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.

12. Chapter 9 - The Parasite

Chapter 9

The Parasite

The twisted form of birth and life

"And that's how we found Cherry and what happened to us in the ruins." Elly finished her retelling as they had all sat down around their sofas and cushions, having gotten home a few hours ago, showered, healed up, and were sitting around resting and discussing what their next move should be. "After that, Slew promised to take care of her while we scrambled to get back here as quickly as possible to meet with you guys. He's told me that she's awake and well, but that he'll be going to Cunabula with her, where she'll be the safest she can be and where they can figure out what's wrong with her."

"She sounds like an interesting individual…" Jake's interest was peaked by the Espurr, rather annoyed he hadn't gotten to meet her in person. "Alas, we have more pressing matters, such as the Rebscura we have already described. The creature, or at the very least, one of them, was a long flexible green limb with a scythe like bone at the end, attached to the main body with a contractible end that as we found out, was weaker than the rest of his limb. Ergo, the weak spot."

"Right… but how many of those things are there to begin with?" Eric asked, bandages wrapped around his feelers, blocking his aura sight but otherwise making sure he'd heal up his wounds. "By the sound of it, you only ran into one, so how come you're so sure there's more?"

"All of the damage we found: Ayame pointed out that there were too many holes and ditches made by the tentacles, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree. Plus, it was big, but it was definitely not enough to utterly destroy a village overnight and without letting a single survivor. Plus, we got a disturbing surprise after we came back to the tentacle: that thing had eggs inside of it." Serge answered, bandaged up and sitting on his favorite armchair, Nox sitting on his lap and listening to the conversation.

"Eggs? Rebscura can lay eggs?" Elly asked, as the Riolu stood up and walked upstairs.

"No idea."

"Honestly, they looked more like crumpled up vines. I decided to burn one of them, and it kinda just… unfolded into this really long and thin freaky thing." He moved his paws around in a freaky away, like jelly. "Honestly, kinda looked like one of those zombies things we fought months ago, before we even went to the other world."

"I was just about to say, the similarities were rather uncanny… could those things be the Rebscura's spawn?"

"I don't think so." Eric came down, armed with a rather familiar book: the Book of Lies, with many papers shoved into it. As always, the book was permanently blank, albeit they noticed that the emblem had changed once again. "By the way, I haven't pulled this thing out for a month or two, and I've noticed its changed twice." Now it was different: a snowflake, and at the sight Jake instinctively covered his right hand, a detail that didn't escape Elly, who looked at him confused. "Anyways, these notes…" He showed them the papers. "Are copies of the documents we recovered from the lab, and combined with what Heric told us about the Rebscura. And here, we noted down that they Rebscura are beings that defy the three basic functions: they don't need to eat, they do not interact between themselves and with the world outside of destroying everything they come into contact with that isn't them, and they cannot reproduce."

"Well, we're just telling you what we found inside of that thing, eggs but not eggs." Nox reiterated, much to their confusion.

"Right…" Eric crossed his arms. "Either way, we need to deal with this as soon as possible. A Rebscura is a bad thing, but a massive one like that is bad news altogether. People in town already knew of the thing when we came here, and it wouldn't surprise me if the news have reached Cunabula by now."

"If so, then why hasn't Ferrus contacted us yet?" Lucy's question went unanswered for a bit, as nobody had the concrete answer, and Elly hadn't been able to successfully contact him yet.

"Chances are, if the news have reached them, they're trying to come up with a plan to deal with this thing, and if Ferrus knows what he's doing, he'll contact us himself." Elly sentenced, once again silence hovering over them. Eric knew what the problem was, and slammed those notes shut and walked in the middle of the room, sitting on the remaining spot in the couch, in between Zed and Elly.

"Alright, while we wait, I want to speak with you all. What happened this morning is, in a lot of ways… unacceptable." He needed to find a word that both transmitted his disappointment but wasn't too rough. "I failed you lot as a leader in a variety of ways, and you guys didn't help me in the slightest." He didn't get any snarky comments or responses, and continued. "For starters, I should've taken your comments into consideration, and tried to come up with alternatives, or at the very least, tried to convince you guys to go along with this plan in some other way other than asserting my leadership forcefully and forcing you to comply. It's not a good example of leadership, and seeing the backlash I've been getting all day over this decision, and I see now that it wasn't fair."

"But still, I strongly believe that your reactions and outright denials to cooperate didn't help the situation in the slightest. I understand that there is a lot of underlying pressure to this job, and that we haven't had anything as dangerous in a long time. I won't play it off, and say that we were in no true danger today, because I would be denying the fact that we were all close to dying today, which we were. What I am saying, is that we need to accept this, we need to make sure to understand that this is the reality of our profession: we risk our lives, and face off against dangerous opponents, and there is an underlying risk in these confrontations that we choose to ignore, but must always remember is there."

His words reached them all, the more conflicting team members groaning or growling in response, but still acknowledging his ideas. "Right, we get that Eric, we've all understood that. And in a few hours, we're probably going to be risking our lives again, if we're taking down that Rebscura." Serge spoke up, looking at Lucy and Nox, trying to voice their worries. "But that wasn't the real issue earlier today."

"The problem." Elly cut in, looking at Serge. "As far as I can understand, was that we didn't understand why this mission was so critical and of such importance that warranted us splitting up and heading to a completely different place for someone that not many of you know. And that, I think I have to apologize for too, because I didn't really emphasize how important Slew was. We owed him a huge favour after helping us find our bearings and answer some massive questions we had about my past, the Aura Knights, the Dark Eons… everything."

"Yeah, and on top of that, he was there when we defended Treasure Town from Nymphe's attack." Zed suddenly spoke up, blushing and stuttering when everyone looked at him. "H-honestly, I never doubted that we had to help him, and I was willing to, b-but…"

"The timing couldn't have been worse." Nox cut in. "That's basically my main gripe with this whole thing: Lucy and I got absolutely trashed when we were up against that Rebscura."

"I entered cardiac arrest on the operating table while Zed and Vincent worked to save my life from the damage I sustained during the fight. I suffered just as much damage, if not more than the both of you did in that fight." Lucy huffed and was about to lash out, but Elly stopped her and looked at Jake, giving him a stern look.

"I'm not going to stand for letting you act so high and mighty or trying to set an example, Jake. You've been asking me for medication to avoid sleeping as much as possible ever since we came back." The ice type's eyes widened, and he looked at the others, expecting him to be judged… instead they all just looked at Elly. "We all knew it. It was hard not to notice how tired you looked, or the light coming from your room every night."

"Look, dude…" Lucy had to make an active effort, incentivized by her mate hitting her side, to refrain from using swears to refer to the Sneasel. "Dying is a scary fucking thing. You got your chest crushed, I had my neck pierced and couldn't breathe. Probably the only reason I haven't had an actual nervous breakdown was because I had this dumb mummy by my side." She nuzzled her mate, rubbing his head fur and making him yelp and blush, which in turn made the others chuckle or smile. "And even then, I had some violent discussions with him, while you've just stayed quiet all this time."

"Being scared is natural, it doesn't mean you're weak if you have some sequels after a traumatizing experience, and I am pretty sure that facing a monster like that and barely coming out alive is bound to leave some kind of mark on you." Elly reassured him, trying to show that they all understood what he was probably going through, since all of them had already.

"I've already been slashed across the chest like… three times now. It's a miracle I'm being able to fly the way I am still."

"I'd say Zed instead of miracle." Eric quickly responded to Serge's quirp, the Pidgeot rolling his eyes, and the Zorua once again blushing.

"Anyways, point is, you don't seem me sulking because of it. We gotta keep moving on. You saw me when I couldn't fly, I felt like absolute trash, but you've gotta get over it or drags you down and you can't do anything right afterwards. And that's when you really mess up and make the biggest mistakes."

"It may sound cold, or otherwise strange… but we need to get accustomed to it. To the danger, to the idea that today could be our last. From now on, we are dealing with far more dangerous individuals than ever before. Elly and I were discussing it earlier, how dismaying it was that even after all our work to defeat Blake, it seems that we are once again needed… but it seems there is more to this all than meets the eye. We are needed again, and given what happened today to the two groups, we are the only ones who can stop these people and prevent them from hurting anymore pokémon." They were all tense and worried, that much was obvious. "Now, that doesn't mean that we should expect it, which is the mistake that we made this morning. When we left and split up, something that I swear, from now on, that we will not do should a situation such as this show up again." He was looking right at Nox and Lucy. "We all expected that someone was going to die. We shouldn't expect it, but we need to be mentally prepared for it, because it may very well be a reality."

"Some of us already had that idea in our heads, but with three years without much going on… we have, colloquially speaking, gone soft."

"Then I guess that means we've gotta get hard!" Nox suddenly burst out, somewhat excited… and without thinking about what he was saying, which ended up making everyone stare at him silently. Serge would snicker and burst into chuckles, and the others would soon follow. Just like that, the tense atmosphere would slowly fizzle away as they all joined in into laughing together.

"God damn it, we're having a moment and you just go ahead and say that… did you do that intentionally?"

"No! I just said it without thinking! C'mon, stop laughing!" Nox was actually getting flustered, as even Jake was laughing at his words. The joke wasn't exactly funny, but it had come out so suddenly, that it'd caught everyone off guard, and the laughter had quickly spread and infected everyone, eventually getting to Nox, as he realized how bad that sound. "I mean… to be perfectly honest, you kind of set it up yourself, Jake."

"I did not do it intentionally, I assure you… Regardless, we must steel ourselves and our courage. We have done this time and time before, we can surely do it once again."

"Damn right we can!" Morale was back up again, perhaps in part to the fact that they'd already been faced with danger and they'd overcome it. Of course, it wasn't entirely due to their own strength, but also thanks to external help, but the feeling of accomplishment was there, and they'd use that to fuel themselves to continue onward.

---

Zed was still sore from the previous confrontation, so Elly offered to make dinner, which to their surprise she'd soon reveal was one massive pizza, tangibly improving everyone's moods further. However, while they were enjoying their feast, they'd hear a knock on the door. Being the closest to the door, Lucy reluctantly got up from her chair and blitzed over to it, opening it and checking who was behind. "Yeah, who is it this l- Ferrus!" She called out, returning to the living room and the Lucario walking in after her. He looked just as tired and overworked as he had in Cunabula, perhaps even more so now, his fur was an absolute mess, but it did show signs that he'd attempted to comb it straight not too soon ago.

"Good evening." He greeted them, first and foremost, then stared at the pizza. "I see I am interrupting dinner… though I am shocked to see you all so relaxed at a time like this." He then looked at their leaders. "In thirty minutes there'll be an assembly in the guild. We'll be discussing the next course of action with the situation in Evergreen with the guild members then and, much to my regret, with the Judges." The moment he said this he got looks of confusion or immediate anger from them, the latter more specifically from Eric and Elly.

"What do you mean the Judges?! You're considering working with them?"

"It's either we officially cooperate or they'll tag along either way. We don't have the king of power of leeway with general opinion to push them out of the way, and given what I've been told happened in the forest, we may just need all the help we can get." He noticed the papers concerning the Rebscura and the Book of Lies sitting on the table, shuddering as he looked at them. He'd read and supervised those same papers years ago, and he couldn't believe they were up against this again. "Bring those papers too. The others should be informed of the dangers concerning Rebscura."

"Right, whatever, we'll do that. Can you please explain to us how working with the Judges of Arceus is a good idea? At all? Can't we just get back up from other Exploration Teams instead of… them?" Eric didn't give up just yet, but the Lucario shook his head, to his dismay.

"They're off on important top secret missions. The only reason your group hasn't been assigned one of these objectives to begin with is that you've been awfully busy running up and down the globe. Their mission objectives are just as important as this one however, and I can't simply call them all back, so we'll take what we can get."

The entire team accepted the facts in silence… all except Serge, who was sitting at the opposite end of the table with his wings crossed. "Right, and what would these extremely important missions be? Surely, you can share some details with us, your most trusted exploration team."

"Top Secret." Was his rather blunt answer, triggering yet another angry reaction from Team Star's leaders.

"Top secret? You're keeping secrets from us now?!"

"It's for your own good. These matters are awfully secretive and I can't let any information leak. Pokémon's lives are at stake here."

"Oh yeah? It sounds like their lives are more valuable than those of the pokémon from Evergreen, if you ask me." Serge's scorn filled response got a reaction from the usually calm Lucario, who snapped to glare at him.

"I assure you that is not the case. Both are equally important, but perhaps I should remind you of the fact that we are short on personnel these days. And it was either asking the Judges for help, or hiring mercenaries that could, at any point, up and leave the mission and ditch the group just with what they got paid in advance." Ferrus' words, while true, struck a raw cord, and this'd probably come up later during the reunion, Eric thought. "Regardless, this is all inconsequential and doesn't have anything to do with the mission before us. While it is regrettable, we need their help. I came here in advance to warn you of this, and prepare yourselves appropriately for… whatever it is that will happen in the Guild."

They all had something to say and spite him with, but this point is was awfully apparent that his hands were just as tied as theirs were, and further blaming him wouldn't anything except increase the amount of stress he was already under. "I don't like it… but if it's for the greater good, we'll do it." Elly finally spoke up, the Lucario sighing and nodding.

"I'm sorry for putting you through this again Elly. If I could I would…"

"Please, just… don't apologize. I don't want to hear it, and it won't help anyone." Her cold answer told them all everything they needed to know, the only thing bringing her comfort right now was her mate's paw resting on her left shoulder, whilst the Lucario looked utterly devastated.

"...right. I suppose this was to be expected… I won't bother you anymore about this issue then. See you soon." With that, he turned tail, ignoring Zed's calls and offers of some pizza before he left, shutting the door behind himself. Silence loomed over the group for a couple of minutes, Serge breaking the silence with a swear as he laid back on his chair.

"Well, there goes that." He looked at the Eevee. "You gonna be alright, Elly?"

"I… need some time to myself, is all." She got up and hopped off the chair, walking upstairs and out of view. With her gone, the mood from earlier was completely gone, and Zed cleaned up with Jake's help.

"You can go upstairs you check on Elly, Eric. I'll let you off the hook just this time." Zed said, obviously poking fun at the fact that the Riolu never stuck around to clean up after eating.

"Thanks." He didn't try and argue with it, quickly bolting from his chair and rushing upstairs, just in time to catch Elly closing the door to their bedroom behind herself. He breathed in, swallowed and walked over, opening and closing behind himself too. She was just sitting on the bed, the room barely illuminated by the dimming candlelight on the small table besides the bed. "Elly?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm just… Meditating a bit, is all." He smiled when she said this, climbing up onto the bed and sitting besides her.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you doing that. Had to relax and take your mind off of what Ferrus said, eh?" She opened her eyes and looked at him, nodding. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her closely. "I don't blame you."

"It's not because I'm scared or stressed out. I am, slightly, that was all a pretty… intense experience, but at the same time it's just… a bunch of conflicting emotions."

"What do you mean?" This time, Eric was puzzled.

"I mean, it's mostly referring to Ferrus. I'm still on really bad terms with Tharmius, and I have every intention to let him know the moment I see him. I don't care about what Ferrus tells me, nobody does all the things he does and gets away with it."

"You don't have to worry about that, I'll be letting him know too. No one puts my mate on trial unjustly and gets away with it." She smiled and nuzzled him as he said this. "So what's got you so bothered then? What are you so conflicted about?"

"Well… It's Ferrus. I don't know if I should be angry with him or feel sad for him. I mean, it's obvious that he wouldn't do this if he could, since he knows how much damage Tharmius has caused and is still causing, but I still think there should've been another alternative instead of involving the Judges in all of this."

"I agree, but… he probably has a better grasp of the situation. Maybe from our perspective it feels way simpler, but maybe it's the opposite of that. I trust that he knows what he's doing as is in control of everything… even if he looks like he came to Sinnoh through a typhoon. The only thing I'm worrying about is his health, he looks much older than he should."

"How old was he again?"

"He should be around his fifties now." Her eyes widened. "Yeah, stress related issues. Wigglytuff was always talking about them when we were in the guild, remember? He's also in his fifties and he looks even older than that."

"Wonder if that'll happen to us someday…"

"Well, if you lot keep making me grow gray hairs like this, I probably will." He hugged her tightly and she smiled.

"Ok ok, mister I-carry-the-world-on-my-shoulders, I'll try to avoid conflicting with your rather questionable decisions from time to time." Her teasing perhaps went a bit over the edge, and the Riolu huffed.

"You didn't have to bring that up again."

"Hey, at least we managed to solve the issue from this morning. Let's try and keep it that way, ok? I understand that you're stressed out and you think you can do everything on your own, Eric… but remember, you have me to lean on, and the others are here if you need some help to."

"Thanks…" He was fidgeting around still, and she caught him biting his claws every so often. He wasn't fine, but at this point they had much more important things to worry about. After resting and meditating for a few more minutes, they walked downstairs and met up with the others. They prepared, cleaned up and made themselves look at the very least presentable, and walked out the door and into a darkening, yet familiar town, changing before their eyes into something they would, in time, no longer recognize.

---

"The air tonight is pretty charged… Think we might be getting some strong rain tomorrow." Serge observed as they reached the guild, walking in and being silently greeted by Chimecho and Sunflora. Whilst they hung their winter clothes and articles on the perches near the entrance, Nox looked at Serge.

"How the hell'd you know that?"

"Dunno, felt it in my bones."

"Perhaps it is because of your uncanny relation with wind and other atmospheric changes that you're more sensitive to the changes in pressure that usually precede rain."

"Wait, that's an actual thing?" Lucy inquired as she overhead Jake's observation, slowing down to walk by them. "I thought that was all just an old man thing."

"Oi oi, are you calling me old?"

"Yes." She quickly rebutted, annoying Serge, whilst Jake shrugged.

"That is slightly true, actually. Because of the deterioration in a pokémon's body due to age, their bone structures are unable to adapt and withstand the grading changes in atmospheric pressure that rain clouds bring. Therefore, some pokémon are prone to feeling certain bone pains during these times, which in turn are signs that foreshadow an incoming storm." Lucy actually managed to stay awake and attentive through his explanation, and looked at Serge.

"So, how are your bones feeling Serge? One of them hurt or something?"

"Piss off." They went back and forth for a bit until they were promptly told to shut up, walking into a side room where they'd find everyone they'd ever known. Most of the influential figures in Treasure Town, like Kangaskhan, Electivire, Marowak, and the entirety of the permanent guild members were there, greeting the group with silent nods in most cases, and in others openly calling them by name and hugging. "We heard about what happened in Crimsand, are you alright?"

Elly looked at Sunflora, who'd asked this the moment she'd greeted her, and nodded. "Yeah… how'd you know about that? Did the news already get here?"

"Well, we just heard you guys ran into some tough customers up there, but as far as we know you totally TRASHED them!" Loudred, as always, was obnoxiously loud when he got terribly excited, promptly hushed by everyone in the room.

"Tone it down, Loudred." Eric was grabbed and the normal type, who still towered over the Riolu, rubbed his head.

"Tone it down! You hear this kid?! Already acting like he's a hotshot just because he split off from the guild! Maybe I ought to remind ya of your starting days!" Eric chuckled as he was briefly held down before he broke away.

"Alright alright, there's no need for that, tone it down." Once again, he poked fun at the Loudred, fist bumping him and then Bidoof. Only one missing in that scene was Corphish, and the original four man gang would be complete, but the poor water type had met his untimely demise in the Battle for Treasure Town, his name etched upon the large monolith that now sat at the top of the hill where the guild once was. Because of this, Zed couldn't help but back off and shrink into a corner, same with Lucy, who stared at Elly as she rendezvous with her companions from their early exploration days, consisting of the only two other females in the guild, Sunflora and Chimecho.

All their chatting would unfortunately get cut short however, as Ferrus walked through the door, standing right next to it. Now two minutes later, and after some flustered conversations outside, a tired looking Wigglytuff and a mildly infuriated Chatot stormed in, and soon after, Tharmius paced inside, hangs hidden by the sleeves of his cloak as he'd placed them together, respectfully bowing while looking at everyone else in the room, his eyes resting on Elly's as they exchanged a venomous glare, sparks flying off between the two. But where the stare off between them was aggressive, the one that Tharmius and Ferrus shared was one of pure unbridled hostility. "Ferrus."

"Tharmius." They exchanged formalities, Ferrus disposition shifting to stand upright, meeting the Kommo-O at eye level, who, in turn, held his stare, inches away from eachother.

"I see the years have had their effect on you."

"I could say the same to yourself. Never thought I'd see you clad in a fancy cloak. You always struck me as a warrior fellow."

"Appearances can be deceiving, the same applies to you. You look old, but the spirit of a warrior beats within you."

"I wonder why." It seemed that not even Ferrus' calm and collected demeanor stood a chance against the hatred and reservations they all held towards Tharmius, albeit to Eric it felt like the story between them went much, much further back than the two opposing organizations they lead.

Their stare off was ended by a loud cough, courtesy of Wigglytuff, who while nowhere near as big as them, still inspired a certain air of respect and intimidation. To most of them, including the members of Team Star, it felt like they were amongst giants. "If we may then, bring an end to your feud, we may begin with this emergency reunion concerning the state of Evergreen."

"If I may…" Tharmius spoke up first, not having bothered to sit down, whilst Ferrus did so, choosing to go to the complete opposite side of the room, staring at his opponent still. "I shall begin with a short debriefing of the events that transpired this morning."

"You shall, but we will have members of Team Star corroborate and add to the timeline to paint a more complete picture of what we're dealing with." Chimecho was hurriedly writing down everything that was being said, and noting who was saying what, probably for future purposes to revise these documents, noting that Wigglytuff had just uttered that sentence.

"Uh… we will?" Serge asked, the swift elbow from Jake to his side confirming that and making him howl.

"Yes, yes we shall." Jake reiterated, looking at Wigglytuff and thanking him with a nod. The discussion and retelling would begin. It was mostly information they all already knew, but re-evaluating and going over everything helped in getting an idea of the amount of danger they were in. "...Following our entry into Evergreen, we inspected the surroundings. The ground presented strange notches and holes, which we later found out were the tunnels the Rebscura had dug out to move around. No survivors with the exception of a Zangoose, who would be used as bait to try and capture the rescue party."

"After the creature revealed itself, we dispatched it as swiftly as possible, as well as its spawn, which burst out from its insides once the main body stopped moving."

"Its spawn…" Eric muttered softly, remembering the description Nox had given him. "Are you certain that they were its spawn?" Eric cut in, seeking some answers.

"Describe the creatures in further detail, please." Wigglytuff supported the Riolu's motion, and the Kommo-O nodded.

"They were small at first, oval shaped, but soon untangled themselves, becoming long, writhing figures, moving on their limbs across the ground at a crawling pace. They seemed to have difficulties moving, thus we dispatched them with ease."

"They bore an uncanny resemblance to a group of small Rebscura we encountered years ago, not long after the end of the Time Freeze and death of Clades and Blake." The first was a name no one had uttered in years, and just hearing it again from Jake's mouth made chills go down everyone's spines. "We made a report, but no one thought much of it then… it seems however, that we were sorely mistaken."

"So this thing has been around for a few years… that raises the question of where it could've been hiding all this time." Nobody had a clear answer for the riddle that Tharmius had proposed.

"More importantly." Wigglytuff cut in again. "I believe we should worry about the circumstances surrounding its appearance, and why now of all times."

"Now that, we have some theories about…" Tharmius spoke, and looked at Team Star. Here it came, some outrageous theory that Elly was behind it all, the Eevee and her companions mentally preparing themselves. "A week ago, and as far as my men have been able to gather, Team Star came across a member of some kind of cult that had stationed themselves at the top of Howling Spire." They all looked at him, confused as to how he had, first and foremost, gotten that information, and where he wanted to take this. "Unfortunately, I know not what happened in this mountain, but after being physically present I could sense a certain air in the atmosphere. An air not unlike the one in the Forest of Giants. Moreover, there were reports of a massive earthquake a few hours prior, the foremost reason to our departure in the first place."

"So that's why they were there to begin with…" Eric muttered, looking at his companions, quickly exchanging a few words through their psychic link to decide whether to share that information or not.

"I believe we see where Tharmius sees the connection. Shortly after we dispatched the cultist, a Rebscura appeared."

"Would you, perchance, know why or where it came from?"

"Unfortunately, no, we were attacked shortly after it appeared, and thus were resorted to fight for our lives."

"Right… so what's the relationship between this Rebscura and the one we're going up against now?" Chatot inquired, his interest peaked.

"Well…" Eric felt that it was his turn to speak up, standing up and bring out the papers he'd taken from their home, and began reading aloud the details and information that Heric had confided them about the Rebscura. "If what he said is right, then this new Rebscura violates those principles as well. The Rebscura we fought learned our strategies and effectively countered them when we next used them. Had we not realized it and quickly thought up of new ways to attack, eventually overwhelming it and defeating it, this monster could have learnt how to adapt and counter any army or warrior in the world, and could've become incredibly deadly." This brought certain discomfort to the room, as most shifted around in their seats.

"Later, we decided to refer to it as The Hunter, for its uncanny ability to learn and respond to anything its prey did, as well as mimic the voices of its victims." They all began to mutter among themselves, the guild members and other pokémon assisting exchanging worried looks and observations.

"How can something like that exist?"

"It shouldn't, that's the point. They are made out of Antimatter, something that decays just by entering in contact with any type of regular matter." Jake explained. "Even the air we breathe is toxic and will end up making them fade out into nothingness."

"If that is the case…" Tharmius interjected. "Then why can we not simply outlast the Rebscura? Evacuate the surrounding areas, establish the martial law and increase security to attempt to minimize the damages."

"That would work with any regular Rebscura. The ones that Clades and Blake made eventually fell apart and disappeared, the reports stated so." Jake looked at Tharmius, then at Ferrus. "But this one… it only began decaying after we killed it, and even then the main appendage retreated into the ground."

"So what you're saying is that… this Rebscura, for some reason, is defying what little we know about their kind." The Lucario reworded the Sneasel's thoughts, and with a nod from the Ice type they all began muttering again. "This is… troubling, to say the least."

"Furthermore, the creature is still made out of antimatter, and once it fell apart it began to eat away at the ground where it landed, so it is safe to assume that the dangerous properties of said creature are still very much present. For this reason we sh-" Jake was cut off by the sound of arguing outside. A female's voice rang out form the main hall, and was responded aggressively by another's. Their voices were barely audible, and it sounded like mumbling the group inside the room. Jake attempted to retake the conversation, but before he could, the door swung open… and in came Ayame.

She was wearing her cloak, but the bulge of the shoulder plating on her right arm was easily visible, everyone in the room turning to look at her, her eyes glancing over them and stopping over Team Star, where Serge was just glaring daggers, the Frogadier returning the gesture. Behind her, Diglett was hyperventilating, clearly anxious. "L-lady! You can't go in here! Oh gosh, sorry I tried to stop her but she wouldn't…"

"Quiet. Thanks for showing me the way here, you can go now." She almost ordered, looking at the Guildmaster. "This is the reunion concerning the Rebscura in Evergreen, correct?"

"Whether it is or not does not concern you, lady!" Chatot definitely had his feathers ruffled by her rude interruption, and got up and began to shout at her, much to Serge's amusement. While he definitely didn't like Ayame, and Chatot was an alright dude from time to time, he knew that one way or another one of them was getting chewed out, and that made him happy.

"Oh I think it does concern me. I was there to fight against the bloody thing to begin with." She looked at Jake, Serge and Nox. "They can attest for it." The bird looked at the trio, with the former two outright lying and denying her involvement. But Nox…

"Well… yeah, she was there, and was a killer fighter too!" That was his way to try and compliment the Frogadier, the resounding facepalm from the Sneasel and the Pidgeot confusing everyone.

"I can say for myself that yes, she was there too… albeit as far as I remember, you are a mercenary, and this reunion only concerns members of the ETF and Judges of Arceus."

"Then you'll have to deal with my presence." She turned to the guildmaster. "I want in to help. I don't care about the money, after what I saw in that forest, I can't sit with my arms crossed and let that thing run amok so that another town may be attacked."

Wigglytuff crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and thought about it long and hard, then glanced at Ferrus for further opinion on this matter. "Well… as it stands, we could use all the help we can get."

"Resorting to mercenaries once more?" Tharmius taunted, getting a deadly glare from everyone in the room.

"I'll remind you that most of these "mercenaries" you scorn were once members of the ETF, and have continued to act as so even after being dismissed. They are not all heartless, fortune seeking fools." She quickly returned, Tharmius simply crossing his arms, still smiling, knowing that even though what she said was correct, a vast majority of mercenaries ranged from hired pawns to do some dirty jobs to money grubbing hitmen. "Either way, I speak only for myself: I wish to participate in this mission."

"Your assistance in the initial investigation was noted by some members of Team Star… if you wish to participate, it is best if you collaborate with them. Will that be alright?" Ferrus looked at Eric, who in turn looked at Serge. As far as he was aware, he was the only one who could oppose to Ayame joining them for this mission, and to his surprise, he simply shrugged and sighed.

"I'm not that petty to deny her help. She's talented, and we can use all the help we can get… Just hope that she thinks the same." He made special note to say the last part loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear it, the Frogadier scoffing as she walked past him and sat next to Elly.

"Your praises don't change the facts. After this is done, our truce will be over, and you'll become another one of my targets, Kaze."

"Again with the stupid names…"

"That'll be enough." Ferrus ended the growing debate and returned the topic of the conversation back to the matter of the Rebscura, determining the immediate course of action whilst Elly brought Ayame back to speed quite quickly.

"You are the co-leader of Team Star, right? The famous Elizabeth."

"I… Yeah? Nobody uses my full name, but yes, that'd be me. And this is my mate, E-"

"He's the second in command, right?" Ayame suddenly asked, leaving Elly dazed.

"I… no, he's the co-leader. We both collaborate and run the team together."

"...I see. I would've expected you would have a bigger asy, given what I have heard about you. Apologies." She then turned to face forward and pay attention to what was being said, whilst Elly just looked at Eric, who'd overheard what the water type said and shrugged it off as just a misunderstanding.

"...as I was saying, the fact that the creature is made of Antimatter is troubling: most things, if not everything that is not antimatter itself, will be eaten away slowly, and that includes living creatures. The exceptions to this rule are, for some reason, Eric, Elly, Serge and myself." That last inclusion was a surprise to the group, except for Elly, who had already caught on to his strange mannerisms. "Because of this, our team should be tasked with taking care and eliminating the threat itself."

"At the same time, you will most likely need some support to find the creature and sweep the forest efficiently to find survivors, if there are any. This is where the ETF and the Judges will come into play, to find the survivors and get them to safety, as well as destroy any of these lesser Rebscura that we come across."

"Very well. All of those present, along with those pokémon chosen to participate in this joint operation must be present at the entrance to the Giant's Forest tomorrow at noon. Any delays will not be tolerated, and expect heavy sanctions should these delays not be justified. This applies to the Judges, too." He looked at Tharmius, who nodded.

"I shall be the first one to hand down those sanctions onto my men myself, should the need arise." He stood up. "Make no mistake, for even with the damage that has been done to the image of my organization, our number one priority, has, is and will always be to guarantee the safety of the general populace." Of course, he couldn't help but look in Elly's direction, who had to fight back the desire to shout and bark back at him, call him out for being the twisted liar he was. But she couldn't, not without jeopardizing the situation further, and just shifted around uncomfortably, whilst Eric gave Tharmius a hate filled look, making it clear to everyone in the room just where they both stood in regards to the other.

---

Shortly after this, the reunion came to an end, and they all went their separate ways, Ayame sticking together with Team Star in silence, looking at Elly and Eric the whole way. "So… you're the mercenary that confronted Serge back in Cunabula then?" The Riolu asked as they came out, turning to face her while crossing his arms.

"Yes, I am. Though I don't know why you keep calling him Serge. His name is…"

"Honestly, I have no reason to believe you, specially after you came out of the blue and attacked one of my best companions and friend. I have more reasons to trust him than to trust you, Ayame."

"And why would that be? You know literally next to nothing about him."

"I know that he's got my back when it matters, and in this line of work, that's an invaluable quality to have. The only reason we're allowing you to join us is because you say you want to collaborate with us to help those civilians, and we've been told you're extremely skilled at fighting. Otherwise, I wouldn't have considered you at all."

"I guess I should feel honored then, oh mighty Eric? I see now that you're the one that calls the shots here, and not Elizabeth. A shame, considering she seems to be a lot more reasonable than you pigs are." The sudden insult caught them off guard, but Elly quickly took a step forward.

"Alright, I'm not going to stand by and let you talk about my mate like this, Ayame. You have no right to do so, and you barely know him to begin with. So back off, or I'll show you why I'm the co-leader of this team." Elly stood up for her mate, staring up at Ayame, who returned the look at simply laughed, shrugging it off.

"Very well, very well… I'll lay off then, if you insist. I will see you lot tomorrow then." She walked off, waving her hand back as she looked away from the group, heading back into town and probably towards the Inn. They also walked back home in silence, Serge glancing back every so often, holding his side and groaning. Lucy shot him a look and decided to tease him again.

"Jake was right! Old people do get the cramps when it's about to rain!"

"Oh shut up." Was Serge's only response, the others either bursting into chuckles or smiling. "Still, what a massive bitch. What's her deal with us?"

"You mean what's her deal with you. If she didn't lay it down that she's out for your head I would've thought she was your ex… Actually is s-"

"Hell to the fuck to the no!"

"Sorry, just had to ask. You have some very low standards if we're honest." Lucy jumped away as Serge swiped at her with his wing, sticking her tongue out whilst the Pidgeot groaned.

"For once, I believe I agree with Lucy, you do have some rather low standards and poor taste in women, or rather, I would say they have poor tastes when they choose you. You have already garnered quite a word in town that you are the town's bicycle."

"Oooooh, you did not just say that, mister "I got my dick wet once and I feel entitled to talk about romance", ok? Lay off my case, I've gotten more girls in bed than you have read books in your life. Check it."

"No wonder he keeps calling you pig, that's literally the only thing you talk about!" Elly reprimanded the Pidgeot, who was attempting to flip the Sneasel off, with null success at that.

"Yeah, don't get your feathers ruffled when people are speaking the truth!" Lucy kept on teasing him and making everyone chuckle, much to Serge's dismay, who just groaned repeatedly whenever he was teased or otherwise 'burned', as Lucy kept saying.

All was well, until suddenly Nox smashed head first into the last streetlamp before their house, at which point they all turned to look at the almost must Houndour, who muttered and swore under his breath. "Geez, you'll make your ugly mug even worse at this rate."

"Zip it Lucy, or I'll roast your ass." She just rolled her eyes and left him alone, Serge checking on the Houndour while the others shrugged it off. "I'm fine, just didn't see it. It's friggin' pitch black, and I'm tired as shit." He shook his face and rubbed his nuzzle, which was still sore, and walked into the house, heading straight for his room upstairs whilst wishing everyone a good night.

"What's wrong?" Zed asked when he disappeared upstairs, the Pidgeot shrugging in answer and sighing, sitting down on his favorite armchair.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure he'll be over it tomorrow. Let's just get some sleep and rest, because I get the feeling tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

"You're not going upstairs?" Elly asked as she walked by, blowing out some candles whilst Eric, Zed, Lucy and Jake headed to the bathroom to wash up, and upstairs.

"Nope, can't be bothered tonight…" He let out a fake yawn to make it look like he was about to fall asleep, crossing his wings behind his head. "Wouldn't be the first time I've fallen asleep here." Elly however, wasn't so easily convinced, even as Eric came over to kiss her left cheek, returning the affection herself.

"Goodnight sweetheart, I'll be coming up soon…" When he was gone, she looked at Serge gravely. "Serge, you are sure that everything's alright, right? Ayame isn't worrying you, is she?"

"Pffft…" He shrugged. "Worry me? Why? She's just mislead is all, no worries."

"Are you sure?" She asked again, the pidgeot taking just a split second to answer her question.

"Yeees, come on. Up you go, chop chop. Can't keep Eric cold for long can we?" He turned forward to look at the fireplace, where the embers were slowly dying. "Oh, and make yourself a favor and take the lead tonight. I think you're both quite stressed out could use some unwinding."

Elly rolled her eyes and smiled. "Whatever. Even if we wanted to, we're both too tired for that tonight… Anyways, I'll trust your word. Good night Serge."

"Night, boss." He waved at her from the armchair.

"Don't…" She sighed, shaking her head and walking upstairs. Serge remained still, looking at the embers as he heard her steps across the hall, muttering something as she passed by Lucy and Zed's room, probably wishing them good night too, and then went to her own room, closing the door. The sound of someone climbing up onto a bed was heard above his head, and after that, silence. He just stared at those burning, red hot embers, fizzling out as smoke spiraled out through the chimney.

He had a lot on his head: Ayame, Nox, the Team, what was going down tomorrow… Things were certainly better than they'd been the previous night, but they were still being held up like a house of cards, and it was only a matter of time before someone bumped the table and knocked everything over. And he was scared that that someone would be him, pushed on by Ayame. "Now, of all times and places… Masaru Kaze… been ages since I heard that name." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Wherever he is now, he certainly isn't here… made sure of that myself."

He shifted around, groaning and sighing as he tried to find a comfortable position: legs spread, wings on the armrests, head slumped forward or back, and many other positions. No matter what he did, he wasn't comfortable, as all he could think of was Nox, and how distant he'd been ever since they came back from the forest. He just hoped that it wasn't something serious that could affect the following day. He didn't want to be the one to carry out any of their bodies out of that forest, least of all Nox's. Just that thought gave him a mental image that made him shudder and open his eyes, and decided that he would need something strong to go to sleep that night.

---

"We shall go over the plan one last time." Ferrus was pacing back and forth in front of the forest's entrance. The outlines of the towering trees loomed over them, hiding the thundering cloudy skies above them, all of the present pokémon clad in cloaks or some sort of clothing to protect them from the incoming rain. When it'd start, they didn't know, but it was going to be a huge downpour, that much was certain. "Team Star shall spearhead the group as we head first straight to Evergreen. We will establish a small base of operations there and then proceed to the deepest part of the forest! Stick close together, and should you see any suspicious activity, report it to your superiors immediately! Do not split off! Do not walk by yourself! And do not engage any Rebscura without the help of your team under any circumstances!"

After he was done with that speech, Tharmius walked up, much to the dismay of the members of the ETF. "This is a joint operation between the Exploration Team Federation and the Judges of Arceus. Under no circumstances will infighting between the two factions be allowed! Should a fight break out there will be heavy sanctions imposed on both parties! Our foremost objective here is not to show which organization is superior, or who is in the right or wrong: it is to ensure the safety of civilians! Are we clear?!" The two large groups roared in agreement, Team Star themselves watching from where Ferrus and Tharmius stood.

"Then let us commence!" They roared once more, and the groups set off: Team Star spearheaded the movement, along with Ayame, who stuck close to them and Tharmius and Ferrus, who made sure to stay on opposite ends of the group as the small army of highly trained fighters moved into the depths of the forest. The humidity in the air was far greater than it'd been the day prior, and was a stark contrast with the arid climate of Crimsand that half of the team had endured. It was so thick, that the water was already condensating, a chilling breeze blowing by and having small droplets of water fall down from the leaves, muddying the ground further, making most of them shudder.

"Well, we're going to have a field day getting this mud out later…" Elly muttered, covered from neck to tail by a long cloak, with a hood she could pull up in case it began to rain. Zed, Lucy and Nox were all wearing the same cloaks, whilst the others had more traditional cloaks and capes, Ayame having pulled down her own hood and staring right at the path ahead.

"I believe there are more pressing matters than cleaning out your fur at the end of the day. Stay focused."

"I wasn't exactly focusing on that, just making an observation." Elly quickly rebutted, annoyed with Ayame.

"Hmph. Whatever you say." Elly was positively fuming with the Frogadier, already regretting her inclusion on the expedition, while the others just walked in silence, trying to keep their minds off of the fact their greatest enemy was walking among them too.

Eric was already failing to do this, shooting glares at Tharmius every so often, already having caught him looking at Elly or him a few times. "Eyes up front, Tharmius." He almost spit out, the Kommo-O looking at him from the corner of his eyes.

"Could say the same to you, Eric. there's no need for you to worry, I shall watch your back."

"Don't take it personally… or do, but I wouldn't trust you to watch any of our backs, lest you stab us from behind."

"You're being awfully aggressive, Eric. Have you forgotten what we stated earlier?"

"Have you forgotten what you put my mate through?" The tension was so thick that one could almost cut it with a knife.

"I already asked for forgiveness over those actions. We were too lenient and permissive with the measures Martin and his men were taking, and failed to take appropriate action in time. Your mate was unfortunately one of his many victims." Tharmius' excuses and apologies just didn't ring true to the Riolu, who was still rather hostile towards him. The Kommo-O turned to Elly. "Surely, you understand th-"

"Don't ever speak to me again." She drily stated. If Eric was about to lose his temper, Elly was teetering on the edge of pouncing the dragon type. "I remember what you told me when you lost that trial." At this remark, he looked at her quizzically

"Pardon?"

"While we were leaving, you walked by me… and taunted me." She didn't dare say anything else, since Ayame was present and she didn't any more people that necessary to know her lineage.

"Hmm… I assure you, back then I had far more pressing matters than to taunt you. Are you certain you didn't imagine or dream it, perchance?"

"I didn't imagine anything like that. You said you, you taunted me, saying that someone had told you who my…" She stopped herself before she went further. "You're trying to trick me and get me to spill it out. Bastard…" The Kommo-O just looked at her in utter confusion at first, then rage.

"Very well, that is it. I will not tolerate you calling me a liar any further. Any further transgressions and I shall make sure you and your team are sanctioned for interfering and trying to breed hostilities between our two groups!"

"Me!? You're the one! You locked me up and put me on trial, like you've done dozens of others before! You and group are a menace, we c-"

"We are not a menace." He firmly stated, his grave voice echoing in the forest. "Where were you when Ponta Vicel was attacked? When those terrorists began sprouting up? You only showed up recently and you believe you're entitled to holding all of the glory and praise for all your past achievements. But your time is over! You failed to protect and save those in danger when you were most needed, and now you hold us as radicals and dangerous because we aim to eradicate the threat before it comes! You failed to do this the first time, and millions have died because of it!" And there lay, the problem at the heart of the animosity between the Judges and the ETF: the time freeze, and the amount of damage it had done, and the lack of response from the latter.

At this point, both of them had reached a stalemate, and they could go on and on, but with all their cards facing upward like that there wasn't a point beyond insulting each other personally, and the glance that Ferrus was giving Elly told her that they couldn't afford favoritisms at a time like that. Grimacing, she let go of the issue, and backed off from Tharmius, Serge taking his spot between her and the Kommo-O. "Why hello there." He greeted in a somewhat mocking way, the dragon type simply glancing at him and nodding to acknowledge his existence.

They opted to remain silent for the rest of the way, silently walking down the dirt and mud path as Jake used the pathing they'd gotten the previous day to find their way to the ruined town. As they walked, the groups kept muttering and whispering about strange noises echoing from around them: twigs snapping, small shakes of the earth, the sound of something dragging across the tree's bark, followed not too long after by a call to alarm, as they pointed to what looked like a recently made scratch. Whatever it was, it was around them, watching them move through the forest, waiting for its chance to jump and attack… but perhaps it was being weary of the large group, considering what had happened the day prior. Thankfully, the trail blazing team from yesterday had made sure to mark their advances through the ever growing plantlife, and soon enough they found the paved path that lead straight to the heart of Evergreen. Those that hadn't been there the previous day were utterly astonished at the sight. They knew things were in bad shape, but they clearly hadn't expected it to look this terrible.

The larger group entered town and began setting up camp after sweeping the area and making sure everything was clear and devoid of any signs of nearby Rebscura. The carcass from the tendril was long gone, though the large hole it had left on the ground was still very much present, along with the iron smell of blood, mixed in with the growing wetness as yet another thunder went off above their heads. "Alright, while we set up camp, you guys start heading into the forest and try and find it." Ferrus, who was overseeing the operations setting up camp while Tharmius was off inspecting the surroundings, showed them his crystal, not unlike Eric's. "Call us if you find anything that is immediately dangerous or survivors."

"Right…" Eric sighed and looked at his teammates and Ayame. "Well… let's get going then. Stay sharp, you lot." They all nodded and they walked off into the forest, coming across Tharmius as they walked.

"Good luck. We'll be ready in case something happens." They didn't answer back, but at the very least Eric acknowledged him as he nodded, whilst Elly simply looked away, trying to ignore him. They delved

deep into the forest, the plant life becoming even more erratic and dense than ever before, far more than what the forest groups had had to deal with the day prior. Eric and Ayame took the lead, the Riolu not afraid to bring forth his ice blade to cut down the bushes, Ayame doing the same as the wacked and cut a way through.

"What curious weapons… are they made out of aura?" She asked, attempting to stay ahead of the group's leader, much to his grimace.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I recently managed to learn how to shape them differently. The colors are included with the shapes." He added, focusing on their surroundings, same as Ayame, but even then he couldn't fight his curiosity. "And your weapons?"

"I can manipulate the water within my body to a certain extent. Being a water type, there are higher levels of it, and I can use it to create these weapons. If they get too far away however, the water's pressure expands outwards rapidly." He looked at her, confused.

"So they explode."

"In short term, yes." She responded. "What? Attempting to find information on myself in order to challenge me and defeat me in combat?" Her assumption made him look at her in confusion.

"Wait… what? No, I was just asking because I was curious, and if we're going to be working together the least we should know about each other is how our powers work."

"Hmmm…" She narrowed her gaze, and returned to looking ahead, the Riolu looking back to his companions, confused. Jake was outright ignoring the female, more focused on what was ahead of them, Elly refused to say anything, still annoyed, and Serge simply shrugged, in a way that explicitly said 'I told ya'. "I'm sorry Ayame, but is there anything I've done to annoy you?"

"Hm? Oh, well, not exactly, but I simply dislike spending much time with males in general… call it a personal preference if you wish, I don't care. I merely want to get this mission done, and getting to see your team work together from much closer is an interesting prospect, to say the least. Your team is very well known, albeit I didn't notice that there was such a minority of females here…"

"Well, there may be just two of us, but we ain't just some housemaids or something!" Lucy responded, grabbing Zed and pulling him close with her paw, stopping briefly. "That'd be more of Zed's thing!"

"Oh? So he is the one who does most of the chores in your household? Interesting!" She seemed… amused by this, almost as if she was mocking the Zorua, or perhaps that was his own bias. Either way, the dark type blushed, indignated and walked away from his mate and besides Serge, much to her annoyance.

"Yeah well… we all contribute something to try and alleviate the workload: sometimes we clean and move stuff around." Eric quickly responded, trying to defend their roles in the house, while Elly rolled her eyes, somewhat annoyed.

"Yeah well… I'm the one who usually does all of that anyways."

"Because you've got psychic powers." Eric replied, almost as if that justified everything.

"What does that have to do with it?" Ayame sagaciously asked, quickly grabbing on to that detail. "From the sound of it, you barely do anything to clean up the house unless she explicitly asks you to, merely on the presumption that because she has psychic powers it's much easier for her to do so!"

"Hmmm… Actually, she's right! I mean, it's so much easier, but the least you can do is help me lift something…" He opened his mouth to respond. "Without complaining!" He bit his lower lip. She had him there, though even then, she still had the advantage there, because lifting stuff up with psychic powers was a hundred times easier than doing so with his own arms.

"Oooh man, she's cracking down on you…" Serge muttered from behind him, and the Eevee overheard him.

"You're no better! Every time we have to clean you're always just sitting on your chair!"

"What? I'm tired, I fly around all the place all the time and carry your big furry ass everyhwere! Least you can do is let me take a nap every so often!"

"Dude, you're always sleeping, ALWAYS, or at least you pretend that you're sleeping, because whenever we start cleaning up on saturdays you're just snoring away." Eric had quickly turned on on his friend.

"Why are YOU grilling me?! Look at Jake, he's always reading!"

"My body is far too weak for this type of exercise. If anyone here is guilty of being inherently lazy, it is Nox. I am pretty sure he mostly stays in his room and says he's busy. Many times too, Elly has complained about the mess he makes in his room."

"Yeah… that AND the smell." She shuddered, the Frogadier glaring deadly daggers at Nox, who just looked at them, taken aback.

"Woah woah woah, what?! Hold on, I umm… Ok well, I may make a mess a few times, but I can't help the smell, that's just what happens! Besides, it's.. an… uh… it's an organized mess! You grab everything and put it away and then I can't find it, and it's annoying!"

"Every time I go to clean your room I just find it covered wall to wall in sheets and trash that you're too lazy to put away. And no, Nox, shoving it all under the bed isn't putting stuff away!" At this comment Serge couldn't help but let out a chuckle, and Elly quickly looked to him to let him know that his Attic "haven" was just a big of a mess. "Instead of trash though, it's just scrapped papers, just… everywhere! What do you even do in there?!"

"Well when I have someone over I take them up to the nest a-" He could've sworn he saw Ayame's sword turn to face him, and he quickly corrected himself. "I just show them around! The papers are just my notes, and they're not in random spots! I leave them in specific areas, scattered around my room so that if I come up with an idea I have paper wherever I go!" That was an absolute lie, he just thought that the sprawling mess on the floor was slightly thematic.

And so they all argued, all whilst Ayame and Lucy looked on, the latter eventually getting her due when Elly noticed she was smiling. "Don't you dare give me that smile! You're just as lazy as they are!"

"Hey! No I'm not!"

"Oh, she is?" Ayame inquired, and glared at Lucy too, who just rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Well maybe I don't do too much… still do more than these lazy assholes combined."

"Riiight, because emptying out the berry basket is definitely cleaning up." Zed suddenly chimed in, getting a glare for his mate, as the discussion continued until Eric rose his voice to quiet everyone down.

"Alright!" He huffed and looked at Ayame. "Is this what you wanted then? To get us all arguing about who does the chores in our house?"

"Not precisely, but this just confirms my suspicions that you're not really as equalitarian as you thought you were. Let's hope that from now on, at the very least you consider getting up and helping your mate, for crying out loud."

"Maybe when we have more time to think about all of this then! Sure, whatever!" He groaned, feeling as if he looked like a jerk. Elly noticed he was a bit annoyed, and the Eevee chuckled and kissed his cheek.

"Relax, you know she's right. Just a bit of help, and I'll appreciate it a lot." She looked at the Frogadier, her opinion about the water type having changed a bit… but when she turned she found a slight look of disdain and abhorrence directed at her mate, though it was brief, and simply shrugged and returned to standing guard. Elly was tempted to press her further on that, but sighed. "Anyways, we've already spent enough time dilly dallying, there's people in need of rescue, so let's keep going."

They hadn't stopped moving or looking around as they spoke, the Riolu having wacked and cut down bushes as he discussed everything they'd spoken about, perhaps venting a bit of his frustration as he swung that blade around, whilst Ayame calmly sliced the branches, leaves and vines at their point of origin, giving everyone except Serge appropriate space to come through. The prior mood that had been established while they were discussing died down really quickly as the forest began to weight down upon them. The air was even more charged than before, what little light that got through both the black clouds above and the thick vegetation around them being filtered and lost within a thin veil of what looked like mist, the dirt underneath them transitioning slowly into a mushy mixture of decaying plant matter, mud and pebbles, which stabbed into their feet every so often, keeping them on edge.

"Is it just me, or is it getting harder to breathe?" Serge pointed out, the air around them viced and condensed, almost as if they were biting down on a thick paste, Nox shuddering as he imagined the stuff they were stepping on to be what was in his mouth, gagging and coughing.

"Yeah, it is… The air extremely humid too, most likely because of the incoming rain." Jake theorized as they came out to a small clearing, Serge stretching his wings as they finally got out from the tight vegetal corridors they were making.

"Right…" He yawned. "Man, my body's not down for this weather, I'm getting all sorts of cramps…"

"I think it's because you're so used to taking a nap at this point of the day your body is asking for it."

"Yeah… technically working two days in a roll after all…" He looked around, the group a bit more spread out as they stretched and made the most of what little time they had to move around and warm up for what was ahead. As they did, Nox approached Ayame, stretching.

"So uh… You remember yesterday? When I, uh… helped ya out?"

"You mean I helped you out."

"Well you got through his skin because of my fire in the first place and then y- Oh, alright whatever, that's not the point. Point is, you're pretty good!"

"At fighting I suppose?" He looked at her, nodding, and the Frogadier rolled her eyes. "It is only natural, after spending half a lifetime training and fighting. Why are you asking this?" She sounded slightly annoyed as he pestered her, but the Houndour either didn't notice it or ignored.

"Well, I… Uh… I just wanted to say it… that you're good at fighting, like… really good. You kicked our asses yesterday, and it was a three on one…"

"To be fair, your teamwork was extremely lacking, though Masaru did explicitly tell you to back off and stay out of the fight for some reason. Besides, as far as memory serves, your fire was essential for him to come out of our confrontation unscathed."

"Oh, yeah… Sorry about that by the way, I didn't mean to…"

"You're apologizing now? I thought you wished to praise me for attacking your mentor like figure, which is beyond me at this point, and now you're apologizing because you attacked me in order to save him?" There was a long awkward silence between them. "This conversation is pointless."

"I… well, no it isn't because i just wanted to talk with you is all! And hey, don't get worked up because my fire beat out your swords, I'm a pretty tough guy too!" At that point she burst out into laughter. But it wasn't a giggle or anything that was poignantly sarcastic, like Lucy's cackles… she just laughed in his face.

"Tough? Really?" She looked down at him, physically and mentally. "Listen, you may have spirit, but you've done absolutely nothing to convince me that you deserve a spot in this team. You're annoying, lazy and whiny, and from what I've heard, you don't take kindly to obeying orders either!"

"Well, it's… it's a work in progress, ok? I ain't perfect."

"You're far from it."

"Oi oi… anyways, as I was saying, I ain't perfect, but I'm trying to improve myself! It's a slow process but I…" He fell silent as he heard something shuffling behind him, and the group fell dead quiet as he did. The sound repeated itself, and they all tensed up and got ready, Elly bringing out her dark matter to defend themselves if it came down to it. The sound of a twig snapping and a branch falling not too far above them echoed in the small clearing as some looked up, finding nothing up there, the darkening cloudy skies greeting them high above.

"Get ready… something's coming!" They all observed the direction it was coming from, the bush before them shaking… and without even waiting for their command, Nox blasted it with a fireball, blowing it to splinters and twigs as leaves incinerated in the air, ashes floating down as the creature was revealed: a tiny tangle of vines, similar to whatever that thing's spawn looked like. As the creature writhed and let out weak screeches and perished, they all looked at it as it stopped moving, and became a puddle of antimatter as it slowly vanished.

"Well… at least we know we're getting close!" The Houndour exclaimed, turning around to look at his teammates, who either shifted uncomfortably or otherwise rolled their eyes. Before anything else could be said however, the Houndour saw it. Right above Ayame's head, one of those vines… was moving… and he saw it lunge down at her with his own eyes.

"Ayame, watch out!" His body moved before he knew it, pouncing in her direction, feeling as if he wasn't going to reach her, until a sudden explosion at his blasted him forward, lower legs wrapped in flame, and tackled her to the ground, the vine coiling around right back leg and slamming him into the ground before flinging him away and through the bushes, to the great distress of everyone in the team, including Ayame.

"NOX!" The screech of sheer despair that came from Serge when he saw her disappear between the vegetation was enough to stir everyone into action, the Pidgeot being the first to run blindly into the forest.

"Move it move it!" Eric threw orders left and right, once again Ayame dashing forward between the bushes as she skillfully ran after the Houndour, who screaming and howling in fear and pain as his body hit branches and roots, the Pidgeot repeating his name over and over as fear gripped his body.

"Not like this… not like this! Nox! NOX!" In just the blink of an eye everything had gone straight to hell, and Ayame was somehow getting ahead of him, though with how thick the vegetation was, it was impossible for him to catch up, constantly hitting and smacking into trees as he and the others cleared the way whilst Elly talked into her crystal.

"Attention all units! We have encountered the Rebscura! It has taken one of our team mates, send back up, repeat send back up!" They could all feel that whatever this thing was it was right around the corner… they saw Nox twist to the left, and Ayame rushed ahead faster, roaring as she brought out her water katana and jumped out from the bushes, lunging at the tentacle as she intercepted it in a large clearing. With a well aimed slice, she cut the thing off and Nox crashed into her, grabbing the Houndour that had in a way saved her and landing on her back, the others coming out into the clearing shortly after.

"Nox!" Serge seemed to be about to go mute with the way his throat sounded, coarse and stressed out as he kneeled and hugged the fire type, who was still in the midst of his adrenaline rush, but he still patted Serge's body, feeling his feathers and bringing slight comfort. "Are you ok?! Kiddo!"

"Yes yes I'm fine! What the fuck jus-"

"Everyone! Look up!" Jake suddenly called out, and those that weren't already looking up in disbelief and horror did just that. Or rather, looked up and around the clearing before them: hanging from vines and trees were more than five dozens of pokémon, all of them unconscious, bodies sprawled about the ground. It didn't take a genius to guess which were alive and which were dead, and there were more dead bodies than they would've liked, about twenty of them from the quick headcount that Jake made. Still, the survivors far outnumbered the victims four to one but… there was something wrong still.

"What the hell…?" Lucy's question was one of disbelief and distress. "Where the fuck are we?!"

"This has to be that thing's lair… hadn't we acted when we did, Nox could've joined them… But that doesn't matter right now, we need to get those people out of t-"

"WAIT!" Eric stopped her mate from going anywhere, crossing his paw in front of her, using his aura senses. The place was bursting with life energy. "If this is that monster's lair then… where is it?!" He was looking around frantically, and as he peered around, he felt what was a source of energy hanging from the trees… right above them. "It's…" He opened his eyes slowly, breathing heavily as he turned around and faced up, and froze where he stood, his eyes widening in horror as he took a step back. The others did the same, some rapidly, some very slowly… but they all saw it.

(Metroid Prime Battle - Metroid Prime)

Above them, coiled to at least six trees by eight of those thick tentacles was an open dark green bud with purple spikes covering it, hanging from the lower side was some kind of slimy appendage, and stuck to it was the limp body of some pokémon… a Zangoose, from the look of it, her insides being ravaged as they all saw one of those green things slip into her body as red meat and blood seeped from her into the monster. The sight was disturbing and disgusting, they all took a step back, Elly ended up vomiting whilst the others either gagged or spit out, even Ayame wasn't exempt to this, staring at the creature in absolute horror.

And in the middle of that open bud, as they'd soon see, was an equally fearsome creature: bug like in appearance, scythes for arms, a skull like face with four beady eyes and a dislocated jaw with several rows of teeth from which lacked a dark drool, having been feasting on yet another unlucky victim. Its eyes focused on them, the exoskeleton of the creature glistening as the bodies dropped to the floor and its jaw opened, letting out a blood curdling screech that snapped them out of their stupor and reminded them of their mission: to kill that thing, which absolutely towered over them, almost half as high as one of the trees in that forest!

"Send back up! We have encountered the full Rebscura! It's a massive creature!" Elly cried into the crystal as the bud closed and protected the main body, the tentacles shooting out to grab to other trees, the monster slinging between them as it buried the scythes at the end of its tentacles into the ground, uprooting grass, bushes and everything in its way as it made a large hole, sending a wall of dirt in the direction it moved as it turned to face them, yet another screech as it prepared itself for battle, using two tentacles to stick to the ground, two to the trees, and the remaining four shooting towards them.

"Get out the way!" They all had to separate and roll away the space in the clearing giving Serge some space to fly around as he took flight, Lucy and Nox mounting on his back as they engaged, the two on his back firing projectiles and looking for a better point from where to shoot at the monster, while Eric decided to pull out his best weapon, summoning his light staff and aiming at it before howling and firing off a beam of pure light straight into the bud… which merely bounced off into the sky, serving as a beacon to the rescue team that they hoped was incoming.

But the Riolu couldn't even think of that as he gasped from the exertion. "What?! It deflected the beam?!" One of the left tentacles swayed from side to side, as if mocking him… This creature was not only sentient, but apparently it could understand what they said, not unlike the Hunter. "Damn it, everyone watch out, this thing is tougher than we thought!"

"Strike down its tentacles! Aim at the points where the scythes at the appendages meet, that's the weak spot!" Nox and Lucy were already trying their best to hit the tentacles on their end, which Serge was having very little issue dodging and flying around, landing and leaving Lucy as she dashed to the side and shot a bolt right at one of those zones, shocking and paralyzing it, letting Nox as Serge swooped by and around, but the other tentacle was quick to smack them out of the air as they crashed down. Flames fell and rained all over the paralyzed tendril, weakening and burning its skin, and just like last time, Ayame stabbed her blade into the thick tendril and sliced away, burying and howling as she tried to cut it off completely. Before she could release the grip on her blade however, the tentacle began to move again and slung up, letting her slice through it as she howled and launched up into the air, then falling down and saw the bud opening slightly, seeing the skeletal insect within.

"Shit!" She quickly threw her blade down at it to attempt to harm it and save herself, but as she'd find out soon she wasn't alone at the time: she felt something hit her side and fling her towards the trees, grabbing onto a branch and spinning up to grab onto it as the blade went into the bud and exploded from the water pressure, and the burnt tentacle was sliced off by a decisive cut from Serge, who swooped down and took care of the tendril. The one who had saved her life? Elly's dark matter was hovering up above the creature, so it was rather obvious, but the Eevee would end up paying the price as she didn't have her dark matter to protect her from the tentacle that swept across the ground, sending her hurling towards a tree and hitting her head against the bark, her mate looking in horror as he saw her body slump down.

"Zed! Protect her! Jake we need to cut those things down!" The Zorua did as he was told, transforming into a Shinx to get to the Eevee faster and quickly swapped to a Graveler to to defend her from the tentacle that shot towards her, trying to impale her, grabbing the blade and groaning in pain and exertion as he stopped the scythe with just his rock skin and tried to get it away from her, the blade barely scratching the Eevee's belly. Luckily, Jake summoned three icicles on his way to the Eevee, firing one at the tender area and stopping it in its tracks, quickly using his two remaining icicles to fight back against the insane pressure that the tentacle was forcing upon Zed, the ice cracking shortly after he began pushing. Eric meanwhile, was busy blocking the other tentacle, pushed against the tentacle pinning his friends down as the blade grazed his neck, howling out as he kept pushing.

"Lucy, help me!" He ordered, and the Shinx responded in kind, firing a bolt to attempt to paralyze it, the creature tanking the bolt, then fired a second as she saw the scythe from the remain tendril on her end come down, having to dodge out of the way before she was sliced in half, albeit she was hit by the blunt side of the blade still as it swung to the side, hitting her in the face and making her bite down on her cheek, tasting blood as she landed, her side burning up, the blade's pointy end having found its mark and cut her side a bit.

Eric however, felt the tendril above him stop, the bolt having found its mark and paralyzed it. He reacted quickly, pushing back with all his might and smashing the back end of his staff into that flexible area, then using the momentum of his strike he spun and changed the stuff into the blade, slicing that part clean off and making the creature writhe in pain as he turned back to his main worry, quickly glancing to his friends. Zed was barely resisting, groaning, whilst Jake had had to resummon the third icicle as the blade kept inching closer, having reaching Elly's chest and cut a tiny scratch into her fur. "Eric… Do something!" The ice type called out in despair, the Riolu reacting and stabbing his blade into the creature.

That didn't do as much as he'd hoped however, and seeing the other tentacle swing back down to him forced him to vault over the appendage. Whilst he moved however, he changed his blade into the whip, which coiled around and seared its skin, leaving a burnt area that Eric quickly took advantage off, jumping up and then coming down with a helm splitter, slicing the tentacle clean off as his blade cut through most of it, then the creature's violent yank backwards ended up ripping the rest off, the monster recoiling in pain as the trees shook violently, antimatter seeping out of the open wounds.

Above it, Ayame balanced and swung from branch to branch, sneaking behind it to find the tendrils that it was using to hold itself to the trees, and called out to Nox, who looked up and dodged a swipe from the two remaining tentacles, before blasting fire up in that direction. The skin and the branches were singed and burnt, the Frogadier hiding behind the tree before leaping out, blade in hand, and twisting in the air, burying the blade in the tentacle and slicing downward, drawing out a long roar of pain from the creature before vaulting off and over the other two, smacked downward and bouncing off the dirt, wincing in pain. The wounded tendril loosened itself and the only remaining one coiled around the tree, screeching out with such intensity that they all had to cover their ears, Elly waking up finally, her head dizzy and vision blurry.

"Are you alright?" Her mate had approached and kneeled besides her, shaking her back to consciousness, the Eevee nodding lazily. Zed gave out a cry of alarm as the remaining tendril on the left side attacked, as the ground shook underneath them, the buried tendrils moving through to attack them now. Elly reacted quickly as she saw that tendril approaching and her mate turned around to block the scythe with his staff, struggling against it again. This time however, Elly was there to help him out, her dark matter sliding across the ground underneath the midsection of the tendril and shooting up, a large Pidgeot wing swinging upward and slicing the thing in half like it was made out of butter. Howling, she stood up and pushed forward as the sliced tentacle attempted to block her again, only to be sliced in half and hanging loosely, those green egg like creature flowing out quickly as it screeched again, its spawn coming to life as the main body suffered more and more grievous wounds.

With three tentacles sliced off, the groups attempted to meet up again, two more bursting out from the ground, and Elly dived in to slice at them again… but they met her wing with their scythes, entering a brief struggle that she lost, as the right one quickly slid down and impaled the dark matter, breaking it into pieces, half of it returning to ELly while the latter half scattered across the clearing. "Damn it!" She screamed out, a numb pain coursing through her right leg. This however, gave Serge and Lucy enough time to come in, tackling the Eevee out of the way of the next tentacle and then Serge swooped in to grab them all, flying up and away.

"Serge, let me go! I've got this!" The Pidgeot did as the Riolu said and he let go of the fighting type, who used a water sphere to hook over to the top of one tree, a tentacle shooting out and impaling itself on the bark. Knowing that only his fire whip was capable of searing it he tried to get through it, but found that when he jumped to another branch, the whole tree shook and moved. The blade then sliced through the rest of the trunk and the upper half of the tree flew off, forcing him to jump off and using that whip to try and swing over to another tree, barely making it to the next tree and transforming it into a blade as that tentacle kept chasing after him, experty dodging any bolts of electricity Lucy shot at it, which was hard to do since they also had a tendril chasing them.

Zed and Jake were helping Ayame and Nox deal with the other two tentacles, but soon they'd notice they had more pressing matters, as the Frogadier heard the sound of wet footsteps behind her. She gazed behind her and sliced at the parasite that had taken the discarded carcass of a pokémon, the nearly empty body falling to the ground lifeless as the creature within was slain. The parasites were already taking the corpses to approach and attack them, surging out of the sliced off tentacles and the open wounds on the main body. "Don't worry, I've got this!" Nox exclaimed, running into the mob, followed behind by Zed, who did his best to transform into one of those creatures, as he soon found out, they couldn't tell enemy from ally, making it much easier for him to disguise as a Zangoose and slumber around before taking them out one by one with his claws, whilst Zed blasted fire and made rows of flames to separate, then jumped through and sliced through and burnt them to a crisp.

Jake and Ayame turned their attention to the wounded tentacle that Ayame had wounded, and quickly headed straight for it, the ice type throwing out a gust of freezing wind to coat the floor in ice, letting him slide under the other tentacle, which attempted to impale him, and fire three icicles at the open wound, sticking them in and them clutching his fist, making the ice shatter outward and expose the lower section, which Ayame would then rush into, summoning two blades and diving in, stabbing both into the exposed dark flesh and then slicing outward simultaneously, cutting off the fourth tentacle as she vaulted back, feeling some drops of dark matter burning into her skin. A small price to be paid as they effectively gimped it again.

The Rebscura roared in agony once more, falling off the tree and burying its tentacles into the ground as the bud uncoiled and opened, the main body exposing itself, seemingly dazed and tired, but still very much alive and fighting as its spawn came at them in swarms. Nox blasted and burnt everything that came their way, before noticing that some were climbing up the trees. "Shit, they're trying to get to the survivors to kill them! Jake, Lucy!" He called out for the other two ranged attackers on the team, who responded as swiftly as possible and began sniping at the creatures climbing up, buying Zed some valuable time as he took to helping get people down from the trees and making sure they were safe.

Ayame and Eric moved together, meeting with the creature's scythe like arms, matching its high strength for just a bit before being thrown back, smaller tentacles coming from within as they writhed and coiled around each other, making for thicker limbs to smack them away, but soon Elly and Serge would rush in, the Eevee on his back and brandishing psychic blades as she spiralled down, a hail of transparent blue swords slicing through those smaller tendrils and opening a gap for Ayame to come back in and retain one of the arms, and Serge quickly flew and landed besides Elly to protect her from the other. With the main creature opened, Elly used her dark matter to deliver an uppercut on the creature's jaw, dislocating it before Eric came down with his staff… and stabbed it through the left eye, making it screech out as he roared and with all his might, ripped out of its skill and smashed the left side of its face in, destroying it completely.

(Stop the music)

With that, it slumped forward and stopped moving, almost crushing Elly in the process. They all backed away and regrouped, watching as the tentacles fell and crashed down, shaking the forest around them as the massive beast ceased moving. They were all panting or groaning, either from exhaustion or from the pain of their open wounds or the hits they'd sustained from the monster's onslaught. It took a full minute for the adrenaline to start wearing off and stop clouding their minds and senses, dropping their guards slightly at first, then fully as they all visibly relaxed and looked at the monster's corpse. Nox was the first to cheer, jumping up.

"Wooooo! Hell yeah, we did it! Wooo hoooo!" The others followed suit, Serge coming in to hug the fire type and toss him up and down, Lucy tackling and nuzzling her mate as he returned the motion, whilst Eric and Elly looked at each other and smiled. Jake and Ayame were the only ones who stayed somewhat restrained, albeit smiles crept up to their faces, knowing that the monster's reign of terror was now over.

"Excellent fighting." He complimented her, the Frogadier returning the motion with a nod.

"Likewise. Besides some sloppy teamwork, your strength truly does increase exponentially when you fight together." She hadn't expected them to work together like that, even if there were some areas that still needed improvement, she could easily tell why they were the top of the top when it came to exploration teams. Before the celebrations could continue further however, the sound of something shuffling through the bushes behind them. They all immediately tensed up again, thinking it was more of those small green things, only to be pleasantly surprised as Chatot came out into the clearing, panting heavily. They all exchanged looks of concern, then relief, and then pure terror as he saw the massive creature that lay dead behind them.

"Good Arceus!" His shout definitely called everyone else over, guild members and judges pouring into the clearing, looking round and quickly moving in to help those that were still alive, whilst staying in awe of the monster Team Star had downed. Ferrus and Tharmius were among them, the Kommo-O coming into the clearing along with the Judges, staring in silence at the creature as he approached Team Star, who was conversing with Ferrus.

"It seems that you had your hands full… apologies for not reaching you sooner, you covered much more ground than we thought."

"It's alright. Had you guys come in halfway through the fight someone could've gotten killed." Eric replied, shaking hands with the Lucario.

"Eh, we would've still been just fine, even if we had to babysit your butts." Lucy's smile couldn't get wider, definitely quite happy that everything had gone by so smoothly, and at the very least this time around she didn't almost get killed!

"Still, he gave us a fucking scare with Nox being taken away like that… Oh, and about that." Serge turned to Ayame, looking at her straight in the eye. "I know you don't like me, and to be honest I don't like you either… but thanks for saving Nox's life."

"Hmph… It's about what I expected. Don't think this changes anything, Kaze."

"Right… Well, we can discuss this further when we get home, for now we need to help get those survivors down from the vines and to a safer location… And take care of the dead too. Wigglytuff, the covers, we must cover the bodies, or what's left of them!" He turned around and started giving orders along with the guildmaster to get everyone working, joining them after a few brief seconds. The Judges and the explorers were all working together, surprisingly enough, and Team Star saw all of it unfold as they sat down to take a breather, Chimecho floating over to check out how they were doing and inspect their wounds.

"Well… None of your are particularly in bad shape, except for you Serge, your wounds look like they're about to re-open. Your left foot is slightly bruised and could get worse if you keep moving, Nox. The rest of you look a-ok." She gave each of them individual advice, with Eric being dismissed first after being told he should watch his blood pressure. "It's extremely low, below normal." Why that was the case, he didn't know, but for now he would sit around and wait for the others to be dismissed.

He noticed Tharmius was just… staring at the Rebscura. He was still very much angry with the dragon type, but the Kommo-O had a worried look on his face, and so he approached. He seemed to have heard him coming to, because he started talking before Eric did. "So this is a Rebscura." He stated, looking it up and down, his eyes stopping on the seeping wounds. "What a monstrous creature…"

"Is it the first time you've ever seen one?" He glanced at him, and the plated dragon nodded.

"Indeed, it is the first time I've seen one in person. I'd seen drawings of them before, but they could never come close to how grotesque this creature is. How such a creature can exist, let alone keep itself from falling apart is awesome… in a religious sense."

The Riolu nodded, staring at the monster for what felt like a few more seconds… and his blood froze. "Back off." He suddenly ordered, putting his paw in front of the dragon type.

"Wh-"

"Back off! Team!" He called the team to get up, and pointed at the Rebscura, a look of worry clear as day on his face. They all stood up quickly, looking at the monster in confusion, though Jake quickly caught on and called for Ferrus to order everyone away from the Rebscura.

"What's going on?" Tharmius inquired as they all stepped up again, being pushed back to the seven pokémon team and the mercenary.

"The body… it's not falling apart. The Rebscura is dead, but its body is not decomposing like it should." Eric briefly explained, letting the implications of that realization sink in. He silently stepped back and waved his right claw frantically, ordering everyone to fall back as well, leaving a large gap of space between the rescuers and the apparent corpse. Eric didn't want to risk it, and looked at Elly. "Tie your dark matter around my waist and all of you back off as well. If you see it move, pull back."

"What are you going to do?" Came Elly's question, and his answer was summoning a light staff, but holding it out with both paws, shrinking until it disappeared into his paws, his team mates backing off immediately. "Everyone, be careful! Don't approach!" Those that didn't know what the Riolu was about to do simply backed away slowly, unsure of what to even expect at this point, but as they saw the Riolu's arms begin to glow more and more intensely, and the markings on his right arm began to glow and become more defined against his blue fur, they guessed it was going to be quite a big attack.

However, that attack would never hit its mark. As he counted down from three to let the others brace themselves, on two one of the large tentacles slung forward, Elly reacting immediately, and to her surprise, Tharmius rushed in and pulled back on the rope of dark matter too, launching the fighting type back as the beam fired and missed, burning right through one of trees and sectioning it in half, the upper part creaking and snapping as it fell down and cut the clearing in half, the Rebscura screeching and freezing all those present in terror.

They'd seen the massive body, and none of them had been able to imagine that thing moving… and yet there it was, quickly coiling its tentacles around, the bud closing as the main body sprung to life and screeched at them before grabbing the trees and throwing itself into the woods, tearing down trees as it moved. As it left, an air of dread and distress hung above their heads, a kind of abomination that had shaken them to their very core, grotesque, monstrous and scarring in every possible way.

"Shit! It's getting away!" Lucy called out, watching as the massive monster made its way further and further into the forest, then taking off running after it along with Serge, Nox and Jake.

"If we don't catch up with it, it'll regenerate all its lost limbs!" Jake added, seeing as the damage they had dealt to the monsters tentacle the prior day hadn't carried over to that fight, it was safe to assume it could regenerate itself if given enough time. Knowing there was no time to waste, Elly took off running, with Zed and Ayame joining shortly after. The only one who stayed behind was, paradoxically, Eric, who was staring off into the distance on one knee, hyperventilating and breathing quickly. "Eric!" The Sneasel's call seemed to snap him back into action, stumbling up to his feet and almost falling headfirst.

"I'm alright I'm alright! Go go go!"

"Everyone, stay here and take care of the survivors, we'll finish this!" Elly shouted back as they charged after the creature, which was leaving a large path of destruction through the forest as they moved, their cloaks brushing and getting stuck on branches and bushes as they ran through as quickly as they could. Drops of water splashed and crashed onto their faces and heads, quickly pulling up their hoods as the water piled up and built up quickly, going from cloudy to a slight drizzle as the skies above them darkened considerably, charging straight into the thick of the storm.

As they reached the edge of the forest, the creature finally ceased moving and slumbered back and forth, the bug open as it let out screams and roars, the stumps of the wounded tentacles bursting out and being replaced by several, much smaller tendrils, lightning strike above to make out its silhouette, more of those limbs bursting from its torax as it seemed to change forms right before their eyes, a pair of slick webbed wings appearing on the back of the main body, too small to even get the main body to lift off, but seemingly in the process of growing and becoming stronger, the lower jaw dislocating further to accommodate the rows of teeth that burst out as its beady eyes multiplied twofold, save for the ones that Eric had violently destroyed, a mixture black ooze giving off a gentle glow seeping out of the wound, unable to recuperate from that wound seemingly.

(The Viper - Devil May Cry 4)

Team Star caught up and beheld as the creature transformed and writhed, standing on those four tentacles, as big and tall as the trees they'd left behind, the bud being the size of a house, its shape and figure heightened by the dimmer lighting and angle, its writhing and disgusting form disturbing the entire group. But still, they pressed on, Eric summoning another light staff, much to his grimace as he felt his vision blurring, but holding on through sheer force of will, the creaturing roaring back as they prepared to engage it once more.

"Attack the tentacles, we must topple it and keep it from running away!" The Riolu ordered as the monster began to move across the field with incredible ease. Being outside of the woods gave Serge the space he needed to fly, taking off with Lucy and Jake on his back whilst Zed transformed into a Staravia and took off as well, the other four chasing the creature on foot, Ayame's speed picking up as the rain only got stronger, summoning two blades that she immediately hurled at the ground, bursting out as the high pressure water shook and battered the limbs, making it lose its balance and almos trip, slinging back and curving its entire body to slam the front tentacles behind, putting the bud upside down as it opened, its scythe like limbs having split into sharp claws that it swiped with, the Frogadier quickly blocking as a mass of tendrils rained down and stabbed at her skin, making her wince and fall back.

"Ayame!" Nox called out in a panic as she stumbled and groaned, rolling and backing off further and further, blocking strikes until she was out from under the bud. She felt herself becoming more and more dizzy, and fearing the worst, she unsummoned her blades as nausea took hold of her, one of the tendrils lifting itself and aiming to impale her as she bent forth and puked out whatever she'd eaten for lunch. She was saved by Elly, her dark matter smacking her out of the way as she writhed and spit out a vile smelling clear liquid, the water bubbles on her body deflating as she purified and flushed out the toxins that had just been injected in her body.

"Damn… that thing poisoned me… All of you, be careful, don't get stung by them!" She'd been careless and had paid the price. Whilst she was out for the moment, the others took heed of her message as they rushed under the bud to strike at the creature's main body, whilst Serge and Zed flying ahead kept moving and avoiding strikes from the tentacles as Jake jumped from Serge's back to Zed's, making the transformed Zorua huff.

"We must attack from two different angles!" He looked at the underside of the bud, spotting that strange soft underbelly and the protrusion, which gave off a faint pinkish glow, and looked extremely frail and gelatinous even. "That appendage… could it perhaps be a weak spot? Some sort of organ?"

"Looks like a fuc- WOAH!" Serge and Zed had to roll and fly out of the way as one of the tentacles flew up, the creature moving once more and running upside down, forcing those on the ground to keep running to catch up, the Houndour blasting and turning the smaller tendrils into cinders as they came at them, Eric slashing and cutting his way through them and striking at the main body, only to be me with its claws and pushed back as those wings fluttered, making an extremely unpleasant buzzing noise. Elly used her dark matter to punch through the mass of tendrils, making it into a Riolu fist to grab and tear at the tendrils and reached one of the wings, howling as she yanked it off and made the creature screech and speed up, leaving them behind as it jumped and returned to its original position, though this time the four main tentacles coiled around themselves as the monster took a more snake like form, slithering and sliding across the mudied ground with ease as it lashed out with all four tips buried in the dirt.

The ground shook lightly and with all its might ripped the ground up, boulders and dirt flying everywhere as it smashed and created ditches everywhere it went, which quickly filled up with the rain water and mud, creating dangerous pools of mud that made the land bound pokémon slow down. Soon however, Ayame caught up, rushing and seemingly walking on these ponds, jumping off of one as the water shot up and stabbed a sword into the midsection of the body, where one of the main tentacles had been before, repeatedly stabbing into it with her right blade whilst her left was kept there for a safe grip, making the serpent go wild and out of course as it coiled on itself and attempted to smack Ayame off in rage. However, the Frogadier saw this and instead jumped off, leaving her blades behind, which promptly exploded after they left her range, blowing a large hole in the bud as one of the petals was completely ripped off, forcing it coil around itself further in order to protect the main body.

"Nice job!" Nox congratulated her as he ran by, Eric and Elly catching up soon, the Riolu looking quite winded and tired, much more than the Eevee did, who instead was wincing as she ran almost on three paws. Up above, the flying pokémon had constantly been barraging and attacking the creature with icicles and thunderbolts, but most proved ineffective or bounced off of the main bud's slick skin, protected by those thorns. Realizing it was going to be overwhelmed, the creature decided to stop running and return to attacking, this time sweeping across the ground, throwing more dirt and mud again, stabbing into the ground and throwing boulders at the ones in the air, trying to predict Serge and Zed's sporadic movements, but also severely hindering Jake and Lucy's ability to aim.

Meanwhile, those on land would face off against the smaller tentacles and the Rebscura's main body once again, screeching and lashing out as they approached. Eric and Nox attacked from a distance, whilst Elly once again protected, using her water wall to bounce back any rocks that were hurled in their direction, giving Ayame precious time to catch up. "Elly! Bounce me higher!" She shouted as she came up. The Eevee, seeing her readying two more blades, nodded and placed the wall horizontally, allowing Ayame to jump and then, as it stretched, she bounced higher and over the wall of smaller tendrils, hurling a sword right at the Rebscura's face, which exploded and blew its swords backwards, then she landed on its head and attempted to impale it, but to her surprise, its scythe like arms were much more flexible than those of a real insect's, reaching up and trying to cut her head clean off, quickly blocking and running under as the water blade disappeared and flowed across her back and to her other arm, just in time to reform and block the other arm, jumping off to try and get to safety.

Once again, they underestimated how intelligent this creature was, its tentacles moving with seemingly a mind of their own and waiting for Ayame as she came down, making a bed of spikes for her to land and skewer herself on, though Serge was quick to react and dive down, grabbing her by her hoodie and lifting her up, struggling to get away fast enough before they were smacked out of the air, which ended up happening anyways, the full length of one of the tendrils smashing into him from the top and throwing Lucy away with them.

"Lucy!"

"Serge! Ayame!" First Zed, dived down to try and reach them as Jake covered them with calculated blasts of ice, but even his terrifying accurate aim wasn't enough to shoot down the waves of tendrils, forcing the Zorua to back away before they're smacked down. Then, Nox began to run towards them as the beast started to turn around, moving closer to attempt to finish the job. Eric and Elly moved with it, trying to keep in its sights to defend the others, whilst Nox slowed down, his eyes drawn to something else, glowing on its underside. It was fleshy, glowing spot they'd seen before, biting his lower lip as he prepared a blast of fire… then reconsidered. He was too far away, and it was moving too much. Trying to think of ways to approach, he remembered what had just happened a few minutes ago, when saving Ayame.. he didn't know how it had happened. All he knew was that he was jumping, then something exploded under him and hurled him forward, and there was fire.

Eric and Elly quickly stepped in to block the scythes, the creature screeching in their faces, making their ears ring in pain as Jake kept throwing icicles from Zed's back, barely managing to get enough time for the others to get up, actively struggling. Nox, under the pressure, forewent all of that and charged forward, letting his flames course through, with every intention to blast that thing from as close as he could, and then jumped… and he would see it. He'd see the flames flowing down to his paws, right under his pads, then suddenly bursting outward and exploding once more, a loud enough bang to call the creature's attention. But it was too late for it, as his jaws closed around that part, biting down and holding for dear life as the antimatter flowed out, burning away his fur slowly.

The Rebscura screeched and roared in agony, limbs reaching behind to try and kill the Houndour latching onto its weak spot, but not before he roared out, fire surging from his throat as he fired that orb of fire point black, blowing that thing to bits and making a surge of its black blood spew out, landing on his feet and quickly dashing away, using the same trick to vault away, landing on his back and sliding on the cold mud, panting heavily as the creature coiled and screamed, before receiving a brutal thrust into its abdomen, courtesy of Eric's ice blade, then he sliced outward, slicing its left side open and spilling more of its contents. Realizing it was losing ground, it screamed and coiled up again before they could continue attacking, and slithered away into the nearby forest, thinking it could evade its attackers there.

"It's getting away again!" Serge pointed out as he stood up, recovering from the hard landing as Zed landed besides him, running to Lucy to check how she was doing.

"I'm alright, just a bit dazed is all… my side hurts like a bitch too." As she stood up, and fell back down again, Zed would notice a bloodied spot with what seemed like a sharp rock sticking out. "Does it look bad?"

"No… I think it's mostly a flesh wound, hold on…" He gripped it with a paw and she yelped in pain, backing away and making him pull out the stone, which in turn hurt just a bit more.

"Ow! Fuck, Zed!"

"Sorry, sorry! Don't back away while I'm doing things yo-"

"No time for that you two, come on!" Serge ran past them, taking flight again as Jake caught up and jumped up on his back, Elly and Eric following closely, Ayame recovering and twisting her right wrist, trying to mitigate the pain. Nox managed to catch up to them, his lips and maw still tingling from the dark matter he'd bitten on. "Kiddo, you alright?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You pulled off some crazy moves back there… what was that all about? Using your flames to boost yourself higher." Eric caught his attention as they kept running. It wasn't hard to find the trail of destruction the monster was leaving behind. "It was like when I use my wind spheres, but didn't seem to hurt you.

"Yeah… I don't know, it just happened. Look, I'm kinda worried about something else here." He replied, looking forward. Just above the treeline they could faintly see the writhing mass of tentacles.

"I see… We've almost got it people, just one last push!"

"We better get a fucking long ass vacation after this!" Lucy exclaimed as they came out into what was yet another clearing, but this one, to their shock, lead straight to a beach, the thundering skies above them having reached their peak as rain poured down, the sea coiling and lashing as waves clashed and rose against each other, and before them, the creature took its last transformation, a secondary torso bursting out from the hole that they'd made in its own, head and all, with its own scythe like arms, but instead having its eyes on the ends of what seemed like smaller tendrils, becoming more and more grotesque and deformed as they wore it down.

Blood oozed from the open wounds on its main body still, and the many cuts and destroyed limbs and egg laying appendage underneath it showed the signs of critical damage… but being a Rebscura, they wouldn't be able to stop it easily. "We need to find a way to get rid of this thing in one move… but everytime I try to use my light beam it keeps using those thorns!"

"The Rebscura are said to act purely on the pure instinct to destroy and kill all that is composed of regular matter, right? And this sense overcomes everything else, so if we destroy all of its methods of attacking us…" Jake quickly suggested as the creature once again retreated to the safety of its buds.

"It might become desperate enough to come out, and then you can destroy it!" Elly finished as all of their thoughts were in sync, Nox quickly helping Ayame catch up with the plan as the beast toiled and stood up slowly, the group readying themselves for the final round.

"Then let's do it! Nox, Serge, Ayame, destroy the ones on the left! Jake, Zed and Lucy, get the ones on right! Elly, cover me while I charge the attack!" The plan already put into motion, everyone moved out to fulfill their duties, the energy the Riolu was charging up from the environment catching the rebscura's attention, as it immediately lashed at him, only for Elly to use her dark matter to quickly conjure up three walls, two vertical, and one above them, to block the incoming attacks, putting her psychic powers into it too as she screamed and withstood the strikes.

"Your battle is with us, abomination!" Jake shouted to divert its attention, blasts of ice coating its scythe heads and making them much more frail, something that Zed quickly followed up on as he flew up quickly to gain height and distance. To cover him, Lucy shot bolts of electricity and its weak spots and open wounds, getting its attention and darting around. Not even the searing pain coming from her paws or the numbing burning sensation from her side were enough to make her lose concentration, giving Zed enough valuable time to crash down on that section with his Cranidos form, shattering it and severing the head off. The main body was still there, but not for long, as he quickly transformed into a Graveler, picked up Jake and hurled him sky high, the Sneasel aiming one thick icicle straight down the open wound as the tentacle stretched out to try and catch him. A bolt from the Shinx outlined his shape as it shot down into the body, then he simply clenched his fist as it reached the base, completely obliterating both of the tentacles, which were right next to each other as chunks of the creature's flower, and even another petal fell off.

Simultaneously, Serge and Ayame held their ground as they sliced at the scythe blades, keeping the tendrils at bay while Nox weakened the main bodies with his fireballs, giving them many seared spots to hack and slash at their discretion. Ayame buried her blade into one of the tentacles, this time holding on as she rose up, then sliding down its side as she buried her second blade and made a downward motion, slicing it through the middle. However, it wasn't enough to completely destroy it, at which point she rushed up the limb, slicing away and then finally ending off as she buried both blades and vaulted forward and over the blade, letting them burst into that high pressure water and rip it off cleanly. Serge decided to take the faster, albeit also stylish route of flying close to the ground, twisting as the tentacle lashed out multiple times, sliding across the mud and giving it one decisive slash to cut the limb in half, Nox finally finishing it off as he jumped with another blast of fire, this time having aimed a fireball at his feet, and fired the ball right down the newly opened wound.

"Ah fuck… That one DID hurt." He groaned as he landed on his stomach unceremoniously, Serge helping him up quickly with a wing, not even having time to congratulate his stunt before Elly let out a scream. The bud had opened not soon after the tentacles were taken care of, but those additional smaller tentacles and head were giving her trouble, obscuring her view as she had to place the dark matter right in front of herself and Eric, who was almost ready.

"Help!" Her cry was answered immediately, blood seeping from her nose as Serge and Ayame rushed in and sliced their way through the tangle of tentacles, with Nox coming in to blast fireballs as the torso head, making it fall back, as bolts of electricity and icicles barraged it, a Graveler rolling in at the last moment to block what looked like a dangerous slice from one of the scythe like limbs. Just like that thought, they were all overwhelmed and busy protecting themselves and their leaders.

"Elly! Drop it, I'm ready!"

"No! You only have one shot, I need to… Gah!" The creature was in fact moving around a lot, and if he missed, she had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get another one off."

"I can hit it like this!" His screams went by ignored, the Eevee resorting to quickly grabbing the creature, foregoing her defenses as the scythes crashed down from the sides, quickly backstepping as she grabbed and pulled it closer. "Elly!"

"Now! Do it now!" She screamed it at the top of her lungs, and nearly everyone caught wind of it as the fulgor from Eric's paw reached its peak.

"Get down!" Was his final warning, his team mates quickly crouching or otherwise getting out of the way as he howled out and let go of the energy, the creature attempting to rush at him before he could fire it… but it failed to. The beam hit it face first, and everything was engulfed in white.

(Stop the music)

---

"Alright, is that the last of them?" Ferrus inquired, the last of the survivors having been tucked away into the back of a caravan, whilst the dead had been picked out, covered to protect them from the rain, and ready to be taken back to the nearest town. It wasn't the best solution, but given the circumstances and weather, it was the best they could manage.

"Yes, I checked their vitals… Nearly a dozen victims, all of them within the last twenty four hours, some of them hours ago." Chimecho sounded exhausted, and she most likely was, physically and emotionally. With the medic's judgement handed down, he rose his paw and ordered the group to move out, which it slowly dead, crawling through the mud as he glanced back in the direction that Team Star had headed. He wasn't the only one however, Tharmius doing much of the same, lagging behind his companions. "They'll be fine." Chimecho said, catching the Lucario's attention, who was greeted with a forced smile. "You know they've been through worse."

The fighting type would've answered with a nod, if it weren't for the sudden gasp he heard from his side, quickly turning to face the pokémon, as more and more were turning around completely, and then did it himself. There, in the sky, clear as day, a beam of light soared through. He caught just a glimpse of the actual beam, but he saw the aftermath, a hole in the clouds, through the which the light of the setting sun slipped through. He was the first one to take action and rush in that direction, but shortly after, Tharmius followed, and soon Chimecho, and some other guild members took off with them.

---

The blinding light faded not long after, but they remained dazed and sightless for a few seconds longer, the intensity of the energy being far and beyond what the Riolu had expected. As they came around however, they were able to see the aftermath: from their perspective, the body, of what remained of it, was simply a husk of it shape, the entirety of the torso, the head, everything was gone, instead leaving a giant hole where the flower used to be, the outer carcass, with the remains of the limbs, other tentacles, and the flower petals was still there, and through that hole, an orange, warm glow that contrasted that of the rain pouring down on them greeted the group. The corpse staggered and shifted, bubbling, as it then fell backwards onto the sand, sliding down as it sunk into the water, staying afloat as it stopped, its grotesque figure visible still. Looking at it now, one could appreciate the sheer immensity of the creature, which seemed to have grown larger over the confrontation, if anything.

They all stood ready and tensed up, in case it got up again… but after a solid minute of waiting, and finally seeing that black smoke sizzling out, the first to celebrate was, surprisingly, Jake, who let out a cry of victory. "Excellent!" His excitement got the best of him, and right after that, everyone followed. Nox jumped up and down, swearing like a sailor and letting out cheers. Lucy jumped and hugged Zed, who complained about how sore his body was and blushed deeply when she kissed him on the cheek, whilst Serge sat down and let out a long sigh, whilst Ayame breathed in deeply and closed her eyes, dismissing her blades and rubbing her temples, huffing.

"It's over…" She muttered.

"Yeah… Congratulations on your first Rebscura kill." Serge responded, having overheard her. "Pray it's the last."

"Hmph. With you, Kaze? I'll attempt to hunt down these things on my own from now on if I must."

"I mean, if that helps you sleep at night… sure." His attempt at mocking her didn't go unnoticed… but either she was too tired to do anything, or she didn't care. Either way, she didn't budge and inch, and the Pidgeot considered that a small victory, smiling internally. Eric looked at everyone else, then at Elly, who was on her side, on the floor, catching her breath. The Riolu gave her a nervous look, but she quickly looked up, her fur wet and covering her eyes slightly, but giving him a smile and as best of a thumbs up as she could manage.

"We did it…" She muttered between breaths.

"Yeah… we did." He smiled, looking at the body once more, breathing calmly now. The scent of the rain and the wet mud were incredibly pleasant and relaxing after all of that, the adrenaline wearing off… if only momentarily. As they were all letting their guards down, the body's bubbling and shaking began increasing in frequency. Thinking it was somehow coming back, they all got back up, preparing themselves once more, much to their dismay… only for the largest bubble to burst out violently, a shifting golden, white and blue energy seeping out of the wound, more soon to follow as the rate of these explosions increased with their frequency as the shaking continued…

"Shit, it's going to blow!" They all quickly turned around and ran away, though not fast enough to be exempt from the blast, which ended up blowing them all forward and further inland, into the clearing, where they all looked back. A spiral of that energy surged from the corpse, screeches and howls echoing around them as they did, shifting and moving in tiny currents before ascending and shooting upward. Elly could hear voices in her head, too many of them, all at once, making her wince in pain as she held her head, whilst Eric had to look away and close his eyes, his aura vision activating involuntarily, allowing him to see what looked like figures standing within that intense light, pure aura and energy, like what flowed through their bodies.

"That's… all of the life that the Rebscura took… was it holding it in?" He asked to no one in particular, the more violent reaction ending quickly, having clearing the sky above them as the energy floated around, suspended in midair. Each of them sparkled faintly every so often, almost like in a pattern, before eventually disappear and vanishing, a faint veil of darkness having fallen around them as the sound of the waves and the rain were muffled by… whatever it was that had enveloped them, which was equal parts confusing and beautiful, perhaps a small reward, as from that corrupted body and ground shot out vines and roots, connecting to the beach as the Rebscura's body disappeared, giving way to a tree with a silver bark and blue, almost transparent trees, with those golden sparks flowing through what looked like the trunk and branches, twinkling and falling down like small drops of water, the tree raising up quite high, triple Serge's height.

"It's… beautiful." Even Jake wasn't immune to the haunting sight, finding the prospect of this strange anomaly intriguing, before it finally ended, the veil was lifted, and the rain returned gradually. That feeling that they were being watched, that they were sharing the space they were occupying with someone else remained however, a feeling not unlike that of the Miasma. And perhaps it was this, or most likely his exhaustion, that ended up making the Riolu feel really tired abruptly. He could barely utter a confused whine before his body gave out under him and collapsed on the grass, unconscious.