Zeek didn't have time to see the person behind him, for he was instantly knocked a little to the side by a punch in the cheek.
What he didn't expect, however, was to be knocked completely to the ground and feel someone's body weight on top of him.
And then, after that, he wasn't sure what he felt.
"Stop Emerald!" Aquaramine screamed, "You're going to kill him!"
"With good reason!"
"I don't care! He's still just a person!"
Emerald looked at Aquaramine, then the unconscious Zeek under her, then to Aquaramine again, and sighed.
"Sorry. . ." Emerald stepped up to her cage, helping her down, "I guess I just got- oof!" she nearly fell over as Aquaramine hugged her as soon as her feet touched the ground.
"I'm so sorry Emerald! I never should have wandered off!"
"No, it's my fault," Emerald shook her head, "I never should have said that stuff about Topaz, and I should have gone after you when you ran off."
Their moment was broken when they both heard an impatient cough, and looked down to see April and Lucas.
"I know you're having a sweet moment and all, but we'd like to get out of here too, and quickly while we're at it, considering that Aquaramine. . .well. . .screamed."
"Sorry" Aquaramine smiled nervously as Emerald squatted down to Lucas's cage examining the lock.
"What are you two doing out?" all the awake morphs turned sharply to see a human guard standing there with his gun raised.
"Umm. . .well" Emerald slowly got up, "You see. . .Look! There's a naked Lopunny morph behind you!"
"What?" The guard turned around, and May, who apparently was on the ceiling this entire time, fell on him and hit the back of his head, rendering him unconscious too.
"Furry," May spat on the guard, then smiled at Emerald, "Need a little help with those?"
"Yeah," Emerald nodded, and May squatted down at April's cage.
"Took you long enough," April sighed.
"I could of taken longer if you wanted me too," May grinned, fiddling at the lock with a needle. Finally, it clicked, and May opened the cage, and stepped back to let April out. The Xatu morph stepped out, stood up, and nearly swayed before grabbing a nearby cage for support.
"Not the best idea to suddenly stand after a while of just sitting in a way too small cage. . ." April sighed, still hanging on to the cage as Emerald was able to open Lucas's cage, letting him out as well. Finally, April let go of the cage, and looked May up and down.
"How did you manage to barely get hurt when an entire wall collapsed on you?" April raised an eyebrow.
"Well. . .I did break my arm, but Aquaramine healed it up enough to not need that stupid cast anymore," May nodded, looking back at Aquaramine as she mentioned her. But then, something caught her eye past her.
"Oh my fucking Arcreus. . ."May groaned, and all of the morphs turned to where she was looking.
"Surprise surprise, looks like you really did get out from under there," Aaron raised an eyebrow as he walked causally towards them, one hand on the hilt of the sword resting on his back, "Looks like you really are lucky."
"Unfortunately, your luck ends here," the group of morphs turned to the opposite side, only to see Tengu walking towards them as well.
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this," the Ariados morph grinned as the girls backed up against each other, Lucas in the middle.
"Don't tell me you arranged the welcoming party this time," Emerald sighed.
"What exactly happened?" April turned to May.
"We'll tell you when we get out of here," Aquaramine turned to April and smiled, then turned back to Tengu.
"You might as well get it out now, because there won't be another time," Tengu held up the leaf-fans in his hand, then yelled, "Gust!" as he swiped them in the air. Wind materialized where the fans had swept, and heading at high-speeds towards the party.
"Surf!" Aquaramine raised her hand, and a large wave (large for the size of the hallway that is) came crashing towards Tengu. It cancelled most of the wind, but some still got through, giving the group of morphs some cuts.
May examined her damage real quick, then noticed Aaron wasn't doing anything.
"What? Just going to stand there all day and let your partner do the work?" May sneered, and Aaron remained emotionless.
"I will fight when I see that I'm most benefiting," he stated flatly.
"Sheesh, don't be like my sister now," April elbowed May hard in the side right after she was done speaking.
Once the wave had gone by on the other side, Aquaramine and Emerald could see Tengu again, and the wave had only made him very wet, and very annoyed.
"You know Shrifty's are grass type, right?" Tengu raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, but there isn't much you can do with wet leaves," Aquaramine smiled, and Emerald and her exchanged quick high-fives.
"You're right," Shrifty smiled, raising his arms horizontal to his side and dropping the leaves. Soon, new, non-soaked ones appeared in their place.
"Cheater," Emerald grumbled.
"Leaf blade!" he threw the leaves, with a bunch more following them in their wake.
"Aquaramine!" Emerald screamed, knocking Aquaramine down so the leaves wouldn't hit her, and accidentally taking herself right with her, leaving Lucas wide open.
It didn't take very long for May to notice, but as soon as she did, May kneeled down and hugged him so her back was facing Tengu and the oncoming leaves. She waited for the sting of the leaves to come, but it never came. When she turned around, all she saw was the backside of Aaron, and his sword in front of him.
"A-Aaron?" Tengu took a step back, stunned, "But. . .you're brother. . .and. . ." he trailed off.
"I'll tell you now Ariados morph. I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for my little brother."
"Little brother. . . ?" Lucas's looked confused, then his eyes widened, "Aaron!" he escaped May's grasp to hug his new-found older brother, "I thought you were dead!"
"I'll explain everything later. Right now, we're getting out of here," Aaron nodded, looking straight at Tengu, "Go ahead, attack us. I don't mind. Especially since they have your fiancé and all."
"I don't want to attack you Aaron, not after everything before this."
"Do you think that matters now?" Aaron chuckled, "We're enemies now, and I'm finally able to get out of this wretched place," he glanced behind him, then looked back at Tengu ",You guys go, I'll handle him."
"No!" Lucas hugged him tighter, "I'm not leaving you after I just found you!"
"I'm not leaving if Lucas isn't leaving," May shook her head.
"We're staying," Emerald and Aquaramine said simultaneously.
"No way in hell I'm going to try to escape alone," April sighed.
"If you insist," Aaron grumbled, picking up his sword and sticking it into the ground beside him.
"I'm not letting any of you get away," Tengu's eyes narrowed, "Not with Rene's life at stake," he let him arms go out horizontally again. This time, leaves started to come out of nowhere, more and more encircling him until he was nearly covered, until one of his hands shot forward.
"Leaf Storm!"
"Oh fucking hell. . ." May grimaced as the swarm of leaves came towards them, then everyone resumed their previous positions, waiting for the impact.
Except it never came.
Everyone looked up to see Aaron standing in front of them all, a greenish barrier in front of him and a giant pile of leaves in front of that.
"Tengu. . ." Aaron shook his head as the green barrier dissipated, "You've always been too trusting of a person."
"What do you-" Tengu asked, but got cut off as Aaron was suddenly right next to him, and his sword in his stomach.
"Oh. . .Oh god," Aquaramine covered her mouth as all of them watched as Tengu hit the floor hard, blood flowing from his rather large wound.
"You can keep it," Aaron took one last look at Tengu, then walked away, "Now's not the time to be fainting at the sight of blood though. . .We go more company"
"Again?" Emerald sighed, then looked back behind Aaron, "Oh. . .shit."
On either side of the two, there was a giant horde of pokemorphs, and they didn't look to happy.
"Let me guess: you won't be able to put up another barrier," April sighed as Aaron rejoined the group, Lucas instantly darting to his side.
"No, still needs time to recharge," Aaron shook his head.
"Well, looks like we're screwed," May smiled, and both sides started running towards them. Then, their view of the oncoming mob was instantly blocked by ice walls on either side.
"What the. . ." Emerald looked confused, then looked up, "Topaz! Glad you could make it!"
"Glad I could too," Topaz smiled as he looked down through the hole in the ceiling, Farleen next to him. "Hope you guys can jump, 'cause I don't have any rope handy."
"Well, if you had gotten any, you probably would have made it here after we got attacked by the mob," April nodded, then the group turned their attention to the walls, where they could hear noises on either side.
"I don't think the walls going to hold for much longer. . ." Lucas blinked.
"Me neither, come on," May smiled, and all of them nodded.
"Well. . .Oyeski isn't going to be too happy about this," Luna sighed as she watched a couple pokemorphs sweep up the last remaining bits of ice.
"You can't blame him," Eleven shook his head, "3 pokemorphs that were captured escaped, along with Aaron, and 4 pokemorphs we could have recaptured if we had done a better job."
"God, that's a lot," Luna turned to Eleven, "What about Tengu?"
"They say he's doing okay, and that they were able to remove the sword successfully. He's only regained conscious once, and only said he wanted to keep the sword before slipping back," Eleven said as he read through some papers in his hand.
"Zeek?"
"He's fine, but he says he doesn't even remember walking into the pokemorph holding areas."
Luna sighed, "This is why it's the stupidest idea in the world to brainwash serial murderers and keep them here."
"Well, he's better here than out there," The brown-haired hunter shrugged.
"That's -" She was cut off by a sudden pain in her chest, buckling over as she had her hand over the point of pain.
"Luna? Are you okay?" Eleven asked frantically.
"Yeah. . .I'm fine," Luna said softly as she slowly stood up straight again, "I've just been having a lot of pains in my chest lately. . ."
Eleven frowned, "You should probably go see one of the doctors. . ."
"I told you, I'm fine," Luna shook her head, "Besides, I have paperwork to-" she buckled again as the pain came back.
"Come on, I'll do the paperwork for you and escort you to the doctor," Eleven sighed, scooping her up into his arms.
"Hey! Put me down! I can walk you know!"
"Yeah, but its better safe than sorry," he smiled, and the green-haired hunter simply grumbled.