"Um, why on earth did he forfeit" Ash said to himself as he made his way across the field to shake Wallace's hand. Ash and Wallace shook hands I the middle of the field ad Wallace recognized his curiosity. "Bibarel was only a few moves of being knocked out and was useless and I'd rather not put Milotic against Pikachu. Even if she were to win, she'd have to beat five more Pokemon and I'd rather not do that to her"

Ash nodded his head as he thought about it some more. Even if Milotic had beaten Pikachu, she wouldn't be able to go on against five of his other Pokemon. Or it could have something to do with him not wanting to be charged with abuse if he refused his Pokemon time to heal, though he doubted it. Wallace was known for his genuine amiability towards his Pokemon.

Ash the strolled to his side of the arena and exited the stadium from the body. He waited for a few minutes for the crowd to disperse and filter before moving to find his friends. After combing through the crowds for a few minutes he saw someone half a foot taller than the crowd, only Dylan would be that much taller than everyone.

Making his way towards the hair, he found Dylan, Cynthia, Gary and Paul all in a group looking for him. He let loose a small wave over the crowd which Paul caught and wordlessly made his way towards Ash. The others getting the idea, followed him towards Ash.

Upon arrival, Cynthia gave him a kiss on the cheek and Ash leaned across to grab Sarah from her arms and carry her for the small walk to the apartment, all the while making small talk. "So your battle is the last of the Top 64 Gary?" Ash asked him and he nodded his head.

"Yeah, and that takes place tomorrow. And then we'll have the Top 32 start two days after that, can you all really believe we've been here for two weeks. I mean look at everything that has changed" Gary replied as they found one of the less populated streets to walk on.

Paul shrugged his shoulders and continued walking, the others brushed it off as well though they still dwelled on it. "I know what you mean but what are your plans for after this" Ash asked them. Paul shrugged his shoulders. "Kalos is starting to sound interesting from what I've heard"

Ash's interest peeked at this, Kalos was one of the few regions that he hadn't been to. And he'd been to a lot of regions. Normally, he would think of going there but now he had a family to think of so he wouldn't go, but he'd definitely visit that region.

"Actually, I'm thinking of heading off to Orre. Each of the regional professor has been sent a request to find a few people to go to Orre to help with the clean-up of Team Cipher and Snagem. They are both practically disintegrated but there are a few groups of them that like to cause trouble. That and they are trying to establish a league and they need some help" Gary said and Ash nodded his head.

It was awfully dangerous for anyone to go to Orre, especially around five years ago when there was trouble around every corner but the main evil syndicates had been beaten and only the stragglers were left over. And if they were trying to establish a league then Gary would be a great help, being a professor in training and a renowned trainer.

"Not bad, Scott has an idea under trial that he's trying to get money for from the promoters and stuff, hopefully it'll be a big success. He said that we all have positions if we get far enough in the tournament if you want it" Once Ash said that he remembered he still had the opportunity to join the Battle Frontier of Kanto.

"Sounds interesting and all but Orre needs me so I'll be there, maybe later" Gary said as Ash nodded his head. He was sort of glad Gary had said that, Arceus knows Orre had bad luck and it needed a big pick me up. Hopefully, what the regional professors do will be able to mitigate the trouble in Orre.

And Paul didn't even need to say no. Ash knew that no matter what, Paul wouldn't be able to sit still and be grounded for long enough to compete in another league if he wouldn't be able to travel. That, and a certain Gym Leader lived in Kalos as well. All of a sudden, Ash's phone beeped. He pulled it out and read the message

"Hey babe, I'll meet you back at the apartment later, I've got a few errands to run. Go with her Gary" Ash said as he looked at Dylan and Paul who each looked at their phones at the exact same time. "Okay, see you there" Cynthia took Sarah and continued back to the apartment on her own. Gary though, didn't even say anything but he just went with her

"You got it to, didn't you" Ash said as he looked at Dylan and Paul as they both stuffed their phones into their pockets once more. "Yeah, it's not too far from here. Bruno's fighting off the Dark Guardians as we speak, let's go" Dylan said as he pulled a Pokeball off his belt and a Fearow came out. A few seconds later, Charizard and Salamance were out as well.

Pikachu and Ash jumped onto the Charizard just before Charizard rocketed off into the air, along with Salamance and Fearow. The three trainers along with the four Pokemon made their way towards where Bruno was fighting the Dark Guardians at that point in time.

As they neared the area, they could feel jolts of Aura being thrown just a few miles away from them. The Pokemon flying at an even faster rate, they approached the sight to find Bruno fighting two Dark Guardians on his own, though his Pokemon were holding their own. Bruno had all six of his Pokemon but between the two Dark Guardians they only had eight.

Ash quickly jumped off Charizard, leaving Pikachu on Charizard to attack from the air and when necessary, to attack the ground. Ash created a crater in the ground when he landed and was aware that Paul and Dylan were behind him, though he paid them no mind.

He took off to field, releasing Sceptile and Lucario at the mean time while both Dylan and Paul released their own Lucario's to join in the fray. There were four Lucario, Sceptile, one of each of the Tyrogue-Evolutions and two Machamp battling the Dark Guardians Pokemon, along with the Pokemon in the air. Magmortar, Electrivire, Bisharp, Honchkrow, Hydreigon and three Absol's.

Ash dashed towards where Bruno was engaged with the two Guardians, instantly making them reassess the situation at hand. Not even a second later Dylan and Paul were with Bruno and Ash, easily outnumbering the Dark Guardians.

Ash shot a quick look to the Pokemon to see that two of them had already fallen to the ground. Ash dashed forward instantly to engage the two guardians, sweeping one of their legs easily though upon standing found himself with a fist in his jaw. Ash reeled back only to see the person who punched him on the ground with Bruno pinning him down, Dylan and Paul restraining the other one.

Ash walked forward and smirked at the two of the Dark Guardians. He took his first good look at them and they didn't appear to look the same as the ones he had previously seen before, in fact they seemed to only wield a tenth of the power that the other ones had.

"Hey Bruno, do we have an interrogation room" Ash asked Bruno as he stood in between the pair of restrained Dark Guardians. "Yeah, teleport those two to the Cameran Palace and Riley will be there. He always is" Bruno said, Ash not understanding the last part but ignored it. Ash gestured to Dylan who released his Alakazam.

Dylan didn't even need to speak to Alakazam, who simply read his mind and Alakazam teleported everyone present to the Cameran Palace. Just as Bruno had said, Riley was out the front of the Cameron Palace with a smirk on his face. Bruno looked at Riley pointedly as they both stood at the entrance to the palace "Give them to Riley, he's the master interrogator"

The two restrained Dark Guardians were handed to Riley who cuffed them with Aura-infused hand cuffs to prevent their powers if they had any and to reinforce the steel cuffs. Riley soon disappeared with the two guardians into the palace, much to Bruno's dismay, something about wanting to be the interrogator.

"Well, you can all head back to the island now, no more trouble" Bruno said in a deep tone as Alakazam was about to teleport them but was stopped by Paul asking a question. "How come our phones went off when you were being attacked?"

Bruno gave a small grin before replying to Paul's question. "All phones provided by the Cameran Palace to Guardians all have an emergency function, just triple tap the power button and it sends off a distress signal that alert all Guardians within the distance of half of Kanto. It sends the coordinates of the Guardian" Bruno replied.

Ash pulled out his phone and got to press the button twice before Bruno pulled his arm away with some force. "Don't use it without an emergency or I'm sure the Aura Guardian that comes will kick your ass when they get there" Ash nodded his head and placed his phone back into his pocket before he heard the palace door open once more.

Ash snapped his head back to see Riley walk out of the palace again, this time without the guards. "Already done with them Riley?" Bruno asked and Riley shook his head. Ash then realized that he hadn't returned his Pokemon. He quickly did, the Pokemon from the battle were recalled instantly.

"No, I put them in a cell for now. I figured that the rookies here would like to see how the torture works, after all they'll need to know when I'm long gone Bruno. And let's be real here, you could never compare to me when it comes to torture methods" Riley said with a dark glint in his eyes.

"Good idea, go on rookies. Time for you to see how a Guardian extracts information from enemies" Bruno said as he nudged forward Paul who grunted at the contact. The three younger ones all followed Riley into the palace as they walked along the twist and turns of the palace.

As they walked along the paths of the palace, Ash ran his fingers along the stone wall as his fingers rubbed along the rough surface of the stone, his fingers rubbing over every bump in the stone. The stone itself told many stories of the palace, the new stones in the wall showing that the most recent war had damaged the palace. Though that was over 30 years ago if his memory served him.

Ash stopped when he felt Pikachu softly squeak on his shoulder, this caused Ash to snap his attention forward. He saw a massive door, easily double his own height. Riley pushed the door open to show that there were a few cells in there with several torture items. This caused Ash to take a step back, he was sure Riley didn't need to use physical torture.

They all took steps into the room as Ash dropped to the back of the group as he saw Riley buckle one of the two Dark Guardians into a chair. The other one appeared to be knocked out with a drug.

"So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way" Riley said as Gary snickered at his comment. "Really, how much more cliché can you get than that" Dylan said but he was ignored. The Guardian didn't look like he was going to talk, Riley smirked.

"I'll ask you this one question and I give you my word that if you answer I won't use any devices in this room. Why did you join the Dark Guardians?" Riley asked and he looked at him like a mad man. "Why else would I join the order, for power of course"

Riley smirked. Soon as the Guardian said one word he knew he had won. "Power, why did you want power if you hurt people. You'll do nothing but cause trouble" Riley said as the man chuckled maniacally.

"Who cares if I hurt people or even if I kill someone. That doesn't matter because power is what gets you places, you're nothing without power" Riley smiled, nothing he hadn't heard before from other captives.

"Well, what happens if you lose yourself along the way? Then what happens to your power?" Riley said as the Guardian opened his mouth then closed it again. "It doesn't matter, power does" Riley took a few steps back and grabbed a razor and shaving cream.

Everyone looked at him oddly as Riley put the cream on his head and shaved his head, no one knew what on earth he was doing. Once Riley had shaved his head, and stepped out of the room with the other three.

"Why the hell did you shave his head" Ash asked Riley as they had exited the room. "It will take a few hours for my torture methods to work but I don't use physical torture, only mental. Destroying one's self-image is the easiest way to make him break, without physical torture anyway" Riley added at the end.

An hour later and they were all back into the dungeon like room, the man was clearly in distress but most likely nothing other than discomfort for being in the same position for an hour. Another technique known as a stress position.

If you keep them in a certain position for long enough to cause them discomfort and an immense amount of pressure on the body parts being affected over a long period of time. It was commonly used for extracting information.

Riley stood up straight as he stood a little over a metre away from the detainee before he began to speak to the man. "Fuck off, I'm not talking you stupid ass bitch" Riley took a step forward before pulling out a bunch of flash cards.

This made the three rookies tilt their head to the side and even the detainee was confused. Riley slowly started flashing the cards to the person. They were cards that had pictures of Pokemon on them.

Charizard, Galvantula, Meganium, Dragonite. Riley kept flashing the cards before he noticed the detainees eyes widen for just a split second on the card. It was an Umbreon. Riley then put the cards down and picked up another set.

He started flashing the cards over and over, this time receiving a reaction for every card he flashed, however small the reaction was. "Dylan, does your Umbreon know Double Team" Riley whispered into Gary's ears so not to be heard by the Dark Guardian. Dylan nodded his head.

"Get him to fill the room with Double Team when I give you the signal" Riley walked over to the detainee and placed a sack over his head preventing him from seeing. Riley nodded his head to Dylan who released his Umbreon.

"Double Team" Dylan said making no effort into being loud. Umbreon didn't show any sign of responding in any other way than executing the move. Soon the whole room was filled with clones belonging to Umbreon. Riley knelt down to Umbreon's level.

"Hey Umbreon, when we leave the room can you take the sack off his head. We'll be back in twenty minutes"

Umbreon nodded in understanding before the Aura Guardians left the room.

Umbreon used double team to create insurmountable copies of himself in the room. A few seconds later and the whole floor space was covered with clones of Umbreon. The real Umbreon strolled up to the last human in the room and pulled the sack off his head. The man blinked several times before looking around the room.

He screamed.

…..

"Care to explain that technique to us" Dylan asked Riley. Riley opened his mouth to explain the method but was cut off by Paul.

"Hmph, it's simple. Riley used the cards to determine if he had a phobia of Pokemon, then catching a simple reaction m showed he was scared of Umbreon, later deciphering it into a fear of Eeveelutions. Then exploiting the phobia was the next step" Paul said though he did look at Riley for conformation.

Riley nodded his head. "Exactly, nice and simple technique. Find what they are scared about and use it against them"

…..

True to his word, Riley and co. were back in the room within the next twenty minutes. The detainee looked like he was going absolutely insane. The others all stopped at the door while Riley made his way to the Dark Guardian.

"So, do you want to talk now? Or would you like to keep living this nightmare" Riley asked with a smug look on his face. The man had a pained look on his face before he succumbed to defeat with a sigh.

"I'll talk"

Riley smirked before he started questioning the chained man. After nearly an hour of questioning, Riley had all the information he could get out of the man, placing him back in the cell with the other Dark Guardian.

Riley went through all the notes he had taken during the questioning. Riley had found out the man was a mere grunt, with even the weakest of the elite being at least 15 times stronger than him.

He found out there was 15 elites in the order, all of which named by a number of one to fifteen. He found out that they had Pokemon that was around elite level strength if the description was anything to go by.

Though 1 was the strongest, he wasn't the leader of the organization but only second in command. There was a scientist that 1 took orders from but that was all a rumour, though only 1, 2 and 3 have ever seen this scientist.

But that was all just a rumour after all, nothing but superstition. That and they had been able to somehow manufacture this body armour sort of thing that boost the strength of a Pokemon. He also found out where three of the locations for the bases were but not the main one unfortunately.

There was one in a cave on the side of the island where the tournament was being held. One in Kanto, the old abandoned power plant had been converted into a base where they had caught unsurmountable electric Pokemon due to the electricity being emitted.

And the last one was actually in Orre. Though from what Riley had gathered from the information, it was more of a backup base if they were driven from all the lands that the PLA had established themselves in. It was apparently built under the desert, which is impressive.

Riley turned to the other three once he had finished going over his notes. "Hey guys were going to be calling a meeting, now" Riley said as he quickly walked past the three and out the door, the other three struggling to walk and follow his fast pace.

Not even a minute later and Ash found himself in the room where the Aura Guardians meet to discuss actions. Last time being in here he had found himself being outvoted, not a particularly good memory.

Riley quickly disappeared from sight for half a minute before he appeared and once more. All four of them had sat in the allocated spots from last time and softly conversed with each other until everyone else appeared and all the seats were filled.

Riley stood once everyone else had seated and had started to speak aloud to everyone. "We've found three bases of the Dark Guardians" Riley said instantly, not wasting time on anything else. This caught everyone's instant attention.

"Amongst other information, we have found where they are located. So let's discuss the course of action" Riley said as he placed a giant map on the giant circular table in front of them with three 'X's marked across the map.

"The one in Orre is meant to be deserted and the one in Kanto is meant as a farming source for capturing electric Pokemon. The final one is meant as a strong base that is on Diablo Island, where the tournament is" Riley said as he saw Bruno stand up.

"We should send the apprentices to Orre to check out the deserted base and scrap it for information then destroy. Us Aura Guardians should go to the one in Kanto and destroy that one there because if the one on Diablo Island is as strong as you say then we'll all go" Bruno said flawlessly.

A few people made remarks around about not expecting that from Bruno. It was an excellent plan. In fact, no one could find fault in it. "Um, who's leading our mission" Ash spoke up before his own father chuckled. "YOU are, you're the leaders apprentice after all"

That wasn't something Ash expected. In fact, he fell out of his chair. Picking himself off the floor with a glaring Pikachu, he regained his bearings. "When do we leave?" Dylan asked Riley, who was silent for but a mere second before smirking.

"Tomorrow, after the Top 64 has ended. You'll have a week before the Top 32 starts so you'll have a week to complete it" Riley said, then he kicked out the apprentices to discuss their mission. Ash looked around, taking in what he knew about the masters and what they would've taught to their apprentices.

No doubt that Janine would be light on her feet and know the weak spots of her opponents. Always quick to observe the situation on top of having astounding reflexes, she was after all, a ninja. She would be the scout.

Korrina was sure to be strong despite her tiny body. She had trained under Bruno after all. Great for catching her opponents off guard when they underestimate her for her tiny size. She surely knew how to fight, light and agile as well. She would be the fighter.

Cameron, despite training under Maylene who had learnt to keep a cool calm composure, was still a bit rash and hard headed. Extremely similar to how he used to be before it all changed. Catching the opponents off guard with his attitude to make them underestimate him. He would be the bullshit artist.

Dylan, cool, calm, composed and hard to surprise. Always prepared for everything that could be thrown his way. He would be vital to this mission as well as everyone else. He was an all-rounder, he could improvise, fight, scout, and Ash knew that if it came to it, he'd be willing to kill. He would be the all-rounder

Paul was steel. He always kept his composure in anything and nothing could break the façade he carried. The powerhouse Pokemon he carried would be vital to destroy the base when they finished or if they got into a scrap. He was the juggernaut.

And then there was himself, nothing would stop him from completing his first mission on his own. He would make sure he completed it, even if he came back in a full body cast. It was his job to protect everyone and make the decisions. He would be the leader.

Dylan had a shit eating grin on his face before speaking up. "So leader, what is the plan"

Sorry about not posting this chapter last week but my computer decided to die so it's been in the shop for the past week, and as a make up for it not being up last week, I'll post another chapter within the next 48 hours, depending on how much love my this chapter will get, then I should be back to updating since my computer shouldn't die.

I wasn't particularly happy with this chapter to much but i couldn't really hold it back from you guys anymore so here it is.

Thanks