Greetings once again everyone! I really hope you enjoyed the last chapter and that you will enjoy this one too. This chapter is the one where we are introduced to the villains of the story, the crime circles, and we further the relationship between Ellie and Viro.

POV: Ellie

I awoke quite late in the day, at roughly noon. I hopped out of bed, still somewhat feeling the pain from the arm wound as I headed downstairs. Once in the main room, I found Valerie and Viro talking. I smiled. He definitely liked her. If they ever did get together, Val would be better for him than Lika, that's for sure. I joined them on the couch. "Afternoon, Ellie." Val greeted with a nod.

"Hey Val. Kid." I teased towards Viro.

"I'm 19. Legally I'm not a kid." Viro deadpanned, causing a burst of laughter from me and a chuckle from Val.

"You know I was kidding." I said as my laughter died down. "Anyways, do we have any missions today, Val?"

"Yes, we do. I need two people to go and check out this abandoned warehouse near the coast. I would send the entire team, but I don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. I asked Marcel; he said he was tired from listening to Lika and Bruce. Lika won't go and she won't tell me why, but I'll investigate that later. Bruce insisted that such a mission was a waste of his valuable time. Cora is out purchasing supplies. That leaves you two. I suppose I could go instead of one of you, but-"

"I'm up for it if Ellie is." Viro cut her off. They both looked towards me. I shrugged.

"Yeah, I'll go."

"Take your map from yesterday. It's on the table in the dining room." Val nodded, her eyes closed.

"What's wrong, Val?" I asked as Viro went to get the map.

"I had to babysit Lika all night again. She waited for me to fall asleep, but I didn't. It's going to be a normal thing." Valerie sighed. I had never thought about it before, but I suppose out-waiting a serial rapist who usually waited very patiently for victims must have been difficult. Viro called for me and I stood hesitantly, looking back at the sleep-deprived from of the Lopunny Morph who gave us a chance before joining Viro at the door and leaving.

We made our way across town in virtually no time, avoiding all of the main paths and, eventually, we spotted the warehouse. Seeing that there were no people patrolling the outside, we quietly made our way inside. Once inside, we hid behind some boxes and listened carefully. I began to hear voices. Familiar ones.

"Damn it, Felix. I get it: I got fucked up by a Ninetales Morph. Can we fucking drop it now?" One voice sighed.

"We drop it once the burn on your stomach goes away." Another voice smugly replied. Peeking over the boxes, I confirmed my suspicions. The Sylveon and the Houndoom Morphs from the alleyway. Fate sure has strange ideas of humor. I ducked back down and explained what I saw to Viro. He nodded in response, though he seemed to be focused on someone else. A Delphox Morph talking with several other Morphs on the other side of the warehouse. By the way he glared, Viro seemed to know him. Deciding that I would ask later, I whispered something to him.

"We should probably leave. I think we know enough, and we're in danger here." He agreed and we made our way to the exit. However, the Delphox spotted us.

"You there!" He shouted across the warehouse, causing us to freeze. "Stay right where you are." He gestured for the other Morphs to follow him over to us. The Sylveon and Houndoom, whose name was Felix as revealed by the Sylveon's sighing earlier, recognized me as soon as they got close.

"Well well well, look who it is, Paul! Your favorite Ninetales!" Felix howled with laughter.

"Felix, I swear to god I will stab you." Paul glared.

"Ah, so this is the Ninetales that caused your injury, Paul?" The Delphox smirked.

"Yep. Don't underestimate her, Liam. She'll fuck us up." Paul shivered.

"Interesting." Liam kept the smile on his face as he backed up from us. "If they wish to interrupt our plans so adamantly, then I'm afraid they'll have to be taken care of. Boys, if you please." Liam kept backing up until he had exited the warehouse, presumably to visit another base of operations.

"The Ninetales is mine. Mine alone. Have fun tearing apart the kid." Paul demanded the rest of the gang as he looked at me with malevolent glee. Viro very subtly elbowed me and pointed to our right. Dynamite. Convenient. He nodded, and I dived towards it. None of the antagonistic Morphs were ready for my move, so I grabbed the fuse with one hand and made a small flame in the other.

"I'd highly recommend letting us go. You might not like what happens when you don't." I glared at them. They all backed off quickly, but I made another suggestion. "You might wanna leave any valuables here." Once again, they complied, leaving most of their money, keys, and other items behind. "Now scram." I smirked, using Felix's own choice of words towards Angie against the gang. They took off. Viro looked at me, wide-eyed.

"Holy shit, that worked!" He smiled.

"You doubted it?" I asked him.

"Uh, yeah. If they were smart they would have just shot us immediately after Liam left."

"They're idiotic. Now let's go, kid. I think we have enough for Val to give us at least a nod of approval."

We made it back to the house as Val was serving lunch. When we told her about the warehouse and everything that went on, she actually smiled. I walked upstairs, content with today, declining lunch offers.

POV SWITCH: Viro

"Make your move." Val said as soon as Ellie was upstairs.

"Now?" I asked, surprised. She looked me in the eyes, and that convinced me. I followed Ellie up and knocked on her door. She opened it, looking happy.

"What's up, ki-" She didn't finish. I cut her off with a kiss. She was surprised at first, but relaxed and began kissing back. After a couple seconds, she pulled away. "What was that about, kid?" She asked me quietly.

"I-I'm sorry, it just...felt right." Cheesy response from me. She smiled.

"Didn't say it wasn't good. I just thought you liked Val, you were talking with her this morning." She responded.

"Uh, yeah... I was asking her for advice." I nervously explained.

"You asked Val for romance advice? Do I have an insane person as my boyfriend?" Ellie laughed.

"I'm your...?" I began, but couldn't finish.

"You made the first move, it's too late to back out now." She teased.

"I'm still not letting you share a room." Val deadpanned as she came upstairs.

"Shut up!" I yelled at her as Ellie laughed behind me.

Good day.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I went to bed at my usual late hour of one in the morning, when Marcel was already fast asleep. As my eyes shut, I couldn't help but think of how amazing today truly was.

POV SWITCH: Ellie

As I made my own way to bed, thinking about Viro, I was ambushed by Lika. She pinned me to the ground. "Stay away from him. He's my property, got it?" She snarled.

"You can't do anything to me without dying yourself. He's not your property. Hell, he isn't mine either. But I'll tell you one thing: I'm much better for him than you are." I responded calmly, eyes still locked with Lika's. She growled.

"I will find a way to kill you. And then I'll have him to myself. Mine. Forever. You want a war? You'll get an apocalypse." With that, Lika got off of me and entered her room. Unfazed by her empty threats, I entered my room, climbed into my bed, and began to drift off to sleep.

POV SWITCH: Liam

Paul and Felix had failed me. That much was certain. However, I kept them around. Perhaps they'd make good meatshields. How they couldn't kill a Ninetales and a Servine was beyond me, but then they also were forced to leave behind their valuables. Embarrassing. Whatever. I still had a few useful things in my arsenal. One sat behind me in a large cage, covered with a tarp. A smaller cage also nearby contained a Half-Breed (called Morphs by lesser men) that would lead the two disruptions to their doom. Then of course, there was my inside agent in the disruptions' little group. I had no doubt that the information gained from the inside agent would prove useful, which is why I even used my valuable time to bribe one of them.

The disruptions wanted a war?

They'd get an apocalypse.

Okay, so we got another Ellie-focused chapter. I'm sorry if that's a disappointment to some, she's just a really fun character to write for. There were several hints of foreshadowing in this chapter, and then there's the established romantic relationship between Ellie and Viro. Some may see this as, "Coming out of nowhere" and "completely unexplained" but I've actually been hinting at this from the very beginning. It was always planned, it wasn't made up on the fly.

Please share with me your thoughts.