Chapter 54


Night Terrors


As Alex and Blaze were laying down in their hay beds, the former human turned to his partner and asked "hey can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" Blaze questioned.

Alex, trying to remember what Koh had told him, swallowed his pride and said "I need you to stay up a while I sleep, I've been having nightmares and I'm worried they may mean something. So if I'm tossing and turning wake me up, then we'll go from there"

"Sure, I'll stay up an extra hour for ya, get some rest" Blaze assured him.

Alex nodded and rolled over, Blaze stood up and went over to the deposit box to organize it. Unbeknownst to Blaze, three pokemon had just opened the hatch, and as soon as they peeked around the corner, they noticed Blaze was still awake.

"Bulk...Noxious Gas combo" Alphonse whispered.

Both Alphonse and Bulk fired a cloud of poison gas simultaneously at Blaze who turned around in shock and managed to yell "ALEX WA" before his lungs burned and he fell to the ground coughing profusely.

Alex began to stir, only for Skuld to swoop in and drop a toxic seed directly in the former human's mouth.

The Fraxure opened his eyes and gagged as he felt the seed shatter in his mouth, purple powder mixed with his silva as he began to choke, he had minutes at best.

"We're done, Move!" Alphonse ordered, however before Team Skull could escape, a spray of molten lava covered the exit, trapping them in Sharpeado Bluff.

All three poison types turned to see Blaze with his eyes literally burning with hatred as he screamed, "YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM FROM ME!"

Blaze's form glowed red before being surrounded in a tornado of fire, when it cleared he was a whole foot taller and had primarily reddish-brown fur with sections of white fur on his chest, head, and lower legs. Several gold markings adorned his body: swirled, circular ones on his knees and shoulders, flame-shaped ones on the back of his hands, and a stripe around his back that forms two swirls on his chest. The most noticeable change was on top of his head a large flame burned in the shape of a mane, which was so long it almost reached the stone ceiling. He now had an orange, rounded muzzle, long, round ears with blue inside, and a red ridge over his eyes. The eyes themselves were blue with yellow sclera, and he had five blue digits on both his feet and hands. Finally, his tail no longer had a flame on the end of it.

The newly evolved Infernape screamed as the excess energy of his evolution blew Team skull to the ground. He immediately ran to the display case and grabbed the healing orb. In the blink of an eye, he activated it, bathing Alex in a bluish light. Now that the poison was removed he shattered a reviver seed on his chest.

Alex coughed out the last of the poison then fell unconscious. Even with the reviver seed he had come within an inch of dying, and he would need more healing to be back to normal, but he was stable for now.

Team Skull got up only to see Blaze throwing the cloth off his package from the Fire Masters, revealing a katana like sword with a red wrapped handle and a blue gem in the center of the hilt.

Blaze put the sheath on his back and then drew the gleaming silver weapon, leveling at Team Skull and saying "SURRENDER OR DIE!" his emotions were still in overdrive from evolving, but thanks to Ran and Shaw he was far more in control than it seemed. Alex was in danger and that override his instincts, but now that his partner was stable, Blaze was focused on solely fighting.

Alphonse tried to fire more poison gas only for Blaze to swipe his Katana to the side, firing a blade-shaped fire attack at Alphonse, exploding in the Skuntank's face, knocking him out with a single attack.

Bulk and Skuld gasped at their leader's defeat and made the only logical decision they could.

"RUN" the Golbat shrieked.

Any hope of escape the duo had vanished as Blaze appeared in front of them faster than their eyes could keep track of. The enraged Fire type delivered multiple slashes with his blade engulfed in flames. Both of Team Skull remaining members hit the ground with multiple searing hot cuts across their bodies. Blaze's slashes were so fast that they couldn't even perceive the motion of the strikes

It was over, Blaze's mane of fire shrunk to a more manageable size as he sighed and reigned in his emotions. Unlike the day where he met Alex and needed him to stand up to Team Skull first, he and he alone defeated the thugs once and for all…


Later that morning in the Guild everything was settling down, Edison was at the guild within five minutes of being called to take Team Skull to for attempted murder, Cleft was personally overseeing the decommissioning of their explorer badges as Belle finished healing up Alex.

"You got lucky, if Blaze had been one second later the Toxic Seed would've finished you!" Belle admitted as she gave Alex one last heal pulse.

Blaze scratched the back of his head and said "I kinda owe his life to you, thanks again for that healing orb"

The Chimeco smiled and nodded before floating away as Alex got to his feet. The Fraxure noticed that Blaze was actually a few inches taller than him now, but brushed it off and said "thanks man, nice to see you evolved again"

"Don't scare me like that ok?!" Blaze demanded, as casual as things were now, Alex still had very nearly died.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noticed Cleft about to smash one of Team Skull's badges and said "Wait! I need one of those for a sec"

Cleft cocked his head to the side and asked "Why?

As the Fraxure walked up to the badges on the ground he said "A feeling…Bulk and Skuld admitted they were hired by someone, but they were too afraid to say who"

Alex picked up the badge and rubbed his fingers over it, sure enough, he got what he wanted with enough concentration. Alex wobbled from the dizziness before his pupils dilated and saw the signature blue flash of the dimensional scream, he saw Team Skull speaking to a Pokemon covered in a black robe with red edges. He was hidden by his garbs, so all Alex could deduce was he stood on two legs and had glowing red eyes, it reminded him slightly of the apparition atop Temporal Tower, but he dismissed it due to the lack of black smoke or resemblance besides the eyes.

"Once he is dead, flee to either the Air or Water Continents, then to either Mount Freeze or Mount Spire for the rest of your payment and safety from the authorities" the hooded figure explained.

Alphonse's gaze hardened as he said "No offense...Lupin was it? But, once we do this we're on the run for life, can we count on you to keep us out of jail?"

Lupin nodded and replied "The one I serve is the one who sabotaged Temporal Tower, if he can evade Dialga's gaze, then he can hide you, you will do this job and be rewarded, or else you know too much already to walk free"

Alphonse gulped and said "we're in"

Alex gasped as the vision ended, he learned so much from that vision that he couldn't believe it. Team Skull hadn't just been hired by a random grudge, they were hired by someone who played a part in nearly destroying the world!

"What did you see?" Blaze questioned, knowing the signs that Alex had just had a vision.

Alex shook his head and said, "I don't know how to say this but…actually Cleft, where's Wallace?"

"Um...in his room where he always is?" Cleft stammered, caught off guard by Alex's sudden seriousness.

The Fraxure ran into Wallace's room, causing the Guildmaster to nearly fall over as the former human said "I need you to make a call?"

Wallace yawned and said "friend, it's awfully early, can we do this later?

"No we can't, call Tesla and Paul, Team Skull was hired by someone involved in sabotaging Temporal Tower" Alex explained rapidly.

Wallace's jolly mood dissolved as he gave a serious face, much to Alex's intimidation, and announced "If that's the case, I'll call Paul and every one of the guildmasters, something like this needs to be known by them as well!"

Alex nodded and replied "ok, that way I only have to explain what I saw once"

Wallace sat his expedition orb on the floor as Blaze came in and said "Authorization code 911-Guilmaster 3-Wallace-911. Call all guildmasters and expedition orb number 0022"

For the first time in years, the chief authorities of all five continents were about to speak in one place….

Author's note- Surprise! I finally managed another multi-chapter upload.

1. That's the last of Team Skull, decided this was their best possible use.

2. The Guildmasters are not part of the Exploration Team Council, and I still have 8 slots left, so feel free to suggest more.

3. Blaze has evolved! I thought his Lava wasn't as flashy compared to Alex's new ability! Sorry to anyone waiting for mega evolutions, that will have to wait until Alex evolves again, but I wanted to remind eveyone that they still have the stones Xerneas gave them.

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