"RUN! WE NEED TO KEEP MOVING!" The Solgaleo spice shouted, just as he was hit by a hyper beam from the Tyranitar! He was sent flying across the clearing into a tree!
"Master!" The Machoke splice shouted using clear English, running up to help the Solgaleo after he slid down the tree trunk. "Master Arkham, are you okay?"
"…I'll be fine, Leonidas." Arkham grunted. "But we need to keep moving-"
Arkham looked up, seeing that he and Leonidas were surrounded by the Tyranitar, Gengar, and the Onix.
"It appears your teachings will have to wait." Suicune said to Kasi.
"Indeed." Kasi agreed, both of the firing Ice Beams at the Onix! The hostile Rock-type Pokemon was knocked back into the trees by the combined blast! Even though the move had normal effectiveness, the combined powers of Suicune and Kasi overwhelmed its defense, freezing the Onix solid!
"Chill for a while." Kasi said.
The Tyranitar, seeing it's ally frozen by Kasi and Suicune, charged at them with a wound-up Fire Punch! Only when it tried to land the attack, its first got caught by Takuya's hand!
"Not a very smart move." Takuya growled as Leonidas hit the Tyranitar in the back with a series of Cross-Chop attacks! The Tyranitar was knocked out!
The Gengar, seeing its allies fallen, went into a kamikaze attack against Arkham, striking him in the eyes with a Poison Jab attack! The venom from the jab splattered all over Arkham's face, seeping into his eyes, hitting the Solgaleo splice with stinging pain as he screamed!
"That's enough!" Mewtwo shouted, throwing a Shadow Ball attack at the Gengar! Mew joined in the counterattack with a Psychic Wave, and even Celebi joined in with a Magical Leaf attack! The combined attacks instantly throttled the Gengar, knocking the ghost Pokemon out cold!
After the Gengar was knocked out, several more hostile Pokemon ran up: A Houndoom, a Manectric, and a Mightyena! With them were three other Pokemon: A Murkrow, Wobuffet, and a Sneasel!
"Oh, by Arceus…" Avery growled. He readied himself to unleash a powerful Thunder attack but was cut off by a Skarmory and a Steelix jumping into the fray, assisted by Dante and Trisha! Dante used his own Shadow Ball attacks on the hostiles, Trisha joining in with a few Thunderbolt strikes! The Steelix used Iron tail on the hostiles, while the Skarmory used a Swift attack to drive them away!
Running up from behind the group, was Ash, Pikachu, Misty, Mary, and Professor Oak, accompanied by Giovanni, and two members of Team Rocket: Hun and Atilla!
"Guys! What are you doing out here?!" Ash exclaimed. "Pikachu said he saw you guys walking off-"
Ash stopped when he and the others saw the Solgaleo splice with the Machoke, along with seeing Mewtwo, Mew, Celebi, Entei, Suicune, and Raikou!
Raikou, seeing Atilla and Hun, immediately turned defensive! He jumped in front of Avery, letting out a loud, clear growl of warning. "You two!"
Avery looked at Raikou, now worried there was going to be a scuffle. "You have history with them, I assume?"
"You could say that…" Raikou's glare was unrelenting.
"Relax, Thunder-Tiger!" Atilla snapped, reading Raikou's body language. "We're not here for you, or anyone else! In fact, we're having to play along with everyone because our boss got screwed by the guys who fused you and your friends' DNA with the kids over there!"
"We're not just friends, we're siblings!" Entei growled in irritation. "Seriously, if you are going to address us as a group, at least use the right terminology…"
"You do know that they can't understand you, right?" Takuya asked Entei.
Giovanni's eyes widened slightly when he heard Takuya's words. "You can understand them?! They can understand Pokemon?! Samuel Oak! I thought you told us everything!"
Professor Oak glared at Giovanni. "I said I told you everything you needed to know! I'm not going to spill the beans on everything at once, Giovanni! You are not trustworthy! Me and the other professors made that quite clear to begin with!"
"If you are all done with this pointless debate, could you please do something to help my master?!" Leonidas cried out in english, holding Arkham in his arms.
"He got hit with a poison jab attack by a Gengar." Avery explained. "Right in the eyes…"
Professor Oak freaked. "WHAT!? In the eyes?! We can't just sit here! Let's get back to the lab! If that poison remains in his eyes for more than three hours, he will be blind! After five hours, he will die without treatment! Come on!"
# # # # # #
Orre Pokemon Lab
Thirty Minutes Later…
"Well, thank Arceus we got back here in time." Professor Oak sighed, seeing the Solgaleo Splice in a stable state after fifteen panicked minutes. Though he was still unconscious, he was at least out of danger.
The Machoke, who introduced himself as Leonidas explained that he had helped his master, named Arkham, escape from Team Midnight from a secret base a year ago. They had been on the run ever since, being hunted all that time by Team Midnight trainers and grunts, along with Pokemon with implanted orders.
"I'm very grateful we ran across all of you." Leonidas said, sitting next to Arkham's bed, his master in a recovery blindfold with medical ointment over his eyes. "We've been in a very bad spot for a long time. It's just… I can't believe Team Midnight has not stopped their experiments with the DNA Splicing… I thought Master Arkham was their only victim. But now…"
"Don't over-think it, Leonidas." Dante reassured, patting the Machoke on the shoulder. "Just try to take it easy for a while. You and Arkham are safe here and have been through a year-long scrape. Relax for a bit."
Leonidas sighed, knowing Dante was right. So he crossed his legs in the chair, assuming a meditation posture, closed his eyes, and breathed in and out steadily as he found his center.
Dante looked over to Mary at his side. She seemed a little unnerved. "Everything okay?"
Mary shook it off. "Just hearing his name… Arkham… It reminds me too much of how my dad disappeared when I was eight. He went by the same name."
Dante hugged Mary, knowing all too well what she meant. "Harrison Arkham was a good man. He didn't deserve whatever fate he met when he was undercover. I'm sorry, Mary. I should have been more sensitive."
Mary hugged Dante back. "It's alright. I'll just have to-"
They were cut off by Arkham suddeny awakening, letting out a loud, desperate gasp for air, taking in breaths rapidly at first before they slowed.
Arkham then spoke. "…What? …What's going on? It's so dark, I can't see anything…"
Leonidas was at his master's side in a heartbeat. "It's okay, Master. Lie still and Relax, we're in the Orre Pokemon lab. We're safe."
"Who are you, If I may ask, sir?" Mary asked.
Arkham froze upon hearing Mary's voice. A tear ran down from underneath his blindfold, as he spoke his next sentence in a half-sob. "Mary? …Mary, is that you?"
Mary was stunned. "Who are you?! How do you know me?!" She demanded.
"Mary… It's me." Arkham sobbed, emotion flooding his expression. "It's me… Papa… I know you may not recognize me due to this… This thing that Team Midnight has done… But it's me! Don't you remember? On your tenth birthday, I gave you your first Capture Styler… For your studies as a Pokemon Ranger… It was the happiest I had ever seen you, Mary… The happiest I had seen you since your mother vanished when she… When she was working for the Balancers… We joined up after Takumi told us of her fate…"
Mary's eyes widened, going into tears as she heard Arkham spout out this privileged info. She ran up, taking one of Arkham's hands, and looking over it for something: His scar that symbolized his Writ of Silence! Sure enough, it was there: A large gash in his palm, that symbolized his oath!
Dante, after doing a quick mind probe of his own, also stared on in shock and awe. "…It's him. Mary, it… It's him!"
Mary finally broke down, the walls of shielded emotion crumbling down in a heartbeat as if they had been shattered by demolition charges! She threw her arms around Arkham, burying her face in his chest.
"Father!" She cried, breaking down into continuous sobs of guilt and relief, Dante walking up behind her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.