The group then eventually arrived at the mines and peered into them from the woods. A massive space had been dug out from the earth in front of them. Dozens of piles of various materials, with heavy machinery around the place. There was a rather large cliff face at the very back, where the underground mine was situated. About ten people were walking around the place, appearing to be workers. It seemed like everything was perfectly normal. Infernape looked around, trying to figure out if there was some incriminating clue to justify going in, but there was nothing. Nothing that he could see at least.
He looked towards Gardevoir and asked,
"Do you see anything?" Gardevoir shook her head, which led Infernape to ask Ampharos that same question with the same result. Finally, he looked toward Garchomp and asked if she knew any sort of obscure legal code for them to go in and contact the proper authorities. Alas, All Garchomp could say was,
"Nothing. The most they've done is not wear proper uniforms. That's more to do with company negligence if anything." Everyone then stood up and prepared to leave.
"These aren't workers," said Lopunny out loud, "They're not security guards either." Everyone else then looked back at the hybrid and raised an eyebrow. Ampharos asked,
"What do you mean?"
"These guys are just wandering around this random mine in the middle of nowhere. They aren't wearing guard uniforms, nor do they appear to be doing any mining. Why are they here?" she pointed out. Infernape stepped up to Lopunny,
"Well, these guys haven't done anything wrong. We aren't in a place to make assumptions," he said. However, that's when things began to change.
Some more men then teleported into the mines, one of them was rather well dressed. In total, about thirty people had just appeared from nowhere. Lopunny's eyes went wide with delight as everyone else lowered themselves into the bushes. It looked to be some type of meeting. That well-dressed Pokemon was this eel-like pokemon that was rather tall for his species. His face was similar to that of a lamprey with a large mouth and sharp teeth within a disc-shaped mouth. He was surrounded by a group of men, all charging their attacks. At that point, the group had their confirmation. This was a crime boss meeting and they needed to leave now.
Garchomp's eyes went wide. She recognized these crooks. Sasaki "Polar" Kurozumi the Eelecktross and Yami Ishiken the Golem. Two crime lords who have been growing their power recently. She relayed this information to everyone else. Infernape then pulled back and told everyone,
"We need to tell Blastoise, immediately!"
"Right!" said most of the group. Most.
Suddenly, everyone in the group was frozen in a huge block of ice. A look of fear appeared on all of their faces. Had they been caught? Did one of these mob guys catch them? However, these questions were quickly answered by the perpetrator: Lopunny.
"Sorry bout that, but I'm not missing out on this. Okay, bye!" she said quickly as she jumped off the cliff and down towards this meeting. She screamed out, "WOOOHOOO!" alerting everyone there to her presence as she landed. As men aimed at her, dozens of attacks all pointing at Lopunny, she smiled widely and declared,
"Alright! Who's ready?!"
Immediately, they fired, but just as quickly, Lopunny skated away on a path of ice. Flames, thunderbolts, water bullets and shadow balls whizzed past her and blew the landscape around her apart. That shaky feeling throughout her entire body came in. It was invigorating. She then spun in the air and released a bright white mist that obscured her. However, a Hitmonlee then ran in front of the mist and blew it away with a single kick. This left him open for a vicious barrage of four kicks from Lopunny. With each impact, she pressed forward, using him as a body shield. Everyone there stopped attacking, not wanting to kill their friend, and that's when Lopunny pounced. In one ferocious kick to the gut, she kicked Hitmonlee into the crowd and leaped in.
She landed in between two men and pulled they guns away. Her ears then smacked into their cheeks, knocking them both out. Another man then tried to punch at her, but she caught the punch and threw him over her shoulder into a bunch of other goons. Someone then grabbed her from behind and bear hugged her, allowing a Hitmonchan to land a few good punches in. Fighting against her captor's control, she took a breather and began to freeze his arms. The man holding her screamed in pain as the ice spread quickly to his shoulders. She then punched Hitmonchan with one of her ears before ripping herself free, breaking the ice and the guy's arms. She finished off Hitmonchan with a brutal kick to the face.
Lopunny saw a guy running at her with a pickaxe. She grinned and deftly dodged it as the man slammed it into the floor. She then expertly swiped him off of his feet, turned on the heel, and kicked him in the face before he even hit the ground. Stomping the pickaxe out of the earth, Lopunny then threw it towards another man approaching her, nailing his forehead with the flat end of the metal. At this point, everyone began to try to overwhelm her with sheer numbers, but she jumped into the air, only to be slapped by an Onix's tail.
Her body then crashed into a bucket-wheel excavator. The metal bent under the impact. Lopunny then felt something warm running down her face. She rubbed her finger across her face and looked to see that it was blood. Despite this, she smirked. It was awesome! Excitedly, she pressed her hands against the steel behind her and began to freeze it. Men finally began to shoot at her again, but they had waited a second too long. Two large pillars of ice rocketed from the excavator and crashed into the crowd, taking out some twenty or thirty people all at once.
Back at the cliff, the ice prison that Lopunny had made began to melt. It then suddenly exploded, freeing everyone. Gardevoir then immediately told everyone,
"We need to go get Blastoise, he can handle this." However, Infernape then responded with a resounding no,
"We can't just abandon her! There are thirty guys down there, they'll tear her apart!" Garchomp then stepped in, but not on Gardevoir's side.
"Infernape is right. She's an ally. The Hirozumu act allows us to step in when someone is in trouble."
"I don't think we need to worry," said Ampharos as he looked over the cliff. Everyone looked over at the electric type in confusion. Infernape asked,
"What do you mean?" Ampharos could only reply,
"She's doing pretty well without us."
Lopunny then slammed herself into a man. They both fell over onto the ground as another man pulled out a knife and stabbed at her with it. The blade pierced the back of her shoulder which only made her focus on him. She spun around and crushed his arm with her ankle. Another kick to the head completely incapacitated the man. Onix then roared and got ready to slam his tail again. This time, Lopunny was ready.
Dodging to her left, she then ran on the tail towards his face. Onix tried to throw her off, but she simply froze her feet to him, sticking herself in place. As soon as she reached his head she raised a single hand and made a small sphere of white energy. It fell onto her hand and enveloped it as she pulled it back before yelling out,
"Aurora Warhammer!" and punching him. Onix collapsed from the impact, landing on the remaining men. Lopunny landed, mist surrounding her feet. She pulled her hand from the ground and brought them to her lips, with the mist trailing behind her fingers. Looking at Infernape from across the mine, she smirked and blew an ice-cold, misty kiss towards him.
Infernape swooned and fell to his knees. The fire on his head made little hearts. Everyone was stunned, why wouldn't they be? Lopunny had fought off an entire army all by herself. None of them had ever seen anything like this. It was like watching a friend who was a decent runner dominate the Olympics. Such a surreal act to behold that to hear it secondhand would make it seem like it was fake. But this was real.
Suddenly, a boulder then rolled out from inside the mines. It barreled towards Lopunny before it suddenly grew limbs and a head. Lopunny looked back to be ferociously thrown across the mines, bouncing off a hill and slamming into the cliff face. Infernape and the others immediately jumped down the cliff and met the leaders of these criminal organizations. Elecktross had managed to avoid Lopunny's onslaught and was now standing alongside Golem.
Infernape yelled out in fright,
"LOPUNNY!" before jumping down the cliff. The others followed after him. They landed with a thud and faced off Elecktross and Golem. Elecktross looked at them and glared,
"It appears a few interlopers have gotten involved. Were any of your men followed?" Golem looked down at Elecktross with slight offense,
"We teleported here. There was no one to follow." Looking at the fire type tending to that Lopunny, Elecktross pointed out,
"That's the group that took down the Black Masks." Golem then smiled,
"You're telling me! Imagine how the underworld is gonna react when I have their heads mounted on my wall!" he declared.
Infernape rushed into the cliff as the others formed a perimeter around him. He picked his way through the rubble to try and find his girlfriend. Alas, it appeared his worry was for nothing.
"Wooowe! That actually hurt! I was starting to get worried that this fight would be boring," said Lopunny and she lifted herself out of the rubble, appearing to be unphased by the blood currently pouring out of her shoulder. Infernape was stunned. Everyone else looked back once they heard how casual she was about her injury. Even Elecktross and Golem were stunned to see Lopunny acting completely fine. Lopunny stood up and started stretching. Gardevoir was quick to rush to Lopunny's aid.
"Are you okay? You could've gotten yourself killed out there!" she said with the worried tone of a mother. However, Lopunny shrugged this concern off,
"Meh, they were low-level goons anyway. Besides, it brought the boss out of hiding."
Immediately, Infernape recognized her plan. It was a moment of genius. In taking all of these goons, she forced Golem to reveal himself. But now they had the bosses of two criminal organizations staring right at them. Who knows how strong they would be? The goal should be to get out of here and get Blastoise and the rest of the Senshi. It seemed that Lopunny could sense Infernape's thoughts, or more likely she was using her liar's sight ability, because she told him,
"Don't worry. I think you guys can take them."
"How do you know?" asked Infernape.
"I can tell by his punch. Hell, you could probably beat him all by yourself if you're smart."
Golem overheard all of this and grew furious. She was mocking him! Saying his men were weak. That he could be taken down by this hoard of nobodies. How dare she? He was going to put her down like the dog she was! Eelecktross noticed this anger, however, and grabbed Golem by his shoulder,
"Calm down, Golem. Fury in battle is suicide." Hearing this, Golem relented, taking a breather and asking,
"What do we do then?"
"You have power, and I have brains. I say we divide and conquer. I'll take the dragon, and the problem. You take the monkey, the sheep, and the twig," said Eelecktross.
Gardevoir pointed towards herself,
"Did-Did he just call me a twig?" Golem rushed towards Gardevoir and punched her into the cliff. Infernape and Ampharos looked back before facing Golem once more and prepared to duel him.
Eelecktross raised a hand to the sky and charged up an electrical attack. Lopunny launched from the cliff and rocketed towards him. Just as she was about to reach him, Eelecktross closed his fist and aimed at her. Suddenly, she froze in the air, as if someone had pressed the pause button. She tried to fight against this but every move was met with a violent but brief shock. Condescendingly, Eelecktross told her what was happening,
"Magnetism. Your bones have magnesium within them. All I did was boost the magnetic charge of your body and trapped you in a sphere of reverse polarity."
Garchomp then took her chance and tried to tackle Eelecktross to the ground. Eelecktross then raised his hand but nothing happened. He was thrown across the mine and crashed into an excavator. Garchomp kept her eye on him, anticipating him to come back and unleash some powerful attack.
A little screw then smacked against her cheek. Garchomp then grabbed at the screw and tried to pull it away. However, it remained stuck on her cheek. Then a piece of unrefined ore hit her in the gut. That was when she realized what Eelecktross was doing. Evidently, her ground type didn't protect her from this magnet effect. Suddenly, the sound of metal creaking echoed out from the battlefield. That excavator then began to rip apart and slowly slide towards Gardevoir. Immediately. Garchomp then stomped the ground to prepare a defense, being sure not to pick up any metal that could magnetically charge itself to her.
The excavator then ripped from the ground and soared towards her. Garchomp formed a massive wall of dirt and rock that shaped itself into a fist. The barrier caught the excavator but was clearly struggling. Garchomp had to move, but if she did so, the excavator would simply follow her. A pickax then stabbed itself into her side. She hissed but pressed through. It had been a while since she had utilized tremor sense, but now was the time to use it.
Tremor sense was a sixth sense that all ground types had within themselves. It allowed them to sense vibrations in the ground. Garchomp then shut her eyes and began to focus on the ground around her. Blue waves then appeared in the darkness, pulsing whenever Infernape, Ampharos, Gardevoir, and Golem hit the floor. These pulses warped around the scenery, forming a rough outline of the mine around her. She could see that Eelecktross was slowly walking towards her from behind the barrier. Probably going to try to do the same thing he did to Lopunny. However, he thought that she was currently helpless. He couldn't be more wrong.
Infernape immediately unleashed a barrage of punches at Golem, hoping to use his fighting type to his advantage. However, Golem was surprisingly nimble for his shape. He dodged every strike thrown at him. Blocks of stone then wrapped around Infernape's feet at the same time that Golem punched him across the face. He fell back and overstretched the muscles in his legs. Infernape gritted his teeth through the pain as he recoiled back towards Golem, who grabbed him and slammed him onto the ground behind him. Painfully, Infernape landed face first.
For a split second, Infernape blacked out. He quickly came to and flipped around to face Golem before firing a large burst of flame into Golem. An ineffective attack but a calculated one. The force of the blast sent Infernape back a significant distance. Once he landed, Infernape then flew towards Golem with his hands glowing orange. Golem couldn't avoid the attack in time. Two powerful punches then struck Golem across the face. However, Golem held his ground and caught the third punch, allowing him to strike Infernape hard in the stomach. The fire type spat up blood.
Several pink blasts then blasted Golem from behind. He turned around to see Gardevoir soaring towards him. Golem then charged up a hyper beam in his mouth, but just before he fired he was blinded by a bright light. He covered his eyes in pain before Gardevoir fired a psychic beam into his chest. As Golem was sent across the mines, Gardevoir helped Infernape to his feet,
"Infernape! Are you alright?" she asked worriedly. Infernape covered his mouth and coughed, but was able to respond,
"I'm okay. We need a plan if we want to get out of this. Gardevoir, we need distance. If we attack him at range, he can't hit us with his most powerful blows."
"What can I do," asked Ampharos, "I can't hurt him." Infernape thought for a moment before looking at the frozen Lopunny and struggling Garchomp. Immediately, he orders Ampharos to help them in any way he can.
Ampharos then ran to help Garchomp and Lopunny as Infernape and Gardevoir looked towards Golem. He jumped from the rubble and roared with anger. The duo then flew into the air and took aim. Together, they fired a barrage of flames and psychic blasts at Golem. The rock type was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of attacks, but he wasn't helpless. He roared and shot his hand forward, sending several pillars of rock towards Infernape and Gardevoir. The two split up and flew separate ways, forcing the pillars to divide. Gardevoir and Infernape weaved past the pillars, still firing at the rock type, which only aggravated Golem. He had enough.
Roaring with fury, Golem stomped the ground. The dirt then began to move around like a whirlpool around him. It swirled into a dust devil that enveloped Golem and swirled into a large, humanoid shape. Infernape and Gardevoir both stared in awe at the beast before them, but they weren't going to sit around like deer in headlights. They had a job to do.
The dirt titan raised a fist and punched at Infernape. Hundreds of pounds of dirt and debris were all sent his way. Infernape was barely able to dodge but he managed. However, the immediate attack wasn't the only threat. Dirt and sand then circled back around after Infernape. Realizing this, he shot down towards the earth, but the mass of soil kept following him. He tried firing several fireballs into the dirt to hit Golem. Alas, none of them made an impact. He had no idea where to aim.
Garchomp roared as she stomped the ground. Suddenly, a pillar of rock punched Eelecktross from below, sending him sky-high. This shut off his magnetic abilities, freeing both herself and Lopunny. With free movement returned to her, Lopunny learned from her mistake and punched at the sky, copying Garchomp's pillar attack but with ice. However, Eelecktross was prepared. Twisting around in the air, he aimed a pair of thunderbolts at the ice, breaking it on impact. He then shot an electric blast above him, sending him plummeting to the ground. As soon as he landed, he took aim at Lopunny and once more, fired an electrical attack.
At the last moment, Ampharos rushed in front of Lopunny and tanked the hit. His electric typing made the pain feel more like a mild stinging rather than a painful burning. Ampharos then ran through the thunder beam. Eelecktross hadn't realized that his attack had been blocked, so kept firing. He would learn soon enough. As soon as he reached him, Ampharos swiped at Eelecktross's face with his tail. The gem on it cracked him right in the side of the skull. Eelecktross fell onto his side, unconscious.
Lopunny quickly bounced to Ampharos' side and congratulated him,
"Nice save. And you got the finishing move. I'm kinda jealous." Ampharos meekly blushed and rubbed the back of his head,
"Hey. Don't mention it." Garchomp then pointed towards Golem's dirt titan and yelled,
"We need to help them!" however, Lopunny didn't seem the least bit concerned, in fact, she looked disappointed,
"Really, he goes full Donkey Kong," she sighed, "Man, and this fight has been ten out of ten so far. Goddammit." She slowly walked towards the big titan and simply pressed her foot into the dirt. Ice then grew from her foot and began to make itself towards the titan. It noticed and threw a punch at her, but its hand froze just before contact. The ice then quickly spread all over the titan, with Golem helpless to stop it. The entire group watched in awe as the entire titan was trapped in ice.
A boulder then rocketed out of the ice and rolled towards Lopunny. She reached into her scarf and pulled out her mega stone. Quickly, she transformed and stared down the rapidly approaching Golem. He roared ferociously as he emerged from his rock shell to try and punch her. The conclusion of the fight was swift. With one well-placed kick to the jaw, Golem was kicked into the air. Lopunny jumped up to his level and flipped in the air, before slamming him to the ground with an ax kick. Golem landed with a massive explosion of dust. The resulting crater was the size of a house. With that, Lopunny fell from the air and landed safely on the ground. A pile of snow caught her.
Everyone looked rushed to Lopunny's aide. She was perfectly fine. Infernape was very impressed,
"Wow, you finished him in two hits!" he said excitedly. However, Lopunny didn't appear as excited about this. In fact, she looked quite dejected. Gardevoir fell onto her knees next to Lopunny and patted her shoulder,
"What's wrong?
"He made it boring!" yelled Lopunny, "It was so good and he ruined it! 'Dur, I'm gonna a use a giant dust beast with a highly exploitable weakness cause I'm a fucking dweeb!'" Admittedly, Gardevoir had no idea how to respond to that. How would you? Lopunny had just fought her way through dozens of men and she was upset that the fight ended poorly. Infernape then told her,
"Well, 90% of the fight was fun, wasn't it? Don't worry about the bad stuff."
Lopunny grinned at him slightly,
"I guess you're right. I did get to take one fight off my bucket list.:
"You have bucket list fights?" asked Infernape incredulously. Lopunny exclaimed,
"Of course!" which made Infernape smile. It made him smile watching Lopunny being so passionate about what she loves, even if that passion is a little…unorthodox. If she was happy, then he was happy.