Dante and Tyler reached out their open hands across the table, their fingertips touching together as they started focusing their psychic abilities. Both of them closed their eyes as the exchange began.
Visions of events from the past few days from Dante's point of view flooded Tyler's mind. From when he whisked Takuya, Avery, and Kasi away all the way up to now. Tyler also saw everything about the Balancers, at least all the info Dante was willing to share with him through the psychic link. Tyler also saw the pact that Avery and Kasi had to make, the Writ of Silence they had to undertake. He also saw Dante's intense desire to fulfill his mission to stop Team Midnight and hold them accountable for their crimes…
A short time later, the exchange was complete, and the link severed. Tyler withdrew his hand after opening his eyes. He hung his head for a few moments in shame, feeling like an idiot for his outburst earlier.
"…I had no idea." Tyler admitted. "I owe you an Apology, Avery."
"So, you are still willing to help?" Dante asked.
Tyler raised his head, looking at Dante with a whole different outlook. From impatient skepticism to confident trust. "Yes, and don't worry about the… pact. I will not tell anyone else about you guys."
"I know." Dante said. "While I was exchanging the info, I saw further into your mind. You are adamant in your word and loyalty. We are lucky to have people like you and Ash at our side, Tyler."
Mikalette and Lucas then ran into the gas stop and up to the table. "Boss, I was checking over the radar system while you were in hear, and we have pinged a lot of signals. We have incoming."
Dante stood up from the table, followed by Trisha and Mary. "Well, it looks like further reconciliations will have to wait. Another battle with our enemy approaches."
Tyler, Misty, and Ash stood up from the table as well.
"If that's the case, you are not fighting them without us." Misty spoke with determination.
Dante turned to face Misty. "Good. It's nice to have some extra fighters to help event the odds. Now, let's give them a fight they won't forget anytime soon."
# # # # # # #
The heroes walked out of the rest stop into the parking area, just as three VTOL jets flew over and twelve jeeps pulled up around the building.
Malak Denzel jumped from one of the jets in his mech suit, Reaper and Sparta at his sides.
"Well, isn't this a turn of events." Denzel said. "The mysterious stranger who appeared out of nowhere and took my specimens as if he owned them. I certainly hoped you didn't think you could just walk away without eventually being tracked down."
Dante looked up at Denzel in the mech without fear. "Malak Denzel, I assume? I wondered when I would finally be able to taunt and jeer you in person. You've been a busy little Beedrill the past ten years, with all this DNA Splicing experiments you've been overseeing."
"Yes, and I don't intend to stop now." Denzel said, not wasting any words. "The next evolution of humanity is finally in our grasp. Soon, the Posthuman era will begin, and a new Eden shall arise from the ashes of what was today. Now, be a good sport and surrender the trinity you hijacked off me."
Dante tilted his head to the side, as if thinking it over. "I got a better idea: How abut you power down that mech and talk to me face-to-face about your surrender?"
Reaper was not amused by Dante's cocky attitude and demands. "Surrender? Look around you, ranchero. You are all outnumbered three to one, and that's with generous rounding."
Dante smiled a toothy grin, showing his feline-like teeth. "I like those odds."
He then raised his hand at Denzel's mech, and started to literally crush its limbs with his psychic powers! It was disabled in just a few seconds!
Reaper and Sparta both charged at Dante when they realized what he was doing! Avery and Kasi then jumped in front of Dante, retaliating in kind with their own strikes: Avery shot Thunderbolt attacks at Reaper from his hands, while Kasi unleashed an intense Icy Wind attack on Sparta. Sparta was forced to hunker down on his knees at the blustering, frozen gust as he shielded his head and face with his arms!
The other Midnight grunts then charged at them on foot, but were quickly blocked when Ash unleashed his Infernape on them! Tyler followed suit with Rhydon, giving the grunts even more to deal with!
Reaper managed to dodge all of Avery's thunderbolts, ending up deadlocking with Avery hand-to-hand!
"You may as well quit while you are ahead, Avery!" Reaper warned. "I've studied your tactics thoroughly since our last fight…"
"Oh, yeah?! Study this!" Avery headbutted Reaper right in the nose, causing the Scyther-based splice to stumble backwards as blood ran from one of his nostrils! Avery rubbed his forehead for a few seconds but was ready to continue to fight in a snap!
"Had enough pain, or do you want a second serving?" Avery asked, shuffling like a boxer.
Reaper held a hand up to his nose, feeling the crimson essence run. "…You are going to pay for that, Avery!" Reaper shouted, enraged. He then started to spin rapidly, using the Swords Dance ability! Then, Reaper rushed at Avery, grabbing one of his arms while swiping a clawed hand at his face! Avery quickly managed to catch the clawed hand Reaper was swinging at him by the wrist!
"Good, but not good enough!" Reaper then lunged forward onto Avery and sank his fangs and teeth into the Raikou Splice's neck! Avery let out a cry of pain from the sudden bite, struggling to get Reaper off of him, then he felt something being injected into his body from Reaper's fangs, starting to burn through his veins! Venom!
Avery quickly unleashed a thunderbolt shock from his body, the electricity feeding back through Reaper! Reaper let out a yell of pain, releasing his bite from Avery's neck! Avery then threw him off!
"What the hell?! Since when did Scyther DNA grant a Poison Sting ability?" Avery nursed the wound left from Reaper's fangs with one of his hands. He looked back up at Reaper, knowing now his time to fight would be limited by his now draining stamina.
"Oh, that was something Master Denzel took the initiative of adding in." Reaper spoke as Avery looked at him. It was then Avery noticed something was off. Reaper's eyes looked like they were ablaze with a faint, creepy yellow glow.
Then, things took a turn for the worst. Avery's vision began to distort, and he saw Reaper start walking up to him, a dark cloud engulfing his body. Avery blinked, and the horror went up ten-fold. Reaper was now drenched in blood, and the faint glow had changed to a terrifying blaze!
Avery stumbled backwards, losing his balance as the venom started having more of an affect, fear flooding his eyes! The burn from the Venom that Reaper had injected was now spreading from his neck, across his chest and through his entire body!
"What's the matter, Avery?" Reaper taunted with a sick grin. "You look like you've seen a ghost…"
Suddenly, Reaper was caught off-guard by something digging its way out of the sand, right where Reaper was standing, the ground quaking under their feet!
Exploding from out of the ground was Venin! "Surprise!" He shouted.
Venin grabbed Reaper by one of his feet, spinning the Scyther-splice around his head like a rag doll! Venin then threw Reaper up into the air and attacked him with a Hyper Beam! Reaper was thrown into one of the Jeeps, leaving an indent on it's hood while shattering the windshield!
# # # # # # # #
"Sorry I'm late, guys!" Venin explained as Team Midnight began to retreat. "The dry ground here in Orre can be difficult to dig through in spots…"
Venin was cut off by Avery starting to scream in incoherent hysteria. Venin looked over his shoulder, and saw Avery huddled on the ground, his body in the fetal position. Avery's eyes were shut tightly, his hands grasping the sides of his head in extreme pain.
"Woah, kid! What's wrong?" Venin bent down to check on Avery.
"The voices… They won't stop!" Avery screamed. "Make them stop!"
"Voices?" Venin was confused. Then, as he took Avery into his arms, Venin saw the bite marks on his neck! He turned to face Reaper.
"You bastard!" Venin yelled in rage. "You used that on him?! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Where there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph." Reaper said as he pulled himself out of the indent from the damaged Jeep. "You should know that by now…" Reaper then flew off with the rest of the retreating attack force.
Kasi and the rest of the group ran up. "What happened?" Kasi demanded. "What's wrong with him?" She referred to Avery.
"Reaper used his venom on Avery…" Venin said.
Dante gave Venin a side-eye. "Venom? How the hell can someone spliced with Scyther DNA have venom?"
"Denzel added some touches of his own to us when we were spliced." Venin said. "I don't have time to explain everything right now, all you need to know is Reaper's venom is on the same level with a full-grown Arbok, and it also contain hallucinogenic fear compounds! We need to get Avery medical care in the next three hours, or he will die!"