"JAY!" Nina's horrified cry echoed through the halls, ringing in the ears of all that heard it. She sped over the crystals and grabbed hold of her friend, but she didn't reach him before he was already punctured several times over by the crystals beneath him. Luckily nothing had cut too deep, but that didn't make Nina feel any better. Greenish blood streamed from Jay's unconscious body, trailing onto Nina's arms as she lifted him up.

Zen leaped for the Lycanroc, a burning fury in his eyes. The Bisharp threw a mighty punch, but his steel gauntlet felt nothing but air. Lee had moved, faster than Zen could have perceived. He spun around with his fist outstretched, this time getting blocked instead of dodged. "What the hell did you do to him," he growled.

"Tsk tsk tsk, assuming I did anything at all when Jay was so very useful to me. I don't purposefully break my toys, you know?" Lee replied, pushing Zen's fist away. "All I did was put him to sleep, he decided to fall where he did himself."

"Bullshit," Zen spat, throwing out a kick. Much like his first attack, it struck only air.

Lee had, somehow, made his way over to the stone door, standing before it and a furious Nina. "Move out of my way, please. I have a Time Gear to acquire."

"Like hell I'm moving for you!" Nina yelled. "You're not getting your filthy paws on anything!"

The Lycanroc shook his head, sighing. "Dear, Nina. How is Jay going to get any better if he isn't patched up immediately? I've heard bleeding out is one of the more painless ways to go out, but is that what he wants?"

"SHUT UP!" Nina held Jay tighter. "I don't want to hear another word from you!"

"You heard her, you're not going through that door," Rio stated. "I suggest you back away, slowly. If you know what's good for you."

Lee turned his head back just enough to see the Lucario making demands towards him, and let out a laugh. "You? Trying to order me around? HA! What do you plan to do when I get over there, huh? You, the Lucario that can't even use his aura properly?"

Rio flinched, but shook his head and kept his determined stare on Lee. "I don't need aura to take care of you."

Another laugh left Lee. "Oh really? Then, by all means-" In the blink of an eye, Lee stood before Rio, towering above him. The air around him with deathly cold. His pink eyes seemed to stare into Rio's very soul. "-take care of me."

Rio tried to jump back, but couldn't do it in time. Lee's claws left a nasty gash in Rio's torso, leaving a burning sensation behind. He tried to let out a scream, but it was trapped inside his chest. That, and Lee grabbed him by the throat right after, which as anyone could guess didn't help.

"Well? I'm waiting, Outlander," Lee growled, squeezing Rio's throat tightly. "You said you could 'take care of me,' and you can bet on your life that I am going to hold you to that."

Admittedly, this whole situation got out of hand far quicker than Rio expected it to. Lee's grip was insanely powerful. Rio felt like his head was on the verge of popping. He couldn't get a single breath in, or out. He couldn't pry Lee's paw off either.

'This is bad, very bad,' Rio thought. 'Why isn't anyone h-helping me?' He turned his head as far as he could, which wasn't all that much, to see that the others were… motionless? Or, were they moving really slowly, actually. What? And someone was missing too...

Just as Rio noticed this, he was forcefully thrown into the wall behind him. Whatever air was in him was knocked out of him, but was soon replaced by a lifesaving rush of fresher air. Unfortunately, Rio's head was spinning like a Hitmontop hyped up on sugar. All around, a mixed bag of nearly dying and not dying.

"Are you done wasting my time?" Lee scoffed, taking a step back as Jax threw a punch, and missed. "Why don't you sit back and let some of the actually useful Pokemon handle this, hm?"

Ouch, that was unnecessary. Rio would have pointed that out if he wasn't busy being in pain and taking in air. Strangely enough, Rio wasn't in as much pain as he thought he would be. It was still a whole lot, but could have been worse.

Zen and Jax swung for Lee and missed every single time. For a rock type, it was frustratingly impossible to hit him. They had hoped that being in a somewhat narrow hallway would have helped confine Lee in one place, but it was more of a hindrance on Zen and Jax if anything. Even with the others off to the side, there just wasn't enough room for either of the two to fight properly.

'Our best bet is to move him to the sparring area and keep him there. Whoever this wolf is, he will not be able to outlast all of us at once. We just need all of us to fight,' Zen planned mentally, missing a kick. He jumped back to the others, leaving Jax to try and catch Lee on his own for a bit.

"Dark pulse!" Zen threw his arms out, dark aura crackling in front of his gauntlets.

Jax froze up for a second. "W-Wait, I'm not out of th-" It was too late, as the hall was suddenly filled to the brim with Zen's powerful dark aura, pushing Jax along with it. Lee, on the other hand, was fast enough to remain ahead of it.

"Couldn't give Jax any warning at all?" Eva rolled her eyes.

"I'd be warning that Lycanroc as well if I warned Jax, so no," Zen said, blunt as ever. He and the others hurried to the sparring area to stop Lee, all except Rio, who couldn't move if he wanted to, Nina, who kept guard at the door, and Z.

"You alright?" Z asked, crouching before Rio. The Lucario responded with a silent nod. "Good, good. I don't wanna discourage you, but for your sake, please stay out of the way." And with those wonderfully encouraging words, Z joined the others. Rio let his head hang back, hitting it on the wall and wincing. He turned his head down the hall, clutching his chest. His heart was racing, beating in his mind.

"G-God… dammit…"

Jax caught himself before he hit the ground, looking around the sparring area to see that he was… alone? He was sure that Lee was pushed back here too. As the others arrived, they too saw that no one else was there.

"Looking for me?" A voice spoke from behind them. Of course, why wouldn't Lee be behind them? It only makes the most sense!

Zen clenched his fists, trying to pacify his growing rage. He was being toyed with. Him, treated like some plaything! Unbelievable! "Stand down, Lycanroc. You're outnumbered and outmatched."

"Did I not formally introduce myself?" Lee shook his head. "Oh, wait, you're just trying to make yourself feel more important than you really are."

The air grew heavy for a second as Zen held his tongue from feeding into Lee's bait. Eva stood by Zen's side, looking up at him before glaring at Lee. "You must have a deathwish if you're trying to piss Zen off this hard. Then again, you did think you could stroll into a guild and leave scotch free, so you obviously do."

A menacing cackle left Lee's throat. "You can't fool me, girly. Most of the guild's offshore, and I made sure to keep them there as long as I need. Other than the Machamp, none of you are anything I need to worry about." He looked Zen dead in the eye, grinning. "None of you."

Zen was about to prove Lee otherwise, before Eva stopped him. "Think, Zen. You know better than to play into this."

"Think… yes, think." Zen calmed himself down. Lashing out in anger wasn't something someone like him should do, that was far beneath him. He rested his gaze back on Lee. "I'll be sure to break that jaw of yours by the end of this."

"And I'd love to watch you fail," Lee scoffed.

Zen was the first to close the distance between him and Lee, slashing with his arm blades. Lee ducked the attack and spun around him. Zen quickly threw his leg behind him, but just like before, hit nothing. Zen quickly turned around to slash at Lee's legs. Lee jumped to avoid it. A flamethrower from Eva burned through the air at Lee. It just barely missed him. Zen continued his momentum to his Lee with his other arm. The attack didn't hit a thing.

Lee curved his body to avoid a punch from Jax as he landed, then hopped away with a smug grin on his face. "My my, I almost had to try and avoid all of that! Bravo!" the wolf laughed.

Nobody said a word, much to Lee's dismay. Another flamethrower raced over towards Lee, just to be dodged again. Zen charged Lee down once more, blades bared. A flurry of slashes sliced through the air, and nothing else.

"Missed me," Lee snickered.

Zen remained silent, his gaze remaining on Lee all the while. Darkness crackled around Zen's body. The air began to shift. Zen charged Lee down, running at full speed while slicing and slashing at the irritating wolf before him. It looked like Lee was just ahead of Zen's attack, always almost getting hit, but never actually getting hit.

As Zen and Lee sped through the area, Minerva hopped up on Jax's shoulder, saying, "Oi, Jax, I got an idea."

"Yeah? What is-" Jax began, before he was suddenly lifted off of his feet. Minerva held him effortlessly above his head. "W-What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, I know what Zen's doin', I'm only gonna throw ya when I can't miss," Minerva snickered. "Aaaaany secon' now." Eva got flashbacks to the first time Minerva threw someone at an enemy. She doubted this would go well at all. Z rolled his eyes, getting the same feeling Eva did.

Throwing vocal jabs at a silent target must have grown tiresome, seeing how Lee grew silent himself as he was pushed away from the others by Zen. That, or he had to focus to keep dodging. Regardless of the reasoning, everything was going exactly as Zen planned.

'There shouldn't be a Pokemon alive able to evade me for so long, not even Diana. I might not have the speed evasion, but I know I have the stamina to keep going. That is, of course, assuming he can get tired at all.' Zen let a smirk find its way on his face. He slashed upwards, causing Lee to flip backwards to avoid it.

They had gotten to the other side of the sparring area, and sure enough, Lee was breathing heavier than normal. Zen, on the other hand, was perfectly fine.

"This war of attrition ends now," Zen said firmly. "I've won."

Lee looked at Zen with vacant eyes, then suddenly turned back to the others and sped towards them. Zen quickly made chase, staying on Lee's tail.

Minerva grinned, readying to throw Jax. "Aight big guy, time to fly!"

Jax didn't have much of a choice but get ready himself. "If you miss, I'm throwing you next."

"I never miss," Minerva said. She only threw someone at someone else once, and she didn't miss then, so she wasn't lying.

It looked like the closer Lee was to the others, the faster he got. Zen was at top speed, the same speed that kept Lee on his toes earlier, yet he was falling behind. Eva tried to slow Lee down with flamethrowers, but he sidestepped every single one of them.

"What was I thinking, going for the toughest of the bunch? I should have whittled down the numbers first!" Lee laughed right as he came up to Eva. His claws looked a whole lot more terrifying up close.

Eva threw her arms up to block, not even sure if that would be enough. She braced for impact, only to get smothered by red fur.

"Kora?" she began, only to realize it was Z, blocking Lee's attack. "Wait, Z? Actually, where is Kora?"

"We got something a bit more important to deal with than that!" Z groaned, pushing Lee back.

Zen caught up just in time, slashing at Lee's back, only to just barely miss again. Interesting. Z threw out a high kick, managing to cause the hair on Lee's head to move but nothing more. Zen attacked low, aiming to sweep at Lee's legs. Lee jumped over Zen, then curved around another attack from Z.

"Here goes nothin' Jax!" Minerva shouted, throwing the hulking mass of muscle at Lee as he jumped.

'Perfect.' Another smirk appeared on Zen's face. Lee was right above him, exactly where he needed him to be, Z was putting pressure on from the ground, and Jax was coming from above. A sudden surge of darkness built up within Zen, crackling in the air around him. It was possible that Z and Jax would get hit by this, but Zen couldn't let this chance pass.

Lee happened to catch on, dawning a look of fear for the first time. He couldn't move out of the way in time. "No, don't!"

"Dark Pulse!" All the crackling darkness above Zen suddenly expanded, creating a swirling tower of jet black aura that exploded on the ceiling. The entire mountain shook from the attack. Z and Jax were both blown back, the latter catching himself before he hit the ground.

"Geez, talk about excessive," Minerva chuckled nervously. She kept forgetting just how powerful Zen was. "At least we got 'im, right?"

"I'd be surprised if we didn't," Eva said. "I-I really hope we did."

The darkness began to fade, leaving only dark sparks behind. There wasn't a single trace of Lee there. Instead…

"I can't believe you used so much of your power while you knew what was going on," Lee spoke from behind Zen. "I even told you not to, but did you listen?"

Zen fell to a knee. "I had a point to prove."

"What? That you're willing to waste all your power over an illusion?" Lee laughed, his body flickering. "Were I not ashamed of myself for being so reckless and revealing my little secret, I'd pat myself on the back. Oh wait." Another Lee appeared, patting the first on the back. "I still can!"

Countless Lees appeared around the sparring area, forcing Zen and the others to huddle together. "Can you find the real one? Don't be a fool like Zen and waste your energy on fakes! Hahahaha!" They all spoke in unison, their voices echoing throughout the room.

Z gritted his teeth and growled. "Dammit, he's just trying to waste our time!"

"Alright, Zen, you have a plan right?" Eva asked, helping the Bisharp off the ground.

"Precisely," Zen said calmly. "We leave."

"What..?" the others asked.

"He said so himself, these are just illusions. We know what he's after, and we know he's not here. Since the illusions are still active, it's safe to say he isn't too far away from them. Meaning he hasn't opened the stone door."

Eva's eyes widened. "Th-That means someone's holding him back! And the only ones back there are Rio and Nina!"

"And Kora too!" Minerva added, already heading for the exit.

The Lees blocked the way, but being illusions made them about as effective a blockage as a sheet in front of an open window.

"God… dammit…" Rio sucked his teeth, standing back up. Before him stood Lee, the genuine article. "I should've called it sooner..."

"You still being able to stand is certainly a feat, Outlander. But nothing more," Lee said. "I will commend your durability, and thank you for your stupidity."

"It isn't stupid if it works, right?" Rio chuckled. "I thought only Zoroarks could have that illusion ability, but thank god I'm not actually dying."

"No, you're not. Not yet," Lee's voice was cold, and his stare somehow colder. "I can speed up that process if you insist on being in my way."

Rio flexed his paws. "I'm a lot harder to beat than you think."

Lee shook his head, shoving Rio into the wall behind him. It was a simple push, yet Rio's entire body felt like it was about to fall apart. A strange feeling of deja vu filled Rio's head. Wonder why.

"Listen, Outlander, I'm not in the mood to play with you. I have better things to waste my time with, and beating you into a wall has already grown boring," Lee said, yawning. "While you're busy getting out of my way, I need you to convince Nina to do the same before her friend bleeds out."

A sticky clump of frubbles splattered onto the back of Lee's head. "Don't worry about me, Rio! Jay's gonna be fine, just… keep him busy until help gets here!" Nina said. She had already covered Jay's punctures with frubbles, which had turned green from all of Jay's blood inside it.

Lee let out an aggravated sigh, not at all attempting to remove the frubbles from his fur. "Hooray, you stopped his bleeding. However you're going to be using those frubbles to sop up amphibian blood rather soon thanks to that little-" more frubbles were thrown at Lee, sticking on the side of his head. "-stunt."

Alright, this was going about as well as it could. Nina kept throwing frubbles at Lee, Lee was doing nothing about it, and Rio was still having trouble standing. Nina could have Lee totally encased in frubble and that'd be the end of it, really. All Rio had to do was sit there and look pretty, and while he's certainly looked better, he's sitting there just fine.

'So, how's it going?'

Rio let out a groan. "Lee only shoved me... how am I already hearing voices?"

'Technically you're not hearing anything, you're thinking it.'

"I know for a fact that my thoughts aren't this loud, or annoying," Rio growled. His head was spinning, but aside from that voice he kept hearing Rio thought he was fine enough to fight.

'Hold your horses, Rio. You shouldn't try something, just let Nina do her thing.'

"N-No, I can't just sit here and not do anything," Rio shook his head, glaring at Lee.

Lee squinted at Rio, half of his body covered in frubbles. "Who the hell are you talking to?"

"I-I don't…" Rio felt his head hurt harder. "Whatever, it doesn't matter!" he barked before thrusting his palm into Lee's cheek. Right on the frubbles. He tried to pull himself away, which didn't work, and got his other paw stuck in the process. The very audible sound of frog hand meeting frog forehead echoed through the hall.

"Do you not even know what these are?" Lee laughed.

'I told you not to do anything…'

Rio gnashed his teeth, furiously failing to free himself from the frubbles. He tried to pull himself away, because that worked so well the first time, and snapped right back and stuck his entire body to Lee's. "God dammit!"

"You, uh, can't pull yourself out of the frubbles, Rio," Nina said, considering throwing more frubbles. "It's, uh, basically impossible."

"I feel I would be more surprised if I hadn't expected something like this to happen," Lee grumbled, turning to Nina. "Were I not trying to keep my temper under control, I'd have gotten through you both already." A powerful shift in the air rushed in from the sparring area, bringing a grin to Lee's snout. "And that's my que to get this moving."

There was a brief flash of darkness, and all the frubbles melted off Lee's body, bringing Rio with it. Lee rolled his neck, then shot Nina a sideways glance. "I'm done asking. Move."

A shock pierced Nina's body as she looked into Lee's eyes. The air around her started getting colder and colder. Her breath came out as a thick cloud. Her body began to shake and shiver. "N-No! I won't!" Nina said, holding Jay close.

"You are trying my patience. I can assure you, once I get through that door and get the Time Gear, none of you will have to worry about me again." Lee began walking towards Nina. The crystals broke as his legs walked through them. They didn't even cut his fur. "I want nothing more than to get off this wretched island, and the longer I stay here, the more I am considering going through you instead of around you."

Lee stood above Nina, glaring down at her. She still refused to move. Lee shook his head, grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Let go of her!" Rio shouted, still struggling to get free of the frubbles.

"Please, you can have her." Lee tossed Nina behind him, directly at Rio. He looked up at the stone door, brushing his paw along it and admiring its design. "My… this is ancient. Perfect for the hiding place of a Time Gear."

"A Time Gear?" Rio muttered.

Nina put Jay off to the side and started digging Rio out of the frubbles to throw them back at Lee. "That's what he's after! We can't let him get it!"

The frubbles stuck on the door as well as Lee. Irritated, the wolf glared back at Nina. "You already know this won't work. Save yourself the time and energy and stop while you can."

"I don't care, I can't sit around doing nothing!" Nina huffed.

Rio stood up as he was freed from his bubbly prison. It was oddly refreshing. He'd probably do it again if he wasn't already in the middle of something. Although there wasn't really much he could do…

"I think I'll just go get the others," Rio said, mildly disappointed. However, he barely took two steps down the hall before Minerva knocked him over. He landed on his back, bringing up a flash of pain. "Owwww…" The others showed up behind Minerva, although not in as much of a rush as she was. While everyone stopped in the hall to confront Lee, Minerva kept on running.

Jax looked down at Rio, offering a hand. "Need some help?"

"No… I'm actually comfortable down here.." Rio sighed. "But feel free to bunch that Lee guy really hard."

"Hey, don't gotta tell me twice." Jax smirked, stepping over Rio.

Zen stood staring at Lee, quietly surveying the area around him. He crossed his arms and looked back at Lee, who was still covered in frubbles. "You're cornered. Give up."

Lee turned his head to face Zen, grinning. "There is nothing about you that would intimidate me, Zen. You already used a substantial amount of power just to figure out you were fighting fakes. Jax is more of a threat than you, and he isn't even a threat."

"I wouldn't count him out at all, wolf," Zen shook his head. "Far from it, you are literally and metaphorically backed into a corner. Or more of a dead end. Fitting."

Another flash of darkness burned the frubbles off of Lee's body. "You're awfully confident considering your situation. If you may enlighten me as to why, I'd appreciate it."

Zen grinned, which did more to unsettle his friends than Lee. "Of course." Now that unnerved Lee.

"A-Are you serious?" Lee blinked.

Zen nodded. "I have your whole plan figured out. Exposing your illusions was the worst thing you could have done around me. In spite of my lack of such an ability, I've learned every caveat and intricacy about it. Like for instance, there's a very, very faint haze in the air when an illusion is active. Illusions get weaker the further they are from the user. Illusions can't interact with anything that isn't an illusion…" he flexed his hands, darkness crackling around it. "And the only thing that can interact with an illusion is the illusionist themself."

In the blink of an eye, Zen threw his fist at Z. Zen was stopped mere inches from Z's face, thanks to Lee's paw catching his fist. The "Lee" that stood by the stone door began to fade, and Zen's grin grew even further.

"You bastard," Lee growled.

Zen grabbed Lee's arm tightly, pulling the wolf in close. "Hey Jax, remember when I said you couldn't make a dent in my body?"

"I don't remember you sayin' it like that," Jax said, but still got what Zen was going at. "But if you're so sure about this, I'll gladly prove you wrong."

A look of panic flashed on Lee's face. He couldn't pull himself away from Zen, and Jax was getting close. Z was frubbled in place, right next to Zen and Lee, and very much in range of Jax. "Are you serious? He'll turn you to a broken, prideful mess of metallic shards!"

"And you, a bloody pile of pulp. At least I know I can walk away from it," Zen wrapped his arms around Lee. "Can you say the same?"

Nina helped Rio off the ground. "Hit him hard, Jax!" she said, carrying Jay back to the Infirmary with Rio behind her.

"Zen," Eva began. "You better walk this off like you said." She hurried behind Rio and Nina.

Jax pounded his fists together, grinning from ear to ear. Or where his ears would be. His fists started to glow red, and steam rolled off his body. "Now that I know we got the real deal, and his accomplice, I gotta make sure you both stay down for good."

Lee growled angrily as he struggled to get out of Zen's grip. "Y-You fools! This isn't going to stop me!"

"Which is precisely why you're struggling to break free, correct?" Zen asked, exuding a smug aura.

"Don't you care about your own life?!" Lee barked. "Unhand me!"

Zen squeezed Lee even tighter. "I'll unhand you when I'm dead."

Lee let out a burning wave of darkness around his body in hopes that Zen would let go. Instead, Zen countered it with his own dark aura. "D-Dammit!" Lee looked at Z, who struggled tirelessly to escape.

The first of Jax's punches finally hit Lee, sending a wave of intense pain through his body. Every hit felt like it had enough force to kill any lesser Pokemon a hundred times over. The sound of thunderous blows echoed through the halls. The force of Jax's blow shook the earth beneath them. While Jax did his best not to strike Zen, Zen still felt every hit that landed Lee.

"Here's the finisher! Thunderpunch!" Jax pulled back his fist, electricity crackling around it. He slammed it into Lee's back with all his might and weight behind it. A loud crack of thunder and blinding flash of lightning appeared as Jax made contact, sending Lee and Zen into the wall behind them. The wall itself cracked and stone jutted out from around Lee and Zen.

Zen winced painfully, sucking air in through his teeth. He was the one that crashed into the wall, but Lee took all of Jax's attacks directly. What's more, Zen's body blades were lodged in Lee's abdomen, keeping the two stuck together even after Zen let go of Lee.

"Try and best me again, mutt," Zen panted, shoving Lee off of his body. The wolf's body hit the ground, motionless. Four gruesome gashing remained in Lee's body. Oddly… there wasn't any blood. "What..?"

"You alright, Zen? I didn't break anything, did I?" Jax asked, looking down at Lee. "I mean, other than him." Jax suddenly grabbed the arm he used to Thunderpunch Lee, gritting his teeth painfully. "A-And my arm. Shit, that hurts more than it's supposed to."

"Keep that confidence in check. Does this look right to you?" Zen pointed at Lee's body. "The floor should be drenched, and I should be a new shade of red, and yet there's nothing."

"And it ain't an illusion since, well, I hit him with everything I had and I know I felt real fur." Jax hummed. He then turned to Z. "I wonder if he's got anything on this."

"You keep watch over Lee's body, I'll interrogate the fox," Zen said, approaching Z.

Jax nodded, holding Lee down with two of his hands. He didn't think to keep his eyes on Lee. Alive or not, Lee shouldn't be able to do much after that beating he took.

While everyone was dealing with Lee, Tia still tended to Lucas. The Charmeleon still hadn't woken up, much to Tia's dismay, but she knew he was well. "He just needs his rest," she kept telling herself. Minerva showed up suddenly, looking for something or someone, but Tia was more focused on Lucas right then. Time felt like it slowed to a crawl as Tia waited for Lucas to wake up, until Nina came barreling inside with an unconscious, frubbled Jay in her arms.

"He's hurt!" Nina said, frantic. Tears started streaming from her eyes. "I-I stopped the bleeding but I couldn't get here sooner b-because I was trying to stop Lee from getting to the door and he threw us a-and-!"

Tia held up a paw to hush Nina, lifting Jay from her arms and placing him on a bed. Nina quickly removed the tainted frubbles from Jay so Tia could work. The Meowstic rested a paw on Jay, flinching at an unexpected cold. A pink glow surrounded Tia and Jay, and the room grew silent. Even when Eva and Rio caught up with Nina, they stayed quiet as they entered.

"He's alive, just asleep. Much like Lucas," Tia said calmly. She could feel Nina's heartbeat skyrocketing. "Nina I think you should take a seat."

"O-Ok…" Nina said weakly, sitting on a bed and holding her elbows. "A-Are you sure Jay's going to be alright? And Lucas too?"

Tia nodded. "You kids are hardy, I'll give you that. Both of your friends are fine, just asleep. They're probably more exhausted than anything, much like you are."

"Yeah… yeah. I-I'm exhausted. They're exhausted," Nina told herself. "They'll be fine, yeah…"

Eva sat beside Nina, holding her hand and giving her a caring squeeze. "That's the spirit. They'll be up in no time."

"Maybe once we get rid of Lee, they'll hop back up on their feet like nothing happened," Rio smiled. "Hell, we could probably take the rest of the day off after that. I know the hot springs would be so nice after all this."

Eva's ear twitched. "Speaking of, where are Kora and Minerva?" she asked. Just then, thunderous booms roared through the mountain, causing Eva, Rio, and Tia to cover their ears. From the corner of the room, a red bush jumped almost to the ceiling and let out a frightened shriek. Along with that red bush was the white fur of a Meowth, which grumpily hid herself back inside the bush.

"Wh-What's going on?! What is that?! Where am I?!" Kora sputtered. He looked at everyone in the room with scared eyes before finally calming down. "O-Oh, it's just-" Another loud boom went off, causing Kora to jump again and hit his head on the roof. "What the hell was that?"

"Sounds like Jax," Tia growled quietly as she rubbed her ears. "Sounds like he got his hands on Lee."

More of Jax's punches pounded everyone's ears. The others had to wait for that noise to stop before they could speak again. But, right before anyone tried to say something, a clap of thunder rang in their ears, followed by a powerful quake nearly knocking them all over.

"That was Jax?" Rio asked, holding onto Tia's desk.

"Don't be so surprised, Rio. He might be retired but he's still more than powerful enough to do something like this," Tia chuckled. "If anything he should be stronger than this. Guess training on his own could only keep him so fit."

'Don't worry, you'll blow him out of the water eventually!'

Rio chuckled nervously. He wasn't how someone could get as strong as Jax, or even how he'd get stronger than that. "R-Right."

The rumbling and shaking subsided, to everyone's relief. For how bad that Lee situation was turning out, it ended fairly easily compared to what everyone expected. The tension in the air started to fade. It was over, surely. And yet…

"What do you think Zen is doing?" Rio asked, tapping on Tia's desk anxiously. "I thought he and Jax would come back in to get patched up already."

Eva waved Rio's worries off. "You're worrying too much about them. Both Jax and Zen can handle that Lee guy, and… Z. They just needed to catch him. I'm sure they're fine." Kora's ears twitched at the mention of Z's name, but he didn't say anything.

"I don't know…" Rio gulped, noticing his tail twitching. His ears were too, actually. Maybe his body knew something was wrong before he did. Rio looked over at Kora, who looked jumpier than ever, which was the first time Rio's seen him like that. "I'm gonna go check on them." Rio turned to the door, running down the hall as fast as he could.

'Good call, I was getting worried myself.'

"I'm going insane, but that's not important right now," Rio shook his head. "I gotta check on Zen and Jax."

'Why do you think you're going insane?'

Rio couldn't tell if the voice in his head was being sarcastic or not, but decided to not engage in conversation with it. He's already admitted to being insane, talking to the voice in his head would only make him worse.

There was a sudden wall of… something. There wasn't anything physically there, but Rio could feel something blocking his way. It burned to the touch, but it was a cold burn. An icy sting would be more accurate. Everytime he tried to go through it, Rio's body pulled itself away, and that funny hair he had would stick right up.

'Well isn't this something?'

It was something bad. Rio couldn't brute force his way past it. A growing frustration appeared in his chest. "Come on! What is this!?"

'I-I think… I think that's Lee…'

"L-Lee?" A bad feeling crawled up Rio's spine. "Then we can't just stand here, we gotta help Zen and Jax!"

The Lucario growled as he kept trying to force his way to Zen and Jax's aide. His body stung, and everything inside him was telling him to turn back, but he ignored it. Rio managed to take a step through the force repelling him. He couldn't feel his leg anymore, it felt like it froze right off. One arm got through, which also lost all feeling and went limp.

'Get back! You're gonna tear us to shreds!'

"What the hell else am I supposed to do!" Rio barked, forcing his other leg through. "Th-They need my help!"

'You can't help anyone if your body is broken!'

Rio ignored the voice, pulling his other arm and head through the force. As his arm made it through, there was a bright flash of blue light, and Rio's body shut down entirely.