I honestly don't know what I'm doing when I think of these chapter names. :P

-Chapter X: White Truths-

-Mirage-

The Noivern stumbled as the entire desert shifted beneath its feet. As it fumbled to regain its footing, the sand enveloped the Garchomp in the blink of an eye and sunk into the ground. The Noivern's eyes widened as it tried to take to the sky, but Mirage closed her fist, and the sand beneath the Noivern erupted and enveloped the dragon-type, then slammed it into the ground. The Ariados shot poisonous quills at her from behind, but the sand behind her swirled upwards and deflected the projectiles. Mirage turned to the Ariados and used flamethrower, but it leapt to the side and shot a sticky web. Mirage flew around it in the blink of an eye, then flew up to the Ariados after trapping it in rock-hard sandstone.

Would you like us to finish this? The desert's voice echoed in her mind.

"No." Mirage said. The Ariados' head cocked slightly sideways, and Mirage lit her fists ablaze. "I'll do it myself."

Then the Ariados vanished from the sandstone prison, and Mirage turned around just in time for it to use poison jab on the side of her neck. She gasped as the poison took effect, burning away at her throat. She tried to grab a pecha berry out of her bag, but her vision swirled more and more intensely in a matter of seconds. This poison was unlike anything else she'd ever felt. Acid burning away at her throat as she gasped desperately for breath.

Then the sand rose up around her and filled her wounds like a cast, enveloping her neck and arm. Then when it retreated, the wound had completely closed over, and Mirage felt the poison drawn out of her body. She stood up and grabbed the Ariados' neck, then flew straight upwards. It grabbed onto her body and wrapped its legs around her waist. "You won't drop me."

"Watch me!" Mirage spat. She punched the bug-type's face several times in rapid succession, then used flamethrower, forcing it to let go. Then it fell to the ground below. The sand beneath them hardened into sandstone, but just before the Ariados was flattened, she was caught by the Noivern.

"And stay away!" Mirage said as they retreated into the distance before she had a chance to fly after them. She lowered herself and untangled the Claydol, then unburied the Garchomp.

*That was impressive...* the Claydol said.

"Thanks. Do you have any reviver seeds?"

*Of course.* the Claydol's bag opened, and a single seed levitated through the air until it latched onto the Garchomp's chest. Shortly afterwards, his eyes shot open as he gasped for breath and coughed up sand. "Gah! Hah… Oh my gosh…" he took several more deep breaths and laid his head against the sand. "...I got my tail kicked, huh?"

"Yeah." Mirage said with a small smile. "But I took care of it."

"So you were going easy on me, huh?" the Garchomp chuckled. "I kinda thought so."

You're welcome. She flinched as the voice rang out clearly, but nodded and looked into the distance silently. Thank you.

-Widow-

"What in Arceus' name was that?!" she raged. "She was supposed to be the lowest risk member to take down! How did she beat us?!"

"It looked like she just… controlled the desert," Flatline replied as they flew through the sky.

"I know!" she snapped at him. "I can't blame Victor for that one. We really underestimated her... But good job on eliminating the Garchomp." she said. "I couldn't have anticipated that she had help."

"Thanks."

"But how in the world can she control it? The entire desert just… responded to her command." Widow remarked. "This is very troublesome. As long as she's here… she's practically invincible, if that was any indication of what she can do."

"Why don't we get her out of here?" Flatline suggested. "Then she'll be easy to take out."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" her voice was filled with sarcasm as she slapped the back of his head. "Oh, yeah! The confinement barrier prevents us from doing that, you imbecile!"

"...Just a suggestion."

"Whatever! She is expecting us now, so we'll have to bide our time for just a little bit longer. So in the meantime… let's get Atlas."

-Bulbasaur-

"Alice, get up!" he exclaimed as the Banette floated backwards and watched as the Lopunny writhed in agony, her eyes shut tightly. "Get! Up!" He grabbed her arms with vine whips and tried to lift her up, and even planted a worry seed on her, but it melted into shadows as the Banette floated closer. Her mouth came partially unzipped as she levitated inches away from Alice, and the Bulbasaur saw a light purple smoke emanating from the Lopunny.

His eyes widened as the smoke was being drawn into the Banette's mouth, and he instinctively used vine whip. He lassoed her arm, and she arched an eyebrow at him, appearing to be more surprised than hurt.

"Are you really that foolish?" she began, then grabbed his vine whip with her other hand. The pitch-black energy coming from her hand travelled down his vine whip like a pitch-black, slow-moving flame, and he began shaking uncontrollably as the darkness began setting in. The Banette's golden-zipper smile pierced his mind, and just before it faded, her face became one of shock. Then his vision returned, and a large, silver spike was jutting out of her chest, shadowy blood staining the grass beneath them a midnight-shade of purple. The Banette fell to the ground with a soft thud, and when the Bulbasaur looked up, all he saw was a blur of yellow and black before the Haxorus was down for the count, collapsed against the nearest tree with several puncture wounds across its arms and legs, and one in its chest.

The Seviper hissed and used poison tail, but it flew around his tail, grabbed the Klinklang and spun it so hard that the Seviper's attack pierced the steel-type's skin. They both shouted in pain, and the blur came to a complete stop. It turned Alice and fed her a green berry, then nodded briefly before looking at the Bulbasaur. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am." he replied to the female Beedrill. She seemed to smile before dodging a thunderbolt shot by the Klinklang. She sighed and pointed her stinger-arm at him, and the entire ground seemed to come to life. But when the Bulbasaur looked closer, it was actually hundreds of tiny creatures, no bigger than a centimeter each that were moving around so wildly that the ground itself seemed to come alive. When the Klinklang or Seviper tried to move, they were swarmed by the little bugs, and the Beedrill fluttered closer to them as the soil became still. "You know who I am, right?"

The Seviper spat acid at her, and she used protect for a brief moment, completely negating the attack. "I take that as a yes."

"Why are you here?" Nagini questioned.

"Why do you think?" The Beedrill hummed quizzically. "You have a large bounty on your head, Team Virus. And my client has offered me an extra twenty percent to off all four of you."

"Why not just kill us then?" Nagini retaliated. "You have us cornered, completely caught by surprise-"

The Beedrill let out a single laugh before shooting several pin needles into the poison-type's side. He shouted in pain as the Beedrill examined him with fake pity, not bothering to take any of the spikes out. "Because I said I wouldn't kill you unless they offered me a lot more. But it's good enough for me to bring you all in to Magnezone."

"Magnezone won't do anything!" Alice called out Beedrill squinted and turned back to her. "What?"

"The Mafia… the group that they work for… They bought out the police. They arrested the leader of Team Firestorm after the Mafia framed him!" Alice sat up slowly and rubbed her forehead.

"...How do you know that?" the Beedrill questioned. The Seviper writhed and groaned, and the Beedrill shot another quill into its side with a glare. "Shut it, snake."

"Because I saw it happen! I was in Treasure Town, and the Police have been bribed! If you bring these four to them… then they're as good as free." Alice informed her.

"And I'm supposed to just… take your word for it?" the Beedrill asked.

"Yes! The one who was arrested… he was a really good friend of mine!" she assured.

"...You know what?" the Beedrill raised her spike-hand, and the Seviper passed out immediately afterwards. "Fine. If Magnezone really is bought out like you say, then that explains everything that's been going on recently." She created two substitute clones that picked up the poison-type while the original looked at the Bulbasaur. "Well? Can you carry the Banette?"

"Didn't you…" the Bulbasaur gawked as the ghost-type laid there, passed out on the ground.

"Of course not. Ghost-types can't be brought down by physical attacks like that. Now carry her, please. We're leaving." the Beedrill glanced at Alice, then fluttered closer. "Can you carry a Haxorus? The Lum berry I gave you should have cured all of your ailments."

"Not by myself," she admitted. The Beedrill sighed and created four more substitute clones that grabbed each of the dragon-type's limbs. Alice's jaw dropped as she observed the four clones working in unison. "How…? Vulcan can only make three substitutes before he passes out!"

"Then he hasn't learned how to apply a smaller amount of energy into each clone. With the proper training, any pokémon could theoretically make around twenty clones at one time, each one capable of attacking individually, all by portioning the energy put into each one."

"That's incredible!"

"I know. You can at least carry a Klinklang, right?"

"Why can't you carry them all?" Alice wondered aloud. "If you had intentions of taking them down, how did you plan on bringing them to Magnezone?"
The Beedrill flashed a golden badge underneath the leather flap of its treasure bag. "Explorer's' badge." the Beedrill muttered. "One of the only useful things about Exploration Teams."

"Hey!" Alice retaliated. "Exploration teams help people!"

"Hmph. How? They explore new dungeons? They arrest outlaws?" The Beedrill mocked. "The only team that actually did anything about the outlaw problem was Team Firestorm." she said. "And even they didn't have the guts to take down the Mafia."

Alice teared up and shook her head defiantly. "That's not true!"

"And why do you think that?" the Beedrill crossed her needle-like arms and hovered in place.

"We have been fighting for our lives for the past two weeks, staying on the run, trying to figure out how to take them down! We've already lost three team members, and probably more by now!"

The Beedrill lightly gasped, but didn't change her neutral expression. "You're part of Team Firestorm?"

"Yes! And we fight every day to try and make a difference for pokémon that can't do it themselves!" Alice shouted at her.

The Haxorus stirred and groaned weakly, and the Beedrill stabbed its chest again with her stinger arm. "You help weaker pokémon. Good for you. But how can you help others when you can't even help yourselves?"

"What do you mean?" Alice voice had a dangerous edge to it.

"Without me to help you, you'd be dead."

"So?"

"Did you attack with the intent to kill?"

"Not exactly…" Alice shook her head. "I don't really like fighting anyways! I only do it in self-defense!"

"That's your first mistake. With the Mafia… They don't show mercy. That's why I'm after them, and not worrying about every little thing that pops up on the outlaw notice board. Like… for example, let's say pokémon stole a berry from a Sentret. That's beneath my concern."

"So you're too good to help the small pokémon out?"

"No. I'm saying that when I have to choose between helping a single pokémon get back a berry that they can just as easily buy at Kecleon's shop and taking down a group of pokémon that have relentlessly slaughtered three villages all across Immanis and are responsible for more murders than I can count… Well, that's a no-brainer. The bounty on their heads is enough to have me set for multiple lifetimes. But that's just a bonus for doing the right thing."

"Who's providing that payment? The Police aren't, and we're kind of running for our lives right now. Who else has that much poké?"

"That doesn't matter. There are only two things I need to take a job: a target, and visual confirmation of payment."

Alice stared at the Bug-type while she made two more substitutes to help carry Nagini, totalling nine Beedrills fluttering around. "So you're an assassin?"

"A mercenary for hire." she hummed. "I arrest outlaws too, so don't worry. We're on the same side, as long as you don't get in my way," the Beedrill informed her.

"Oh."

"Now, if you're done asking questions… Since you're here, I want you to help me carry them."

"Fine." Alice huffed. "Where are we going?"

"Away from here. I don't want to be around when their backup arrives."

"How do you know that they'll have backup?"

"It's common sense! Now be quiet and move!" the Beedrill buzzed angrily.

-Vincent-

He opened his eyes when he heard talking. He was still invisible, but he didn't know how well it would work if they stumbled over him. He had finished healing well enough, so he withdrew his roots silently.

"Over here! I think I found something!" he heard in the distance.

They probably see the trench I made… He sat up quickly, making sure to stay invisible as a Simisage and Ferrothorn swiftly made their way over to where he was.

"Oh, man…" the Simisage gasped. "Looks like he might've tried to break the barrier or something… Look around! He can't be that far!"

The Ferroseed crackled with electricity before levitating and vanishing into the forest. Vincent smiled and walked right up to the Simisage, making sure to stay silent. He quieted his breathing as the grass-type turned around and looked directly at him. Vincent held back a small shout and used dark void. A violet and crimson orb of energy formed in his hands, and the Simisage's eyes widened. "Over here! Hurry!"

Vincent cursed and became visible as he shot the orb into the Simisage's chest, and it collapsed to the ground, sound asleep. He heard a brief rustling sound behind him and turned just in time to recieve a power whip to his chest. He felt his entire skeleton shift from the impact, and the freshly healed ribs snap again. He screamed in agony and laid there helplessly as the Ferrothorn closed in while feeding the Simisage a Lum Berry with another vine whip. "I'm not taking any chances with you."

A red orb of energy formed between them, and Vincent knew all too well what was coming next. He sighed and laid his head on the ground, then closed his eyes with a sad smile, not even having enough energy to put up a light screen, let alone a protect barrier. "I'm sorry, guys…"

He was only in pain for a brief moment as the Hyper Beam obliterated his entire body. Then, nothing.

That was chapter 10. I hope you guys enjoyed! As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or theories about things, feel free to leave them in the form of a review or PM! Much Love!

-PL