balls raining down upon them. All the while, his laughter never stopped. Even damage done to his body brought laughter. Sword and Shield held up his arms to protect against the fast-moving balls, but the energy fell agains this fat skin, scrapping him and damaging his arms. Zane tried to dodge the first set, but soon the whole area left very little to run. He ended up firing Night Slashes to try to intercept whatever Shadow Balls he could.

Surge ported again to shoot out yet another large beam to counter to shadow balls. He once more ported and this time appeared under the Gengar on the floor. He fired a beam up, this time putting all of his strength into it to get past the Gengar's armor.

"Time to see what I can do with this body." Varren charged up another Future Sight attack as the mega-Dark Pulse was countered, the black-tinted ball disappearing from sight. The Gallade then stayed where he was as tendrils of shadow sprouted from his back, shooting forward to counter Dark Pulses that flew at him. At the same time, Varren threw spears of Dark energy with his hands to deflect more.

Without warning, Hanso took control of one arm long enough to release a Heal Pulse that spread over the elites, Sword and Shield in particular. Just like you to not consider others on your side.

Deceiver countered the beam the Abra sent at him with a Dark Pulse, but because he was distracted with that, he wasn't able to move fast enough to stop Zane, who moved in and targeted him with a Night Slash. The attack struck his back, and caused the Deceiver to turn, but also levitate up. He unleashed another set of Shadow Balls at the group, and then Surge reappeared below. This time, Deceiver caught the teleportation, firing below at him to meet the attack with his own Dark Pulse. When the two waves of energy met together, the metal across the torturehouse once more began to bend, and Zane could feel cracks form across the walls and the ground in certain areas. It was as if he was feeding off of the energy of the walls, but it was causing them to tear up. No particular damage seemed to go at them, so that was all that Zane was left to think.

The Gengar continued to cackle, doing his best to avoid the dark energy sent by Varren while also sending back Shadow Balls at his opponents. A spear of dark energy suddenly struck the Gengar at the shoulder, and he retracted for a moment, before pulling himself forward, again ignoring the pain. Yet, it was strange. Zane could see his laugh and his body pulling him forward, but deep within his eyes, Zane felt the pain the Deceiver was in. He wasn't fully in control anymore.

The Deceiver formed up his one good hand, pointing it toward the sky in preparation for an even stronger attack. Then, he formed a few dozen Shadow Balls from above his hand. The balls of energy began morphing together, forming into a larger, more powerful Shadow Ball of immense proportion. He fired the thing onto the ground, at all of them, as it was big enough for them. He continued to howl with laughter, but he particularly roared as he released it.

The Gallade continued to deflect attacks until he saw what the Deceiver was forming. Varren giggled as his hands and tendrils came together to begin forming his own attack. "A wing here, a segment there..."

You realize this could explode into a lot of fireworks, don't you?

Worried about collateral damage and the citizens, are we? Varren finished his work a moment after the Deceiver had. With a laugh, the Gallade fired his attack at the immense Shadow Ball. He had taken the time to fashion it after the image of Giratina, for visual effect, of course. Hanso's Dark Hidden Power was particularly strong; Varren would have used it a lot more in Hanso's shoes.

As the attack was countered, all the Abra could do was port into another spot to try shooting another beam. Penance meanwhile did his best to dance among the Shadow Balls and threw some Confusions at the mad Gengar. Malphus, being as slow as he was, just ended up getting pelted with Shadow Balls while he covered himself as best as could be.

Penance smirked at the Gallade's attack and cheered him on, "Hehe! That's the spirit Varren!"

The giant Shadow Ball collided with the Giratina-formed hidden power. Zane was impressed that TrueStriker, or rather Varren at this point, was able to come up with an attack like that. The size and power was already impressive. Forming it up to the shape he pleases was a nice touch, though. As he and Gallant tried dodging away from any last remaining Shadow Balls, they prepared in case the attack from TrueStriker would fail. Zane fired a Night Slash to help the blast along, while Gallant fired a Focus Blast. Sword and Shield, who got some healing from his arms thanks to a Heal Pulse, fired a Surf to help boost their attacks even more.

Together the giant waves of energy collided with the giant Shadow Ball. It seemed all the combined energy didn't mix well together, because a little bit after impact, there was a giant explosion from the center, followed by a fairly blinding light. Zane felt his body be pushed back as the blast imploded, and then expanded into a powerful detonation. Now, portions of the torturehouse began to crumble apart. The metallic walls were tearing in half and the bars and cells were ripping off from the structure. The blast only further decimated the crumbling structure.

Varren covered himself with rapidly-formed wings of shadow, but that only lessened the impact of the explosion. After a few moments, he picked himself up from where he'd fallen to observe the crumbling torturehouse.

"A mass teleport would be great right about now."

Varren sighed as he gathered his energy. "Have I told you how annoying you can be?" he said, still grinning. "Right, heroes, if you want to save these poor citizens, you better help if you can."

Surge popped up right next to him and held out his hands, "Right here of course!" The Abra donated quite a load of energy into it, but then his eyes began to droop, "I'm sleepy..." He yawned very loudly and then collapsed onto the ground snoring.

"Well there he goes! Let's get this done then!" Penance joined in with his own psychic powers, "Whenever you guys are ready!"

The Keeper joined in as well, contributing whatever Psychic energy he could. All across, the metal ripped off of the building as easily as paper, with the incoming explosion only moments away. Zane could still hear faintly the sounds of the Gengar's cackling over the sounds of the mayhem around. Then, all at once, the blast exploded in a brilliant wave of combined energies, destroying a huge chunk of the torturehouse in its explosion.

Levina was taken off of Guardia and sent back, landing on her stomach laying on the floor. The Zangoose still wasn't dead! She wasn't going to have this... but Levina was weakened... but not enough to still pull off a couple of stronger attacks. Levina was about to use Thunder on Guardia, when suddenly something jumped in from behind. It was Snype! Latching onto Guardia from behind and wrapping his arms around her face.

"Levina! We gotta get moving!" Snype shouted. Levina stomped the ground.

"WHAT?! I've almost have her! We're both here. We could kill her right here and now! Use that poison trick or something!" She yelled.

Snype shook at the sudden explosion in the torture house. Well now... looks like they made some progress in there... whatever was going on, couldn't be good for deceiver. They had to get in there and help out... in a sense. Keheh.

"Levina, we gotta get to the torture house and help out. Whatever is going on in there can't be good." Snype said trying to keep his grip on the Zangoose, she'd probobly break out by the time he could finish explaining.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

Guardia was successful in taking the Jolteon off of her, and bringing her down, but the Sentinel was resilient. Even after all that, she was still around. She was even preparing her next attack, which Guardia got into position to defend, when the unexpected happened. Grabbing onto her, another Pokemon latched onto the Zangoose from behind, wrapping his arms across her face. Guardia instantly began to struggle, trying to break free, too preoccupied to listen to Snype and Levina talk, but she did confirm that the two were together, which meant this was probably another Sentinel.

She continued to struggle, trying to break free of the strong hold the Sableye had on her. Then, she got an idea. She powered up, charging electrical bolts across her body, then struck herself with a Thunder to try and get the Sableye off. If she was successful, this meant that she would have to be dealing with two Sentinels now, most likely, which meant she would need help...and fast.

Blackguard vs. The Shadow Protector and co.
Silver City

Allora did her best to avoid the shower of punches directed at her. Shadow Punch after Shadow Punch was thrown at her incredibly fast, especially for a Golurk. She managed to avoid the first few punches, but eventually her side was smashed by Blackguard's giant fists. The pain felt unbearable, and she was sure many bones were broken when he hit her. Allora was sent flying at a nearby building, into which she crashed with the utmost force. Again, she heard the sickening sound of more ribs cracking as she impacted with the wall, the sheer force of the hit creating a large crack on the building's surface.

It was then that her resolve began to weaken. Who was she kidding? She had no chance against a monster of this calibre. A mental battle was something completely different to a physical one, after all. Now, she felt the fear of imminent death creep up on her like a Venipede on her back, sending chills down her spine. She lay there, trying to shrug off the pain of even moving, and watched as Blackguard approached, fists clenched, ready to finish what he'd only just started.

Then, out of nowhere, a miracle. Flames instantly materialized behind Blackguard and began shooting out at him ruthlessly. Whether or not it even affected him was unclear, as he did not move. Slowly, as the flames grew brighter and brighter, the angered Golurk turned around, and came face to face with... another Ninetales. Bane stopped using Flamethrower as soon as she saw it was no use, and tried to use Hex. Her eyes glowed a deep red, and a dark purple mist began to gather around Blackguard. The ghostly powers of the mist began to sting the Golurk's skin. However, his hand sank back into his arm, revealing the hole from which an eerie green fire came. Blackguard pointed his Flamethrower attack at Bane, causing her focus to break as she had to jump to the side. However, the fire managed to burn her side, leaving a strange, glowing burn on her shoulder.

The mist dissipated, and Blackguard approached Bane as she limped away, the burn spreading across the rest of her body like a virus. He held his fist high up into the air, ready to strike with Hammer Arm, but something stopped him. Beneath him, he felt a slight tremor. Nobody else could, but being a Ground-type, he quickly deduced that a Pokemon was rising to the surface, ready to use Dig on a seemingly unsuspecting Golurk. As Speculum emerged from the ground, his Excadrill form's claws sharp and ready to dig in, Blackguard grabbed his smaller form and tossed him aside, causing him to crash into a building.

Blackguard turned back to Bane, but again, he was stopped from killing her. Behind him, the pitter patter of Allora's light footsteps were audible, and he predicted that she would try to climb onto his back as she always did. He turned around instantly, and shot out another Dark Flamethrower in her direction. Allora dodged the first attack, but the continuous flames followed her, and managed to burn her side. She screamed as the combined pain of broken bones and burns took their toll, and she fell to the ground.

Impatiently, Blackguard turned back to Bane, but she was no longer there. Turning back to Allora, he found her assissting her fellow Ninetales in getting back up, though the two were both very injured as it was.

"Hmph. Touching," he mocked.

"We have to work together," Allora said to Bane, placing her paw on her sister's shoulder for support. Bane nodded, and the two suddenly began to float. Their eyes shone red and blue as they used their psychic powers to lift themselves into the air.

Blackguard was getting annoyed. This should have ended already. Turning to flying position, he rocketed into the air after them. He was almost upon them when something large and heavy hit him, knocking him off course and sending him crashing into a nearby building, causing it to collapse on top of him and bury him in rubble.

Blackguard's fist came smashing through the rubble first, followed by his other fist and the rest of his large arms as he hauled himself out. Looking ahead, he saw the thing - or rather Pokemon - that had smashed into him. Speculum, a large, muscled Golurk, stood before him, fists clenched and ready for a fight.

Blackguard pushed aside the rest of the rocks and concrete, keeping eyes only on his attacker. Then, switching to flight mode, he flew at Speculum with surprising speed. Speculum managed to avoid getting rammed by Blackguard, but only by an inch, as the monstrous Golurk turned around and went in for another hit. However, in mid-air, Blackguard shifted back into regular mode, balling his fists and ready for a punch. Using the momentum gained from his fast flight forward, he slammed into Speculum and sent them both tumbling to the ground in a ball of fist and fury. When the two came to a halt, Blackguard sat on top of Speculum and was showering him with Shadow Punches, in response to which Speculum could only bring his arms up to defend himself.

However, unexpectedly, Speculum managed to land a powerful Hammer Arm to Blackguard's face, which temporarily disoriented him, giving Speculum the chance to push him off and get up. Blackguard soon recollected himself, though, and his expression was that of an angry Tauros.

Then, the two engaged in a Shadow fistfight. Speculum threw the first punch, but Blackguard caught it with his free hand and dealt a punch of his own to Speculum's torso, which caused him to step back in pain. Blackguard did not wait; he dealt two more consecutive punches, both to Speculum's face, before, the Ditto was able to get his hands up to defend himself. He was disoriented, though, and Blackguard knew this. Taking advantage of the situation, he retracted one of his hands into his arm and launched a devastating Dark Flamethrower that surprised Speculum and caused him to lower his guard and try to swipe the flames away. Blackguard seized the opportunity and swung a Hammer Arm at the Ditto's face.

The attack hit hard, and the sharp sound of cracking could be heard from Speculum's head. He fell back, his impact with the ground was large, and the Ditto's head fell back as he reverted to his original form. He was not quite dead; his eyes still moved, but he appeared to be paralysed.

"No. Wait." Those were the last words of Replicus Decendas. Blackguard kneeled over the helpless Ditto and, pointing an open arm at him and shooting out green fire, burning the poor Pokemon alive. Speculum screamed in pain as he was set alight, but eventually the screams died down, leaving only a burnt crisp of a body.

In the air, Allora and Bane watched, horrified, as Speculum was killed in a most ruthless manner. Suddenly, Allora's heart welled up with anger. This was enough! It was time for this monstrosity to die, no matter what.

"We have to put our mental strength together. Come on!"

Bane nodded, and the two concentrated deeply.

Meanwhile, Blackguard spotted the two Ninetales still floating in the air. Shifting to flying mode, he was about to go after them when something hit him hard, causing him to stumble and almost fall over. He grunted angrily, looking around to see what it was. To his astonishment, he saw that all around him were floating pieces of rubble from the demolished building that he had crashed into. The rubble was poised to come crashing down at him any moment. Looking back up, he saw that Allora and Bane were gone. Instead, they had positioned themselves at the top of what was left of the destroyed skyscraper. Their eyes glowed with psychic energy which they used to keep the rubble aloft.

Blackguard stepped forward, and another piece of rubble came flying at him. He intercepted the large chunk of rock with one hand, and, holding it firmly, smashed it to pieces with the other. He glared up at the two Ninetales on top of the building, ready to fly at them. Without any warning, he shifted into flying mode and rocketed towards them, causing all of the rocks to follow after him.

The fist few chunks of rock and concrete did nothing to him as they hit him in the torso only. However, a piece of rock managed to hit his face, causing him to turn away from the Ninetales. He now found himself rocketing towards the ground. Blackguard turned his body around to propel himself away from gravity's embrace.

However, the ground began to stir. As fast as lightning, a huge pillar of rock and minerals emerged from the ground, crashing into the flying Blackguard and sending him spiralling down again. He regained control of his flight just before he impacted with the ground, but before he knew it, another pillar rose and crashed into him, carrying him up with it. The pillar went far higher up than the skyscraper had ever stood, leaving Paladin stranded on a pillar with nothing around it. He tried to fly away, but it seemed he'd exhausted his energy core, the source of his flames. An alternative would be required.

Then, he had an idea. Amassing all of his strength into one attack, Blackguard clenched both his fists and used Hammer Arm on his platform. The resonating crash could be heard from miles away as the pillar began to collapse. And down went Blackguard with it. However, he held onto a piece of falling rock as he fell and held it beneath his feet. When he was right at the level of Allora and Bane on the skyscraper, he jumped off of the piece of rock and towards the building.

Blackguard barely made it, but he managed to grab a ledge and haul himself to the top, reaching the location of the two Ninetales, who were still locked in concentration. He approached them, but then, a jagged piece of metal arose from the skyscraper and flew straight at Blackguard. He avoided it swiftly, then grabbed it before it spiralled off and launched it at his opponents. In order to dodge it, they had to break their concentration, and so they did. Allora managed to avoid the jagged metal, but it impaled Bane's shoulder and caused her to screech in pain.

Seizing the opportunity, Blackguard launched himself at Bane, attempting to crush her with a Shadow Punch. She barely avoided it, jumping to one side and falling to the floor. Instead, Blackguard picked up a longer, larger piece of jagged metal sticking up from the ravaged floor. He pointed it at her, ready to stab her one again. The blood from her previous wound only pooled around her, and she seemed to be on the verge of fainting.

Allora tried at attack Blackguard at that moment, but he easily swatted her aside with his jagged metal spear, and focused once again on Bane. He kneeled in front of her, pointing the metal at her once again.

"Oh no. No, no, no! You cannot die yet!"

He stabbed her leg, causing her eyes to widen and her to scream at the top of her lungs. Blood only continued to amass beneath her.

"Well, now that I've got your attention..." Blackguard mused.

He stabbed her other leg. More screaming, and then... crying. Bane began to sob as she screamed, instinctively trying to feel her wounds with her only usable paw.

"Ah, ah, ah. Mustn't pick at the scab."

He stabbed her other arm; more screaming and sobbing, but it slowly began to die down. She was dying, alright.

"Sweet nightmares," Blackguard snickered.

Finally, he jabbed the piece of metal right through her heart. Her eyes showed one last flicker of life, before the lights faded and death came upon her.

Blackguard had one last opponent now. Allora stood, crippled, bloody, and burnt, before him.

"It seems Paladin couldn't save you, my dear," Blackguard began. "I-" he suddenly cut himself off, seemingly for no reason. Then, he lifted his hands to his head.

"No!" He shouted furiously. He began to shake his head. "NO!" For a slight moment, the deep dark red of Blackguard's eyes disappeared, replaced by normal, bright yellow of Paladin's eyes. "Allora..." Blackguard moaned. Afterwards, he shut his eyes again. And when they next opened, the red had returned.

Blackguard stopped thrashing. "Well, that was annoying," he complained. "Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes..."

"Paladin," Allora whispered, barely clinging to consciousness. "If you're in there, I know you'll break free. You can defeat this monster. You can-"

Then, The Shadow Protector was no more. Underfoot, she had been killed. Blackguard lifted his foot to witness the remains of Paladin's once dear friend: a crushed bag of broken bones now, for all he was concerned.

"You've fulfilled your usefulness, Allora. It's about time you shut up, anyway. You always did talk too much."

"Acckk!" Snype yellled as he was hit dead on by the thunder strike which quickly had him let go of Guardia and land on the ground. He twitched a little as the electricity coursed through him but not enough to paralyze him. He just got out of a situation like that. Levina watched her partner get creamed and growled at Guardia. She ran toward her once more using Thunderbolt to try and help out Snype. Saddly, this wasn't what Snype wanted. He had to end this fight quickly.

"Levina! Stop! We need to get moving right now! Gahhh... We're being duped!" Snype shouted out to her.

Levina halted in her tracks and looked toward Snype. "Wha? What do you mean? We're just supposed to kill the Gold Tribe! How can we be duped? Not like we're being offered anything. I signed up cause I'd have an excuse to hurt somebody! And I'd say its working! You better not be going soft on my Snype! You joined for the same reason!" She threatened.

"Soft? Please! I'm saving your butt! Third time in a row I'd like to think! You wouldn't be alive if I wasn't there to pull your spiky butt out! That's besides the point! Damnit how do I explan this..." Snype said. The Jolteon seemed to cease fighting. If Guardia had any opportunity, to either help the situation, or keep fighting, now would be the time.

He needed to be cautious of this Ancient. Rector didn't look like the other Aerodactyls at all... he was vicious, more powerful, and perhaps more sentient. Or less sentient. Ragnaros could expect fast and ferocious physical attacks from him... Rector came in a Take Down. He was slightly bigger than him, so the Salamence had that slight disadvantage to think of... but he was a dragon.

Ragnaros had time to engulf himself in the dragon's flames of a Dragon Rush and let out a mighty battle roar, before charging in to meet his opponent, crushing head on with him. The impact was tremendous, and the aftermath a burst of the red and blue flames that Ragnaros had swirling around him.

At the moment of impact, Rector could feel the flames surround him as they tried to burn his rock-hard skin, but the Aerodactyl held on long enough to have delivered his damaged, before pulling off, flapping his mighty wings and retracting. An excess flames across his body which were transferred over from the Dragon Rush were put out by the air produced from his flapping. Then, the giant Aerodactyl let out a mighty roar, shaking the very ground and causing nearby Pokemon to look over, and some to even lose balance because of it.

He flew higher now, bringing his wings up and down with full strokes to reach the height he wished to achieve in as little time as possible. Once he was a good few meters about his previous location, Rector flipped over, his head facing the Salamence who was his opponent, and he dived right at him, using his speed and the gravity to combine with his Fly to deliver as powerful a blow as he could muster.

The embers of the dragonfire were sucked into Ragnaros's claws, burning wildly as he watched the massive Aerodactyl dive into yet another physical attack. He would have roared fiercely if he wasn't concentrating on the momentum... time had slowed down as he waited, waited for Rector to come closer and closer... at the last moment, he jerked to the side, slipping past him. His tail got tangled on the base of the Aerodactyl's wing and with another flip, Ragnaros dug his flaming claws into the Pokemon's back. The Salamence stepped on his rocky back, launching himself off to avoid retaliation.

Flapping his wings, he remained on the sky, keeping a safe distance from the beast. He exhaled a burst of steam, psyching up. He couldn't remember the last time he had taken such an opponent by himself, but he would surely not take him lightly. A little victory in the war needn't mean he had won it. "There's not a single drop of dragon blood in you, Ancient, is there?" he taunted in a raspy, low voice, as if he was saving his energy.

If Rector's mind could process surprise, he surely felt that when the large Salamence dashed toward the side to avoid the Aerodactyl's rapid decent towards him. The next thing he knew, the Salamence held him by the wing and swiped at the Aerodactyl's back with his claws. Rector shrilled in pain, but also anger, if such an emotion fully registered with him, and tried to counter while the Salamence was on his back with another Take Down, but the Gold Tribe Salamence had already pushed itself off to avoid any further damage towards himself. Luckily, Rector's hide was as hard as rock, and the claws only dug as deep as the first, perhaps second layer of his skin. Still, blood was drawn, and it was enough for the Ancient Commander's mind to register the strength of his opponent relative to the other soldiers he had slain.

Rector gave no response to the Salamence's question beyond the opening of his mouth and release a loud, long, blood-curdling roar. Then, the beast of the Ancients charged in again, ready once more to pounce his opponents. He flew toward him, his wings ascending and descending every second to increase his speed, but those strokes were increased to every half second, making the large Aerodactly move at an almost super-Pokemon speed, something unexpected of one his size.

Rector began to harden the front of his body, knowing he would be going at the Salamence full frontal force. He launched himself toward him, and powered up a Giga Impact, another physically-powerful move to match the size of his body. Rector could feel, however, how at the last moment, additional energy was being supplied to him. It was a shadowy presence which swirled around him, moving across his body and clinging to it, before entering it. Rector felt his eyes change color as he accepted the energy, watching the transformation of his body into a slightly darker shade. This only further fueled his power, and the strength of his Giga Impact at Ragnaros.

Ragnaros noticed the change in the Aerodactyl, the eye color changed... so, Rector was equal to a Sentinel. He would have to face the chaos power, it seemed. Ragnaros thought of repelling the Aerodactyl with his Hydro Pump, but thinking it thoroughly, he decided against it. After the split second he made his decision, his body was engulfed in dragonfire once again. Ragnaros left the flames as his trail when he charged at Rector, hoping for his attack to best his. It didn't. Rector went right through his flames, and like a wrecking ball, hit him head on. The flames subsided as Ragnaros was sent swirling towards the ground, leaving blue and red embers behind him.

He was almost sure the impact had shaken him internally as well... in that case, he wouldn't live to see Gold City freed. When he landed on the grass below, he grit his teeth and shut his eyes in pain. That wouldn't be the end of him, he decided. No Ancient was going to best Bloodthirster... shaking his head, he opened his eyes again, which shone in hot fury. The pain fueled it and his power, it made him kick the ground in fury. He shot up quickly to fly away, before his foe could take advantage of his state. He locked eyes with Rector, watching him intently to let him know he was still able. The stakes had changed, though... the Ancient Commander was under the effect of the chaos form powers. I will force him into it, then.

"Come on," he rasped, "show me what you're made of. Come at me," he bellowed, spitting his fury in a gale of steam from the insides of his belly.



Needing no more motivation, the Aerodactyl watched from a great distance away as his body fully morphed, embracing the chaos form of the Sentinels and the Silver Tribe. Purple and black energy flowed around him, and through him, causing all of his senses to sharpen, and his power to double. He felt his wings become more dense, his body bulkier and his mind quicker. Now, his eyes changed fully, and the chaos fully engulfed him. He was the perfect Ancient specimen, and now he sought to demonstrate it.

He roared again, shaking the very ground, even if he wasn't on it. It was as if sonic waves permeated the air and traveled across to the plains below to move them. Then, Rector let his mouth hang open, and prepared an attack. Normally a bright, white light, the attack began as a strange-color different light, still bright in color, but now also a dark purple. It powered up further, taking energy from the surrounding environment and deep within Rector's body. Then, all at once, the giant Aerodactyl fired this grand, oddly-colored bright Hyper Beam at his opponent.

"Wretched creature, I'll show you who's on top of the food chain," Ragnaros spat, seeing the transformation... he would have to utilize his wits and forge a battle plan, in order to beat an opponent such as this. He evaluated the Aerodactyl, measuring and judging his new appearance. A plan begun taking shape in his mind...

When he saw the powerful beam shoot through the sky, he knew he had no choice. He would have to answer with his own ultimate weapon of destruction, that he saved for circumstances like these... to answer a chaos power possessed Rector's Hyper Beam, he would need his own Hyper Beam.

The Salamence remained in one spot, gathering his energy and opening his jaws. The blinding white blob of condensed power formed on his mouth... the next moment, his white Hyper Beam was shot at the purple colored one, causing an explosion of power and smoke, covering the area. Ragnaros knew his own Hyper Beam couldn't possibly keep up with Rector's. He also knew what Rector expected, that Ragnaros would foolishly keep up on shooting it, in hopes of countering it. Instead, the Salamence shut his jaws too early and jerked to the side, out of the purple Hyper Beam's range; Rector couldn't see him behind the smoke, thinking his Hyper Beam was spot on.

Their eyes, Ragnaros, his mentor would say, Go for the eyes. Find you them not fazed by your attacks? Hand them their eyes, and they will scream...

Ragnaros suddenly dropped from the sky towards Rector from the side, his claws brimming with the fire of dragons once again, in a savage Dragon Claw that was aimed on the Aerodactyl's head, precisely his eyes. He would root out those purple, lifeless eyes and shove them down Rector's throat. A blind Sentinel was as good as a dead one.

Rector, expecting his opponent to be at the other end of the Hyper Beam he shot out, was startled to see the Salamence swooping in from the sky. The Dragon Claw struck at his rock-hard skin, slicing across his face, particularly where his right eye was. The mighty Aerodactyl roared in pain, or perhaps from anger, flying backwards to avoid additional hits while blood flowed from his right eye. He held it closed now, knowing that that eye was useless, if it at all worked anymore. His other one intact, the Aerodactyl backed up some more, and took off into the sky, knowing he wouldn't be able to land any precise hits for a while after such a large amount of energy used with the Hyper Beam. He needed to recharge.

Yet for some reason, his body seemed to have other plans. Without the Ancient Commander's thoughts behind them, his body moved on its own back toward the direction of the Salamence, and the smoke inside of him forced open his mouth. Once again, the Ancient fired off a Hyper Beam, this one being more powerful than the other. Yet the effects of firing two Hyper Beams so close to one another without room to recharge were felt on his body, with tears coming from across his body at the sheer force of the blast. There also began internal scarring, bleeding and burning which the Aerodactyl could barely contain.

Another Hyper Beam, so soon... that, Ragnaros didn't expect. He only had time to let the Dragon Rush kick in again. With a sudden cracking sound, the flames on his hands rose to cover his whole body in the biggest Dragon Rush he had ever used. The Salamence became a living fireball of the sacred dragonfire... then dropped right into the beam, letting out a mighty roar that torn the skies. He clashed head-on with Rector's purple Hyper Beam, which shot through his flames, charring his face and body where it hit. Ragnaros could feel the resistance of the beam slowing his speed and the pain and light blinding him like a curse. He would have fainted, if not for the Dragon Rush... the immense power that was running through and at him caused some of his blue colored skin to detach from his body, leaving monstrous, bloody wounds. Half of his face was burnt away like this, though his ear-scales were left unscathed.

Perhaps he would regret this later, but now he was blinded by pain and and fury. He had gotten closer to the Aerodactyl now... so close, he jerked off the Hyper Beam's range once again, his Dragon Rush dropping instantly. Spinning around violently, and with another roar, he brought his tail hard on Rector's chest. He had noticed that the two Hyper Beams his foe had used had left him weak, his body scarred from the effort to channel such a powerful attack.

Rector was struck with the Salamence's tail, right upon his chest, causing the Aerodactyl to fall over to the ground. The consequences of firing two consecutive Hyper Beams were being felt by his body now. Yet even as the pain swirled around him, the power of the chaos form moved his body up, as if it was possessed by someone else. In fact, it probably was. As Rector rose swifty, he could feel his bones crack from the movement, his body not yet recharged for rapid movement. Yet still, he persisted, and his body seemed to be nearing the end of its life, it didn't seem to register anymore within the mind of the Ancient Commander.

Another roar came out of the Aerodactyl's mouth, but this one was noticeably stained with an echo of pain behind the scream, as if conflicting feelings were in its mind. It pushed itself with everything forward while its body simply wanted to rest. Yet no rest came. Instead, he kicked off the ground with his feet, and furiously flapped his wings, charging in with everything it had for another Giga Impact.

Ragnaros gritted his teeth in what seemed to be a victorious grin, despite the movement causing pain upon the wound on the side of his face. Seeing the damaged Aerodactyl charge recklessly against him once again, he felt his belly stir with the confidence of the winner. He was about to throw the ace he was holding onto this whole fight - a powerful, full fledged Hydro Pump. Before Rector could reach him, Ragnaros unleashed a thick stream of water with extreme pressure that hit the Aerodactyl head on.

The powerful torrent of water collided with him like a train. He felt his skin crack from the impact, showing how damaging water could be to the Ancient. He also felt his Giga Impact coming to an end, no longer able to maintain the necessary strength to land the hit. He was faltering. The Salamence saw that his opponent was soaked to the bone and dove in from the sky in an instant. This was the end.

"You have a warrior's heart," he spat, his features twisted in a fury that made him half-mad. "I think I'll take it!"

He bashed the massive Aerodactyl, taking him to the ground. Jolts of electricity shot out of Ragnaros's fangs, right before he sunk them into Rector's neck. Being soaked from the Hydro Pump, the Ancient had no way of resisting the Thunder Fang. Each fang Ragnaros had sunk into him brought a thunder, a violent spasm, the electricity spreading to his whole body as Ragnaros held him down with his weight. He tasted the blood of the Ancients before he released Rector's neck, to watch him with a wild satisfaction. Sometime ago, that satisfaction would be his bloodlust. Now, it was something else, that he wasn't quite familiar with.

The purple color of the Ancient's remaining eye left it as life slipped away from him. The shadowy energy which engulfed his body earlier visibly left his body, and the energy dissipated into the air, merging with it, until it was gone.

Plains of Valkaria - The Torturehouse Ruins

"The question is, Zane: are you?

Zane's eyes snapped open, the image of the Gold Tribe Pokemon in his head slowly disappearing, and his brain began to attach back to reality and the scene before him. He lay on the ground, injuries he received from the detonation of the torturehouse and the fight with the Deceiver were fresh across his body, but luckily, it seemed that no permanent damage was around. Which meant..

As he looked up, his eyes confirmed that they had successfully done the mass teleportation out of the torturehouse, away from the large building, which Zane saw had a massive chunk gone, and smoke rising swiftly from it. Nearby, he saw Penance, TrueStriker, the Keeper, Sword and Shield, and Gallant all around him, with the many citizens that they ported out. Zane was the only one on the ground, probably having to do with the image he saw in his mind, or perhaps the exhaustion from the fight. The veteran Sawk offered him a hand up, which he accepted.

"Almost there, Vigil," He told him. Indeed, they were close now. But they weren't done yet. He scanned over the bodies of the torturehouse victims, and smiled weakly, thankful that they were able to get out so many from the Silver Crystal's control. But the battle wasn't yet finished. "We should try to move the citizens a bit further away from the battle before we rejoin the fight." He told them, looking on as the battle around the torturehouse proceeded on, even if the giant building was riddled with holes.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

The large explosion from the Torturehouse caught the Zangoose off guard. She watched the brilliant light of the explosion, which distracted her from the two Sentinels presently in front of her. The Jolteon went in once more with a Thunderbolt after Guardia successfully got the Sableye off of her. Surprisingly though, she saw that the Sableye actually was trying to stop the Jolteon from attacking. Guardia lowered her guard for a moment and tilted her head, wondering what he was referring to. But the phrase 'being duped' put a thought into her head. She still kept her fighting stance, but she had to know if the non-Gold Tribe Sentinel new anything.

"I'm guessing you found out about the Silver Crystal and all that, am I right?" She asked him, her body still tense and ready to attack at a moments notice.

Snype and Levina

Snype glanced over to Guardia who seemed to get the idea where Snype was coming from. Snype nodded to Guardia. Seemed like the whole Gold Tribe was in on this thing for all he knew. At least it'd be easy to convince the Gold Tribe that he was really considering going with their side. Levina grew more curious though. "Silver Crystal? The heck is that? Snype you better start explaining!" Levina shouted.

"Alright. Well it kinda goes like this..." Snype explained everything that Penance did, including his battle and just what the Silver Crystal would do to them if they got too close. Levina listened, her ears twitching at the mention of becoming a puppet.

"Snype you have any idea how far fetched that sounds?" Levina said.

"You saw Deciever! He didn't just learn that black smoke stuff out of nowhere! He's not the only one either! We're the only two sentinels that still have our own brains intact! Everybody else listens to Auron like a puppet! That is NOT how I do things! And frankly, I like having this world around. Kehe. I wouldn't do good if I were dead." Snype said. He had a point... but Levina was still finding it hard to believe him.

"...Sounds to me like your just being a cowardly traitor." Levina said with a glare.

"Damnit Levina! Back me up here claw girl!" Snype said, looking over to Guardia.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

When the Sableye who the Jolteon Levina referred to as Snype nodded at her question, it confirmed what she thought. Apparently, he had discovered a part of this entire fiasco somehow. If she could somehow get the two of them to switch over, or to at least deter from fighting from Auron anymore because of the Silver Crystal, it would be a major victory, as two more Sentinels would be out of the picture. But from what she saw, Levina would take a lot more convincing.

Snype laid out everything he knew, Guardia listened as well while keeping a watch on her surroundings. The Ancients were focused more on the battles between Alpha Alliance soldiers than them at the moment, which proved advantageous. She noticed how they were making quite a push now, and how without much Sentinel leadership around, the tide appeared to be turning. In the final battle, things were looking up. Of course, this was from her vantage point only. She had no knowledge of what occurred within the torturehouse, if that group was successful at all.

She listened carefully as the two bickered amongst themselves, and when Snype asked for her assistance in the matter, she crossed her arms, giving a similarly hostile stare to Levina, while also trying to maintain her cool. This had to work. "It's all true. We found out about it after our battle in Albia. And the only way to stop it all is to beat the wielder of the Silver Crystal. To be Auron. The more you hang around the others and Auron, the higher chance you'll have of being puppets like the rest."

She hoped her words would at least begin to deter them. She wasn't much for speaking as she was for action. But now, for one of the first times, she was on the opposite end of things. Maybe the others' influence was rubbing off on her in that way.

Levina was still cautious. The Gold Tribe was in on it too... but she still wasn't sure who to believe. However, who was she to doubt Snype? The guy saved her life after all. If it wasn't for him, then she'd be a corpse back in Cape City. Levina owed him... as much as she hated to admit it. She at least owed him enough to trust his choices. She hated how submissive she was becoming to this scrawny little ghost!

"...I don't like it. But you sound like you know what your doing Snype... fine. I'll follow you on this." Levina said, giving a glare to Guardia. "Besides, I would have won that fight anyways." She said with a smirk. Snype gave a sigh of relief.

"Good. I don't know what's going on with the rest, but we need to help out somehow... the other sentinels are bound to find out we've changed sides sooner or later. So we just gotta kill Auron and we're set then right? We should catch up with the others." Snype said, making it sound like it'd be easy coming out of his mouth. He turned back to Guardia.

"How about you? Where are you headed now?" Snype asked her.

Plains of Valkaria - Silver City Torturehouse Area

Thankfully with the combined efforts of Guardia and Snype, they seemed to have convinced the Jolteon of Auron's plan. Guardia sighed in relief around the same time Snype did, thankful that she was actually able to talk two Sentinels out of fighting. It wasn't usually her style, being the reckless Zangoose that she was, but maybe the sight of battling so close to home, to where her father "Rey" fell, maybe it fueled her to try the diplomatic approach, as he would.

Guardia gritted her teeth and responded under her breath, trying to maintain her cool and her honor at the same time, which wasn't easy. "Heh...you wish Sentinel. I was mopping the floor with you before your buddy here came along."

She then put a claw up to her chin to ponder the question, looking around from the battlefield over to the torturehouse. "This battle isn't done yet. And we have to finish it before we fight Auron. I still need to check on my brothers by the torturehouse too, to see if they're alright, before rejoining the fight." She turned and began to head there, before turning back to the two Sentinels, or perhaps former Sentinels now. "You can come along, if you like," She added. Truthfully, she would have preferred if the two would come with her, so that she would be able to keep an eye on them and make sure they kept their word. If she let them run off by themselves, there was no telling if they would turn and start fighting back in the war again.

Snype nodded to Guardia. Sticking around with her would be a good bet... Levina was still reluctant to be working with Guardia but would just have to deal with it. For Snype's sake anyways. Joining the rest at the torture house would be a good bet. Snype snickered and walked along with Guardia. Snype wasn't really sure what he was thinking. He was a pretty unstable fellow but here, he was thinking rationally... actually stoping fights and everything. He had no idea what was coming over him. It was annoying. Extremely annoying. Maybe he'd work it out by the end of the battle.

"Hate to say it but lead the way. May as well make it known we're with you now. No sense in hiding it anymore..." Snype said with a neutral expression. Levina kept quiet to herself, not really wanting to make any further conversation with Guardia.

"Guess if they're inside, they've run into Deciever by now. Gengar Sentinel of ours. He had a heck of a plan in for them but judging by the explosion, it looks like they got through alright... or not." Snype said.