"All right!" Eriff said, looking at the huge room of tables, each having an immense amount of food on them. "This is going to be great!" All the other gangs who were still in the tournament were here too, eating and talking to members of other gangs.

"Everyone meet back at base at midnight," Lilly said. She headed off, and I noticed a few people watch her as she went by. I shrugged. She'd be fine.

I headed over to a large table of berries, and grabbed a few of the sweeter ones. I accidentally knocked one off the table, but someone caught it. "Careful, there."

"Sorry," I said, turning to see who it was. I froze. It was War. "War!"

He chuckled. "Yes, that would be me. You're in that new gang, right? What are you called?" He thought hard for a moment. "The Abnormals?"

"The Unnaturals," I said wearily.

"That's right. Sorry." He grabbed a few belue berries, taking a bite out of one. I wasn't surprised when he puckered, shaking his head. "Man, these are sour!" He laughed. "Do you want one?"

I was confused, and I accepted one. "Don't you remember me?"

He took another bite of his berry, managing to keep somewhat of a straight face. "How could I? This is the first time I've ever seen you. Speaking of which, what is your name?"

I was so distracted I took a bite out of the belue berry in front of me. I puckered as well. "Hydra," I managed to say.

"Nice to meet you. Now why would you have thought we had met before?"

I chose my next words carefully. "I thought we met in the Freeland Jis, in Glacial Tower."

"Couldn't have, I've never been there." He finished his berry and grabbed another one. "Though I have wanted to go. We've been kind of busy."

"What do you mean?" I acidentally took another bite of the sour berry.

"We've been being attacked. We don't know who's doing it, but we manage to keep them away. If it happens to you, make sure you come get us. If it's the same people, we won't hesitate to help." He grabbed a few more berries. "See you around."

He walked away, leaving me very confused. Elric came over. "Were you just talking to War?"

"Yeah, but it was strange. He wasn't anything like the War from Glacial Tower." I saw the quagsire that had done the routine. "I'll be right back."

I ran over to him. "Hey!" He turned to look at me. I smiled at him. "The routine you did was amazing! You're a part of the Geoaxes, right?"

He nodded. "I've been all over the city, but I hadn't seen any of the Geoaxes. Were you guys preparing for the tournament?"

He shook his head. "We've been being attacked lately, and it's taken up most of our time. You were just talking to War. Didn't you ask him?"

"Uh, no. Got to go," I ran off, leaving the pokemon very confused. I looked back at him, and he shrugged and got some more food.

Elric met up with me. "What was that all about?"

My mind was racing. "I don't think the Geoaxes have ever attacked us."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but when I talked to War, he acted like he had never met me. He also said he had never been to Glacial Tower."

"Could he have been trying to trick you?"

"I don't know. He just seemed to friendly for it to be fake."

Elric nodded. "Make sure we tell Lilly when we get back to base. I'll do a bit of digging as well." He walked into the crowd of pokemon.

"Hey, Hydra!" I turned to see a blaziken walking over.

"Hey, Kan," I said, smiling. He had done the routine for the Volcs, which had been him using fire punch and blaze kick while doing some very neat gymnastics.

"I saw you talking to War. Everything all right?"

"Yeah," I wondered if he could confirm War's story. "Hey, do you know anything about the Geoaxes?"

"Yeah, a little bit. They aren't very well liked, since they can usually be seen destroying buildings. Whether they do it on purpose or not is to be determined. War's a real cool guy." He smiled. "He's the only guy I've ever seen eat more than one Belue berry. He also seemed to have some relationship with Kasuai."

"I've never seen any of their members. Why is that?"

"Well the only time you'd ever see them is if you were in their territory or saw them in a Freeland, but even so, I've heard a battle of sorts coming from their territory every night I've been on guard duty. Maybe they've been being attacked."

"Maybe." My heart was racing. "Hey, I got to go, okay?"

"Sure. You okay?"

"I'm fine. See you later." I walked away, feeling sick to my stomach. If War hadn't attacked us at Glacial Tower, I bet he hadn't attacked Lilly and them when they found Absolum. I had no clue what it all meant, but I was sure of one thing. The Geoaxes never attacked us. Someone was framing them, and they were targeting us.