Pokémon Chronicles - Web of Lies

by Eric566

Three years after the disbandment and defeat of Team Uncario, the members of Team Star find themselves thrust back into stardom after a succesful mission in dealing with an unexpected menace. However, the fall of the last of the Dark Eons and this new achievement has stirred new enemies from the ends of the world, and re-ignited the fires of an empire best forgotten. Sequel to AHR.

10. Chapter 7 - A Cry for Help

Aaand we're back from my unannounced hiatus! I had to take a few months off and alternated between writing and not writing because of stuff I did this summer, mainly travelling around my country and meeting a lot of nice people! Writing fell back into the background and when I came back I had to wait for a bit for this chapter to be beta'd… Nevertheless, I hope you guys like it!

By the way, this is one of two chapters that cover events that take place the same day, so expect the next one at the very least before the end of this month! (Probably sooner)

Chapter 7

A Cry for Help

Venture into the forest, find foes from ages past.

Numb. Everything was numb. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't see. Couldn't think. Brief moments of lucidity, of consciousness, of understanding. Eggs. Creatures. A thick, viscid atmosphere, submerged in an unsettling penumbra. Suddenly, a gentle caress. The rose. It was back. Praise. It couldn't understand the words, just the sentiment. It couldn't express its own emotions. It had none. It just was. But it wasn't. Something that shouldn't be, but was.

Corrupting.

Bodies hanging limp. Forest canopy. Hollow corpses on overgrown grass. Eggs to fill that forbidden void.

The putrefaction of life.

The permeating stench of death.

Life. Death. One and the same. There. Now. A roar to the self.

And then, it started again.

---

"Wake up!" Eric and Elly both snapped to consciousness, embraced in their bed, a sheet covering them ever so lightly to shield them from the cold of the night. But that wasn't the case anymore, as the rays that filtered through their window were those of the sun, and not the moon. Before them stood a very ticked off Pidgeot. "Geez, you weren't kidding when you said that place was weird… but this is just nuts. I've been standing here calling you two for twenty minutes straight! I even poured some water on you, and you still wouldn't wake up!" That explained the cold shiver that washed over Elly's body when she snapped to consciousness before, and explain why her fur was an absolute mess of tangled, wet hairs.

"Seeeeerge!" The Pidgeot ran like his life depended on it… because it might've very well done so at that moment, seeing that the Eevee was absolutely livid, slamming the door shut behind him.

"All I wanted to do was help!" Once he was gone, screaming as he made his way to the bottom floor as quickly as he could. Now alone, the duo recomposed themselves and checked their marks as soon as possible. As they expected, they'd changed: Eric's was harder to see, since the new color was cyan blue, not unlike his fur, but Elly's was better hidden by her thick fur, though once she located it, she found the new symbol waiting for her, confirming their trip to the sanctuary the night prior.

"It worked… It wasn't the same though, was it?" Elly asked, trying to think of the word that she and Eric usually learned after a visit to the sanctuary that allowed them to use their new power.

"No, it wasn't. There were no markings, no prophecy… And I didn't get any word or spell. Did we do something wrong?" He got out of the bed and tried to think about the circumstances surrounding the sanctuary, what had changed since then and now… And couldn't put his paw on it. "We got something, and the markings tell us that, but we didn't get a spell… so are we supposed to use our new abilities?" The two of them tried to come up with an answer, and Elly decided to use her own powers to see if she could find something to guide them… but when she used the first spell they'd ever gotten, absolutely nothing happened.

"Huh? Umbra! Ignis!" She stood up, screaming the words, but neither a shadow sphere nor a flamethrower surged out. "Oh no… Eric we've lost our powers!" The news hit the Riolu like a bucket of cold water, staring at his mate whilst ideas and thoughts whistled past his head, closing his eyes and sitting down on the floor. He let out of a huff, grasping at his fur, trying to think and come up with a solution, all whilst Elly kept freaking out, unsure of how to handle these news. Suddenly, he stood up, summoning an aura sphere and using the least harmful spell he had at his disposal, whilst Elly panicked.

"Wait, Eric, not in the-" The sphere changed from the usual blue hue to a transparent whirlwind of wind, faintly visible as it reflected some light. They both looked at each other, the Riolu unsummoning the sphere. "It… works. The words themselves don't work, but when you think about the element itself…" And so, he tried to think about cold things, focusing his energy as if he was trying to summon an aura sphere. However, nothing happened, and he found himself holding his palm out at the window to prevent any serious damage.

Elly did the same, but nothing happened with any of her old powers too. "Well… it's like we've lost some of our powers, but we've managed to keep some… Why? We needed to become more powerful, not weaker!"

"Elly calm down… something weird is going on, we need to figure out why. First, let's go down, have breakfast, relax and try to clear our heads, then figure out what's happening with our abilities." He was nowhere near as calm as he seemed to be, Elly knew him well enough to know that he was a bit more conserved when it came to his emotions. Because of this, she decided to breathe in, relax and do what he told her. She fixed her fur as best she could before going downstairs, and even then her new "look" earned a few glances from the rest of the team. But they weren't the usual looks of complicity or teasing that they received from them whenever they had a night of passion. The feeling was there, but there was also a hint of underlying contempt, something they could take a guess what the origin of was.

"Morning. You two look like you had fun last night." Nox greeted them, somewhat bitter.

"No, we didn't. Serge just threw a bucket of water on Elly's face to try and wake us up."

"Which didn't work… you were sleeping pretty well tonight, weren't you? Since you don't have to worry about what's going down today."

The Riolu stayed silent, trying to avoid falling into Houndour's terrain. He knew what he was implying, and Eric was trying to avoid giving him the reaction he wanted. He walked over to the table, pulled up a chair and sat down, waving at Jake and Zed, who were sitting around it, the ice type reading the newspaper and Zed handling cups of hot chocolate for everyone. Neither of them returned the greeting, making him sigh. "Nox, we didn't do anything last night, and we barely slept, like the rest of you. So please j-"

"Oh, so you didn't sleep either, that's awesome. Hey, since none of us got the amount of rest we need to, you know, perform well, how about you call off today's suicide mission? Maybe that way we'll be fucking alive later tonight t-"

"Do you have a problem with you doing your bloody job?!" Eric snapped and slammed his paw on the table, everyone in the room turning to face him. "If I have to remind you, this is what you signed up for a year ago when you joined the team, and I didn't hear you complain!"

"At no point in the last year did you make us go on a mission as stupid as this! Last time we fought this fucker he almost skinned us alive, and you're expecting me to go up against him?!"

"We're back in our world, Nox, and things have changed! Elly and I have our-"

"Oh! Oh! Yeah, sure, you and Elly have totally gotten back your powers and you think you stand a chance against him… but last time, if I remember correctly, there were sixteen of us and he almost handed us our asses on a silver platter!"

"He got the jump on us, we didn't know what he could do an-"

"Eric he killed a fucking legendary! And he knew what he could do, what his abilities were and he still got straight up murdered by him! If a legendary couldn't stand a chance against him then what the fuck can w-"

"What are we supposed to do then?! Just stand by and let him down whatever the fuck he damn pleases? We didn't become explorers to sit on our asses and take care of the scraps, Nox! We need to step up and confront the missions and dangers our way, as dangerous as they may be!"

"This guy isn't in our way, he's standing besides it! You're going out of your way to fight this guy for no fucking reason!"

"Didn't you listen to what Slew said yesterday about the ruins?! What if he gets his hands on an ancient weapon or worse?!"

"You honestly think there'll be something that powerful that's still functional in ruins that are as old as the hills? This all just sounds like a shitty fucking excuse and a stupid way to die, and I don't have an-"

"With that attitude the only thing that's gonna happen is that one of us is gonna get our blocks chopped off." Serge walked in on their conversation. "But kiddo, you didn't even get a scratch on you when you fought that fucker, meanwhile I almost got sliced in half, so I don't think you have any right to say jack shit in this situation. Besides, he ain't immortal: I hurt him as much as he hurt me, and if we coordinate ourselves we can bring him down… that being said, I agree, it feels like we're going a bit out of our ways to get at this mother fucker."

"What are we supposed to do then? Slew is a good friend of ours, and he's helped this team more times than you think… and you expect us to leave him hanging when he needs us most?"

"Dunno man… the way he said it it's not really a pressing issue, and we may be trying to take on more than we can chew Eric."

"So what is it, are you all just scared? Is that it?"

There was a long awkward silence, but of course, with being as fed up as he was, Nox snapped again. "Yeah, I'm fucking scared, because this guy can and will cut our fucking heads off!"

"No different than a week ago while we were in Akil! What's so different about it this time?!" Eric's shouting was getting to Serge as well, who was rubbing the bridge of his beak.

"Well, for once, we didn't know what the fuck we were going into in Akil, and to be honest, we'd gone for so long without anything that really… threatened us, you can blame us for being shaken by all that!"

"Like hell I can't!" Eric got up, hearing these excuses was making him even angrier than before. "I told you all not to get complacent, not to lower your guards, and to take this seriously every day because of this!" He looked around at everyone. Not a single pokémon, not even Jake, could look at him in the eyes and tell him this wasn't the case. "Right now, with what's happening around us, we can't afford to stand by and let the Pursuer do what they want."

It was around this time that Elly got out of the bathroom, with Lucy close behind her, the two females having heard more than enough from the discussion, and Lucy having her own input on the matter. "It's fucking suicidal. Like hell I'm putting my neck on the line like that again after what happened…"

"Well, tough luck, because this is our job. We have to go out there and do what we must."

"Alright, you can go and do that then, go and risk your life, but none of us, in our right minds, want to go do this mission. There is no reason for us to do this mission! There is nothing down in those ruins for them, for us, for Slew, for anyone! We're thinking about risking our lives for no reason whatsoever!" The sparks were flying between the two, and Elly was looking at her mate with concern. A lot of things were coming down on him at once, and she was scared he might snap, her fears reassured when she heard what he said next.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have joined this team, Nox, if that's the attitude you have towards missions."

"It's the attitude I have towards suicide missions."

"Both of you, stop." Her stern voice went unheard by everyone else.

"I wish you'd been there when we had to go into the distortion world, would've loved to see you running off with your tail between your legs."

"Fuck you, I would've gone there any day of the week if it meant saving the world or dying trying, but this is fucking stupid, we're just going to some forsaken ruins to get our fucking blocks chopped off!"

"Both of you, stop right now!" Things were starting to escalate now between the two, and at this point everyone, even Lucy, was afraid of saying anything, lest that ticking time bomb growing between the two males would blast off right in their faces.

"No, I don't think you would've done a whole lot of good back then either way, you would've just gone in first and gotten yourself killed, you useless fire breathing moron."

"Oh, you want to test how strong these flames are you big headed fucker?! Come on, right here, right now you son of a b-"

"Stop, both of you!" Elly screamed at the top of her lungs, stopping the discussion dead on its tracks, though before any of them could say something, someone knocked on the door. "Oh thank Arceus… someone go get the door. And you two better stay quiet." There was a certain stern tone in her voice that told the Riolu and Houndour to do what she told them to, lest there'd be serious consequences.

"Fucking literally saved by the bell… Can we get some grub going?! Come on Zed!" Serge flapped his wings in front of the dark type and snapped him out of his stupor. "I'll helpcha out, Lucy, tag along too."

"But-"

"Good lord, woman." He forcefully bent over and pulled her towards the kitchen with his wing. The only way to fix this situation he decided was to split off the team so that things would eventually cool down… putting Lucy to work on something would keep her from joining in against Eric. Elly huffed and sat near the table, whilst Eric walked over to the door, opening it with a scowl on his face. "Residence of Team Star, how can I h- Chatot?" The name of the guildmaster's right wing man made everyone's heads snap to the entrance, where he stood with an awkward look on his face.

"I… um… am I interrupting something? I heard screaming before, and I could have sw-"

"No no no, it's nothing, don't worry. What's wrong, you look pale." Eric put on his best fake smile, which didn't help cool Nox's anger, as he dismissed what he thought was a legitimate point behind such a facade.

"Oh, well if you say so… But anyways, we have a special request for your team, and it is an extremely urgent matter!" He suddenly went from mild discomfort to outright stressed out. "Just a few short hours ago, we received a distress signal from Evergreen, in the Forest of Giants, and all of our attempts to further contact them have been met with failure. To make matters worse, all of our teams are out right now, and the police cannot undertake such a request and leave Treasure Town without a large chunk of their force. You are the only team who can go there right now, please! We know that you are not under the orders of the guild and you're an independent team, but please, we need you to do this, otherwise the Guild will lose face and financing an-"

"Arceus dude, do you ever shut up? The message got through the moment you told us." Serge's ever so eloquent way to speak shined through and ruffled Chatot's feathers, snapping him out of his apologetic phase and straight into ire.

"Oh what would you know about how necessary the team is right now, you small brained pecker!"

"Oh come on, you've already told me that one before. Running out of insults, old timer?"

"Old timer?! Why I'm going t-" His voice got obnoxiously loud in the span of two seconds, enough for Eric to raise a paw and stop another conflict, the stress from earlier already building back up and making it hard to speak without sounding aggressive.

"Alright alright, let's cool it down, you two… Right, going back to what you were talking about, something about a distress signal from Evergreen? Where's that?"

"Eric…" Elly sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "How do you not know this stuff?"

"Oh, I don't know, we were gone for a whole year, Elly?! Besides, I'm never the one using the goddamn map, you are!"

"You don't have to shout at me, I'm not at fault here, mister!" Her response was sharp and dry, groaning in annoyance. "Whatever: Evergreen Village is a very recently built village in the heart of the Forest of Giants. Since it was such a strange forest, filled with hundreds of rare specimens and even more new species of plants, it was decided that a research commission would be sent there to settle down with their families, merchants, farmers… basically, create a village in the middle of the forest to act as a destination for weary travelers and facilitate the investigation of the forest and the botanical life that dwells within it."

"And they've suddenly gone mute just after an ominous cry for help… Doesn't sound good in my book." The Riolu said, looking at the rest of his companions, then at the bird. "Look, Chatot, we'd love to help but we have t-"

"You aren't going to say no, right? I know you may have some important missions, but our guild's reputation depends on it." He grew somewhat concerned and serious as he stared at Eric's eyes, and the Riolu didn't even have to turn around to know that some of his own team members were glaring daggers at him. "Can… we take this somewhere else, Chatot." The flying type looked at him, confused, but conceded, the two walking out to the street for just a bit, leaving to discuss these matters alone.

Nobody followed them outside, but once they were gone they too had their own private discussions, the Pidgeot sitting down and holding his head. "Oh my god he's going to accept another mission isn't he? And we're going to be split up and going to that fucking desert and the forest alone…"

"Come on, he's not THAT stupid. Even if he's an asshole." Elly found the Houndour's comment to be uncalled for, growling.

"Call him an asshole again and I swear to Arceus Nox you're going to get a good talking down." She sounded absolutely livid, and there was nothing the team feared most than an angry Elly. Because of this, they all opted to stay quiet and wait, any hunger they might've had that morning vanishing in the blink of an eye. Minutes passed, and the clock struck eleven, the point at the which Eric finally walked in, looking pale, almost as if he were to pass out, walked over to a chair and sat down. He looked at everyone, looked at the table, and sighed.

"We have a new miss-"

"Bullshit we fucking do!" Nox was the first to spring up, Serge slammed his wings on the table, got up and walked away.

"Fuck's sake… Really? Fucking really? You let him sweet talk you into this shit?" Eric gave him a look of utter defeat and nodded, the flying type groaning and heading towards the door. "Where is he, I'm going to give him a piece of my fucking mind."

"Don't. It won't be worth it, and he already has enough on his plat-"

"Then give me a goddamn good reason why you're splitting up the team for the most dangerous mission we've had in ages."

"The Judges are sure to be present in the forest." He looked up. "That good enough reason for you?" The blue pokémon looked utterly defeated. "There won't be any official representatives for the ETF there outside of some newbie teams and two higher officials to direct operations. That's it. The rest of the force will be made up of the Judges… and mercenaries."

"The fuck?" The Pidgeot looked at him, flabbergasted. "Do they seriously not have a single fucking team in the entire eastern part of the region?"

"That's available at the moment? No. We're already overworked as is, Serge." Silence followed his words, and he sighed. "I don't know what to do anymore… we can turn down neither mission, but at the same time without all of us going together to the same mission we can effectively fail both."

Once again, silence fell over them. "So let me get this straight… If we don't go to the mission in the desert, we risk the terrorists getting their hands on some long forgotten human tech could bring about chaos and result in even more deaths, and if we don't go to the mission in the forest, the Judges will most likely get all the credit and put us in a shittier situation than the one we are already in." Zed rationalized, putting their situation in words that everyone could understand. Once more, however, Eric had to make a decision, and say who would go to each mission.

"That's right." He rose up. "Look, if some of you don't want to go to the desert, that's fine, you can go to the forest, but I'll be going to the desert alone if I have to."

"No way you are. I'm going with you, Eric." Elly immediately positioned herself besides her mate.

"Dude, Eric, you're essentially committing suicide if you go there… Come on, use your damn head already, even Serge agrees with me on this!" Nox once again tried to convince the Riolu, but one glance at his eyes told him all he needed to know. "Damn it man, why are you so fucking stubborn. I'd rather go to the forest, if anyone has to go there, then I'll do it."

"Then tell you what. I'll go with you Nox." The Pidgeot quickly spoke up. "The forest isn't too far away, about half an hour or something by flying. By the time we finish, you guys will probably be getting to the desert, so… If we can finish the mission there quickly enough, I can fly us over to the desert or before you get there altogether." His idea was sound, at least on paper. But Jake found a problem with it.

"Will you be able to find the strength to carry yourself and Nox to the Giant's Forest and then back across that stretch of land and further to the north? It's probable that we'll get to the desert late in the afternoon, and the trip to the forest, while not as long, will essentially mean double the distance, in addition to the ground we've covered. There is no way you will be able to catch up with other team in a reasonable amount of time." The Sneasel's argument was incredibly compelling, and shut down whatever hopes and expectations the Pidgeot might've had.

"Well… I'm still gonna try it either way."

"If that's the case, then… I'll go with Eric." Zed sided himself with his best friend, remembering the conversation they had the night prior. He simply couldn't let him walk off into danger like that. "Lucy, what are you going to do?" He looked at her, worried.

The Shinx seemed to be about to start hyperventilating: she really wanted to go with the others to the forest, and her body was screaming her to not choose the other team. But when Zed had proclaimed his choice… she just couldn't help it. "Fuck it. Just… fuck it. I'll go with you, like hell I'm letting you get hurt on your own. Besides, I only fought this fucker once…" She let out a nervous laughter. "I'm sure I'll be able to hold my ground… hopefully." She didn't sound too sure about herself back there, but alas, it seemed that the only pokémon without a team was Jake, who seemed to be awaiting Eric's orders.

"Jake, who do you want to go with?"

"Whoever you think will need my help the most. Perhaps your team may find they require my assistance more, or perhaps the other way around."

"I think you'd do more with Serge and Nox. Your observational skills might come in handy when trying to figure out what happened in Evergreen." Jake nodded, and looked at Serge and Nox, the teams having been settled upon. "I'll say this once though: be extremely careful. We cannot grow anymore complacent than we already are, or else what happened this morning could repeat itself. Am I clear? Treat every mission from now on with the utmost importance and seriousness."

"I could say the same to you guys… Don't get yourselves killed, for the love of Arceus." Serge sighed. "Damn it, where's Vincent where you need him."

"Oh don't tell me you've developed a crush for him just after he helped us out once!"

"Did not, did not. It's just that the ability to heal up essentially any wounds is pretty fuckin' handy. You all saw how he healed Lucy right up, and how he basically saved Jake's life too. Like… that stuff's impressive, as much of an asshole as he was."

"Perhaps… but alas, we cannot depend on him now, nor ever. Given how quick he was to run away the moment Ferrus got slightly involved, I'm pretty sure he's anything but a saint. Anyways, do we all agree on these teams then?"

"I guess…" Nox still didn't seem to be too content, and Lucy was still showing signs of distress and nervousness. Outside from these two however, if the others had something to say or were unsure still, they didn't show. Once it was all clear and they all agreed, they had a quick breakfast, through the which not a single word was uttered outside of pure necessity. Eric seemed deep in thought, along with Elly, and it was probable they were talking with each other then and there, Zed's gaze was lost in the ceiling, Lucy kept poking at her food, Nox had chewed it down appetizingly, and finally Serge and Jake knew better than to scoff at the succulent meal before them and gobbled it down, knowing they'd need the strength for what lay ahead.

---

Serge groaned and closed the door behind them. Being the first ones to leave, as the others were waiting for Slew to come around to let them tag along, they headed for the guild immediately.

The building had undergone quite a lot of rebuilding and reforming, especially after what had happened to the original. As always there were a lot of pokémon walking up and down the road, clogging up the streets at times. The new building, unlike the older one, was completely above ground, with various floors and shapes, the front being oval, and the back being a large tall building with the iconic wigglytuff at the top.

The front was similar to the old ones, with a large wooden gate, albeit it was essentially for decoration, as two large wooden doors served as the true entrance to the guild. The inside had been built to try and conserve the look of the original, albeit it was extremely difficult since it was no longer underground.

The floors were no longer the natural stone, but rather wooden planks, the main reception having two large boards on both sides: one for the criminals, the other for more mundane missions. The reception in the middle had Chimecho and Chatot working together, attending all of the pokémon that came to deliver missions or requests, ask questions, and other bureaucratic needs. He approached the desk, followed closely by Nox and Jake, cutting the line and making a beeline straight for Chatot. "Aight, little bird, we are the ones that Eric sent to respond to the distress signal."

Chatot turned to face the Pidgeot, then looked at Jake, and finally Nox, who was too short and he had to look over the counter. "I… Not the entire team? This is an extremely important assignment!"

"Oh, hey Serge!" She greeted the Pidgeot with a smile. "Hello, Nox and Jake! Long time no see!"

"Hey." He acknowledged the psychic type whilst the other two started up some small talk, catching up with her. "I'm pretty sure Eric told you of what other mission we have. You literally couldn't have given us this assignment at a worse time."

"Is it really that dangerous? I'm sorry, but I didn't know that, and Eric didn't tell me either… he was rather vague about your mission. Either way, I'm sure you understand that this mission is just as important. We could be facing another terrorist attack in Evergreen, and the ETF cannot afford to ignore another one of those, lest we lose all of our current support, which is already infinitely smaller than before."

Serge slammed his wings on the desk in turn, snapping the others out of their conversation. "Right, well, I don't give a Rattata's ass about the support and popularity rankings. What matters to me is that when I come back home later today I find all of my friends in one piece, or that I don't see one of them missing and the others bawling their eyes out."

"Well, perhaps I should remind you that the money you're paid and that you need to eat and live comes from the funds we obtain from missions, and is relative to the support that the ETF receives! Not caring about either of those is downright stupid, unless you're telling me you can live off of the air!" The Pidgeot bit his tongue, knowing that prolonging the discussion could end up badly for both of them.

"Alright… we'll finish this some other time. We don't have any time to spare if what you told Eric is true. Where do we go, and who is there." He asked for the information right away, hurrying Chatot and hitting the desk. "C'mon c'mon!"

"Yes yes! You're so quick to change the conversation topic when it doesn't interest you, aren't you!?" He chastised the Pidgeot for his immaturity once more and pulled out some more documents. "We don't know precisely how many mercenaries will be on site, however, the ETF has offered as many teams as it could, and unfortunately, this included newly formed ones. Some of them have previous experience, others don't. They may look young, b-"

"Young?" Serge threw his head back, huffing. "Are you going to make me change diapers Chatot?"

"It's a recon mission in an area that's never given us any trouble. There's the possibility it might go wrong, yes, but that's why they have sent expert teams, such as WMD, and the sort."

"Then why are we necessary in the first place?!" Eventually, his constant berating got to the point where it felt he was actively trying to get on Chatot's nerves… and it was working.

"Have you not listened to what I just said?! Besides, you're Team Star, you're known all across the region, it'd be strange if you didn't at the very least show up to help! And besides, and this is what I was going to get at: The Judges will be there, and not just any judge… we received confirmation that the high judge, Tharmius, will be there." Silence befell not only the group, but the entire room, and the name of that Kommo-O was uttered. "Do you understand now? If there are any pokémon in the region that are better prepared to tackle whatever he may have prepared… it is your team." Serge considered telling the others, about to reach for his crystal. Tharmius being in the field was a huge game changer for a variety of reasons, mainly their own decreasing popularity and the rise of the Judge's influence. Sinnoh was essentially the only region that didn't have too much activity from them… but it seemed that they seemed to change that.

"Funny they showed up only after they learned where Elly was…"

"So your mission, as you can probably guess, is twofold: find and exceed the Judges at finding Evergreen and try to sway the opinion of the public in our favour."

"Gotcha… Alright, this just got interesting." Serge picked up the papers and handed them to Jake so he'd put them in the bag. "Anything else?"

"Treat this mission as seriously as possible, and do not, under any circumstances, lose sight of what is important, and don't let anyone distract you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nox asked, finally speaking to the guild's second in command directly.

"Mercenaries won't care about who does what, they're only out for their pay. The ETF has inevitably resorted to some, some of which were previous explorers, but others may have gone there with… less than pure intentions, like getting in the way of the investigation in favor of the Judges." Nox exchanged a nervous glance with Serge, who didn't seem fazed by this. With the papers secured and inside Jake's bag, the group looked at Chatot and thanked him, turning around to head for the exit. "Be careful."

"Oh come on, when have we not been careful? Except all those times when we've almost died." Serge dismissed his worries with a wave of his wing and a confident smile, though when they were out of his sight it vanished, replaced by a frown. Nox and Jake shot him an inquisitive look, and he just crouched down and rubbed their heads as a sign of affection. "Listen up, I'm just going to say this once so when we're there it doesn't come up: We all want to hang Tharmius by his unmentionables, but we need to be tactful this time around. Any slip up and it could be Elly's head on a silver platter, got it?"

"Right… but talking about mercenaries, when Chatot mentioned that I couldn't help but think of th-"

"Let's hope they don't show up, ok?" All three of them knew exactly who the Pidgeot was referring to, and their only hopes were that the mercenary they'd met in Cunabula didn't also appear. "Thanks for the concern, but either way, I'll be fine." The two of them nodded, and satisfied, Serge got up and looked up at the sun. "Hope the others have set off by now, it's almost noon." His two companions climbed up onto his mountain, Nox struggling a bit.

"Oi Serge, fuckin' lower yourself, I can't climb on like this." Serge groaned and got down so that the Houndour could climb on.

"No upper body strength, man you really need some training."

"I do believe Nox has plenty of upper body strength, but rather he's just too lazy to put it to use. Now, we should depart immediately. As much as I would like to pay my respects to the deceased, we simply do not have the time." Jake's words made the group look up at the hill where the guild once stood.

"Almost the end of the year and here we are, risking our lives… whatever, we don't have time to think about that, or think about all of those poor pokémon." With that, he spread his wings and took off into the skies, flapping his wings periodically as they soared away from the sun and towards the massive forest.

---

"The Giant's Forest, or Forest of Giants, one's preference does not matter… This mass of canopy, life and trees sprouted in a single night almost four years ago, and ever since has been observed and investigated as a natural wonder and phenomenon, becoming a notable scientific hotspot due to the variety of new vegetal wildlife that has appeared: plants with amazing and equally terrifying properties, the strength and durability of the wood, and the sheer amount of biological life all concentrated in just a few square kilometers. Its beauty is only comparable with that of the Valley of Origins."

"Valley of Origins?"

"Come on, kiddo, the place that was at the bottom of the large crevasse in Cunabula. We were there for like a whole week, and you didn't even know what it was called?"

"Hey, it's not like they even let us go down there, so…"

"Of course not. The Valley is considered to be a sacred place, and revered not only by the followers of Arceus, but pokémon worldwide. It is understood that descending into it or otherwise trying to contaminate it is a serious offense, worthy of incarceration. Furthermore, records of pokémon going down to the valley are… confusing, to say the least."

"Confusing?" Nox inquired as he looked at the ground below, since they were pretty high up in the sky.

"Yeah, I can take up from here, because I'd written an article or two about this, used to be a journalist, remember?" He smiled and looked back at them. "Yeah, me neither, so don't give me those looks. Anyways, here's what I remember, and let's see if you find this familiar: whoever goes down there starts feeling nauseous about halfway down the ridge, further down your body starts seizing up, trembling, and a bit further down you may start bleeding from every hole on your body… and yes Nox, that includes your dick." The Houndour visibly shuddered, which made the other two chuckle. "I digress: those that come back up are usually haunted by visions and other hallucinatory episodes for about a year or two, which more often than not, is enough to make them go bonkers."

"And the episodes I assume, are as strange and complicated as those Slew described from the Buried City?"

"Bingomato, prize for the ice type that did his homework." Serge swooped down, approaching the forest and lowering himself. "Not only that, but that's the same feeling we all got when we were in that shrine at the top of the mountain a week ago. This Miasma thing seems to be everywhere these days, and that begs the question, what do all of these places have in common to have this 'Miasma' thing." Serge looked down at his own shadow on the earth, pondering about all this and more.

"Well, I believe it's too early to draw a logical conclusion… But they are all strange places in this world, places that came to be through strange circumstances or that on their own, are strange." Jake looked at the high forestops, so lush and thick that it was impossible for one to peer inside and see what lay underneath. "Not unlike this forest..." Serge looked up at the sky, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes, almost expecting to find the answers up there, drawn in the shapes of the clouds, but like their own future, it was all blurry.

"It's the one thing I hate and love about life." He suddenly said. "Every time I fly I look both up and down. You know why?" He didn't wait for them to answer, and didn't expect them to: they knew it was a question that only he could answer. "I look down, and I see the world that we have, the one we're trying to fix. Then I look up, and I see the world that awaits us: blurry, uncertain, infinitely terrifying, and may be empty… But god damn if either aren't beautiful." They stayed silent for the remainder of the flight, flying close to the treetop, letting the wind blow in their faces, bringing them relief from the harsh light of the sun

"We have arrived… there should be some sort o-" Serge suddenly veered to the right as he felt someone approaching from behind, suddenly a bolt of black flying past them, nowhere close to try and harm them, but reflexes took hold at that point. Jake and Nox held on for dear life and Serge stopped in the air, flapping his wings to keep height. "Oi, you fuckface! Watch where you're going!"

The pokémon that had flown past them stopped and turned to face the trio, raising an eyebrow. "'scuse me? Old man, there's more than enough space for the two of us here, so don't go complaining ab-" He suddenly cut himself off, flying closer, uncomfortably close, inspecting Serge and his two companions. Upon closer inspection, they were a Staraptor with hazel eyes and tuft of feathers on his forehead to match. "Wait a minute, are you…" He then noticed the necklaces hanging from their necks, and his face lightened up. "Holy shit, you are! Team Star's Serge, Jake and… Shit, I forgot your name."

"Noooox! Come on how do you forget MY name?!" Nox pouted and laid on his back, looking away from the newcomer, who just closed his eyes and sighed, apologizing.

"Well to be fair, you haven't been part of the team for that long from what I know of, and you weren't there when these guys saved our world! Oh, man, I know that like, everyone's crazy about Eric and Elly, but I've always looked up to you, I've read all of your books, enjoyed all of them, all your articles a-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, simmer down man." They couldn't really do many gestures with their wings, or otherwise they'd plummet to the floor, but the look of bewilderment on Serge's face was hard to hide. "What do you mean every book?"

"Yeah, like… every single last book you've ever written!" The Pidgeot could already hear, no feel the growing smirk on Jake's face.

"Ummm… even the Lover's Cage series?" Just the title itself earned him a muffled chuckle from the ice type.

"Oh yeah, especially that one. Oh man every single time Richard does her in t-"

"Aaaalright then that's a part of my past I never thought would back to haunt me, I'm sorry for everything, and I'll see you around, bye!" He disappeared from his sight before Jake burst into laughter, and… it was quite a long laughing fit.

"Oh my goodness! Someone enjoys that filth?! I cannot believe it!" He kept roaring and rocking back and forth on Serge's back, cackling like mad, hitting his back and holding his face as they descended towards the forest's entrance, and by then he was still laughing like a maniac, even as he was dropped to the ground with a growl from Serge.

"Down you go." Nox landed more gracefully, confused.

"Something I've missed?"

"Nothing that should concern ya, kiddo."

"Oh nothing, just the embarrassment to literature that are his initial works… poorly written, glorified erotica."

"I don't know what's funnier: the fact I sucked at writing, like everyone does at the beginning, or the fact that you know what they are and what happens in them!" Jake's laughter died immediately as he stood back up, coughing.

"It was purely for research purposes, and for the sake of having an argument such as this rise again."

"Whatever you say pal…" He waved at him with a dismissive wing, walking into the woods, ignoring the blatant blush on the ice type's face. "Now, Forest of Giants… any of you got a map or sumth-"

"Oiiii!" The Staraptor wasn't willing to let them get away that easily however, reaching them shortly after they'd landed, but unlike Serge, he hit some branches and ended up crashing into some bushes, disappearing from sight with groans and yelps of pain. The trio waited for a second for him to come up, though once they saw his wing pop up and him saying "I'm ok!" they went back on their way into the forest. "Wait! You guys are heading to the meeting point for the exploration, right?" They turned to face him, shaking leaves and twigs out of his feathers. "I can show you the way!"

"...Right, of course you can." Serge rubbed his beak, sighing. "Well, you can stay ahead of us and show the way, but keep the fanboying to a minimum, ok?" He pointed a menacing wing at him, and the poor kid nodded. By that point the Pidgeot had guessed he was just as young as Nox was, probably a tad older, but otherwise as naïve and impressionable as one could be… if his tastes in literature were anything to go by. "Right then, let's move out, umm…"

"Antoine. Friends call me Ant though, but you mister Serge you can call me anything you want!" The trio behind him stopped on their tracks, the flying type feeling the glares from his companions.

"Umm… Ant's just fine." "Alright what'd I fuckin' do to deserve this?"

"Well, write a bunch of frivolous, erotic novellas, putting yourself in debt to an absurd degree, being an all around annoyance… Do you wish me to read you the full list?"

"No, Jake, we don't need it…" Serge attempted to distract himself by looking around the forest. The entrance itself was rather beautiful, albeit unsettling in certain ways. For starters, the signpost at the entrance guiding one into the forest seemed to be in the process of being overgrown by the twisting leeks, a sign of the lack of care, vines dangling down above them, looking more like a jungle rather than a forest. The further they went in, the more and more foliage they'd find eating away at the road, making it rather difficult for someone as big as the flying types to traverse through.

"So, this whole place popped up in just one single night? How?" Nox attempted to break the ice with their new companion, who merely shrugged.

"Anybody's guess pal. It was on New Year's too, just to make it even more confusing. I won't deny, it's made a very beautiful place, wouldn't mind living here… Though I'm slightly glad I ain't, given that the entirety of Evergreen's just up and vanished." He looked back at them. "Glad to see it won't just be mercenaries, newbies and the Judge guy."

"The Judge g-"

"Oh here we are!" Ant pointed ahead to a clearing where about thirty pokémon were pacing about. Various species, some of them grouped together in two larger groups: to the right, they were bunched up in smaller groups, talking with each other and laughing, while on the opposite side, the pokémon were split up, silent and staring each other down, save for one standout figure: A Kommo-O, clad in white robes which was having an intense debate with some others.

"...Well, of course, I do believe that the situation in Hoenn is inexcusable. And I don't care what the newspapers say, but sadly it's become nothing but a cesspool of trouble and terrorists. It's such a shame too, with such illustrious history."

"It's like that everywhere though, especially after the Purge…" One of the pokémon he was talking with, a Drapion, sighed in exasperation. "What is the world coming to."

"Indeed, it is a shame… but perhaps today's mission shall serve as an example for future collaborations…"

"Ugh, just hearing him speak is making me queasy." Serge held his stomach, faking discomfort, almost as if he was about to vomit, letting the Staraptor in on their relationship with the high judge. However, the smile on Serge's face disappeared as quickly as it showed up when Nox hit his side, then pointed to the far, far left. And there they were: as if playing some sort of divine prank, Serge's worst fears had come true, as the cloaked figure that had attacked him was standing right there, glaring daggers at him. He recognized them by the shape and size of their cloak, about as high as Eric, but they were equally, if not more intimidating than the Riolu himself, and that was already quite an achievement.

And to make matters worse, they were the focus of everyone's gazes from the left sight, the conversation that Tharmius was having ending abruptly, prompting him to turn around, then smiled. "Ah, what a pleasant surprise! If it isn't Team Star, or at the very least, part of it… I shouldn't be surprised to see you here, willing to help with this investigation."

"And I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see you here Tharmius, what with how prone you are to being a pain in our asses"

The dragon type chuckled. "I see you're still quite sore about the trial debacle… I know that words won't be enough to excuse ourselves, but even when we offered monetary compensation you refuse it!"

"Don't think Elly and Eric have any use for your blood money. And speaking of those trials, still doing some serious damage control, eh?"

"Regrettably. The roots of Martin's Conspiration ran deeper than anyone expected, and as of a week ago we have been analyzing every case handled by them to determine whether those rulings were fair or the evidence presented was fake. We have your lawyer and the ETF to help us with those cases too." He was being as calm and collected as possible, not a soul moving or saying anything whilst the dragon type spoke, taller and bigger than even Serge, who was already quite massive. "And speaking of them, I would've expected them to come, instead of you three. Did something happen?"

"Oh, no no no, they've just got better places to be at before dealing with your bullshit, Tharmius." Serge knew that they weren't supposed to be looking for trouble, but it was just one glance at Tharmius' smirk and he felt like he was boiling over. Nox and Jake weren't better off, but they were staying rather quiet too.

"Serge, stop, it would be better to avoid this line of dialogue. He may our enemy, but today it appears we must work with him." Jake was right, but he really, really wanted to just smash that face in, if anything to pay him back for all the stress he'd caused them during those two painful days.

"Now now, let's not get hostile. It is not in your best interest to trade blows with me, and in turn, I have no need to earn more scars than I already have."

"Dunno, I think one more across your stupid face would give you more character."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Oh no, just giving you some beauty advice, I feel like you could use some to, you know, cover all of that shame up."

"I like you, you're not afraid to speak your mind."

"You should at least take me out to dinner before popping the question, you know? How about an ass whooping to start off the night?" At this point the two goliaths were standing right in front of each other, and the tension in the air was so thick that some pokémon were holding their breaths, even their cloaked mercenary was tensed up, ready to spring. Sensing that the situation could only get worse from there on out, Nox quickly ran over to Serge and pushed him away.

"Dude, cool it, we don't need to do this right n-"

"You two, break it up!" A voice suddenly called over to them. A large Stoutland suddenly walked in between the two, taking advantage of the gap Nox had made to completely separate Tharmius and Serge. "In fighting won't help the inhabitants of Evergreen, and I will not tolerate your domestic arguments in this expedition, am I clear?!" He glared daggers at both pokémon, then turned to the members of Team Star. "Badges." They showed him their crystals instead, which normally should be enough, but… the canine wasn't convinced. "What, are you three a traveling circus or something, carrying those shiny crystals around?! Green ranger, red ranger, blue ranger?! Show me your damn badges now!"

Nox and Serge rolled their eyes and asked Jake to pull out their badges from the bag around his waist, which he offered up to the Stoutland so he could examine. "Aaah, Team Star eh?" Suddenly absolutely every single pokémon, explorers and mercenary, turned to look at them, their gazes changing: explorer's full of admiration, the mercenaries' filled with contempt. "Well, I'll have you know that you won't be receiving any special treatment with me! You hear me?!"

"Holy shit, where'd they find this fucker? A military camp?"

"He is ever so slightly reminiscent of the stereotypical drill sergeant I have seen in many novels, such as Complete Lead Vest." Serge couldn't hold back a chuckle as Jake said this, remembering the infamous drill sergeant from that novel quite well. And as he expected, the Stoutland lost it.

"Did you just laugh?! Did you just laugh you fruity ass hatchling?! I'll pluck your feathers and make a goddamn mattress out of them, where I will grab your wife or mother, whatever, fuck her on the mattress, and then put all of those feathers back on to your body, you hear me?!"

"Dude, ew." Nox didn't even find that hot, even if it involved sex in some way, and the mental image of a featherless Serge, whilst amusing to Jake, he resisted the temptation to laugh, and Serge opted to stay quiet so that they could move on from this weirdo.

"Damn straight. Now, as far as I am concerned, this will be enough to carry out the expedition. Will we have any more reinforcements?!" Nobody said anything, not even Tharmius, who simply leaned against a tree, opposite of Team Star, and looking at the high rank explorer. "Very well. My name is Hammond, and while you are working in this expedition I will be your fucking god, you hear me?!" Once again, silence, except for a few "Yes sirs!" coming from the explorers off to the right. "I don't think I need to explain why we're here, do I? We all know how to read, right?! If so, then I'll tell you what we're going to do: we are going to split into groups of three, and we'll move into the forest separately!" He reached into his bag, laying a bunch of crystals onto the ground. They were awfully similar to the ones Serge, Nox and Jake had. "For the purposes of this extraordinary expedition the ETF was provided us with several crystals, one for each group! Come on!" Pokémon slowly approached to grab at them, the most notable out of them being Tharmius, who reached down, his crystal becoming a deep purple in color, whilst the cloaked mercenary didn't bother to reach for one, its eyes still stuck to Serge, who grew uncomfortable with every passing second with those eyes staring him down.

"Everyone got their crystals then, are you all organized?" The leaders of the smaller teams nodded. Tharmius was going along with the aforementioned Drapion and a Weavile, which Serge recognized as the former leader of Team AWD, a prestigious team before the Time Freeze and the Purge: Arbok, one of their key components, went primal and was murdered, and shortly after their team was suspended and disbanded by the Purge because of their sometimes unethical practices. The leader's eyes were piercing right through Jake's, perhaps surprised to see another of her species there. "Then move out!" The explorers turned tail and dashed into the forest. They may have looked young, but they looked well trained. The groups of mercenaries left he clearing shortly after, Tharmius glancing at the members of Team Star and dedicating them a serene smile before disappearing into the brush. Once all of the beginner explorers were gone however, their "drill sergeant" visibly relaxed.

"Alright, you three, move out as well." His voice lacked the visceral and aggressive undertones that it had shown earlier, which surprised the trio. "You'll have to apologize for earlier, but with you lot being here, the last things we need are in fighting with mercenaries and also keep those newbies from bothering you."

"So you opted to adopt the drill sergeant persona to show authority and keep everyone in line, using it as proof that no matter our rank outside of this mission, it wouldn't matter in this situation." The Stoutland nodded.

"Nothing personal, of course."

"No offense… god damn, that description's gonna stick with me." Nox blinked, trying to get that mental image out of his head, having poor luck so far. Serge looked around, and once he saw that the mercenary wasn't nearby, sighed in relief and patted the Houndour's back.

"Well, that's not the most disgusting thing you've seen or heard in your life, now is it Nox?" He smiled. "Now, let's get going, we've got a job to do."

"I'll be moving into the forest with the more inexperienced teams. Watch your backs out there: we are the first to arrive after the alert was issued. Note down any abnormalities, and should you run into any of those mercenaries, stay out of their way. Unlike us, they are not bound to any organization or code, and in some cases, morals."

"Gotcha. You guys look out for yourselves too. It's gonna be tough, having to babysit all of those kids." Hammond smiled as Serge said this, glancing at Nox and Jake before turning around.

"You've got your work cut out for you as well." And with that, he sank into the bushes, disappearing from sight.

"Oi… what'd he mean by that?"

"Means he thinks that I'll have to babysit both of your asses through this, so how about you guys prove him wrong and you don't make this whole thing harder than it already is, eh?" And with that, he too set off for the forest, pushing away twigs and bushes as the group set out like the others.

Normally, it'd be as easy as following the path into the forest that had been specifically carved out, but unfortunately such a strange place wasn't that simple. The forest, as they'd soon understand, seemed to have a mind of its own in terms of landmarks and any sort of sign that would tell them where they'd been and if they'd been there prior. Everywhere they looked it was the same: green, grown, yellows here and there, decaying leaves crushing under their feet, stepping onto the fertile soil of the Forest of Giants, the air heavy with that wet, sticky and smell of rotting plant matter. So thick, it felt like one was biting right down on it, tasting the muddy dirt, pearls of humid air resting on their furs and feathers as they hacked and pushed their way through the lush vegetation. The once clear path was long gone, replaced by the chaotic canopy that seemed to threaten them at every step with those pointy twigs, thin leaves, and tangling vines draping down.

Even though the sun was at its apex in the sky, the treetops and leaves were so close together, competition for sunlight was fierce, and so they fought to raise the highest and take just a few more rays of sunshine than the others. It was because of this that down where they walked, there was almost no light, constantly enveloped in this faint mist, originating from the humidity in the air, small particles of what seemed like a mixture of that same decaying matter and small drops of water floating around, keeping them constantly fresh, the chilling cold of a December morning sinking into their bones.

"Brrr… If I'd known it'd be THIS cold, I would've gone with the others!" Nox couldn't even stick close to Serge because his feathers were covered in those drops of water, piercing what little fur he had and sinking into his flesh and making him tremble more, trying to warm himself up through his flames, though of course being careful to not light everything up and burn the entire forest to a crisp, which would make a spectacular fire, and would definitely warm him up.

"You'd rather deal with that cloaked guy?"

"You know, thanks for reminding me of that fucker, I appreciate being here a lot more now… oh, speaking of that we should prob-"

"Hey, it's clearing out." Jake called the two of them to look forward, pointing at the clearing that was opening before them. A few more meters and the group came out to a beautiful pond. That wet, murky scent became even more accentuated as they reached it, though it was certainly fresher than before. That faint green glow was replaced with watery blue, the sound of water flowing distant, probably a small stream somewhere. The ground wasn't completely even, so it was possible it was the resting place of some far off river.

"Wow… alright, now I can see why people would like to live in this place." Nox said, his worries about the cold and the cloaked figure to gaze upon the environment around him, mesmerized, by the sights around him.

"You do?" Serge lifted a muddied leg, wincing at the look and texture, then shaking it off. "Don't see the appeal on being up to your waist in mud but… eh, I guess I can live with it for now. Now let's get going before I catch something."

"Ummm… I was about to suggest we stay here, eat something, and then pick up the pace again. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving."

"Agreed, it is quite a beautiful spot, and would make an excellent pit stop."

"Ummm… guys, the whole place's covered in mud, how is this a good spot."

"Let's just find a place that's dry, or I can just…" Nox's heat increased fivefold and the mud underneath him dried up almost immediately, allowing them to sit down, relax, and eat the berries they'd packed with themselves, eating and enjoying their little stop, though soon it was over as quickly as it began. Once they picked up everyone, felt satisfied and full, then got up and walked away from the clearing, or rather, where on their way to leave before something whistled through the air. It quickly embedded itself on the tree before them, the attacker having intentionally missed to alert them to their presence. Which they did.

The weapon seemed to be transparent, clear, filtering the light into the dirt underneath, before it slowly fell apart into bubbles and tiny strings of water, before eventually disappearing. But by that point they were all turned around and looking upward at the attacker, and to their surprise... it was the cloaked mercenary.

"You!" Nox growled and crouched down, ready to pounce and attack, but a wing from Serge stopped from getting any ideas, instead glaring at his unwanted followed.

"You didn't aim to attack us, you were just trying to call our attention… You're not someone who attacks from behind without telling us first." He took a few steps forward, leaving Jake and Nox behind, who hurried to catch up, but he turned to face them. "This is my business, you two, stay out of it." Once more, he faced the mercenary. "What do you want?"

"I believe I said so back in Cunabula, Kaze. There is a handsome reward on your head, and I need the money." He could feel the figure smiling under that hood. "Nothing personal."

"Right… though I'm going to have to insist, that I am not Kaze, and there isn't a bounty on my head, not anymore at least. I paid all my debts, and made sure to tie up all loose ends with mafias or loan sharks… so basically, whoever gave you the bounty was a lying sack of shit! So run along now!" Serge seemed done with them, but the hired assassin seemed to have other ideas.

"I believe you know exactly what I'm talking about, Kaze. Though perhaps you need something to jog your memory… maybe something like the name Aiko." The feathers on his body were immediately ruffled, and his eyes widened to the point where they might just pop out of his skull, getting the desired reaction. "So it did jab your memory, Masaru." He began to breathe quickly, panting, he seemed to be deep in thought, quite perturbed by the name the mercenary had just mentioned, shaking his head, becoming more and more nervous until he suddenly seemed to realize something, whispering something that nobody could hear. He then turned to face them once more.

"Get down from there, you bastard. I want to talk with you. Face to face." They were sitting on a branch, legs crossed, and once again they seemed to smirk, the air of superiority in their voices giving them away.

"Of course." They then leapt off, falling downward toward the middle of the pond, but instead of simply crashing into it… they stopped right on the surface, gently touching down on it as small ripples moved outward across it, making everyone tense up, though it didn't affect Serge that much, since he was as nervous as he could be.

"Tell me, what did the pokémon that gave you this assignment tell you!?"

"Everything that was necessary, omitting some information he deemed unnecessary. I'll have you know he didn't even blink when he essentially ordered your execution." They crouched down and sank their right sleeve into the water. Slowly, but surely, they rose again, but this time another blade of water appeared. A katana, about as long as their own arm, drops dripping down as they slowly rose it and pointed it at Serge again, menacingly as the ripples in the water returned, growing in intensity and frequency, the air around them changing completely, from serene and calm, to oppressive and downright terrifying.

"Serge, we must leave… something about this pokémon…"

"I know." He'd felt it in his own face, how they'd mercilessly beating his beak in the first time they'd crossed paths and without breaking a sweat. He already knew they were skilled, but seeing them breaking the laws of physics like that, and creating what looked like a solid blade out of water… that was anything but normal. And there was only one explanation for all of this. The new angle made it easier to look under the hood, blue skin and a wicked smile underneath.

"Well? Will you surrender, Masaru?" They turned their blade, smile growing wider. "Or will I have to take you by force?" There was a long silence in the clearing, neither side even dared breathe… before Serge cracked a smile and darted forward in the blink of an eye, swinging his wing at them, aiming to kill. But he knew he wasn't going to hit, he was just giving them his response. And they seemed to be ready for it. "Expected… this will be interesting." And before he could hit them… they vanished. He sliced through the cloak, cutting it to shreds, but hit nothing at all, splashing on the water and quickly flying up to avoid sinking in, looking around for their attacker. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

"Wha… where'd they go?!" He looked around frantically, behind him, above him, left, right, front, back… not a hint.

And then she struck.

"Serge, the water!"

(Ushiwaka's Dance - Playing with Ushiwaka - Okami)

He had just a split second of reaction time to see the Frogadier leap out of the water, boosted by a jet up to his own level, swinging wildly with two swords as they threw them at him, missing entirely as he flew backwards and away, making more blades out of thin air and the water that they'd dragged up with themselves, blades flying across the air, piercing the trees and branches, around them, cutting everything in their path, then falling back down to the water, once again not sinking into it, standing up and drawing up two more blades from the water as the others still around the pond burst into hundreds of drops of water, filling the air with colors of a rainbow as the light bounced between the drops, a breathtaking sight for all three of them.

Serge landed and barely managed to take in the colors before the Frogadier was on top of him, bringing both blades down on his skull, leaping to the right and quickly swing back to block a follow-up strike, putting distance between the two, even though at the end of the day they were at arms' length. Jake and Nox didn't hesitate and charged in, but the mud gave their intentions away, and the Frogadier quickly dropped back, leaving the blades on the mud as they stood on their hands, kicking at their faces and throwing them back before reassuring their original position, though at the end, giving away a tiny detail that Nox caught on to: they were a girl.

They were both flung backward, landing on their backs and sliding across the mud. "Nox, Jake, stay out of this!" Serge quickly rain to try and blindside her, but he met with her left blade, which she changed to hold backwards, following up a knee to his gut and attempting to cut his head with a crushing blow, flying backwards and sliding on the mud, panting. "This is my fight!" The water type didn't let up with her offense, running at Serge again and crossing her blades, dissuading him from attacking her head on, flying up and trying to put some more distance to have time to think. Instead, she simply spun and groaned, tossing her left katana at him, easily dodging the projectile… though the moment it passed him, he seemed to think it was over, when it clearly wasn't. He'd suddenly hear a hissing noise behind him before it burst into water as it exploded outward, sending him crashing down to the mud again, getting a faceful of the sticky stuff that made him gag.

Just as soon as he'd spit everything out he returned his attention to his opponent, who attempted to crush him again with another vertical slice, which he quickly dodged and parried the subsequent horizontal, coming from the right, though before he could move in she spun and came from a completely different angle, again attack from the bottom right, her tip grazing his flesh and drawing blood under his wing.. Not content, she kept attacking, this time coming from the left as she dual handed her blade, delivering brutal slices and attacks that would've cut through his flesh like butter hadn't he blocked them with his wings, sounds of metal striking and scratching together echoing through the forest as the two of them became a whirlwind of slices and silvery cuts: she attacked from the right, he dodged to the left, parrying the afterward blow, being forced to stand back and throwing an attack himself, only for it to be blocked and pushed away, leaving him open once more or dangerously parried and placing him in a more dangerous position.

She sliced upward with both hands, forcing him to block and look downwards to predict the trajectory of the next attack, but didn't see her anywhere. Knowing where she was by process of elimination, he quickly looked up and fell back once, letting her stab into the floor, her sword sinking into the mud as he thought he had his opening to move in and at the very least get a scratch on her, but she simply smiled and rolled away from the sword, taunting him to come closer. Having learnt his lesson, he smiled and simply jumped above it and using his wings to get some air superiority before coming down. To his dismay however, he saw her close her eyes and bubbles burst forth from her open palms, two more blades appearing as she took a hold of them and blocked his blow.

"What?!" He was about to curse her and her family, but she began to push back against him, forcing the Pidgeot into a struggle that he had to bent down to even contest, which in any situation would've been an advantageous position, but unfortunately that wasn't the case this time around. She had two very heavy looking black and gold armor pieces covering her arms and wrists, and what looked like gauntlets on her hands. They were small, perfect to fit her hands and protect her from clashes like the one she was in with Serge.

"You're not bad… but still mostly disappointing!" She pushed up and attempted to move in, but Serge quickly slashed down, parrying her and walking sideways and away from her, whilst she chased, striking with ferocity. "Is this the height of your skill, Kaze? I'd heard that your ancestors could clash blades with the mightiest warriors of my clan!"

"Couldn't give a damn about those old piles of bones." He then pushed up against her and forced her to back up, as he advanced, his left wing swinging and slashing upwards, downwards, moving quite quickly, then took a step back, wind gathering around him and slashing past her with blinding speed. However, she was quick to stop the slash with her own blade, which was sliced in half, then used her remaining one to continue the fight one handed. "Besides, I'm not exactly a traditional fighter!" he took off to the air, vaulting and diving straight against the Frogadier, wings and blades clashing as he flew by her, this time a tiny scratch visible on her cheek, the wound drawing cheers from the two onlookers, only to be silenced by a brief but intense glare.

"Cretins…" She kept trading blows with the flying type, but caught on to his strategy and feinted to the left, striking him in the side with a visceral kick, knocking him out of the air and back to her terrain, where she threatened to follow her barrage, swords flying left and right, up and down, advancing as Serge lost ground… and eventually, against all odds, and with a spectacular upwards slice, she cut right paw his wings, leaving him defenseless as he fell back. Both were panting, the bird lying in his back looking at his opponent whilst she stared him down, raising a blade…

(Stop the music)

Nox started moving before he noticed, trying to pounce her, but she just had to move to the right and kick his underside. "Trash!" She just as quickly turned around and sliced an icicle in half, stopping Jake's advancements on his tracks. Nox wasn't about to give up though, and before she could deliver the coup de grace on Serge, he opened his mouth and blasted her with fire. The heat emanating from her blindside alerted her to the Houndour's plan and quickly crossed her blade before her, blocking the strike and seemingly victorious… only before the water in her hand turned from lukewarm to scalding, but she didn't have time to drop it either, as it bubbled, steam whistling outward from the edges as it exploded into a violent cloud of steam, blowing all three of them backwards, Nox landing on his feet, Serge sliding on even more mud, and the Frogadier flying straight into the pond, where she sank to its depths.

The members of Team Star exchanged glances, their strategist looking at the pond, then Nox, bewilderment on his face. "What in the world did you just do?" The inquiry was as sincere and awe-filled as he could muster, though it wasn't long before their assailant rose up from the depths, howling curses into the sky.

"You little bastard! What the hell did you just do?!" She was downright livid, though it wasn't for her wounds and burns, which did look somewhat severe. It was the fact she'd be beaten just like that, from out of nowhere, by someone who couldn't tell their tailbone from their nose.

"I… I don't know! But if you don't stop, I'll give you more from where that came from!" He was serious, it was easy to tell, but the water type didn't back down, her body rising up from the murky depths, covered in a thin layer of mud, leaves and plant matter, and of course soaked to the bone, albeit that was something she was used to.

"Do you want to die, you fool?! If you stand between me and my mark I'll cut you down where you stand, you hear?!" Their back and forth progressed into more serious threats, from which Nox didn't back down either, even if he was shaking where he stood, much to the female's surprise.

"Hey… Hold on time out…" Serge coughed as he came to then, raising his wings in the shape of a T. "Can we… reach a deal, lady?"

"A deal?" There was an ever so slight condescending tone in her voice. "I hope you don't believe you can strike a bargain for your life."

"Maybe not permanently, but at the very least… temporary." He sat up as he said the last word, knocking the mud off of his head and face. "Listen lady…"

"Ayame."

"Wh-"

"My name is Ayame Shimizu. Get it right, you pig." The surname made Serge open in his mouth in disbelief, whilst Jake's eyes widened in surprise.

"The Ayame Shimizu, from the Shimizu clan?"

"What else? Have you heard of us before?"

"Perhaps…" Jake said, the name bringing back memories of a certain assignment… back to a list of suspects, among them which were the Shimizu. "Not long ago either. Known worldwide as one of the more powerful and prestigious clans in Johto, after a decade of silence your name has resurfaced in several architectural projects worldwide. I did not expect someone of your standing to work as a mercenary in their spare time."

"So wait, you're telling me that lunatic right there…" The subsequent deadly stare from so called 'lunatic' didn't even faze Serge. "Is one of the most powerful women in the world." He stood up. "Fuckin' hell… and what you got against poor old me anyways?!"

"The bounty on your head."

"Doesn't your clan have more than enough funds, considering the many projects you undertake monthly?"

"You know nothing of our dealings, and frankly…" She stepped out of the water, pacing towards Nox and Serge intent. Her step was fast, methodical, eyes lit with a fiery passion for what she did, leaning to Serge and grabbing him by the feathers on his chest, threatening him once more with her very unlady like behavior. "I've yet to hear a deal from you."

"Fifty percent of what we get from this mission, and we get to save the hundreds of pokémon that are right now missing. Only for the length of this mission and the following weeks." He made it short and simple, and her eyes were glued to his.

"Seventy, and you only get two weeks, after that you won't know any rest."

"Deal." She let go of his feathers and he slumped back to the mud, groaning in relief. "I'll have you know that I do this purely for the deal: I now know the extent of your skill, and know you won't survive our next encounter. What's a few more weeks for me, specially when I'll get more money out of it."

"W- Do you not care for the hundreds of pokémon that are missing at this very moment?" There was some slight shock in the Sneasel's voice, whilst Nox helped the Pidgeot up, Ayame turned to look at him..

"I care only for my people and my family. That is enough." She didn't bother to go find the tathers left for her cloak, it was ruined anyways thanks to Serge's advance, and walked into the forest. "Now get up and don't get lost in this forest." And with that, she was gone, leaving with her an air of tension and dread, the trio letting out a simultaneous sigh of relief when the coast was clear.

"Holy shit, what is up her ass." Serge swore, using Nox's back to get himself back up on his feet, the Houndour remaining there, completely still and looking at the direction where Ayame had disappeared in, a wing moving in his face as it wiped off some mud on his face along with the movement. "Oi, earth calling Nox, come on kiddo!"

"Oh, what? Ugh!" He wiped his nuzzle. "Yeah she's a damn piece o' work, her." He still couldn't take his mind off of her eyes, there was something unsettling and at the same time admirable in them.

"She's a bitch, that's what she is… ooof, my body is killing me! What were that girl's blades made out of, water?" He blew air on his wings. "How can that shit be so tough?"

"I didn't catch a sight of her hands, but I would NOT put it past our luck that she had powers. That Abomasnow mentioned that Elementals attract other Elementals. She may just be like Vincent."

"But instead of being a charming and lovable asshole, she's just an asshole." Jake shrugged when Serge made his observation.

"Perhaps. Either way, we should do as she said and make our way deeper into the forest. We may not have gotten any rest, but we must keep going. I will take point." Jake spearheaded the line as they headed into the forest. "Also, you must report to Eric and Elly, nearly three hours have passed."

"Ice, let me catch my breath man."

"You have done so more than enough. Call them, I will keep my attention fixed on the others." Serge sighed and grabbed at the crystal hanging from his neck, reaching for Eric and Elly's minds.

"We were just about to call you guys."

"Oh really? What, missed these voluptuous curves and soft feathers to carry your big furry ass, Elly?"

"I don't know if she's missed any of those, but I can tell you've been missing the feeling of a foot in your ass, Serge."

"Ah, Eric as eloquent as ever! Tell me, have you tried carrying her around on your back? Or are you too accustomed to letting her ride you in bed? I'll warn you that the cowgirl position, while highly pleasurable and enjoyable for males, denotes only weakness in the face of the opposite sex."

"Alright, please shut up before I show you show you your weakness, Serge. What's going on over there?"

"Any time Elly. And as for what's going on, well we travelled for a few hours, arrived at the forest, had a lovely picnic with Tharmius and…"

"Oh Arceus, he's there?!"

"Of course he would… please tell me you didn't argue too much with him. Or anyone there for that matter."

"Well referring to that I have some bad news and some terrible news."

"...Arceus, if you're there, grant us strength. Alright, what the hell did you do Serge?" The shit eating grin on Serge's face would've earned him a punch from Eric.

"Why, I asked Tharmius what he thought of the weather, and he decided to laugh evilly, like he does, and said he likes it more when the blood of the innocents is raining down on our heads. He also totally asked where you were, interested, and I do mean, very interested to know of your guys' whereabouts."

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him that if he wanted to, he could go ask his mother about it. He must've loved his mummy a lot because he broke down crying and he took off running. After that we found the village and found out that they were just having a massive orgy, which we have all joined in because that's what you do. Also, Nox lost his virginity."

"...You had us fooled until you said Nox lost his virginity. Now out with it, Serge" The Pidgeot rolled his eyes. They weren't in the mood for jokes, and he ironically wondered why that was.

"We exchanged a few words and death threatened, told me he liked me, and I asked him for a fancy dinner. Not kidding that actually happened."

"Right… I think we got lucky that we didn't go there, things might've gone south if we did." The tone of worry in Elly's voice was noticeable even through the psychic link. "What else?"

"Well, after that, we went into the forest, got lost for a bit, then found a clearing, and we had a run in with my secret admirer."

An uncomfortable silence loomed over the ambiance, and as the seconds passed, he kept calling for them, eventually calling for them out loud. "Eric, Elly?" The other two in front of him stopped, dread mounting up the longer they didn't respond…

"Hey, we're back." He let out a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "We just got to the buried city, and we just figured out why we can't communicate normally inside of it: it acts like a b-" Their voices died out again.

"Eric, Elly?" He grabbed the crystal shaking and hitting it.

"What are you doing?" Jake inquired, confused as to how hitting the crystal was supposed to help make it work again.

"Alright, we've moved further away. What was that about your fan?" Eric sounded a lot more stern than before, probably having a good idea of who it was that Serge referred to.

"Remember that pokémon that beat my face in back in Cunabula?" The silence was all the confirmation he needed, and could already imagine the look of annoyance on the Riolu's face as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Turns out that they're Ayame Shimizu, and they're a mercenary out for my head for some reason. Apparently we're talking about sextuple digits… Heh, I said sex." His jokes came out more as obnoxious than anything else for the Riolu.

"I thought you said that you had cut off and tied up all loose ends from back then."

"I did."

"So why is she after you?"

"I don't know. I legitimately don't know why. I'm pretty sure she's found an old offer and hasn't caught up to speed. I managed to shake her off by telling her she could have part of the money from the expedition… if they even give us money. Either way, it's fixed now, so no worries for a while."

"We're gonna have to talk with her, we can't just pay her to leave us alone for a short while, we won't be able to sust-" The communication was swiftly cut off suddenly, which scared Serge quite a bit, shaking the crystal.

"Fucking holy shit, what is this thing's prob-"

"Attention all explorers, I repeat, attention all explorers, we have found Evergreen I repeat… we… Oh Arceus… there's so much… Someone get over here right now!"

"This is Team Star, report, this is Team Star. What is going on?" Nox and Jake suddenly turned to look at Serge, who was holding the crystal tightly, his gaze lost in front of them. He wasn't the only one to soon join in the conversation however, as voices, most of them unfamiliar, chimed in to ask the same things. Amongst them he also heard Ayame's.

"Where are you? Tell us your specific location!" She sounded quite ticked off, and since she wasn't present, the Pidgeot pressed his luck and decided to tone her down a couple eggs.

"Listen up femme fatale, we don't know jack shit about how to find our way through this forest, so the poor guy won't be able to tell where he is!" Nox and Jake soon tuned in with their crystals as they realized what was going on, but before a fight broke out, Tharmius' voice interrupted them all.

"Everyone, check your surroundings and look for moss on any trees, and try to determine what direction you're facing." The question hit everyone suddenly, and Serge could tell where he was going.

"I… Alright, I am now facing south, I know the direction." Jake quickly looked around with moss, whilst Nox looked at them, confused.

"Wait, doesn't moss grow towards the north?"

"In the northern hemisphere, but we're in the south one, remember?" Serge's tidbit only added more questions however. "Did you skip out on geography class when you were younger?" The question sounded more like one that Jake would make in a joking matter… only for Nox to stare blankly at the Pidgeot.

"I never went to school." Both he and Jake exchanged looks of surprise, then a simultaneous sigh, as that basically explained everything.

"Right,let's look at the map…" He looked around and found a clearing with a spring in the map, which was definitely where they were. Tuning into the conversation he'd overhear that the village had a particularly tall tree that was hard to spot from within the forest…. but thanks to the map, they could find exactly where it was relative to their position. "It's a little to the left. If we continue this way and then up we'll be there." Jake finally traced their path with his finger and nodded.

"Alright, we're moving over to your position right now. Stay put and keep your eyes open." The flying type spoke in both the psychic link and the physical world. After being showered with gratitude by the panicking pokémon, and other groups giving the same message, they set out immediately. Jake took the lead, map in hand as he pushed and slid in between trees and bushes, much to Serge's dismay as he tried to keep up with the smaller pokémon, forcing to take alternative routes around them. "This place is a pain in the ass…"

"We are coming closer to it… Right." He lowered the map and pointed in that direction, and just beyond some more bushes a pebbled road could be seen. "That must be the road leading to the town. We have finally found it… Let us move on post haste." Remaining calm, he dashed to it and then pointed to the left, whilst Nox caught up and Serge ran face first into a brunch, making him let out a painful groan and hold his beak, then slapping the branch with rage.

"I swear to Arceus…" He spits out a leaf and then bent down to look at the entrance to town, where they saw a Politoed pacing back and forth, looking over to them and waving, then returning to his nervous panting as he leaned and looked at the town. As they approached, at first they thought that it was normal, just that the lighting made the scene much gloomier and dire than it truly was… but it was only when they were right next to the Politoed that they saw: beside him, two young pokémon, a Fletchinder and a Breelom were recovering, from the shock, the Fletchinder having been vomiting as they looked at the scene before them.

The village was in ruins. The entrance sign had been torn and splintered on one side, and the sign read "come to Everg-", the other sections having been sliced off or outright broken. The ground before them was littered with holes and burrows, big and small, from craters to full blown ditches and trenches had uprooted trees and slung pebbles from the pathways that once connected the many houses and buildings, now mostly in ruins or utterly destroyed, with only their basic foundations or hollow shells with gaping holes going right through them, making the structures look extremely dire and dangerous, as if they were about to collapse.

There were leaves and branches all over, most likely from the trees above, ranging from small twigs to massive tree like logs that would've most likely crushed anything and anyone under them… and they might have, because to make matters worse and to solidify that sight as bone chilling were the streaks of muddy, sticky and rust smelling muck across the paths. It didn't take a lot of imagination to guess what all of that was, specially when considering one could see tufts of bloodied fur and even chunks of what looked like indescribable meat, both because of how mangled and torn everything was and because staring at it all was so unpleasant that it was hard to focus.

"Holy…" Nox had to hold back gagging, whilst Jake closed his eyes and Serge breathed in, swallowing nervously. "What the fuck happened here?"

"We found it like this, we haven't even dared go in… Arceus, we need more reinforcements, we have to wait for the others and…"

"There could be survivors. We need to check post-haste." Jake suddenly said, bringing up a rather noticeable possibility.

"You're right… Ugh, alright, you three stay here until more pokémon get here, we'll go ahead and…"

"Hey, over here!" A voice called, and a larger pack came into the road, making the six pokémon turn around. Out of the bushes came even more pokémon, among them Ayame, who without her hood had been exposed for her species, though it seemed like her identity was still a secret, given that no one commented on it. As the group caught up and stared at the scene, she exchanged a look with Serge before looking at the destruction, and her eyes briefly widened before closing them, letting out a sigh.

"What… happened here?" She simply asked, the Pidgeot turning away from her to face the large tree in the middle.

"We don't know… yet. That's what we're here to figure out." He looked at her, motioning to the village with his head. "We're going in, want to tag along?"

"With you?" She was about to insult him once again, but given the image before them… perhaps there was something to be gained if they aside their differences for the time being. "Fine… But I'll move at my own pace." She moved past them and into the village, the trio following after her, with Nox walking right behind the female. The smell of rotting plant matter and blood was extremely poignant, jerking tears out of some of the more inexperienced pokémon as they began to sweep the entrance at the very least. Team Star and Ayame, however, walked deeper into the village, heading straight for one of the few buildings still standing, a large one too, made out of bricks and beams of wood.

"This looked like the town hall…" Ayame theorized, peering inside through the hole. There was nothing but overgrown vines and splintered furniture, even a hole in the ceiling and the floor, as if something had burst out from underneath and stabbed right past the hard stone foundations and to the second floor. She was about to step inside before an icy hand held her wrist, facing a Sneasel giving her a head shake. He pointed at the inside, and pointed out the lack of any support beams, and the walls that had been destroyed were slightly bent. "Right… What could've done this?"

"Well, from the looks of it, it came out of the ground… so it may have been a coordinated sneak attack." Serge's head was above Ayame's as she looked in, and pulled out and had to resist the urge to lean onto the wall, crossing his wings and lightly leaning upon it before stopping.

"Right, but how does that explain that big ass hole in the ceiling? You'd have to be a tall ass pokémon to burst out from the ground and go right through the ceiling in this place!"

"You're right, it'd definitely be strange, if not impossible… but there is more to it than just that." Jake split off from the group and walked over to the markings on the ground, crouching and dragging a hand across it. "It's smooth, the stone was cleanly severed, and whatever was caught in the way reduced to gravel at most. If something had been burrowing right underneath the surface, it would've left burrows, like those." He pointed at the aforementioned bulges. "But this is something different…" Before he could even think on what it was, Ayame suddenly stabbed the road with her own sword, scaring Serge as he jumped and fell backwards as she dragged the blade across the ground towards him, then lifted it up as she approached his groin, smirking.

"Crazy bitch…" The flying type couldn't help but mutter that insult, and Ayame only laughed sardonically, but quickly went back to her serious demeanour and looked at the markings she'd left.

"Look at my markings… and look at those others." She compared both of them, side by side… it was hard to tell them apart, earning her a couple strange looks. "Swords. Or some sharp edge. Whatever made these marks was some sort of sharp, pointed weapon, most likely a blade."

"Except this one's were bigger, thicker and sharper. The size and depth are much bigger…" Those cuts were all over the place too, and in some areas there were burrows, as if something had been tunneling around underneath the dirt. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Call everyone back." Serge wasn't the only one: there was a certain stagnated feeling in the air, an aftertaste of rust in their mouths, and silence echoed around the village, crushing them with its imperceptible weight.

"We should, at the very least, reconvene with the rest of the group." Jake determined the best course of action, and the decision was unanimous… until Nox spotted something that shouldn't be there.

"Hey! There's someone over there!" He suddenly called out, pointing at the back of the large tree in the center of town. There, lying against it, a large bloodied chunk of what looked like metal stabbed right through their chest, was a Zangoose. Shiny or normal, it was impossible to tell from the amount of blood covering their body. Worst of all though, their eyes kept closing and opening, and their body shook, trembled and shifted lightly: they were still alive, breathing, and seemingly in the middle of a shock attack. Serge took off to check on them, followed by Nox, and albeit Jake and Ayame started walking, they suddenly stopped as the terrain became pronouncedly more hazardous…

Serge reached the Zangoose, as Nox stopped midway to look at the approaching teams of pokémon, calling them over. "Hey! There's someone alive here!" Even if Tharmius was the most noticeable figure among them, getting all the help they could get was a great idea… on paper. Serge crouched next to the wounded pokémon.

"Hey. Hey, you alright?" He lightly tapped their left cheek. Their eyes locked with his, almost open, opening their mouth to try and say something, jaw open in horror as they shook their head. He gave them a comforting smile. "You're gonna be alright, cavalry's here…" He looked at their chest. The blade sticking out of their bodies seemed to be purplish in color, laced with vines and what seemed to be like a hard bone like orb in the middle, something that he couldn't identify. And just as he was about to reach to touch it…

"Serge get out of there!" He snapped to look back behind him at the Sneasel that called his name, Ayame running over to him, and then he looked down. Everything had slowed down as he noticed what they'd seen: every cut, every burrow, every hole seemed to have been made around that tree he was standing right next to. Without even looking at the Zangoose, he ducked to the left, sticking his right wing up against his body… and even so, the massive blade that shot out with the Zangoose impaled on it cut his upper chest wide open, a deep cut that didn't affect the organs, but left him writhing on the floor in pain as he slipped on some blood.

"Serge!" The ground trembled as the creature reared its true shape, something that every single one present in the village's ruins could observe… a massive, thick and green tentacle, covered in cysts, oozing some sort of greenish liquid through several pores, veiny flesh that pulsed as it loomed around over them, darting down to the still incapacitated Pidgeot with chilling speed, he quickly got up through the pain and dived forward, flapping his wings to try and take flight, only managing to reopen a certain old wound, landing and rolling on the floor, still pained by his wounds. The other members of the exploration reacted quickly: the more experienced ones, mostly mercenaries, stepped in between the creature and the younger ones as they watched in horror, the creature swinging back, coiling around the tree and swiping at the mob of explorers. That massive blade would've beheaded everything and everyone standing there if it hadn't been for Tharmius, who dashed forward at admirable speeds and grabbed the mass, stopping it mere inches away from the group… but before he could let go it slung back, making him howl out as he was lifted off the ground and slingshotted towards the ruined town hall, which collapsed right on top of him afterwards.

"Fuck! Serge get the hell out of there!" Nox proceeded to blast the base of the tendril with fireballs constantly, increasing their heat as he moved to the right, trying to catch its attention, which he did, icicles flying at the scythe, which seemed as good of a weak spot as Jake could discern, whilst Ayame moved closer, swiping her blades into existence as she dashed forward with both closed, prepared to block or dodge an incoming attack. The tentacle moved swiftly and with almost surgical precision, slamming down on Nox's position as its reaction to the fires were violent shakes and writhes, the Houndour quickly dodging, though before he could move further the vine pulled back, and behind him the blade part, a pointed scythe, Jake could see how the tip part of the vine itself, of darker color than the rest of the tentacle, tensed and the blade flexed, digging into the dirt as it drew itself back, attempting to cut Nox in half.

A well aimed icicle stopped that, unlike the other projectiles piercing through that spot in its flesh and making it shoot up, then slam down on the floor and sweep the entire area in front of it, blowing Nox away and over and Jake barely avoiding the blow, whilst Ayame vaulted over it and slashed across the length of its skin, her blades digging in, but not even drawing blood, or whatever it was that flowed through that thing's veins. She growled and tried again and again, slicing away at the base with both blades, striking fiercely, but it would be a miracle if they even dug in far enough. She then noticed the area Nox had hit, which was slightly charred, twisted the blade in her right hand around and stabbed it into the flesh, sinking right into the hilt before she howled out and drew it towards her, cutting the vine wide open, black liquid oozing onto the floor as a shriek echoed in the entire forest. It came from the creature… but sounded too distant to be from that tendril.

At this point, chaos had ensued in the entire village: those with projectiles attack from a range, though most missed, hitting trees and vines, a rain of plant matter and branches as thick as trees falling down, presenting more of a threat than helping the group, whilst those that had good mobility offered support. The Breelom from earlier and the Stoutland leader showed up to pick up the wounded Serge and carry him away, but the moment he could stand on both of his legs he pushed them away, panting heavily as he took in that thing's movements carefully: it moved unnaturally, undulating and slithering, snaking up to be as tall as the tree it had seemingly used to infiltrate the village, bleeding from the open wound that Ayame had inflicted on it, but still acting without any regards to its well being, which was strange for a creature of that shape and size.

Ayame ran back, putting some distance between herself and the creature, and as she did almost tripped on a groaning Nox. "Oowww… Fuck my head, I came down head first…"

"Snap out of it, and use your flames! They're effective against it!" The Houndour snapped at her words and looked up, preparing his fire, but the tendril had other plans, as the scythe quickly shot down to impale them both… but once again, another icicle stopped it, Jake clenching his fist as the two projectiles that had impaled themselves there burst out into fragments of ice that cut it open, making the scythe lose its ability to tense and flex.

"Nice shot!" Nox complimented it, then let loose a barrage of fireballs that struck the midsection of the tendril, leaving the entire area charred and weakened for Ayame's blades… but before she could strike it shot up and towards Jake, moving at a speed he couldn't possibly react quick enough… but he was saved at the last second by a fist covered in golden, grey and red scales, a white coat flapping behind him. Tharmius, looking perfectly fine save a few cuts on his judge's attire, blocked the entire thing with just his right hand, but seemed to struggle, quickly reaching with his left to grab at the rest of the scythe, wrestling against it as the creature and the Kommo-O pushed against the other. Jake looked closely at the Kommo-O's fists, and noticed that the scales that normally hung loose from his wrists were coiled around his hands, and bent and protected him from almost any physical attack, and seemed durable enough to resist being cut straight through by the scythe.

He groaned and howled out, slamming his foot on the ground and twisting his entire body, bending his arms… and with a sickening snap, the scythe twisted in an unnatural way and was ripped off of the tendril cleanly. Once again, a low shriek of pain echoed throughout the entire forest as Tharmius flung the scythe back, then looked skyward. "Serge! Now!"

The others only had an instant to spot the Pidgeot swoop down from the treetops, wings giving off a silver hue as he cleanly struck the charred section, cutting the entire thing in half, the severed part plummeting down on top of Ayame, who had approached the creature to do just what the Pidgeot had accomplished. Before she could be crushed under its weight, Nox's body moved faster than he did: fire converged and twisted under his paws, building up extremely quickly and then unleashing right underneath him as he started a dash. What happened was an explosion of heat that blasted him forward, surprising himself with the sudden burst of speed as he tackled Ayame and got her out of the way immediately, effectively saving her life as they rolled and bounced on the dirt, coming to a stop with the water type warrior pinned underneath him, whilst he laid on her chest, panting heavily. It was only after they both recovered their breaths and found their bearings that Nox spoke up. "So uh… Does this umm… compensate for what happened earlier? No hard feelings… right?"

"Off. Now."

"Yes yes yes, sorry." He got off without a hitch as the woman stood up, dusted herself off and merely nodded in Nox's direction.

"I suppose so. No hard feelings."

Serge too, crashed on the ground, managing to find his balance and sticking his healthy wing into the dirt to stop himself from crashing into a tree, panting heavily as they all looked at the limp tentacle laying on the ground… when suddenly it pulled back like a snake, violently ripping and tearing as it retreated back underground and back where it came from. The ground shook and trembled, the trees shifting, leaves falling and branches shaking for a few more minutes… and then silence. Deadly silence.

Some just couldn't take the shock, and as the adrenaline left their systems and the realization of what had just happened settled in. The worst however, was yet to come, as some would let out cries of panic and shock at the sight of the leftover chunk of tentacle… or rather what happened to it and the scythe, which Tharmius had to drop shortly after: they slowly began to pulsate, to become gelatinous, then liquid, losing its color slowly, grading from vivid green, so sickly mucus, and then a dark liquid which finally lost its shape, strings breaking and falling apart as that tentacle opened down the middle, revealing the oozing black mass inside, eating away at the dirt.

It didn't take long for the whispers to begin, the cries of that accursed word that shook them all to their very core. "Rebscura." Some said, promptly being hushed by those with more experience. Even those that had years upon years of experience on their backs were shaken and alarmed, denying what was undeniable at that point. Serge stood up, barely holding himself up, and approaching the steaming pond of Dark Matter, then looked at Nox, and Jake, a worried expression on his face. He glanced at Ayame and even at Tharmius, whose faces read that this was too big for their past differences. Without a shadow of a doubt, he closed his eyes, and reached for his crystal.

"Eric, Elly… we've got a problem."