For some strong language and frightening scenes;
those sensitive to malicious acts and semi-graphic injury,
please read at your own discretion.
Recovering from the momentary shock, the goons were already preparing themselves and Pascual flinched with a surprised, then furious expression as a dozen guns now pointed at him. Guillermo called his Pokémon back in a panic, falling the seven feet to the ground with a huff and a choking sound as all the guns now pointed at him. He tried looked around as the Eevee clung to his neck, before realizing was literally NOWHERE to run or hide. Among the clicks of loading firearms, however, there was a different click and Dante smiled with satisfaction as the broken wall not only provided a welcome distraction, but a break in their sabotage circuit. Jonah and Bailey were right behind him and Sacha and Hazel silently agreed as they reached for theirs. Dante's Tyranitar roared defiantly, smashing a fist against its rocky hide in challenge before charging the henchmen. Jonah's Drapion rushed to the right flank, while Bailey's Vikavolt skittered through half the room, startling and threatening to impale all in its path - after all, most tended to stay clear when faced with an electrifying giant insect with a positively metallic-looking exoskeleton and horns like a bayonette. As Dante called another Pokémon - his Aegislash - Borya and Benji were in play as well, and between the Psychic's Confusion and the golem's fists things seemed to be clearing up relatively quickly; all this, much to Jensen's fury.
"How hard is it to kill a few people? Really?" Jensen barked from his place over the cacophany. He really needed to do tougher background checks on his hired muscle. Sure, Pokémon were tougher to eliminate and had supernatural powers, but a couple dozen men with guns had no excuse as far as he was concerned. He rolled his eyes as they were slowly but surely being thinned out. Before making his move, he growled into a mic and the agent waiting in the northern hall received the order: "Get the brat that screwed up our shipment - if we can't make an example out of the Pokémon, we'll just have to make do with him."
Dante was watching the sword that clattered slightly - it had eaten its share of bullets, but its trainer noticed with conflicted feelings that it was still shook from what happened and just wasn't in the battle mindset.
"Don't worry, I've got a special job for you." Dante said, trying to sound encouraging - then pointed to the balcony where Jensen stood; as his eyes scanned the area though and he realized the man had disappeared, he improvised his order: "Find him - that Jensen guy..." The sword held up its shield in understanding, though it still shook a bit. "Don't have to kill him - just bring him back here, okay - we need to have a talk with Mr. Jensen." Its shaking stopped and it raised the shield higher before zooming off. It hadn't left the room before pausing however, hearing a shout from one of the other Pokémon of all things.
"Floor 13!" Benji called, though even it wasn't sure how it knew. It could only imagine some ghost of data must have remained from its time linked to that horrible program. "Come on, Hazel." It added, using Confusion to pull its trainer along, much to her alarm.
"B-Benji?!" She couldn't really understand what this was about until she started hearing its thoughts... of course it didn't make her feel any better.
"Uh, okay - safety in numbers - you three watch each other's backs." Dante called, too busy with crowd control to hope for much else, while Sacha, Jonah and Bailey traded concerned glances - they weren't so convinced that Hazel and Benji splitting from the group was such a good idea. There was nothing to be done about it however, as within seconds the Jensen-hunting party was already bound for the stairs.
Guillermo wished he had the luxury of worrying about others, but he was too busy trying not to get killed. He'd spent the last few years trying to stay out of this horrible kind of mess, and now here he was in the thick of it. The last bullets were flying around the room as hapless henchmen shot desperately at tanks and a fast flier. He backed away toward one of the the northern corridors, hoping to shelter there until Dante was done... only to feel a familiar shiver run down his spine. The Eevee's whimpering swiftly escalated into a yelp, but before the boy could even turn to look, arms wrapped around his chest and hoisted him off the floor, a hand clapped over his mouth. Even if he could have reached his Pokémon, one wouldn't have waited - with a click, the Weavile was leaping up Guillermo to launch from his shoulder into the would-be-kidnapper where she took to clawing viciously at his face and eliciting muffled screams of pain. Guillermo's feet hit the floor as he was dropped and he choked down a gasp of fear as he recognized the man in a heartbeat - one that still turned up in his nightmares every so often. As the specter grabbed a fistful of the Pokémon's back, wrenching it away and preparing to throw it back at the boy, his scarred, bleeding face untwisted from its animalistic state of anger into one of cold bitterness and the free hand raised a pistol as he regarded his former Pokémon with disgust.
"NO!" Guillermo shouted, trying to snatch Somona away, only to be back-handed by the hand holding the weapon. As he hit the ground, a boot on his back swiftly followed, pinning him down. Having hidden in the boy's hood, Eevee was now feeling something other than fear: indignation. The Weavile hadn't been afraid - in fact, she was willing to protect the human at all costs. Growling, the little Pokémon jumped from her hiding place, latching onto the attacker's leg; she tried to scale up the back, only for the man to pluck her roughly and toss her back into the fray that was the lobby, where she landed with a small shriek of pain. As the noise in the lobby died down, these sounds of a struggle finally reached Dante's ears. Seeing what was happening, he waved to get his Tyranitar's attention, who barreled in the direction his trainer pointed.
"F***ing vermin, when I leave you to die, you stay dead." the man hissed as he held the Weavile up, squeezing its back so tightly the limbs were held wide and the head pulled back. She hissed right back, teeth bared, ceaselessly defiant... and secretly terrified. Guillermo struggled frantically, finally squirming out of the shoe's path and pushing the leg out from under their attacker. It worked: the man was too preoccupied with falling to shoot Somona - on the other hand, he landed practically on top of the boy. Refusing to let the Pokémon get away, the enemy took the shot after shoving the barrel right into her back.
Both Pokémon and trainer were frozen in shock as the man got back to his feet, snorting in disapproval. Stupid boy would be right there behind it - but he supposed it wasn't a fatal shot. A loud and deep growl sounded beyond the two on the floor however, prompting the gunman to look up, staring down the massive reptilian Pokémon that had already downed nearly a dozen of his co-workers. Shots proved futile as the furious draconian creature picked him up effortlessly and smashed him into an adjacent pillar. The Pokémon dropped the body from the crackled stone column uncermoniously - watching spitefully as it drowned in his own blood. Once he was satisfied that the enemy was good and dead, Tyranitar turned, making a gurgling sound of concern at the boy still on his back.
Guillermo hadn't moved since the gunshot, eyes filled with un-falling tears as he held the medium-sized mustelid and took gasping breaths of pain and disbelief. His shoulder was by no means a vital point, but it had passed right through Somona to get to him. He heard the bones shatter, felt the entry wound on her back right above the shoulder blade. He barely registered the Tyranitar, or even Dante who'd arrived seconds later with unheard questions of 'are you alright?' and 'can you get up?' Neither did Guillermo respond to the Eevee that timidly approached, terrified by the sound and sight of gunshots, blood and splintered stonework. The diminutive, brown Pokémon crouched near the boy, licking the tears away and whining - when still the boy did nothing, she crawled behind him into his hood, curling up and crying softly to herself.
Between the hovering sword, statue and levitated girl, it didn't take long for them to reach the top floor, which indeed proved to be the 13th. Hazel spent that short time along for the ride contemplating her Pokémon's uncharacteristically spiteful thoughts. It was so angry about what happened at the hospital - this went beyond the mission - it almost seemed like he wanted some kind of payback. That wasn't in its nature as far as she knew and she certainly didn't teach it about such things. Feeling a fraction of what it felt, though... she supposed she could understand. She had a feeling that there was something missing in the picture, though: something Benji wasn't sharing. Something that would glue all the pieces together and explain this sudden, vengeful disposition.
As Benji forced the door open - its Confusion barely ahead of its stony body which would have done the job just as well, they were greeted by an empty room and the sound of chopping blades right overhead. One last stairwell was situated within the wall to their right and they rushed up to find themselves on the roof and a helicopter taking off - with Jensen inside. For a moment, it seemed as though the RWTR executive was getting away - but Hazel had a chilling feeling... from Benji specifically and she realized it wouldn't be that simple. 'Big mistake.' The Psychic thought out loud and there was an eerie screeching sound as pieces inside the helicopter were bent and twisted out of shape and popping sounds could be heard. The frame started to crunch inward and the whole vessel was being dragged back to the building surface. 'If this man actually knew anything about Pokémon, he would know that the mechanism behind our so-called Telekinetic abilities is really magnetism. Trying to escape in a steel object, honestly...' Excalibur watched nervously, and a shiver ran through its frame at the feeling of Benji's aura. Hazel's mind however, was static. By this point, she was having difficulty believing that Benji was indeed in control and as she began to question whether the possession was truly broken, she took a slow and cautionary step back.
On a subconscious level, Benji sensed this and relaxed its grip, pausing to regard its trainer. The eyes on the back scanned first, then it turned around, looking at her directly. It slowly sank in that she was afraid ... and not just of the man in the helicopter. The Claydol seemed to go quiet, both in force and intent, allowing the now fully disabled machine to slowly fall to the roof but never taking its gaze off Hazel.
'Hazel...' it started, but admittedly, didn't know what to say - it thought... it thought it was clear in its intentions. With no idea how to deal with the hurt, it instead turned back to the helicopter, regarding the man trapped inside.
'Mr. Jensen - I believe you owe everyone an explanation.' it said mutedly. At first, Jensen proved stubborn, though it didn't take much more bending of the steel around him to make him more cooperative. Hazel's only comfort was that she could now clearly detect the restraint.
"Alright, alright!" the trapped human shouted in both fear and indignation, liking his insides to stay inside as jagged edges of ruptured metal pointed dangerously close to him. "Crazy rock-head! I thought you were programmed not to hurt people." he bit out the words.
'Well, maybe you should have thought of that when you sent someone to compromise my programming.' Benji countered icily and the man's eyebrows twitched and eyes wandered in a way as if to begrudgingly agree.
"We're in the business of ruining the project - if it's any consolation, it's not you, it's Kawashima." he added, but with enough venom to seed doubt about who it really came down to. Benji silently prodded for more with a slight tweaking of the sharp-edged cage. "FFF- yes! Bombs, bioweapons, staged attacks, abduction, we do a bit of everything... WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY? I don't really get why we do it - just doing what the boss wants, okay? She's the one who's got a problem with Pokémon - or Kawashima, or whatever..." the man trailed off, pissed that he'd been successfully interrogated by a giant doll and its 10 year old puppet. Not to mention whose head was going to roll when the boss found out...