Most of the city's population was inside that building. Listening to the battle of the bands. It was packed, wall to wall, with headbanging, dancing, screaming instant fans of the singers.
They didn't hear the riots outside.
They didn't see the morphs, many of them almost fully pokemon, attacking the building.
They didn't know the destruction they were capable of and fully intending on causing.
Until an Earthquake ripped through the building.
People collapsed in mid-dance. The band hit several wrong notes, and the music faded as light fittings crashed from the ceiling. Somewhere, some wires must've snapped, or something must've shorted, but the entire place lost power. The concert was plunged into darkness. With a deafening thump, the door flew inwards under the combined force of all four of a Machamp's fists. A small army could be seen outside.
It was all chaos from there...

~-~-~-~


The fighting had been fierce. The pokemon had been subdued, but everyone was on full alert.
Blue and his friends had been a leading force in removing them. The three remaining birds had fought alongside them, united for a common cause - saving the battle of the bands.
But they'd failed.
The entire concert hall had been leveled. Everyone was helping search for survivors; Blue's psychic abilities were coming in handy to locate people and lift the heavier masonry.
But something else caught his attention. The judges of the competition were making an announcement.
"Due to these... unforseen circumstances..." Their spokesperson was saying, "We have decided to reschedule the Battle of the Bands competition. As several of the bands involved did not get a chance to play..."
"WHAT?!" Blue screeched, and was suddenly in front of the judge, telekinetically holding him up and staring at him with glowing blue eyes. "Don't be a fool! You know as well as I do that this entire thing was a two-band show. None of them could have beaten us."
"These bands did not get an opportunity to present their songs." The judge said, as calmly as he could while looking into those glowing blue slits. "It is unfair to conclude the competition without hearing all acts. And if you do not put me down this instant, I will have your band DISQUALIFIED FROM THE COMPETITION!"
Blue snarled and dropped him. "Well, we've got a slight problem with that! Look at our keyboard player! In a week, he probably won't even be human enough to play!"
Bubblejet looked extremely hurt by this comment. He hung his head, knowing that not only was his humanity hovering over a long drop into nothingness, but losing him would be a huge blow to the band. One that Blue would probably not react kindly to.
"Nevertheless, all the equipment was destroyed in that crash. We can supply new equipment, but this will take time. As will booking a new venue. We will keep you all posted on the place and time. But it will be at least another week. I am sorry."
Everyone was muttering and leaving. Blue started a few more protests, then sort of collapsed.
"Come on guys... we'd better get practicing again."
They all followed him dejectedly away. The three bird morphs stayed, looking at each other worriedly.
"Shouldn't Gold and Zapper be back by now?"
"Yeah..."
As if they'd called her, Gold suddenly swooped down between them, looking rather breathless.
"What's wrong?"
"Zapper... she's gone..."

~-~-~-~
BJ trotted along obediently behind Blue with the rest of his band, allowing himself to drop to all fours as they stopped. He'd been finding it more of a pain than being natural to stand up on his hind legs... no, legs. He'd started thinking of them as hind, too.
His paws were getting much larger and heavier now. Not very much left in the way of fingers. "Cuuuuuuuune...." He found himself growling, but then stopped, horrifie, with a paw to his muzzle. Had he lost the ability to speak then too?
"No." He said, with a rough voice that wasn't completely his own. He repeated the word. No, he could still talk. "I still don't trust them." He said, obviously still a little sore about being sealed up by Arctic.
"I know what you mean." Eric said. "Look at them. They look like they're plotting something. And anyway, where's the other one?"
"Hmm?"
"There's only four of them, look."
The entire band looked over at the girls. Gold was being yelled at by the other three, all four looked rather shocked. They weren't that far away, but their voices were drowned out by the mass of people yelling and digging, searching for survivors.
"They're probably just telling her what happened." Blue suggested.
"Shouldn't we be helping them dig?"
"Uh..."
"We should be practising." Said Josh.
"What, practise is more important than saving people's lives?"
Josh looked at him darkly, but he couldn't exactly say yes. "Alright. We'll stick around for a bit." Josh floated up and closed his eyes, psychically searching for signs of life.
"Cool." The others moved out, searching for places to dig.
~-~-~-~
In the shadows of a building, the same old shadowy figure hid, watching. The Endangered were spreading out... good...
He needed to get one of them alone... and if they were looking for injured, trapped people, he could do that. Turning away, he went to get in position...

~-~-~-~

"I don't believe this!" Maura raged. "How could she be just GONE?"
"She couldn't have gone wild, like the others, could she?" Silver reasoned.
"It's a possibility, but I would've noticed something." Gold said thoughtfully. "One moment she was there, next..." She shrugged.
"Are you sure you felt nothing? You've no idea what could've caused it?"
"No... wait, maybe there was something." She thought about it for a moment. "There was a sudden downdraft. Like something was moving down through the air really fast. But the wind wouldn't have been strong enough to push her out of sight, without making a sound."
"Maybe she was diving?"
"Who knows?"
They were all silent for a moment, thinking of the various possibilities. None of them looked good.
"Did you search the area?"
"She wasn't in the air, I can tell you that. The only things I saw were couple of Pidgey morphs and a Scyther."
"And the ground?"
"I searched for a while, but I couldn't spot her. So I decided to come back and find you guys, but..." She waved a wing towards the rubble that surrounded the area."
"Hey, you four!" Yelled a voice from nearby. They turned to see a Nidorino morph struggling with some rubble. A head could just be seen under it. "Mind giving us a hand?"
They looked at each other. "We'll do some work here, then go and find Zelda, okay?" Silver stated.
"Uh... okay."
The four of them moved to help the Nidorino, though their Zapdos friend remained the main train of their thoughts...

~-~-~-~

Josh hovered over the extensive destruction zone, searching for signs of life. His eyes closed, he didn't notice the fact that he was moving away from the others. But his meditative state was broken as a cry reached his ears.
His eyes snapped open, and he searched for the source... and as it cried again, he locked onto it - an Arcanine morph, trapped under the rubble of a half-collapsed house. Josh swooped down to him.
One arm was almost free, but stuck out in such a way that it couldn't dislodge anything - and by the way it was hanging, it looked dislocated. The head was mostly buried, but a small patch of red and white could be seen. Josh waved a hand, and the patch of rubble covering the guy's face flew aside.
"Wow... thanks... I've been here... ages..." Panted the morph. Josh nodded and began clearing the rest of the bricks and building materials aside.
No... don't... Josh froze. Something had just called him. He looked into the pleading eyes of the morph, then shook the feeling off and kept digging.
Stop... must... leave... There had been no mistaking it that time. He looked around questioningly, and the morph moaned, using his arm to weakly clear a little more of the rubble away. Finding nobody, Blue joined him.
You fool! Behind you! The thought came as strongly as a shout, although it sounded like it was from a great distance away. Blue spun just in time to see the attack flying towards him...
With a resounding explosion, the attack hit... Blue's barrier. Flames, dust and smoke flew everywhere. Though behind his shield Josh remained unaffected and unharmed, he couldn't see anything past it. He waved his hand-paws, and the choking dust cleared... there was no sign of an attacker. Any houses near him had been leveled, and he realised he was hovering over a small crater.
Looking behind, he found the Arcanine morph... gone. He looked more carefully around the area, but there was no sign of it.
It couldn't have been completely vaporized... could it? He shuddered to think... that attack had been meant for him...
Who had warned him? Someone had screamed out a psychic warning, and it'd probably saved his life... But who? There was no-one else in the area...
And who would've attacked him?
He slowly sank lower into the crater, as many others crowded around, having seen the huge explosion. His face was a mask of confusion, concern and worry...
But suddenly confusion, concern and worry were struck from his mind as pain wracked him. His first thought was that he was being attacked again, and his second was that whatever was happening, it was far too painful to think about.
The four other Endangereds managed to push through the crowd, just about the time Josh instinctively unleashed a psychic attack. The crowd scattered in fear as a group of them were mowed down by the attack, though not too badly damaged. They immediately assumed that he had caused the explosion, gone mad, and would now kill them all...
The birds winged in, wondering what was going on. Josh was curled up in a ball, shaking and screaming wildly, as psychic energy radiated off him in destructive bursts. His tail was writhing back and forth wildly... then suddenly, with a sickening organic noise it streched to about twice it's normal length...
The eight of them watching realised what was happening about that time - he was changing, becoming more pokemon. They couldn't see much of the rest of his body, but they guessed it was altering too.
Suddenly, without warning, he stopped screaming. The tangible, dangerous psychic aura in the air faded away. Blue, however, remained curled into a ball, glowing slightly, whimpering with pain. BJ was the first one to be game enough to check.
"Blue... you okay?" He nudged his friend's arm with his muzzle, trying to get him to reveal his face. However, it didn't work quite how he expected - Blue screamed again and lashed out psychically, throwing Sammy back. He managed to stay stable on four legs, not fall over, but looked like he was in pain...
Blue's screaming fit only lasted about five seconds this time, before it stopped abruptly and he collapsed, uncurling slightly, unconscious.
BJ was shaken as he looked at the leader of his band. He felt something was expected of him, and suddenly came to a decision.
"I'm going for help!" He cried, crawling up the side of the crater.
"Sa-" Eric called after him, but the Suikun cut him off.
"I'm the fastest! Don't worry, just stay here!" Then he disappeared over the lip of the crater. The remaining seven looked at where he'd been, then Maura spread her wings.
"What help do you think you're gonna get, Sammy?" She cried, then lifted off and moved to search for the water dog. The others just looked at each other. Suddenly they remembered they were supposed to be enemies, and gathered into their respective groups to scowl at the others...

~-~-~-~

Bubblejet had scarcely left the crater when he'd been hit in the side. He sprawled and slid away, into a wall.
Ouch... He grimaced. What was that? It had been big... Trying to regain his footing, he looked up as a shadow fell across him.
Pure shock registered across his face. "You? Why are you..."
Any further comments he may've made were cut off as an attack tore into him. He had a slight feeling of deja vu, as it hit him so hard that he couldn't even scream, only gasp impotently...
And even as the blast finished, as he blacked out, he thought...
Why on earth... it can't be her... she would never...
After that, he knew no more.
Laughing, the shadowy figure tugged the unconscious form of the Suikun into one of the houses. A couple of seconds later, a head popped out, but quickly pulled back as Maura's fiery form soared overhead...
She was next. And there was a perfect bait...