Chapter 61: Crumble, hackle and tackle with danger

A beautiful Victorian styled mansion bathed in the light of a full moon, the ivy crawling up its aged walls reflected in shades of dark green and silver as a breeze rippled through it. Outside, the world became still. Armoured personnel crouched around the edifice cradling deadly weaponry. Black vested and helmeted men huddled near the entrance, dangled underneath fancy balustrades, climbed on the roof and hovered in the air on avian beasts. Binoculars and scopes remained trained on the villa and the people living inside it remained blissfully unaware of the danger fogging around their base. One by one, the rowdy noises quieted down, the lights winked out of existence and a few of the criminals opened their windows and stuck their heads out to gulp in a breath of fresh air. One of them happened to be a young, blonde haired lady and Cynthia, who stood on the ground right underneath, her shook her head in disgust. They had been right about covering the entire island with an illusion, the tactic, suggested by Sabrina and Skyla had been effective. The members of the Dex-criminals could walk out and have a party outside their home and they would see nothing. They would remain completely oblivious to the army of police prowling around their base.

The hours ticked by.

Lt. Surge and she drew up this particular plan after finding out that the Dex-criminals were situated in Sinnoh. The Kanto native insisted on initiating the assault at midnight and Cynthia, who obviously couldn't argue against him, only nodded in consent. Clusters of psychic pokemon levitated in the air, some of them functioned as sense jammers and others contributed to the large scale illusion covering the entire island. The female champion circled the domicile once again. Adrenaline pumped in her veins and tuned her senses on high alert.

Hour of twelve.

It carried a heavy weight to it. People associated night and darkness with bad and evil. For some inexplicable reason, the Sinnoh champion felt guilt lace her mind. A nagging suspicion that her actions tonight will eventually escalate into something far sinister and out of control, kept her on edge. She looked to Virizion for a fleeting moment of comfort and surprisingly, the lithe pokemon gently rubbed its head against her. Feeling somewhat comforted, she reached out and stroked the antelope-esque creature fondly. When her contract with the police ends, she'd be forced to give up the sword of justice and the fact brought on a sense of melancholy.

The hours trickled. And the sky grew darker.

Moonlight became brighter

And the clock struck twelve.

A bit before the middle of the night

Sinnoh

Resort Area

Sapphire couldn't sleep.

She tossed and turned, tangling her bed sheet and duvet together. A draft of wind seeped in through her partially closed windows and ruffled her curtains. Getting up, she threw the heavy drapes aside and peered into the gloom. Nothing, only the wind and the occasional cry of pokemon whispered through the otherwise still space. Then...Why did she feel so uneasy? The girl wondered and went to inspect her monsters; the creatures slumbered without a care in the world, their tiny forms curled up against the confines of their pokeballs. Exhaling deeply, she meandered around her moderately sized bedroom for a few minutes and then plopped back into bed. Years of staying with pokemon and in the wild honed her sense of danger and now it tickled and prickled, making her agitated and uncomfortable. To her, it felt like someone pulled a giant illusionary shroud over her eyes and she even clawed at her face to get the irritating sensation off. Rubbing her eyes did not help; it only made them redder and itchy. A few days ago, the entire island had a fleet of small robots flying through the sky. To the general panic of the Dex-criminals, these drones, looking very much like grotesque versions of local pokemon wildlife, veered a bit too close to their mansion and it set Pika on edge, the little rodent climbed on the roof and electrified the whole lot of them save for one. Commander Green's porygon z latched on to the single one and it was captured. Later, she watched Emerald dissecting the mechanical eaglet and he declared that the drone had no bugs inside. A simple weather drone, released by the authorities to inspect the weather on the island. The north of Sinnoh remained cold all year round, but surprisingly, the island was devoid of such harsh weather. Therefore, scientists liked to investigate the atmosphere and thus routinely, drones were sent out. Team strategy dumped the remains of the dissected bird somewhere and the organization did not give much thought to the incident.

Tonight, goose bumps periodically rose on her arms and she found it difficult to breath. Lazuli irises, half lidded from exhaustion, stared fixatedly at a luminous clock. The Hoenn native watched the minutes tick by absentmindedly. Almost twelve o'clock. Why...Did she sense that something very bad would happen on the hour of midnight? Come to think of it, the police loved to attack them at night.

"I...have to tell Ruby..."

Sapphire didn't get up from her bed, her best friend won't appreciate being roused up in the middle of the night for nothing. He needs his beauty sleep and apparently it is good for the skin. After spending a few more moments internally debating with herself, she got up, paced around the room and ignored the various bumps she earned along the way. Finally, she flung open the doors of her clothes cupboard and rifled past the rows of dresses, t-shirts, pants and skirts and pulled down a robe. Draping it over her half-clad form, she decided to confide her suspicions to Red instead. Her leader would surely listen to her and more often than not, Sapphire had been beneficial to predicting attacks from the police. Just before the alarm went off, she would run down the corridors screaming about danger. Five, or even ten minutes later, the police would come in and raid them. Leaving her bedside lamp on, she pulled a beanie over her tangled brown hair and exited the room.

The moment she did so...

…An earthquake struck.

The ripples of the ground were too organized to be natural. Police. Her mind screamed. This time, they didn't enter the base and she knew why, the opposition theorized that if anyone broke in, the alarms will ring.

BEEP~ BEEP~ BEEP~

Silly idiots. The Berlitz heiress made the security of her vacationing home flawless. Sensors buried under the ground will trip off the security system if anything unnatural occurs and now the corridors bathed in a sickly blood red light and the noise pounded her ears. The door next to her banged open and she saw Gold hurrying out whilst trying to fit his pants over a pair of boxers. He gazed left and right, spied her as a crumpled heap on the floor and after wearing his t-shirt inside out, jogged towards her and helped her up. Sapphire's head spun from where she whacked it against the wall on the initial assault, her senior helped her up, ordered her to collect the younger trainers and urged her to find the nearest exit and go. Execution occupied the lowest floor and the amber eyed trainer waited for a brief moment to check on his female comrade before racing to his superior's bedroom.

BEEP~ BEEP~ BEEP~

"Damn it!" Lt. Surge hissed as his Terrakion lowered its hoof and ogled him, "no one told me about the sensors in the ground! How come the psychic pokemon didn't notice it HUH?" In response to his rage, the legendary pokemon pawed the ground one more time and sent the earth rolling in another earthquake. The huge mansion shook, some of the officers hung on to it desperately and the ground undulated and fissured in some spots. "Move in! The electric type gym leader hollered and advanced with his raichu and Terrakion by his side, "Volkner MOVE! Tear the building apart, employ any tactic to get at least one of them. I refuse to return to Kanto empty handed. Where is my team?" He demanded and Volkner along with a few other masked personnel shuffled closer and warily followed their insane leader as he hiked up the front door and blew the ornate wooded doors apart with a bang. Dirt caked combat boots left ugly dust prints on the pristine marbled floor; raichu sliced an iron tail through one of the bronze statues decorating the entrance and watched the creepy, frozen girl fall. The Kanto native fumbled in his pockets for a pair of ear plugs and stuffed them in his ears, the cacophonous alarm and flashing red light in the base induced a headache. Sparing a glance and snorting at the decorative pillars situated on either side of a grand staircase, Surge stomped up the stairs and came face to face with a teenager who hastily stuffed what looked like a muffin in his mouth. He was alone and his cobalt blue irises widened to epic proportions, someone else deeper within the corridors screeched a name and before the police could grab him, the slightly overweight child bolted with a speed which seemed impossible for him.

"After him!" Terrakion and Raikou roared in tandem and sent a flash of lightning and an avalanche of rocks on the fleeing perpetrator. An inferno of flames met the attacks head on and buckled under the combined weight of two legendary types. The mythical pokemon wasted no time and charged after them, alas, the two criminals had vanished. Surge clicked his tongue in annoyance but assured himself that the mansion had been secured and their enemies could not escape so easily. Nodding to each other, they decided to go down the hallways.

"Are you alright Diamond?" Sapphire asked concernedly and helped him out of his singed shirt, too shocked to talk properly, the teenager simply nodded and a tear escaped his eye. "I'm sorry about that, there were two legendary pokemon there and I ordered Toro to blast a flamethrower. Are you burnt?"

"I...I'm okay. I didn't see the man, the doors where open and he...he walked out of thin air!" The Sinnoh native threw his ragged shirt behind and continued running with Sapphire. "Where do you think is a good place to-" he stopped abruptly and clutched his head. Doubling back, the Hoenn trainer grunted, picked him up and continued with her haphazard running down the corridors, her feet thumped to the rhythm of the alarm. "Sorry..." the boy rasped, "my head really hurts because of the noise." Sapphire didn't waste her breath speaking; instead, she put up speed and whisked down pathway. A large broken window at the end of the path looked like a good place to get out of; however, she made another sharp turn and inwardly sighed in relief when her pokemon fought off the intruders hiding behind the window. There must be some sort of sense jammers, she mused since the scenery out of the windows presented an unnaturally peaceful sight and she didn't glimpse anyone but knew for a fact that their compound had been surrounded by all sides. Her blaziken soared over her head and came to a crushing halt with a pained hiss, behind her, a storm of lightning hit the corridors and cut her path off; with an almighty leap, Raikou bounded in front of her and snarled in her face. She saw a miniature storm in the beast's cavernous mouth. On the other side, Terrakion stomped the ground and sent low levelled magnitudes rolling across the floor. Her breath caught in her chest and she wanted to throw up from panic. Instead, panicked irises searched for a way out and came to a grim conclusion.

There was no way out.

"Toro..." she hesitated on giving her near comatose partner a command, the fire beast lifted itself up and did its best to shield both her and Diamond. To her greatest astonishment and relief, a golem, cloaked in a yellowish aura, rolled out and smacked heavily into Raikou, momentum carried the two of them and they ended up bashing against Terrakion. The megaton pokemon sprung up, landed a few rock-blasts on the two legendries and then targeted the humans who rounded the corner. It curled up and charged off again and the advancing team of police officers wisely scattered. Sapphire didn't think twice, she ran and bumped into Yellow who came to her rescue, the three of them fell into a huddle. "...They are probably using an illusion..." she gasped and wheezed for breath, "because we can't see, hear or sense anything that is going on outside the mansion...The dude that chased after us, he came in through the front door and Dia said that he walked out of thin air." The Sinnoh native nodded when Yellow looked at him questioningly. "I'm pretty sure all the exits are barred and taken care of...And...And...I'm scared." Sapphire rocked on the floor and the older female gently soothed her before telling her to evacuate. "But how? We are surrounded! The windows and doors might have a whole army behind them and we won't even know-" A distant explosion rocked the base, "until it's too late...we are groping in the dark here!"

"Don't worry..." Yellow got up and peered around, "you said that we are under the spell of an illusion right?" Sapphire bobbed her head vehemently and pressed herself closer against the cracked walls. Yellow closed her eyes and focused, "hmm...The police are using an elaborate setting, I can feel them, fatigued pokemon clustered up in the air...I suppose they are the psychic and dark pokemon who are maintaining the entire illusion...Arceus...they are spread over the entire island!" It took a moment for the petite woman to contemplate on the gravity of the assault... "They have the whole island covered...But don't worry!" Determination flashed in her hazel irises, "we will still escape, come with me, I'll help you get to safety." Strategy's team member fished out her poke-gear and rapidly typed a message, the device made a confirmatory sound and she stowed it away. Together, they crept up the stairs and both Sapphire and Diamond screamed when an effulgent beam of light cut through the concrete, plaster and marble right next to them. The area grew red hot and the Hoenn native saw the glowing edges of the sliced building and suppressed a shudder. "That's senior Blue...don't be alarmed, we are doing our best." Yellow spoke calmly despite the heat searing her face and skin.

BEEP~ BEEP~ BEEP~

The carnage started. Cynthia jolted when the alarm rang out and clenched her fists on displaying this obvious sign of weakness. Falkner and Looker were nowhere to be seen. Alone outside, she mutely observed the windows of the first floor explode outwards. Thunder and lightning danced in the corridors and she glimpsed Raikou and Terrakion attacking a young girl. Bile rose in her mouth. The Organization used teenagers and children. Blinking, she got rid of her morbid mental pictures and took to the skies using her togekiss. No sooner had she done this, a tangle of barbed vines exploded out of the roof and branched outwards. With unerring accuracy, they zoned in on the clusters of pokemon manning the illusion and struck them down quite viciously. The air flickered, blurred and broke down altogether in multiple fragments of light and she shrugged indifferently, it won't make much of a difference. Seconds later, she heard an unearthly sound and flew towards the side. To her horror, she saw a female, the same brown haired perpetrator of Veilstone, balancing on an oversized jigglypuff and... Using a blastoise to cut the building? Cynthia stared and the opposition winked sultrily and blew her a mocking air kiss. Rage pulsed through the Sinnoh champion's head and her hand automatically went to a pokeball. This time, another earth shattering sound snagged her attention and she silently beheld the roof being torn off by Virizion. In a snap decision, she urged togekiss to go higher and in a moment, Skyla, who acted as an aerial lookout, joined her.

"What on earth is that thing?!"

It looked very much like a pokemon...A venusaur to be exact. The caved in roof revealed the form of a hulking saurian creature with a forest of leaves and pink blossoms growing on its back and sprouting a mesh of the ugliest and most hideous looking vines Cynthia ever had the displeasure of seeing. Turgid tendrils offset with huge barbs crawled around like they had a life of their own. Venusaur itself looked a bit different; the beast grew to gargantuan proportions and had smaller flowers covering its blue-green reptilian skin. And no pokemon sported such foul vines. The champion prodded through her Poketch in an effort to find out what exactly the monster in front of her was, the abnormal beast unnerved her.

"It...Looks like a repulsive version of the Kanto pokemon venusaur." Skyla replied and fiddled up the magnification of her binoculars, "there is a person sitting on it, some guy wearing red clothes and a cap."

Cynthia didn't hear her, she came across the same picture of the overgrown venusaur and balked on finding out that the grass type was a mega-evolved creature. How? Did they break in Sycamore's lab all the way in Kalos and steal his research materials? If so, then why didn't the media report it? Deciding to figure the intricacies later, she turned her focus on the writhing, venom dripping tendrils and jerked her head to the side when two lashed out. A warning. The appendages were too far away to effectively hit her. Pressing her lips angrily into a thin line, she summoned Virizion and the two descended. The antelope-esque creature nimbly weaved through the bramble and came to an elegant stop before venusaur and its trainer. Here, Cynthia gasped involuntarily, she already knew that their former comrade and ex-champion of Kanto, Red, is one of the members of the Dex-criminals thanks to the police illegally probing Hugh's brain; however seeing him standing on his pokemon, with an uncharacteristic rage swirling in his blood red irises, drove the message home. The young man simply lifted his arm and more than a dozen of stems rushed up towards her and tainted the air with the stench of acid. Virizion produced a gust of chopping air and butchered the vines before they reached her.

"Red...I can't believe you are doing this. Have you lost your mind?! For Dialga's sake there are children who are going to get hurt!" A storm of leaves and energy blasts drowned out her words. Her opponent didn't speak and preferred to watch her movements intently, of course he'd be cautious, champions only displayed their full strength when they fought a decisive battle. Giving up trying to talk sense to him, she ordered: "Virizion, use sacred sword!" The sword of justice did a little dance on the spot and then disappeared into thin air.

No, it didn't disappear. Red felt a gust of wind cut past his cheek as the legendary creature reappeared next to its master. In the next instant, Saur convulsed and to his dismay, he witnessed a violent gash opening up on the side of his partner. Several more formed on its reptilian skin and venusaur oozed a great quantity of chlorophyll tinged blood. His beast grunted in pain and pressed its vines closer to its body. The cuts started to heal and in moments, thanks to the power of synthesis, the grass type healed itself. Execution's leader smirked and when Cynthia demanded what he found so funny, he pointed at Virizion's coat. Concealed beneath its fur, a thousand leech seeds rapidly buried into its flesh and sprouted roots. These roots stretched and tangled with their neighbours, literally binding the mythical beast with an invisible thread. A few rapid fire energy balls were fired and Virizion dodged them and retaliated with another sacred sword.

This time, Red was ready for them. "Children? No they aren't children anymore" the ex-champion grinned and countered her argument, he seemed to take sadistic pleasure on seeing a legendary beast curled up in his mega-evolved venusaur's vines, "The authorities took the right of being children away from them when they received their first Pokedex and set off for the journey to become Pokemon champions. Obviously you won't understand because you became a champion much later. However Iris and I are different...We are puppets dancing wonderfully to the tune of the Pokemon Association and the authorities." The tendrils were slashed one by one but they kept on coming on an overwhelming manner, "I became Champion and since then...My life has changed. Yeah sure, I liked being the champion, but I hated being locked up in there and treated like some treasured prisoner. I didn't have a life, I couldn't visit my friends and I spent my extra time holed up in a high-tech battle simulator and being desensitized. Just like this..." To her alarm, the blonde woman glanced downwards to see her legs covered in vines and Virizion had been knocked out by a classic concoction of sweet scent and sleep powder. The barbed appendages pierced through her clothing and she felt the sharp tips pricking against her bare skin, purple drops of corrosive poison trickled down her abdomen and legs and left raw marks behind. "Pika, let's finish this...Thunder!" The rodent bounced out of nowhere and Cynthia angled her head upwards to see the sky groaning under the weight of black, ominous thunderclouds. Coruscation streaks of yellow light struck venusaur's vines and coursed through them. The saps readily conducted the charge and the Sinnoh native felt the pain strike and fry the very marrow of her bones.

She fainted instantaneously and Red put her and the comatose Virizion down on the dilapidated floor. He touched the cuff encircling his wrist and mega-evolution dissolved. "Gold..." he called but received no response. "GOLD?" the crimson eyed man spoke loudly and worry seized hold of him. "Hey...where are you?" Forgetting his post, he hurriedly capsuled Saur, grabbed Pika by the scruff of his neck and set off to find his subordinate.

Falkner had never seen anything quite like it and it happened too suddenly for his tastes. He entered the base through a window on the second floor and straightaway witnessed one of the rooms being scrupulously cut from the main domicile. Summoning Cobalion by his side, he stood partially awed as the room became totally separated from the construction. In a split second, his Cobalion sensed danger and charged off without waiting for a command whilst he blinked. A somewhat different looking blastoise towered in front of him and had one cannon, situated on the back of a scaly claw, pressing into his chest and another one shoved into his mouth. The creature pushed him up against the wall and he felt the bony barrel scraping the roof of his mouth and filling it up with an unpleasant taste. A beautiful woman walked out of the shadows and Falkner inwardly berated himself for thinking something so ridiculous. She had a bloodied horn in her hands and the cyan haired deputy realized dismally, that the appendage belonged to Cobalion.

"Call off the monster you are commanding and this will end smoothly" Blue held up the one of the spiralled horns teasingly, "or, I will be forced to send you to Giratina's realm. Cobalion right?" Falkner didn't bother nodding to her question, "he is a remarkably loyal and strong creature and when he sensed that his trainer was in danger, he stopped attacking me. Though I should say that I'm most impressed! It took a combined water and dragon pulse to tear one of its horns off!" His knees grew weak and wobbly when he laid eyes on Cobalion. The regal, stag-esque creature limped closer with its teal fur smeared in semi-coagulated blood. Part of its skull had dented in and it missed an eye. "My mega-evolved Blasty is such a beast isn't he?" The woman cooed lovingly, "I mean, normal pokemon can't really match evenly with legendries, but now he almost made Cobalion faint without gaining much damage himself...Hmm, I really ought to thank him..." Blue smiled at the Johto officer and added, "Now, do we have a deal or shall I freeze you from the inside out? A flimsy water pulse from my blastoise will blow you up into a million itty bitty pieces and it'll be rather unpleasant. Oh!" Glancing backwards, Constellate's leader noted a few more armed individuals running down to the corridors "Crys! Back up!" she shrilled and solar beam fired past her and hit the targets dead on. Falkner felt ice filling up his mouth as a steady trickle of freezing water dripped down his throat.

The freezing sensation stopped. Quite abruptly, the beast pulled out both of its cannons and froze the lower part of his body. It encased the sword of justice in a block of ice and turned its attention back to him. One punch later, the man, sporting a blue eye and a bruise on his cheek, stared unimpressively as mega evolution undid itself and a normal sized blastoise leered in his face. Its owner had gone to take care of business and Falkner inwardly smiled as Cobalion broke free of its encasement. With its remaining horn, it impaled the Kanto starter and the tortoise pokemon vomited up a mixture of fluids.

A heavy chill descended in the air and for the second time today, he gawked at the individual room. A mere half an hour ago it smoked and emanated heat and now a thick layer of ice wrapped the compound. The doors, windows and everything had been frozen solid. To add salt to his injury, he couldn't approach it. A psychic barrier had been erected to keep intruders out. Whirling around, he saw his partner still whaling on blastoise and the facts clicked together. "Stop!" he commanded and watched the blastoise wriggle. It deconstructed into a pile of pink slime and after throwing them a distorted grin, the creature morphed into a bird and soared away.

"We've been beat..." Falkner feebly slid down the wall and recalled his tired beast.

"I'm starting to have more and more respect for that pesky woman!" Green grunted and wiped sweat from his face, "how are the proceedings going Silver?" The red head sat before a bank of monitors and watched the entire base with a trained eye. Due to the stimulated earthquakes, most of the walls partitioning the rooms cracked and broke down. Green, with charizard X, destroyed the rest of the half crumbling constructions and now communicated with Silver who sat in the main control room. Strategy's leader took advantage of the caved in roof and after making sure that no other superintendents or higher positioned officers lingered in the air, he flew to the skies and started sawing the legendary holding cell off. Even with this newly evolved monster, it proved to be a daunting chore. Fire melted the buildings but it didn't perform a clean cut. After experimenting with a few more elements, the dragon settled for firing energy beams. Unlike Blue's perfect cube, the legendary holding cell had ragged edges and bits of plaster and cement disintegrated from the room. Sighing heavily, Oak let his golduck loose and the water type meticulously started freezing the chamber. For a few moments, the spiky haired brunette watched his monster struggle with the herculean task before asking for Silver's assistance. "Lend me your feraligatr, if the two of them team up together, the work will finish quickly." Silver summoned his partner and ordered to assist. Satisfied by their progress, Green nudged his charizard down and landed in the monitor room.

"Should I update you on the situation?" The red head queried on seeing the older man pace the deconstructed room. The Kanto native had agitation stamped on his handsome face.

"Yes."

Silver eyes glanced at the several monitors and darted about as the phantom thief spoke: "Blue and Crystal are done with their job, they encountered Falkner and...Put him out of commission before evacuating." Strategy's leader grunted and motioned him to continue, "Senior Red fought with Cynthia and rendered her and Virizion unconscious, he also let all his pokemon loose and they are now scurrying around the mansion and assisting. Aerodactyl took to the skies and he is breaking down the illusionary barrier surrounding this island. Pika is riding with him and raining lightning down on the armed forces stationed outside. A few of Gold's pokemon are also outside the base. As for the two of them...I'm not sure where Gold went, he disappeared when Red was fighting."

"Trust the two of them never to obey mission protocols." Green seethed and resumed his pacing. "How in Mew's name did that idiot vanish? There are cameras everywhere! Never mind that..." he took a deep breath, "where is Red, Yellow and the others?"

"Senior Red went chasing after Gold" the red head reported, "and Yellow is acting as back up for the juniors. She first helped Sapphire and Dia out of a sticky situation before doubling back for Whi-2. Somehow, Whi-2, Platina and Ruby, who were together, got separated and she ran into some trouble. Ruby and Platina met up with Emerald and Pearl and together they tried to escape but after seeing Saph in trouble with the police, he doubled back to fight instead. Yellow got Whi-2 out safely..."

"Ruby can fight?" the jade eyed man queried incredulously.

"You would be surprised if you saw," Silver quipped, "when it comes to battling, he fights like senior Red." He let the information sink in before speaking further. "Sapphire and Dia tried to escape from the base but a team consisting of three legendries assaulted them, the leader of the team is a blonde man who carries himself like a soldier...Lieutenant Surge from Kanto no doubt; he and two other men cornered Saph and White, upon seeing them, retreated her steps in order to provide assistance." Silver eyes strayed over the monitors and came to a standstill upon witnessing the decisive fight and the thief allowed himself a small smile, "Gold told me that Diamond is working on some sort of new strategy called the Alpha fortress. Apparently, Red told Dia that he is a defender and the boy took this advice seriously."

"Alpha fortress" Green absentmindedly echoed, "tell me about it."

The red head took a split second before answering, "They are grouped in the middle with Dia's pokemon shielding them, Ruby and Saph are doing the main attacking with torterra backing them up, the defences of this formation are impregnable but on the downside, they have less mobility and flexibility during combat." He watched the loose ring of bulky monsters huddle closer together as Entei roared fire; bastiodon reflected the ball of flames back to the legendary creature. Raikou also had trouble executing its lightning based moves, in the narrow space of the passage, all its electricity honed in on torterra, who due to its ground type nature, nullified the attacks. Swampert and blaziken focused their attention on Terrakion, whaling on the earth monster with a series of punches, kicks and deluges of water and the legendary beast fought back with vengeance, despite pitting two well-trained starters against the mythical pokemon, the little band of criminals stood on the losing edge. White negated most of the harsh attacks, absorbing or reflecting them with a barrier and Musha allowed itself to be commanded by her. Silver tore his gaze away from the mesmerizing battle and turned backwards to scrutinize the expression on the professor's face; he seemed to be deep in thought. "What should we do? The legendary holding chamber has been properly secured. As per instructions...we should evacuate, the air space is clear."

"..." Oak ran a hand through his hair before replying, "you evacuate and meet up with Blue. You already know the destination right?" The Johto native nodded, "I'll go look for Gold and Red...And try to assist where I can. A few days later, we will have to come back here in order to gather the legendary pokemon and the contents of the red chain creation room." Silver summoned his honchkrow and after dipping his head respectfully, flew off into the night, Green watched him go and then randomly crashed into a chair, his irises locked on to the monitors and he observed the battles in it silently. As the phantom thief reported, Gold disappeared off the monitors and Red could be seen, banging and screaming down the hallways for his team mate. Outside, Platina and Whi-2 expertly fended off the guards trying to push their way in. There seemed to be no sight of reinforcements and the spiky haired brunette accurately guessed that the police tried to make this sabotage as covert and simple as possible. Before, the Dex-criminals simply high tailed from their base, this time, they fought back and most of the officials found this manoeuvre a bit overwhelming...well they had to fight against the likes of Gold, Red and Sapphire...Suddenly Green felt sorry for the police. They had no idea who they were up against.

"Coward" The word whispered in his head and he got up.

"I'm not a coward." He hissed venomously at no one, pulling up the upper part of his turtle neck to cover his face, Strategy's leader shrugged off his lab coat and threw it on the floor. The article of clothing looked out of place amongst shards of glass and plaster. Motioning charizard to his side, he descended to the second floor of the mansion and in set the third floor on fire. The flickering display of orange flames induced a smirk from him and he beheld the display for a few more minutes before a burning pillar forced him to evacuate. He prioritized searching for Red and stubbornly tamed his thoughts when they veered to Yellow's wellbeing.

BEEP~ BEEP~ BEEP~

The jarring sound of the alarm pounded into his cranium and Dia found it difficult to focus. He sat on the ground and stuffed berries in his mouth whilst his seniors formed a loose circle around him. Around the circle of humans, huge beasts shifted, widening and shrinking the space between with a mechanical precision. Earthen projectiles, tongues of flame and arcs of electricity bounced off tough hides and steel reinforced skulls. Three legendary beasts prowled around them and in the middle of them all, Diamond tired his best to keep his formation intact. He peered at a pokeball cradled in his hands and pressed the switch set in the middle of the capsule. Normally, the ball would open and eject the pokemon living temporarily inside it, however, this particular pokeball did not open and the blue eyed boy had a feeling that the monster contained within judged him. Regigigas the lord of the titans. When he, Pearl and Platina brought the monster back, it refused to get out of its pokeball. After much prodding and probing, Green eventually transferred the creature into a specialized holding cell. The next day, when Crystal and Gold went to give the chamber a customary sweep, they found the titan sitting on top of a smashed glass cage. It rolled itself back into a pokeball and refused to be in anyone's company but Diamond's. Thus the Sinnoh native held on to it, however, the legendary creature never helped its pseudo master in combat.

"Please...we need your help." Dia pleaded with Regigigas. Much to Ruby's chagrin, Sapphire climbed out of the defensive fortress and joined the battle herself. The ruby eyed teen felt conflicted, nonetheless he stayed put and periodically kept an eye on Dia and White. "...He won't answer..." the chubby boy intoned when the Unova native spared him a glance, she nodded understandingly and marshaled her attention back to the heat of battle. At the same time, the ring of beasts making up formation alpha staggered backwards and collapsed inwards and they heard Sapphire scream. Ruby wriggled and managed to push mamoswine's bulk off his leg. He crawled out and stopped dead in his tracks.

Entei had one heavy paw pressed on Saph's chest and a dribble of blood steadily flowed past her lips, his eyes panned sideways and he witnessed a young blonde man drag Dia to another blonde man who wore combat boots. The black haired boy warbled a few incomprehensible words before the older man smacked him hard across his face. Diamond cried out and clutched his throbbing cheek and Ruby couldn't believe his eyes when the gunmetal grey barrel of a pistol pressed against the Sinnoh native's temple.

"You there..." Surge jerked his head to Ruby "drag your other friends out and line them on the side of the wall...Or I'll injure you very badly." The barrel of the gun changed position and the crimson eyed trainer found himself staring into a tiny black hole. Terror seized him as his irises flickered from one friend to the other. "DO AS I SAY OR I"LL SHOOT!" The lieutenant roared and the crimson eyed teen jolted up. Diamond started crying and in the process, dropped Regigigas' ball.

Ruby couldn't recall what happened next.

Volkner apathetically walked after the rolling ball and tried to pick it up after it came to a standstill. Instead, the capsule ruptured at the seams and a white, gargantuan thing unfolded out of the miniscule space and swept a pillar like arm in a horizontal arc. Spellbound, Ruby mutely observed as Regigigas single handedly crushed three legendary pokemon and the police force as well. Walls fissured, the ceiling cracked and he heard a gentle voice calling his name insistently as his surroundings folded into black.

A/N: Gold disappeared to who knows where and Blue gave Falkner a run for his money. As for Surge…well Surge is Surge, enough said. At HeyYouYaYou: You dislike chocolate? How dare-Eh, doesn't really matter, people are entitled to their favorite stuff anyway :P Yes, I plan my introductions and endings together. It makes the story flow smoother. At Silver: 80% cocoa? Beyond perfect, I won't have to share since Mindy can't stomach such stuff. As for you views…I study psychology and it basically maps human behavior and tries to offer an explanation of why we do the things we do. One of my friends studies criminal psychology and we were discussing why people resort to crime. In any case, I probably started believing that there is an excuse for all the bad things we do. However, as you said, there is no justification for murder (unless it's for self-defence and whatnot) And yes, even if they are deranged to some degree, the murderers are entirely regular people. The curriculum should seriously re-introduce philosophy with psychology. Medical ethics don't teach you the things you need to know :/ You should get a masters in philosophy in my opinion. At Jack54311: You basically summed up the entire arc in two sentences. Congrats…is this story that predictable? Man I should've gone for something more twisty! At Guest: Romance? What is that? JK, no romance until the arc ends. Arc 4 contains a bit…but nothing extreme. I write like a pro? Heh, I'll be putting more effort in from now on! Thanks for the compliment.

Once again, virtual 80% dark chocolate for all those who read and reviewed. If you can't eat that stuff…give it back. I'll eat it for you. Anyway, please keep on reading and reviewing, tell me what you think of the next chapter.