-Chapter XVI: Flawed, Yet Necessary-

-Alice-

"You do realize that this is a stupid idea, right?" Connor said. "If we got caught, it'd be over for us."

"But we won't get caught! I just need to get in there using some of Galvantula's camouflage webbing, do some scouting, get out! It's no big deal! And even if I do get caught, we've got Tyranitar!" Alice said. After seeing how powerful its cloaking abilities were, she had confidence that using the webbing to sneak in would work.

They all turned to the stone colossus looking over their shoulders at the map of Immanis, and he blinked rapidly. "Don't drag me into this. How do you think I can help?"

She winked at him, causing him to blush in spite of himself. "Easy! If I happened to get caught and I'm not able to sweet talk my way out of it, I can just use baton pass to swap our positions, catching them off guard while you use your mega form to obliterate them!"

Grovyle's eyes widened slightly, and Briar spoke up. "This is assuming that they don't have a countermeasure for camouflage, which is a high probability. Aside from that, what if you cannot switch with him? What then?"

She shrugged slightly. "I dunno… I literally thought of it two minutes ago…"

"Okay, Alice, your idea is a good one. But if we're talking scouting… I vote that Tyranitar goes in to begin with. He is an intimidating pokémon, and they don't know that he's with us," Connor said. "He can sign up or whatever, get in that place, do some inspecting of the base, then come back to us! And he doesn't even need to sneak around with camo webbing!"

"Or…" Tyranitar said, "We could leave me out of this."

Vulcan tilted his head and took a step towards the towering stone pokémon. "Why? You're like the strongest one here!"

Tyranitar rubbed the back of his head and smiled nervously. "I don't like confrontation."

"Don't tell me," Roy jested, "Are you scared?"

"Of course not." He frowned slightly. "I avoid fighting not because I'm afraid of the threat, but because I know what I'm capable of doing to that threat. I'm not one to brag, but even Atlas doesn't scare me."

"What?" Atlas stood up, a passionate fire lighting in his eyes. "You want to run that by me again?"

"I'm saying that you don't pose a threat to me." Tyranitar leaned back casually, resting his head on the dirt wall of the hut.

Atlas' fists began glowing and he stepped closer to the colossus, a challenging smile forming on his face. "You want to test your theory? Let's go right now!" Alice saw where this was going, and she didn't like it. Atlas loved threats like that. He was always fighting to be the toughest one.

Tyranitar rolled his eyes slightly, but couldn't stop a slight smile. "Save your energy, Atlas.

"Atlas, wait-" Before she could stop him, he swung with a full-force dynamic punch, but faster than any of them could see, Tyranitar stood up, dodged the swing, spun on a dime and used iron tail to pin Atlas to the wall, all in one motion. Alice's jaw dropped at the sheer speed that this Tyranitar had.

Atlas used his upper arms to push off of the dirt walls while his lower arms grabbed Tyranitar's tail, but before anything else could happen, Tyranitar used thunder wave to end the little skirmish. His eyes flashed blue and Atlas collapsed to the ground, shuddering.

She ran over to him and grabbed his face, glaring at him after using heal bell to stop the shaking. "What in the world were you thinking?! How does fighting him help any of us?!"

He gently picked her up with his lower arms and stood up with a slight smile, still facing the colossal rock-type. "Hmph. You're fast, Tyranitar."

"Thanks."

Galvantula stepped between them after Atlas tensed up again. "Okay, not that I'm against letting you two duke it out, but we're supposed to be saving our energy for the other fights."

Atlas grunted in disapproval. "You guys are all supposed to be super powerful and are able to fight armies, but you can't even kill a few evil pokémon that are hunting us. What fights are we even saving our energy for?"

"The forces that allow us to be here forbid-" Grovyle began before being cut off.

"You mean Dialga?" Connor questioned. "He let you guys come back here? Because Celebi needs permission from him now that he's all not crazy, right?"

The grass-type clenched his fists slightly, but nodded. "Yes. Under the oath that we would not kill any pokémon from this time."

"Okay, I see several loopholes in that rule, first of all." Galvantula said. "I think I already told you guys, but let me tell you again. One loophole is that we can beat the snot out of everyone in our path, even knock 'em unconscious. That's not a problem. Another loophole is that we simply get Celebi over here to put them in an entirely different temporal pocket, then we kill them in there, since they're technically not in this timeline!"

"Can she do that?" Alice asked.

"Of course she-ow!" Celebi slapped the back of his head and glared at him. "I can do no such thing! Don't go lying to them! Honestly, I don't see why..."

Whatever she was about to say, she stopped herself. Alice tried to sense any signs of unusual emotion coming from her, but her emotional mask was almost as perfect as Grovyle's.

He sighed and looked at the time-walking pokémon levitating above him. "You can't? I could've sworn… Welp, whatever. Still got one loophole at least."

"So we send Tyranitar into the base," Dusknoir pondered, "Then what? What is the plan from there? Simply a scouting mission?"

"Yes," Briar said. "Although we will need more than just one pokémon's word to determine if there truly is a-"

"It's there."

They all turned to Dawn, and she spoke up again. "I read the Scolipede's mind and saw the images in his head. It's there. I know it."

"How secure is the base?" Basileus questioned. "Surely they have some sort of security measures to prevent unauthorized access?"

"It's surprisingly low…. From what I saw. They only have a couple watchtowers manned by some Helioptile. If somebody recognizes you as a spy or whatever, then they'll just gang up on you and either kill you or torture you. That's security enough, I guess." She shut her eyes even tighter, as if concentrating, then perked up. "I sense a large gathering of pokémon in the area described. There is definitely something there."

"Okay, if we're doing a recon mission, I wish to attend. For added security measures, of course. Safety in numbers, after all!" Roy beamed.

"How do you plan on sneaking in? They'll recognize you straight away," Briar said. "I fear that the only reason you weren't killed by those mysterious attackers is because they weren't sure if was you. After all, Dusknoir is not on any records that are affiliated with your team, and as such didn't kill you for fear that you weren't the one they were after. But now, they have likely put a bounty on Dusknoir, Grovyle and Dawn, since they participated in your rescue, and will know to attack you on sight."

Roy's face morphed into an unamused glare. "Okay… That sounds fun and all, but I don't actually plan on attending the event physically. I can hide in Tyranitar's shadow, and only reveal myself if the need arises."

Tyranitar nodded in agreement. "I'll take that offer. Better to have a backup just in case."

"I can help from here," Dawn added. "I can communicate with Roy using my telepathy. If anything happens, we'll know."

Grovyle grunted in approval. "You're alright, Dawn." He turned to Tyranitar, and his expression became even more serious. "Remember, you can't use earthquake or outrage. And you can't kill anyone. Not even indirectly."

Tyranitar groaned. "That's not my style of fighting, Grovyle! You know that!"

"I do know. But you have to abide by the rules for now. But... perhaps Celebi could reason with him, and convince him to alter that restriction. Who's to say? Just don't forget that we are here to assist Team Firestorm. Not fight their battles for them. If things get bad, retreat. Don't try to be the hero. Alright?"
Seeing the four foot tall, slender grass-type command this eight foot tall, hulking rock-type was a strange enough sight. She found it kind of amusing, yet incredible at the same time. That this pokémon, that could probably beat all of them, would submit to any authority.

Tyranitar shrugged. "No promises."

Grovyle clenched his fists and shook his head. "I can't permit you to go unless you can look me in the eyes and tell me that you won't do anything brash."

Tyranitar stared him down, but Grovyle's unwavering gaze eventually won, and Tyranitar took a deep breath. "I won't do anything stupid."

Grovyle kept staring at him, but after a moment, nodded slightly. "Fine. Now, before we go and make any hasty decisions, we need a plan."

"Man, screw planning! If things go south, which they probably will, then we're gonna have to rely on cold, hard instincts!" Galvantula was suddenly very aggressive in his manner of speech, which caught Alice off guard. His emotional waves hadn't changed intensity at all, so there was literally no warning.

Grovyle, apparently, had experienced this yellow bug's randomness before. He just put his head in his hand and groaned. "Galvantula, we have to plan for the worst-case scenario. For example, let's assume that they are able to subdue him. What will we do? We can't fight them head on at the moment, and there is no telling what kind of enemies they have among their ranks, and as such, we must be prepared to act if anything were to happen."

"Okay… Fine. Let's hear a plan. Briar, you got the deets?"

"The what?"

Galvantula replied with an almost unnoticeable annoyance. "Details. Do you have any details on what we're up against? I mean, we kind of read up on these guys before we came here, but-" Briar cleared her throat, stopping him in his tracks. "We have researched extensively about them, but there are no records of any such group existing in any criminal or exploration database at any time surrounding this century."

"Wait, no records at all?" Connor asked. "What does that mean?"

"It means that this group doesn't exist in your timeline. There are no records of anything."

"So…" Roy began, "Do you mind explaining that in a way that makes sense to us normal pokémon who don't have time-travelling friends that take them on walks through time when they're bored?"

"...I don't know how to explain it… This group, by all means, shouldn't exist. We are tied directly to your timeline on the temporal tree, and have heard nothing of them before Amber told us. Allow me to explain…" She turned to the center of the chamber, and a medium-sized oak tree grew from the ground, splitting into three separate trunks that each branched off on their own, forming mini-trees along each stump. She marked the bottom of the tree with some sort of bioluminescent moss, where all three trunks connected. "This is the origin of creation. When all three worlds, Varius-Our world, Concordia-where humans and pokémon live in harmony, and Terra-the world without pokémon, were all one. Time… is like a tree. I know that many other beings compare it to a river that twists and becomes crooked when time travel occurs, but that is inaccurate. Time is a solid construct that oversees all things, and does not flow wildly if anyone interferes. It simply creates a new branch of reality. If one branch dies, another grows in its place. Dialga's first heartbeat marked the beginning of time itself, which is marked at the ground. As you go further up the tree, it splits into the three worlds. Each world has their own multiple timelines. Team Firestorm, your reality is right where this world begins to branch off and create multiple limbs, or 'realities', per se. One such reality was the future of darkness where Grovyle was born. When we changed that branch of time, we were supposed to be eradicated from existence, but we weren't. Arceus himself bestowed a gift upon us. A gift for a new life. In this new life, we all lived happily for many years, enjoying the new sunlight, the wind, the blue skies… Everything that we had missed for over four hundred years."

"Did you say four hundred?" Mirage asked. "That's a lot… You guys look good for some four hundred year-old grass-types."

Briar smiled gently and continued her explanation. "Thank you. Time wasn't a factor that contributed to our aging. Now, where does this mafia group come into play? Connor, when you travelled back in time with Grovyle, you created team Firestorm alongside Vulcan the Charmander. His father possessed the key to the hidden land, but was mysteriously killed. It is unknown by us who did such a thing, but we presume that the Mafia did it, after gathering resources in the future. With his dying breath, he bestowed it upon Team Core. They gave it to Vulcan when he had come of age. In other words, fourteen, in Charmander's aging years. Together, your leaders stopped the destruction of time, and as such, Connor, Grovyle, and all of us were eradicated from time as we know it. Completely erased from existence. But Dialga brought your leader back after six months of silence, and your team continued to grow. We read about your team in the future… You were the most renowned exploration team in Immanis. For some reason unbeknownst to us, your team suddenly disappeared. It vanished without a trace. No police records, no outlaw records, no bodies found. Nothing. Upon coming to this timeline, I had no idea what to expect. Amber explained that a vicious group led by a Bisharp named Mordred had begun killing your team. Upon researching further, we still don't know if they do, in fact, annihilate you. But we are here to help prevent your disappearance."

"Okay… So… what you're saying is… in your timeline, we disappear without a trace? How do we do that? I mean, we're kind of a big deal. I don't mean to brag or anything, but it's a fact." Roy said jokingly.

Alice was suddenly struck with an amazing idea. "I'll go with Tyranitar."

Everyone stopped their conversation and turned to her. No turning back now. She took a deep breath and began explaining her plan. "Okay… Sorry, I was just thinking about the plan. If I go with him pretending to be a prisoner, like, let's say he carries me in, I pretend to be unconscious. If things get dicey, I'll use baton pass out of nowhere and one of you guys busts in. You attack Tyranitar, but only a little bit. Tyranitar, you act super surprised and pretend to be overwhelmed. That'll protect your association with us, and give us a little bit to escape. Dawn, can you teleport other pokémon that are far away?"

"It's difficult," she stated, "But not impossible. I'll need to conserve my strength for that. Usually the closer you are the easier it is. But why not take an escape orb?"

"Because they only work in Mystery Dungeons," Connor said. "They might be in a mystery dungeon, so we'll give Tyranitar a few orbs, but just in case, we need you to be able to get them out of there if things go south."

Tyranitar nodded slowly. "I like this whole plan."

"Yeah, Alice totally goes against the stereotype of dumb pretty girls! She's smart and gorgeous!" Galvantula beamed.

"Uh… Thanks?" Alice didn't really know how to take that statement. Did he think that she was dumb beforehand?

Atlas glared at him, and Galvantula laughed. "Don't worry, muscles. I'm not gonna be mr. steal-your-girl. She's way too in love with you. Am I not allowed to give compliments to your teammates?"

Atlas seemed to think about it for a minute before nodding. "I guess you can… But that was kind of a weird thing to say."

"I know I'm weird."

"And Immature," Alice added.

"It's not being immature, it's called having fun. You guys should try it after we kick some bad guy butt. Come crash at our place and enjoy some drinks made by none other than the gorgeous Celebi! After all, Vulcan let us hide out in his MTV Crib that had an ocean view of the sunset and everything back when we first got here, it's only right we repay the favor by fixing the place once all this settles down!" He lowered his voice and leaned over to Alice, "And between you and me, Celebi makes way better drinks than Spinda ever could… But he's really good. ...Don't tell anyone I said that."

"I'll be... sure to note that."

"Okay, back to the plan," Grovyle drew everyone's attention back to him. "So Tyranitar takes Alice, she pretends to be unconscious or something. If Mordred is there, which I presume he is, he'll want her alive. He'll bet on us sending a rescue party to get her, then trap us. He'll probably bring her to either a stockade or a prison."

"What if he wants her killed right then and there?" Atlas asked. "Tyranitar can't fatally harm anyone, and Alice can only fight so many pokémon at once."

She winked at him and used a light attract. She didn't want to force him to do anything, but she needed him to cooperate. "Don't worry about me, hon! I can take care of myself!"

She felt his anxiety lower, and she silently thanked Arceus for giving her someone that could be calmed down easily. "Yeah, but still… What if that happens?"
"Then I will be here to teleport them out," Dawn said.

"But why not send Vincent to..." Atlas stopped mid-sentence as tears welled in his eyes. Grief overtook him, and Alice couldn't help but tear up as well. The little Smeargle had been Atlas' best friend since he was a Machop, and for a moment, he had forgotten that Vincent wasn't here. He clenched his fists and looked at the ground. "...Never mind. S-Sorry."

She felt a wave of sadness wash over the group, replacing the hopefulness in their eyes and spirits. This was too much for her. But she had to stay strong. Jade could do it, and she had lost more than anyone else on the team. She sighed as she realized that she couldn't do anything about this. Almost everyone that she had practically grown up with as a Buneary and Lopunny were dead, and the ones remaining were being hunted by the very group that killed them.
Nobody said anything for a long while, and after everyone was silent for their fallen teammates, Amber spoke up. "So when do you propose we execute this plan, Connor?"

"The sooner the better. It will give us more time to come up with a plan on how to attack them once we scout the place."

"...Very well. It's a bit lacking in details, but our knowledge is very limited, so it will have to do… Tyranitar. Alice. Are you ready to go?"

"What? Right now?"

"Yes. There is nothing else we can learn by lying in wait. We have no knowledge of this group, so we will have to learn while we're here." The Charizard replied.

Briar shook her head slightly, and Alice could feel a hint of worry coming from the Sceptile. "I don't find it wise to do this…"

"What would you suggest, then? Wait for them to find us?" As Amber's anger became more apparent, Alice became more and more fearful. Her power seemed to radiate more intensely, and for a moment, Alice wondered if Amber's emotions played a key factor in her power, similarly to Jade.

"...I am not saying that. I just… I am worried, that's all." Amber's scowl deepened, and she opened her mouth to reply, but was cut short by Galvantula.
"Hey, chill, guys." he placed a hand on each of them. "We all know that Briar worries about every little thing that could go wrong. But what other choice do we have? You both have really good points, but Amber's right. We can't wait this one out. They have more resources and 'monpower."

Briar nodded. "That is precisely why I am reluctant to send Tyranitar and Alice out blindly into enemy territory. Tyranitar has the most raw power out of any of us, and Alice's ability to bend male pokémon to her will provides an incredible ability to work with. Risking either of them on random chance could put us in a position worse than when we began."

"Puh-lease! Tyranitar's the toughest one here! And he's the Alpha! Nothing these guys can throw at him will beat him!" Galvantula boasted.

"There are too many unknown variables. If we send them into enemy territory without knowing what kind of security measures are in place, the operation will fail!"

"Or maybe it won't! Briar, you need to take some risks sometimes! I think they'll be fine!"

"I do not gamble with the lives of my teammates. The only reason that I am permitting this at all is because my opinion is vastly outweighed at the moment."

Alice took this time to read these guys and how they acted. Briar was a very smart pokémon. She knew that from when she's a Grovyle in this timeline, in the past… Boy, that's confusing. But she relies too much on logic and formulating plans to accommodate for every scenario. She didn't like to take any risks, which was both good and bad. No risks meant no loss. But no risk in this scenario meant delaying the inevitable, and no chance of victory. And she didn't like being hunted like this.

Galvantula… Oh, man… She had no clue about him. One minute he's here, the next minute he's there. He was very child-like in many ways, such as his positivity and joking. He was fairly relaxed and questioning, and he obviously didn't follow most rules set in place. He is random and a very quick thinker, which most pokémon don't anticipate. He was best friends with Tyranitar, based on his high regard for the rock-type's strength.

Grovyle… She had never personally met him before now, but Atlas had told her all about his mission, about how Connor had disappeared for six months or something, and how he was from the future. It was kind of a weird thing to wrap her mind around. Grovyle seemed to be a lot like Connor. Ruthless when facing an enemy, and willing to die for his friends. He and Celebi were obviously in a relationship, and it was difficult to tell what had happened with Dusknoir and Grovyle. Atlas had said that Dusknoir was some evil bounty hunter from the future sent to kill Connor and Grovyle, but if that were the case, why would Grovyle, Tyranitar, or any of them trust him? Ghost-types didn't operate on the same emotional spectrum that other pokémon did, which meant that he was difficult to read. Since he didn't necessarily have a face aside from his stomach, it was difficult to tell what he was thinking just by looking at him.

"-like a plan. Alice?"

"Huh?" She didn't hear any of the conversation, and Connor's voice shook her from her thoughts.

"Did you not get any of that?"

"No… Sorry."

Connor sighed and said, "We're going with your second plan. The one where he brings you in to look more believable. Roy will be hiding in Tyranitar's shadow, as a surprise attacker if things go bad. And second, Mordred will be betting on us sending a rescue operation to come get you. And that's exactly what we're going to do."

"Won't that be doing exactly what he wants? You'll all be killed!"

"Not necessarily." Dawn spoke up. "They won't expect such a direct attack. He'll expect us to come around or try and sneak in, probably by using Jade or Roy. They can melt into shadows, so it makes the most sense. If we attack directly, like, crash through the gate and Connor uses surf or something, we should be able to get you guys out no problem."

"Alright, so who's going to come rescue us if things go south?"

"...We were thinking about sending Connor and Mirage. What do you think about that-"

"It's good! I mean… Yeah. That's good. We've got Connor and Mirage… Yeah." As long as Atlas and Jade don't go, we're fine. I don't know if Jade would keep her composure and common sense about her. And Atlas will die trying to protect only me. Which is good… But not what we want for a rescue.

"Very well." Briar stood up, dwarfing everybody else except Tyranitar and Basileus. "Before we begin, Alice… May I have a word with you in private?"

She felt everyone's confusion around her, even the rest of the Insurgo. This must be something important if Briar hadn't told anyone else. "Sure."

She followed the Sceptile out of the chamber, ignoring everyone's murmuring behind them.

-Connor-

"...Okay… Anyone else know what Briar's telling her?" Galvantula looked really confused. Same with everyone else. Connor realized that she must have been keeping this to herself. But what does Briar need Alice for that she can't tell us? Or even the rest of the Insurgo?

"Basileus? G? Either of you know what's going on?"

They both crossed their arms in thought, and Basileus shook his head. "I do not. But I trust her judgement. As long as she says we can go on with the plan, that's what we'll do."

Galvantula shrugged and crawled over to his bed. "Well… Imma just take a nap then. This is too stressful for me."

Jade scoffed at him, and he opened two of his six eyes. "What, a guy can't take a nap nowadays?"

Jade tilted her head. "Um… They can, but…"

"I'm just messing with you! Goodness! You all make it out alive, so chill!" he laid his head down, then quickly said, "No pun intended."

Briar and Alice strode back in, side by side. Atlas looked at Alice, and they seemed to communicate through their eyes, not even muttering a word to each other.

"Dawn, prepare to teleport them."

Roy nodded slowly and she pulled the ghost-type into a hug before letting go and levitating over to them. Connor found himself smiling at that sight. That a psychic took a liking to a ghost-type. Almost as cool as an Ice type and a grass-type. But Dawn stood up and looked as serious as ever. "Let's get started."

-Alice-

Tyranitar lumbered closer to her, and Dawn held her arm out in front of her. "Here we go, guys… I'll keep in touch, alright? Don't die on me."

Alice smiled slightly and nodded. "You got it." She looked straight at Atlas and tears formed in her eyes for a brief moment. I'll come back…. I promise.

"Now just because you have a team to come get you doesn't mean you can be reckless. You are to act as if you are on your own." Briar stared into her eyes relentlessly until she agreed. Briar's words echoed in her mind. There is a very real possibility that you won't come back. Are you willing to sacrifice everything?

"Yes." She whispered to herself.

Dawn closed her fist and her eyelids began glowing, and everything around her turned white and gold as she was whisked away alongside the stone colossus.

D'awww snap! Looks like they got a plan! It's a bit lacking on details, as Amber said, but it's not like they can learn any more by lying in wait! And what did you guys think of Briar's explanation of Time? Pretty good? Confusing? Feel free to let me know! As always, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter! It is one of the more lengthy ones, but feel free to leave any questions, comments, concerns or theories about what might happen in the form of a Review or PM! Much Love!

-PL