"You know this item is illegal for use in League battles right?" The Celadon merchant asked. I nodded, handing him the money and pocketing the small device. "Don't worry, I'm not looking to battle the League anyway."

The item was called an Ability Brace. A special band that used a combination of DNA tracking tech and magic to give a tamer control over an equipped pokegirl's ability;

triggering or deactivating them at the push of a button. They were band in League matches because the power to trigger last stand abilities at the beginning of a match was just a bit too overpowered.

But it was perfect for combating our next target, that and the new ammo I got for my guns. Hopefully it would give us a chance.

"Anubust?" Snow questioned, "are we really ready for that?"

"I know a good way to find out." I said, loading my side arms and holstering them. "See how much of us is left afterwards." I joked.

Snow tapped her foot impatiently. She didn't like that we were going after something so strong. She really didn't like that she wasn't going to be a part of it. I didn't like making her upset, but her defenses just weren't strong enough for it. Besides, she was cute when she was pouting.

"We'll be fine." I assured her, "we've planned this out a dozen times over, we can handle it."

Snow bit her lip, "okay...but if anything goes wrong-" "You'll be the first pokegirl on the scene." I promised. Snow nodded, and I recalled her into her pokeball.

I felt it was better Snow didn't know her pokeball, as well as the ones those also not on this mission, were left back at camp. Better to travel light. Plus it's easy to get confused with so many pokeballs on ne at once.

With Elf Queen, Tank Vixxen, Zapdass, and Medra on ny belt, I headed out. Rhynowhore would be too slow, Cheshirewas twice weak to Anubust, and Pirouette, like Snow, had too low a defense.

It had taken a lot to find Anubust's location. She moved a lot, and most people and pokegirls who knew where she was lied about it. Thank god for the fickle nature of the Demoness-goddess. Without it, we'd likely still be searching.

We had her sighted as having a burned mansion on Cinnabar island as her current territory. I hoped to use an aura charm to hide myself from her, but I doubted it would be strong enough to work for more than a few minutes at best. I'd have to move fast.

I reached the door of the mansion, taking a deep breath before darting inside. I already had the 'girls waiting outside, now I just had to survive long enough for that part of the plan. I raced to the bottom floor, already feeling the aura charm cracking as I placed the charges in a circle on the floor.

I just barely got everything in place before the charm shattered. Almost immediately I felt the hairs on my neck stand up as an instinctual feeling of unease filled me.

"Well, what have we here?" A voice, Anubust in her incorporeal form, asked, "here to dance with death?"

"Trying to prevent death actually, eight billion of them to be exact." I replied before firing my ghost tag bullets. I don't think she was expecting them to actually hit, and she really wasn't expecting them to hurt. "What the hell?" She questioned, becoming a bit more visible with each shot.

I kept firing, moving slowly so as not to slip up. I had to jump to avoid a night shade that punched a hole through the entire mansion. I kept backing up, slowly leading the ghost 'girl into the ring of charges. Once she wae inside, I hit the detonator, and dropped.

The blast blew the top half of the mansion apart, and sent me flying out. Zapdass just barely caught me in the air. "Thanks." I grunted when she dropped me on the ground. Zapdass nodded, and turned back to the now destroyed building.

Those charges had exploded with ghost and dark elemental energy, but they would be far from knocking out Anubust. Sure enough, we all sensed more than felt it when the Horace Hound pokegirl emerged from the ruined building.

She barely got two feet before she was lit up; fire, lightning, magic arrows, and ghist tag bullets all hit her like a wall of pain. We hit from all sides, and moved around to keep her guessing. It was difficult to avoid all her attacks; Tank Vixxen probably won't let me forget how sore her arm is gonna be until she gets a few rounds and some flame thrower play, but we managed.

Finally, the hail of attacks stopped. Anubust was confused by this, but before she could get her bearings, she was hit with shadow claw. She turned to retaliate, but the attacker was gone. She paused, and was struck again.

It was eerie how fast Medra was. I didn't even see her. Just heard a whooshing of air and saw Anubust recoil. Eventually, the constant attacks achieved their goal: getting Anubust to take a physical form. Big mistake.

Medra went in one last time, snapping the Ability Brace around Anubust's neck. With the press of a button, Anubust was forced to use Book of Life, being turned into a book with her thoughts and memories as the pages.

I picked up the book, and began reading.

"Nothing. Not a thing." I said with a groan if annoyance, putting the book down. "It's okay," Snow said, "we'll find the one eventually."

I nodded, "I know, I know, I just hope we find them in time." "We will." Snow assured me. "Now come on, you promised Vix some alone time, and I'm thinking of making it not so alone." She added with a wink.

I chuckled, "alright, just let me take care of this." I said, tapping the book. Snow nodded, "don't take too long~" she said as she left the tent.

Anubust was trapped in book form until I switched off the Ability Brace. Goddess of death could be useful...I placed the book in my pack, and headed off.