The season passed once more and winter is about to come to an end. Unova will be welcoming the spring season soon. Without knowing it, I have already experienced two and a half seasons in Unova, more than half a year here.

Investigations on the Team Plasma problem came to a standstill once again. Ever since the volcarona incident it's like they had ceased all activities and decided to lay low, which was very contradictory to how they usually operate. The investigations regarding the large underground labyrinth were also being disrupted because Team Plasma purposely caused massive cave-ins at sections that we had not yet explored and by the time we discovered them, continuing to map the blockaded sections became impossible and thus, we still have no idea how extensive and wide that labyrinth was and where it ultimately led to.

What I do know was that the Unova League found evidence that heavily suggests that Isaac Euclid had been, or was still, involved with Team Plasma. We still have no definitive proof so he was being secretly kept a close eye upon by the League, who were still hoping to catch him in the act red-handed or to continue to observe him in secret in hopes of identifying more people who are working for the Plasmas. Again, no progress on this matter.

I remembered that Team Plasma was said to have a "King", and so I decided to try investigating from this end as well. Team Plasma's core members were said to be seven people who claimed to be the next coming of the Seven Sages. From what I knew, the tale of the Seven Sages was a popular bedtime story that every Unovan will know, telling the tale of when the world was at its darkest times seven people will rise up to save the day or something similar to that effect. I could care less if the legend is true but if what Velda told me much later on was correct, we were somehow related to this stupid legend.

So, does that mean that we are the "true" Seven Sages? Bah, load of crap.

What we do know was that the leader of Team Plasma's Seven Sages goes by the name of Ghetsis. There really wasn't much of a clue about who he really is beyond that. If we want to investigate Ghetsis we need to come into contact with him, or someone who is close enough to him. Either that, or find a way to lure him out of his hidey hole somehow.

What could they be planning? What is their true goal? Is it to really liberate all pokemon, or much more?

"Going out on a mission?"

"Yeah, the missing people case that is all the rage these days? It's now bad enough that the higher-ups thought it would be best to involve us in the investigations," Miguel replied as he did one final check of his equipment before putting on his helmet. Miguel and Patricia were being sent out on a mission by Megan whose details are only disclosed to the three of them.

Everyone frowned upon learning about the new mission that Miguel and Patricia were being sent on. It first started about close to two months ago, where people suddenly just went missing one after the other en masse. It eluded notice from the authorities at first because people go missing all the time, but the frequency and occurrences had suddenly spiked exponentially, so much that it quickly garnered attention from the entire region and is inciting quite a panic throughout the entirety of the Unova region. The ordinary folk are so afraid of going out of their homes alone and most are starting to only head out in small groups. This is starting to have a really negative impact on the region on many levels.

Most people are in agreement that this is a large-scale organised crime of kidnapping, but the unexplainable thing is that nobody could pinpoint any shared similarities of all officially recorded missing people in this period of time. Assuming that all the missing people cases are instances of abductions, be it the victims themselves or the supposed scenes of the crimes, nobody could discern a definitive pattern for anyone to start investigating and everyone has hit a dead end on this matter.

Usually Omega or Beta would be the teams sent on a mission of this nature instead of Alpha, but further developments in this investigation had pushed the higher ups to decide to request reinforcements from Alpha. They currently have too much on their plates to be able to tackle this on their own.

"Might be dangerous," Patricia shrugged as she put on her helmet as well, "last I heard some of our comrades from Beta and Omega had gone dark too, so we are assuming that the worst might have happened to them."

"So what are you two going to do? Verify if they are dead or alive?"

"Yup. If needed, we will bail them out as well. Alright, we gotta go. See you when we see you."

"Take care," I bidded my colleagues farewell as Patricia and Miguel set off for their missions. This might be a Plasma-related problem, it might not be, nobody would know until somebody can confirm something.

"I feel uneasy," Reed confided in me after we sent Miguel and Patricia off. "I don't know why, but I just… It's that feeling, you know?"

"Me too," I voiced my agreement, because this phenomena was clearly not normal. No patterns, no warnings, just unexplainable disappearances one after the other from all over the region and now even people from EDGE are starting to go missing too. Something must be up.

"We will be on standby until their mission is completed," Megan informed us with a solemn look on her face the moment we returned to the office. "Chances are, Miguel and Patricia might run into a problem or two in their own investigations. I really hope that it will not come to this, but be ready to be scrambled at any time, I might need the full Alpha to be in on this."

"The last time all of us were on a mission together it was during the Plasma Uprising," Zoe grimaced, obviously not having any fond memories about that particular period.

Megan sighed, the words she spoke felt a lot heavier than it sounded.

"Let's just hope that it won't be another uprising."


Due to the severity of the situation I had also decided to not abuse my privilege as a Dandolos and instead, stay in camp like the rest of the team to assist Alpha just in case Miguel and Patricia would need reinforcements. Night fell, the sun rose, and the peace was finally broken by the time it was evening the next day.

"Alpha, with me, we are moving out."

Those words from Megan were all it took for us to hurry and scramble. We got our pokemon, changed into our combat suits and reassembled back at the deployment room. I was the first to be ready and arrived at the room when my phone suddenly rang. I really shouldn't be picking up the call now when we were about to be urgently deployed on a mission soon, but something, a premonition perhaps, convinced me to pick the call up.

"It's me."

"Cousin, bad news," Leticia's anxiousness could be clearly heard over the phone and my heart dropped, because if there was anything that could get Leticia to be this anxious it cannot be anything good.

"I'm listening."

"Amelia and Lexus brought Iris out to play today. Nowhere too far, close to home, but they were attacked. It was clearly planned and even Lexus was defeated before Amelia could call for help. Iris is gone, cousin. Whoever the attackers might be, they were here for Iris and they abducted her. They knew she was with us."

I could feel my fist clenching tightly upon hearing this bad news but this was not the time to let my rage get the better of me.

How dare they

"I'm about to go on a mission to investigate the missing people case. Sorry Let, I cannot be there now but I will try to be back as soon as possible. Are Amelia and Lexus okay?"

"Injured, but they will recover. Iris…"

"She's a champ, she will be fine. Was Haxy with her?"

"Yes."

"Then hopefully things will turn out well. Iris' abduction may be related to the case I'm working on, maybe I might get a lead or two after this is over. I will keep you posted as soon as I can."

"We will handle things here and continue to search for Iris, so don't worry too much. Stay safe, cousin."

"You too."

The call ended and by then the rest of Alpha had also arrived.

"Something happened?"

"My champ was abducted," I tried to quell my rage and keep it out of my voice but I know I'm failing spectacularly. I took a deep breath, released it, and faced my Team Captain once more.

"I won't let my emotions get in the way. Her abduction may be related to this case and more importantly, Miguel and Patricia must be in really big trouble if you decide to mobilise all of us. I'm not emotionally compromised, if that is what you are worried about."

Am I worried about Iris? Yes, very much so. Miguel and Patricia are also very likely in grave peril now and I cannot be in two places at once. As much as it pained me to make a choice, I have to do just that.

I have no doubt that my family is sparing no effort to look for Iris. Meanwhile, I'm currently too far away to be of any help and all leads would have gone cold by the time I returned. If that's the case, I am of better use in assisting EDGE to search for Miguel and Patricia. They were assisting to investigate the missing people case to begin with and it is very likely that Iris' abduction is related to it as well. In that case, I might just be able to get a new lead or two just by participating in this mission. We might as well take a two-pronged approach to search for clues on just who and where Iris was being abducted to.

And in the worst case scenario, that if I wasn't able to reach her in time… I will bury her killers myself then, upturn the entire region if I have to do so to flush them out. Will I have regrets if the worst were to happen? Yes, definitely, but that's just life, isn't it? Life is always full of regrets. Mine are full of them. You don't always have the best solutions to your problems.

Megan looked at me in silence for a short moment trying to make the best decision before deciding to trust my words.

"Very well. Alpha, move out."

We were teleported to our destination, somewhere I didn't really recognise but now was not the time for sightseeing. We followed after Megan as we stealthily followed after her until we hid ourselves within the dense foliage of the area, blending very well into our surroundings thanks to the fact that the sun was starting to set.

"Right, here's what's going on. We are now somewhere southeast of Unova, west of Striaton City. Miguel and Patricia followed the leads Beta and Omega had managed to salvage from a few of our fellow BS comrades shortly before they had gone dark and this was what they had found. Look."

We peered ahead, spotting what seems to be a large rundown building hidden deep within the woods.

"It's an abandoned research facility as far as we can tell, not documented within the League's records so it's not League sanctioned. Basically, hostile and unknown. Beta and Omega alerted me when Miguel and Pat had not reported back by the agreed time, so here we are. What we are going to do is to go in there and hope Miguel and Pat are still alive and if so, extract them. Salvage anything that looks useful if we have the time. Needless to say, hope for the best but prepare for the worst."

"I can cover our advance forward with zoroark, but his illusions do not really cover sound all that well. We have to remain silent," I offered and Megan gave her approval.

"Doable. Let's go."

We stealthily made our way towards the abandoned facility with a select few pokemon by our side. We scanned our surroundings and once we were sure that we were in the clear, proceeded to enter the facility.

"Dreamyard. Is that the name of the place?"

We looked at where Reed had pointed to a worn out rusty sign nailed to a wall near the entrance. We exchanged glances, only to find that everyone was shaking their heads. None of us had heard of Dreamyard before.

"Keep moving."

We kept moving inwards, cautiously combing the place only to find that it seemed like it hadn't been used in ages. If Miguel and Patricia had indeed come here before, it's like they vanished into thin air.

We found a flight of stairs that led downwards and seeing that there were no other places left that we could possibly explore, made the decision to head downwards as well.

The basement we found ourselves in was dark, but still well lit enough that we could walk around without needing to utilise the night vision function installed into our visor. We were halfway into carefully exploring the place when Zoe gave us a silent signal to stop. She sensed something.

"What is it?" Megan asked in a soft whisper as we gathered around Zoe. Zoe simply pointed in a direction.

"There, I sense people."

We exchanged glances. Megan quickly came to a decision as I silently signalled to spiritomb to see if he could sense anything as well. I could have released exeggutor to do the sensing instead, but he would have made too much noise given his size and right now stealth was our priority.

"No negative emotions, at least towards us," I conveyed to the team what spiritomb had conveyed to me.

"Alright, let's see who's waiting for us. Eyes on me," Megan instructed as she and her durant took point while the rest of us took our respective positions, prepared to assist and jump into battle at the first given opportunity.

We found our missing members instead.

Right in the room was a huge rusty cage and within it, our comrades. Miguel was lying on the floor, a huge bloody gash on the side of his abdomen and was trying his best to stay conscious. Patricia was unconscious, lying face first on the floor and while it did not look like she's injured, at least outwardly, we cannot be sure.

"C-Cap…" Miguel grunted out in pain when Megan finally reached him. Her durant wasted no time in chewing the bars of the cage away, allowing us entry. Reed and Zoe immediately fan out to keep a lookout with their pokemon as I did the same, all the while keeping my eyes and ears sharp for anything that might make an unexpected appearance.

"Easy, Miguel. Breathe, stay with us, think about your wife and kids. You are gonna be fine."

"Those… sick fucks…" Miguel gasped in between breaths as Megan hurriedly applied first aid to try and stop the blood flow. "Plasma… They… They are harvesting Ability Holders… Missing people… All… Holders…"

"Harvesting?"

Zoe's confusion was in no way lesser than our own.

"We… saw… See the blood stains…" Miguel weakly pointed a finger towards the corner of the room. Right there lies what seems to be a crudely put together operating table, a very dirty and unhygienic one.

"Pat and I… we were caught by some…Pink gas... There were… a lot more… kidnapped people earlier… I think… They might come… back to… harvest us... We watched… Oh fuck, it was so sick. They were... harvesting organs from Ability Holders while they were alive and… screaming… and…"

"Miguel, you need to stay calm!" Megan quickly reminded Miguel with a worried whisper when it was obvious that Miguel's agitation had indirectly caused increased bleeding of his wound. She then turned to look at me.

"Jayce, let's just get out of here and return another time. Call your exeggutor. At this rate Miguel won't make it."

"I'm on it."

I released exeggutor. If this place is near Striaton City he is entirely capable of teleporting us back to Nimbasa in one trip.

'Master Jayce, intruders. They just entered the place and will be here in minutes.'

Exeggutor's warning made me quickly sign a silent gesture to Alpha for Contact. Megan gave us a reply gesture and we immediately received her orders. We immediately found places to hide ourselves in order to best prepare for an ambush.

'If things go wrong, be prepared to Teleport us right away. Get Miguel and Patricia out of here first, they will need medical attention,' I mentally instructed exeggutor while we were waiting, hidden by zoroark's illusions. I then radioed my team after sensing the abnormalities with my ability.

"Cap, I sense a bunch of dark types. Whoever is coming may very well be Dark Specialists."

"Roger that. Miguel said that he and Patricia were defeated by some pink gas, keep a lookout for such a thing. Reed, that's your job, get your bugs to fan it away from us if you see anything remotely pink. Zoe, forget about taking them alive, crush them the first chance you get, we are not risking anything. Jayce, go wild if you have to, I will handle the defence. If things get too hot we run immediately, so make sure your exeggutor knows that. I will prepare gardevoir too."

We heard footsteps from the stairs which we used to descend into the basement. The footsteps were unhurried, clacking their way down until it came to a stop and an unfamiliar voice cut through the silence.

"It seems that we have guests."

Everything immediately exploded into a flurry of motions. Zoe leapt into the air before crashing down at the targets with her fighting types in a battlecry, smashing the floor into smithereens. Reed and his bug types buzzed and provided support from afar as Megan and her steel types helped tanked blows that might have harmed Zoe while she was momentarily defenceless. Zoe's attack had missed, or more like our adversary was simply too fast.

Bisharp, accelgor, banette, absol, liepard, mandibuzz, krookodile. Most of the pokemon I could currently spot hinted towards the fact that we were fighting against a trio of Dark Specialists, and extremely skilled ones at that.

I signalled for shiftry and weavile to join in the battle. We succeeded in taking out the krookodile and accelgor thanks to our cheap shot and unexpected ambush but the trio reacted just as quick, immediately pulling back and taking out some sort of… weird bazooka thing. I do not know how to properly describe that gimmick beyond those words.

"Gas…!"

Miguel's weak cry was the only warning we had before Reed's bugs started to buzz frantically to create a strong gust of wind. Shiftry swung his bladed fans in the direction of the trio as well, creating a mini hurricane that was heading towards the trio on a rampage. Whoever was using that contraption didn't seem afraid and fired it anyway. Pink gas did come out of it as per Miguel's warning but to our surprise, was not affected by the flow of the wind current. It just kept coming our way no matter how hard the wind blew.

Shit

"Get back! Grab Miguel and Pat!" Megan immediately ordered the moment we realised that something was not quite right with the gas released. Already, the gas was steadily spreading and engulfing the entire basement and it wouldn't be long before it reached us. I saw Megan priming a pokeball and releasing her steelix, the huge metal snake announcing its presence with a ferocious roar and immediately breaking through the entire facility with its size. Zoe and Reed had immediately gone to grab Miguel and Patricia, preparing for an extraction out of here.

"Dragonbreath!"

Steelix unleashed a powerful Dragonbreath to cover our escape as we made our mad dash towards the hole in the wall Megan's steelix had punched through. However, the gas just seemed to have a mind of its own, steadily encroaching on us and even the powerful kinetic force of steelix's Dragonbreath was unable to stop its advance.

Nothing we did could disperse that cloud of pink gas or have it stop coming closer to us. No wonder even Miguel and Patricia were taken down. What the hell is that pink gas?

"You can't…! Just… run!"

Megan trusted Miguel's warning and gave up on trying to stop the gas altogether, knowing that Miguel and Patricia must have done something similar only to fail which resulted in their capture.

We managed to flee till we were finally out into the open, only to find that we were trapped.

"How on earth…?!"

Zoe's outburst said it all. That unknown pink gas had already surrounded the perimeter of the abandoned facility without us knowing how, when, or why. We were trapped. It only took a few seconds before it came into contact with us and immediately, I could see my Alpha members losing strength, collapsing onto the ground and struggling to stay awake and the same goes for their pokemon. I can feel a heavy sense of drowsiness assaulting me but somehow, I'm still able to keep a clear enough mind and have enough strength left to remain standing while the rest of Alpha were now on the ground, trying their best to lift their bodies up only to fail. Even Megan's steelix had succumbed to the effects of the pink gas and had collapsed, having fallen into a deep slumber.

Why am I the only one relatively unaffected? What is it about me that sets me apart from them?

I spotted spiritomb getting irritated and out of sheer instinct more than anything else, fired a Dark Pulse at a random direction into the cloud of pink gas. I saw how the Dark Pulse punctured a hole into the cloud of pink gas before slowly closing itself up and then I suddenly realised what this gas really is.

"Zoroark, Night Daze! Blanket it over the area!"

Zoroark released a powerful wave of Night Daze upon my command and true to my suspicions, the pink gas was immediately dispersed. Being in close proximity to the release of dark type attacks allowed the drowsiness assaulting my mind to quickly subside, allowing me to think clearly once more.

I think I now know what this pink gas really is. This pink gas may look like gas, but it is not gas. It simply is a bundle of psychic energy given form that resembles a cloud of gas. It still begs the question of what that gas really is, but at least now I know a possible way to deal with it.

Unfortunately, everyone is currently down except for me. The missing people phenomenon, Iris' abduction, Miguel's words about Ability Holders being harvested and whatever that is supposed to mean, the trio of extremely dangerous Dark Specialists and this pink gas. I have a feeling that I am so close to finding out the truth behind the Plasmas and that if I leave now, such an opportunity may not present itself again.

I'm planning to get my answers today, so I quickly urged exeggutor to bring my fallen Alpha members and their pokemon back to safety. Even if the odds is a three versus one there are still ways to come out on top.

'Exeggutor, bring them back to base, hurry. I cannot fight like this.'

'It will be a long trip. If I do, it will take a while for me to gather the needed power to make the trip back to you, Master Jayce. I won't be around to defend you. Either we all escape together or I stay.'

'This is the closest anyone has in getting a lead on this case. I have to pry something out from these three. The faster you go, the faster you will return. Just hurry.'

Understanding the urgency brought about by our predicament, Exeggutor did not waste time to argue with me any further as he quickly built up the psychic energy required before teleporting everyone away in a Teleport along with itself. Like I said, the faster he goes the faster he will return, and exeggutor understood it as well.

Now, it's just me against the trio.

It was just at this moment that a slow clap sounded out as the three unknown figures finally walked out of the ruined building. They all look the same to me. Lean muscular build, sleeveless dark shirt, long white hair, masks over their faces and a bandanna over their foreheads. Their getup pretty much screams ninja to me and I am suspecting that I may be squaring off against a bunch of triplets.

"A dark inclined? How long has it been since we fought another like us? Truly unexpected."

"Plasmas?" I growled and released my entire team out for battle, who had sensed the shift in my emotions and reacted accordingly, growling at our adversaries and ready to jump into a fight. I can sense greninja and spiritomb getting increasingly agitated for reasons unknown to me but I quickly signalled to them to keep calm, which they thankfully did.

"Whoa, a hydreigon. This may be bad."

"Oh shut it, it's just a dragon."

"Have you seen such a huge one?"

I don't have the patience to listen to their casual banter. I simply signalled for my team to engage and ninetales immediately unleashed a powerful Flamethrower, forcing the trio to scatter.

"Hey, did you see that? The way he commanded that ninetales?"

"I must be blind to not see it."

"Stop talking and get to work."

My eyes widened when I saw the trio flicking their fingers in a set pattern as well. Not the same as I did because each and every of my gestures were self-invented, but it's the exact same style in which I command my pokemon.

Ninjas. Fucking bona fide ninjas still fucking exists in this day and age, I know that, Pryce is a descendant of one and a skilled practitioner of ninjutsu himself, but it does not answer the question of why they are in Unova. Ninja clans can be found in Indigo and Hoenn, but definitely not in Unova. Their roots do not extend to this part of the world

I commanded my team to scatter in order to avoid the counterattack conducted by the trio. Their teamwork was admittedly flawless and it looked as if the three of them shared joint command over the pokemon they collectively use. Battling them was getting increasingly difficult because each of the three trainers assumed command so frustratingly well. Whereas I can only effectively command my pokemon in a certain set radius until they cannot see or hear me properly, the trio have three people. The three of them act as one mind, spacing themselves out until they can assume command of their pokemon over a much wider area than I do and thus, having greater control over the flow of the battle because they simply have more space to utilise thanks to the coverage three trainers could bring instead of one. The three of them could cover each other's blind spots so well that there was very little that I could take advantage of. They were so well-coordinated that fighting three of them felt like fighting one very powerful trainer that can see three ways at once and think and implement three different plans at the same time.

Each of them are true Dark Specialists, just like me.

"You are using ninjutsu too. A bastardised version, but still ninjutsu. Where and who on earth did you learn it from? Who is your master?" One among the trio questioned as our pokemon continued to battle. I simply answered his question with my own.

"You guys belong to Team Plasma?"

"I'd thought that was obvious?" Another one among the trio answered as his liepard tried to crush weavile only for umbreon to foil his plan.

"Seeing you reminds me of the last true Dark Specialist we fought… and killed," the last one frostily mentioned as his accelgor tried to fool us with its speed until honchkrow managed to get it to stop flitting around.

"What was his name again? Supposedly someone famous…"

"Asher Dandolos, you nitwit."

"Ah! That guy, now I remember."

What?

Greninja and spiritomb unleashed a combined Dark Pulse in fury, forcing the trio and their pokemon to scatter. I could feel my heartbeat quickening as I finally realised who I am up against.

"You guys participated in the Lacunosa Invasion."

"Well, duh. Dandolos, remember? They are always at Lacunosa," one of them openly mocked while twirling a knife with his fingers. "He's good but not that good. Took us a while but we still managed to kill him in the end. I think it was… did we behead him? Guys, do you remember?"

"I thought we put a hole in his torso? I could be wrong."

"Does it really matter at this point? Just kill him and get moving already."

I can feel my rage boiling to an all time high at those words. How dare they.

These bastards!

I changed my commands instantly and my team reacted accordingly. Greninja and spiritomb were extremely eager to put them in action. The sudden change in our tactics succeeded in having them stumbled frantically for a short moment when the element of surprise first took effect.

"He's gone bonkers!"

"I will be the very last true Dark Specialist you three are ever gonna face," I snarled as hydreigon began to ruthlessly begin his bombardment without restraint, forcing the trio to be on the run. "The recent kidnappings, do you guys have a hand in it too?!"

"You seriously think we will answer?!" One of them shouted back as he released more dark types out for battle and my team met their charge with equal ferocity. Refusing to answer, eh? Fine, I will force it out of their mouths myself.

"Yo bros, we need to start getting serious too if we wanna live to see tomorrow. Shall we do that?"

"That is a damn pain and you know it."

"Fighting this guy is a bigger pain."

"Let's just do it."

The trio regrouped as their pokemon crowded around them, protecting their trainers from harm as we continued to assault them with our strongest attacks. I have no idea what tricks they were trying to pull but I do know that we cannot allow them to complete whatever it was they were attempting to achieve.

We were pushed back by a sudden explosive force and our ranks were momentarily disrupted by the sudden surge in power the trio's pokemon are unleashing. We were suddenly forced to be on the defensive, unable to understand how and why these pokemon suddenly gained as much power as they did. The first thought I had was that they had used Mega Evolution, but a quick look easily denied that suspicion. Mega Evolution wasn't the reason for their sudden increase in power.

"You've gone and done it now. We will give you credit, not even Asher Dandolos managed to push us this far. You are really a true Dark Specialist."

I had to blink my eyes twice to ensure that I was not seeing things. The three trainers were now each cloaked in a thin veil of dark black aura, something that was not supposed to be humanly possible. An ability, perhaps?

"Confused? Don't look so surprised, everyone who saw us using this power never lived to tell the tale, so I don't mind letting you in a little on this secret. Resonance, ever heard of it? An aspect of power that theoretically all Ability Holders can tap into but hardly anybody succeeded. Champion Harlow, do you know why he was the Mad Conqueror? Because he could freely enter and exit the Resonance state with his dragons, amplifying their powers using his ability. People thought that it was a power unique to him. No, they were wrong. All Ability Holders have the potential to achieve it. This was why we Ability Holders were so feared and the truth behind why we are still being persecuted."

"You talk too much," another of the trio told off his companion with a deep voice.

"He's going to die anyway. Might as well let him understand how he died and whose hands he died under."

"Just end this."

"Defend!"

I quickly shouted out the command to defend, but without exeggutor around our defensive capabilities were significantly lacking. We were instead forced to dart about in order to evade the trio's continuous stream of attacks. I never knew Team Plasma had trainers like them in their ranks and most likely, the Unova League had no knowledge too.

This is dangerous, I know better than anyone how Dark Specialists like them are the most dangerous sort. Now to add further insult to injury there's this unknown Resonance ability that they can use with great effect, allowing even their weakest pokemon to be able to match hydreigon's power blow for blow.

This is bullshit. I freaking call bullshit on this bullshit Resonance shit.

I saw their pokemon combining their attacks into one, gathering such a strong condensation of dark type energy that it gave me the chills just by standing near it and I know that the trio are planning to end this in one huge burst of Dark Pulse. The blast area is going to be huge, huge enough to catch everyone in it, including themselves but those three obviously had an unknown method of not implicating themselves with their own attack.

Something must be done. I quickly gave zoroark a signal behind my back, hoping that he had caught it.

"Hydreigon! Draco Meteor!"

Hydreigon immediately tried matching that bomb of a Dark Pulse with his own firepower, but it was in vain as even hydreigon's power wasn't enough to overcome that Dark Pulse.

But that was enough. Hydreigon's attempt was simply to take the trio's attention away from zoroark, allowing him to weave the illusion that we were still at our original positions. In actuality, my pokemon had long since individually dispersed and scattered to somewhere safe out of the estimated blast range. The only exceptions were spiritomb, zoroark, and Nosy who was hiding within my smartwatch. Spiritomb accompanied me and zoroark, using Shadow Sneak to bring us right behind the trio under the cover of the illusions and I lunged, dagger unsheathed and ready to slice a jugular or two.

I don't know how, but the trio of ninjas managed to sense me even before I got close and somehow possessed superhuman reflexes fast enough to dodge my strike. However, I could see the panic in their eyes after they witnessed how I was able to so easily close the distance and get within striking range.

"Fuck! He's too close!"

"Just run! It's about to explode! Run!"

I lunged once more with zoroark and spiritomb, recalling hydreigon at the same time before he could be hit by that huge bomb of Dark Pulse that was about to explode anytime now. I could see the trio releasing an alakazam and recalling the rest of their pokemon, ready to make their getaway before this huge bomb of darkness engulfs us all.

Spiritomb helped us make that last leap with another Shadow Sneak and I reached my arm out, getting close enough to the point that I could almost feel the edge of my dagger cutting flesh.

Then the world twisted.


"Goddammit! What the fuck was that?! How on earth did he do that?!"

"He's the real deal, no doubt. A true Dark Specialist, someone even more dangerous than that Dandolos."

"He's dead though, has to be. Nobody could survive being hit by a Teleport like that. He will be ripped into shreds by the distortion of spacetime and just simply disappear. No bodies, no nothing, like he never existed."

"A fool."

"Yet a fool who almost killed us all, and he doesn't even know what Resonance is. Imagine if he actually knows how to use it himself, we will all be screwed."

"Yeah yeah, I hear you. Let's get going. Fuck man, I thought we were only supposed to retrieve two more test samples that were left behind, not getting involved in a damn fight with someone like that. Who is he anyway?"

"Can you stop talking and get moving?"

The footsteps soon faded into the distance and it was only after a long while that I dared to release a breath. Close, it was too damn close.

I'm not too sure what had happened either. I reached the trio just as alakazam activated Teleport. As they said, barging forcefully into a teleportation field on the verge of being activated is plain suicide. Anyone trying to do so will be ripped to shreds by the spacetime distortion, that is a known fact and by all rights, that should have happened to us since we happened to reach them just right when the alakazam used Teleport in a stroke of bad luck.

But in a stroke of good luck, that didn't happen. Zoroark, Spiritomb, and I were transported along with the trio without them knowing themselves, but maybe it was due to how I barged into that teleportation field that our destination coordinates strayed a little from theirs. It was a stroke of extremely good luck on my end because my pokemon and I were dropped right behind the cover of a huge tree that happened to hide us from their view about ten or so metres away. Zoroark had immediately hid us with his illusion the moment he realised we were still not in the clear and we remained extremely still in fear that they might sense us.

Right now, I only have a few pokemon with me, which are Zoroark, Spiritomb, Nosy, and hydreigon who I managed to recall in his pokeball before the explosion could occur. Everyone else was left behind in the area near the abandoned facility. I have full confidence that they managed to individually flee far enough from the blast range and wait for my signal to gather, as per my instructions I left them before this unexpected development occurred, so they should be safe. I do hope that they are safe, because whatever the trio did with their usage of Dark Pulse was no joke. That was a literal bomb many times more powerful than hydreigon's Draco Meteor at full power.

Resonance, was it? That's a bullshit ability to exist and the infuriating thing is that it does exist. The world really is a huge place.

But first thing first, where are we?

After checking that the trio were indeed gone, I began to observe our surroundings. There was completely no telecommunication signal in this part of the world, even Nosy was drawing up a blank as he was unable to connect with any network or signal. All I saw were trees, trees, and more trees. I did hear the faint sound of lapping waves, so I'm guessing that we were somewhere near the ocean. We should still be in Unova somewhere, I just need to figure out where exactly.

I cautiously tread the path I knew the trio had disappeared to. After some walking, I finally came across a lone building. One building, in the middle of nowhere.

"Nosy, enter my HUD, zoom in on the building."

Nosy entered himself into the interface of whatever system my visor was running on, gaining control of the system my helmet was using to utilise the sci-fi looking HUD display that always appeared whenever I slapped the visor on the helmet down. EDGE does provide her soldiers with the most cutting edge technology… and I made another pun. That annoying woman really is a bad influence.

Nosy eventually managed to obtain control of the settings and zoomed into the building to let me get a better view of it. I saw a few words on the building, giving me a name to match it.

P2 Laboratory

A secret laboratory, it seems that I have finally stumbled onto something important, maybe this trip will prove to be a fruitful one after all.


AN: Hopefully I'm taking the right path with this development (cross fingers)

Name: Jayce Dandolos

Age: 23

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Umbreon, male

6. Hydreigon, male

7. Drapion, female

8. Zoroark, male

9. Bisharp, male

10. Shiftry, male

11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless

12. Greninja, male

13. Spiritomb, male

14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male

Name: Megan Lawrence

Age: 35

Pokemon Team:

1. Excadrill

2. Durant

3. Steelix

4. Klinklang

5. Escavalier

6. Aggron

Name: Miguel Page

Age: 28

Pokemon Team:

1. Audino

2. Cinccino

3. Braviary

4. Castform

5. Lopunny

6. Zangoose

Name: Patricia Lowe

Age: 24

Pokemon Team:

1. Simipour

2. Floatzel

3. Swanna

4. Starmie

5. Dewgong

6. Samurott

Name: Zoe Vinson

Age: 18

Pokemon Team:

1. Emboar

2. Conkeldurr

3. Mienshao

4. Throh

5. Sawk

6. Toxicroak

Name:Reed Brady

Age: 15

Pokemon Team:

1. Leavanny

2. Galvantula

3. Durant

4. Yanmega

5. Pinsir

6. Vespiqueen