Alex was jostled out of his shocked state by the inkay. "Mew! Please, they're coming! What do we do?"

Alex shook his shock away and regained his reason. 'Shit, that's right, gotta work fast. Those guys that spotted our escape attempt are gonna be back any moment.' Thinking quickly, Alex pointed at the inkay, cyndaquil, and the unknown purple lizard-like pokemon. "Okay, you three! With me! Mudbray! Bust the others out!"

"Got it!" The mudbray dutifully called out before rushing to the cells that were still occupied. "You guys are gonna wanna back up a bit!"

Alex swiftly floated over to the basement entrance. He flinched and briefly paused when he heard how loud the mudbray was bashing the cell doors, but he put it to the back of his mind. He turned behind him for a brief moment, swiftly scanning for the cyndaquil, who happened to be standing beside him, fearfully shaking, but forcing a determined look through it all. "Cyndaquil, I'm gonna lift you a bit, and when I do, I need you to use as big of a smokescreen as you can manage."

The cyndaquil nervously swallowed, but gave a swift nod.

Alex mentally grabbed hold of the fire pokemon and lifted him halfway up the ladder. His ears perked up as he heard footsteps above them rapidly approaching. He began to panic a little. "Cyndaquil! Do it now!"

Alex didn't even finish the sentence before the cyndaquil took in a deep breath and let loose a thick black cloud from his mouth. It very quickly flooded the ground level, evident by the fact that Alex started hearing frenzied shouting above them, but it ended up working too well. A decent amount of the smoke pooled back underground and enveloped Alex, along with the rest of the basement entrance. Alex started coughing a bit, not expecting it to work that well, and floated backwards out of the smoke cloud. He gently laid the cyndaquil back down beside him and muttered a curse under his breath. "Damn, well that didn't work out the way I hoped, but I think we bought ourselves some time. Inkay, how long does your Reflect last?"

Inkay gave a very unsure look. "On this many pokemon? I dunno, man. Maybe a minute? But they've got guns! I mean, I don't know if they'll work against bullets! I-I've never even thought about trying that before!" he finished, starting to become frantic, himself.

Alex clenched his teeth. 'Damn it! No, calm down. There's gotta be something we can do here.' Alex's attention shot to the unknown pokemon. "What can you do?"

The lizard pokemon was frantically pacing up and down the width of the hallway before Alex got her attention. "Uh, I uh... not much. I don't know pokemon too much either, to be honest. All I know is I know how to shock people into paralysis by touching them, and I can spit out some sort of acid. But that's it."

Alex briefly did a double take. 'Nuzzle and Acid? Weird combination of- aahh, not important, Alex! Think!' Alex closed his eyes for a brief moment, rapidly scrambling for a plan. Panic began to set in as he realized he had nothing. They may be under cover of a smokescreen, but they still only had one way out. Whether they could be seen or not, they were still going to be drawing a lot of heavy fire. And their enemies had no reason at this point to go down and attack them when the pokemon were the ones who were cornered. Alex could theoretically sneak his way out under cloak of invisibility, but he still wasn't skilled enough to use attacks while invisible, and there was no way he was going to be able to pull off more than one sneak attack without being focused down, even if he timed his attacks and escapes with perfection. Alex gave a frustrated yell through clenched teeth as any makings of a plan faded. 'God damn it all! I fucked this up so bad! They may all end up getting killed because I didn't take time to come up with a better plan before I started busting them out!' Alex punched the wall out of frustration, earning concerned and panicked looks from all of the pokemon present. Alex very nearly let out a dismayed shout, but a deafening crash, accompanied by shrill metallic creaking noises, caught everyone's attention.

The mudbray was standing with his back turned to a doorless cell, looking back at it with a cocky smirk. "One down!" he called out.

As he made his way towards the other cell, the pidgey that was held captive in the cell burst out and flew in front of Alex. "Mew! Mew, I'm here! What can I do?"

Alex looked up to see the pidgey girl flying in front of him. Then a spark of inspiration hit him. 'Wait a sec! Okay- urgh... this is gonna be so fucking risky, but I don't see another option right now.' "One sec, Pidgey," Alex answered before shifting his attention back to the squid pokemon, "Inkay, are you able to set up a Reflect on one pokemon and then add others under that same screen?"

The inkay looked perplexed at the odd question posed to him, but quickly answered nonetheless. "W-well yes, I can, but we're not seriously gonna go out one at a time, right?"

Alex felt a glimmer of hope and shook his head. "Not exactly. When I give the command, I want you to cover Pidgey, and only Pidgey for the time being. Pidgey," Alex continued, once again shifting his attention to the bird pokemon, "are you a fast flier?"

The pidgey gave a curious headtilt, wondering where Alex was going with this, but still nodded confidently, still flying in front of Alex. "Yup. I've gone as fast as about fifty miles an hour before, and I can turn on a moment's notice if you need me to."

Alex nodded. "Perfect. Okay, here's the plan. I need you to fly out there and draw their fire under Inkay's Reflect. With any luck, you're not even gonna get hit. I want you to fly around, firing off Gust attacks. They have a lot of clutter up there, and your wind is gonna kick everything up causing lots of chaos. They won't see you, and the distraction is gonna give the rest of us time to get out and at least take cover if we can't escape. Think you can do that?"

Any confidence in the pidgey's expression vanished and the color drained from her face at the insane request. "What? By myself? No! I can't do that! I'll get killed! Why can't you do it with your invisibility?"

Alex gave her a pointed stare. "Pidgey, we don't have time! I may be strong, but I'm not as fast as you right now, and I can't attack while invisible! You're our best shot at all of us getting out of here alive!"

Alex heard multiple people shouting commands. The voices were slowly increasing in volume, signalling they were gradually advancing on the pokemons' position. Alex glanced back and blanched. 'Oh fuck. They reorganized. They're standing right on top of us.' He faced the bird pokemon again, letting his desperation seep through. "Pidgey, please. It's now or never."

The pidgey girl frantically glanced back and forth between Alex and the basement entrance, breathing faster and starting to descend from the air involuntarily. She seemed to be grasping the full scope of the situation very poorly, and her eyes began to widen in terror. Just as Alex was starting to be convinced the pressure of the situation was causing her to have a panic attack, the pidgey took a deep breath, gave a couple of strong flaps of wings to get herself back in the air, and faced the mew with a more determined expression than she held mere seconds before. "Alright. I'll do it. But please get the rest of them out as fast as possible, okay?" she begged, still understandably afraid.

Alex nodded. "Got it. As soon as I yell 'Reflect,' take cover with the rest of us. More than likely they'll be guarding the door, so we need to take everyone out."

The pidgey gave a stiff nod and faced the Inkay. "Cover me."

The inkay's eyes began glowing and a light blue aura enveloped the bird pokemon. "You're covered. Go now!"

The pidgey paused and took a moment to steel her nerves, then flew over to the smokescreen and after seeming to time her escape, shot out of the basement with incredible acceleration.

The effect was instant. Alex heard lots of loud and scrambled yelling; much less orderly than he had heard moments prior. Alex felt a massive chill down his spine when he started hearing gunshots. He expected it, but he was still woefully unprepared mentally, having never been in any sort of situation similar to the one he was facing presently. His stomach began to violently churn, but adrenaline kept his mind and body moving forward.

The sound of another loud crash flooded the hallway. Alex turned his gaze to the source of the noise. The mudbray rapidly trotted towards Alex, with the skorupi skittering out of the cell and closely behind. "Alright, everyone's out," the mudbray reported, "now let's get out of here-"

A sudden thought occurred to Alex and he held his arms up. "Hold on, guys!" Alex paused and turned to face the basement entrance, giving a thoughtful stare to it for a brief moment, before facing the pokemon once again. "I'm gonna go ahead under the guise of invisibility. They may be camping the entrance for all we know," Alex paused and willed himself invisible again, briefly startling the rest of the pokemon, "You guys group up near the basement entrance and wait there. Cyndaquil, renew the smokescreen if you think you need to."

The cyndaquil gave a jittery nod. "Okay, um, you're gonna come back and lift us out though, right?"

"I will. Trust me. Now wait here. This'll take me a moment." Alex quickly floated up through the smokescreen, suppressing his urge to cough, and arrived at ground level. As he suspected, even through the chaos that the pidgey was creating, there were two people camping the basement entrance with pistols in their hands at the ready. Alex flinched seeing this, but once again reminded himself that he couldn't presently be seen. He forced himself to ignore the panicked screaming and yelling with the occasional gunshots accompanying them, and focused on finding the best angle to ambush the campers. Thankfully, the desk that he had previously been hiding under was well within striking distance, and he quickly ducked under there.

Thinking quickly, Alex focused his gaze on the pistols, released his hold on his invisibility, and with the ability now taking up the majority of his focus now released, he was able to use the rest of his powers with ease. His eyes began slightly glowing a pale blue color, as did the guns he was focusing on, and he was able to mentally yank the guns out of the campers' hands with ease. Without giving the two very startled men any time to react, Alex then tossed the guns aside and focused his powers on the men themselves. They both gave out terrified yells as they were gripped by a completely invisible force in their eyes, but with the rest of the chaos taking place, Alex's actions were drawing no additional attention. Alex used Confusion on them both, causing even more pained yelling, and then launched them against the walls of the warehouse. It was enough to knock them both out cold.

Alex turned himself invisible once again. With the immediate threats to the rest of the pokemon out of the way, Alex allowed himself a moment to see exactly what kind of ruckus the pidgey was causing. Alex floated over to the basement entrance while trying to take a look at the scene before him, but Alex wasn't able to see much. There were too many loose papers floating around erratically and too many loose items on the ground. Alex could hardly make out any figures through the mess. The pidgey girl suddenly shot across the room, directly over Alex's head which caused him to jump a bit in surprise, and perched onto a loose piece of rebar jutting out through the outer wall of the warehouse.

"Man, y'all suck ass at aiming! Are you even trying?" she taunted, knowing full well that no one could understand her.

"Someone fucking shoot that thing already! How hard is it to kill one little bird?!"

The pidgey's wings began glowing a dim silver color. She hopped back into the air, unfurling her wings, and with a single powerful flap, a few silver wisps flew out of her. The visible wisps dissolved quickly, but the effect of them was still more than present. Alex felt a strong breeze pass him even though the line of fire from her attack was way over his head. Alex looked back and saw that anything that hadn't been kicked up in the Gust's line of fire had been blown away with ease. One man that was briefly uncovered by the attack lost his footing from the blast of wind and his gun was sent flying out of his hands and landed several feet behind him. The pidgey then proceeded to take off again and dart around the warehouse all while avoiding the several dozen gunshots aimed in her general direction.

Alex, despite the urgency of the situation, couldn't help but give an amused chuckle. But he didn't let himself stay distracted for long. Amusing as the scene was, he had a mission to complete. Alex floated down the basement tunnel again, which seemed to Alex like it was even more flooded with smoke than before. 'Cyndaquil must've renewed the smokescreen. Makes it kinda uncomfortable to breathe, but that's fine as long as we have cover.' Alex coughed as he floated down, alerting the others of his presence. "Mew? Is that you again?" a young male voice called out.

"Yea, it's me. I'm back-" he started turning himself visible again, but then stopped himself as he found himself floating in front of three fewer pokemon, leaving only the inkay and the mudbray, and three more humans. There was a long blonde haired girl with a very surely expression on her face standing in front of them, as well as a thin and pale skinned male standing close to a much shorter dark haired male, who seemed to be nervously glancing towards the basement entrance. Alex blinked. "Wait, what's going on? Why are they human again?" he asked.

The long blonde haired girl starting in front spoke up first. "I know what you're thinking, but we're not staying like this. We were talking and we figured it was gonna take too much time for you to get all of us out one at a time, even with the bird distracting them. So three of us are gonna climb out ourselves, and you can psychic the other two up."

The inkay glanced back at her with an annoyed look. "I told you, he's not gonna be able to lift me-"

The girl gave a dismissive wave towards the complaining squid. "Yea yea, darks beats psychics, you're riding on the pony, yadda yadda, he gets it. Can we go yet?"

The inkay gave an irritated glare at the girl, while the mudbray and the pale skinned male standing beside her rolled their eyes, but no one said anything in return. Then Alex noticed exactly who the third human was, and his jaw dropped in disbelief. Even when Alex initially glanced inside of the cell he was trapped in, he didn't notice anything unusual about him. But as Alex got a closer look at the person, he realized that he was not simply a short male around Alex's age. In actuality, he was far younger than Alex expected. He looked to be no older than fourteen years old to him, if that. "Cyndaquil..?" he whispered out loud as rage began coursing through his veins all over again. Alex gritted his teeth. "Those absolute shitstains. I don't get how anyone is this fucking cruel," he spat out with an intense amount of venom.

The mudbray nodded with darkened eyes. "Oh trust me, I've been wanting to knock their heads for that ever since he came in. Trafficking adult pokemon is one-"

"Hey!" the girl interrupted. "Look I know you're probably talking about how they stole a kid," the boy in question flinched as she spoke, "and you're right. They're scum of the earth. But can we focus on getting him and the rest of us out of here first?"

Alex could hardly control his emotions. He felt that glossing over what was essentially a child trafficking charge was a massive crime in and of itself. But as irritated with the girl's attitude and dismissive nature as Alex was, she was right. There wasn't any time to argue. "Fine, let's go," Alex said, sharply motioning the people to the basement ladder. "Inkay. Hop onto Mudbray and I'll levitate both of you out," he added darkly as the girl, then child, then older male started up the ladder. Inkay did as Alex asked and hopped onto the mudbray, clinging onto his neck as Alex's eyes began faintly glowing once again, gently lifting the mudbray off the ground.

As the group ascended swiftly but carefully, Alex's rage began to fade and was steadily being replaced by concern for the kid. He kept nervously glancing at the young boy he recently found out was the cyndaquil. 'Jesus, if I had only taken a closer look in his cell... ugh, this poor kid's gonna be scarred for life if we get out of here in one piece,' Alex lamented, his expression turning more and more sour, 'Damn it, I wish I didn't have to ask him to help and we could just protect him, but I don't think anyone else has as good of an ability to provide cover like he does.' Alex swallowed nervously and gave a more direct look to the boy, getting his attention as they made their way up to ground level. "Cyndaquil, I know this whole thing is rough for you, but I'm gonna need you to make the biggest smokescreen you can manage when we get up there so the rest of us can take cover and fight us out of here," Alex said softly, making a bunch of gestures with his hands as well, hoping he'd get the message.

The fearful young boy seemed to get the idea of what Alex was asking. "You... you want me to use smokescreen as soon as possible?" he asked in a trembling voice.

Alex nodded in affirmation, and just was he feared, the boy was not taking to the situation very well. The boy nodded, but it was very clear the stress was beginning to be too much for him. The thin older male that was right behind the boy seemed to pick up on this and gave his back a gentle pat. "Hey. Codes. We're gonna get out of this mess. You don't even have to do the fighting. We'll protect you. I'll protect you. You just have to give us some cover, and that's it. After that, you'll be home free."

Alex nodded and fixed a gentle stare towards the boy. 'We're gonna make sure you get out of here free and in one piece. I swear it.'

Alex wasn't sure if the boy could pick up on his thoughts, but Alex's gentle demeanor as well as the thin older male's comforting seemed to calm him enough to where Alex could see a trace of determination making its way back in the boy's demeanor. The boy gave a nod and started looking upwards again, focusing on getting out.

They reached the surface not even a few seconds later, and without missing a beat, the boy willed himself back into his cyndaquil form instantaneously. This got the attention of a couple of surrounding enemies, who just so happened to be nearby while trying and failing to corral the pidgey girl, but by the time they could process the facts that the basement was no longer guarded and that everyone else was making their escape, the cyndaquil had already spat out a massive cloud of smoke in all directions, completely obscuring them from view. The other two humans followed suit and transformed themselves back into pokemon form.

Alex set the mudbray down on ground level and called out to his allies in the loudest voice he could manage over the chaos. "Spread out! Form a line and take cover! Inkay! REFLECT!" Alex made sure to yell out the last word to catch the attention of the pidgey girl. A faint blue glow surrounded Alex's body. Thinking fast on his feet, Alex used his psychic powers to drag two of the nearby desks over to their area, knocking over a few towers of boxes in the process, and flipped them on their sides to provide them extra cover.

The bird pokemon shot back over the desks and landed on the ground beside Alex. "Alright, what do we do now?"

Alex held up a paw, signaling the pidgey to stand by as he thought up a plan. He peeked out from behind the desk barricade. He could hardly see a thing. The cyndaquil did a good job of completely obscuring their position, even if it was obvious as to what general area they were at. But it wouldn't be that way for long. Alex knew they'd get reorganized quickly, so there wasn't much time to prepare. 'Oh wait a second!' Alex's eyes lit up as he recalled something. He motioned for the pidgey to follow him. Alex went ahead and gathered the inkay, skorupi, and lizard pokemon, while the mudbray stood watch. The cyndaquil boy stood close to the skorupi in an apparent effort to stick with the group. "Okay, you. Lizard pokemon," Alex said, addressing the unknown pokemon.

The pokemon glared at him. "I have a name, you know," she snipped at him.

Alex gave her an 'are you kidding me right now' look. "Not the time!" he spat back, "Now please! How far can you shoot your acid?" he asked impatiently.

The lizard pokemon stared at him unflinchingly, but didn't protest any further. "I dunno, a few yards give or take?"

Alex took another deep breath to calm himself. 'I'm not getting into it with her right now. Not worth the time or effort.' "Okay, I want you to coat the ground in front of the barricade in it. That should slow them down a lot until I can take out all of them," Alex explained, earning a lot of surprised reactions. "Everyone else," Alex continued, ignoring their surprise for now. "Keep the fighting here. Use your long ranged attacks to keep their attention. Skorupi, Inkay, I'm assuming you know Poison Sting and Psybeam, respectively?"

The inkay nodded immediately, while the skorupi looked back to the cyndaquil, to which the cyndaquil nervously nodded at the skorupi. The bug pokemon once again faced Alex. "Yea, I do."

Alex narrowed his eyes, slightly bemused at the brief interaction between the two pokemon, but he shook his head, refocusing his attention at the real issue. "Okay, you two and Pidgey, listen up. Your attacks are going to have a lot more range than lizard girl or Mudbray-" Alex earned a glare from the unknown pokemon again, but he went on unabashed. "-so just keep firing them off. And be indiscriminate about it. We want to draw as much attention towards you guys while I ambush them one by one. They're not going to be able to pick a target and they won't be able to reach you easy anyway because the ground in front of you guys is gonna be covered in acid. Oh by the way, you should probably get to that right now," Alex explained, addressing the last sentence to the lizard pokemon.

Alex earned an irritated scoff from her, but she went off doing as Alex suggested.

Alex shook his head in disbelief. 'That bitch seriously needs to check herself. We're in the middle of a fight for our lives and she's getting all huffy at petty shit? For fuck's sakes.' Alex addressed the remaining pokemon. "Everyone else, just keep attacking. Keep moving around, but stay behind the barricade. I'm going out there myself to try and pick them off." The pokemon all nodded and Alex turned to leave the area, but was stopped by the cyndaquil.

"Wait! Mew!" Alex heard him say. He turned around to face the young cyndaquil as the fire pokemon continued, "Do you want me to help? I know Ember."

Alex floated over to the fire starter and rested a paw on his head, giving him a gentle look. "No, you just take cover behind Mudbray. He's physically the strongest one here, so he'll be able to protect you. You've already done more than enough for us," he spoke in a praising tone.

The cyndaquil's facial expression hardened and turned to one of defiance. "But I'm a pokemon too! It's not fair that I should have to hide while everyone else fights-"

The skorupi skittered right next to the young pokemon and gave him a gentle nudge with his body. "Cody, please, just-" he tried to interrupt, but was unsuccessful as the young pokemon went on anyway.

"No, I want to help! I've trained every day since this happened to me, and I'm pretty strong! I can fight!" he protested. Any trace of nervousness in his expression was gone, leaving only anger fueled by determination to help everyone escape.

Alex glanced at the skorupi, who gave a helpless look to Alex. The mew grunted, once again feeling precious time slip away, and made his final decision. "Okay fine, but only if another pokemon is in trouble or can't continue fighting for some reason. You'll be backup. But until then, stay hidden. Okay?"

The skorupi gave a defeated groan, but didn't protest. The cyndaquil gave a sharp nod. "Got it!"

Alex shook his head, turned himself invisible again, and turned around to float towards the group of people pinning them down. However, gunshots began to ring out again, startling Alex into descending back to the ground. "Take cover! Spread out and find an opening to attack!" He yelled out to the other pokemon.

The pokemon all did as Alex commanded, scattering behind their desk barricades as bullets whizzed over their heads and impaled themselves into the desks. Alex glanced over to the cyndaquil on reflex and noted that he was cowering behind the mudbray, who himself was standing a fair distance back, having no useful moves to use presently. Alex shook his head. 'Hate to say I told you so, but it's a lot easier to be confident when the fight hasn't actually begun yet. Just sit tight. I'll handle them,' Alex internalized.

He looked upwards and nervously swallowed. His stomach began to churn much more violently than before as he heard the bullets whizzing over his head. 'I hate this I fucking hate this so much... no, it's fine. Just get past this and you can take em out with ease. Rush straight up and you'll be fine.' Alex steeled his emotions, hunched his back to prepare to take off, and launched himself upwards with rapid acceleration. Before he knew it, he was at ceiling level where none of the the focus was at. After attempting to look down at his body and remembering he was invisible, he felt around his body instead, looking for any wounds he might've missed because of the adrenaline. Thankfully, he found none. He had made it out without a scratch. His body gave a jolt as most of the nervous tension left his body.

Alex immediately got to work looking for his first target. He had a great view of everything below him since most of the loose papers, boxes, and items had settled onto the ground. His eyes were first drawn to the kangaskhan. She was standing right in front of the exit, guarding it from anyone making an escape attempt. Alex raised an eyebrow. 'I'm not sure keeping the only pokemon on your side completely out of the fight is a smart idea, but okay.' Alex counted eight more human enemies, all spread out and making attempts to advance on the pokemon as the pokemon fired back and held them at bay. Alex singled out a target that was in the back and far away from the kangaskhan. He floated overhead until he was right behind his target, then lowered himself so that he was in range. Like his ambush before, he released the hold on his invisibility, used confusion on his target, and mentally tossed him backwards to knock him out of commission.

Unfortunately for Alex, unlike his ambush at the basement entrance, there was no disorganized yelling and no smokescreen or flying papers to obscure what he was doing. Alex's actions were noticed almost immediately as his target began yelling out in fear and pain, and very soon after, Alex himself was spotted.

"THERE! Shoot there!"

Alex felt a jolt of fear go down his body. Alex shot back upwards and he willed himself back to invisibility as fast as he could manage. However, he was still too slow in his retreat. He cried out in agony as he felt a burst of pain explode in his chest. He was sent backwards several feet as his body dispersed the pain and the force of the impact, causing him to lose his focus and begin to flicker back to visibility. Alex, with all high mental might, forced himself back to invisibility before the remaining enemies could get a lock on his exact position.

"Hey! We're over here, dipshits!" Alex heard a distant shout that he presumed came from a pokemon. More frenzied yelling came from the human enemies as they started to back up from a stronger assault from the pokemon. But Alex hardly paid attention to any of it. He was floating upwards, away from the fighting, to catch his breath. A small metal slug fell off of his chest and onto the ground. Alex tenderly touched the area of his chest where he was hit and winced, hissing in pain. 'Jesus fuck that smarts bad... but somehow it doesn't feel like I'm bleeding? Know what, no. I can think about this later. I can still fight.'

Alex floated downward slightly again, re assessing the situation. He glanced at his previous target to see if his attack worked. Though not in the way that Alex expected, it appeared to him that it did. The man was without a doubt unconscious. Looking at the seven remaining targets, Alex noted that he'd have to be more careful with his ambushes. Three of the seven remaining human enemies were focused on looking for Alex.

Alex decided to lower himself down again, nearby one of the of the women still firing at the pokemon. This target being a lot closer to the action and nowhere near where Alex was last spotted, Alex surmised that he could get away with an ambush a lot easier in this area than in another. Even so, Alex would have to be quick.

Then one of the enemies on the far side of Alex got hit with the inkay's Psybeam. He let out a pained yell and fell back, dropping his firearm in the process. "There! Target far right!" One of the pokemon called out. Almost immediately, there were multiple Poison Stings, Gusts, Psybeams, and Acids concentrated towards the one enemy on the ground. He attempted to crawl away and out of range, but he was too slow. He ended up getting hit with most of the attacks aimed in his direction, causing him to let out multiple agonized screams. "Shit! Move left! Get Jaxon out of there!"

Alex's eyes widened. This was the opening he was looking for. As the enemies were focused on the guy to the left of them, that left enough attention off of Alex to where they were wide open to attack. Still feeling the need to be fast, Alex released his hold on his invisibility again, used his psychic powers to lift up the woman closest to him, and without giving anyone a chance to process what was going on, hurled her as hard as Alex could manage towards the next guy attacking the pokemon over. It worked better than Alex was expecting. The woman that Alex hurled plowed straight into the man, knocking him onto the ground with such force that his head bounced off the ground hard. The woman landed onto her side at an incredibly awkward angle, causing her leg knee and ankle to contort in an unnatural position. She let out a scream of pain and let go of her own firearm in the process of being thrown, with the firearm skidding across the room.

The one enemy in the group of four still fighting at the front that wasn't touched by any attack recoiled and took multiple steps back. "Holy shit! Back up! Back the fuck up!" he called out to the remaining enemies behind him. Before the remaining enemies could regroup, Alex thought fast and shot across the room, mentally yanking the pistol out of the retreating man's hands. He quickly gathered up the loose nearby firearms on the ground and shoved them down the basement. He then settled behind a pile of overturned boxes, keeping out of view from his enemies while he collected himself. His eyes shot down to his body. The blue glow surrounding it just vanished. 'Damn, well that lasted longer than Inkay said it would, at least. I think I've got this now.'

"Nice one, Mew!" the inkay called out. He hopped up on top of the overturned desk and made a motion to jump over, but Alex held up both his hands, making a motion to stop him. "Wait! Stay back! They're still dangerous!" The inkay flinched, having his jumping motion interrupted, but made no further attempts to advance. He gave a swift not and hopped back behind the makeshift barricade. Alex glanced over at the retreating group and turned himself invisible again. "Stay covered. I've got this."

Alex floated back over to the group of people, who all looked very on edge, given the sudden developments. They were grouped up in the far side of the room relative to the pokemon, all looking in different directions. "These freaks turn invisible too?!" "You fuckin serious?" "Bro, we getting our asses handed to us. Pretty sure I even shot that thing and it still didn't do a damn thing." "Alex, do me a favor and shut the fuck up. Give me your gun if you're so scared of them."

Alex carefully confirmed which of the remaining enemies still held guns, positioned himself above and in front of them, and released his hold on his invisibility once again.

"There!" "Shoot it!"

But Alex didn't let them get any further than that. In one single motion, Alex focused his powers on all of the guns, yanked them out of their hands, spun his body around to face the basement entrance, and tossed the firearms across the room towards that very direction. All of his throws met their mark. No one was armed any longer.

Not feeling the need to turn invisible any longer, Alex went on the offensive and began taking apart the little remaining resistance with a combination of Confusion attacks, hurling his targets out of range of him, and using the occasional Pound attack on any enemy that got too close. At last it seemed like the fight was reaching its end. Until Alex heard a frantic warning.

"Mew! Watch out!"

Alex barely had time to turn before he was met with a large brown fist to his chest. Pain shot through his chest once again, and Alex was sent flying towards the wall closest to him, having been caught completely off guard. His body impacted the wall and he slid down, unceremoniously flopping on the ground. Alex's vision became blurry and he became disoriented. He let out a groan of discomfort and curled up his body, trying to shake off the metaphorical and literal Sucker Punch.

"Shit, he's down, guys!" "Let's go! He needs help!" All of the pokemon hiding behind the barricade sprang into action the moment they saw Alex get knocked down. The inkay hopped onto the mudbray again, and they, along with the lizard pokemon and the pidgey, immediately bolted towards Alex's attacker. The mudbray and the lizard pokemon both winced slightly as they ran through the acid that still coated part of the ground, but being types that resisted it, they were able to shrug it off with ease. The cyndaquil also made a motion to join the fight, but the skorupi stood in front of him, blocking his path. "Cody, no. You stay put."

The cyndaquil took an indignant stance and fumed at the bug pokemon. "But I can help! I'm stronger-"

The skorupi interrupted. "Codes, stop, seriously! I know you've trained a bunch, but real life is brutal, okay? And you haven't been able to control it as of late. We can handle it. Just stand back and stay safe," he finished before turning and leaving the barrier, himself, leaving an irritated and worried cyndaquil behind.

Meanwhile, the kangaskhan had been slowly advancing on Alex, chuckling with venom in her tone. "Credit to you freaks, you're a lot stronger than you look. I don't know a lot about pokeyman, but it looks like you're psychic, right?" Alex responded with a groan, slowly turning his body to face his aggressor on pure instinct. Her mouth was open, revealing her fangs, coated by a dark energy. "Guess that means a good Bite to your fucking throat is gonna hurt a lot, huh?" she growled.

"HEY! Get away from him!" The pidgey girl yelled out, forcing the marsupial pokemon to face her and take her mind off of Alex. The bird pokemon flew at the kangaskhan at full speed, going so fast it looked like her body was producing a slight after-image. She plowed straight into her target's body, giving her no time to react, and she fell backwards onto Alex, causing him to cry out in pain and further stunning him, but saving him from a potentially dangerous attack.

The kangaskhan got back up and snarled. "I hate y'all so fucking much, you know that?" she charged at the group of pokemon, holding her arms up to shield her body to block a barrage of long ranged attacks until she got close enough to a pair of them. She swung her arms with incredible force, striking at the lizard pokemon and the inkay, sending both of them flying back.

"Holy shit! How strong is this bitch?" the pidgey called out in astonishment, flying just overhead.

The kangaskhan glanced upwards at the bird pokemon who was flying far too low. She whipped around faster than anyone thought a kangaskhan had any right to be and jumped high enough to where the pidgey was well within reach. "Strong enough to take all of you out, myself!" She threw another Pound at the bird pokemon, who was too slow to react. The pidgey tried to fly up, but the lower part of one of her wings, as well as the lower part of her body ended up getting caught anyway. She spun out of control and crashed into a pile of boxes and objects, letting out a groan as her head spun from the impact.

The skorupi took a nervous step back. "Hoo kay, this isn't good."

The mudbray gave an annoyed 'tsk' at the unfolding scene and glanced back at the skorupi. "Marcus, I'm going in. You stay back and keep firing Poison Sting. Don't worry about hitting me. My type resists it. Hers doesn't."

The skorupi nodded and immediately started firing at the enemy pokemon. The kangaskhan honed in on the skorupi attacking her, making every effort to avoid his barrage of poisonous needles, but the mudbray accompanying the bug pokemon rushed straight into battle, pivoting on one of his front hooves, and landing a solid Double Kick square on the kangaskhan's belly. The kangaskhan stumbled back at the combination of attacks, but remained on her feet, steadying herself from the barrage. She let out a frustrated growl. "You wanna go, donkey? Fine with me! I should've put you down during your first little escape attempt!"

The mudbray hopped backwards after landing his attack and stood at the ready. "Yea, I bet you wish you did. Too bad you're not gonna get the chance!" he yelled, immediately rushing in for another attack.

The two pokemon traded several blows over the course of their short and scrappy fight, and the mudbray was gaining the upper hand. The kangaskhan was getting increasingly worn down between fighting the mudbray and getting continuoudly pelted in a weak poison sting that still dealt compounding damage over time. The mudbray went in for another Double Kick, but he missed his mark this time. The kangaskhan easily sidestepped the sloppily executed attack and responded by going for a full force punch to the equine pokemon's side. The mudbray braced himself and winced heavily at the time of the hit... only to realize he didn't get hit. His eyes widened, realizing that the kangaskhan had set him up. "Wha- Fake Out?"

"Too late!" The mudbray had no time to react to his foe rotating her body to meet his side. He could only watch in horror as she lifted her foot up and brought it down to the side of his body with great force. The mudbray cried out in a high pitched voice as pain shot through his body, and he collapsed onto the ground near where he was struck.

The bug pokemon halted his barrage and took a few nervous steps back. "Oh fuck, that's even worse."

The kangaskhan, after making sure the mudbray was down for the count, shifted her attention back to the scorpion pokemon. Not even wasting any time on words, she stomped over to the bug with a murderous look in her eyes.

The skorupi swallowed nervously and skittered backwards. "No, no please I'm sorry please don't-"

Several tiny balls of fire suddenly flew in and pelted the kangaskhan from the side, causing her to recoil from the heat. "Urgh! Now fucking what?!" The two pokemon still standing both looked over to where the fire came from.

The cyndaquil was standing mere feet away, shaking nervously, but holding an aggressive stance. "That's enough! You're not gonna hurt anyone else, you fat jerk!"

Alex started slowly getting up in the background, clutching his chest. His senses were coming back to him at a sluggish pace, but he was able to gather himself enough to squint at the blurry scene before him. 'Wait, is that... Cyndaquil? Oh no, what is he...'

The skorupi stared in horror. "Cody, no! What are you doing?!"

The kangaskhan, getting more and more enraged by the passing second, stomped towards the fire starter. "You wanna go, you little brat?! I'm not above killing a kid, you know!"

The cyndaquil trembled in fear the closer his foe got to him, but he refused to back down. "You're not killing anyone here! I won't let you!" He suddenly shot to the side with incredible agility, leaving only a short trail of faint after images of his body, and rushed around behind his target before she could react, plowing into her back with considerable force.

"Augh!" The kangaskhan let out a dismayed yell and fell on her belly.

The cyndaquil hopped back, body no longer creating after images, and let loose a big stream of small fireballs.

"Cody stop! You can't control it!" the skorupi shouted.

True to the bug pokemon's warnings, the first wave of Embers hit their mark, hitting the kangaskhan's backside, but the remainder of his attack was too strong, and it pushed him backwards and rotated his body in such a way that he landed onto his back. "Ugh! Ow, that hurt a bit..."

The kangaskhan slowly got up and thundered over to the fire pokemon again, visibly livid from all the resistance she was encountering. "Oh, you think that hurt? That's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you. I was gonna kill you quickly, but I realized that's too good for you," she snarled, picking up the smaller pokemon with a crushingly firm grip, causing the young pokemon to squeal in pain, "I think I'll torture you a bit first. Maybe something like shoving spikes through your limbs? I'll think of something. I'll kill everyone here right in front of you, then find fun new ways to make you suffer til you're begging me for death. And maybe if you catch me on a good day, I'll kill you fast. So, who do you think should die first, you pathetic little shit?"

Despite the situation the fire pokemon found himself in, he found himself getting angrier. "NO!" He shot out a small volley of Embers directly into the malicious pokemon's face, causing her to scream in agony and drop the young pokemon to hold onto her face with both hands. The cyndaquil collected his footing and growled. "You've hurt innocent pokemon, you've hurt Mew, and you threatened my brother's best friend... and you think I'm just gonna let that happen? No way! You're not hurting anyone ever again!"

The cyndaquil's entire body began glowing bright white and started slowly changing in shape.

"Cody, what are you doing? Don't turn back into... human...?" the skorupi started, but then trailed off as he realized this transformation was nothing like the transformation that took place when changing between pokemon and human forms.

The kangaskhan finally shook off the sudden attack and noticed the fire pokemon glowing. "Oh no you don't!" She rushed over to Sucker Punch the glowing pokemon, but was instantly interrupted by a far more concentrated and powerful volley of Embers from the glowing pokemon. She once again yelled out in pain, but continued to run through them in an attempt to endure the pain in order to hit her target.

The glowing finally faded. The fire starter was now much larger and longer in size relative to his previous form, and with it, he carried a crown of flames on his head as well as a more confident gaze. The newly evolved pokemon met his foe's challenge and hopped backwards, body once again producing after images, and swiftly rotated around his target to avoid her strike and land one of his own. Despite having done this already, the kangaskhan still couldn't avoid it, and once again was struck down, this time landing on her back. The quilava stood over her with a gaze of contempt. "Had enough yet?"

After a few seconds of no response, the kangaskhan made an incredibly sudden swipe at the fire pokemon that he was sure would hit him, only for the kangaskhan to be suddenly blown backwards several feet by a strong gust of wind. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him!" the pidgey shouted, flying back into the fight and dive bombing the hostile pokemon.

Despite the sudden intrusion, the kangaskhan regained her footing and was prepared to counter the bird pokemon's attack. Just before she could ready an attack of her own, however, she felt a very potent jolk of electricity hit her leg, completely locking up her muscles. Her gaze shifted from anger to fear, realizing she couldn't move to even block the attack. She simply braced herself to take in the attack as best as she can. The bird pokemon impacted her chest and immediately flew out of the way for the skorupi to follow up with a concentrated volley of Poison Stings, aimed in the same area. The kangaskhan had no chance to counterattack and stumbled backwards against the warehouse wall, breathing heavily.

By this point, a bunch of humans had gotten themselves back together and were simply watching the fight unfold, not wanting to physically interfere in a dangerous situation. "Uh, guys, Beth is getting her ass beat bad. Should we scram?" No one in the group of four responded, but they started backing towards the exit when it was suggested. Then one of them stopped the others. "Wait! We can still grab our guns! The pink cat thing just tossed them into the prison." "Shit, he's right. C'mon, quickly." The group of four started quickly towards the basement entrance, hoping not to draw attention to any of the pokemon. Unfortunately for them, that plan was foiled almost immediately when the mudbray blew right past them, barrelling into one of them and knocking them over in the process, and stood himself in between them and the basement entrance. "Woah, shit!" "What the hell?"

The mudbray smirked. "Now you didn't honestly think we'd just let you spoil the party, did you?"

The inkay, once again riding on the mudbray, hopped off, fixing his gaze towards another human's eyes. His eyes began glowing a faint pink color, and they appeared to shimmer as well.

The person who the inkay fixed his gaze on gave a tired grunt and brought up a hand to hold up his forehead.

"Yo Alex, you good, man?"

"I dunno... just feeling... tired..." His body drooped until he collapsed harmlessly on the ground, cigarette falling out of his mouth. The three remaining people looked horrified at what just transpired.

The glow in the inkay's eyes faded and he too gave a cocky smirk. "If you don't wanna end up like him, I suggest you back up," he taunted, making a 'back up' motion to go along with it.

The humans got the message and began slowly backing up with their hands in full display, not wanting to further provoke the pokemon. The pokemon continued advancing, guiding them towards the same wall the kangaskhan was at.

The rest of the pokemon continued to hold the kangaskhan at bay with several attacks flying wildly across the room. Unfortunately for the group of pokemon, the kangaskhan did not want to go down, and kept trading blows with some of them, eventually getting herself into a position to where she was able to grab hold of the lizard pokemon with a crushingly painful grip, causing the other pokemon to stop attacking. "Nobody makes any more moves, or I kill this little shit right here and now!" She backed herself against the wall, locking herself into a stalemate and keeping a close eye on the pokemon. However, she didn't notice the pink blur heading towards her until it was too late.

Alex finally regained his senses and shook his body, trying to rid himself of any further pain and discomfort. 'Okay, super effective attacks hurt. Go figure. Guess I should be aware of all my surroundings in the future so I don't get blindsided the way I did.' He glanced over to the scene before him and a chill went down his body, seeing the lizard girl in the kangaskhan's grip. "Oh I don't think so," he muttered darkly, and shot over to the fight, not even bothering to cloak himself. His eyes glowed a faint blue once again, using Confusion on the kangaskhan's arm in an attempt to make her drop the pokemon.

It worked. The kangaskhan recoiled in pain and almost instantly dropped her captive, putting up almost no resistance. The lizard pokemon scurried back to the now advancing line of pokemon, all staring down their enemies. But the kangaskhan clearly did not quit. She made another attempt to rush at the group of pokemon, hoping to knock one of them out with a single strong hit.

Alex did not let this happen. He used a much stronger Confusion on the kangaskhan and mentally shoved her back against the wall hard, causing her to collapse onto the ground in agony. Alex released his hold on his attack and floated in front of the group of pokemon, eyeing his enemies with a look of disdain. "It's over, Kangaskhan. I alone am much stronger than you, and even if I wasn't, you've got seven angry pokemon facing you down with no backup and no firearms. You're going to let us go and never capture another pokemon again," he commanded with an authoritative tone.

The kangaskhan continued to writhe and groan in pain, having been the recipient of a much stronger attack than all of what she had faced prior. Despite herself, she shot a look of pure and utter disgust at the group of pokemon. "You... you freaks of nature disgust me. Let you go? Hah... and then what, you'll use your powers to oppress other humans cuz you know you can get away with it now?" she muttered weakly.

The mudbray that was helping pinning the other humans down shot the cruel pokemon a harsh glare. "Hey there pot, name's kettle. Are you fucking stupid or something? You're a pokemon too, and what have you literally just been doing for the past month?" he spat.

The kangaskhan chuckled darkly, not even bothering to face anyone anymore. "Oh, I'm not just talking about anyone here. You know someone somewhere is going to."

The mudbray gave a dismissive scoff. "You know what, save it. I don't care. I'm leave..." The mudbray paused when he felt the room start getting substantially warmer. He glanced off to the side and saw an orange glow emanating from behind a pile of debris from where they just came from. "Uh, hey guys? What's that over there?" he asked suddenly with just a tinge of uncertainty in his voice. This caught the attention of all the pokemon still standing, and they all collectively glanced over to the glowing area, causing the humans to shift their attention to that area as well after a few seconds. Alex raised an eyebrow and began floating over to the glow to inspect it, all while keeping his guard up.

Before Alex could reach his destination, however, the pile of debris collapsed inwards, revealing a giant pillar of flames, which just got bigger after suddenly having more fuel thrown onto it. Alex shot backwards in fear. "Holy shit! When did that happen?!" The flames began dancing wildly as the blaze grew bigger and bigger in size, having ample fuel to burn with all of the debris littered on the ground.

The skorupi gawked at the flame then shot a glare towards the newly evolved fire pokemon. "I told you to be careful, Cody!"

The quilava shook his head desperately. "I-It wasn't me! My flames can't catch anything on fire! I dunno how that happened!"

Alex waved his arms in front of the pokemon to stop their squabbling. "Forget it! Let's get out of here before the flames end up blocking the door! Run!" Alex wasted no time in bolting straight for the door. He used his psychic powers to push open the door and floated just outside, holding it open for the rest of the pokemon. "Go! Go! Get out, fast!"

The pidgey girl was the first to leave, having flown out almost the exact moment Alex opened the door, followed shortly by the quilava and two of the humans that Alex didn't bother stopping as they ran off in separate directions. The skorupi skittered quickly out the door with the lizard girl and inkay close behind. Alex eyed the next pair of humans carefully- another man helping an incredibly scuffed up woman out- but made no efforts to stop them. Alex glanced inside the building to see the mudbray picking something up. "Mudbray, what are you doing? Hurry!" The mudbray quickly bolted out of the building in short order, carrying something yellow in his mouth that Alex didn't pay much mind to at the moment. He glanced back inside, knowing full well there were still unconscious people in the building, and made a motion to go back inside, but Alex couldn't get more than a few inches in the building. The entire room was already coated in an uncontrollable blaze.

Alex floated backwards in horror at the quick spreading flames. 'Dear lord, if we were even a few seconds slower...' Alex shuddered and floated away from the building, tailing the group of pokemon that had decided to stick together for the time being. He floated downward and met up with the group of pokemon, settling in a nearby park that was presently empty. "Jesus, that was terrifying- oh shit," Alex cut himself off, realizing he was visible and in public. After quickly willing himself back to invisibility, Alex finally allowed himself a breath. "Alright, is everyone okay?" he asked.

There were short and hesitant nods. No one seemed to be seriously hurt. "I think we'll be a lot better after getting home," the lizard pokemon muttered tiredly.

"Hrr. Ta a bah o dish," the mudbray mumbled before setting a yellow object on the ground, "It should make you feel better."

Alex looked down at the object that the mudbray placed and his eyes widened. It was unmistakably a sitrus berry. "Um... alright, I have several questions, but most importantly right now, where and when did you get this?"

"I picked it up from one of the boxes as we were escaping," he responded simply as each of the pokemon took turns taking bites out of the healing fruit.

Alex narrowed his eyes at the berry, perplexed at its existence. "How did you know they'd have one? How do they even have this anyway?"

The mudbray gave a weird look in Alex's general direction. "Wait, you didn't see it? They had boxes full of stuff like this."

Before Alex could explain that he wasn't concerned with the items so much as he was the rescue, they were interrupted by the inkay.

"Um, guys? You might wanna look at the building again," the inkay nervously said, calling attention to their former prison.

Alex glanced over, expecting not much more than billowing smoke, but he was stunned to see the entire outside of the warehouse was covered in flames. The entire building was burning uncontrollably. "Holy... fuck..," Alex whispered, terrified of the scene before him. His ears perked up, hearing sirens in the distance, as well as spotting the faint glow of red and blue flashing lights. Within seconds, the entire building was surrounded by police cars with the officers scrambling around the property, calling in what Alex imagined was the fire department.

"Guys... somehow I have a feeling this isn't going to be the end of this," the skorupi muttered quietly.

Alex was afraid he might be right. Alex managed to save all of the pokemon inside, but somehow in the process burned down an entire building, undoubtedly killing multiple unconscious people still trapped inside. Alex nervously swallowed. He had no doubts that he did the right thing in rescuing the pokemon there. But he couldn't help but wonder if this one botched rescue attempt would end up making things a whole lot worse for pokemon kind as a whole. And as he continued to gaze upon the uncontrollable fire caused by them, inadvertently or not, he had a sinking feeling that his fears would almost certainly come to pass.

((I really have no excuse for this one being late. Unfortunately, writer's block hit me at the worst time and I briefly lost motivation to continue this story. A bit of advice to any aspiring authors though, NEVER wait out a writer's block. It can be fine to give yourself some time to renew your motivation, but if you notice yourself not getting any more motivated than before or a long period of time has passed, don't be afraid to force something down. It might be the worst thing you've written, but at the very least, you did manage to write something. I speak from experience. Trust me. Forcing something down actually does wonders for your motivation, cuz you can always look back at it and go "huh, I don't like how I did this. So instead, I'm gonna do this." Remember, you can always edit something horrible into something better. But you can't edit something that didn't exist in the first place.

Anyways, longest chapter I've ever written for anything. I'm pretty sure 10k words is going to be my limit for a single chapter, though. Any longer and I'm going to have to split it into two in the future. I'm not the most proud of this one cuz I'm not at all experienced in writing fight scenes, let alone fight scenes between over a dozen characters, but I think it turned out okay. As always, comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Til next time!))