[PKMN OPEN] Pokémon Odyssey: Search For Cresselia (IC)

Raz, Abel, Penance, and Cal - The Battle at Fort Trantrea

"And so, we shall rain the pants upon them. We shall unbuckle the straight jackets! And cups will be served!"

A Hypno whispered to the Grumpig next to him, "How crazy is this duck?'

"HEY! I heard that! And the answer is... well, I have a title for a reason! Pay attention big heads!" Penance huffed a bit and crossed his arms, "Now you know the basics so don't break it if you can't crack it." He said.

"You gave us a two minute lecture." A Kadabra stated in a dry tone. "We'll never perfect this in due time!"

"Then you have to be fast learners!" Penance quipped back. "Just follow my lead and they'll be ice. We'll probably have to maintain the water park though. Just saying."

"Whatever you did with them, I hope they're ready!" Lieutenant Trace shouted at the Psychics Penance had gathered up. "Get back in formation! Morrians spotted! They're almost here."

From the distance, the beating of drums could be heard. It had begun a few minutes ago, but grew steadily as time passed, to the point where they shook some of the trees around.

"They always do this?" Abel asked Trace from the side of the fortress. Trace turned to him and nodded.

"Common intimidation tactic. That and eating our livers while we're still alive," He replied with a smirk. "Nice mon. They'll be hitting the first set of traps soon enough. You all best brace yourselves," He said to the four of them. He then turned over and shouted to the rest of the Hellguards around. "That goes double for you! Remember your training! No quarter, no mercy! Nothing else matters but to kill them before they kill you!"

At the bottom of the hill, the first peeks of the wild, paint-faced Morrians began to emerge. Their loud shrills and booming roars pierced the air as they tried to bring fear into the hearts of their prey. At the head of the Morrian force walked a Lickitung. The mon's face was painted red and black with all manner of strange markings. It opened up its mouth to reveal its tongue, which had also been painted. The Lickitung had a staff of some sort, and at the end of it held the skulls of dead mon, presumably ones he had killed. It began speaking in a foreign tongue, while stomping its staff and gesturing to the fortress. The other Morrians around seemed to take direction from the Lickitung, and followed his movements.

"HEY BIG TONGUE!" Penance shouted out from the back, "SPEAK SOME FREAKING COMMON!" He sat back and shook his head, "Can't even intimidate correctly. Seriously, you guys are scared of them?" He asked the psychics, "Well no matter. We'll just splatter them with cake." He raised his hands up as he formed a Water Pulse. "Get that power in that. I wanted it five minutes ago!" The duck snapped. "Everyone add but not too much! We need to conserve."

"Stop being so snappy, duck," Raz murmured, wandering over and adjusting his wizard cap, munching away at a kasib berry. "Let's take the time to enjoy the moment. Wonderful day for a slaughter."

"Alright," Cal stepped forward and swept his gaze over the horde coming towards them. "You all know what it is you'll be doing for most of this battle, just make sure you don't tire yourselves out, we can't have anyone taking a nap this time." He looked over at Penance to cement in that he better not overdo it. "Unless there's something we absolutely have to deal with we'll probably have to pursue them if and when they retreat. We can't afford anything long enough to really be called a war, regardless of who kills who Darkrai wins if we fight for too long. Now let's show them that when you get the Gold Tribe to work with the Seekers and the ultimate evil all against you, you dun goofed."

Abel nodded to Cal, and prepared himself for the incoming force. The Morrians seemed to have concluded their chanting ritual, or whatever it was that they were doing, and prepared to strike. The Lickitung seemed to be giving finals words to his own troops as well. There was a lot of screeching and roaring, along with typical chest-pumping and bravado. Wherever he went, Abel noticed that much didn't usually change.

The Morrians spread out across all the corners of the fortress, now fully encircling it from every side. Each side was stacked with Hellguards who were arranged by Commander Darrell to counter whatever they would throw at them. The Lickitung said some final words, and with that, the Morrians made their charge. Theirs was more the rush of beasts than that of an organized force. They sought to overpower their opponents with numbers and brute force rather than planning.

The first set of traps began to pop up. A few Morrian warriors were caught in the vine thickets, maneuvering around them as best as they could to try and get back on the path to the fortress. On another part of the hill, Morrian troops were getting trapped in holes where rocks used to lay, and those that maneuvered around the holes were slowed down by the muddy terrain. Getting up the hill was becoming a nightmare for them.

"They're at the traps, sir," Trace informed Commander Darrell. Darrell nodded.

"Show 'em the catapults," He commanded.

"Ya heard the Commander, rock team, open fire!" Trace yelled. A set of Onix, Gravelers, and other rock Pokemon began throwing the gathered-up rocks from across the forest and chucking them down the hill. The Morrians trapped among the thick trees and muddy water began to be trampled and crushed. The first set of traps were a success, which caused Trace to grin in pride. However, some Morrians survived the traps and began to move forward again. "They're in range of the elemental teams. Everyone, give it your all!"

The teams across the fortress responded. From the west end, fire rained down on the attackers. On the other side, a combination of ice and poison Pokemon sought to further slow and kill anymon they could. Right in the front end, a group of water mon dumped and fired large amounts of water down the hill, followed by a lightning team sending charges along the water. Morrians from every end of the fortress died in a variety of ways. But they continued forward nonetheless. "Give it your all!"

"You heard him boys and girls! Throw throw throw!" Penance shouted out. The water above him began to expand, but far too quickly as it quickly splattered down instead on Penance's head as the psychic energy surged out above them, hitting nothing. "What do you call that! I call it failure!" He snapped. "Again, this time with more passion! More.... feeling!" He held his arms up as the water pulse began to slowly expand. This time he tossed it and it splattered against a group of Morrians, though it was far smaller than his bomb had been. "More feeling!" He snapped. "What do I pay ya for!?"

"You don't pay us at all!" A Gardevoir snapped.

"Well maybe I would if ya weren't angry about it! Feeling! We need passion up in this place!" He crackled as they began readying another Water Bomb.

"Just tell me if you need to call upon my considerable talents." Razathiel said nonchalantly from his position, reclined on the slanted roof of a hut and lazily flicking out fireballs into the oncoming masses. "Just the ultimate evil over here, laying down some, er... ultimate evil..."

Raz's fireballs joined the wide array of other attacks being flung from the fortress down onto the Morrian forces. From all directions, the Morrians came up the hill to reach the fort and in each of those points, they were met with intense resistance. It was easy for Abel to tell how they managed to last so long despite being undermanned and tired. The Hellguards were tough as nails. At least, the ones that were here long enough to survive and adapt. The more fresh recruits seemed lost without the veterans' directions. Abel joined the defense after feeling he prepared enough with Calm Mind. He launched a Psychic at a group of Morrian soldiers, causing them to tumble down the hill. Any of them that weren't disposed of by his attack were flung back into to the other set of traps and quickly fell.

Abel noticed a few of the Morrians, perhaps half a dozen or so, had a different style of face paint than the others. While most of the Morrians had black paint, these ones had a combination of black as well as red across their faces. The Lickitung from earlier was among these 'mon. There was also a Purugly and Bouffolant on the east end of the fort, and a Klinklang and Arbok on the north end. "I think the ones with red and black paint might be the leaders!" Abel shouted to the others, if they would be able to hear him.

"Hellguards, breach at the west gate!" Commander Darrell's voice boomed across Fort Trantrea. Abel turned to see a sizable group of Morrians make it past all of the traps and long-range 'mon attacks and were now battling Hellguard troops across the lower levels of the fortress. "Prepare for close quarters!" He warned them, as Hellguards from nearby sections rushed to that area to assist. Noticing a Luxray with red and black paint also make it into the fort, Abel also ran over to lend a hand.

"ALRIGHT AIM AT THOSE LEADERS! ONE, TWO, THREE, GO!" The Water Bomb shot out as Penance kept up his count, the psychics quickly filling Water Pulse after pulse. "Pick up the pace people! Let's show these savages how we do things around here!" Water cascaded down the hills and psychic power burst out from the pulses that pinned mon down. Penance kept on throwing pulse after pulse, grinning as he saw more of the enemy coming up, "HA, THEY ARE ASKING FOR CAKE! GIVE THEM CAKE! WOOO!"

The psychics stayed in close and as the west gate was breached Penance pointed out, "There! Get them covered!" The new set of water bombs were shot and started drenching the area as psychic power flew out. "Hehehehe! It's a shiskabob!" The mad duck crackled out.

He peered closer and his smile grew, "Yo Luxray seventy two degrees! Fire fire! Boom boom on his ass!" He decreed with more mad laughter. As he readied another Water Pulse, "Get power in here move it! We take him and pass chocolates around!"

Razathiel grinned with glee, sitting up from his reclined position and popping up to take a few quick peeks at the forces still approaching. "Seeing as you don't appear to be entirely useless, I'll leave you to deal with that whilst I deal with... this," He cackled mischievously. "Assassination it is. Take one target and blow them up. Those leaders are as good as soup."

The Dreadmage readied his staff and focused his mind. "I don't like the way that Lickitung was gawping at us. He'd go first - if he weren't holed up in the back like an un-killable prick. F*cking prick." He flipped his staff. "You'll have to do. Meet your end..."

Raz was well aware that the Arbok couldn't hear him, but that didn't stop him from smiling giddily. The Cobra Pokémon was in range of his abilities - as much as the dreadmage enjoyed widespread destruction, there was a certain charm to completely obliterating a single opponent. The Dreadmage first prepared for a moment before firing a Psyshock into the air; it soared easily over the heads of the militia below, far too high for dodging to be necessary. Necessary or... expected. Razathiel popped up for a moment, grabbing a Psychic hold of the Arbok and flinging the creature upwards into the Psyshock's path.

Abel jumped from the level of the fortress he was on and straight into the battle between the Hellguards and the Morrians. He targeted the Luxray straight off the bat, who was busy dodging water pulses being flung at him and his warriors from the others. It was a good enough distraction for Abel to hit him directly across the face with a Focus Blast. The power fighting attack struck the Luxray without any resistance and sent him back across the fortress and into a wall. He began fighting other Morrians nearby, but out of the corner of his vision he noticed the Luxray slowly getting up. He was a tough one.

The Arbok's eyes opened wide with shock and bewilderment when she was suddenly raised up and flung into the air. Before it could try to wriggle free or fight off the sudden rise into the air, she was hit directly by the powerful Psyshock coming at her and tossed through the forest like a rag doll. The Arbok seemed quite damaged, but hissed loudly and stumbled back up the hill again with a slight limp in its slither.

The Klinklang beside the Arbok, seemingly angry, suddenly made it to the wall along with another group of Morrians. The Kinklang used a Gear Grind along the wall, the first hit damaging the fortress and the second one breaking apart the rocks well enough to make a hole to climb in. Morrians began piling in on the north side, Jerut of the Seekers, as well as a large group of Hellguards, making their way down the hill to try and hold them off.

From the east end of the Fortress, the Bouffalant leader smashed against the wall with a Take Down, accompanied by a team of Tauros, which also broke apart the wall on that end enough for Morrians to climb through. The Bouffalant and Purugly also made their way inside Fort Trantrea. "Stop their entrance into the fort!" Lieutenant Trace ordered, as he proceeded down to the east end, along with another large group of Hellguards including Andrea.

The Lickitung began to make his move from behind. Proceeding with a large group of Heatmor, a similar tactic as was used before, the fire 'mon began burning at the fortress, trying to melt it or weaken it's integrity. The fortress held strong from the attacks despite the intensity of the heat, with both sides firing away their most powerful attacks they could manage. The Heatmor team advanced enough, and then rocks began to be flung across the wall on the south end in an attempt to bring it down. Rocks were flung back at the Morrians from the rock team among the Hellguards. However, because of the melted and damaged portion of the wall from the fire, the rocks managed to break apart portions of the wall to allow Morrian forces to invade. The Lickitung leader screeched and proceeded into the openings along with his Morrian warriors. They were met by the Hellguards on defense, including Commander Darrell. Across across Fort Trantrea, the Morrians were making their way inside. But they were met with heavy resistance from the Hellguards. They weren't giving this place up without one hell of a fight.

"Abel!" Cal shouted while he flung a Rhyhorn back down one of the hills, rolling him like a boulder to crush a few more Morrians in his path. As soon as he had a moment to breathe he flew closer to make sure his comrade could hear him. "You're better suited to fighting indoors than I am, go slow down that Bouffalant and Purugly if you can, I've had about all I can stand of that Lickitung!"

As soon as the Dragonite made his position clear it was time for a bit of precise flying. He made his way into the fortress through one of the friendly-held side entrances and managed to rocket down a few hallways without scraping the walls or crashing into anything until he heard the racket he was looking for. The Lickitung's charge hadn't gone too far into the fortress before being halted by bulwark of Hellguards taking advantage of the tight quarters to make the Morrians' numbers meaningless. Cal gathered up a large amount of energy within his body and then focused it all into his wings, giving them a white sheen before shouting "Hellguards, duck!" and shooting down the hallway almost fast enough to scrape the sound barrier.

Most of the hellguards had their wits about them enough to heed Cal's warning, and those who didn't were pushed down by those who did. Mere seconds later he blasted through the clogged mass of Morrians, knocking aside all of them and breaking plenty of bones before finally slamming into the Lickitung and taking him right back out the way he'd brought his forces in. The two didn't fly very far before the Lickitung did what they do best and licked along Cal's face and one of his arms, causing pain and a strange tingling sensation with a bit of numbness with that strange quality some mon seemed to have. The lick alone wouldn't be enough but halfway through the attack the Lickitung started to sear wherever it's tongue went with a powerful Flamethrower.

Cal finally let go of his opponent and they both tumbled a good few feet before scrambling upright and facing each other. When they finally began to attack each other starting with simple punches the Hellguards knew better than to interfere in such close combat and only a few Morrians made the mistake of getting crushed in the crossfire before a circular gap in the mass of fighting bodies formed around the two. At first the Lickitung actually matched Cal punch for punch, he was amazed by it's strength, Lickitungs are known for really being able to take a hit, not dish them out so efficiently as well. It seemed like Cal had the advantage for a moment when he scored an Ice Punch across the Lickitung's face, only for it to easily melt the frost with another flamethrower before it surprised him by barely missing a spit of acid aimed at his wings.

When the Lickitung used it's namesake on the Dragonite once again his left arm went completely numb, but he also grew furious and called upon all the raw physical strength he had. Cal roared towards the sky and rocks began to float into the air and scatter around him when the Superpower flowed through him. Before the Lickitung could prepare another attack he raised his right fist into the air and conked his enemy hard enough to stagger and disorient him, following up by grabbing his tongue and pulling him into the air. Cal used another Extremespeed exclusively in his wings to soar far above the battlefield in just a few seconds and suddenly made a complete U-turn, using letting gravity carry him down even faster than he was already moving and keeping the Superpower going in his arms and finally throwing the Lickitung straight down into the ground just before pulling up and avoiding the same fate. The Lickitung had been thrown so hard he'd actually made a crater big enough that other overzealous Morrians were falling into it as they charged.

Penance smirked and held up his arms once more, "We're doing something different boys and girls! Keep up your psychic! Expand the ball but keep it floating! This is going to go down in the history books as being one hundred percent better than Cal's stuff! Cause he's green and blue is far better than green."

A Hypno frowned, "How do you even function?"

"On cake and that isn't a lie! Come on now and build with me!" He giggled out. All at once the psychics poured bits of power into the Water Pulse above Penance's head. It began to expand, but it was nowhere near close to large when Penance stopped them. "Now... we capture!"

"... Capture?" A Kadabra asked. "What are we doing?"

"You'll ruin the surprise!" The Golduck snapped, "Just follow with the groove!" He narrowed his eyes at the various mon and grinned, "Let's dive!" The bigger water sphere dived down, this time at the Bouffolant to grab it up. The steel type shook about in it as the psychics grunted, "He's tough!"

"Keep at it!" He said, "One more... and there we go!" The sphere flew down, grabbing the Purugly as well. He smirked wider as the ball floated up. "This is a strain!" The Hypno cried out.

"Higher... now!" At once the psychics released their grip on the ball as it came crashing down. Both captured leaders fell against the ground as water and psychic energy leaked out. "Sore!" Penance crackled.

The Buoffolant and Purugly both collided on the ground and seemed down for the count. The Lickitung that Callimer fought seemed to be dealt with as well. It was noticed that in the areas where the red-painted 'mon fell, the Morrians seemed a bit more distressed, less organized, and more confused. Abel thought that perhaps because they were near feral, they lacked the capacity to follow instructions without their leaders guiding them. Instead, their attacks were more random and unfocused. It still didn't change the fact that Hellguards were dying throughout the Fortress just by the sheer number of Morrians. However, the Morrians appeared to be losing much more simply due to the fact that the Hellguards' leaders fought beside them, and that the opposing leaders were being taken out. Seeing that his comrades came through on their ends, Abel decided to do the same.

The Luxray was already back on his feet, having slaughtered a Hellguard soldier by ripping off a chunk of his neck with a powerful Crunch. Abel charged in, readying his palms to strike at the Luxray with a Brick Break. His fist palm missed as the Luxray dodged the blow by leaping to the Medicham's right. The feral Morrian leader then pounced at Abel, knocking him down from his feet as he tried to go for the Gold Tribesman's neck as he did the other Hellguard soldiers. Abel managed to prevent that from happening by grabbing hold of the Luxray's neck and keeping it at bay. The two 'mon struggled on the ground for a while, with the Luxray's fangs travelling closer and closer to the Medicham's neck. The first tooth partially pierced his neck, drawing blood. At this point, he knew he had to take the beast off, so he put all his energy into his hind legs and kicked the beast off of him and over the front of his body.

Abel did a quick kip up to his feet to see the Luxray mostly recovered from his kicks and proceeding in for another charge. This time, Abel stood his ground, and stuck out both of his arms. He took in a deep breath and calmed himself, and allowed the Luxray to run right into him. When the beast leaped through the air again, Abel released his Focus Blast which he built up in his arms. The blast blew out of his arms the moment the Luxray was a few feet in front of Abel, causing the blast to erupt right across the Luxray's body. It screeched in agony as his body was ripped and crushed to shreds by the intensity of the Focus Blast. He fell back on the ground, struggling to make sense of its injuries. Before it had a chance to try and get up and launch a counterattack, Abel stormed at the beast, positioned one of his palms right at the beast's head, and slammed a Brick Break right into the beast's skull, crushing it with one powerful blow.

Razathiel, meanwhile, was humming a little tune to himself as, every now and then, he flung missiles of fire, magic or psychic energy into the fray as he kept an eye out for the Morrian leaders. He hadn't quite gone as far as to bring an orchestra out of his Magic Room - yet - but it was clear enough to see that the wizard was a little bit giddy, nonetheless. He stopped suddenly, spotting a war-painted Klinklang to his right - jumping to higher ground, he spun his staff. Raz's Hidden Power formed a fireball in front of him, which the Dreadmage promptly brought down upon the Steel 'mon.

The Klinklang was struck directly by the ball of fire and forced to the back of the fortress. Part of its metal skin burned from the impact, but the Klinklang, like the Arbok before it, was resilient. He was joined again by the Arbok, the two appearing to be injured but continued to press on as if they fought with no regard for their own lives but every regard to kill those before them. The other Morrians were distraught at the falling of the other leaders, but rallied around the last two as they continued to push forward and slaughter any that stood before them.

"Oh? So you're going to be like that, are you?!" The Dreadmage bristled with anger - he would not be ignored by anyone, let alone an enemy he was facing in combat. Then came determination; he composed himself, calling on his psychic and magical energies. "You would be wise to snap out of your trance of ignorance that you might witness your demise! Before your very eyes, your realities shall shatter and your souls will burn in the fires of hell! For I am Razathiel the Dreadmage, and I bring about your fate with thundering arcane fury!"

With his speech completed and energy now brimming in his fingertips, the villainous Ralts flung his staff to his side. His eyes opened, glowing fiercely red with Psychic energies, before his arms flung out, drawing out and shaping energies before flinging them at the Morrians below. Blasts of psychic energy, some crackling with menace and others simply waves of pure force - including one particularly menacing Psyshock aimed at the base of the Arbok's neck - flew down and connected in explosions of purple light. Fire and lightning shot out in almost equal measure, frying Water types and searing the already injured Klinklang.

Penance resumed holding his hands up as the psychics continued with their onslaught. Still, that water sphere trick had weakened them a bit, enough so that they were forming smaller Water Bombs as to not become too tired. There was still a crowd of Morrians left and they needed to do everything in their power to quickly slice down their numbers. Penance glanced amid the field, chuckling evilly as he saw more and more of their foes falling.

"Okay! We pepper spray them! Light and nice!"

He lowered his arms and began forming Water Pulses in his hands that the threw out at the group, "You all break and butter if need be!"

The psychics glanced among each other, a bit confused by the wording. They instead began to shoot out their own attacks at the Morrians.

The Arbok's head had been cut clean off of the leader's body. It flew threw the air and slammed right into the face of another Morrian Raticate. It fell down temporarily, and upon seeing the head of its leader lying beside it, shrilled and roared and attacked everything that moved. The same occurred when Raz brought down the last leader as well, the Klinklang. The Morrians continued to fight, but not with the same unison and cohesion they had moments before. It seemed that their gamble to aim for the heads payed off, as fighting became a bit easier since the enemy used no tactics anymore.

Abel, Raz, and Penance - Fort Trantrea, Tollen

The sun slowly began to rise again as Abel brought down one of the last of the Morrian bodies with another Brick Break. He crushed the Miltank's skull with the blow, before collapsing beside the beast on the ground. Abel was drenched in blood, most of it not his own. But it seemed like every muscle and bone in his body ached from exhaustion. The battle had continued long into the night and through to the next day, with the Morrians not retreating or letting up one bit despite their leaders deaths. However, he did notice that killing those leaders made the rest of the battle significantly easier. The Morrians were undisciplined, tactless, and unperceptive. They abandoned any plans or formations they had and instantly aimed to kill anything that moved, even on some occasions their own forces. Had the leaders still been present, Abel wasn't sure that they would have won.

But victory didn't come without sacrifices. Abel looked around Fort Trantrea and saw a broken fortress. Approximately half of the Hellguards stationed there had been killed in battle, and a third of the remaining forces were injured. On the brighter side, it seemed most of the notable individuals had survive the battle. Jerut and Andrea were both alive and well, as was Commander Darrell. Lieutenant Trace suffered a minor injury to his shoulder but also survived. Lieutenant Trace headed over to Abel now. He greeted the Medicham with a nod, and offered him a hand to his feet. "First time in a Morrian battle?" Trace asked.

Abel accepted the hand and rose shakily to his feet. He grunted a bit as he made his way up. "... Not one of them retreated. Not even when their leaders fell. I don't think I've ever fought with a force like that," He replied.

Trace shook his head, looking around the fortress at the innumerable dead which littered it. "Morrian war parties never retreat. Not until every single one of their enemies are dead, or every single one of them are."

"Then why did the first force retreat earlier?" Abel questioned the Vileplume.

"Believe it or not, that was a scouting party, not a war party," Trace replied. "Their job is to scout out a battle ahead of time to see the enemy they'll meet later on. They'll return to the main war party and join them, and then come back to finish the job," The Vileplume looked around the Fortress and sighed. "That's why the Commander is fighting here instead of fighting against the Pentosarrs in the Northwest or the Bandit Clans in the south. In every major Morrian battle, either they all die, or we do."

Abel shook his head at the information Trace provided. It was no wonder so many of the Hellguards in this area were shaken up. The ones that were here a long time must have survived countless battles where the Morrian forces didn't retreat until the last 'mon. Seeing so much death in succession could have severe side effects.

"Come on, let's get to the inner fortress and assess the damage," Trace stated, making his way through the fortress. Abel moved his feet forward, but felt a sting with each step. "We're bringing in all the wounded to get treatment inside. Looks like your friends are all relatively OK." The two proceeded into main chambers of the fortress. A lot of 'mon were around in tremendous pain as Blisseys and Chanseys were treating them the best that they could. Abel tried to avoid contact with them, instead walking up to Commander Darrell, Jerut, Andrea, Penance, Raz and Callimer.

"Looks like we're all in one piece." Abel stated.

Penance had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot. "Yeah, we can't stay here." He said as he looked back, "The cake is ripped wide open, and we have no doughnuts to patch it up." He muttered angrily, "Unless cream is splattered then we'll have to swim."

"Quiet, Penance." Razathiel snapped. "You're making me peckish."

"You're such a Guardia." Penance muttered back.

"Don't compare me to Guardia." The wizard said, offended. "Not even you deserve that. I'll have you know the last person who compared me to Guardia was probably murdered horribly in some kind of fashion - I don't remember if it happened, of course, but it's the most likely outcome. Me being so evil, and all."

"We're in no position to move right now," Commander Darrell responded to Penance, ignoring the rest of the exchange between the Ralts and Golduck. "Not at least until we recover. But I agree when we do, staying here might not be the best solution. That being said, we might have some options. Sometimes Morrians send one 'mon back to the main camp to report on the battle. I tagged the one escaping and have two of my scouts tracking him. With the Morrians launching such a huge force at us, it's likely the scouts will lead us right to their main base in this part of Tollen. While they're still recovering from this loss, now might be as good a time as any to launch a counterattack. It'd be the first chance we got to do one since the beginning of this conflict," Commander Darrell explain.

"On the other side of things, we lost a lot of 'mon today, and a lot more could be lost since we aren't anywhere near our full strength. I've sent a few scouts further west and south to secure us roots to retreat to Mielena, a relatively large village. We can retreat there when we're capable, and regroup with any surrounding Hellguard forces. From there, we can plan out our next move."

As Darrell finished speaking, the same Tailow scout who had come to him before frantically flew into the fortress and up to the Commander. It clutched a message in his hands, which the Feraligatr Commander took and read to himself. He sighed deeply. "Well, more good news. The village that was under attack earlier, Neirotta, was taken by the Morrians. Few survivors. The noble that was there has apparently been killed as well. I wouldn't see too much value going there now, but it is another option as well. Seeing as you four have helped us tremendously in this last battle, I thought I'd give you guys a chance to voice your opinions."

"We star and recover." Penance said quickly. "Little supplies doesn't do the baker's dozen much of a service. Recover, then head out. Our light will have to shine elsewhere." He tilted his head for a bit, "As to where... it's simple. We go to the city proper." He looked at Darrell, "Face it commander, if we stay out here and try and swallow our dignity and just push on we'll end up losing more and more men. They'll become twinkies out there. All mon have to rest and with three armies out there we'll have little chance of rest and recovery. By getting to the city we can alert anyone in there that no recruits are coming in and that there is large army out here. This sounds like a cover up to me."

The Golduck crossed his arms, "And chaos too... " He looked right at his Seekers, "Separate an army from recruits... just as an army heads in... separate a city from any sort of help that other cities could give it..." He looked at Darrell, "Let me ask, why have no new recruits come in? Why did communications stop? Was it by the will of someone in Tollen's capital that you die? Cause we have received messages from them lately."

He narrowed his eyes, "I've been informed my Seekers have been sent out here in the droves, one by one to be killed off. Slaughtered by someone in Tollen. Someone who is allied with Darkrai and I won't hold back my anger now." His eyes softly glowed a deep purple hue, "Our homeland is attacked and the only damn reason we are here now is because a Seeker is looking out for your lot in the city! If it wasn't for him you all wouldn't have had us here, and who knows how many lives would have been lost!?"

His eyes glowed just a bright brighter, "And my mood was ruined back in Valkaria thanks to that stupid Gabe! Stupid frog! Oh, I'm such a bad ass." Penance muttered as he fell into a mocking tone, "Look at my tongue, look at how hard I kick ass. Blah blah blah!" He rubbed at his forehead as he let out a stressed sigh, "The only reason... we are here is because of my organization." The duck said as he let his hands ball into fists as he stared at Darrell before pointing right at him, "We're here, because of what I laid down. Theoretically speaking, you're my b**ch. Get your troops rested and we're going to Tollen proper, that's what I say."

Razathiel glanced up for a moment, a pot in his hands as he closed his Magic Room. "Assorted berries, anyone?"

"What did you say to the Commander?" Lieutenant Trace asked fervently. "I ought rip out your stupid tongue an-"

"It's alright, Trace," Darrell interjected as he rose his arm to stay the Vileplume.

"I asked if he wanted any assorted berries; don't you use that tone with me." Raz snapped, taking little notice of the situation as he dug around in his berry pot.

"I was talkin' to the Golduck!" Trace yelled at the Ralts.

"And I was talking about berries. Honestly, you people should learn to be a little more considerate."

Trace rolled his eyes and stepped back. Darrell turned to the Golduck and spoke up. "I appreciate what you've done for my own, which is why I'm listening to your advise at this point. But going to the capital is a terrible move in my opinion for three main reasons: One, if we turn back now, all the ground we gained and held against the Morrians would have been for nothing. And we could be spoiling the chance of landing a critical blow on them. Two, if we head towards the capital now with our entire force, what happens to all the other hundreds of villages between here and there? The capital has the most population in one concentrated area, but more than half of the entire population of Tollen live outside of it! And who will protect them? The only reasons I've stayed here so long with my hellguards is that if I leave here, not only will my hellguards die, but so will all of those civilians. Three, and probably most importantly, think back on how long it likely took you to get from across the river from Beatruce into Tollen. The entire night, right? Wanna take a guess on how long it'll take us to get our entire force from here to Argime through the jungles? It'll likely be three days, minimum."

Darrell sighed and shook his head. "Because you saved my men, I'll take your opnion into consideration. But for me, the fight's been here. We'll likely never get a better chance to stop the Morrians than now."

Jerut and Andrea exchanged a glance. Andrea pondered something to herself then muttered. "Stupid frog? Gabe? Sounds like that Gabriel guy to me..."

"Hm?" Penance looked at Andrea, "You know this Gabe? Is he from here?" He asked as he got closer to her, "Andrea, what do you know of Gabe? I have been trying to comb the Seeker ranks for any information on this guy. Right now he's Darkrai's right hand man and led troops right into Valkaria. I have no idea how he got such an army... but his army was very strong full of people who infiltrated the city. If you know where he is or where he came from... give that to me now. Please."

Andrea passed on what knowledge she knew, about a member of the Royal Knights named Gabriel had begun to help people afflicted with the disease, and how he was actually successful it seemed. This was, as she explained, one of the first times someone had been successful in fighting the disease.

"Not good." Penance muttered. "It has to be the same Gabe... if he's here then no good things can be happening." He pointed to his two Seekers, "We're getting to the bottom of this. We'll have to stay then, but we'll lay traps as well. No telling what this Gabe will do." He said.

Darrell, seeing that the conversation was starting to take a shift from its original purpose, sighed and spoke up. "Well, it seems that it might be better if we rest first, and then decide what to do later. I'll come find you," He declared, before he proceeded to walk away. However, as if remembering something, Darrell turned around one more time. "Oh, by the way, we found someone unconscious close to the forest. It was a Gardevoir. He wasn't wearing any clothing, so we thought it was a Morrian at first. But he also wasn't wearing any face paint, which means we thought he could be with you. Did you come with anyone else?" He asked.

"Doesn't sound familiar, but it's worth a look," Abel replied with a shrug.

"He's just down the end of the room. Last I checked I think he was stirring."

"What?!" Guardia exclaimed to Thomas with a look like she had just seen Darkrai herself. "You mean that was the same 'mon from Gold City?!" Guardia lowered her head and clenched her claws. She felt her blood rushing to her head, which made her feel a bit dizzy. She suddenly connected what the Greninja said during the assembly. "Wait, does that man... the old Mienshao he mention... Scar?" Her eyes turned to Thomas in worry.

"... I'm sorry, Guardia," Thomas said with a frown. He knew no other words to comfort her at the moment. Every one of them had someone on the other side of the that Network, still fighting for their lives in Gold City. He looked around the room to try and take his mind off that place. After the meeting, Rupert the Mr. Mime brought the group to their chambers inside of the palace. They were larger than Lord Marrow's, but had a similar style, minus the crest of House Ellia. The sheets were of emerald color with the insignia of the palace upon them. The floor was decorated with an intricate design similar to the outside of the palace. The walls were lined with paintings and sculptures of different kinds.

There was a sculpture of the bust of the late King Sofon, a Granbull. Guardia, who saw Thomas examining some of the designs to the room, also looked on. She recalled meeting the King so long ago. She never had a chance to meet the current Queen because she was always outside of the capital studying, but Sofon was always a generous 'mon. She couldn't help but imagine how different things could have turned out if he were alive.

Another painting along the wall caught her eye. It was that of a large Skarmory who was clad in bright emerald armor. He was a member of the Royal Knights. He was standing in some part of Argime, it seemed, which was surrounded by older homes and shops. However, directly behind him in the painting was a rather large building, perhaps a museum or catacombs of some sort. Maybe a library. Directly under the painting was a caption of the picture, followed by the name of the 'mon pictured, and a date: "All History is Raegal." Zachary Orthanius, 361, Age of Narron. Guardia cocked an eyebrow at the word: Raegal. It seemed like they misspelled 'regal'. Or maybe that's how it was spelled in Tollen.

Thomas broke the silence when he began to speak again. "What I just don't understand is why?" Thomas said. "Why allow us to stay? He could get rid of us all now and make it easier for him."

Joshua looked at Guardia briefly, glancing at the art before turning back to his superior. "Forgive my abruptness, but this is really not the time to be appreciating the art." He looked at the picture of the Skarmory for a brief second, almost distracted himself. "Oh, what a marvelous shading technique- gah!" The Swadloon shook his head once, realizing he should have taken his own advice.

He turned his attention to Thomas' question. "You're guess is as good as mine. Maybe make our deaths more humiliating? Oh, I know, they can organize a parade and drag us to a public execution! Won't that be glorious?" The Swadloon began to ramble to himself again. It was clear the stress was beginning to wear on his mental sanity.

Thomas didn't want to admit it out loud, but part of him agreed with Joshua. He wanted to say it wasn't Gabriel's style to do that, but he wasn't sure he even knew who the 'mon was anymore. Perhaps he never really knew. "Maybe he's using our appearance here to further one of his own goals?"

Guardia thought for a moment, then replied. "Thirty years ago, Darkrai, or rather the Sentinels, did manipulate us into retaking our home for the purpose of spreading chaos. He could have tried to get the Sentinels to attack us at anytime, but chose to keep us around to help lead the armies to victory. We won practically every battle we fought, but it didn't come without tremendous resistance from the other side. The result was Darkrai gaining enough power through the chaos to be freed from his prison. I could be wrong, but maybe he's doing something similar here."

"Maybe, but wasn't his purpose for gaining power just so he could break free of his prison?" Thomas questioned. "What is his motivation now? Just simply to gain power? I suppose it's possible... this would be the quickest way."

"Well, whatever his motivation, it seems we're doomed either way." The Swadloon pulled his Tollenian jacket tight against his body, shivering in slight fear. "What are we going to do? This is not how I planned things... everything is going so wrong so fast!"

"Well, I suppose it was well enough that we didn't mention... the other part of our plan," Thomas began. "It was just on a whim, but it seems to me that Gabriel has only just arrived in Tollen. And when I heard the others speak, none of them mentioned anything about Cresselia. Which means for whatever reason, Lord Marrow did not tell them specifically about it. Maybe... maybe he doesn't know yet about that."

"Yeah, and how long before Marrow tells him?" Guardia asked. "You saw how he sat on the throne!"

"I did," Thomas replied with a sigh. "But if he spoke with the authority of the Queen, he would have been able to expel us without consulting anyone else. No, it seems to me he has simply garnered the approval of the Queen to sit on the Throne in her absence. It has been done a few times in Tollen's past as a symbol that there will always be someone to protect Argime, even if the Royal Family cannot. It's largely ceremonial, but it considered a great honor. So while he doesn't hold all of the power here, he does hold a tremendous amount of respect."

"Except he didn't even vote to throw us out," Joshua added, panicky feelings rising up anew. He fought them off, but just barely, clinging to his warm Tollen jacket as a child to a blanket. "What is he planning? What are they going to do? What are wegoing to do? I'm so confused!"

Guardia shook her head. She wished she had the answer to Joshua's question, but she didn't. "Whatever his reasons for keeping us here, it can't be go-" Guardia was interrupted by the soft knocking on their chamber doors. The doors cracked open a few seconds after the knocks came, and the Mr. Mime poked his head through. "Good day, gentlemon and milady," He greeted with a small bow. "I haven't had a chance to introduce myself. I am Rupert, royal aide to the Queen of Tollen, long may she reign. Might I have a word?"

Joshua immediately froze, unsure of what to do next. "I, uh... sure! O-of course!" he stammered, trying his best to look as dignified as possible.

Rupert smiled and walked inside, careful to close the door behind him. "I must say, what an... eventful few days it has been," He began. His hand subconsciously went to his neck as he recalled being attacked yesterday in the palace. "I was instructed to inform you that you have a few 'mon who wish to meet with you privately. Lord Arron of House Durania, Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent, Deputy Commander Elewyn of the Royal Knights and Royal Commander Gabriel would all like to meet with you individually. All of these requests came at around the same time, so they didn't mind leaving it up to you to decide with whom you would like to meet first. What is your answer?"

Joshua glanced at Thomas, Guardia, and Anna in turn, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

Thomas felt a sweat drop down his spine when he heard that Gabriel wanted to meet as well. He couldn't imagine what was the story behind that. He pondered for a moment, then spoke up. "Well... we wanted to approach this from the nobility since the beginning, so I think meeting with them first would be best. Of the two, Lord Caellen or Lord Arron, I am not sure."

"Lord Arron would be my choice," Anna answered, recalling the Lord's reaction during the meeting. Her nerves were still shaken from what Thomas had told the group about Gabriel. Her reactions--though much more inward--were very similar to Joshua's. Along with their plans to convince the Lords, Anna was considering possible escape routes. She would have to be calm (as best as she could) for now, but she couldn't imagine a moment here where her anxiety wouldn't linger.

"Hmm, yes, I can agree with that," Thomas said with a nod. "Is everyone else fine with that choice?" He asked the others.

"I guess it's as good a place as any to start," Guardia replied with a shrug. "Really, I'm good with anything you guys suggest."

After everyone seemed to be in agreement, Guardia nodded to Rupert, who smiled gleefully. "Very well then! I shall arrange for Lord Arron's immediate arrival!" He pipped. He gave the group a respectful nod and departed.

Penance: Master Reassurer​

"Oh, man," Jerut groaned as he finally dropped onto his behind when the others left to talk to the mystery 'mon. He exhaled sharply and shook his head. He could feel every inch of his body throb from the battle during the night. "I'm beat. Helluva fight that was. I could sure use a nice, long break but... well chances are even now we're not gettin' one."

"Not for long," Andrea concurred. She was just as tired as Jerut was, but preferred to stand. She didn't like others getting a slight glimpse of her weakness, even allies. "In a few more days, we'll be in another firefight just as terrifying, just as big. The nightmare's never going to end for us."

"Jeez, Andrea, do you have to be so damn... gloomy?" Jerut asked from the floor. He placed his palms along the ground and observed around the area, relaxing while he still could.

"Cause she's right." Penance muttered as he stopped his pacing. "I've thought... I get a guess. Of course Vanna isn't going to be calling out any letters!" He said as he burst into laughter. He looked over at the wall and began to scratch upon it. "Darkrai exists for chaos. So you two, Gabe came to Valkaria just this month. He attacked with a army that was totally loyal to Darkrai. There were plenty of powerful people there that infiltrated the city. It's my belief that Gabe, or a friend of his, somehow has amassed power in Tollen. Andrea you did say that he was curing the plague. That means lots of power from whoever he saves. Meaning people would be grateful to him and be open to offering him anything. Or they could be so grateful to him that he's able to get a few favors for, say, a buddy working for him in the government."

Penance wrote out the names of the countries, "What if Gabe, or whoever he works for, got so powerful the entire army follows them? What if they've managed to warp everyone's mind in Tollen so much so that they will do whatever they says? Add in a bit of mind controlling corruption from Darkrai and you have an entire country full of loyal Darkrai followers. First step is simply, seize control, then to train up anyone they recruit. Then.. port them out to other places. Darkrai and his army didn't just walk on over from the horizon into Valkaria, they were PORTED in there. Gabriel has kept a SEC network port open. At first we only got a few messages of 'we're fine don't bother us we're keeping your SEC mumbo jumbo. Then they appear outside the city walls. They had to have someone port them in."

He sighed, "A full year under Gabe could have allowed him to entirely brainwash the psychics there, or threaten them to serve him or else. For all I know he could have forced them to teach other psychics in Tollen how to port people around. Suddenly hundreds of porting psychics exist in the city and all work to send a massive army to cause as much chaos as he can. It's why he got rid of the Seekers and sent you all out to die." He looked at his two Seekers, "Either him, or someone else loyal to Darkrai made sure you all left so that you couldn't fight against the orders and bring some sense of order to the population. I mean think of it, if someone the people highly respect tells them that Darkrai is all fine that's one thing. He could even have them thinking that the other countries sent in the disease in the first place to ensure they would join his army. Make them think Darkrai is looking out for them and all those stories about him are lies."

He crossed his arms, "Beatruce is also experiencing a plague right now. With the SEC kept here it makes sense too. One Gabe ensures the psychics' loyalty, grab someone hit by the disease, toss them into Beautruce, and then let the plague happen all over again. Someone else comes in to 'save' Beautruce and that region ends up enslaved to Darkrai too. Repeat over and over..." He rubbed his forehead. "And of course, as a backup in case that plan doesn't work, Gabe announces himself wherever he goes! Eventually every country he visits finds out who he is, and guess what?"

He quickly drew arrows from each country that pointed right at Tollen, "They decide to believe Tollen is under Darkrai's control... and they come and siege. It'll be a second Gold City. This city is impenetrable! It'll only cause chaos all around. With both sieges going on at the same time... it'll be a power feast for Darkrai... that clever bastard..."

"Well... dang," Jerut muttered. "And I thought we had it bad over here... this is all... kinda overwhelming, ya know? I mean, I joined the Seekers cause I thought it was a good idea but man... this is like, world-changing here. I can't believe this Gabe guy is pulling all of this off! Who the hell is he?"

"He's a Royal Knight, I heard," Andrea replied with a shrug. "Just a Royal Knight. Nobody really knew a lot about him, even the other Seekers with me at the time."

"He could be someone either from Tollen, or someone Darkrai implanted." Penance's eye shifted to a silver color as Brynn sighed, "This is just freaking fantastic." He muttered. "It's going to be a tough job either way. You two remember those stories spoke of? Rey back in Valkaria? Could be the same with Gabe. Could be Darkrai met Gabe, and has so much power over him he's no longer Gabe, but Darkrai himself. A puppeteer that uses the frog as a mouth piece." He rubbed at his temples, "We have to get into Tollen proper, now. Somehow we have to stop him."

"... So you really want us to go to Argime, then?" Andrea questioned. "It's a long way from here. And it'll be slower with the entire force moving. Unless you planned on just going with your group...?"

Brynn was silent for a bit, "... Here." He quickly wrote on the wall.

Positives. Negatives.

He drew a line between the two and pointed at the seekers, "Positives and negatives to leaving. Go."

"Uh... positives. We get the hell outta this hellhole. No more fighting, no more living day by day, hour by hour. We can finally just relax for a change!" Jerut pipped up. He hadn't seen Argime in months. "We can let everyone know about Gabe and stop what's going on over there. I can... we can see our friends and family again."

Andrea sighed and walked over to the wall, examining it. "Negatives. If we leave, all the ground we've kept and held will be lost. If we leave now, we lose our best chance at taking back Hellbase. We lose any chance for a counterattack as well. Morrians get the footing here. They'll start slaughtering our citizens without interference. And do worse. Plus, it'll take three days on foot to get there. And to top it off, even if we do go back now, do we really have any solid evidence that Gabe is behind this besides you guys seeing him at Valkaria?"

Brynn wrote down the items and nodded. She crossed out several of Jerut's key points. "Unfortunately we'll need to fight there still to get rid of Gabe no doubt. We won't be able to relax, and seeing family and friends aren't priorities." She looked at the negatives, "Hm... Penance agrees here. He doesn't like it... but we're in agreement. We're staying." Brynn crossed his arms and glanced over the bulleted items again, "Alright, I need this." He turned to the two, "I need to know if any seekers remain here. I know you said that many were dead, but if there is at least one left I need to know. I also need plans of Hellbase. If you can't supply plans then we'll need to see some memories so Penance can make an accurate representation of a map. We need to get some order in here and plan." He nodded at the two, "Get moving quickly and... " The silverly glint faded as Penance smiled warmly, "Glad you two are safe."

Andrea nodded and proceeded off. Jerut looked up at Penance from the ground and sighed. "Yeah... I just wish I was safer," He stood up slowly and Penance held out a hand, "Jerut." He said as he gestured to a seat, "Here, sit with me."

Jerut accepted the hand and stood up with the Golduck, before proceeding to the seat. He collapsed into it and exhaled again. "Sorry, err... boss. I know what you did for me and all, but I'm not much of a soldier out here. I just... I really just wanna go home. Or just hear my friends and families voices again. Yeah, that'd be nice."

The Golduck put his hands on the mon's shoulders, a genuine smile on his face, "You know... I'm sick." He gave a weak shrug, "I'm a weak old thing. Back in my youth... back when I was more illicit in the side of the law I lost many friends. I... ran away. I sobbed that day and ran away. I thought it was over it. A few years later it happened again. I lost a whole team... and bad things happened." He pulled Jerut closer, "Listen to me, you ARE strong. Back in my youth I would have fled that battle scene. But you, YOU, fought on. That takes courage my friend." One hand moved to his chest, "Jerut, never doubt yourself. I did and it pushed me back. I had to work my way up to that foundation again, but listen. This time, you fight for your friends and your family. You fight to bring order to them. I could tell you thousands of people back in Tollen couldn't do what you did here today. They would have broken down, cried, tried to run away. But you STAYED."

He smiled, "You made me very proud to call you a Seeker. You've got a good head on your shoulders Jerut. I am proud to call you one of my own. Fear is a natural obstacle. It's up to you, however, to push past it."

Jerut scratched the back of his head and nervously chuckled in front of the Seeker leader. "Gee... thanks, I guess, haha. Well, I can't go lettin' you down after you buttered me up so much, Arceus damn it!" Jerut got up off the seat. "I'll go do what you asked, I guess. Oh, but hey, about that contacting thing... if ya don't mind me sayin', if we can't go to Argime, what if we try sending a letter of callin' them? Maybe just to see. I dunno, could be nothing, but..."

Penance tilted his head, "I'll think about it. Go and get some green bulbs! Hahaha, can't have a party with the icing!" He said with a wink.

"Yea! I'll... what?" Jerut cocked his head in confusion, then continued on after Andrea. "Yes, sir!"

Charlie and Snype- Spa Base

Snype was looking around for an open spa that he could use to stop and relax a bit as well as to kill some time before meeting up with the brotherhood. One of them seemed unoccupied and he was just about to make his way inside, only to be rudely cut off by a familiar bug before he reached it.

"Ya seem awfully calm 'bout this whole affair, Boss." Charlie said, in a low voice. "But not like there's nothin' ta worry 'bout right?"

Snype looked over to Charlie with a neutral expression. "Well in spots like these, I gotta keep cool so I don't totally lose it. I guess we both should have a chat then huh?"

"Yer damn right we 'best have a chat'. I kinda got no idea what's goin' on in yer head right now, an' I like ta think that I know that the guy tellin' me what I'm doin' is doin' that when he's right in the head." Charlie replied, the anger in his voice already starting to make itself apparent.

Snype winced a bit at Charlie's comment. "Here come inside. We really shouldn't talk about this kinda thing out in the open." Snype whispered opening the spa door. It was certaintly a lot warmer inside. The warm steam hitting both of them as the door opened up.

Charlie held up a claw in front of his face. With an exoskeleton like his, the heat built up pretty damn fast. "Right, fine. Care ta tell me why we're givin' up our own rules now?"

Snype sighed and leaned up against the wall. "Ah the whole incident with the brotherhood right? Tsk. I don't like it either, but I really couldn't afford to screw something like that up if Gabe is seriously involved with this whole mystery. Yeah I know what I said. No killing and all that but I'm not in charge of how the Brotherhood does things around here." Snype paused, pinching between his eyes to think of how else he could respond to this.

"Ya might not be, but that don't mean we gotta start teamin' up with murderers! We got other ways 'a doin' things an' how do ya know that us bein' around ain't gonna make 'em see the need ta get more... active, hey?" Charlie swung his claw to one side in an impulsive motion as he spoke, burying it into the wall by mistake, although he didn't particularly seem to care. "When I joined up with ya, Snype, ya made me realise how far I coulda fallen, an' now I know, I ain't goin' down there!"

Snype crossed his arms and sighed. "I understand. But I'm figuring out we won't get far in this mission without some kind of casualty or death. But I also like to believe this was my fault as well. All we had to do was wipe their memory and we'd have been scott free nonetheless. Got too caught up in my role I suppose." Snype said with an upset look on his face. "But we really can't expect some memory wiper to save us all the time. Weren't you arguing with me before we came to Tollen about this very same thing? We're just switching the roles around."

"Yeah, but Boss. I screwed up back at Ferrol. It ain't the same talkin' about it an' not ta say, those guys were helpless ta fight back. It weren't like he didn't have no choice in it. Guy went outta his way ta make dead bodies." Charlie heaved a sigh. "Maybe yer right, maybe we gotta expect ta make some bodies on this whole thing, but - but I can't throw my lot in with somemon so damn careless 'bout it an' yer surely nuts if you think ya can do it either."

"Charlie, this whole mission is the very definition of careless. I don't know how many times I have to tell all of you that we're walking into every decision we make blindly! How was I supposed to know that guy would just kill those two Royal Guards? I never even considered how much of a threat those guards would be until I learned Gabe was in charge of them!"

"Ya didn't know before, but ya know now. So that meant ya had ta make a call." Charlie shook his head. "An' I know what yer call was, so don't try ta play that one on me, Boss. I ain't as dumb as ya seem ta be givin' me credit for."

"Alright then. Do you have a better idea on where we're going to get this kind of information? Our job was to get connections with an underground organization and form more connections. The way criminals work out here is unfortunately going to be different from us. Charlie just because we're working with them doesn't mean we have to stoop to their level and become murderers ourselves. I'm not going to let that happen. Maybe I am insane for going along with this group so recklessly. Though against something like Darkrai, I think it's going to take a bit of insane choices to make it out alive overall." Snype said.

"We always got a way 'a doin' things we gotta get done, Boss." Charlie could see that for all of his objections, keeping on fighting was going to get absolutely nowhere. "Look, I guess ya got points... I just... I don't like this. I see it gettin' abdomen-end up in seconds. I mean, I guess... with all things goin' on an' all..." Charlie lowered his voice further, to make doubly-sure that nobody was going to over-hear. "Gold City ain't my home or nothin' no more... but it's where I grew up an' all... Guess if I wanna keep it safe I gotta come with... go with what ya say. F*ck knows I hate all this." It all seemed so crazy to Charlie - he'd sworn away from Valkaria, Gold City and everyone in them a long time ago... why now did he feel such a need to keep them safe?

"Tsk. We've only just begun. Who knows where we'll end up after things are settled in Tollen. Not really the kind of guy to consider the political aspects of nations. But that's beside the point. I can't really force you or any of the thieves to follow me on all of my insane plans. The difference between us is that you have a choice to stick with this insanity or not. Me? Keheh... well I don't have much choice in the matter. Maybe I'm still as crazy as I was back in silver city." Snype said, pondering a bit on what he had said.

Charlie shook his head at Snype. "Boss, ya ain't like that if even half 'a what ya told me is true. An' as long as ya ain't... I got yer back, 'kay? It ain't fer them, it ain't even fer any 'a the goldies we're meant ta be helpin' out here. I'll stick with ya, 'cause yer a friend, alright? Just... don't go nuts or yer on yer own." Charlie, after this whole affair... didn't quite know what to make of it. The boss obviously wasn't comfortable with none of this either... maybe that's why Charlie'd decided he'd stay.

Snype smiled at Charlie. "Thanks Charlie. Pretty darn glad to hear ya say that. Was worried you'd up and leave after that whole fiasco." Snype said with a small chuckle. "Ah... and uh... sorry for punching ya in the gut back there. Its been a stressful day and all if ya wanna take my excuses. Kehe." Snype said with a small laugh.

"Don't sweat the punch... yer gettin' twice as bad back fer it." Charlie chuckled. He'd never really noticed how he and Snype'd have a disagreement then keep on like it didn't happen. "Of course, I'll find a better reason than ya did. You start goin' nuts, I'll slap ya sane or somethin'."

"Keheh. Fair enough. Well then... I guess if we got nothin else to chat about, I'm about to hop right into the baths." Snype said, hopping off his seat.

Thomas, Guardia, Watchman, and Anna - Lord Arron of House Durania - Argime, Tollen

The door opened a few minutes later. In walked the Herdier Lord Arron accompanied by his own personal guards, including the same Abomasnow in the suit who had accompanied him during the trial. Arron entered first, and when the others tried to follow, he motioned for them to stop. "I will go alone," He relayed to them. A Hariyama royal knight began to protest, but before he can get a word in, Lord Arron continued. "That is an order."

The Royal Knights hesitated for a moment longer, before they bowed and departed. The Herdier narrowed his eyes at the group. Guardia cocked an eyebrow back at him. There was something she didn't quite like about the 'mon. Something rubbed her the wrong way about his presence, his demeanor. "It was a very moving plea you've made in the central chambers. Assistance against the armies of Darkrai. Quite riveting... I'm curious what made you change it, though," Arron tightened his gaze upon the group as if he tried to have them all reveal all of their secrets with it. "Because that is not the original pitch you gave to Lord Marrow."

"... Do you know that for a fact, my lord?" Thomas questioned the Herdier. He was trying to fish for information, to discover the extent of what he knew, and more particularly how he knew it. Although the Hypno already had an idea.

"Jenoscent has always gone about his ambassadorial duties. The House of Marrow, until recently, has always been at the side of the throne, whispering words into their ears. My trade is information. So tell me, what exactly has changed?"

Joshua froze for a moment, clutching his jacket tightly. He shivered once, thinking of what to say. He suddenly looked Aaron in the eyes, trying to discern the lord's motives. "My lord, it would appear that you already know. Is this some kind of test?"

"It is confirmation," Lord Arron replied fervently. His gaze was fixed on Joshua as he continued. "You walked into the central chambers with every intention of giving your entire story, but once you were inside you held back... because you saw something, or someone. Tell me now, what was it?"

"You seem to have a suspicion yourself," Joshua replied. Whether it was due to this debate or not, he couldn't tell, but he found himself in possession of a slight sort of courage in the face of this lord. "With all due respect, my lord, the way you're wording your questions makes it apparent to me that you already know the answer."

"I have a thousand answers," Lord Arron stated as he began to pace back and forth. "Any one of them could be the correct one. And even if some are much more likely than others, I find at this point the only way to know for sure is to ask the third party," He explained, and stopped his pacing. "You seem not to trust me. That is wise. But here in the dimly-lit shadows, my eyes are your greatest ally."

"They can also be our greatest enemy, depending on how their owner acts," Joshua retorted. Joshua clutched his coat, fighting back the trace amounts of anxiety that haunted him at this moment. "I will say that what, or whom, we saw, as you insinuate, seemed to have provoked an adverse reaction from my lord, as well." He gestured to Arron, looking the Herdier in the eyes.

The Herdier's eyes narrowed and a gruff, raspy noise escaped his mouth. "Let's say that the presence of whatever, or whomever did incite such a reaction," Lord Arron began. He brushed the cloak off of his shoulder with his snout to allow for more movement, and began to pace once again. "Let us also say this same object, place, or individual has been giving me the same unfavorable reaction for many months now. I think if whatever, or whomever provoked such a reaction were no longer in the picture, it is safe to say it would be better for the both of us, correct?"

Joshua kept his gaze focused on the Herdier, before turning to his comrades. He looked at Thomas, silently asking for his approval. Thomas gave the Swadloon an affirmative nod to proceed, and Joshua reciprocated the motion. He turned back to the Lord, mustering up one final bit of bravery to deliver his answer. "Then it would seem my lord knows we speak of the one who sat on the throne. Gabriel, the Greninja."

Lord Arron paused his pacing and sighed deeply, then continued. "When Gabriel first came forward during the Reckoning, everyone was too focused on the fact that he was curing the plague to notice that he had swiftly gone from a Royal Knight with no background I could uncover to one of the most powerful 'mon in Argime. And they just sat and let it happen. Granted, the people would have likely cut off their heads if they protested, but the fact remains," Arron stopped pacing once more, and examined the city through the arched window in the room. "It is my business to distrust 'mon, but he? Oh... he holds a special place in my heart." He closed his eyes and shook his head, before he opened them and glanced at the group again. "Am I to understand that he was present during the invasion of Valkaria?"

"My lord knows it," Joshua replied quietly.

"Indeed," Lord Arron averted his gaze from the scenery through the window and continued his methodical pacing. "That would explain his absences. Gabriel would occasional venture toward the borders to supposedly convene with Commander Darrell of the Guardians of the Borders. I suspect this to be his ruse in order to exit Tollen. If that is the case, I question the condition of the borders... you know he has the best Royal Knights guarding all the entrances and exits in Argime? Even long after this plague has been apparently vanquished. Even I haven't been able to get word from out there, which does not bode well about its condition. It appears that the shadows of Argime are moving, and now that you are here, they are likely moving quicker..."

Once more, Lord Arron stopped his pacing and turned to the group. "I propose an agreement. Removing Gabriel from power here would be extremely beneficial for both of us. It will not, however, come easy. We both understand that he is not who he claims, but it will take more than our words to convince the other dignitaries, and all of Argime for that matter. If you help me find the evidence necessary to expel the Greninja, I will provide my aid to you. Troops, information, whatever you need."

"With all due respect, my lord," Annabelle spoke now, "everyone present understands the risks we may be taking by assisting you. Just this conversation alone could send us to prison, or more likely a worse fate. I hope there will be no offense by my asking, but if we agree to assist you in finding evidence, how will we be assured it won't be just our blood on the blade? Should we fail, of course."

"I will be frank with you," Lord Arron began to reply. He cleared his throat and continued. "If you are caught, I will likely sever any ties I can with you. But the fact of the matter is, I will do everything in my power to ensure you will not be caught... as I have already been doing since the moment you, and your associates have arrived in Argime."

Guardia cocked an eyebrow and hesitated for a moment. Lord Arron noticed the Gold Tribe leaders countenance and held up a paw reassuringly. "Yes, yes, I know about them. One of them had the brilliant idea of using an SEC device in front of a Royal Knight earlier. Before he could report the incident to anyone else, I had him silenced. I also ran into two more of them inside this palace yesterday during the... incident. Due to careful planning on my part, the bulk of the nobility believe this to be the work of another organization. I further expelled suspicion from them by having that same organization cover up their recent shipping assignment. As you can see, I am quite committed to ensuring you won't fail."

Joshua eyed the Herdier with suspicion, narrowing his gaze at the lord. "How very... compelling," the Swadloon spoke, a hint of sarcasm evident in his tone. "How, exactly, do you propose we help you? Considering we're unwanted guests in the city, and will likely remain so considering native laws, we're not in the greatest of positions to aid you."

"It is true that you aren't in the best position to uncover the lies that the Royal Commander has planted," Lord Arron began. "Which is why on that front I will rely on your... associates to find what we need. I suspect they are the types that do not mind bending a few laws. Besides, when such a law threatens the lives of many, perhaps one would be justified to... overlook it, don't you think?" Arron's eyes glazed over the group before he continued once more.

"However the biggest advantage of that group is also its greatest disadvantage," Arron explained as he turned around from the group and fetched his fine cloak from the floor and placed it along the arm of a chair. "Most of the nobility suffer from the illusion that the only 'mon they can trust are those of similar social standing as they. Should one of your colleagues choose to present this evidence to them, they'll not hear any of it, even if it buries the demon himself. But you? I have heard of the way you converse firsthand, as have many of the other nobles. Even Lord Marrow seems to have acknowledged you himself by granting you such an audience with the lords and military."

Arron turned back to the group and gazed upon each one of them, his intense stare switching past each of them. "Speak to the other nobles and military. Converse with them. Build a rapport, and learn what you can from them. Continue to build more alliances for your Gold City, if you so wish. And when the time comes, present what your other team finds. I have the utmost confidence that your words will be the ones that convince them. You say that you are unwanted here, but if that were truly the case, then why did we allow you to stay in the first place? Understand that when Gabriel first became the Royal Commander and was granted the privilege of sitting upon the throne, it was not by popular decision among the nobility. In fact, many among us resented the idea. We simply had no choice but to go along with the idea because the people would have wrung our necks in a Civil War if we didn't. Even Lord Marrow, I imagine, harbors some ill will toward the Greninja. His hatred for the Gold Tribe, as with many nobles, tends to overshadow that. Yet even that hatred is not without solutions."

"The Royal Commander did invite us to speak to each noble, didn't he?" Anna asked with a look towards each of her comrades. "As it stands, we have express permission to carry on the task you're asking of us, Lord Arron. If we can solve this issue by making a few friends and having conversation then I have no reason to object."

Thomas and Guardia exchanged a glance between each other. Guardia shrugged her shoulders and then nodded to Thomas. Thomas nodded back then replied to the Herdier. "I suppose we will be willing to agree to that."

"Excellent," Lord Arron replied. He began reaching for the cloak he placed on the arm chair, and hurriedly tied it to his back using his teeth. "I believe we can both meet our own end goals with this agreement. Oh!" He suddenly exclaimed as if he had realized something. He turned to the group once more. "There is... one other thing I would like to mention," Arron began to say. "Taking down the Greninja is an effort in which we both get something out of it. We will both be earning something. But for my support afterward, the troops and information I am willing to provide to aid in your quest, I do have one demand," The Herdier narrowed his eyes and stared sternly at the group. "The venture to remove Gabriel from power is both difficult and unlikely. However, if our little escapade should succeed, if he is removed and if all he has does is brought to light, if that is done due to the aid of my own resources and help, then there is one thing I ask in return: that you request from the Queen that I be allowed the privilege of sitting on the Throne of Rectitude."

"We'll do what we can, my lord."

"I will take that as an understanding of our agreement," Lord Arron commented as he fully adjusted his cloak back onto his back. "Your associates will be given my resources. We will be in touch. For now, enjoy your meetings with the rest of the dignitaries," He added as he proceeded toward the exit. "Oh," He suddenly stopped at the door and turned once more to the group. "Do be careful around the Greninja will you? And around this city in general. I suspect Gabriel isn't acting alone."

Snype having finished with his important chat, figured it was finally time to take a proper bath, taking off his whole Tollen outfit and hanging it up, the Sableye stepped in front of the tub. Almost there. Hopefully there wouldn't be any more possible interruptions!

Although there was an interruption. Obsidian himself was pushed in, the Goodra from before talking his ear off how that one bath didn't remove all the stench, and yes he HAD to spend an hour to not be stinky. The Weavile grumbled a bit as he threw his clothes off and forced himself to settle in the warm water, "They making you take one too?" He asked the ghost. "Honestly, this is bloody ridiculous."

Snype looked over to Obsidian, laughing a bit at his sudden entrance. The Sableye removed his trademark robe and tossed it aside, making him look pretty much like any other Sableye. A weird sight for the thieves probably. "Keheh, nah I'm doing this voluntarily. Figured I could use some relaxing."

Obsidian spread his arms against the sides and closed his eyes, "Look, I'm not still smelling too bad am I?" He asked with a frown, "I mean, I don't smell anything really."

"Keheh, I don't really have much of a nose so I wouldn't really know" Snype said as he stepped into the springs slowly, finding a seat and spreading his arms out. "Phew... been awhile since I've been in one of these."

Obsidian shrugged, "I get used to it in Anatellia. Seriously, Penance is treated nice there." He sighed and rubbed his forehead, "So... uh... how did that talk with Charlie go?" He asked, "Seems you two are... well, it's very obvious you two are rubbing each other the wrong way right now."

"We had a chat and kinda eased up on things. Its pretty stressful for all of us so shouldn't be too bad now. I'm more concerned with just taking it easy for now. Mmm...~" Snype said, sighing and sinking in a bit deeper in the water.

"But how?" Obsidian asked. "I mean, what? We've just learned that probably thousands of soldiers have been sent to wherever Gabe is sending them. I heard the tales of what happened thirty years ago. From the very man who was there that led the final charge. Look... there were the torture houses. He said that you were there too when those.... he called them zombies, but they swarmed out. That could be easily happening here." He crossed his arms and leaned back a bit more, "It doesn't settle well with me."

Snype playfully splashed Obsidian with some water. "Kehe, ya know that's the kinda conversation I'd save for when we aren't naked in a tub." Snype joked with a small laugh. "Really, you're better off not worrying about what will happen, and worry more about stopping something from happening. That was one of Penance's biggest problems and he got a demonized version of himself inside of that noggin."

Obsidian grunted as the water hit him. "Yeah..." He sighed, and then his eyes glimmered as one of his claw hands suddenly came up, splashing a load of water at the ghost. "Just saying really." He said as he shrugged innocently.

Snype was quickly splashed by a larger load when Snype decided to hit him right back. "Keheh, hey you, don't start any battles ya can't win... kehe"

"Oh?" The Weavile grinned and pushed through the water, going surprisingly fast as he managed to swim behind Snype, "You get a work out when you get taught by a Golduck!" Obsidian said as his claws came up and he grabbed hold of Snype, pushing down to try and dunk him down.

*Blurbblurgblug!* Snype mumbled under the water, turning around with a smirk. "Ohhh that's it!" Snype chuckled as he reached back to try and dunk the Weavile in the water as well!

Obsidian went down easy, but as he said before, a Golduck HAD trained him. He was perfectly calm under the water. His claws shot up, tickling under the ghost's arms to try and get him to let go.

"E-ehehe! H-hey! That's cheating! Kehehe... g-goood jo-... ahah~!" Snype laughed. He was letting his guard down in the cool water so he was a fairly easy target. His feet were kicking below him at Obsidian.

Obsidian swam back from the giggling ghost and stood up in the water, grinning at the ghost. "Screw what Penance says! Sometimes you have to cheat!"

"Keheh, that's what I like to hear from a thief!" Snype said as he lept from the water and pounced on top of Obsidian, tickling his sides now!

Obsidian cried out and quickly burst into laughter, he shook about, trying to get the ghost off as he reached back to try and get some hold on him.

Snype was held onto, but he kept on tickling away! Enjoying fooling around in the springs as water splashed out of it! It'd make quite a bit of noise.

There was a sudden bang as the door flew open, Kaveri coming in dragging a rather unwilling Scyther along with her, an arm around his neck. "Come on, you'll love it, I swear!" Without warning, she shoved Charlie forward and into the bath before flinging off her robe and jumping in herself, sending water splashing everywhere. As she surfaced, she turned towards Charlie with a grin. "See? It's gre-" It was then she noticed Snype and Obsidian, and the rather... interesting position they were in. "Oh. Hey."

"Ya name me one bug ya ever heard of that likes bein' in the water! One bug! I'm swearin' by it if I end up in there I'm gon-" Charlie's protests were cut short by the sudden lack of any air to protest into as he was unceremoniously ditched in the water - flailing around in a fashion that would embarrass an enraged Magikarp.

Snype looked up at Kaveri rather awkwardly, looking down at the position he was at on top of Obsidian as he stopped tickling him. "Oh uh... eheh... hiya." Snype said with a small blush. Mostly at his position on the Weavile. "Come to join the guys in the tub eh?" He said in a teasing tone.

Obsidian blushed brightly as his laughter died down and he ended up gasping frantically. He honestly didn't know what to say, only working to regain his breath. He let his head hang down as his blush only grew. "Uh... h-he... we...." He quickly shut his mouth and closed his eyes.

Kaveri simply stared at the Weavile and Sableye for a few moments before a grin crept across her muzzle and she wiggled her brows. "Having fun there? Well, don't let us disturb you by any means," she snickered before diving down to help prop Charlie up so he wouldn't drown or something. Besides, those flailing claws were a tad scary... Her head bobbed back up next to him as she said, "Come on, now, Surskit like water just fine, and they're bugs! Though I don't know how often they actually go under..." She trailed off, contemplating this.

"An' tell me, if yer so funny, do I look like a f*ckin' Surskit?" Charlie snapped back. "Ya know wet bugs can't fly right? Ya know that?" Behind Charlie's anger lay a hint of embarrassment over his reaction to water that was nowhere able to drown him.

Kaveri just shrugged, holding her paws up - and letting go of Charlie in the process. "You're the one who told me to name a bug that likes water!" Her mouth twitched a few times as she tried to hide a smirk, but eventually it broke through.

Snype just rubbed his head a bit shyly at Kaveri's comment, only to turn that into a small laugh toward Charlie. "Kehe, if you're worried I might be cheating on ya, then you can rest easy. Kehe," Snype said teasingly. "But ya know, its just kinda nice to see a lot of the thieves together in a relaxed place like this. Considering the circumstances and all. Seriously take your time fellas. We have all afternoon till the meeting." Snype said with a grin as he relaxed his back against the edge of the tub.

"I've been taking my time all day," Kaveri said, crossing her arms with a huff and pouting childishly as she adding in a mutter, "Still can't believe I missed the whole heist... Damned sugar crash..."

"Well at least someone was looking over the base. Was wondering where you were at! Kehe. But hey relax a little! You can meet the whole crew tonight!" Snype said, giving the Floatzel a pat on the back.

"An' it ain't like ya missed much." Charlie chimed in. Unlike the others, he didn't exactly seem comfortable, standing completely upright, keeping as much of himself dry as possible. "Hell, you coulda had my place there an' not much woulda gone different."

As the three were chatting the sound of the door closing would echo out. The water where Obsidian had been standing was now vacant, his clothes were missing, and somehow the Weavile had been quick enough to snatch up all his belongings and quickly run to save his humility, the only signs he had been in the room remaining were those of his wet footprints that led to the door.

Charlie checked around the room, before he jokingly shrugged his shoulders. "Was there somemon else here second ago? Eh, prob'ly nobody that important."

"Kehe, he's probly just a bit worked up. Poor guy. Heheh, still Kav, you shoulda seen yourself under that sugar high! It was adorable. Keheh... " Snype teased.

Kaveri probably would've gone after Obsidian and dunked him in the bath just as she had Charlie, but she was distracted by Snype speaking to her. "I thought I was always adorable though," Kaveri said, blinking a few times.

Snype leaned forward and poked her on the nose. "Kehe, well the sugar high was just an added bonus to the adorable factor then! Kehe!" He said, sticking his tongue out.

"Someone get me a bucket..." Charlie shook his head. "What in the name 'a Arceus put you two together anyway?"

"It was love at first sight," Kaveri said, putting on a dreamy look to match her tone as she put an arm around Snype. "We met on the streets of Gold City, and he asked me to dinner."

Snype smiled and placed an arm around Kaveri as well. "Keheh, ah that was one heck of a night. Hey I couldn't help myself after seeing a beautiful gal like her! At first I was just up to my usual antics... was gonna see if I could steal anything and be on my way, but things really started to escalate when we sat down and chatted over dinner!" Snype would add. He was rather casual about the stealing bit, as if he told Kav about the whole thing.

"And we figured, we might as enjoy the time we've got while the Gold Tribe and Thieves are allied, hmm?" Kaveri pitched in.

Snype nodded. "Yup! I don't regret it one bit. She's a fun gal to be around" Snype said, keeping his arm wrapped around Kaveri. "Went on a few dates during our free time here too! Keheh. Maybe we'll spend some time together by ourselves in the spring sometime! Whatcha think Kav?" Snype said with a grin.

"Ya mind havin' that conversation in front 'a me? Don't ya got no restraint at all?" Charlie protested. "Ya know what? I'll leave ya to whatever ya sayin' or doin'." With that, Charlie hopped out of the tub and made haste to the door - lacking any need to gather the bandannas he wore, given a particular Floatzel hadn't considered the time he'd need to remove them before what he was sure to be calling 'attempted murder' later on.

Sid, Snype, Obsidian, and Creed - Eye of the Brotherhood - Argime, Tollen

Upon receiving Roran's instructions, Sid gave an amused grin. Whatever the other thieves were planning to discuss or do, he was curious as to why Roran was so discrete about the location of the hideout. Shrugging his shoulders he dismissed the inquiries for now and began to blend in with citizens of Tollen, going their way as Sid went his. It became annoying having to push past so many 'mon, he almost accidentally stabbed a passerby with one his claws. An annoyance he would rather avoid. Trying to maneuver to the edge of the crowd, he suddenly noticed that he happened to be trailing behind the same small group 'mon for while just by following Roran's directions. Quickening his pace to get a better view, he immediately recognizes the small stature of a Sableye as Snype. Sid swiftly took position right behind them. "Hey, Snype right? I'm here with Roran so that I can also be taken to the meeting spot."

Snype would looked over to the rest of his group and nodded to the newcomer. "Very well. Lead on." Snype simply stated.

---

Obsidian made his way along the streets with the others and couldn't help but sigh. Sure he LOOKED the part of a citizen, but he still felt that nagging feeling in his mind, that voice that said he was somehow going to be spotted. He leaned over to Snype, "Hey... uh, how do you deal with nerves?" He asked.

Snype looked at Obsdian and just snickered. "Nerves? Kehe, I just ignore them." Snype said rather simply with that big toothy grin of his.

Obsidian slowly nodded, "Alright... ignore." He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Are we almost there yet?"

As they followed down the road in the dark streets of Tollen, they suddenly turned right toward a darker alley. There, the streets were mostly clear with all but three 'mon waiting for them. One was the familiar Bisharp from before, Creed. The other two were a Zoroark and an Aipom, dressed in black.

"Glad you decided to come," Creed said to the group of thieves. He and the others then held out a piece of black cloth in their hands. "We're going to need you to put these on your head now."

Obsidian took one and blinked, "Alright then." He said, "What do they represent?" He asked.

Snype unquestioningly placed it over his head. "They're blindfolds so we don't know where this place is supposed to be. Just roll along with it. As long as they don't start touching our butts while we're blindfolded we should be alright. Kehe" Snype joked as he placed the black cloth over his head and around his gem like eyes. It was a weird fit for the Sableye.

"Oh." Obsidian quickly rearranged it around his eyes as he tightened it. "There, I'm good."

Sid placed the blindfold around his head as well once he determined it was apparently protocol.

As soon as everyone's blindfolds were on, Creed spoke again. "Alright, we'll lead you to the meet spot in two groups. Roran's mon, Snype and the Seeker will go first. The rest will follow after. We'll nudge you along and tell you whether to jump, step over something, or any other actions. Don't take off your blindfolds until we tell you to," He explained. After his short explanation, they were off. Neither Creed nor the Brotherhood did much talking besides giving the occasional direction or telling the thieves to watch their step. It seemed like they were leading them on for quite a while, in and out of buildings, through passageways, and around different objects and landmarks. It was probably to ensure that they would have no idea where they were when the blindfolds did come off. However, Argime being as big as it was to begin with, it was likely to be the case for most of the members of the thieves either way.

Eventually, a final door was shut, and the familiar voice of Creed spoke again. "Alright, you can remove the hoods now," He said.

Snype quickly took off his hood, looking around at just where he might have been lead and what kind of establishment the Brotherhood was running. He could hear where they were all going at the very least. Several buildings, in and out... must have been to confuse them because Snype couldn't really pinpoint where they were at. The place was, however, not what one would necessarily expect from a secret hideout. It appeared to be the inside of a home belonging to a citizen of Argime. It was modest in size, but nothing particular stood out about it. Trinkets, odds and ends, and other ornaments littered the main room. However, it also appeared as if it was quite dusty, perhaps signifying it hasn't been used in some time. Inside the room was Creed, along with the two other 'mon with him. There were also about a dozen other Pokemon in dark clothing similar to the that which Creed was wearing.

"So this is the group from Valkaria," One of the 'mon in black said. It was a Roserade, who strutted forward both elegantly and confidently. "Thieves and Seekers, eh? I suppose since no one else has done so yet, welcome to Argime," She stated, offering them a small bow of her head.

Obsidian nodded in turn, "Uh... well..." He looked about, "I am Obsidian, second in command of the Seekers." He said, "Have any of you heard what is happening outside of Tollen? If not, I suggest we get introductions quickly out of the way and trade information."

"Pretty small place I gotta say. Well smaller then I'd expect at least. No offense by that or anything. I kinda like it actually. Kehe." Snype said, returning a bow to the Roserade. "I'm sure you've heard already, but you can call me Snype. Keheh. A pleasure." Snype would add.

"Interesting place..." Sid was caught up in observing the hideout and the new pokemon around him. After realizing introductions were being made, he casually turned back towards the Rosarade and gaze his name. "The name's Sid." He decided to spare them the detail of Sid being new.

The Roserade gazed at Obsidian. "To the point, eh? I can respect that." After they introduced themselves, the Roserade nodded and looked around the room. "This isn't our headquarters, if that's what you were wondering. It's a safe house. We have plenty like this across the city. I'm sure you can understand me not bringing you straight there given the current situation and given your own... influential positions."

"Of course. Kehe. Since we're exchanging information, I hope you're ready because I have alot of questions about this place, your brotherhood, and just the situation in general. I'm sure we can uncover a little more with both of our knowledge." Snype said.

"I'd rather paint the entire picture than 'uncover a little more'," The Roserade replied sternly. "I'm tired of fighting in the dark. So now that you've told us your identity, your real ones, I think it's only fair to tell you mine," The Roserade stepped forward a few more steps and lowered the hood. "I'm known as Eye, Leader of the Brotherhood of Shadows. But my real name is Isabella, former General of the Standing Army."

Obsidian blinked, "... Faked your death huh? Or had someone replace you?" He asked. He shook his head, "I think... since we're guests here, it is only fitting we talk about what has been happening outside of Tollen's borders. If that is alright Isabella?" He asked. "Because... what we say might help clear things up here for you all. And... well, it's a bombshell. I won't lie. You all just have to believe the words we speak."

"... You first," Isabella replied to Obsidian. "Before we tell you what we know, I want to hear it straight. What's going on outside of Tollen, what do you know about the plague that affected us, and what do you know about the Pokemon named Gabriel?"

"The Plague, I can't exactly vouch for. The only thing I've heard is Beatruce has been infected with a similar sickness recently. I have a few thieves hanging out around there but not quite the kind of numbers I have back in Valkaria. As for Gabe, I've fought against him personally. Pinned him down for a moment actually but he could have just been playing with us. He was involved with an attack on Gold City alongside Darkrai according to him. He wasn't alone either, but Gabe is the only one I saw in that city." Snype explained. "Basically, if he has a high standing position here in Tollen, that can't be good. Especially if he's some kinda Savior. It kinda contrasts how he was like back in Gold City. The slimy little frog blew up a couple of SEC transfer points." He'd add.

Obsidian frowned, "That's a... very summarized version. I can explain a few more details. Around this time about a week ago we were having a festival in Valkaria. One of our newly elected generals revealed that... well, he was working for Darkrai. Freely. No corruption or brainwashing or anything." He looked about, "Outside our walls a huge army with Darkrai leading it came out of nowhere. Teleported in really and they started sieging us. As Snype said Gabriel and some other powerful pokemon that snuck into Gold City tried to destroy the SEC access points. One managed to survive. Likewise, yes Beatruce does have a plague that is... well, killing them off so to speak."

He looked around, "I believe that the plague they are experiencing has come from here. I cannot be absolutely sure of that, but I think the dots line up. We've had two Seekers secretly remain in this city. One we just met a while ago." He looked at Creed, "That Garchomp with the cart? Make sure you don't kill him. His name is Garon, and he's highly loyal to us still. He informed us our other Seeker is actually in the castle. He's a Charmeleon by the name of Cirus."

"He was never in the cards to kill," Creed muttered softly.

Obsidian blinked, "That's good. He's loyal enough. In any case, we have been informed by Garon that soldiers have been ported out very rapidly these past few months. I believe, I hope it isn't true, that Gabe has been using the SEC to port these soldiers out of the city to, essentially, brainwash them into serving Darkrai, or to ensure their cooperation in some way. I think a majority of those soldiers appeared outside Valkaria that week ago." He sighed, "Please... tell me that's wrong."

Isabella shook her and head spoke softly. "So it really is Darkrai just like Guardia said all those years ago... and Gabriel is with him. I should have known," The Roserade clenched her fists of thorny roses and sighed. She looked back between Snype and Obsidian. "I can fill in some of those blanks for you based on what I think. First of all, I'm guessing the way Darkrai managed to teleport that giant army outside of Gold City is through the Network machines that we still had with us after we expelled all the foreigners. I initially assumed that they were all given back but I later learned Gabriel has kept most of them secretly. It's likely that's how such a large army came together at once, using all of the Networks together. As for soldiers being sent out here and brainwashed... I don't think that's the case. The sad truth is too many 'mon here liked Gabriel for him to ever need to do that. Even so, I did see him traveling with soldiers before outside, but even with all of the numbers he went with over those periods of time, I doubt it's anywhere near the numbers that likely attacked Gold City. If they were there, they weren't there alone."

Isabella clenched her jaw, then continued. "But it's likely that they could be going there. Not long after he was appointed Royal Commander, he began to take a larger role in shaping who was sent out to the front as a Hellguard, who became a Royal Knight, and who was discharged. I didn't think too much on it in the very beginning. We just went through a national crisis and he seemed to want to lend a hand. But then he began making decisions that didn't make sense. Sending boys and specifically Seekers to the fronts? Sending the rich or incompetent to join the Royal Guards? Discharging quality soldiers? Like Popous, for example. He was a soldier in the standing army under me for nearly two years, and recently I just heard that he was discharged. And you know what? I can look you all straight in the eye and say he might have been one of the most capable warriors in the history of Tollen. And that was just one recent example. Gabriel isn't just changing the country... he's demilitarizing it. Weakening it."

"Tsk. Probably just setting up for another attack I bet. In that case, I should probably mention that we aren't the only group within this city either looking into this case. In fact they're in the belly of the beast as we speak. They're handling more diplomatic matters but I can only imagine that would lead to an encounter with Gabe. Knowing him, I'm sure the frog is toying with them as we speak. Guardia happens to be within that group as well, along with the Gold Tribe. You can see how dire this has gotten for several parties." Snype said sternly.

"And... on the matter of weakening your city. It will be Gold City again." Obsidian explained. "Dakrai feeds off chaos, it is why he didn't kill all of the Gold Tribe those years ago and allowed them to fight with his conjured ancients. It is why he spent a year sacking Gold City. To fuel chaos. Gold City was perfect in that it was well fortified and the citizens could feel plenty of fear. That will be the same here. Your city is well protected by its walls. Have Gabe go out, shout out his name, and eventually the other countries figure out who he represents. Their armies gather and rush over and suddenly he disappears to let Tollen create more chaos for Darkrai to feast on alongside Gold City." He frowned, "Do you know of the fates of the psychics that were taken?" He asked Isabella, "We were informed by the diplomats that the psychics still at the point have no clue as to their whereabouts. By this point... is it safe to assume they are working for Gabriel and have turned traitor?"

Isabella shook her head. "They won't need the other countries to do that. We're already surrounded by a rough batch. Our forests and Hellguards have always protected us, but now? If the Morrians or Pentosarrs get a sniff of weakness, what's to stop them from invading? In fact, how do we know they aren't doing that already?" She questioned out loud. She then turned back to Snype and Obsidian. "Which probably answers another question of yours. I know little about what's going on outside the city. But I have plenty of guesses. None of them good. As for the psychics... I don't know where they are," She said with a frown. "The only thing I CAN tell you is they're likely not inside the city anymore. A while back, they were teleported through the Network. I don't know where, I don't know why. Let me ask you one question, though," Isabella began. She turned to Snype. "You're a thief. Was it you who went into the palace yesterday to the Queen?"

Snype turned back to both Obsidian and Charlie. "That'd be these two over here. Though it wasn't under my orders to send them inside. I understand if it stirred up more trouble then necessary. Keh. Doubt an apology would be suitable after what went down. Anything good or bad happen as a result?" Snype said, oddly calm about the whole thing. That'd be the king of thieves for you. Always keeping a cool head.

"Honestly, it puts me at ease because I know there wasn't someone out for the Queen's life," Isabella paused for a moment, then looked at the group of thieves sternly. "Again."

Snype raised a brow at the look he was given. "Sounds like there's something I should know about." He'd simply respond.

"It's how I was sentenced to die," Isabella began to explain. "I had begun suspecting Gabriel of unsavory record: his disappearances, his questionable actions, his inexplicable past. As I began to grow nearer to an answer, I found myself in the middle of a controversy. I had been requesting an audience with the Queen for quite a while. She had not been to court for some time due to illness. She had always been a fairly frail girl, but recently she had grown worse than usual. I implored her to grant me an audience for a long time. When she finally did, when I was finally able to, an assassin targeted the Queen. He was brazen enough to try and target her directly in her chambers! The 'mon escaped soon after, but once word of the incident had gone out, the blame was put on me... by Gabriel. I was sentenced to death, and I would have died too, had it not been for Zark here," She explained, giving the Zoroark in black a smile. "Zark was one of my soldiers, one of few that believed me. We of the Brotherhood aren't just simply thieves or murderers. We came from all walks of life: the poor, the wealthy. Royal Knights and beggars. Thieves and soldiers."

"Keh. Quite an establishment. The thieves are fairly similar... but not with all the variety you have." Snype said, nearly forgetting he had Gold Tribe members with him as well. "Gabe isn't exactly subtle is he? But I guess he doesn't have to be. Everyone trusts him enough to not question it... well almost everyone." Snype said, throwing a wink to the Roserade. "So then, is your goal to remove Gabe from Power? Protect the folks of Tollen from his influence? I can imagine you have more members then just this group right?"

"This group is just the greeting party. We have more," Isabella replied ominously, not listing the exact number. "That's the ultimate plan. With what we learned, I know two things are possible now. Gabriel is working with Darkrai, which means Gabriel is trying to bring ruin to our country. Or... it could be something else. Something worse."

"I'd prefer not to worry what might happen and just prevent "something" from happening in the first place if that's alright with you." Snype said, practically repeating what he said to Obsidian earlier. "Darkrai is the bigger threat. Gabe is just the one setting things up but even he's a force to be reckoned with, having fought the mon myself."

"... I have had a worry for a long while now that he might not have just been inviting 'mon in like this, but he was doing something else," Isabella murmured. "You have to all understand one thing. To sit on the Throne of Rectitude, as Gabriel is right now, is a huge honor. In fact, it's one of the most immense honors any 'mon can have. They do not have the power of the ruler, but they have their respect. Queen Aleena has not named any heirs yet. By our rules as stated in Tollen, if no heir is to be named, they who sit on the Throne of Rectitude shall take up the throne as ruler. If it was truly him that targeted the Queen before, who's to say he won't do it again?" Isabella began to pace nervously, before stopping herself. "There was a meeting earlier in the day in which the high nobility and the military leaders all voted to see if your diplomats from Valkaria would be allowed to remain in the country. The votes were in their favor. The odd thing was... Gabriel also voted in their favor. Which means he kept them in this country for a reason. At first, I didn't know why he did so. Now? Well... do you know what would happen if the Queen were to die and the blame fell on your companions? Do you understand what that would do?"

Snype clenched his fist. "Slimy bastard, A trap all along. They're in trouble... no... we're all in trouble if that indeed does happen. A full out war could break out between Gold City and Tollen and just cause a whole lot of chaos. Darkrai would be on a field day." Snype said, rubbing his chin to try and think up something. He was already concerned about the Queens safety.. wherever she was. "Well... if the diplomatic team is all kept in a room, I doubt they could be held for the blame. Unless something is planned for them as soon as they begin a meeting with the queen. Our intrusion in the palace just may have delayed that outcome and sent the Queen somewhere else... funny how things work like that eh? Kehe."

"Funny indeed," Isabella replied, though her countenance didn't indicate she found anything amusing about the situation. "The way I see it, this nightmare only ends in one way: with Gabriel gone. I'd prefer it if we find the evidence needed to uncover him for the terror he really is, but if that doesn't pan out... the Brotherhood is prepared to do what's necessary to protect Tollen. Even if it means destroying our reputation forever. If that's what it takes..."

"Detective work eh? I can handle a bit of investigation. Blending in the crowd, all that good stuff. Kehe. My biggest worry though is Royal Knights spotting me causing trouble. If Gabe knows a suspicious Sableye is around town then he'll know exactly who I am. Right now I'd say that gives me a nice advantage." Snype said.

"Ahem." Sid took this moment to chime in. "If there is investigation work to do, I can be of assistance. I haven't been 'active' the area to be recognized by any of the royal knights. Heh, nobody will suspect me."

Isabella nodded at Sid. "It'll be useful to have someone from Roran's group around too so that we can easily pass messages along between our three parties," She began, before turning to both of them. "The Royal Knights may be a problem, especially since the areas we'll likely go will be where the best of them are stationed. But we'll discuss that more when the rest of your group gets here."

Snype, Obsidian, Sylvio, Kaveri, and Charlie - The Brotherhood Meet, Part Deux - Argime, Tollen

A second set of 'mon entered the same home. They ushered the remaining 'mon inside and shut the door quickly behind them, most likely to avoid the first group checking to see the immediate surroundings outside. When they were all inside, the 'mon in black removed the hoods off the rest of the group. Isabella nodded to the newcomers. "Right, welcome to you all. I am Eye, Leader of the Brotherhood of Shadows. I was also once known as General Isabella of the Standing Army."


"Ah! Pleased to meet you," Sylvio called out to her happily. "Brotherhood of Shadows, how impressive indeed!"

Snype chuckled. "Ya might wanna tell em your name while you're at it." Snype simply stated.

"Oh?" Sylvio let out quizzically, tilting his head to glance at Snype, "I thought they would know of it!" He joked. "My name is Sylvio Arcansus, at your services," he said in a mellow manner, bowing his head a little.

"Jetstream of the Gold Tribe. Or Kaveri if you prefer." Kaveri introduced herself casually, as if the Gold Tribe working with thieves was a perfectly normal thing. Both Creed and Isabella turned to Kaveri in surprise. They weren't expecting a Gold Tribe member to be with the thieves.

"I'm a guy. That's here ta do a thing." Charlie had agreed to go along with the plan, but he still didn't exactly want to be co-operative with the Brotherhood if he could avoid it. He'd feel like an accessory to their actions. "I think ya already know who I am anyway."

"Yeah, one of the two idiots that infiltrated the palace," Creed said with a snort.

"Big accusations. Wanna prove 'em?" Charlie retorted. "An' don't snort like that when ya try, 'cause ya sound like a sick Tepig." Sylvio snickered at Charlie's remark, hiding his snide grin behind his hand.

"I don't need to prove anything to a baby Poochyena like you," Creed snapped back at Charlie.

"Um, before we get onto that, maybe we can discuss on how to keep our manners civil here?" Obsidian asked as he looked between Creed and Charlie.

"Ah, a chap with common sense," Sylvio muttered quietly enough so he would not be heard.

"Just, find some common ground on the issues? We're both on the same side here."

"Obsidian is right," Isabella jumped in. "We're all trying to accomplish the same goal here: take down Gabriel. Why don't I go over everything that was said earlier so that we're all up to speed..."

After Isabella's recap, she looked around the room for reactions. Sylvio was scratching his forehead, pressing his brows down on his eyes, making for a comical sight.

"So... they don't know the thieves are here. Our last intrusion was probably blamed on you guys if anything. Maybe I should change my look up or something? Ya think Gabe would be telling any of the guards to look out for a Sableye or am I being too paranoid here?" Snype asked.

Isabella nodded to her side. Two of the 'mon cloaked in black stepped forward and handed the thief group some clothing similar to the ones the Brotherhood members were wearing. "While we're helping each other, I think it'll be safer if you don the black with us. That way, if anything happens, it'll go straight back to us. We've heard nothing to suggest that they know anything about your group as of now, so as long as we keep this up, we'll have that advantage," She explained. "However, you'll only be wearing our cloaks. I don't want you to assume you'll be joining our organization, whether you want to or not."

Snype snickered at the cloaks. "Keheh, black cloaks eh? Seems a bit suspicious eh? I was thinking a fancy suit and a total makeover to top it off!" Snype joked as he took one of them. "And don't worry, I'm here for an alliance, not so much to join your organization. I don't want to intrude on whatcha got going here." He added.

Sid inspected the cape as if he were searching for some kind of hidden compartment or internal flaw. Although the item was rather large in size, he was pondering if the crest on his head or his throat sac would impede the cloak's ability to conceal his identity without drawing suspicion. Scratch that, black coats are automatically suspicious, he thought. "These aren't the most stealthy of disguises, whether you want to be assured all proceeding are referred to you or not. Wouldn't we have to go in pitifully small groups in order for an operation to work?"

"Gotta agree with the ugly here. Uh... no offense." Charlie added. Sid made a face in response but said nothing. Charlie was also looking at his own problems with the cloak, mainly that it had absolutely zero provision for rather large objects stuck out from the back, such as a pair of wings. "I mean, really, you're more likely ta look at the guy cosplayin' death than the Scyther on the street."

Sylvio took his cloak without complaint; it floated in front of him for him to examine it, dusting it off and grabbing the fabric. "That will do," he announced cheerfully. The cloak wrapped slowly around him, and it was thankfully big enough to cover his tail and bushy chest and feet. He looked at the Roserade, Isabella, "my thanks. I was suffering from a lack of clothing... suitable for the manner of our mission."

"We're sorry we can't make you sparkle like a Beautifly," Creed retorted with a tone of fake sincerity. "These aren't meant to make you look pretty, and they're not meant to make you disappear. At least, not entirely. You're wearing these because if you are caught, the only place you'll get linked back to is us. I'm not banking on you guys not to screw up again, so this is for the best."

"An' I ain't bankin' on these bein' exactly business-casual. Still kinda obvious." Lacking any kind of immediate solution to his wing problem, Charlie shrugged and made some wing-holes himself, before he realised that slipping the cloak over his wings was going to be a problem in and of itself, beginning the long process of carefully maneuvering it to avoid irritating the sensitive limbs. "Oh, an' yer talkin' 'bout us gettin' caught? B*tch, please. We're better than that."

"Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it," Creed muttered under his breath. Isabella quickly shot the Bisharp a glance, and Creed rolled his eyes and held his hands up to assure her he was done.

"Sid is correct," Isabella began. "Using smaller groups would be better. Since you all seem to know each other, you should continue to operate together, with the addition of one or two of my own 'mon, and Roran's 'mon Sid. But for now, I think it would be best if we get started. More particularly, decide where to start. There's many paths to pursue to take Gabriel down."

"Right, where to start," Sylvio agreed with an unnecessarily loud voice, "first... ah." He looked to the side, rubbing his head in thought. "It is funny..." he begun slowly, "I have never again been in Tollen. You have a rather beautiful city for your capital. Isn't it so?" he asked the others from his group rhetorically, "beauuutiful city indeed." His gaze fell onto Isabella, and he asked her, "you Tollenians must be doing all kinds of things to keep it so... is that correct?" There was a sly smile across the Delphox's snout, like he was enjoying this very much.

Isabella looked at Sylvio quizzically. "We do have a lot of renovations in the city, that is true," She confirmed. "The nobility has always tried to maintain that beauty, which is why we place the alabaster coating over practically every building. Why does that matter?"

"Right, why does it matter?" Sid echoed. The Delphox's tone was ambiguous in the fact that he couldn't determine whether the fire fox was being sarcastic or was actually dizzily captivated by the city. Both of which he found rather annoying.

"Oh, it matters," Sylvio said delightfully, his gaze fixed on the Roserade, "especially the renovations part. I would expect your... libraries... to be treated in a fairer manner than common buildings. That being said, I would like to bring to your attention," he widened his arms, mimicking a fancy explosion of the imagination, "Raegal Center. Over a hundred years old - perhaps even older than one hundred and fifty! It is so ancient, it is truly amazing, how it was never rebuilt, or brought down in the first place..."

"The Raegal Center?" Isabella questioned. "That old library hasn't been renovated in over a hundred years, not since it was built in fact. I know the nobility wanted to tear it down a few times in the past, but word was King Reylas loved the building, or something of that nature, so he always kept it around. Untouched. Hmm... oddly enough the other kings after him did the same..."

Sylvio's eyes glowed when the name of King Reylas was mentioned, and he nodded at Isabella intently and continuously when she went on to speak about other kings as well. "That, or perhaps they were too afraid that if they set foot past the doorstep, the whole thing would come crumbling down their heads, mueheheh..." he chuckled melodically, before his eyes opened in a dramatic expression, his arms still widened as if to show catastrophe, "all those books, the documents, gone!"

He cleared his throat, wary of the impatient staring, "I don't suppose many of my allies here could easily draw the memory of who King Reylas was, so I will grace you with a recapitulation. Reylas was the sovereign ruler of Tollen during the time of the Dark Tournament, a hundred and thirty years ago or so, if memory serves right! Ahh, I see some of you remember now, you know who I am talking about. King Reylas fell sick, and suddenly, the power to heal him presented itself, so what do the honorable knights of Tollen do? They go on a quest to earn this power for themselves, by competing in the Tournament and hoping for victory. Only, as most of us Valkarians know... boy, heh-heh, that did not quite go as expected. That is right, regretfully so: the feared Lord of the Dark made his appearance, thus foiling the noble quest of the Royal Knights, and they did return empty handed - but not without finding a friend in the Gold Tribe. Of course, they agreed to bury the explosive ending of the Tournament, as did the Gold Tribe, and they only spoke of it to their King Reylas. The king died from sickness, very, very sadly, but..." Sylvio's expression shifted with his own intrigue about the matter, "like Rey, I imagine Reylas cleverly thought to document such important events - even if they were not for the eyes of his present times, documents which contained knowledge passed down only from King to King, or Queen. Exactly like Rey did," he said triumphantly.

"I would not have thought of it as a valid theory, had I not heard of this very simple, yet suspicious matter, when I arrived at the location - why does the Crown refuse to bring down a more than a century old building? The answer to that is, my murky friends, because that is where the documents of the true finale to the farce 'Dark Tournament' lie, and harm to them must not be risked. This had been going on in my mind for quite a while, because it did appear natural to me, after delving deeply into documented Valkarian history, that such records would exist on the side of Tollen as well, passed down from ruler to ruler." His gaze swept past everyone, and he said, "now I understand you may have some questions, because the answer is not obvious to everyone, it seems... What do we do with such documents? We find them, firstly. We, then, pass it quietly to the diplomats, who present to the nobility undisputed evidence that Darkrai exists and he was the cause of the entire Valkarian struggle against the Silver Tribe!" The Delphox shouted passionately, raising one arm to the air. "We always knew that Tollenian nobles harbored hatred for the Gold Tribe, and rightly so!" he continued, "The Gold Tribe stole their prize, the cure for their King! But what if they now learn, that our golden friends were instead taking a burden, a, well, Darkrai sized burden off the reaching hands of the Royal Knights, and took it safely away from Tollen?! The diplomats will become heroes!" Sylvio himself knew that may have been an exaggeration, but what better way to spur people towards a cause than excite them with words?

"Geez, Sylvio, you oughta let me in on this stuff earlier eh? Kehe" Snype added.

Sylvio raised a brow, noticing the Sableye. "Maybe I should have," he reflected, but he seemed lazy about it. "I'd rather not... confuse you with mere sneaking suspicions of mine."

"That's... unreal," Isabella finally managed to say from the shock of everything Sylvio had just explained. "If that's what happened... if what you say is all true, this could be a huge win for us!" She exclaimed. "The nobility has always hated the Gold Tribe, but if we submit this evidence to them, that could all change! It wouldn't be enough to break Gabriel's influence, but having a crowd that isn't hostile to us is a huge first step. It might be a good place to start."

Obsidian just blinked at that long explanation. "Uh... well... good to know that we have someone who knows their history!" He said with a small smile, "That is what we can pursue then! As for the network machines, we'll have to pass that information on to the diplomats. Is there anyone else in the lower classes that seems to be close to Gabriel?" He asked Isabella. "Gabriel is smart, he wouldn't leave any incriminating evidence in his room such as journals or plans. I'm thinking, if he did make an impact on the lower class, then maybe he's having someone store items for him? Or at the very least hiding them for Gabriel to retrieve later. Could be someone who is also in on the scheme and besides, who would look through a random house to find clues, right?" He frowned, "Does any such mon come to mind? If not the lower class, then perhaps a noble then."

"I imagine by the end of this day, you'll have to pass on a lot of information to the diplomats," Isabella replied. "You're right about one thing: Gabriel is very careful. For as long as we've operated, we haven't found anything yet on him. But Obsidian might be right. I doubt he's working alone, so if we can't find anything yet on him, perhaps we can on his partners. And I have a feeling I know who it is: the new General of the Standing Army, Marcus Tyren. He's been very close to Gabriel. In fact, as I understand it he was the Greninja's choice to take over after my execution. Let me propose something: head to the Raegal Center and see if you can uncover anything about this history Sylvio mentioned. I'll have Creed accompany you to make sure things go smoothly. Sid should tag along too. In the meantime, we'll try to uncover any possible leads for you to follow on Gabriel or Tyren when you're done."

Sid crossed in doubt his arms after having heard the reactions of the rest and unmoved by Sylvio's words. "I still doubt if those documents are there at all. Why would a number of Kings hide them for such a long time without bringing the information to light? If they wanted to preserve the documents, couldn't they produce a copy instead of leaving a single collection in an aged library? Also what if they just simply aren't there? You said it was just a theory after all."

Isabella nodded at Sid. "You're right, there's no telling if they're even there to begin with," She agreed with the thief with Roran. "But it's the first possible lead in a set we can explore. If it turns out to be true, then things could take off. While your group checks out the Center, I will send out teams to lay the foundation for a few more leads. If all goes well, we should gather a few of them up and present them once you return."

Obsidian nodded, "One other thing to consider." He smiled, "We brought toys. There is one thing we do have, an illusion inducing device." He spread his arms, "It makes you look like anyone you picture yourself as. It has no batteries. It draws upon one's energy and slowly drains it to maintain the illusion. If we can, see if there is someone in the palace, such as a worker who isn't closely monitored. Sneak into their house, take their place, and suddenly we have an insider. At that mention..."

Obsidan let his arms drop and he sighed, 'We were informed that Gabriel also stole some SEC equipment. Illusion devices as well as stones that can make the user invisible. Even memory wipers that can make a mon forget the past few minutes. Let me ask, Isabella, have you noticed any such items being used around the city? If any mon has them, then it'll be a red flag that they are working with Gabriel."

"Hmm..." Isabella seemed deep in thought on what Obsidian was talking about. "I do believe I know a little bit about that. I'll add it to the list of leads we'll pursue, but if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Something tells me those devices aren't in the hands of Gabriel. For now, I suggest you get going to the Raegal Center. Unless you had any more lingering comments of questions?"

Sid shook his head. "No more questions from me...for now".

"Kehe, naw I think I've gotten all the answers I need right now." Snype said with a big grin before giving a somewhat formal bow. "A pleasure Isabella. For future reference though, if you see me out there, Call me Aden. I don't want my name spreading around town too much.."

Obsidian held up his hands, "There... could be a problem still." He said. He turned to the cloaked members, "I'm not sure how much you know of Darkrai... but he can possibly look into your dreams. There has to be a way he managed to contact Gabriel, and continue to contact him while he's in the city. Dreams are his forte, nightmares more to be exact. Penance had a theory back at the fort that Darkrai has contacted his biggest supporters through their nightmares. He not only knew who to contact, but also figured out that those he contacted wouldn't squeal on him and would loyally serve him. If he can figure that much out through nightmares... then whenever we sleep he could appear to any of us."

The Weavile sighed, "It means... he could possibly know that you still live Isabella. If you've slept at any point and had a nightmare, if any of you have, then it means he could very well know our location. We have to remain guarded even while we dream. How many of you have had Seeker training?" He asked.

Isabella looked around the room, exchanging glances with the others, but none of the Brotherhood members spoke up. She looked back at Obsidian and shook her head. "There aren't anymore Seekers in Argime, Obsidian. I'm sorry," She stated, before shaking her head. "How can you expect to fight something that invades your very dreams?" She muttered to herself.

"Training." Obsidian said with a frown. "... Either that... or staying up every single night." He said with no humor lining his voice, "If he hasn't figured that you have survived yet, one night he will. I am trying not to alarm you, but once those nightmares come they won't stop." He crossed his arms, "It's hard to explain... but he is able to corrupt people. Make them his puppets. If any nightmares crop up let others know. It's paramount that his influence doesn't affect any of us."

"Sorry if I ain't followin' proper here... Yer tellin' me yer scared 'a dreams?" Charlie scoffed. "I ain't heard nothin' more dumb in my life, an' I used to be with the Goldies."

"For once, I agree with the idiot," Creed retorted, earning himself a glare from Charlie. "If Darkrai attacks through dreams, then maybe this isn't Darkrai here at all. Cause I didn't see any of that sh*t here. Maybe its just Gabe. Besides, I'd rather be scared of the 'mon swooping in and trying to kill us all than of him giving us a bad dream."

Obsidian glanced between Charlie and Creed, "Come on Charlie!" He said to the bug, "You've seen Darkrai! You've heard the stories around him! He's a being of nightmares."

"I seen him? News ta me. But I was in Gold City when sh*t went down, an' if it weren't Darkrai, it was somethin' just as creepy." Charlie mused. He was telling what he'd vaguely suspected to be the truth, but really, with the amount of alcohol in his system at the time, he couldn't be sure of all the details. "So even if I ain't for sure who it is, I ain't doubtin' somethin' big's out there ta tear us a collective new abdomen."

"Lets worry about one thing at a time eh? I'd like to focus on keeping the integrity of Tollen together before we focus on the big picture. We'll worry about Darkrai after Gabe is out of the picture... Darkrai seems more focused on Gold City anyways. If he happens to show up here we'll start worrying but right now, we got other issues to handle." Snype would add.

Obsidian sighed and crossed his arms angrily, "Yeah, whatever." He said before he caught himself. He instead uncrossed his arms and gave a quick bow to Isabella, "I think that's all ma'am. We'll reconvene later once we accomplish our set goals."

As they left the meeting it wasn't hard to tell that Obsidian was rather tense. He had felt betrayed in there. Of COURSE Darkrai was important! He was the very reason how Gabe got his power in Tollen after all! What? Would he just stand back and let one of his most powerful queens get sacked by a bunch of pawns and knights? No he wouldn't. He would have some sort of plan ready, and if everyone was just shutting their ears off... urgh! He just wanted to kick something really hard! He slowed his pace down from the group until he was next to Sylvio, "Well that sucked." He muttered to the fox under his breath, "No one even so much as gave a dime to Darkrai. They're all fools."

Sylvio sucked on his mouth showing slight disapproval, without looking at Obsidian. "If Darkrai is as powerful as they make him out to be, I reckon he would have other matters to busy himself with... infiltrating Tollen would be a menial task to him," he chuckled.

Obsidian frowned, "But he put in Gabe here. Gabe has known him and he's been sending Seekers to the wilderness. It means they can't risk having those around who do know Darkrai." Obsidian sighed, "Am I thinking about this too hard?"

Sylvio nodded under his hood, "you are. What you need is to... relax. Our past ventures here have been stressful... to some, admittedly. Oh, by the way..." A pouch slipped from the mage's Magic Room; from the sound, it was obviously full of golden coins. It floated on Obsidian's hands. "This is yours, as promised, for securing the spa for us."

Obsidian blinked and looked down at the pouch for a moment before slowly shaking his head, "I... I couldn't Sylvio. Anyone could have done that job really." He jiggled it just a bit as he stared upon it, "I mean... I don't want to turn down your hospitality or anything."

"Listen to me, boy," Sylvio said in a tone he did not use often; he sounded hushed, yet intense. "I was never in the state of open-handedness. When I stay idle, you wait. When I give, you take."

Obsidian gulped a bit at the tone and then looked back down at the pouch. His eyes looked upon the pouch, as it trying to see if it was indeed the right course before he silently hid it under his cape, "So... you said about relaxing?" He asked the fox, "How do you mean to relax? It's late out, and I doubt the spa workers will be at work at this hour."

Sylvio gave Obsidian a gentle smile under the hood, though it didn't reach his eyes. "I suppose you would not know better of entertainment, what with your upbringing..." he pointed a claw at where the Weavile hid the pouch of gold coins. "You are rich, now. You must behave so, then. How about a gentleman's night out? A local... playhouse, will do just fine."

Obsidian blushed at that, "Playhouse?" He asked slowly, "Er..." He thought about it... and for just a brief second a glint entered his eyes. A rather naughty smile formed along his face as he straightened his back and puffed out his chest a bit, "Yeah... you know what, that sounds fun." He nodded at Sylvio, "Of course I'll follow your example, but I have seen rich mon before. I can try being one."

Sylvio let out a melodic chuckle that echoed in the streets of Argime. "It is easy to get used to it."

Thomas, Anna and Guardia - Argime, Tollen

Lord Arron's departure left the diplomatic group once again alone in their chambers. The last statements by the Herdier left Thomas a little bit shaken. He knew the 'mon's reputation for underhanded tactics, but he could see a potential problem down the line if all went as he explained.

"I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with this situation," He explained as he shot a glance to the rest of the group. "I'm fairly familiar with Lord Arron's reputation in Argime. If Arceus forbid anything did happen to the Queen and he was sitting on the Throne of Rectitude, he would become its new King. Who knows what that could bring?"

"I understand your concern, Thomas, and I considered much the same when I was speaking to Lord Arron. However," Anna looked from where the Herdier had left and up at Thomas, "were were only asked to request his place on the throne, not advocate it. Whether or not he's actually appointed has nothing to do with us. It may be underhanded for us to do, but... If our concerns about Lord Arron's plans is great enough, we don't have to put in a strong word. By then the job would be done and--yes, Lord Arron said he would abandon us but--I don't think he would be completely willing to possibly out himself by accusing us."

Thomas listened intently to Anna's statement and nodded in agreement with her conclusion. "Hmm, yes that is true. I suppose it is quite beneficial for us to continue this agreement. Regardless, we do still have other avenues to pursue if we wish. I doubt Lord Arron may be the only one who will be willing to give us help. If we so happen to find a better deal, perhaps we can still take it."

"Who else wanted a meeting?" Guardia asked.

"Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent, the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights Elewyn, and the Royal Commander Gabriel," Thomas replied. "Caellen is quite young. I'm not sure why he was even in the trial instead of his father. I remember that it was announced that he was ill, or something of that nature. However, seeking his help might be beneficial too. Elewyn seemed sincere enough as well in the trial but... I am still unsure as to why Gabriel wanted to meet as well." Thomas looked down worriedly at the floor.

"That Mr. Mime is probably gonna come back soon to ask us, so who do you think we should meet with next?" Guardia asked the rest of the group.

"Lord Caellen," Anna answered. "I agree with Thomas's sentiments and did either of you notice? It could have been his age, but Lord Caellen didn't look--I suppose I can say thrilled--that he was placed next to Gabriel. He might be too fearful to help us, but maybe his demeanor can give us some insight on the situation here in Tollen."

"I think that's wise," Thomas agreed. A few moments later, the familiar light knock of Rupert the Mr. Mime came from the door. It opened slightly, and the Mr. Mime once again poked his head inside the chamber.

"Hello again, my lords," He greeted as he fully stepped through to the room and gave the group a low bow. "I trust your meeting went well. I do hate to rush you, but there are others who are most eager to have a chance to converse..."

---

The doors to the chamber came open, as the young Glaceon entered the room in his bright beige garb. His symbol on his crest was that of the Eevee, the long-enduring symbol of the House of Jenoscent. Unlike the other two noble houses, the House of Jenoscent focused on international politics and power rather than the affairs of the capital. It was once a fairly powerful house for the vast influence it held with other nations. When the country went dark, however, they lost a tremendous amount of that influence.

The Glaceon was not the head of House Jenoscent, but rather the son of the head. He was in line to take over once his father would pass, but he remained quite inexperienced in the ways of leadership. "Uhm... thank you my lords, for agreeing to this. And, uh... ladies."

"You're welcome, Lord Caellen," Anna bowed, "but being the only one of nobility here, it is us who should be thanking you for thinking us worthy enough for a meeting."

"Ah, uh, I-I, you honor me," Lord Caellen managed to stammer out. "I-I... forgive me, I am n-not the strongest of uhm... speakers. I... I was wondering about w-what you s-said in the palace chambers b-before. About D-darkrai and your homeland. Is it all... I mean... is it true?"

"Absolutely. If we could have risked fighting before we left, we would have the scars to prove it." Anna's example made her--regretfully--think of herself in that situation. "Or an even smaller group before you, my lord."

The Glaceon swallowed loudly and let his eyes wander to the floor beneath him. "I... I believe you," He blurted out. "I think what you're saying is true. Y-you see, my father is the head of the entire ambassadorial division in Tollen. He would typically confide in me about the affairs of the world... I would never be as good as him, but I do my best to understand. I... I know it is not my strong suit, but I... I do not want to disappoint my father. B-but I also know I am not ready for this."

Realizing he was getting off topic, Caellen tried to swallow again and continue from his original point. "My father explained to me that recent occurrences... they were t-too coincidental to not be related. W-we live in a very t-turbulent country. Our neighbors... well uhm, they aren't the friendliest bunch. To say the least. B-but my father has kept us from war for so long. Treaties, agreements, exchanges. W-we are unfriendly most of the time, but stable. But... just before the Reckoning, our neighbors began to become more aggressive. I... I don't know what caused it, and surprisingly, my f-father didn't either. But... they started this behavior almost at the same time. Then the entire incident happened here, and the aftermath. T-the way Gabriel was handling the distribution of Royal Knights and Guardians of the Borders... my father felt that too few were going to the front, even though there were possible tensions brewing.

Gabriel... he claimed that tensions had settled but... my father n-never believed it. And to make it worse... Gabriel didn't allow anyone to leave the capital... for fear of the plague spreading. I... I thought it m-made sense but... my father, he is very strong-willed. He felt something else was happening. When the former General Isabella was executed, he... he actually believed her somewhat." The Glaceon sighed deeply. "H-he had to discover it for himself. He... he left the capital under the guise of being ill, and left the duties of the House to me. He... he's out there now, and I haven't heard from him at all." The Glaceon sighed again.

"Please... I know you are seeking help for your nation, and to stop Darkrai. I know you're from the outside. My father went out to the forests and hasn't returned. If you... if you have a way to go there, or get contact out there... if find out if he is alright, if you find him and if you somehow managed to bring him back here safely, I will help you!" He exclaimed as his eyes began to water. "O-our House doesn't have the s-strength in numbers of arms. But we have once held m-much influence outside. We even heard of many who have spoken of legendaries. Help me, and that information will be yours!"

"Absolutely," Anna answered confidently. "We'll do everything we can to help you."

"We do have... our sources on the outside," Thomas explained to the young lord. "I am unsure if we will be able to reach them, but they may have heard something about the lord out there, so there might be a chance for them to help."

Caellen looked up at them and a look of relief struck him. "Then... then there's a chance. I-I thank you. The moment I hear news of my father I promise what aid I can give will be yours."

"Hold on," Guardia interjected. "If we can help you, we will. But we can't promise anything. If they find him out there, we'll definitely help but... well, Tollen's a big place, after all."

"I understand. Anything you can do will be helpful," Caellen answered. "Thank you again."

Argime, Tollen - The Highest Bidder

The days were always busy in the House of Durania. When one controls over half of the illicit activities in one of the largest cities in the world, things tend to get that way. Spying, theft, assassination, intimidation. These and more were the sort of activities Lord Arron employed to get to where he was today. There are few other, if any, nobles who would be willing to go that route. The nobility have cultivated a relationship with the intent to provide the best effect on one's reputation, so that they would have the most respect, integrity, and power. Arron has tossed away his chance at integrity a long time ago when he went on this path. But for him, there was only ever one distinction that mattered.

"The Royal Guards on the western gate beside the third hill have received their fresh supplies today," A Zorua spy stated to the Herdier as he examined some older documents. "We switched out the mole at that point and have two fresh eyes on them. Still no chance to get out from there. They're always watching."

"I see," Lord Arron muttered, his attention not leaving the parchment in front of him. "What of the shipment incident?"

"News to the palace has been filtered, but we've convinced the vast majority that it is the doing of the Brotherhood of Shadows."

"Update me on the status of the Diplomats," Arron ordered. The Zorua bowed her head a bit more.

"The diplomats from Valkaria have decided to meet with Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent following your meeting," The spy answered.

"News from his father?" Arron questioned the spy. The Zorua shook her head.

"The vast majority believe he is still ill, but we have confirmed he is most likely not inside the city anymore."

"I see," Lord Arron sighed and moved the papers to his side. He grabbed a bowl of sealing wax and applied it to the paper. He then grabbed the seal applier with his teeth and smashed it carefully onto the wax. He then looked up at the Zorua. "Send the third team to meet with the Brotherhood. Hand this paper to them as potential leads to follow in their investigation. Update me on everything else by the morrow."

"Yes, my lord," The Zorua replied with a bow, and departed, almost bumping into the huge closet that was blocking the doorstep.

The closet was actually a square, massive Abomasnow in a light-brown business suit with a darker tie to go with it. He towered many times over lesser Pokemon, his arms thick with foliage but strong underneath. His pale red eyes were wide open and fixed on Lord Arron, his mouth hanging half open, as if he was a fish. Wyatt, as was his name, was stagnant looking as always, but it was all a play. From the commoner's eye, the dead-eyed Abomasnow was a silent servant to the noble houses, but the noble houses themselves knew very well what was beneath his eerie persona: the stoic and loyal killer who would crush an infant in his hands, if the order was given.

"Lord Arron, may I come in?" Wyatt asked in a velvety voice, tranquil as the snows. He didn't wait for an answer. As the Zorua slipped past his legs, he entered the room with a surprisingly quiet step; with him, the room dampened, the temperature freezing, a direct result of an Abomasnow's presence.

He stood formally before Lord Arron with his hands behind his back and looked down upon the Herdier, breathing frost heavily through his half open mouth. "Lord Arron, have you noticed any changes today?" He glanced down at his own suit, giving emphasis on his lapel, where the insignia of the Dragalge, Durania's crest, should have been - that was the place of his employer's crest, be it Durania's Dragalge or Jenoscent's Eevee. Now there was nothing on it. Wyatt looked dully at the Herdier.

"Professional courtesy demands me to inform you. It seems you have been regretfully out-bidden, Lord Arron."

"Out-bidden?" Lord Arron asked curiously of the Abomasnow. He gazed up at his massive form, but the small Herdier didn't appear to be intimidated in the slightest. Instead, he seemed to be inquisitively analyzing Wyatt. "Me, of all 'mon?" The Herdier scoffed and retired to a seat beside a fireplace. "You must tell me of this anonymous buyer. It is not often that someone outpays one of the most prominent Houses in Tollen. Call it a natural curiosity."

Wyatt stared down at the Herdier with a vague uncertainty, as if his former client's new request was something as crude as 'make me King'. Then again, every expression of his was vague, so Lord Arron must have missed it. Mouth half open, the Abomasnow said, "I can't do that." He sounded mildly appalled.

"Confidentiality is an extravagance, specifically in the court of your country. But my new client was amenable to purchasing the... full package. And who am I to object, when the grease is so readily applied?" His voice was soft and stagnant like him, his tone painted with the slight curve of a very distant smile that formed on his mouth.

"I see," Lord Arron muttered in disappointment. It was not the answer he wanted to hear, nor the news he wished to learn about in a day that was filled with uncertainties, and in which many more would likely come. Wyatt had been a valuable asset of his, and he disliked something of such value leaving suddenly without finding something just as efficient to replace it. However, what he abhorred even more was the fact that there was information he didn't know. For one such as him, who prided himself on keeping up with all of the secrets of Argime, having an unknown factor that could be potentially problematic was not what he wanted. However, the most he could do right now is accept it. And, of course, figure out the truth.

"I will respect the wishes of your contractor and stay my tongue," He continued as he turned his back to the Abomasnow. "You were a very useful commission. I find myself quite satisfied with your services, so it is a shame to see you go. But go if you must. I wish you all the best... Oh! Before you go," the Herdier suddenly exclaimed as he turned back to the larger 'mon. "I trust you understand, given your tenure under my employment, of the potential... unpleasantries that may or may not arise from interfering in my businesses, be it directly or indirectly. I'm sure a 'mon of your professionalism will understand that engaging in such activity will be met with... an appropriate reaction. A fair warning for a fair employee."

The Abomasnow looked at him dully, about to fall asleep, seemingly. He nodded slowly, looking at the Herdier stoically and almost affectionately. "I understand," he said, ever so softly, as if he was speaking to a child. "And I offer you the same warning. You must be well aware of the unpleasantries that may or may not arise for some parties, when my clients place targets within my sight." For once he closed his mouth and raised both his eyebrows, giving Lord Arron a, do you concur? look. "Having said that, Lord Arron, I hope we work together again some time. Good bye." He turned around, hands still behind back, and left the room, the cold temperature following after him.

"Be well," Lord Arron stated as the Abomasnow left. His eyes trailed the large 'mon the entire way out, the intensity of his gaze becoming more and more apparent the further he walked from the room. As soon as he was out, a Pokemon in black dropped from the ceiling, having observed the entire conversation. Without taking his eyes from the path of the Abomasnow, Arron commanded this new 'mon.

"Watch him."

When Alexis finally did awake, he felt as though he had butted heads with a Rhydon. He was weak, confused, and overall out of it. So when he looked aroun, he was definitely not expecting to be where he was. He cast back his mind, attempting to remember how he had found himself in thison, but to no avail. There seemed to be no reason why he should be in what looked like an infirmary, next to people that seemed to have been through the Distortion World and back. He massaged his temples as he slowly sat up, assisting his weakened muscles with his own psychic strength, only to realize just how bad this monster of a headache was. It was several more minutes until it subsided to a more manageable level again.

Abel approached the Gardevoir from the side. He was cautious, as he didn't know for certain if it was a Morrian spy or someone else entirely. He figured at this point the best approach was to find out who he was, why he was here, and whose side he was one. The Medicham stopped directly in front of Alexis and eyed at him coldly, or rather with his normal stare that appeared cold. He crossed his arms and examined the Gardevoir. A quick thought began to process in his mind on the gender of the 'mon, which was a bit difficult to ascertain on first glance.

"Who are you?" Abel demanded. "And what are you doing here?"

"What's all this bollocks about a Gardevoir?" Razathiel asked, approaching from Alexis' other side. "Also, would anyone like a berry?" The Ralts lifted the berry pot uncomfortably close to the resting 'mon's face. "Take one, you prick!"

Now, it should be said that all of this confused Alexis more than would normally be comfortable. He regarded the three Pokemon, his eyes sharp as ever, nodding slightly as he gratefully took an offered berry from the Ralts. It helped. He slowly stood, and nodded to Abel.

"To ease your pretensions, I am no enemy of yours. I merely have found myself a victim of bad happenstance, and truthfully do not even know the events leading to my being here in the first place quite clearly. I do know that during the attack during the Silver War Ceremony, I was warped out like most citizens; however, I seem to have splintered from the main warp and found myself alone. I'd been searching for a sign of my location since then." Taking a deep breath, Alexis nodded once more, and awaited the Medicham's reply.

Abel cocked an eyebrow and continued to scrutinize the Gardevoir. "Wait, you were at the festival?" He questioned in disbelief. If that was true, he wondered how he managed to get all the way over here. Something about this wasn't right. "Are you a citizen of Valkaria?" He inquired. "Because if that's the case, you're a long way from home."

For the briefest instant, the Gardevoir's eyes narrowed. To one not paying explicit attention, it would go unnoticed. With the tiniest hint of chill, Alexis replied, "Would you mind enlightening me as to what you mean by that?" If this 'mon thought they could just walk up to him and presume him unable to care for himself, then he had another thing coming.

"He means that you're in Tollen." Razathiel chirped. "At the other arse-end of the buggering known world." The wizard put a hand to his chin for a moment. "If I'm honest, we're probably not the best 'mon to be telling you this, what with me being diabolically evil and Abel being a bit of a cock - where's that big, green, goldie bastard got to? He does all of that 'caring' sh*t, if I'm not mistaken."

The mention of Tollen raised many questions in Alexis's mind. He had heard of the country before, and knew enough that it had closed its borders to assistance from any other countries. He had assumed it had been a plague or blight, or something else that would require a break from outside contact. Judging by what he saw around him though, he began to have doubts.

"Speaking of," he began, looking around the infirmary, "what is it that happened here?"

Abel's mind eased up a bit. He was still wary of trusting this new 'mon so soon, especially given how mysteriously he had shown up all the way over in Tollen from Valkaria. Given what they now knew about the Greninja and everything that was potentially happening here, he was wise to assume the worst. However, he was also fairly certain that this 'mon seemed sincere.

"The Tollenians are in the middle of a war, it seems," Abel replied solemnly, ignoring the statement Raz had just made about him. "Attacks on three fronts from three different forces. They seem too coordinated to not be connected. What's worse is that that same Greninja in Valkaria Gabriel that was destroying the Network points seems to have something to do with it. It seems like the capital and everything outside of the capital have been cut off from each other. Which means the Hellguards here have been fending for themselves all this time. You just stepped into the middle of all that. Now, we're just trying to figure out what to do next. So let me ask you, are you just a citizen of Valkaria, or do you have anything to offer?" He asked coldly, not caring how he came off at that moment.

This time, there was no mistaking the chilling mistrust in Alexis's voice. That this 'mon thought that he could not only insult his abilities, but also his status... It was almost infuriating.

"I am, for your information, much more capable than you may believe." With a small huff, Alexis walked away from the pair of 'mon, muttering something about needing fresh air. He needed to calm down before something went flying, and the way that conversation was going it may have well been the Medicham's head.

Once outside of the infirmary that Alexis had awoken in, he found himself alone. Finally, some silence. A chance to collect his thoughts. He had to figure out what to do from here.

"Now if only Penance were here. He'd know what to do about this hellhole of a situation I'm in." The conversation had been directed at no one in particular; however, it was more than loud enough for any nearby 'mon to at least catch a few words.

Meanwhile, Penance was waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. He crossed his legs, then crossed his arms, then tried to cross eyes, but that didn't turn out quite as well as he hoped. He sat on the table on his sides and rolled about slightly, just so he could find that one comfortable spot. It was an itch, he knew that much. When the door opened he rolled over and fell onto the ground and held up a finger, "Status report first mate!"

Jerut stared on, a bit confused, but he quickly shook his head, "Well, I heard one guy. You know that Gardevoir they brought in? I was walking by him and I heard him talking about you. Apparently he knows you."

Penance smirked up, "Dear old Alex is here? Oh joys!" The Golduck got on his feet and wiped off the dirt on his back. "Make way, SEC are here!" He said with a wide grin. He hummed as he made his way out and jumped over some railing every now and then. He wanted to make this good! He slowly made his way up to a higher floor and managed to find an open archway that he hung from from as he called down, "Why hello Al-" The Golduck paused and peered down at the psychic. "You're not Alex! And here I was hoping to get more dirt on a sharpened eye." He muttered as he crossed his arms angrily, "Just go and water it all up why don't ya?"

Alexis grinned up at the Golduck currently hanging out of a higher archway. He'd almost say it was typical of him, only he'd never seen Penance near a window before. With a brief moment of concentration, the Gardevoir teleported into the room behind Penance.

"Alexis, not Alex. You get us two mixed up all the time." He chuckled, grinning at Penance.

Penance snorted louder and looked up at the Gardevoir, using his psychic powers to push his upper body up, "Get a name change. Or have Alex get one. Obviously you two conspired to do such an old duck." He lamented. "Better question. Why are you here? It's not safe here for Seekers." He said as he narrowed his eyes, "I can't risk more deaths on my hands Alexis. Don't tell me more Seekers ported in. Cause that's just the worst news in the world." He said with a weary sigh.

Alexis shook his head solemnly. He had just found out about the situation, and had assumed it was bad, but this seemed much worse. At least he hadn't come with several others.

"It's a long, snore-inducing story," he began, "but I came alone. It's just me." He'd never seen Penance like this. He was uniquely worried for the seekers. The recent battle must have been more brutal than he had thought.

Penance paced a bit more, "You have to get out of here." He said firmly as he looked at Alexis, "Now. You have to find a way out." He stopped pacing and sighed, "I don't care how you do it, but we'll get you out of here. You don't deserve this." He muttered under his breath. The Golduck rubbed at his forehead, "Before you ported away... did you hear any news from Valkaria? How is it there?"

Alexis slowly frowned as the memories of that day resurfaced. "Not good. Last I saw of Valkaria, they had already lost two SEC points, but they had managed to start pushing Darkrai's forces back."

He gently laid his hand on the Penance's shoulder, adding, "I can take care of myself, you know that. When I first came to the Seekers, you said yourself that I showed great promise. If anything goes horribly wrong, I swear that I will get out of there, but you can't do everything alone."

Penance pulled away from the hand as he sat on a chair and stared blankly at the wall, "Everything is wrong." He muttered angrily, "Everything is topsed and I can't toss it around." He shook his head, "Not one butterball is around." He burst into maddening laughter as his arm twitched a bit, "I think the do-hicky is crashed again." He pushed back on the chair as the back slammed against the ground. "Not one do-hicky." He murmured. "I need a pick me up." He looked over at Alexis, "A tune of sorts?" He asked.

"I hope you're having fun catching up," Abel interjected into the conversation as he joined Penance and Alexis outside. Following him were Andrea, Jerut, Commander Darrell and Trace. "But before we do anything else, the Commander needs to know our opinions on how to proceed."

"I can't lay out my plans one way or another while we rest until I know what the general consensus is on what we do next. As I said before, I see a few options here, but I'm open to more," Commander Darrell explained. "The last battle sent one scout back to the Morrian Main Base, mostly likely where our main base in this area used to be: Hellbase. Now that they lost a huge war party, it could be a perfect chance to attack. It'll be difficult, especially them being held up in our own stronghold, but we know the lands and the area, so have an advantage. Furtermore, if we're successfull, we can cripple the Morrian forces in this area, which could be huge down the line. However, I also expect we may end up losing a lot of my 'mon in the process," Darrell let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

"Sacrifices we might have to make. Another option is to retreat back to Mielena, a village west of here," Darrell continued. "We can recuperate there and build up our forces. Then if we so choose, we can still attack Hellbase when we're healthier and when we have more forces gathered with us. The drawback is that the Morrian in Hellbase will be more prepared too, but at least this way we might have a stronger push too. However at Mielena we can also choose to take up defensive positions instead, or choose another path to take. Maybe tryin' to contact Argime again, for example. Or we could try doing that from here too."

"Another thing we can do is check out Neirotta, the village where the noble was," Lieutenant Trace chimed in. "It's been destroyed and taken over, last we heard, but we might find some possible info there. Though there's no tellin' for sure. So... opinions?"

Penance was rather silent as he stared up at the ceiling silently. "Broken toys around... shattered dreams unbound~" Penance then sighed and crossed his arms for a moment, "... Later in the song it talk about hope and stuff." He frowned very hard, "Everything leads to bad choices. We're dying out here." He huffed as he righted his chair, "Might as well do it with some fun."

He stretched his arms and crossed his legs, "How many young hearts are left? And more importantly, are they steeled up or not? This maneuver will shake the tree roots away less they tape themselves down."

"... If you're asking about my 'mon, we've got a few hundred here after the battle," Commander Darrell answered. "As we recover from the battle, I could send a few scouts to gather up some more from the surrounding villages and outposts, but that would probably be only a few more hundred at most. If we retreat to Mielena, we'd be more rested and we'd probably gather much more troops, but we might lose our element of surprise for an attack, and the Morrians might have a chance to gather up in strength as well."

Penance snorted, "Marshmallow are easier baked with a cozy fire." He pointed a claw straight up, "We need the oven for this! You DO have the baking stick right?" Penance asked Darrell as he raised his brow at him, "Your place is in the kitchen. I want onions and garlic. We'll flush them out!" He burst into a bit of laughter, "And then we'll have a torrent of steam. You always should add in tomatoes. Obviously every good baker knows that." He nodded a bit, "Get my ingredients and then spell out the letters. I'll make this into a feast. Hehe."

"Yeah, I have no idea what he's sayin'," Lieutenant Trace shrugged in reply. "Anyone have a translator?"

Penance bent back with laughter, "Hahaha! Mush I say! You go prancing in mud often?" He asked Trace with a sly grin. "Cause you slosh left and right!"

"What are you even saying?" Trace asked in disbelief. He turned to the rest of the group. "How do you even survive with this guy sometimes?"

Razathiel waddled up to them, having heard the ruckus. "It hasn't been long, and I'm not sure how likely it is that I will," He muttered, before turning to the mad duck. "F*cking hell, put Brynn back on and stop being a facetious dickhead, will you?"

Penance just stuck his tongue out at Raz as he flipped the chair about and sat on one of the legs, "In due time the anointed one will speak volumes." He declared. "I just have to shake the crumbs to the left." He explained, "Once the fine grain pops up we can start circumventing the stars. Which brings me to my immediate concern." He leaned over and looked at Trace and Darrell, "Where are the lights you keep? The brightest have to shine somewhere don't they?" Seeing their face he could only sigh and hang his head. "... He means where are your psychics?" The softer toned voice asked as the duck looked back up, "Where are your best psychics and your best men? He has a plan going and it requires some specific elements to get it working."

"Psychics?" Darrell question as he raised an eyebrow. "We have psychics throughout the fort and some beginning patrol around. My best 'mon are at the outer layers of the fortress. Why do you want them?"

"A call." He said. "We're going to go and attack that base the Morrians have set up. With enough psychics however, we can send a message back to the SEC point at the city to send a message to some Seekers. When Tollen cut itself off, a lot of its Seekers left as well." He chuckled, "I'm sure the Seekers would love to come back and help defend. So we can go forward and attack, or we can move on back and retreat. Think of it like this, we retreat the Morrians run full force at us, then we get a surge of reinforcements. They stretch themselves thin coming after us and we take them by surprise."

"Interesting..." Darrell muttered as he pondered the plan. "So instead of moving toward the capital, we send a message to the capital, and in turn we can get reinforcements as well. The only problem I could see is that it would take one hell of a psychic boost to reach all the way to the capital, even with a Network point there."

"Indeed." Brynn said as he wrapped his arms around his knees, "And even if we do, there is no telling if the network could get out the message. We barely got any messages into Tollen, so they have some means to cut off the network's connection to the world. It's a risk, but with the gamble we'll actually get quite a lot out of it."

"It's worth a shot," Darrell replied. "I'll tell my 'mon to replenish for the day and night, and that tomorrow we'll move. Either for the attack or retreat. I'm guessing whatever message we get from the Network point will influence our decision. In the meantime, I'll bring all our psychics to you so you can do what you need to do."

Raz spoke up as he continued to draw odd shapes in the dirt with his staff absent-mindedly. "If you're going to take advantage of my nigh-unimaginable power, just say the word. Words, rather; those words being that you'll promise me some kind of chocolatey reward later."

"Of course." Brynn said naturally. "We can provide a big boost, and along with Raz we'll get an even bigger boost. We'll have the psychics join in one by one. We can't tire everyone out and we'll need psychics to patrol the perimeters and perform other activities. We'll only use as much psychic energy as needed. If we do one big surge we'll get the message there quickly, sure, but we'll also have a lot of tired psychics who will need to rest. That will leave quite an opening."

Commander Darrell looked over to Trace, who nodded and proceeded off. Darrell then gazed back at the group from Valkaria. "Trace will gather up the psychics in smaller groups or in singles in the main fortress openings. We'll keep enough on the outside and on protection duty so that we won't be ambushed. The rest can go to you and your plan. It might be a good idea for you four to also join in, seeing as you're all psychics," He said, referring to Penance, Raz, Alexis, and Abel. "Just a warning... Argime is a long distance away. There's no telling if this will work. But it's worth a try nonetheless."

"Of course." Brynn said with a nod, "Though I technically am two psychics on one. We'll need to be cautious with this though. Tollen hasn't allowed any communications before. If we try to send a message then it is also likely they will intercept it. Is there anyway we could get past a potential interception such as that?" He asked Darrell. "We might need either you or Trace to piggy back on our signal, there to lend your voice if someone with authority does stop our message's advance."

Raz almost giggled. "If we meet resistance, we can always murder them. Through the power of suggestion!"

Anna, Guardia, and Thomas - Argime, Tollen

It wasn't long before Rupert once again returned to the room. He was just as earnest and polite as he was when he entered the first or second time. Once again, he greeted the group with a short bow. Guardia nodded her head in response to be polite, as she felt she had been doing enough bowing for a lifetime in the past week. This Mr. Mime Rupert was a real brownnoser, having the gift for politics. Guardia did not.

"Greetings again, my lords and ladies," Rupert greeted. "We have merely two more meeting scheduled for you today. One with Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, Elewyn, and one with the Royal Commander Gabriel. May I inquire as to which one you prefer to meet with next?"

"The Deputy Commander, please, Rupert," Anna responded.

"Agreed, meeting with Elewyn first would be best," Thomas added.

"Excellent!" Rupert replied enthusiastically with another bow. "I'll have her come in right away." Rupert turned and left the room, leaving the group alone again. Thomas turned to the others.

"What do we know about the Deputy Commander, exactly?" Thomas asked the others.

"I'm not sure," Guardia answered. "She's fairly new. Maybe since a few years ago at most? i met her before. She seems to want to help, but I don't know much beyond that about her."

"She seemed sincere during the meeting," Thomas concurred. "Let's hope she holds that same sympathy now."

---

Deputy Commander Elewyn walked in through the front doors with a look of sincerity on her face. She has risen from the ranks of the Royal Knights these past few years, becoming one of the youngest Deputy Commanders in the history of the Royal Knights. Being raised as the Gold Tribe arrived in Tollen years ago, she felt the conflict of the nobles hating them and the other Royal Knights admiring them, though few cared to tell in detail why that was. She eventually learned why, but for the most part decided that she would decide for herself how she would treat and view them after she had met them. Her meetings with them in the past has always gone relatively pleasant.

"Hello friends," Elewyn greeted with a smile. "I apologize for the hostility of our city. These past few months have been very turbulent for us. People are always on edge. And not enough people are saying this, but I realize that you would have never come here and sought help if the situation in your home wasn't bad. So my sympathies are with you in these trying times."

"Thank you, Deputy Commander," Anna replied respectfully. "We're both relieved and thankful knowing there are others who believe us."

"I'm sure you are, but I'm guessing belief isn't what you're after now," Elewyn stated to the group. "It's help. How bad is it in Valkaria when last you heard?"

"We haven't been able to get into contact with Valkaria in some time, Deputy Commander. When we last saw them our defenses were being overwhelmed. One of the walls to Gold City had been destroyed along with every Network Point besides the one we escaped with. I can only pray that all of the citizens escaped, but that's with little confidence."

Elewyn looked on worried at the group from Valkaria. Her eyes were saddened as if it were her own home that was under attack. She sighed deeply and shook her head. "That's the biggest problem with everyone now. We've gotten so caught up with politics, picking sides and worrying about our own skins that we forgot that the reason we exist, groups like the Gold Tribe and the Royal Knights, were first and foremost to protect 'mon."

Elewyn looked up from the ground and toward the rest of the group. "Which is why I wanted to say to you right here and now that no matter what happens with our groups, no matter what rifts develop or anything nasty comes our way, I'll help your cause in Gold City if you need it."

"Really?" Guardia asked in somewhat of a shock.

Elewyn nodded. "I have some Royal Knights that are under my direct command. It isn't an army or anything, but a group of elite fighters could definitely help in your struggles, I imagine. When the time comes for you to make use of them, I can promise you we will come."

Annabelle's face lit up from Elewyn's offer to help. "Thank you, your offer to help is more than what we could have asked for!"

"I only wish we could do more," Elewyn said with another sigh. "But with the Queen in relatively poor health, the nobles hostile towards outsiders, and the Royal Commander's reluctance to support outsiders do to the plague we had here, it'll be difficult to get anymore than that for now, I'm afraid. Is there something else I could maybe help you with, though?"

"Just some information should do enough," Anna began. "It would be a great help to us if we knew what has transpired here in Tollen."

"Ah, right," Elewyn stated with a nod. "I suppose you deserve to know that much," She looked outside the window and studied the 'mon in the lower streets of Argime working through the evening. "Things haven't been smooth by any means thus far. As you heard, our King past away. What you didn't know is that it was due to illness. He died suddenly, causing our new Queen to return to the city from her studies soon after to take the throne. The same illness nearly destroyed the entire city and our way of life. Many were effected. In order to ensure our survival and the survival of others, we had to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world. However, while many of the 'mon suffered, a portion of the ones in the palace seemed to be unaffected for some reason. This began to cause a rift, the poor 'mon believing the nobles were hiding a cure of some sort. There was almost civil war...."

Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Recalling the memories seemed painful. "Then Gabriel rose up from the Royal Knight ranks. He claimed to have a cure, and basically saved the city. We survived, and we continue to do so because of him. He continues to maintain the closed borders policy, which I admit has been difficult for us at times, but he believes it to be for the best of the country. Gabriel doesn't always act in the way I prefer, but his interests are with aligned with what's best for Argime, so I will continue to heed his words."

"Is there a reason some of the 'mon were resistant? Did you ever find out why?" Guardia questioned the Deputy Commander, who could only shrug in response.

"Gabriel said that he could never figure out the reason for the immunity," She said with another heavy sigh. "It just seemed to... appear a little after the King's death. So many of the poor 'mon believed the nobles were hiding a cure and greedily using it only for themselves."

"And what about the plague itself? What can you tell us about that, in terms of the effects and symptoms?" Thomas asked the Ampharos.

"The... plague caused death to those afflicted about 90% of the time," Elewyn answered with a slight strain in her voice. It was clear bringing up the memories was difficult for her. "They were have strange markings appear across their bodies as a sign of the afflicted. They would develop a deep sickness. Their bodies would begin to become weak and soon after they would die... quite painfully."

Guardia shook her head and lowered it. She caught the gaze of Thomas, who shook his head when their eyes met. She was trying to discern whether any of this sounded familiar. She then looked back at Elewyn. "What about the 10%?"

"The remaining 10%... that might have been the worst part of that plague," Elewyn explained solemnly. "They too became ill in the same manner. However... instead of becoming worse, those markings seemed to bore into their bodies and change them. Their eyes morphed... changed into something else... a deep purple hue. They became violent, and quite stronger than they used to be. It was almost as if something activated within them that caused them to erupt."

The last explanation sent a jolt of realization to Guardia... she couldn't be certain, but that last part sounded oddly familiar from something else she had known thirty years ago. If it were true, then they would know without a doubt that Darkrai was indeed behind the plague.

"I see..." Guardia replied. "Thanks for the info, Elewyn."

"It's my pleasure, Guardia," She said with a curt nod. "My thoughts are with Gold City."

"I think it would be all of our interest to not only help Gold City, but Tollen as well while we're here," Anna added in. "If there are anymore questions concerning the origin of this plague that came upon Tollen, we could try to help. If you could provide us with any pictures of the markings you described or research on the illness, Mrs. Elewyn, it's possible we can help discover exactly what this plague was."

"Unfortunately, Lord Gabriel thought it best that most of the photos or any other evidence from the disease be locked away or destroyed," Elewyn explained with a shake of her head. "He felt having such reminders in the public eye would bring up tragic memories... I understood why he did so, but I also felt that pushing it back could cause it to reform again. He assured me that as long as he was there, the plague wouldn't return. It hasn't yet, so I suppose he was right. I... do believe I might have a photograph or two that was drawn still around. I could have it delivered to you later if you'd like. However, if you want to see for yourself in detail, that may have to come from one who has seen it firsthand perhaps... through memories seen form a Psychic-type's eyes. And I doubt many would want to relive such dreadful times."

"Those photographs you have would be of great help, Mrs. Elewyn. Thank you for giving us so much help in our time of need. Even with what little information we have, we will do our best to aide Tollen."

"I'll have someone send it to your room tonight," Elewyn replied before she bowed her head politely. "Even in your time of need, it is much appreciated that you offer any aid, even though it should be us who should be helping. I promise you, whatever happens, I will not forget."

Going back inside the Raegal Center felt a bit different than last time. The previous time, when the ancient library was used as a meeting spot because it was inconspicuous. This time, they actually sought the information stored inside. The more Creed thought on it, the more it made sense to hide something in here that no one wanted found. Who would ever want to look for something in an old, decrepit place such as this?

As he stepped inside the library and looked around, he confirmed to himself that this would be no easy find. It was filled with old books and scrolls, many of which were worn and torn. Some were even burnt. There was no telling if the documents even existed to begin with. However, Creed had the feeling that if indeed there were such recollections here that were written down, they would probably not be in the first place one would look.

"There's a lot to go through, and not a lot of time," Creed said to the others. "Let's get looking."

"Uuugh... Reading?" Charlie groaned. "There's gotta be a shortcut somewhere. Don't ya have the Dewgong code fer it or somethin'? Why don't we look fer it under 'Conspiracies'?"

"Research hardly ever has a shortcut," Creed replied. "Nor is it particularly fun. But if that's what it's going to take to free my country from that madman, I'll do it. I know you don't give a damn because this is foreign to you, but I won't sit idly by while that Greninja destroys us." Creed looked around at some of the books, and shook his head. "They would have hidden it somewhere..."

"Ya know, fer once, yer right about somethin'." Charlie started back at Creed. "I don't give a damn at all about Tollen. But ya know, I got my own home an' it helps us out when you happen ta owe us. Don't ya get how thieves work? We always got somethin' in it fer us an' long as we have we're gonna be on the same side. I don't like ya implyin' I'm against ya."

"I suppose that makes sense," Creed said as he picked up a book and looked through the pages. It was a detailed history about the slavery that had occurred in Tollen many years back, when quadrupedal Pokemon were slaves to the predominantly bipedal. Besides that, it didn't seem like there was anything of value in the book. He closed it and tossed it to the side. "But what happens when there's nothing else of value for you here, I wonder?"

"I'll go back home an' never trouble ya again, which I'm pretty sure is the what we're both lookin' for." Charlie's voice took on an edge, for just a second. "As fun as this all is ta me, I think I made it clear what I think of ya."

"And I think I did the same," Creed shot back. "So let's just find whatever the hell we're lookin' for so you can get the hell out sooner."

Snype walked around the library, digging through various books. Not reading them but trying to check the shelves for something. "Keheh, you Tollen folks wouldn't happen to be into secret entrances would you?" Snype asked with a small chuckle. Part joking and part serious with the question.

"We live in the forests," Creed retorted, as he picked up an old book and flipped through it quickly to see if there was anything of interest. "We practically invented secret entrances."

"Oh, good. Might be a little interestin' now, But I ain't buyin' ya invented 'em. I mean, ya gotta got the idea from somebody, I'm not sure ya coulda figured somethin' simple like that out yerself." Before he allowed Creed a chance to respond, Charlie raised a claw. "Hold up, I got an idea. I'll be back in a second, don't worry about my pretty face." Charlie took to his wings - he was going to fly around the perimeter of the building and match it up with what he'd seen of it from outside. A discrepancy could certainly narrow the search.

Sid began his search as well. It wasn't as tiresome of an idea to him as some of the others since he actually liked reading. However, even he found it somewhat troublesome to start rummaging through a large library without any sort of direction. Still, he held his tongue.

Snype would continue his search. He wondered if the place DID have any secret entrances... or if he was listening to too many stories. Snype continued to check out different books, picking them up and placing them back, coughing a bit from all of the dust they were covered up in. As he went down the shelves though he noticed something rather odd... As he went by the next shelf, it didn't seem to bring up as much dust as the others. Infact the whole shelf looked like it had been moved around pretty recently. Dust was already moved around it.

"...Creed, someone's been here. These books were moved around recently." Snype stated.

"What?" Creed questioned as he walked over to where Snype was looking. He tilted his head slightly and looked at the fresh patch of the shelf. It was true, the dust build-up had been moved around, and by the looks of it recently. As Creed looked around, he noticed that other parts of the library also appeared to have been recently disturbed.

"That doesn't make sense," He muttered to himself. "When the thieves were in here earlier, we didn't come to this part of the library. I would know I was first one here. A citizen could have wandered in here for some reason, or someone else must have. But... why would anyone else come in here? Unless... maybe what you guys were saying was right. Maybe there is something in here."

Perhaps the others had caught glimpses of the Scyther as Charlie flitted in and out of the building, comparing the outside to the inside and the available space on each. Certainly, the inside of the building seemed a lot smaller, at least in what he could access than it looked from the outside. For once, it seemed the bug might be some kind of use as he landed back almost where he'd started to address the others. "Hey, wanna hand narrowin' down the search? I think we gotta look low. The floor in here's little higher than the ground outside but I don't see no way down to a basement, think we should keep eyes peeled fer a trapdoor 'a some kind."

Creed looked down on the ground and stomped on the floor, which gave out a somewhat hollow ring. "Floor's somewhat hollow. There could definitely be something down there. Or maybe the floors are just breakin' apart. Let's look around for possible paths down," He suggested.

"Well like you said; us Tollen practically invented trapdoors," Sid offered. "Would be best to keep our options and ideas open".

As soon as Sid finished speaking a loud creak echoed out from the library. A few more creaks signaled, obviously that someone else was in the library, and trying to stay quiet as well.

Creed immediately perked up at the sound of the creaks. He motioned for everyone to stay quiet, then crouched and began approaching the general direction of the creaks. He moved behind a bookcase nearby the origin of the creak sounds and waited for it to sound again to know a more precise position on the creaking.

As he waited by he would hear just a few more creaks, placing the mystery mon just on the other side of the bookcase. It seemed the mon was talking, albeit the tone was low and none of the words being said were loud enough to figure out what was being said.

"The floor's creakin'? That's odd." Charlie whispered, checking the stone floor under his feet.

Kaveri, who had been crouching low to the ground in search of this supposed trapdoor, turned her head to stare intently at the bookcase behind which the sounds were coming from. Wiggling her haunches, the Floatzel leaped up on top of the bookcase to drop down on whoever was on the other side. There was a thump as she landed then cried out, "I got 'em!"

And a loud shriek echoed out. Underneath Kaveri's bulk was that of Obsidian who gripped his head in pain, "Dammit! Get off!" He cried out as he slashed blindly at the air above him, completely missing Kaveri with every swipe. "Now my head is ringing!" He gripped his temples as he groaned out.

Kaveri blinked down the 'mon beneath her as she recognized the voice. "Oh. Heh, sorry, Obby. Didn't know it was you," she chuckled unapologetically as she stepped off of the Weavile, though she was at least courteous enough to offer him a paw up.

Obsidian rubbed at his eyes, still a bit dazed as he looked up at Kaveri and blushed crimson. He quickly backed away and stood up on his own as he looked away and rubbed his arm for a moment before he stopped, "Uh, no thank you." He quickly said as he backed away just a bit more, "I, er, just had a hard... night was all. Uh, how goes the search?" He asked.

"Probably would be better if you weren't off wh*ring around at night," Creed spat back at Obsidian. "It's not exactly easy for us to continuously run interference like that and keep you out of the light, you know. We're looking for possible trapdoors right now, where the information we need might possibly be held," He explained, as he walked up to an old, crimson carpet covering part of the floors and began to unravel it to reveal the older stone pieces underneath.

"It'd have to be somewhere here... wait a minute," Creed's thoughts trailed off as he recalled what Charlie had said a few moments earlier. Why was the floor creaking? A quick scan of the floors across the area revealed that parts of it only were meant to look like the same stone, but in fact seemed to be made of a thin, colored wood. "Why make wood in some parts and stone in others...?"

"I didn't wh*re!" Obsidian snapped as he stood up and rubbed his eyes, "I'm not even sure what tha-AAAAAGGGHHH!" As the Weavile had stepped forward it seemed he had stepped on some rather rotten wood and his foot had simply gone through it. Instead of a long drop, thankfully, the Weavile instead began to roll down some stone steps. Obsidian curled up into a ball as he rolled down into the darkness before a loud thud echoed out. There was a bit of silence before Obsidian's voice managed to croak out, "Hey... guys... am I dead yet?" As he called out his question Obsidian suddenly looked out in the darkness, seeing many eyes around him. As they got closer his eyes widened.

All anyone would hear up top was a loud scream followed by the sound of a LOT of flatulence, which was quickly followed by Obsidian gasps and hacks. "DON'T COME DOWN HERE! Skunk... tank..."

Snype was about to follow down to go after Obsidian when he heard the rather nasty sound. Thankfully Snype really didn't have much of a sense of smell on him what with having no nose and all. "Well that'd be our trap door. Looks like he found something nasty so cover your nose if ya got one. Kehe" Snype said.

"Not... funny...." Obsidian groaned out as the sound of the Skuntank's chittering laughter dissipated as they all ran off.

Creed jumped through the apparent trapdoor into the lower level of the Raegal Center. Any nasty 'mon that had gathered quickly began to disperse to the darker corners of the insides of the center, or completely out of sight. The path down was filled with what appeared to be scrolls and worn books filled with cobwebs. Many Spinarak had made these webs their homes.

Kaveri followed behind the Bisharp, wrinkling her nose as she came up net to Obsidian. "Phew!" A small rain cloud had soon formed over the Weavile's head. It might not completely remove the smell, but at least it would dampen it. For Obsidian, the Weavile just didn't bother to say anything. He just stared ahead, his eyes not focusing on anything as he twitched a bit. "Why... do they hate me so?" He croaked out softly.

Snype went down the trapdoor as well, observing the area a bit for anything that might be out of place. A trap door was bound to hide all kinds of secrets after all right? Well, other then several Skuntank. Snype picked up one of the scrolls laying around just off of a whim and started to look over it. Inside the scroll was indescribable text.

Obsidian meanwhile made his way to a nearby shelf full of scrolls and pulled one out. "Hm... The beedrill caught in the spinarak's web..." He glanced along the lines and sighed, "Nothing useful. It's only a play." He rolled it back up and pulled out another on the shelf before nodding, "Okay, this section is just full of old plays. At least that's one section down. How many others are there?" He asked Creed as he shoved the scroll back into its spot.

"The hallway goes down for a bit," Creed answered as he stepped up to another set of shelves. He noticed his breath start to fog up, signaling that the air was more chilly over here. He picked up another scroll and gazed through it. The scroll seemed to detail a story about a Pokemon known as Atlanteus, who was called the Wizard of Eredun. He was thought to be a demi-god of fire wine, parties, and tradition. It seemed to be an old folktale, as he had the ability to create fire wine almost out of thin air, and douse entire towns with it. Creed closed the scroll and tossed it back onto the shelf.

Further down the wall, he picked up a second scroll. This one seemed to be a description of a famous and mythical battle that was once held between two brothers on opposing sides. The brothers were twins, but were raised separately as they were separated by birth. One had chosen the path of righteousness and became a member of the Royal Knights. The other became a bandit. The two had never seen eye to eye in their entire lives, being on opposite sides of the law. However, when the nation faced great peril at the hands of an invading army, both brothers fought and died together to ensure that the main gates would hold. Creed recognized the story, The Tale of the Twins of Tollen, a children's tale. He had never seen a written description of it, mostly because he assumed it was nothing more than a bedtime story.

Sylvio stepped from the shadows next to Creed, the scroll he was holding having caught the fox's interest. "May I see that?" he said, extending his hand. Creed stared at the Delphox then shrugged and handed him the scroll.

"It's just a children's tale," He explained.

"Children's tales are told by grown men," Sylvio retorted and walked ahead, keeping close to the shelves.

"Whoa, I didn't know a Tentacruel could do that!" Charlie exclaimed, apparently engrossed in a book that made for a much more... adult story than the childrens' tale Sylvio was now nose-deep in. It took a second before he even realised Creed had said anything, dismissing him off-hand with a claw-wave before returning to the story he had. "How much stuff do ya reckon we'll find 'round here?"

Creed shrugged and continued further down the dark corridor in the Raegal Center's secret room. So far, there was a whole lot of nothing. There were a few interesting tales and pieces of information, but nothing that seemed relevant to what they were looking for. That is, until Creed picked up a scroll closer to the back of the room. The scroll was stamped with the symbol of the King of Tollen, and was sealed shut. He unhooked it and opened it up, and began to read. The first few sentences caught his attention right away. Written by Zachary Orthanius, the once Royal Commander of the Knights, it detailed an expedition to Argos, where the Royal Knights were sent there to find a cure for the King's illness. In it, it had everything that Sylvio described earlier, and more. It spoke of the awakening of the Ancient armies, of the hoax of the Dark Tournament and the connection to Darkrai. It spoke highly of the other Gold Tribe members there, and of the burden they claimed by bringing the 'Objects of Destruction', the two crystals, back home with them. It also detailed the gratitude of the Knights who went along, but also of the secrecy required in the situation. Few beyond some knights and the King would know of this tale, it seemed.

"This... this is it!" Creed exclaimed to the others in the Raegal Center. He looked up at them and held the letter in his hand. "With the seal of the King on it, and the words of a former Royal Commander, there's no way that they wouldn't believe it, the nobles meaning. Which means if we present this to them, grudges that have been around for decades will instantly deteriorate. It won't bring down Gabriel, but it's a huge start."

"That means we have to protect it too." Obsidian said as his stench slowly was starting to fill the area they were in. "If anything, Gabriel is smart. He probably knows that this area was here, but didn't know where to look or didn't bother to look so suspicions couldn't be raised. I've seen the same technique played by Penance as well. Know where the stash is, but simply let someone else head in and then cut them out of the picture before anything big happens. We have to play some deceit here, just in case." He pulled another book off the shelf and smirked, "Decoys if you will. If Gabriel does have something planned, we'll just use trickery."

"It ain't like we can take things without 'em noticin' regardless. 'Sides, ya thought about what we're sayin' when we turn up with a story that's come outta nowhere?" Charlie asked. "Also, any 'a ya know what dive bombin' is?"

"... Dive bombing?" Obsidian asked, clearly confused.

"Guess not. 'S in the book." Charlie shrugged, snapping it shut and slipping it into his pack.

Sylvio blinked, checking his surroundings. He'd already put the book with the children's tale back on a shelf. His fur was standing guard, risen from the cold. "It is a little bit cold, no?" the Delphox said, glancing to both sides of the hallway. The way back was surprisingly dark. Even Sylvio was inclined by his instincts to be more careful. Then, something cold touched his foot; he looked down to see a snowflake melting, then up to the ceiling. It was snowing. "This is by no means natural," he uttered in slight amusement, "we had best get out of here as soon as possible."

Obsidian looked about with a frown, "I didn't notice the cold." He said slowly, "I'm an ice type after all... if someone else is here we have to get moving. Gabriel might have a group already after us." He said with realization lining his voice, "We'll split up, have them chase three targets. They'll have no idea who has what."

"Hold on." Snype states. The Sableye kept himself completely still as he attempted to focus with Detect. If someone were approaching, he would be able to discover something with his temporary heightened senses. Something was definitely nearby. He couldn't quite get what it was, but he could feel their movements. With that, Detect would fade away.

"No don't split up. We're blind enough as it is. Stay close and expect anything. I don't need one of us suddenly "Dissapearing" after straying from the group." Snype said.

Creed nodded in agreement with Snype. He picked up another scroll from the shelves, and tossed it to the remaining members of the group that didn't have any, as per Obsidian's idea for a diversion. He then looked back to the stairs they came from. "Only one way up. Best be alert," He stated as he proceeded up the stairs back into the main hallway of the Raegal Center. It was a completely odd scene. There was snow all around, as if it were falling straight from the ceiling. It covered the books, the floor, everything around. It was the combination of the cold and the eerie situation that caused a shiver to run down Creed's spine. He examined the ceiling intently to try and find the source of the snow... but spotted something else instead. It was an Abomasnow in a brown-colored suit, glaring at the group, but more specifically at Creed. He looked like he was about to jump down at him, and Creed didn't think he would be able to react in time to avoid him. So he did the only thing he could think to do at that moment. He looked over to the others and tossed the scroll with the information at them. "Don't lose this!" He yelled sternly but sincerely, almost sounding like he was imploring them not to.

The Abomasnow in the suit hanging from the ceiling leaped just as Creed tossed the scroll. The moment he left the ice-covered ceiling, a gust of snow and hail was brought down with him; the library was wrapped in a raging snowstorm all of a sudden. The Abomasnow himself was visible only as a huge, pale shadow that fell on Creed, pushing him down on the floor with one mammoth branch of a hand, the other branch raised in the air, but shot down at the Bisharp in an immense Hammer Arm that blasted right through the floor. Wooden splinters and broken stones burst in every direction as the entire library quaked.

The winds roared, and the shadow of the Abomasnow was erected from the spot, taller than everyone. Creed did not emerge. The killer was only briefly visible through the intense snow; his swollen, red eyes, strangely indifferent and stagnant, and his mouth, half open, stuck in the middle of a yawn. The arm he used for his attack was almost pink in color, red with blood and white with snow. "Give me that," he said in a velvety voice.

Snype caught the scroll, placing it behind him along with the other scroll that was meant to be a diversion. Everyone would have their own one which would be at least be useful for mixing it in with the real thing. He didn't seem to react to what happened with Creed as he was too focused on the titan in front of him. "Kehehe, gonna have to be more specific!" He taunted with that big annoying toothy grin of his. The Abomasnow gritted his teeth in mild displeasure, then he moved towards the little Sableye with huge, sure steps muffled in the thick layer of snow that had already covered the floor. In all the frigid cold, a bright source of heat popped behind them suddenly; Sylvio had streams of fire swirling about him and his expression was an urgent one as he held his stick high to command the flames. "Run," he bellowed. The flames around him were directed at the Abomasnow in a Flamethrower; a blue psychic shield appeared around the killer, pushing the flames out. He was heard grunting as he pushed against the Flamethrower, until the attack diminished. The Abomasnow, silent, smashed both his arms on the floor, causing an avalanche from the ceiling; everything was buried in snow, shelves collapsed and books spilled all over.

"Over!" Sylvio heard a high pitched voice scream; he let the flames wash over him, quickly melting the snow he had been attacked with. "Over!" someone screamed. In the snow storm, many little shadows had gathered all around them, waving their arms in the air. From what Sylvio could see briefly past the arm he'd put up to protect his eyes from the wild snow and hail, those Pokemon had red eyes like the main threat. They kept screaming Over and Over. Therefore, they could only be... "Snover," he shouted, "Snype, run, get out of here!"

As the snow completely covered the area Obsidian, really, had no problems seeing. Sure he had a cr*p time trying to see anything in the dark, but he had instead inherited that rare gene from his mom of being able to be one with snow. And by that, being able to survive one hundred percent in a blizzard like environment. He was able to not only clearly see the Snover in the distance, but also see where everyone else was. As he saw Snype in the intense hail he ran over and grabbed the Sableye's arm, "Come on!" He said. "That guy already knows who has it! Get moving! This way!"

Kaveri tucked the diversion scroll she'd been given under her float (even if it wasn't of any importance, maybe she'd find a good story in it), leaving her paws free. Her smile was tense, as if she was only wearing it for appearance's sake, as she squinted at the form of the Abomasnow that was barely visible through the snow. It probably already knew Snype had the scroll they'd come looking for, so the decoys wouldn't really be of much use anymore... But wait! Reaching into her stash of items under her float, Kaveri pulled out an illusion bracelet and slipped it on. Then, she crouched next to Snype and, using her cloak to block them both from view so the Abomasnow and Snover wouldn't be able to see who was who, she changed her appearance to match the Sableye's. "Hey, Snype, gimme the fake. I might be able to confuse 'em for a bit, long as I don't use any water-type moves."

Snype nodded to Kaveri. Her plan might just work. Snype passed on the decoy to the Sableye double. He kept himself quiet but his face pretty much screamed "Don't get yourself killed." Snype had no idea what kind of foe he was facing, but the priority was keeping this scroll safe. "Close your eyes. I'll mix us up with Flash." Snype said, and Kaveri did as he said. His eyes gave off a faint glimmer until suddenly giving off a blinding flash. He'd have to use this opportunity to make his escape while Kaveri would serve as a distraction.

As the Flash rang out Obsidian yelped and covered his eyes, staggering back. As his vision became clear he saw the two Snypes and he groaned in confusion. Still, those Snover were coming closer and closer. He couldn't spend the time needed to find out which Snype was the correct one, and he had to get out of there. They were already overwhelmed and who knew what other mon were still lying in wait. He turned and dashed through the chilly area, easily keeping his pace on the snow and ice patches. Many of the Snover wouldn't be seen by the others, but for Obsidian their shapes were easily outlined amid the snow. He easily found paths around them until finally he got to one opening against a wall.

He could tell that it had been the place a window had been many years before. He placed his claws against the floor and quickly lowered himself down. His claws scraped along the stone as he finally reached the ground and landed softly. The dramatic change in temperature threw him off just a bit, but that was to worry about later. For now he had to get going. There was no doubt in his mind that the Abomasnow could easily kill him in there. He had to find somewhere safe to lay low for the moment, at least until the whole ambush died down. It wouldn't do anyone any favors if he got caught, he just hoped the others could make it out as well. They were more experienced then him, so they would be alright.

Snype - Getting out of trouble - Argime, Tollen

Snype had just managed to make his escape from the Reagal Center. The commotion going on inside was already stiring up quite a crowd which was good for Snype at least. He could make a smooth getaway without being noticed by anyone important. He put his hood right over his head to keep himself more or less out of sight and kept the scroll he had been entrusted to in his bag.

Directly following the incident in the Raegal Center, the guards of the city seemed to be even more on edge than the were before. They had begun rounding up anyone on the street that they saw, questioning them and seeing if they could identify them. Clearly, the situation was beginning to escalate here. Two Royal Knights, a Lopunny and a Marshtomp, suddenly spotted the hooded Snype. "Hey, stop there!" They ordered him.

"Dammit..." He cursed quietly. If he kept running then he'd be perused either way. So the Sableye did as he was told. He had a few ways to get him out of this mess at the very least... he could grasp the situation in the meantime too.

The two Royal Knights walked over to his front side and tried to eye the Sableye under the hood. "Remove your hood and identify yourself. Name, birth area, and current residence!"

Crap. Snype would have to make something up. Chances are he wasn't getting out of this mess without a few scrapes. If he escaped, the two knights would inform Gabe and just cause more trouble then necessary. Using a SEC device to make an escape would be especially dangerous as well. "Aden. Live pretty close to that old Reagal Center back there and was making a run for it after all that noise went down. I moved in pretty recently but I was born over at Oddish Trail. Circumstance led me to move around here though. Ya know, life and all that. Sorry for the running, its kinda chaotic back there!" Snype said with a big ol innocent grin. He prepared Detect nonetheless. Something told him this wouldn't be that easy.

"You were nearby the Raegal Center when the incident happened?" The Lopunny asked sternly. "Explain what happened there!"

"Will do." Snype said with a big ol grin. He was actually gonna be... more or less honest about the situation. "Well I wasn't inside of the center since, why on earth would I want to go around and dig through a bunch of old stuff like that? Though while passing by I noticed a large chill. The temperature felt like it dropped in an instant! Then I heard a lot of noise go on inside. Sounded like a huge fight between several Pokemon. Once I heard that heavy crash I went running. Didn't wanna get involved in that mess!" He explained.

"Huge chill..." The Lopunny thought for a moment in silence. The other Royal Knight spoke up.

"Did you see any of the Pokemon that were involved with the huge fight?" The Marshtomp asked Snype.

Snype shook his head. "Like I said, I wasn't inside of the center. Just outside of it. Felt like tempertures were rising and Droping. Could have sworn there was some snow near the area too but just small drops. Seems like a weird place to have that kind of sudden weather though eh?"

"Snow... that is indeed strange," The Lopunny thought again. "We have to report this to the Royal Commander," She stated to the other Royal Knight, who nodded in agreement. She then looked back at Snype. "Do you have any other information on who could have been involved? Or did you possibly see anything else?"

"Maybe we should take him with us just to be sure," The Marshtomp suggested.

Snype shook his head. "If I were you, I'd just check out the scene of the crime itself if you want all of the answers. That's all I know. I was in a pretty big panic when all that commotion started." Snype said.

"Are you giving us orders now?" The Marshtomp asked in a harsh tone.

"No no! Sorry didn't mean to come off as direct sir! I'm still catching my bearings after that mess back there!" Snype said in an apologetic tone. "Just glad I found someone I could tell my story to!"

"Watch your tone from now on, especially in our presence," The Marshtomp ordered angrily. He gave one more glare to Snype, before he started off. "Come on, let's go investigate the Raegal Center." He said to the Lopunny, who followed him.

Snype gave off a sigh of relief once the two headed off. That could have gotten pretty bad! He was in the clear for now at least but he'd need to get off of the streets soon and show that scroll to Isabella asap.

"Psst! Psst!" A voice was heard from Snype's side. It would have likely been difficult for anyone to have caught it the first few times with the noise and commotion coming from the side. However, the sound persisted, until the 'mon who was making the sound, Stretch, was both tapping Snype and making it. "Psst! Psst! Hey, Snype!"

Snype stopped and headed over to the source of the voice rather nonchalantly. He immediately recognized who was making all the noise. "Heya, feeling better after that last incident?" Snype whispered in a somewhat teasing tone.

"No!" He squeaked nervously. "You don't just get used to things like that in one day! Two days ago, I was just a simple thief! Now I'm running errands for the brotherhood to the friggin' King of Thieves!" He exclaimed in a whisper. "What is going on here anyways? Roran sent me to find out."

"Its a long story. But I got something Isabella will seriously want to see. Sylvio, Kaveri, and Charlie are back there fighting some crazed Abomasnow but I gotta get everyone outta here and back to the brotherhood hideout." Snype explained.

"What? Who... what did the Abomasnow look like?" Stretch asked Snype.

"He was Red. Had a barrier that completely negated Fire Attacks. Some Snover were involved too. His arms were pink, Red swollen eyes... it didn't seem natural." Snype explained.

"Sounds kinda... familiar," Stretch replied nervously. The very thought of the 'mon he was thinking of made him shiver. He turned to the corridor and led Snype further into the shadows. "Sounds kinda like the guy who was working for the head of House Durania, if I didn't know better. Which I thought he was on our side! Come on, I'll take you to Roran. He'll know where Isabella will be!"

Darrell, Penance, Abel, Raz, Alexis, and Trace - Fort Trantrea, Tollen

Approximately an hour later, Darrell had called for a good portion of the Psychics to appear before the center of Fort Trantrea. They gathered together in a circle, having been briefed about what they would be doing. It was a tremendous task, to send a signal from one side of the country to the other. However, because the Network system was a natural booster of Pyschic energy, reaching that signal might actually be a bit easier than reaching any single Psychic there. This meant there was at least a chance for something to happen.

"We've pointed you out on the map where we can you to contact," Darrell began to explain to all of the Psychics gathered there in the fortress, which included Abel, Raz, Penance, Alexis and quite a few Hellguards. "What we need now is for all of you to connect together, and then synchronize into my mind, so that I'll try to get a message out for them."

"What we primarily need are layers." Brynn said as he walked forward, "Excuse me Darrell, but I know how to crank this out." He explained. "So for the most part we're going to exhaust powers one after the other. Think of it like lifting heavy furniture. Someone does it alone and you have an extremely hard time getting it out of a room. If we all combine at points however, form a chain of links, then we'll get through this easy enough. In essence, everyone will be distributing the weight as equally as possible, but NOT until we get a signal to the city."

He glanced about and began to pace, "Simply put, I have a strong feeling that Tollen will be making sure our signal can't reach the teleporters, so what we're going to do is build a bridge there first. The most powerful of minds will stay back and let the other psychics build our bridge there. Once we even get close to relaying a signal we'll hit the psychics hard. We'll lay out our message and use the abundance of powers we'll have left to make sure it goes through. We have to hold our powers back right until we feel resistance. They won't know how much power we'll have and if they only put up a minor resistance then we can overpower any walls they attempt to put up with our hidden strength."

He put his hands together and looked among everyone. "So, we'll build layers up to the city proper, and we'll squirt some icing upon them with our climax. Everyone got that?"

"Yep!" Raz shouted, shooing the other psychics away with a spring in his tiny step. "Got it! Out of the way, weaklings! Powerful mind coming through! Supposedly I should be resting - though it's hardly as though I need to, what with all of the power in my mind. A powerful mind, my one. Evil, too. Haven't mentioned that in a little while."

"Squirt some icing and climax?" Trace repeated to Brynn. "I guess we understand..."

Brynn stared and then blushed brightly. He stomped a foot down angrily as he balled his fists up, "PENANCE!" He shouted. Just a second later the silverly eye faded as the duck fell on his back, laughing loudly, "You heard him!" The duck cried out in overzealous glee, "We're squirting and no talk backs!"

"... Either way, I think we understand. Best begin this right away, while we have everyone gathered," Darrell suggested. "I'd rather not keep a lot of Psychics out for long."

"Could you two get your bloody minds out of the gutter and pay attention to my mental dominance?" Razathiel whined. "Sure, my mind is bulging with power, but surprisingly little of that is diverted to any f*cking patience whatsoever."

"Then hold onto that bulging sack!" Penance said with glee. He pointed up from the ground at the psychics, "Start with building a bridge! We needs lots of nuts for this! And bolts... but mostly nuts! We need a means of travel after all!" He stood on up and snapped his fingers. "Link and wink! It's what I say!" One by one the psychics began to link and 'layer' upon each other as a psychic bridge of sorts was built toward the city. Penance whistled off to the side as he tapped his feet against the floor. "Hurry up! Tracey wants some leftover icing!" He said with a wink to the Lieutenant.

"We're there." A Grumpig stated. "Hurry up cause this isn't as easy as it looks!"

"Haha! Come on this cake ain't done baking!" Penance decreed as he let his mind link to the 'bridge' that had been built. Abel joined in on the connection as well, though he was more of a physical fighter than a Psychic, he did what he could.

"Calling on my unfathomable power now, are we?" Raz murmured, looking up. "Very well, let's show them how it's done. And keep your bloody icing away from me, you hear?"

As the other psychics began to congregate upon the psychic bridge Penance led them on - assisted by Razathiel, who was adamant in his presiding role in the bridging. Thankfully the bridge allowed their powers to quickly push along and toward the city. "Get ready! If we have to push, we'll have to push!"

The connection began traveling through the wilderness of Northern Tollen and started making its way into the capital. Abel noted how many smaller connections they blurred by on its way. Surprisingly, there were still many 'mon in between there, showing just how many citizens of Tollen the Hellguards were actually protecting by making their stand where they were. Eventually, Abel felt a ping inside of his mind, and the connection seemed to connect directly to a Network point. It was quite a distance away, and the Psychics were all being quite strained, but it appeared as if a connection had been established.

"H-hello?" A voice asked over the static of the Network connection.

"Yo!" Penance said, "We need to send a message out. So either let us sand or stand aside. Lots of mon are dead from the Hellguards, so please don't toy my patience." He said

"Hey, network person!" The Dreadmage snapped across the line. "We are really not the best people to be doing this, because I'm magnificently evil and he's zubat-sh*t crazy, but we're actually trying to be of some kind of help - if you can believe that. So do what he says, or I'll destroy something important." Raz turned to the others slightly, "Was that good? I thought that was fairly good. Evil, rather. Adequate, rather."

There was a lot of static over the connection, but the same voice cried out again, this time more frantically. "If you're *static* to help us... then HELP US!" It cried.

"That's what we're doing!" Raz snapped again. "Get with the f*cking program!"

More static followed. "We saw your connection and grabbed hold of it... any *static* to get a message across... *static* Commander Gabriel is not what he says... he's taken us hostage and is holding us here! *Static* Pentosarrs are coming! Morrians are coming!"

"That's it! We're keeping this connection!" Penance said, "Everyone, boost this signal right now! No wonder we couldn't get a message in before from the Fort. The psychics ARE being held hostage!" He said to Raz. "Increase the power so we can clearly hear them!" He declared, "We're going fast and loud here!"

Abel did his best to boost his own signal as well. He made a mental scan of the Network surrounding to ensure a stronger signal. However, when he made the roundabout to the signal, he noticed something. The signal was far too close to be coming from the capital. This wasn't the same Network connection. That didn't make any sense. He transferred his findings to everyone else connected through this connection, as well as its location. He began developing an intense migraine. Trace and Darrell, who were also sharing this connection but weren't supplying Psychic energy, began to understand the layout.

"That signal's coming from Brookerridge," Trace pointed out. "It's a town west of here, close to the borders where the Pentosarrs and the Morrians are invading! But I thought all the network machines were destroyed besides the one in Argime!"

The link was boosted so that the Psychics were fully able to be heard for a few moments longer. "Defenses in this area aren't holding, but we're being held just outside Brookerridge by a group of Royal Knights! T-the Pentosarrs are annihilating defenses to the west, and the Morrians were spotted around the area too, but they slowed down. They both have it, that same insignia! On the Pentosarr's armor and the Morrians tribe leader's tongues, in red! If Brookerridge falls, they'll reach us! And if they reach us..."

"Free ride to Argime," Abel muttered. The Psychic connection deteriorated after that.

"Well, cock." Raz said.

"Pull back." Penance muttered. "I need to think." As his mind withdrew from the bridge the Golduck began to pace, "This isn't good." He said softly, "This is a trap of some kind. Think about it, this... network point knows there are no connections out here. Trace." The Golduck spun to the Lieutenant with a frown, "It's already been told that Gabriel has been sending no troops here correct? If that's the case, then I think I know why our little 'friends' managed to get a wind of our signal."

He chuckled softly, "It's deception. Think of it like this, Gabriel hasn't been sending any mon out here cause he's aiming for this country to be in chaos. What better way then by getting rid of the protectors and then causing fear and panic in the general populace, correct? It was the same in the last war in a way. You killed the defenders... but you left the people alive. What if the army going to the portal is doing so because of Gabriel's orders? This whole 'rescue us' please could be a means to get rid of the last defenders. We arrive, tired and weary as we are, and we find an army waiting to slaughter us. Once the last defenders are down the army marches in, but instead of killing or taking over the city, they force the residents into their homes and sequester them there."

He frowned, "It'll be another Gold City again. No one being killed, but held alive so chaos and fear resonant through the capital. Gabriel will still be in control, but this time of another army. That psychic signal we received very well could have been sent to other defenders. Hellguards still alive who marched over and ended up... well, in a worse position." He looked at Trace, "I don't know much about what is going on here, but do you believe that in our current predicament that a trap would be set for the Hellguards? If you truly believe so, then we cannot risk going. We would lose every soldier here in our condition. If you don't think so, then we'll head out." He looked about, "In fact, I do want to know from everyone here. Who does think this to be a trap? Who thinks it to not be a trap?"

"In my experience, thinking every situation could be a trap is a good rule," Abel responded. "I think Gabriel and Darkrai may be twisted enough to pull off something like this."

Darrell shook his head. "It's an interesting theory, but that's all it is. Let me ask you all something: what if you're wrong? If we don't stop it, we can give them a path directly from here, the outskirts of Tollen, directly into the capital! I have hundreds of Hellguards lives I'm protecting here in Fort Trantrea. But we're still here because we're protecting thousands upon thousands in Argime!"

"True." Penance said, "But ask yourselves this. If they do have a network machine, that means a free way to contact the capital. A free two way system to get troops there to protect the network machine. Meaning, either one of two scenarios. A, they sent a million messages to the capital and Gabriel has pointedly ignored every single one. Or B, it is a trap."

"Or C, something else is preventing them, same reason we didn't hear anything before to the outside," Abel muttered.

He crossed his arms, "What would that be then Abel? Cause we have already seen evidence. Gabriel was in Valkaria. If he isn't ignoring them, then what? Is he innocent of this? He hasn't been slaughtering my Seekers to help Darkrai along? Someone else has?"

"You misunderstand, duck," Abel replied coldly to Penance. "I know Gabriel is behind this, but why didn't the Psychics in Argime send out a message to someone sooner for help? Because something could be preventing them. Same reason here. Why didn't these Psychics send out a message sooner? Something could be preventing them. Maybe they bounced our signal as a last minute effort, but something was preventing them from sending anything out. Either way, it's all speculative either way. Maybe it's a trap. Maybe not. But I agree in one respect. Why send the entire army there then? Why not just a small group?"

"A small group against an army?!" Trace asked incredulously.

Abel rolled his eyes and looked at Trace. "Who says we have to fight an army? The forces are coming there, but they're not there yet."

"I could fight an army..." Raz mumbled.

"I doubt you can," Abel replied to the Ralts. "But if the Network Machine was gone, would we have to? All we'd have to do is reach it, and then we could either go through and destroy it on one end, or simply reach it and destroy it. Then the army can't pass through. No army would be here so we would save lives too."

The Dreadmage pouted at the Medicham above him. "As if you'd know anything, you goody-goody. One time, there was this army of good people, and I killed all of them because I was evil. It was really very impressive, and evil." He twirled his staff in hand before thumping it against the ground, closing his eyes nonchalantly. "Pitiful underestimations of my abilities aside, the possibility of this being a trap should be a given, so much so that I'm not entirely sure why it's being discussed - sheltered lives, I suppose - anyhow, as much as I'd love to march in and obliterate the place, tactics dictate a cautious entry with scouting parties to confirm intelligence, measured divergence of resources to cover defences and possible offensive routes; with the number of psychics here, it's not as though we have any excuse to be going anywhere blind, and regardless of that - I'm a f*cking combat mage, shouldn't you lot be the dickheads to know all this sh*t?"

"Raz speaks the truth." Penance said, "Strike five birds with a stone you see. It's my philosophy! Hehe. Now, to get there we have to pack the right stones. Their features will be enough to slam through the ranks. Any leftover rubble will clear the court so to speak." He explained.

Abel ignored Raz's rant for the most part, but seemed to concur with his thought process. "Scouting... that would probably be best," He turned to Commander Darrell and Trace. "You said yourselves that the armies won't move one way or another for the rest of the day to recover, right?"

"That's right," Trace replied.

"Then how about sending some scouts over there in the meantime to confirm the story?" Abel asked. "Your best, if you can spare them. Then we can see for ourselves if its worth the effort."

"Well... as much as we wouldn't want to pull them away, this could be a big deal so... we can do so," Commander Darrell agreed with a nod of his head.

"And I'm coming too." Penance said with a broad grin, "What? Think I'm trusting some random spinsters to squish? I squish fine enough without them, but I must see the gold with my own eyes." He gave a sly wink, "So then, what are these symbols they've talked about? I'm sure you all have seen them plenty of times? Yes, or are ya holding out a cold blanket?"

"I'll have no problems with that, I suppose," Commander Darrell replied with a nod. He then began to ponder Penance's other question, and motioned for two Hellguards who were on standby to the side to come forward. They carried with them the body of the deceased Lickitung Morrian Leader. "They must be talking about this one," He continued, opening the 'mon's mouth and displaying the red marking on the tongue. It was spiraled around in a unique design, all leading to a point in the center of the tongue, where there appeared to be some sort of shape, possibly a head. "It's not something the Morrians usually had etched on. This is new. Oddly enough, we've had reports of the same symbol imprinted on the armor of the warriors from Pentos to the west, and even some among the bandit clans."

"... That is the symbol." Penance giggled a bit, "Oh yes, a lovely symbol that is." Penance looked about and walked over to one of the soldiers, snatching a hood off of his head that was two sizes too big. "Thank you~" He said as he plopped it on his head and hummed a bit. He walked further into the field and went over to a Marowak's corpse. He inspected it a bit before pulling at the head, grunting a bit as he fidgeted and worked with it before he pulled off the skup cap and slapped it on top of his hood. He scampered over to one of the few still standing tress and climbed up as he shouted down.

"Friends! Comrades! Lend me thy ears! Not really cause that would be wasteful!" He crackled with laughter. "Poor Roderick here knew a good life!" He said as he pointed up at the Marowak skull he wore, "But not as good a one as this! Seems we are in a religious battle now! Those who wish not to place faith in a god against those who pour all their devotion into one. Today! We enacted... a inquisition against those of Darkrai's faith! That symbol marks from the books of le old! Today, we just slaughtered a bunch of his bishops, priests, and clerics. But fear not! The Inquisition is not done yet!"

He looked down, "First I need some volunteers! Who here wishes to be head master of genocide ceremonies? Essentially the ability to enact genocide against any of Darkrai's religious sects? Anyone? Anyone at all?" He asked as he peered around.

Raz rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... not entirely sure who you could pick for that. Doesn't really seem like anyone's fit for that sort of thing..."

"I think what he's askin' is who wants to go scout with him..." Trace replied with a shake of his head. "We'll pick out a few for you, our best."

"That could work Mr. Soldier Man!" Penance said, "Or... I could elect... you!" He said pointing to a Sunflora, "You're genocide master! Of the ceremonies of all genocides!"

The Dreadmage nodded nonchalantly, twisting his staff in hand. "Oh, yes, yes - go on. I'm sure they'll do fine. Good choice," He gestured to the Sunflora. "Go on, then, up you go."

"W-what?" The Sunflora asked with a confused look on his face. "I ain't a scout!"

"You won't be scouting." Raz snapped. "You've been given the role of Genocide Master - be grateful for it."

Penance burst into louder laughter, "Oh come now small, tiny, speckful one!" The Golduck cracked up, "You know you want it~"

"I uhm..." He looked at Trace and Darrell, both of which already seemed busy discussing who to actually take to the scouting mission. "Err... yeah?"

"'Yeah'?" Razathiel cried, "Really, that's all you have to say? 'Yeah'?! Piss off-" The Ralts haughtily pushed the Sunflora to the side, hopping up on his staff in front of the gathered group. "The audacity that you'd even try to usurp my position? Inconceivable! I'm the obvious choice for Genocide Master and we all know it. Bask in my glory if you will. Not for too long, though - the sheer density of my evil may well overwhelm some of the punier of you. Genocide Master - I suppose I'll add that to the list..." With that, still perched atop his staff at what he assumed was the centre of attention, Raz drew a pen and paper from his Magic Room and scribbled a note on it before tossing it back in.

Alexis, having been silent through just about the entirety of the past several hours, stepped forward.

"I also would like to join this scouting party. Perhaps some good to counteract the Tiny Incarnation of Evil over there." His face was stoic. He'd been thinking a lot lately, about the general status of their precarious position. It was about time he did something about it, anyways. He'd always had an internal sort of fear for nightmares, and the darkness they brought with them, and those were Darkrai's hallmarks; he was finally standing up to face it. It was time to show the world a bit of the true man Alexis had become.

Penance jumped down and landed behind Alexis as he laughed heartily, "That's a Seeker!" He crackled. "Just stick with me Alexy waxy and we'll strive through and clean!"

Despite how serious he was at the moment, Alexis could't help but chuckle slightly. "Alexy waxy? Never heard that one before." He stood to the right of Penance, looking around at the other psychic types assembled before him.

"You'd best get ready then," Darrell interjected into the conversation as he tried to steer it back to the task at hand. "I'll be sending three of my best scouts with you on the mission, including one of my lieutenants. You'd best leave right away."

Anna, Guardia, and Thomas - The Royal Commander - Argime, Tollen

"Hiding or destroying photographs of the plague?" Thomas questioned as he recalled what Elewyn had said about Gabriel's actions. "There's little doubt he was covering up, I'd wager."

Guardia nodded in agreement. "The way she described it, it seemed very similar to the Chaos Form ability of Darkrai I encountered thirty years ago. If that's true, then it would prove without a doubt that Darkrai is the one behind the plague. To us at least. Convincing them would be harder."

"Convincing the nobles would be harder," Thomas commented. "What I'm more concerned about at the moment is this last meeting we have later today... with Gabriel. What do you suppose that's about?"

"Based on what we've heard so far, I don't think it will be anything in our favor, but we may be surprised," Anna answered Thomas.

"I don't doubt it," Thomas agreed. "If there's one thing I can attest to, it's that with everything we've found out about Gabriel, there will likely be surprises. And nothing will probably be in our favor now."

"... I really don't want to do this," Guardia said with a strain in her voice. "Like, I'm really not looking forward to it. But... let's get this over with I guess."

"Be prepared for anything... and no matter what he says, we mustn't act violently," Thomas explained. "If he caused any of us to outburst, it could affect our reputations with the rest of the nobility and military leadership."

---

There was an uncomfortable chill that penetrated the room the moment Guardia began to hear the door creaking. Rupert had informed them that Gabriel would arrive to their room soon, but it had been some time since that announcement and for what seemed like hours (and likely was), no one came. Guardia wondered what sort of devilry Gabriel could have been up to in the meantime to cause such a delay. She hoped it was nothing that affected the other groups. She didn't think he knew anything about them, but at this point nothing was certain. Conversely, he could have merely been late on purpose, just to rattle them and get under their skin. The uneasiness surrounding Gabriel partially stemmed from the fact that Guardia knew so little about him, other than his ties to Darkrai. He was unpredictable.

Yet here he stood now inside the Diplomat's room, covered in a light cloak of emerald and some Tollenian armor underneath it of the same color. Upon the back of the cloak was the symbol for the Royal Commander of the Knights of Tollen, one of the most prestigious and powerful positions in all of Argime. Gabriel had arrived.

"Hey there, honored guests!" His greeting was some line between casual and respectful, the type which made Thomas uneasy. Guardia felt a bit ill just being in his presence, but knowing that she was unable to lay a finger on him without incurring the wrath of politics. The Greninja strutted through the room before he fell back into the same chair Lord Arron had lain his cloak on earlier in the day. He then placed his feet onto the nearby table and fell in comfortably into the seat. His eyes met the group again and he seemed to smile from beneath his scarf-tongue. "I'm sorry to hear about your homeland being under attack. It's such a tragic thing, indeed."

Guardia's blood began to boil. Now he was openly mocking them to their faces! She clenched her fist, just about ready to explode onto him.

"Yes," Anna began. She could feel the prickle of nervousness and the uncomfortable grip of her fear. Her heart pounded in her chest and it was only her focus on her duty that kept her voice from shaking. "It's our faith in Tollen that gives light to this time. I, as well as my comrades, are hopeful that you be our strongest ray of light. After our meetings with the other nobles, it's been noted that while there are doubts against us, there seems to be no ill-intentions. I'm confident that this benevolence is a point a pride for leaders of Tollen such as yourself, Royal Commander."

"Aww, that's so nice!" Gabriel exclaimed gleefully as he eyed the Mareep from SEC. He then looked over to Guardia and Thomas, before he pointed toward Anna. "You brought a nice one with you. I'm touched. As expected from someone at SEC, I expect. Speaking of, how is Hanso these days? Not too well, from what I heard..." He added with a somewhat depressed look across his face for a mere moment, before he dispelled it and continued on with his cheerful persona. "Oh, not that I would know anything about that! But I'm guessing since he isn't here with you, he might be back in Gold City. Shame if anything were to happen to him."

Gabriel's comment about Hanso made Anna's blood run cold. She couldn't hide the shocked (and frightened) look on her face that she quickly tried to hide. She tried to calm herself. More than anything Anna didn't want Gabe to know her weaknesses, but the more she focused on hiding her fears, the more they showed.

"P-" Annabelle paused before swallowing. "Precisely. It's for reasons like you mentioned that we must act quickly!" She wasn't sure if it was her ears or not, but she could swear her voice didn't sound as confident. Was it shaking? "The nobles had plenty to discuss with us. I'm sure you have a few things of your own in mind."

"Yeah, what exactly do you want?" Guardia asked more bluntly than Annabelle. She had a very hard time keeping herself contained. After all, this was one of the 'mon who had attacked Gold City. "Why hold this meeting with us?"

"Why, to help you of course!" Gabriel exclaimed as he sat up from his seat. "You did the smart thing coming to Tollen to request aid. If Darkrai is really attacking and set on destroying you guys, then there's nothing absolutely you can do to stop it... on your own. Darkrai has a lot of strength in numbers. 'Mon from aaaall over the world!" He explained with a bit more excitement. He then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, that is what I'm guessing at least. There's no way Valkaria can beat him alone," He sunk his shoulders in an almost too exaggerated fashion as he feigned sadness. "You'll all be wiped out too fast... BUT!" He quickly piped up again. "If you were to get some help, then you can at least prolong the conflict! And have a 'chance' to win." As he said chance, he put his hands up and made air quotes.

"Unfortunately, a lot of my top guys are out doing some drills at the moment," He explained nonchalantly. "Far south, they're practicing invasion drills, long story, no time to explain," He waved his hand to dismiss the story, but Guardia thought she understood the implications. "Buuut, I think I can scrunch up some fresh recruits around. They don't necessarily have a lot of battle experience. Actually they don't really have any at all, but... well maybe you can use them as live shields for some of your guys! Could save lives and prolong your defeat!" He stated in the same upbeat manner.

"Live shields isn't exactly what we're looking for," Annabelle answered, shaking her head. Gabriel's attitude confused her. He was against them and yet...? True, she had never seen him in Gold City personally, but... "Maybe we could do something with them training wise, but I'm not confident we have the time..." Anna glanced up at Guardia as if to look for an answer.

"There wouldn't be any time," Guardia replied in an annoyed tone. She was having a hard time keeping herself contained at this point. "Sending in recruits like this straight into a war zone would be the equivalent of sending them to slaughter! But that's exactly what you'd want, isn't it, Gabriel?"

"Hmm?" Gabriel questioned, his eyes set on the Zangoose leader of the Gold Tribe now. He pointed to himself. "Me? Want slaughter? What reason could I possibly have for that? I care deeply about the troubles of the citi-"

"Cut the crap already!" Guardia interjected with a loud yell, causing Gabriel to quiet down and stare at her. Thomas couldn't read Gabe too well with the scarf-tongue covering his mouth, but the frog seemed to be enjoying tormenting them. It was as if he got off on it. "We know exactly what you are, who you work for and what you're doing, so stop it with this fake nonsense!"

"But Guardia, the pleasantries have to be acknowledged, after all," Gabriel responded calmly and politely to the Zangoose.

"I swear I'll rip your tongue ou-"

"Guardia!" Thomas jumped in, trying to ensure Guardia wouldn't begin to get physical.

The Greninja looked silently between the diplomats, his gaze falling on each of the four before he sighed deeply and then chuckle under his scarf-tongue. "Aww, you guys aren't any fun. Alright, I can see you guys aren't up for this anymore... so let's get to the point! No doubt you have some questions to ask, so fire away!" He exclaimed, sitting back down in the seat, and swinging one leg over the arm of the chair.

"What, you will answer any questions we will have?" Thomas asked his former colleague with somewhat disbelief.

"Well, no not really any of them," Gabriel answered cheerfully. "Answering some might make things too easy. And that wouldn't be any fun, would it?!"

Annabelle thought on Gabriel's offer. He would answer their questions, but very few. It was a prime opportunity to figure things out, but Anna's anxiety was making it hard for her to think.

"What..." Anna pause, unable to finish her question. As soon as she started the words vanished from her mind and she had nothing. She thought quickly for another question. "Why are you here in Tollen?" She asked quickly. Her confidence in him answering the question sunk to low levels as soon as it came from her mouth.

"Hadn't you heard the rumors?" Gabriel asked as a forced shocked looked appeared on his face. "I was born here! Out on the second hill of Argime, outside the capital, but in the forest, on the edge of Brookerridge in a small home, just down the Oddish Trail of the main streets... the stories are different but the message is the same! Tollen is my home, just like the others like me stay in their own homes. Like homefield advantage!"

He chuckled lightly, then shrugged. "Or maybe all those are just rumors, and I chose to be in Tollen because it was special to me. Maybe I just liked it more! What else ya got?"

"What purpose did you have in Gold City?" Anna asked next, ignoring her brain giving the obvious answer about the Network Points.

Gabriel held up his hands. "Hey, I just go where the boss tells me to," he replied, before he scratched his head. "Well, maybe that's not exactly true, but if I was there, then it was because the guy who started this all wanted us to be. He must really have some beef with you guys down in Valkaria!" Gabriel exclaimed with another chuckle. "I wonder why? Maybe something you did?" He asked somewhat sarcastically. Guardia was pretty sure what reason that was. It was Valkaria who had imprisoned Darkrai for so long to begin with.

"So does that mean you work for Darkrai then?" Anna asked, her interest in Gabriel's slight confession helping her. "What makes you so cordial with us then? With so much effort to keep us from leaving Gold City wouldn't it be more beneficial for you to get rid of us as soon as we came here?"

"Hmm? Darkrai? Who said anything about Darkrai?" Gabriel asked in an almost forced fake confusion. This didn't help soothe Guardia's anger at all. Gabriel looked behind him as an apparent show to see if anyone else was in the room. Then he pointed to himself. "Not me, I didn't say that. But... say for a moment I did have someone else on the side that I was pretty tight with, and say this 'mon may or may not be a legendary, and might look something like someone you just mentioned. If I really did work for him, would getting rid of you when you got here really be what he would have wanted?"

Gabriel crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. "In my experience, the easy way out isn't how he works, if there is someone that was there that had a way of working, that is..." Gabriel put a finger to where his chin would be in position of his tongue scarf. "Hmm... might have confused myself there... oh well! Point being, I think you guys really should broaden your view on who you're actually dealing with. As I recall hearing, you met Darkrai in person thirty years ago for all of what, an hour? If that? Like I said to Snype and Paradox back in Gold City, what makes you know what he's really like after that short time? Besides, maybe I have something cookin' for you guys specifically in Tollen, so that's why I didn't kick ya out!"

"Like what?" Annabelle asked, knowing full well he wouldn't answer a question about his motives. It made her wary and she couldn't help but ask the question.

"That," Gabriel began to reply as he held up a finger. "Would be telling!"

Anna sighed. Of course. "Then would it be accurate to assume that the help we seek here is futile?"

"Help is never futile!" Gabriel exclaimed brightly as he threw his hands up in the air for effect. "No matter what form, help will always do just that.... help! But sometimes, something that helps you could also be helping someone else as well! Maybe even more so than what if could do for you!"

"If you lead us to believe--or want us to know--that us being here helps you, then why would we stay here in Tollen? We were all present for the mostly unwelcoming meeting earlier. Against those odds, what reason do we have to stay?"

Gabriel tilted his head. "Would you really leave this country and all the help it can offer you over what might happen? Or better yet, what I say might happen?" He asked the group of diplomats. "After all, how do you know what I'm saying is even true to begin with? I could just be messin' with you, after all!" Gabe put up his hands for a moment. "Not that I'm saying I am! But truthfully, who said you can leave even if you wanted to? You guys are guests of Tollen after all, which means you're my personal guests too!" He exclaimed.

"You can't leave without first having a banquet with the hierarchy too! Who knows, maybe even the Queen will be there. She hasn't been feeling too well lately, but I think I can convince her to come just for you guys!" Gabriel added. Thomas couldn't tell because of the scarf-tongue, but the cocky Greninja he imagined sported a rather large grin. "Let's have it two nights from now, hmm?"

The Greninja suddenly clasped his hands together and continued. "Oh, I know! We'll make things interesting! A wager of sorts! You guys and gals are betting 'mon, right? Right? Well, you are today! Here's the wager: If you think there is something sinister going on around here, if you think I've got my hands caught up in some sticky situation, I'll give you until that evening to stop me! If you think there's something worth stopping, that is. Stay and enjoy yourselves, look into things if you like, do whatever you like! But... " Gabriel held a finger up and eyed each one of the diplomats individually. "If you can't solve the mystery before then, then I win and you lose!"

"And what happens when you or we win?"

Gabriel stood up and wandered over to the window. He set his hands on his hips and gazed outside. The streets were already beginning to quiet in their activity due to the late hour. "If you win, I suppose you would have accomplished whatever it is that you set out to do here in Tollen!" He answered enthusiastically. "I can only guess what that is," He added with a shrug. "If you lose, however... in other words, if I win... " Gabriel paused for a moment. He turned back around to the group and squinted his eyes in what Thomas could only guess to be a smile under his scarf-tongue. "Well, I guess you'll find out in two days."

Gabriel's ominous answer didn't sit well with Annabelle. She could hardly stop the shudder that went through her. Whatever was going on, there didn't seem to be much more to ask about at this point. But there was still one thing.

"If I may ask..." Anna began, hoping Gabe would possess this information, "do you know who is in charge of running the Network Points here?"

"The one in Argime?" Gabriel asked to clarify, then proceeded to answer. "Why, the Queen of course! We've gotten rid of most of our Network points in Tollen to ensure certain things don't spread and to keep our country contained, but we have that one for emergencies. Of course, in the Queen's absence, a few others could use it as well, I suppose," He answered. He then looked outside again, and gasp.

"My, my, look at the time," He began to say as he straightened his uniform out and proceeded toward the door. "I hope I answered most of your questions. But it looks like I've got to go. 'Mon to see, meetings to attend. Let's talk soon, OK?"

Gabriel proceeded toward the door, but Guardia suddenly stepped forward. "What happened to Scar?" She demanded furiously. Her gaze looked like it could melt through steel.

Gabriel turned around briefly and titled his head. "Hmm?"

"Scar. Back in Gold City. You mentioned you fought him briefly when you first arrive during the noble meeting. Is he dead? Did you kill him?" Guardia asked in an even more demanding tone.

Gabriel blinked a few more times, then shrug his shoulders. He casually walked out of the room. "See you soon, guests of Tollen!"

They were at the playhouse now, a busy and noisy place. Sylvio waved his own pouch of gold at the reception and they were let into a spacious room on the forth floor that had a great view of Argime from the window; there were red velvet pillows and a cheap rug with yellow lining on the floor. The coat the Brotherhood had given Sylvio slipped magically off of him as he walked; once it was off, he started levitating, then landed gently on a pillow close to the window, his legs crossed, his hands clutching his thighs, an air of wild excitement and cheerfulness about him as he looked at Obsidian. An upbeat tune was playing in the background.

Obsidian chuckled softly as he followed him in and likewise took off his coat. He sat next to him and grinned wildly as he looked about. Slowly, however, things began to dawn on him and his smile slowly faded. He pulled out the heavy pouch and gazed upon it yet again, "Um... wouldn't it be best to store it?" He asked Sylvio, "I have money now, and I have to make sure it lasts. Maybe I could spend a teeny bit. I don't want to go overboard."

"You don't want to overdo it?" Sylvio asked him in a lightly mocking but still friendly manner, "ah, but that is what rich people do! They overdo it. Besides... there is more, where that came from." At that moment, the Croconaw servant walked in, bringing a red bottle of wine.

"Flame Quiver! Just as you requested."

Obsidian looked on, but lowered his head a bit more, "Well yeah, cause they're rich." He said softly, "I just have one pouch. That's all. I really think I should at least save half of it. Something to put aside for a rainy day as Penance always says." The Weavile said with a soft chuckle. "I mean... really, all of this is nice Sylvio. I'm really grateful you brought me along, but most of this stuff is very... expensive. Isn't it? I know in places like this you have to spend a LOT of coins to get drinks or other things. I mean... isn't that just a bit too much to spend on things I would want?"

Sylvio laid his back against the wall next to the window, observing the Weavile, his gaze frozen on him. Then he started laughing suddenly. "You'll change your mind soon enough." He glanced to the door, shouting, "bring them in!"

The Croconaw came in the room, but he wasn't alone. With him were two Vulpix and two Purrloin, strutting proudly as they presented themselves. Sylvio clapped, his eyes fixed on the two Vulpix; he seemed more amused with their wiles than lusty. "Welcome, welcome!" The Croconaw servant left discreetly.

Obsidian stared at the four and then looked at Sylvio, "Uh... are these friends of yours Sylvio? Oh!" His eyes lit up, "I get why we came here!" He looked around warily and leaned in to whisper into Sylvio's ear, "They're contacts, right? Spies you have here?"

Sylvio leaned to the Weavile as well, still looking at the girls, "oh, they specialize in contact, all right. Come, girls! Chop chop," he said, putting emphasis on the "p" with his accent. The two Vulpix jumped right at the Delphox, one for each side, and he put both his hands on their backs.

"Mmm," he let out, nibbling with his snout close to the girl's ear. He felt the girl's reluctance, so he whispered, "don't be shy, don't be shy..." to the other Vulpix, he motioned towards the bottle of Flame Quiver, which she took in her paws and guided it to his mouth.

Meanwhile, as Sylvio drank, the two Purrloin had climbed onto Obsidian. One of them began to nuzzle his side while the other looked him up and down, "Care for a fun time tall, dark, and handsome?" She asked with lust in her tone. It was then that Obsidian's eyes widened and he quickly looked at Sylvio, paralyzed from fear alone "S-Sylvio!" He squeaked out. The two felines soon began to drag their tongues along his sides as the Weavile found himself shaking helplessly in his seat, "I-I-I-I c-can't!" He croaked out, "P-Pen-Penance s-s-said... I... "

Sylvio smirked his eyebrows, his mouth still closed around the muzzle of the bottle. His cheeks were beginning to get a deeper shade of red, the more he drank; his eyes were now watery, shining. "Kid," he said, swallowing as the girl took the bottle away, "Penance is much too far away. You are with me now." He threw him a skeptic look, as if trying to discern a student's behavior. "Is this your first time?"

"Oo, a first-timer!" one of the Purrloins cooed, "how niceee..."

Obsidian could only blush even brighter, "I... I... yes..." He managed to finally squeak out. One of the Purrloins smiled and rubbed his thigh encouragingly, "No worries you handsome man. Everyone has to start somewhere~"

"I... I can't!" Obsidian sputtered as his hands quickly covered his waist. "I... I can't do this Sylvio!" He cried out as he looked at the Delphox. "I... I... I'm not ready for this!"

"Of course you are not, you haven't drank enough yet," Sylvio shouted with laughter in his eyes, grabbed the Flame Quiver bottle and threw it; one of the Purrloins caught it with her tail and poked Obsidian's mouth with the nuzzle. "Drink," Sylvio insisted, "I shall feel insulted if you don't!"

Obsidian looked at the bottle, then back at Sylvio as his lip trembled. He squeezed his eyes closed and shook there for a moment, clearly intent not to open his mouth. "Oh, I know how to get him to drink~" The other Purrloin said sweetly. The Purrloin rubbed against Obsidian for a moment as she purred loudly, "Surely you want to have a night of fun sweety?" She asked. "We'll be extra special with you~" For a brief moment the Purrloin glowed pink. Her eyes glittered as she suddenly sat on Obsidian's lap, and before the Weavile could react, leaned forward and locked lips with him. A brief pink glow flashed over Obsidian's body as he slowly opened his now pink eyes to stare at the Purrloin. His cheeks blushed even more, but instead of backing away or whimpering like he had earlier the Weavile actually smiled a bit.

"..W-Wow.... I never... I didn't think you were this beautiful..." He stammered out.

The Purrloin smirked and twirled around to let her tail tickle the Weavile under his chin, "What do you say now handsome?" She asked.

Obsidian stared for a moment before looking at Sylvio, the pink glow in his eyes steadily becoming brighter, "Two for each?" He asked, almost in disbelief.

The wizard raised both his eyebrows, widening his eyes and smiling broadly in a hysterical expression that the devil would take in the face of chaos. It seemed as if he was laughing, but no sound came out of his mouth. Instead, after a moment, he said, "hold on to your seat. The main course has yet to come!" He turned his snout to the side and kissed the Vulpix who felt left out, spanking the other one; the girl he was kissing submitted with her eyes shut, but he had his own eyes open and fixed on Obsidian, and his grin was wide, voracious. It almost looked as if he was devouring the little girl.

Obsidian turned back to the same Purrloin and shakily gripped her back. "I... I've never felt like this before..." He said softly.

The female leaned in with a wile smirk, "Less talking, more action." She leaned in and kissed Obsidian yet again and the Weavile found his hands gripping her back as inexperience kicked in. The other Purrloin took to other matters on Obsidian as the Weavie's mind felt more and more hazy with every passing moment. He was aware at one point that the kiss paused as a bottle was pressed to his lips. He didn't think twice about drinking it and his hazy mindset was quickly cemented thanks to the quiver.

Sylvio stood up suddenly, grinning broadly. "Fetch our main course," he said to one of the Vulpix girls. He glanced to Obsidian, pleased to see him drinking. "That is life, my Weavile friend. Do it loudly. The aftermath is secondary! Ahahaa!"

In came a Liepard and a Ninetales; the former went straight to Obsidian, and the latter rose on her two feet to push Sylvio back in the soft cushions with a confident smile. The other girls were about to go, but Sylvio got a pouch from his belt and tossed it on the floor; coins spilled out, producing the sweet metallic sound. "You, girls," Sylvio said commandingly, "stay and watch. These vixens might teach you something, after all. Or if they don't, I will!" He and the Ninetales laughed heartily, and Sylvio could tell she wasn't a common wench. He would enjoy this.

Obsidian immediately blushed as the Liepard likewise pushed him down and the Weavile stared up at the female, almost as if contemplating if this was the right course to take.

"Oh screw it." He shouted as he grabbed onto the Liepard and felt not one regret. She giggled, surprised, and the sighs of pleasure soon filled the room.


***


During the course of the night, Sylvio was tireless. He had ordered and drank two more bottles of Flame Quiver by himself, but the only effect it seemed to have was to get his cheeks to become rosier and his eyes to shed tears of laughter. After the wenches had done their job, he called the Playhouse's band into the room, two Mankeys, one holding a flute and the other a violin, and a Primeape with a guitar. He whispered in their ear and slipped gold into their hands and they started playing some folk melody of Beatrucian origin that sounded happy to everyone's ears.

The Delphox spun across the room, dancing with zest, his stepping quick and his fur swirling around. The Vulpix girls joined him soon, the Ninetales watching from the cushions, amused. If they were at another place right now, an outsider could easily mistake them for a Delphox playing with his daughters; that Sylvio was probably a happy family man with no greater concern than his kinfolk.

After dancing and laughing their hearts out, Sylvio sat on the floor and asked for dices to be brought. He played dice with the Ninetales lady, he whispered things in her ear to distract her and he laughed when she found out he was flipping the dice with his psychic powers to win. The musicians had gathered around them, placing bets on who would win, and Sylvio would pretend to skilfully throw the dices for the show.

He then drew one of the Vulpix who was resting on the pillow. He said to her, "what fun we are having! I have a friend, you see, not very far from here... his name is Griff, he is a Braviary, big man, and he is by the spa..." and as he leaned close to her, his shiny red eyes flashed pink with power as he stared into hers, "it would be a shame if he misses the party. Tell him that."

"Yes," the Vulpix responded, blinking confusedly, "yes, of course, I will, right away." She left the room, running.

As the Vulpix ran down the hall the sound of her paw pads was loud enough to cause Obsidian to move his hand about to seek out a pillow. When he couldn't find one he raised his head and blinked his eyes to get used to the level of darkness. He let out a loud yawn as he stretched his arms out, but instead of a pillow he felt something fuzzy and warm. He patted the surface and craned his neck up as his eyes widened in fear.

A huge correlation of images hit his brain hard and he found himself backing from the snoozing female as fast as he could. He felt his heart beating faster and faster as the ramifications of what occurred transpired across his thoughts. His knees quaked as he looked down at his body. He inched his way to the side room and quickly ran in, slamming the door behind him. It was a simple bathroom with a sink, but that was what he needed. He turned on the faucet and splashed his face with water, but he didn't stop there. He rubbed the clean liquid all over his body, whimpering as he tried to wash his memories away.

He looked up at the mirror and gripped the sink hard enough that his claw tips began to sink into it. "It-It's going to be okay. Deep breaths. Deep breaths." He told himself.

No, you know it'll never be alright.

Obsidian gripped his head and grit his teeth and soon was hitting his own forehead, "Shut up!" He hissed angrily. "Shut up!" He waited as the voice slowly faded away and he let out a weak sigh. "Sylvio... he'll know what to do!" Obsidian dried himself off as best as he could and rushed out of the bathroom. He knew where Sylvio had been last. Maybe he could fix this? "Sylvio!?" Obsidian called out as he ran into the room. "Uh... I really need to talk with you. Please."

The Delphox lay on a couch with the Ninetales in his arms; his partner was sleeping gently, her snout smiling, burried in Sylvio's bushy ear behind his neck. The Delphox wasn't sleeping, nor smiling. He was staring outside the window, Argime's night lights reflected upon his watery eyes. He was in deep thought, it seemed, and at first did not respond or even notice Obsidian. After a brief moment, he turned to his attention to the Weavile; a very brief look of perturbation flashed across his brows, but it was gone the same instant. "What do you want?" Sylvio inquired, a bit flatly. All his spirits from their special time seemed to have vanished.

Obsidian flinched at the tone of voice as he could only wonder if something unexpected had happened to the fox. He slowly walked in and rubbed his arms nervously, "I... I made a mistake Sylvio." He croaked out, "What if someone finds out? What if Penance finds out? Oh, I'm a dead mon!" He cried out. He gripped his head and shook his head, trying to wake himself up from the nightmare he was obviously in, "I... what do I do? How do I fix this?" He asked as he looked at the fox desperately.

"You do not," Sylvio answered in a direct manner, "there is no mistake to be fixed. And Penance will never know... calm yourself. You cannot be discreet if it is obvious you have something to hide."

"B-But I can't be discreet!" Obsidian shouted out. He pulled at the red feathers that lied upon his head, "I... I'm going to crack. I'm going to crack like an egg. Penance KNOWS me! He knows my weaknesses! Even if I"m as calm as I can be he'll KNOW something is up! He's... he's going to disappointed..." Obsidian's eyes widened in realization, "He's going to ground me somewhere, forbid me from leaving one of the Seeker sanctuaries." Obsidian's let out a shaky gasp, "H... He's going to kick me off somewhere, or worse. Keep an eye on me every single second of the day! Gah! I messed up!"

Sylvio raised a hand, as if to make him stop. "Why feel shame for the very basic pleasure of life? I would think Penance does not want you around others... he wants you all for himself, I bet. Does that not make you angry?" There was a note of challenge in Sylvio's voice.

Obsidian slowly lowered his hands and stared at Sylvio, "Of COURSE he wants me for himself!" Obsidian snapped, "Penance always wants everything for himself! But... but... you don't KNOW him Sylvio! Trust me, if he finds out I was doing this with you he's going to teleport right into your room, snap your neck, and find some means to declare it a suicide! He's just that good!" Obsidian's eyes glanced left and right as he thought, "He can't know... he can't! If he does... oh Arceus he's going to blow up on someone!"

The Ninetales on Sylvio's arms begun waking up; she still had the smile as she glanced sleepily at Obsidian. "What's going on?" she asked groggily.

"Nothing, sweetling," Sylvio whispered in her ear, "go now," he added, touching her back to encourage her. She left, but not before throwing a smile to the visibly upset Obsidian.

Sylvio looked carefully at the Weavile with an apathetic face made of stone. He got up from the couch in a brief movement, stood against him; he extended his arms around the Weavile and slowly proceeded to hug him. He pressed Obsidian's head over his shoulder and patted his back reassuringly, as if it was his child he was hugging. Although Sylvio showed no emotion, his stance was fatherly, to be sure. "Penance will not know," he promised.

At first Obsidian tensed up as he was hugged, but as his back was patted the Weavile found himself quickly relaxing and hugging the Delphox back, "How..?" He croaked out as he buried his face into Sylvio's shoulder, "H-He knows how to pick my brain! He's going to have someway to find out the truth." He croaked out.

"Then be my student," Sylvio suggested, "Penance is just a man, like any other... I can teach you how to fool men. Your master will never suspect you, and if by chance he does, then I will take care of him."

Obsidian slowly unwrapped his arms and stared at the Delphox. The wheels in his mind began to turn for a moment before he shakily fell to a knee before Sylvio and bowed his head, "T-Then I want to be your student." He said softly, "Please... I would rather be with you then under Penance every second of the day."

Sylvio caressed the feathers on top of the Weavile's head, nodding gravely, but a smile had begun forming in his snout, faint enough to not be seen by his new student.

Penance, Alexis, and the scouts - The Scouting Team - Outside Brookerridge, Tollen

Traveling through the forests was hard, but with a Psychic who could teleport at least some of the distance, it was a lot less difficult and time-consuming. The Network machine active in the area prevented them from teleporting directly to the town of Brookerridge, but they were able to port in just outside of town and walk the rest of the way. The trip only took approximately an hour total before they were just outside the town. Further into the clear of the forest lay the signal of the machine.

"From there, a Kadabra scout mentioned as he pointed to a cavern-like clearing somewhat nearby the town, though still out of the way. "That's where the signal is coming from," He motioned.

"Yes... yes..." Penance muttered. He bent his knees and balanced on his legs as thought for a moment. "Tongues please." He said as he looked up with a cheery grin, "Either you can serve it now or I can cut it out and serve it with some pie. Cherri is best, but I guess Oran is alright too." He muttered.

"Yeeaah... what do we do?" The Kadabra scout looked over at a Mienfoo, who was acting as the head scout in this operation. The Mienfoo was a lieutenant like Trace, though he mostly dealt with scouting instead of fighting.

"I don't care, Darrell said if he starts acting crazy, we leave him behind and go along with the mission," The Mienfoo replied somewhat harshly. He seemed bothered by the situation at hand. But then, when someone spent so long in the wilderness of Tollen with little aid, 'mon could get like that. "Move out and examine the town. Let me know what you see," He commanded a third scout, the Tailow who delivered messages before. The 'mon nodded and flew low across the field.

"The rest of us will head closer to the cavern," He ordered.

"What he means are the tongues." The Golduck said again. Slowly he stood back up, his left eye glinting with silver, "That symbol on the tongue we found?" The duck drew in the dirt under him, "A long time ago there were many religous sects. Mon who prayed to gods to watch over them. Of course each sect was different. For instance, the sect of Mesprit and Azelf had a huge falling out. It is said, a long time ago, that Mesprit brought emotion to the world and Azelf brought intelligence. Likewise these two beings ended up being worshipped. And, not a real shocker, the mon who worshipped them took their dedication a biiit too far. Or so the stories say."

Brynn stopped her drawing and pointed at the spiral pattern, "Such patterns as these were made by the various sects in dedication to their gods. This happens to belong to the Destruction Saint. In any case, back to Azelf and Mesprit. Their followers took their god's interest so to heart that they battled one another, claiming that either intelligence or emotion was necessary and the other was inferior."

He sighed and stood back up, "It's the same here. With that spiral signal on the armor and tongues, it is a stamp you can say of dedication. It means all three sides are working together under Darkrai's banner. The bandits, the Pentosarrs, and the Morrians. All of them have a clear goal in mind, to bring forth Darkrai's agenda. Anything with this symbol on it, anyone with this symbol would clearly mark themselves as part of Darkrai's army. Meaning..." He looked over at the scouts, "If any of you had this mark on your bodies or on armor then you too would be showing dedication to Darkrai. It would be a means to not be attacked by the enemies out here, so it would have to be in a easily accessibly location. Similar to how the Morrians have the marker on their tongues. So much time has passed that many do not know the true meaning of the marker. You could easily wear it in public and no one would bat an eye. Because, everyone forgot over time. So stick out your tongues, reveal every part of your armor. A mark could be hiding anywhere."

The Kadabra and Mienfoo eyed each other. The Mienfoo nodded to the Kadabra, who stuff out his tongue and diplayed it. On both of them, there was no markers of any kind. The Tailow soon returned from his roam around town, flying low beside them and touching down just to the right of the group. It approached forward and spoke.

"Town seems to be a pretty big mess," He explained as he looked on to it again. "Looks like this is a retreat point from the bases further north in the fighting zones. It doesn't look like they were hit by the Morrians or Pentosarrs yet, but if the armies do attack here, they won't last long."

Brynn's smirk slowly grew, "What we need to do is find that weak point and slip in." He nodded a bit, "Right. What we need to do is scout. At this point, given we have a network point and no reinforcements coming through, we can assume no one is coming through. We are going to head in there and scout it out as we were going to do. Now,"

He tapped on his chin, "The most important thing we need to determine is how far the network point is, and how many guard it. We also have to find the reason why the psychics haven't been able to send messages out or receive help from the capital. If we can remove that, great! So for now, keep quiet and try not to reveal yourselves, no matter who comes to us. I don't care if they are other knights or just civilians. We have to play this safe. Anyone in that cave is a potential enemy. You all understand?"

Alexis nodded, his face steeled at the challenge before them. He had some useful talents for this sort of stuff at least.

"I say we split into pairs. We'll be more observant of our surroundings that way, and be able to cover much more ground than if we stick together." Judging by the silvery glint in Penance's eyes, and his behavior, he was a bit less crazy than he usually was. Perhaps he'd approach him about that a bit later.

"Good idea," The Mienfoo agreed with both of their reasoning. "Alexis, you go with me, we'll go in from the right of the cavern. "Penance... err... Madman, whoever, you go in with Christian," He said, pointing to the Kadabra. He then looked over to the Tailow scout. "Stay out here and cover our tracks. If someone is coming in behind us, chirp three times, pause, and chirp two more times. Make it casual."

"Got it," The Tailow responded with a nod of his head.

The Kadabra and Mienfoo both got in position where they said they would beside the cavern. There was some low whispering coming from inside, but it was far too dark to tell what was happening in there. The Mienfoo held up his hand for Alexis to wait a moment, then motioned for Penance and Kadabra to try in first, then for the him and Alexis to proceed in from the other side after.

Brynn cautiously stepped in and lightly patted the war as he put his back against it and slowly began to move along it, every so often glancing about. The cave was dark, that much was certain. The message had stated that enemies were upon this network point and that they desperately needed help, but if that was true he had expected to see some sort of encampment outside. Maybe, tents placed at the edge of the mountain as scouts were sent in to check every single cave they came across. THAT would lead to a desperate tone in the message. Here though... it just didn't feel right.

Brynn crept in further and further, easing her steps along the stone ground. One wrong move and just like that, they could be attacked. It didn't make any sense to him as to why the point would be in a cave. If Gabriel had this out here, surely he would want it in a city so more troops could easily pour through to where they were needed. Having the point right in the middle of a series of caves where the soldiers would have to climb down, then get to the city was just too much work.

It wasn't much further before there was a light spotted in the tunnel. As the Mienfoo Lieutenant squinted, he could see a group of Psychic 'mon gathered around some sort of device, presumably the Network Machine. The Pokemon looked worn and tired, as if they were on their last breaths. Around the Psychics roamed approximately half a dozen Royal Knights, with possibly more around. The Mienfoo noticed another 'mon next to the Psychics who was staring at the Psychics intently. It seemed on the surface that the Psychic's transmission was confirmed.

However, the Mienfoo also noted that there were four other paths in the caverns going in other directions, and which exit somewhere else. Where exactly, he didn't know.

Alexis gazed intently around the group gathered before him. It was too good to be true. There was no way anyone would leave something this important firstly, in the open like this, and secondly so lightly guarded.

He whispered to the Meinfoo, his voice near silent, "There's no way it's that easy, but I may have a plan to find out the full extent of this trap." It was crazy, involved a lot of risk, and most likely would end in failure, but Alexis was not one to sit and wait while he could do something.

Brynn, meanwhile, stared on at the sight, taking in the details.

Probably rats in the tunnels.

Yeah, I imagine so.

Throw a blanket on them?

We could try, but wouldn't that hurt the psychics as well?

With enough wavering, no. Or it could, thing is we wash them down and they scatter. Easy pickings after that.

I see. Well, should we get it started? We'll have to keep our aim in the right place or we risk losing it.

Yes, let's do that.

Brynn moved back, away from Christian as he once more emerged into the sunlight, this time he eyed the mountain proper and began to climb upon the small ridges that would slowly lead to the top of the mountain.

"What's the plan?" The Mienfoo asked Alexis in just as low of a voice. He then looked as Brynn began moving out of the cave and out of the mountain. "Where is he going?" He hissed. He motioned for the Kadabra to signal the Tailow outside to follow him, then looked back at Alexis. "So, what do you have in mind?"

The Tailow meanwhile, after hearing Christian's message, fluttered it's wings and flew beside where the Golduck climbed. "What are you planning to do?" He asked, as he looked across the area he was climbing. The mountain was not too big, so the path up wouldn't have taken too long. Maybe it could serve as some vantage point.

"It's obviously a trap right? The only way we can find out the full extent of it is if we activate it." Alexis nodded towards the single 'mon near the team of psychics. "I can teleport at will, so long as I can get close enough to him to put him under a hypnosis, sine he seems to be able to suppress psychic powers." He looked around bracing his gut for what he was about to do. That was, unless there was a better idea.

"I agree it must be a trap," The Mienfoo began. He placed a hand to his chin and scratched it. "But what kind could it be? Five paths leading to the same spot. Where the other ones go to, I don't know... I also don't know about alerting them too soon. We're supposed to be just scouting and reporting back. But if you're certain."

The Mienfoo didn't get it. It seemed like it was a trap, but he couldn't see one. It would have been much easier to have the network point placed directly into the town, so that it could be more secure. It would also make it harder for others to reach. Unless, of course, the other paths led somewhere further away... a lightbulb suddenly went off in the Mienfoo's head. "What if the trap wasn't meant for us...?" He muttered as he trailed off in thought. He began to think what the scenario actually looked like if the Royal Knights and the Psychics purposefully chose a spot outside of town so that they wouldn't be found. What if the Psychic's message was sincere, and they just stepped in a gold mine? And the true trap lay for Brookerridge below? The Mienfoo looked at Alexis again, wondering how the Gardevoir had managed to get all the way to Tollen from Valkaria after the mishap with the Network. He then recalled the bouncing of the signal to this Network Point instead of Argime's.

"We're going to start a dam." Brynn said as he continued hiking up, "Just get the army here, pronto. We're going for a B maneuver, got it? Get them here and it should be ready by the time everyone arrives. Tell them to get ready to storm the inside once they arrive, cause that's going to be the best way to get the situation under control."

"A dam?" The Tailow questioned. "To do what? Won't that hit the Psychics as well? Are you sure you thought this through? And bring the whole army here?"

"Yes." Brynn said as he finally found a spot and patted it, "It will hit them, but that's the beauty of it. Look, get the army here. It won't hurt much, but a cause is what we need."

Tailow shook his head. "But they're just Psychics!" He said in disbelief. "And what if the Network Machine will be damaged? That's our best best to get into Argime for the first time in almost a year! Bah... fine I'll do it. I just hope you know what you're doing."

The Tailow flew off in a hurry to report the orders to Commander Darrell. The army will abandon Fort Trantrea and head to Brookerridge.