Interceptor's Wish

by Masterdude21

What started as a young man's search for his abducted mother spirals out of control. Soon, he is fighting a desperate war for survival against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed. The enemy is everywhere and allies are far too few. With the entire region at stake, who can prevail when fate itself seems set against you? - Novelization of Pokemon Rejuvenation.

48. Searching in the Dark

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Chapter 11– Through the Looking Mask

Searching in the Dark

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Viennas Hill was located in an elevated section of the city in the north-east part. The bus dropped Will off on a bus-stop next to a busy street, which he'd have to cross to get to where he needed to go. He made his way through a wrought iron gate nestled between two towering trees. Almost instantly, the atmosphere of his surroundings changed. The second he rounded the bend of the sidewalk and stepped foot in Viennas Hill proper, the constant noise of cars zipping by and people honking their horns faded.

The architecture here seemed older to him. Tighter, in a way. He headed uphill, his head on a swivel as he looked at the strange way the buildings here had been built and laid out. They'd been designed with verticality in mind, and every house he spotted had at least three floors to them. The stairway crisscrossed its way up the hill before finally reaching the plateau.

Once at the top, Will saw that the place was littered with cafes, restaurants and gardens. Everywhere he looked he saw people relaxing at a terrace or a bench, hanging out near a fountain or sleeping underneath a tree. He saw people eating at a pizzeria, drinking coffee at a place he was certainly going to check out on his way back, enjoying ice cream in front of a Pokecenter and generally having a fun time.

Moving slower as to not miss anything important, Will made his way past a shop specifically meant for hats and a pizzeria with a lot of customers for the time of the day, before finally reaching a central square of sorts. It was a large plaza dominated by a fountain the size of a small house. Little kids played with their Pokemon in and around the water, with their parents keeping a loose eye on them as they chatted away. A little girl splashed her Bulbasaur with water and got an unpleasant surprise when said Bulbasaur slapped a tidal wave of water back at her with its tentacles.

Small bird-Pokemon flew overhead, singing and chirping. An ice cream vendor laughed as an elderly man regaled him with old stories while a kid, his grandson by the looks of it, stared at the menu as if hypnotized.

Tranquil, calm and peaceful.

Will could get used to this place.

He started making his way across the plaza, trying to ignore the many looks he attracted in the process. Mothers began whispering at each other, some of the kids pointed at him and he felt more than one gaze burn in his back as he continued on towards the Botanical Garden.

It's the scars, Will realized. One moment of confusion. That was all it had taken. One moment of confusion and a split-second where his reflexes had been just a bit too sluggish. A hair's breadth too close, and Geara had irrevocably damaged his life.

Damaged him.

And somehow, he'd have to find a way to just live with that?

Frustrated and lonely, Will decided that he wasn't going to do this without company. He sent out Fraxure and Krlia, waited until they got their bearings, then knelt down in front of them. "Okay guys, we're looking for Lavender, purple-haired girl, not Venam, very shy. Up there is the Botanical Garden. We're going in there, but - "

Kirlia promptly spun away from him and began skipping towards the Garden's entrance.

" - don't rush into things." Will sighed. "Sure. Why not."

She hadn't made it more than half a dozen meters before she flickered out of existence.

"Teleporters," Will spat. "Fraxure, new plan. You find the purple-haired shy girl, and I find the green-haired bundle of impatience."

Fraxure gave him a low, rumbling growl of agreement, and together they entered the garden.

Because of that strange dome covering the entire city, Will couldn't say that the Botanical Gardens felt different from the rest of the hill, but…it did. The instant he made it through the tunnel of steel, vine-covered fences, the air instantly felt more humid and much warmer. The sun wasn't as bright in there, either.

Fraxure paused to sniff the air. So did Will.

The air was sharp with dampness and the sweet, lingering scent of flowers and vegetation. A flowery aroma tinged with the barest hint of decomposition.

Flora's Botanical Gardens were, in one word, beautiful. Will didn't think he'd ever seen such a large and diverse collection of flowers, plants and trees before in his life. Not even on Terajuma. Flowers of all sizes and shapes littered the area, some of them no larger than his pinky and some of them big enough for Nidoking to use as a sleeping bag.

Fraxure quickly disappeared in the foliage to start his search for Lavender, which left Will free to look around for his headstrong little Psychic-type.

"Kirlia?"

He imagined she had a good reason to run off like that. Kirlia always seemed to know what she was doing, even if it didn't make much sense to him at times. That made her lapse of control against Flora all the stranger…as well as her very odd behavior around Aelita.

"Kirlia!"

Aelita, who had run away from him.

What did Kirlia know that he didn't?

"Where'd you go, Kirlia?"

"Begone, little pest," he heard a woman complain in the distance. "Did your trainer never teach you that staring is impolite?"

Will had a funny feeling that he'd just gotten his answer. He picked up the pace, jogging through the garden until he reached the other side of a pond covered with water lilies. There, standing in the middle of a flowerbed that was actively being worked on, stood his Kirlia.

Engaged in a staring contest with Flora. She was clad in that same safari outfit she'd worn back on Terajuma, which suited her much better than her Bladestar attire, in his opinion.

Will muttered a curse under his breath. Of all the people Kirlia could have gotten him involved with again…"Kirlia? What are you doing?"

Flora tore her gaze off the inquisitive Kirlia standing in the middle of her gardening to shoot Will and annoyed look, which by all rules and laws meant that Kirlia had just won the contest. "Will. I thought I recognized this nosy, meddlesome thing sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. Did you teach her that?"

"You know me, always the best role model," Will shot back. He carefully stepped around the flower bed, saw that Kirlia had likely disturbed Flora right as she was uprooting some old plants to put in new ones, and then reached out to scoop Kirlia up in his arms. She went slack in his grip, but she didn't stop staring.

The incognito Bladestar leader gave him a critical look-over. "Quite. What are you doing in my garden?"

"Relax, I'm not looking to join your safari," Will replied.

Flora's left eye twitched once. "Oh how I shall miss that dull wit of yours. Yes, I do in fact wear my safari outfit when working with dirt. I don't appreciate my good clothes getting messed up, understand?"

Will, whose current good clothes hadn't impressed Flora so far, simply nodded. "Imagine falling into the pond and getting soggy."

The muscles around Flora's jaw tightened. Then, much to Will's horror, Flora flashed him a thousand-watt smile and that was infinitely more frightening than anything he'd seen her do before so far. "Now that I have you here?" She spoke in a sickeningly sweet voice that set the hairs in his neck upright. "Everything you saw in those caves? Remove it from memory. We never speak about it again. Got it?"

"...right," Will said, deciding to bite back the witty comeback that lay on his tongue. "I remember our deal."

"Okay," Flora said, and her smile faded like snow in the sun. "Good. Why are you here?"

"...can't I enjoy a leisurely stroll through the garden?" Will asked.

Flora snorted. "I have met you a grand total of three times, each of which saw you meddling with affairs beyond your limited ability to comprehend. You will forgive me for assuming that pattern has yet to change."

Will couldn't even blame her for that. "Fair. I'm looking for Lavender. We're investigating the petrification going on - "

Kirlia's head snapped to the left and she pulled at his sleeve with both her hands, before pointing down the path. Will gave her a look, then glanced in the direction she was pointing at. Vaguely, he could hear voices coming from that direction.

Then, the familiar and very unexpected sound of Fraxure snarling

"Uh-oh," Will said.

Kirlia nodded.

"What was that?" Flora demanded. "Will, if you brought trouble into my Botanical Garden I swear - "

"We'll check it out," Will cut her off. He put Kirlia down on the ground and she wasted no time teleporting away again.

Together, they made their way towards the northernmost section of the Botanical Garden. There, Will spotted his inquisitive Dragon facing off against a trio of trainers, having put himself between them and a gazebo.

Will got closer, slowing down a bit to get a better look at the situation. Fraxure looked to be blocking the entrance to the gazebo, keeping those three people from getting closer to the purple-haired young woman taking shelter there.

Nobody looked happy about that situation, but Fraxure looked genuinely pissed. His lips were curled back to reveal a row of knife-like teeth and there was a tense curve to his shoulders that suggested he'd exhausted all other non-violent options.

"I already explained my situation," the woman said, raising her hands in a placating gesture as Fraxure swung his tusked head from one trainer to the other. "I'm sorry, but I'm just not comfortable with hosting any Gym Battles at the moment."

The blond kid in the front looked like he wanted to step closer, but feared doing so because of Fraxure. Will noticed that he already had one Pokeball in his hand, but he hadn't sent out his own Pokemon to defend himself either. "You're a Gym Leader. You have your Pokemon out right now!"

Lavender!

She didn't look well. Lavender had herself pressed up against the back of the gazebo, her arms hugged around her stomach in a protective gesture. Her eyes were locked on the floor. "It's not mine," she said, and the pain in her voice was enough to give Will pause. "I don't know where it came from…"

"It's not letting us pass…" one of the girls said.

"I can see that," the boy snapped back, before directing his attention back to Lavender. "It's your job to host matches no matter what the circumstances!"

"I'm aware, but…"

"Huh?! What do you mean, but!" The kid demanded. He took an angry step towards Lavender -

And Fraxure's body began glowing faintly as he gathered draconic energy, getting ready to blast a fool.

Alarmed, the three teens sprang back. The two girls nearly stumbled into the bushes and the flowers that surrounded them while the boy - their leader, Will assumed - whipped out a Pokeball of his own. He held it out against Fraxure as if it could physically shield him, but he backed away just a bit too much and bumped straight into Will.

Will, never one to miss dramatic timing, chose that moment to announce his presence. "The lady said no," he sharply said.

The punk uttered a shrill cry of alarm, whirled around and nearly bumped into one of his ladyfriends when he hurried to put some distance between Will and himself.

At least the scar was good for something.

"Whoah, who the hell are you!" The guy demanded. "We got here first, asshole! Back off!"

Things escalated into a Pokemon battle from there, because some people really needed to learn things the hard way. Will ordered Fraxure to remain at his position and keep a close eye on Lavender just in case, then when the guy sent out a burly Machamp to fight things out, he waved Kirlia forwards.

After an intense and brief skirmish, a switch on Will's side and a whole lot of cursing and attacking from his opponent's side, Will wiped the floor with him and his four Pokemon.

Blaziken, having just laid out the last of her foes with a single Blaze Kick, crossed her arms over her chest, unimpressed by the whole thing.

"Gah…are you serious?" The guy snapped. "Now I have to go heal my Pokemon! That's gonna take hours! Who even ARE you?"

Will made it a point to step a bit to the side and wave at Lavender. "Hey Lavender. It's me. Don't worry about a thing."

"I'll give you something to worry about!" The other trainer said. "You may have beaten me, but my friends are going to beat you down for embarrassing me!"

Will glared at the rightmost girl, who flinched when he met her eyes. The other one made a grab for her own Pokemon, but then a familiar steely voice cut through the tension like a knife. "I'm going to give you two seconds to get out of here and leave that girl alone."

"F-Flora?" Lavender muttered.

Fraxure tilted his head quizzingly when he saw Flora stepping into view. Will felt tempted to do the same, but apparently he had an angry and intimidating imago to keep because neither of the girls had yet to challenge him to another fight.

""That's the Gym Leader of this place…" The blonde muttered.

Flora heard him. "That's right, and you're a bunch of kids I'm about to put in the dirt if you don't leave right now."

There wasn't a hint of snark or sarcasm in her tone. Flora meant business. If these punks wouldn't leave Lavender alone in the next few seconds, Will wouldn't have to lift a finger.

Flora cast her gaze over the area again. Her eyes lingered on Blaziken for a moment. "Oh, and here's some feedback I got from watching you battle. You're just awful at it," she calmly said. "Complete trash."

Damn.

And Flora wasn't finished yet, "If you're going to nag a Leader to battle you for a stupid piece of metal…the LEAST you could do is make sure you have the bite to match the bark. And let me tell you, the bite is just as good as a nibble compared to the incessant barking." She put her hands on her hips and took a moment to glare at the pair of girls, who visibly wilted.

"She tore you up, dude," one of them said.

"You girls are just as pathetic for hanging around this asswipe," Flora rounded on the girl with fury. "Get the hell out of here, and don't come back. You're all banned."

His Pokemon and him watched the three teens run off with their tails between their legs. Begrudgingly, Will turned to Flora and said, "Okay. That was cool."

"There is nothing cool about chasing off idiots and bullies," Flora said quietly.

Slowly, hesitantly, Lavender walked down the steps of the gazebo. Fraxure noticed her hesitance and calmly walked aside to let her pass.

"Hey, Flora?" Lavender said, her voice small and vulnerable. "Thanks."

Flora regarded her oddly for a moment, before turning her back to her and Will. "Oh, I wasn't doing it for you. I'm just trying to do my thing and they were being noisy."

A small, vulnerable smile played across Lavender's lips. "I know that's just your way of saying you care, so thanks anyway."

"Whatever."

"And you too, Will," Lavender then said. "I think you and Fraxure came just in time."

"You guuuys!" Someone yelled. Before Will could do much more than offer Lavender a smile, Huey and Kanon came running down the path to their left. Kanon's long scarf trailed behind him as he hurried to keep up with his energetic partner. "Hey!" Huey yelled, skidding to a halt right next to Lavender. There you are! Are you okay?"

"...yeah," Lavender replied evenly. "There were just some jerks who wouldn't leave me alone. Thankfully, Will and Flora were there to help me out of it."

"Ah, good - "

"The circus is in town," Flora sighed. "Oh boy…look, Florin's off doing legal business in the Judicial District so I have to go and help him. I'll unlock the door for you guys, but please lock the door when you leave, okay? Even if no one comes through to steal anything, the Greedent certainly will."

Will was impressed. He hadn't ever hear Flora speak so many words in one breath without someone making it sound condescending or sarcastic. Maybe there was hope for her yet?

"You can count on us!" Kanon said with the exact kind of tone Melia usually reserved for these kind of moments.

Flora raised an eyebrow, then promptly turned around and walked off. "I'm surreee I can."

And she even tried to inspire confidence in Kanon! Where had this version of Flora been all this time?

Lavender coughed softly into her first, getting the attention of the others. "Will and…Kanon, was it? I'm very sorry for how I acted earlier." To Will's horror, she even bowed her head in apparent guilt. "Truly. I've been all out of sorts with what's been going on and I - "

"It's okay, Lavender," Will gently told her.

Huey nodded in appreciation, while Lavender really livened up when she heard him say that. "Thank you…" she said, visibly relieved. "It really does mean a lot that you're so understanding. Talon was my mentor. I looked up to him. I'm…not from Aevium natively. I'm only here because I got a scholarship for Axis High. When I got here, I was basically alone. I came to the Botanical Garden to isolate myself even more. But then…"

"Talon?" Will guessed.

Lavender nodded vigorously. "Talon found me and made me feel welcomed. He's also the reason I met Huey and all the others. If it weren't for him, I feel like I would still be lost."

Then Talon was to her what Ren, Venam and Melia had been to him. Without Ren and Venam especially, he would have never met Melia. They took him in when he had no 'one and nothing, even when they had zero obligations or reason to do so.

Sometimes, he wondered where he'd have been without them. Most of the time, he guessed that he'd be dead. Other times, when things got…difficult and his thoughts wandered to the darker recesses of his mind, he guessed something worse than that.

"So when I saw him turned to stone…I shut down," Lavender quietly continued.

"We'll get him back, Lavender." Will said.

"Really? Do you…really believe that we…?"

"That is why we are here, ma'am," Kanon offered.

"If there exists a way to fix Talon, we'll find it."

"Indeed!" Kanon added. "Instead of sitting around and moping over what's lost, let's find what has been hidden and bring Talon justice. I think that's what he would want, no?"

"Yes…Yes!" Lavender breathed. "You are very much right! We can bring Talon justice."

With a big grin, Huey said, "And I bet we can find a clue if we investigate his house!"

And what a house it was. Talon lived in what Will could only assume was the city's biggest best isolated treehouse. A part of it was underground like the houses in Darchlight Village, although Talon did have a really cool balcony attached to the upper part of his floor. His walls, floor and even furniture was all made out of wood, but the place still felt homey in a way Will couldn't quite get. Even though Talon was gone, and nobody knew how to get him back, his house didn't feel empty, cold or abandoned. It was almost like…like Talon's house was simply waiting for him to get back.

They began their search, but it quickly became clear that things might not be that simple. Almost immediately, Lavender noticed that the ladder leading to his room had been put up, which didn't make sense because, as she put it, Talon always had the ladder down. Always.

That in and of itself was a vital clue they could work with.

"How are we going to get that ladder down, then?" Kanon asked. Will and him watched as Huey jumped up and down, flinging his hands up as he grasped for the ladder and coming up short four feet every time he did it.

"Can't we just…tear that thing down…and use our Pokemon to go up there?" Will suggested.

"No!" Lavender said, speaking up so fast that even she seemed shocked by it. "N-No. We cannot change or take anything because the police are still going to search this entire house. Taking DNA samples and the like…if we break anything, we'll disturb the crime scene."

"Fine." Will replied. "So what do we do then?"

"Uhm…you two go search through the lower level, I'll try to think of something," Lavender said.

They did. Kanon and Will went through the underground section of Talon's house, finding a wealth of books, dust and more plants than Will had seen in all of Gearen City. They searched through the bundle of firewood kept in Talon's bedroom, stared for a solid minute through the window in an observation room that allowed them to gawk at the roots from the plant life above the ground, but they didn't find anything.

Disappointed, the two of them headed back upstairs to report.

Lavender, as it turned out, hadn't found anything at all while Huey…well, Rhodea had been right. Huey was definitely Huey.

"...I vaguely recall Talon telling Florin that there was a secret way to enter his room if the need arose," Lavender mused. "So I'm sure there's a way, we just need to find it…or…Talon himself can tell us how to do it?"

"Lavender," Huey gasped. "You don't mean - ?"

"Yes, Huey," Lavender nodded. "It's still not perfected, but maybe it'll work in here."

"I don't follow," Kanon said.

That made two of them.

Lavender put her hands into her pockets and leaned back against the wooden support beams of the attic. "How do I explain this…there exists an invisible plane of existence that houses data of people. Wherever someone visits or leaves an area, they leave behind a metaphysical footprint." She looked at the two of them, saw that they didn't look particularly enlightened yet and then winced a bit. "Basically, a trace that they were there. The same way a website can log your visit in its database and keep it there. It knows what you did, how long you visited for, and exactly when you left."

"Oh," Will said. "This is like uh…a Psychic-type thing, right? An imprint left by a person's presence, the psychic remnants that are left even when they leave?"

"Hmmm…in a way, I suppose that is not the worst kind of explanation," Lavender replied.

"Okay, but I still don't understand how this is going to help us?" Kanon said.

So Lavender showed them instead. "Alakazam! Let's Link Up!"

Before Will could do more than realize that Lavender was the Psychic-type trainer, her Alakazam's eyes lit up and a field of invisible energy spread through the room, stringing them along like leaves caught in a gust of wind.

Yet they didn't go anywhere.

In that moment, a moment that lasted perhaps the time it took for his neurons to adjust to the input offered by his senses, something opened up to him. Will felt a deep, senseless form around him, before it assumed a shape that rose around him, shifting into the contours of Talon's house. Something lingered in those walls, unseen not not unfelt. A lightness of sorts, carrying with it a faint whisper.

They stood in Talon's house, but they also did not.

"Holy crap!" Lavender exclaimed. "I can't believe that actually worked!"

Will cocked an eyebrow. He didn't take Lavender to be the cussing type.

"Lavender," Huey said as he gawked at their surroundings "What the - ?!"

"Everyone," Lavender said, her voice almost reverent, "Welcome to the metaphysical plane of existence." A pause. "Theoretically metaphysical, anyway."

…where was Kanon? "Uh, Lavender?"

But Lavender only had eyes for Huey as he blurted out, "So does that mean we're a totally different dimension?!"

"No, we're still in Talon's home," Lavender replied. "This is a mental projection that Alakazam has brought us to. In reality we're standing around like zombies in the real world while our minds are active here. …Perhaps I should've sat everyone down first before I did this."

"Lavender, where did you leave Kanon?" Will asked.

Her eyebrows knitted together as she gazed around the room. "Kanon's consciousness was not brought with us? That's so strange…"

"So he's still active on the normal plane?" Will asked.

"...yes. I did say this was in the testing stages…" She shrugged. "Anyway, doing this is very taxing on Alakazam, so we need to work fast. Will, would you mind doing the honors?"

Will blinked his blankest eye at her.

And Lavender chuckled, thus reinforcing that he did, in fact, still have some puppy in his eye. "There…there should be a "artifacts" you can interact with when exploring the house again. Small distortions in this plane. Interacting with these will trigger certain events that have previously transpired the area. Alakazam should have filtered out irrelevant events so that only things that matter should appear." She shrugged. "But again, testing phase and all that."

So interacting he went.

As Will made his way around the house, sticking his nose in the shimmering distortions in Alakazam's hosted mindscape, he caught hints and snippets of interactions that left their mark in Talon's house.

Florin and Talon preparing for their expedition on Terajuma. Talon not being a particularly huge fan of Flora because of her brooding personality instead of literally everything else she'd said and done.

A discussion between the two siblings where Flora's statement that, to prevent a disease from spreading to an entire garden, some of them had to be uprooted and discarded completely, which sounded too ominous for Will to just ignore. He made a mental note to ponder that later, and continued snooping around .

But he found nothing useful.

"Huh? The artifacts revealed unrelated events happening?" Lavender asked a minute later when Will reported in.

"Unless Flora and Florin were the culprit," Will remarked.

It was clearly a joke, but Lavender visibly squirmed in discomfort when he said that. "No, no, that isn't…they wouldn't…"

"It was a joke," Will offered. "I met up with Flora and Florin trying to find a cure."

"A…joke…" Lavender murmured and shit, now he felt really awkward. "I see…maybe this isn't as streamlined as I had hoped."

Huey was by her side in the time it took Will to blink. "You're trying your best and that's all that matters!"

"But my best isn't producing results," Lavender said and of all things, he felt that one the most. "Maybe we're going to have to put a bit more strain on - "

Lavender's words became lost to Will in a wash of screaming white static crackling across his brain. His body jolted involuntarily and everything went white. Things didn't stay white, however. Slowly, dimly, his mind began registering things again.

Pain, mostly.

Then, like they'd been pulled away from him while still attached on rubber bands, everything snapped back together into one cohesive image. Talon's house. Kanon, shaking his shoulders -

Without intending to, Will jerked himself back and away from Kanon. "Shit," he spat, nearly stumbling backwards into Talon's bookshelf. "K-Kanon? What - "

"Augh, thank goodness I finally got to one of you!" Kanon said. "I don't know why you are all just standing there saying nothing, but…we got a problem!"

Kanon pointed to the front door, which had just been thrown open by a figure clad in a strange, black and red outfit that wouldn't seem out of place in a Xen base. A stage mask concealed their face. A long, shaggy mane of red hair cascaded down their shoulders and back, further throwing off any guesses at their identity.

Whoever they were, they came strolling up the stairs like they owned the damn place, and Will didn't like that one bit. He quickly eyed their surroundings, taking note of how vulnerable Huey and Lavender still were, while also verifying that they hadn't been outflanked yet.

"Excuse me!" Kanon snapped. "But this is a private residence!"

The intruder didn't look like they cared. They walked into the living room, then stopped at the other end of the dining table. Will had his hand on Blaziken's Pokeball, ready to send her out should the worst come to pass.

Oh, who was he kidding? When the worst inevitably came to pass.

"You do not own this house, child," the stranger said, their voice muffled by some sort of modulator that made it impossible to even guess their gender, let alone their identity. "Do not speak of private residences to me."

And Kanon didn't exactly take that comeback on the chin. "What is it you want?" He growled out.

"The appearance of you all marks the beginning of the end," the stranger commented. "Will - "

"Would it kill you freaks to talk like normal functioning people?" An exasperated Will replied.

"Functioning…an odd accusation, coming from you. Your investigation is moot. Without power, skill or dedication…all will be lost to you."

Will liked to think he knew a thing or two about dedication. "That's not going to happen," he said.

"Show me"

The masked stranger sent out a Pokemon that resembled a golden sword, its edges white and serrated near the top. At its hilt rested a single, purple eye with a white slit for a pupil. Two cloth-like arms stuck out from the sides of the hilt, one of which ended in a purple sash and the other carried an ornate, golden shield.

Will had seen a Pokemon like this before, back in Goldenleaf Town under Sariah's control. A possessed or sentient blade, excelling in close quarters, both in offensive and defensive tactics. Worse, it was a Ghost-type.

Wordlessly, Will met her challenge with Blaziken. Lavender and Huey were particularly vulnerable, and it came down to it, he'd have to be able to switch seamlessly between his own offense and defense. Froslass, for as much firepower as she could bring to bear, didn't have the physical presence to stop this thing from circumventing her and going after the others.

"Blade Forme, Aegislash! We go on the offensive!"

Blaziken ducked as the golden blade slashed at her. It swept over her head in a wide arc and she drove a burning Fire Punch towards Aegislash, but it blurred out of her reach and instantly came back down on her again in a vertical cleave.

She side-stepped the incoming slash and drove her elbow towards Aegislash's hilt, but her elbow passed harmlessly through its ghostly form. Without a corona of flames or elemental energy wreathing her limbs, she would not be touching that thing.

"Keep up the fire, Blaziken! It's a Ghost-type!" Will ordered.

It must have been an instinctual attack, a reflex ingrained through training and experience and genetics. Nevertheless, that was why she had him.

Blaziken flicked her wrists and an aura of white-hot flames flared to life around her body.

"Distance, Aegislash! Shadow Sneak!"

Aegislash's shadow blurred. It extended in every direction across the floor, creeping alongside the walls to surround Blaziken. Blaziken turned around slowly, eyeing the darkness that zoomed around her.

From her right, a shadowy blade erupted from the ground and flashed towards her.

"Your right!" Will said.

It was no use. By the time his sluggish human mind processed that an attack was incoming, it had already landed. Its black edge slashed across her back and she whirled around, clawing at it with a burning arm.

Another blade came, this time from her left. She must have caught it from her peripherals as she battered it aside with a burning elbow, before stepping back two paces to avoid a third and a fourth shadowy blade. Had they not been standing in the middle of Talon's very wooden, very flammable house, Will would have told Blaziken to turn the entire area to flames and ashes.

More shadowy swords slashed and cleaved at her from multiple angles, attacking all at once to keep her from maneuvering. She ducked and weaved, punched and blocked, but it was a losing battle, and she started taking hits.

"Ignore the shadows! Aim for the Aegislash!"

Blaziken kicked aside another pair of shadow blades and shot towards Aegislash. She drove her leg towards it -

"King's Shield."

- and her Blaze Kick came to a jarring stop against Aegislash's shield, which erupted in a wall of hexagonal barriers interlocking together to form a protective barrier.

Aegislash had slid its shield in front of its sword. Blaziken backed away, raising her fists to protect her face and midsection, idly shifting her balance from her right leg to her left, then back again.

"And Flèche!"

The shield shifted away and Aegislash drove itself towards Blaziken's midsection. She was barely able to deflect the incoming stab, battering it aside and instantly countering with a quick jab at Aegislash's hilt. Her fist connected and the Blade Pokemon spiraled back through the living room, slammin against the wall. Blaziken followed up with another blow, but the Aegislash used King Shield in the nick of time. Blaziken's fist slammed into that barrier again and she backpedaled again, shaking her arm as if in pain.

"Again!"

"Remember Rift Garbodor?" Will said. "With the knee?"

"Fury Cutter!" The masked person ordered.

Glowing white, Aegislash whirred through the air, a constant blur of slashing and carving motions. Will wouldn't have been able to see even one attack coming, let alone a dozen in the span of two seconds, but Blaziken was able to. Through a combination of blocking, deflecting and parrying, Blaziken warded off Aegislash long enough until finally, the Ghost-type went in for a horizontal cleaving motion aimed at her waist.

Blaziken whipped around like a blur. She drove her elbow down, hard, while at the same time pulling her knee up. She pinned Aegislash's body between her elbow and her knee. Fire rolled down her body as she kept it pinned for a fraction of a second before she moved. The next instant her other leg snapped out and the resulting Blaze Kick sent Aegislash clattering across the floor

"What power," the masked intruder said. "Return to me, Aegislash!"

With that strange threat out of the way, Will was able to seize the initiative of the fight again. He recalled Blaziken before her flames could light up Talon's house like a box of matches and sent out Nidoking next.

Her next Pokemon was a Bisharp. A formidable opponent for sure, but one both Will and Nidoking knew how to handle. With little room to maneuver, and Nidoking's tough armor to protect his body, the Bisharp was at a disadvantage from the very beginning, and Nidoking had handled tougher opponents before.

"Very formidable!" The stranger exclaimed, hurrying to recall their Bisharp when it became obvious that it was no match for the King.

Even as the intruder backed away, Nidoking shoved the table aside like it was made from balloons and roared at them.

The masked individual did not even flinch. "You will do well to keep yourself on this path, Will. There will be a time when the true face of hell will make itself known to you."

Now that was a threat if Will'd ever heard one. "Let's drop the theatrics, and bury the threats," Will said. "Who are you? How did you know to go here?"

"Such impatience. What folly. You shall have your answers soon, Will, though you shall wish you never did. You must be ready to fight for your life when it comes to it."

Will was about to order Nidoking to pin that stranger down when Kanon yelled, "Did you come here just to bore us with that common-sense speech?"

The stranger seemed taken aback by that. "You have more of a mouth than I remember, dear child. This is what happens to those who lose their will to fight. They lose all sense of purpose. A former shell of a person. I once was in that spot."

One Will to fight, coming right up. "Nidoking - "

The masked intruder raised a warning hand. With the other, they reached into their pocket and sent out a large, black, plated bird of prey that looked like it could give Pidgeot a run for his money when it came to delivering punishing dive-bombs. "Before you waste your time fruitlessly pursuing me, I would spend my time wisely."

Nidoking inched closer to Will and Huey, putting his armored bulk in front of them.

"When you return to the metaphysical plane…tell Lavender to have her Alakazam filter out everything but the feelings of dread. You will find your answer there."

The stranger began leaving.

"Who are you?" Will demanded. "If you know how to find the answer, why tell us? Why oppose us?"

That stage musk turned his direction again. "...soon, you shall have your perception on right and wrong changed, Will. Suffering shall be yours. Dream a dream so grand that it becomes a nightmare…"

With that final threat delivered, the masked stranger and their Corviknight retreated.

"Hey!" Will shouted. He made to pursue, but Kanon gripped his arm and stopped him.

"Will, hang on, just wait."

Furious, Will ripped his arm free. "What do you mean, wait? Whoever that is knows what happened to Talon, Kanon! They know! And now they're gonna get away!"

Speaking calmly and with carefully measured words, Kanon replied, "Now, I don't find myself to be one to jump to conclusions, but I would like to declare that encounter is incredibly suspicious. So much, in fact, that I do not think giving pursuit would be wise."

"Why not?"

Kanon met his eyes directly. "Consider; what's the reason for just attacking us and then leaving? Unless, of course, they want us to pursue them, leaving Lavender and Huey exposed and possibly luring us into a trap."

The rage swept over Will so suddenly that he nearly spun around and kicked one of Talon's chairs through the air. For someone who knew the answers to just appear. taunt them and escape…it was almost unbearable. He felt like he was walking into the world's most obvious trap and that somehow, he was the only one who could not see it. It drove him mad.

But the shred of rationality left in his mind told him that Kanon was right. He clung to that, trying to use that to defuse the rising wave of helplessness. "You're right…" he snarled. He took a deep breath, clenched and unclenched his fists, and continued wrestling down that sense of impending disaster. "You're right…you're right. We can't leave them vulnerable. We can't risk triggering an ambush."

"...we came here to investigate for Talon," Kanon continued with that same measured voice. "That's the mission."

This was how it had started on Terajuma too. The constant enemy actions, the nonstop barrage of ambushes and confrontations and sadistic cryptic threats. Getting Amber and Tesla out alive had been a miracle and still they'd lost. It was a pattern that was starting to become painfully clear.

If he lost someone else in this damned city he was going to lose it. "Okay…what was it they said? About Lavender?"

"...yes, they do know about Lavender's methods," Kanon replied. "Which also means that her metaphysical "whatever" is also real." His voice trailed off and he looked away for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. In a small, almost vulnerable voice, he asked, "Why didn't it work for me?"

Will truly had no idea.

"...be that as it may," Kanon then said. "You must return and relay that message. I believe Alakazam may be able to help you in that department."

Alakazam could, and before Will knew it, he was back in Lavender's metaphorical plane. "Alright - "

"Will!" Lavender cried out. "You disappeared all of a sudden, what happened!"

Will told her.

Lavender's mouth dropped. "Ah."

"Yeah."

"I should have considered the possibility of us being interrupted by something…but that masked individual is certainly suspicious. They appeared as if they knew we'd be here."

"How do they know about that thing your Alakazam can do?" Huey asked.

"This whole process is my thesis project for Axis High, remember?" Lavender replied. "So that means that my research is public knowledge. Anyone can look me up and find out what I'm studying, though…" She seemed pensive for a moment, turning back to look at her concentrating Alakazam. "Well, that doesn't matter now. Let's give that person's suggestion a try? It might well be something useful. Alakazam? Would you do the honors?"

Alakazam would, and a new artifact appeared right there in the middle of the living room.

Talon had come home, shaken by something. He hadn't been in any mood to even fly up this attic, so he…made use of a Plan B he'd installed that would get him to drop the ladder in case of emergency. He'd left Florin behind and headed up.

"...okay, guys, that should do it!" Lavender said. "Let's return to our own bodies and replicate what Talon just did!"

Alakazam released them from the metamorphical realm and they went up on the platform looking over the dining room. Lavender reached into the bookcase there, brushed a few books aside and then knocked a few times against the wooden plate behind like Talon had done.

"Ah! Found it!" She said.

Moments later, the wooden ladder dropped to the platform with a heavy clunk. "And that should do it!"

"Leave it to Talon to do something like this," Huey laughed.

"Now that you mention it, this is very him," Lavender said. "We should get up there and do our investigation."

They did. It didn't take them long to find something off.

"Guys? I found something!"

Apparently, Talon had gotten a letter from his mother, telling him to meet her at some club at half past eleven in the evening. It would have been a strange place for any mother to visit her son on its own.

Except Talon's mom was bedridden and physically incapable of travel.

Will put the pieces together in his head. Talon receiving the suspicious letter, before flying off to confront the imposter. He'd done so alone, and it had cost him dearly.

It was time to head out to this club and figure out what they could there.

Club NightLight, the go-to nightclub when it came to this section of GDC. It was a very popular place for people to hang out and party. So popular in fact, that when Will, Kanon, Lavender and Huey made their way over there, the queue was so long that it took them half a freaking hour to even get inside once it opened somewhere in the late afternoon. The queue just appeared out of nowhere.

Once they did, however, the vast majority of the party-goers headed straight to either a bar or the dancefloor. The four of them headed to the lounge the furthest away from the dance floor, sat down around the table and took a moment to get acclimatized.

Club STFU, it was not.

…Will hoped Amber was still doing okay.

"Are we sure this is where the "special guest" appeared?" Kanon asked.

"I have no idea," Lavender admitted. "I've never set foot in here before tonight, and we have no reason to assume the person who lured Talon here, is actually a recurring guest."

"Either they are, and we'll have a suspect, or they aren't, and we get to enter the mathematical realm again," Will replied.

"Metaphysical," Lavender gently corrected him.

"Regardless, I'm going to ask an employee," Kanon said, before getting to his feet and walking up to the nearest bar. He chatted with the bartender there for a minute, before quickly returning to their table. "So what time is it not?"

"Uh…" Huey glanced at his phone. "Five forty-five!"

That meant the Night Market would open soon. Melia, Venam and Rhodea would be able to get their investigation going themselves.

"Right," Kanon nodded. "This club closes at ten thirty. There are no special guests at eleven thirty. Haven't been in two weeks."

"What!" Lavender gasped.

"Aww man…there goes our lead," Huey sighed. "Well, that's not what the letter said, so maybe the employee was wrong?"

Lavender shot him the kind of look that Will was used to getting. "Huey, I think it's more likely that whoever wrote the letter was lying."

Huey looked at Lavender for a while, his smile never faltering. Then…"Yeah, I know. I was just testing you guys."

"...Right," Kanon said. "Well, let's try your metaphysical technique here. Not sure why else we'd be hanging around in this sham of a club…I mean, look around." Kanon gestured at the dance floor. "We waited in line for half an hour and the dance floor isn't even filled to half its capacity - "

One of the patrons at the bar stirred, then shot an annoyed look their way. "Sham? You kids better not be talkin' about my club!"

Sensing trouble, Will shifted his weight to the front of his seat so that he could jump into action in a moment's notice. The guy addressing them was a bear of a man, almost seven foot tall and built like a brick. His black hair was pulled into a ponytail, save for the streaks blue. He looked like he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a club instead of on the beach; his blue shirt was open, revealing a massive chest lined with even more abs than Aelita or Adam had. His pants ended somewhere above his knees like he'd missed the memo that summer was over already.

Kanon faced the man. "You own this establishment?" He calmly asked.

"That's right baby!" The man proudly declared, hopping off his seat and spreading his arms. "I am the proud owner of Club NightLight!"

Something about the man's voice sounded familiar. These days though, Will wasn't sure what that meant. He felt like he still hadn't gotten into the old rhythm after yesterday's events.

"Just call me Adam Might!" The dude yelled, flashing them a giant grin.

"That name's taken already," Will shot back. Whoever this guy was, it was likely he was one of Adam's buddies or something.

"Hell yeah it is!" The boisterous giant fired back. "By ME! I'm hot, I'm on top, and everybody loves me!"

Why Adam was friends with a guy like this, Will couldn't see. It wasn't his place to judge either way.

"Everybody huh?" Kanon said.

"Everybody!" The guy reiterated and fuck, even the way he smiled looked like Adam. Thankfully, his smile didn't last long, as he gave Lavender and Huey another closer look. "Wait a second, you kids are all over the age of eighteen, right?"

"...yes," Kanon said, his pokerface forged from steel.

The weird man peered at Kanon's face for another tense few moments before wiping some sweat from his forehead. "Ah, phew! Dodged a bullet there, eh?" He laughed. "Alright, well, you kids take it easy. Thanks for comin'!"

With that, the big guy went back to his seat and continued enjoying his drink.

"...weird," Kanon said.

Adam Might…once he reunited with Adam, Val, Saki and Braixen, he'd have to tell Adam that this stranger was using his name. Ask him if he knew this guy.

"This was a bust then," Lavender groaned as she sank her head atop her arms. "We won't learn anything from just being here…we're going to use Alakazam's help once again and look for any traces of Talon being here."

"Let's do this!" Huey exclaimed.

Once more, into the metaphorical realm they went. And once more, they didn't manage to bring Kanon with them.

Will decided to file that one away as "suspicious but not right now", then went to work.

When Alakazam translated the club into the mindscape, it found only one artifact for them to investigate.

"Found you," Will muttered.

It was all they needed.

it wasn't an imposter. It wasn't a lie, or some sort of cheap trick. There, on the podium after hours, stood Talon's mother.

It was maddening to look at.

"My darling boy…"

"I don't understand! You should be at home resting! How were you able to come all the way here on your own?"

"My darling boy…You. Are so. Stupid - !"

Talon and his mother vanished. The artifact cut off then and there.

Will kept staring at the place where Talon's mom had stood. It…was a pragmatic choice. To prey on people's emotions, manipulate them through their feelings and strike when they were vulnerable. The past few months had taught him that deception could be an enormous asset.

But this…just seemed so cruel. So needlessly cruel. The last thing Talon had seen and heard before the enemy turned him to stone, was his own beloved mother mocking him.

Before possibly killing him.

Why? Why would someone possibly do that? Removing Talon as a threat was one thing, but twisting the knife before doing so? What was the point?

They were all about to leave the plane and return to their own bodies when a new problem arose.

That open-shirted oak of a man took to the stage, his body as ethereal as the visions buried in the artifacts, announcing the arrival of some sort of rock band that Venam and Amber would have probably recognized.

"CRAP!" Lavender cried out. "This is bad! Alakazam uses the energy of the amount of people in the room to recreate its space! If this venue is filled up while Alakazam is channeling his link - "

Too late. Even as Lavender ordered Alakazam to delink, the Psychic-type lost control. In an instant, the club wavered like a flame caught in a high wind. A flash of white static erupted behind Will's eyes, but it took him far longer to process it than the sensation itself actually lasted. When his mind finished doing that, it got to work interpreting the rest of his senses again.

It was bad.

The metaphorical plane was filled to capacity with hordes and hordes of people, all dancing and screaming and going along with the beat. All of them translucent, like the artifacts before, but there were so many of them. A human wave chained together from the front of the podium all the way to the back.

Adrift upon that mass of sensory data were Lavender and Huey. The transient crowd had taken a hold of them, tossing and throwing them about. They didn't look to be in any danger yet, but it looked far from comfortable.

"WAAAH!" Lavender screamed as she sailed through the air with the greatest of ease, landing atop another group of people and promptly getting tossed back like a football. "THE HUGE INFLUX OF PEOPLE HAS CAUSED ALAKAZAM'S MIND TO GO HAYWIRE! AS A RESULT THE MENTAL PLANE WE VISITED HAS BEEN WARPED AND…EXAGGERATED!"

The solution to solving this particular mess?

Getting past that psychic depiction of the crowd and kicking Alakazam's ass.

Okay, those might not have been Lavender's exact words, but Will's way of going about it remained the same. So, with his goal set, he began the arduous process of navigating the labyrinthine crevices of the projected stimuli overwhelming Alakazam's mind, battling his way through the obstructive artifacts before finally crowd-surfing his way across the mass towards the podium. He ignored the triple depictions of the club owner rallying the crowd and told Lavender's Alakazam to get his shit together.

Alakazam did not appreciate that, balked at the notion of getting his shit together and promptly set out to beat Will senseless for disturbing his freakout. The end result was a massive brawl against an out-of-control Alakazam teleporting all over Lavender's metasensical plane. Will wasn't sure if it counted as property damage if the battlefield existed purely in their minds - or in this case, a Pokemon's - but the resulting battle could have torn any very-physical nightclub apart many times over.

When he finally managed to get through to Alakazam, the world instantly dissolved around him, leaving him with nothing but more white static, a blank void in his head and the familiar sensation of waking up after something distinctively not-natural knocked him out.

"W…k…p…"

His blurry vision slowly came back into focus.

"Wa…k.e….u…"

His body felt stunned and numb, and he fought to wrestle his way back to consciousness again.

"HEY I SAID WAKE UP!"

Will's eyes snapped open and he jolted upright. Standing in front of him was that damned, bare-chested club owner. The guy was staring at Lavender, Huey and him, while Kanon stood a bit to his left, not quite in the way but definitely ready to spring into action should the need arise.

Next to him, Lavender stirred as well. 'Wh…What - huh?"

"This ain't no place to sleep, kids! If you're tired, you gotta head home!"

"Forgive us sir, my friends are just very tired," Kanon said.

"Gosh…my head…" Lavender groaned.

"What, you guys need an ambulance or something?" The big guy continued, something like concern coming over his features. "Not recommended."

"They will be fine," Kanon assured him.

Slowly, Lavender and Huey came back to it. The club owner left them alone, for which Will was exceedingly grateful. As Huey began pulling himself back together, Will quickly brought Kanon up to speed.

"So Talon's mother really was here?" Kanon said, leaning down on the table as he visibly processed all of that.

"I'm not sure…when that band started playing, it caused Alakazam some…headaches…" Lavender gave an apologetic shrug.

"So we've found nothing of significance?" Kanon asked, sounding disappointed.

"Basically, yeah," Lavender sighed.

"...no, that's not true," Will chimed in.

"Huh?"

Huey woke up with a loud gasp.

"We now know that the enemy is trying to lure us out by appearing as people we know," Will said, glancing from Kanon to Lavender. "We - "

"Will!" Lavender said with shock. "What enemy? How would you - you don't know that!"

"Do you think that really was Talon's mom?" Will asked.

"...it seems extraordinarily improbable," Kanon said pensively.

Huey laughed nervously. "Calling it "the enemy" sounds a bit scary."

"We know that someone chose to target Talon. There is an intelligence behind this, one that knows how to write fake letters and appear as fake people," Will insisted.

Lavender eyed him with something that Will couldn't help but think was suspicion. "But you said us. As in, you, me, Kanon and Huey. The others. But you and your friends only just arrived here yesterday. Why would they be targeting any of us? Why would someone even target Talon in the first place?"

"Now you're asking the right questions," Will told her.

A resounding silence met his statement.

"...we tried our best. Let's just…go home," Kanon said when Lavender and Huey exchanged an uncomfortable look. "It's quite late."

"But Rhodea's group is still investigating the Night Market," Lavender protested. "We really should try to help out as best we can…"

Huey put his hand on her forearm. "You're exhausted though," he said. "Let's just go home."

"That's okay, I'm heading over there anyway," Will said.

"Will does seem to have vast reserves of energy," Kanon said. "So maybe he can go in our stead?"

"No, that's not something I can just ask of you," Lavender still protested.

Will got back to his feet, gave his legs a try and discovered much to his delight that they still functioned. That meant he could still kick some ass in the Night Market. "Lavender, it's fine. I'm going."

"See! Will is too cool to be tired from something like this!" Huey exclaimed.

"...okay," Lavender said, still not looking convinced. "We'll be going home then…but if you need us for anything, anything at all, call us!"

Kanon went with them, and the three headed back towards Rhodea's penthouse. Will didn't stick around to watch them leave, instead opting to head out for the Night Market straight away.

Grand Dream City's Night Market was...a roofed mall with decent lighting, composed of criss-crossing alleyways with little shops, markets and stores. He wasn't sure what he should have expected there.

He had Fraxure accompany him through the market, just in case. Dealing with underground criminal organizations didn't strike him as fun, and he truly couldn't need the extra enemies in this city. That being said, he didn't plan on staying in GDCfor very long either. For all he knew, these criminals were either linked to Bladestar or Team Xen. In both cases, he couldn't afford to sit by and let them do as they pleased.

If he knew Flora - and he had no reason to believe that he did, but still - she wouldn't take kindly to lowlifes and petty thugs encroaching on her territory. If these guys were linked to the missing person cases, the odds were overwhelmingly stacked in favor of Team Xen, not bladestar.

Regardless, the Night Market looked dreary and depressing, the people there all eyed each other with either suspicion or plain anger and -

Oh hey, Melia and Venam were right there!

"Ladies," Will greeted them, before nodding at Rhodea and turning his attention to Risa. "Hey Risa."

"Will!" Risa yelled, hopping up and down in excitement when she laid eyes on him. "Just the local Team Xen destroyer I wanted to see!"

"Sup Will. Did you find something useful?" Rhodea asked. She stood leaning against a closed-up shop, all casual and cool.

Will was about to tell her what he'd found when he realized that he had way too many people listening in. If the enemy was able to disguise themselves so convincingly that they'd fooled Talon, an experienced Gym Leader and seasoned battler, he had every reason to remain on hsi guard.

"Yeah! You guys took a long time doing your investigation!" Melia said.

Venam just crossed her arms, gave him a curt look, then glanced away, taking a sudden interest in the people moving about in the main road through the market.

…he was going to have to talk to her about this.

"We had to be thorough, and some places of interest needed some…recon," Will said. He hesitated for a moment, then added, "Not sure this is the right place to discuss them, though."

"Oh?" Risa said, narrowing her eyes and shooting him a sly smirk. "Are you keeping secrets from little old me, Will?"

"Uh - "

Her smirk widened into the kind of smile Will wasn't expecting. "Because I can find out if I want to. I have ways."

He didn't doubt that. "People might be listening in, Risa. We can't discuss intel in an unsecured location."

"No, Will has a point - " Rhodea said, but Risa cut her off without hesitation.

"I got solid intel, but if you're not willing to share with a girl, well, then I might not wanna share my deeds myself," Risa said, putting a hand on her hip and grinning.

"Wait, Risa, that wasn't the deal - " An alarmed Rhodea said.

"Yeah, we've been waiting the entire time because we needed to hit this place later in the day, right?" Melia added.

Venam sighed explosively, pushed herself off the wall and then shot Will an annoyed glare. "Will, don't be such a paranoid f…goof."

Hurt pulsed through him and before he knew it, he threw his own caution to the wind. "Keep that intel then. I'll rip this whole place apart shop by shop if these pukes are linked to missing children," he snapped. His voice came out angrier than he intended. "Should have been done in the first place."

"Wait, guys, no that's a bad call - "

"Will, maybe we should let calmer thoughts prevail - "

Risa laughed. She laughed, made a playful wavy gesture at him and then said, "I was just kidding! Look at that serious look on your face! Of course I was going to share the intel. Will, you need to seriously chill!"

Will had to work to make his expression look neutral and composed again. He struggled. "I…"

"It's, like, you take everything in life so seriously," Risa continued. "There is more to life than constant stress and tension, y'know?"

"...she's kinda right there," Venam said.

"We haven't had the luxury of letting go of the stress and tension yet," Melia said. Her voice was so calm, so neutral. How did she do that? Was it just him? Again? Was he the only one getting riled up over nothing?

Sickening frustration melted into helplessness. Will bit that down, too, trying to force himself into something robustly calm. Resilience, he reminded himself. He risked a look at Risa, saw that she was still peering at him, and then slowly folded his arms over his chest and looked away.

"...we've done a lot of scouting here," Rhodea said. "The people at the Stargaze Cuppa…the owners and customers are known to be related to several gangs. But since they haven't technically done anything illegal, we lack hard evidence."

"Which means it shouldn't come as a surprise if they are related to the missing people," Melia pointed out.

"And we can't go in guns blazin', Will," Risa said, wagging a disapproving finger at him. "Luckily for you, these four queens have been doing the legwork! It goes like this…"

Risa told him about five specific gang-related spots Melia and Venam had visited. The guys involved weren't exactly bright, and while Lavender and he had been dealing with the nightclub, Risa and Rhodea had put together some sort of entry ritual. Now, they just needed to test it.

"Now remember!" Melia told him as she and Rhodea walked him to the Cuppa. "No fighting! You're here to gather info, okay?"

"Hey, it's me," Will said.

Melia put her hand on his head and gave him a reassuring caress. "I know. That's exactly why. Keep your calm. Find out what you can, then get out of there. I mean it. Don't put yourself at risk. That's what you promised, remember?"

"I remember," Will said.

"Good!" Melia said. "Because you're not supposed to make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it."

Will knew that. He had every intention to keep that promise. Words wouldn't reassure Melia. Actions would.

"Hey." He placed his hand on her back, sliding it over to loosely wrap around her waist. He slapped aside the sudden desire to plant a kiss on the crown of her head. With a small, playful tug, he said, "How can I be worried, knowing you're out here?"

That elicited a giggle from Melia. Her eyes dipped to his lips for a second before shooting up. That familiar adoration twinkled in her silver eyes and the playful quirk set into the corner of her lip made him feel a completely different kind of excitement from the imminent gang-infiltration. "If I have to pull your butt out of there, you'll be in deep trouble."

For the second time in two days, Will felt recklessness and uncertainty war within him and again, the recklessness won. "What if I like trouble?"

"Oh my god, can you two just focus!" Rhodea hissed. "Will is about to enter a club filled to the brim with gangsters and you two are flirting?"

Melia gave Rhodea an apologetic pout, but to Will, those words sparked a lightbulb in his head.

Flirting. Melia was flirting back again.

…did that mean something? It had to mean something. Did she…Was this her being playful? Did she…could she…maybe…?

What was he supposed to make of that?

But then he stood right in front of their club, and there was no more time for anything but the plan. So, feeling like an idiot, and with no less than seven large, muscled and tattooed crooks eying him suspiciously as he did it, Will walked into their store, then left. He came back, left again. Came back…

He did that five times.

The tiles at the store's entrance all had a different pattern on them. Star, square, heart, triangle, circle.

On his fifth entrance, the guy sitting behind the bar yelled at him, "Hey, you! Yeah, you punk! Who taught you all that?"

The potential was there, but Will wasn't sure if these guys would appreciate it. He had specific orders not to cause a fight.

One of the two cooks standing behind a grill shot a heavy glower his way. Will saw some of the men put down their drinks as well.

At the very least, he had their attention.

The bartender slammed his hands against the counter. "I know for a FACT that the Boss ain't give a teen like you the ritual steps. So that means either we got a snitch in our ranks, or you dug a little too deep!"

To his left, one of the thugs shoved his seat back. To his right, another pair of leather-clad gangsters reached for their Pokeballs.

Goddamnit, and after he promised Melia to boot…

Too late to back down now, Will thought grimly. He met the thugs in kind and within seconds, the interior of the food joint had turned into a battlefield. Blaziken threw down with a hostile Machamp, Nidoking began literally wiping the floor with a Heatmor and Will was just about to put the beginnings of Plan B together when, out of nowhere, Risa Raider entered the club.

"Now now," she chastised the gangsters, side-stepping the four-armed bulk of a Machamp as he slammed to the ground. "Why are we getting so riled up over nothing?"

"Who's dis girl now!" One of the gangsters demanded.

"Das Risa Raider! She's some celebrity or something."

"Celebrity or not, you don't disrespect the Stargaze Gang!" The guy behind the counter yelled, pointing angrily at the two intruders with a spatula.

Risa snorted, looking around the joint. "Is that the name of your gang? More appropriate for a kindergarten friend group, but…" She shrugged. "To each their own."

A collective gasp went through the guys. "Now she's really disrespectin' our name!"

"I ain't takin' this lightly!"

"Uh, Risa?" Will said.

Seeing that the rest of the criminals were getting antsy now as well, Risa raised her hands in an apologetic manner. "So that's how it's gonna be then?" She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Will, do you mind doing me a real solid and stepping outside for a second?"

"You have got to be kidding," Will said. "I'm not - "

"Ohmygosh, Will! When a lady asks you something, you obey her!" A flustered Risa said. "Did none of the gals teach you that? Come on, this will only take a sec!"

"Okay, okay!" Will quickly said. "Blaziken, Nidoking, let's…give Risa some space."

A thoroughly confused Nidoking and a visibly frustrated Blaziken followed him outside, and the three of them stepped straight into Melia and Rhodea's view.

"Will?" Rhodea exclaimed when she saw him emerge from the joint. "What's going on? I saw Risa go in."

"Did something happen?" Melia said. "What - "

"Everything is under control," Will told them.

Almost immediately, things inside of the club started breaking apart. Will heard tables falling over, glass breaking, shouting and a whole lot of cussing. He hadn't even thought it possible to string such curses together.

Oddly enough, Risa didn't say a thing.

Melia flinched and gasped, while Rhodea leveled a glare Will's way that practically demanded answers.

"Nothing to see here," Will said.

Rhodea rolled her eyes, muttered, "Lord help me," then dashed inside.

Melia and Will followed her, only to see Risa looking like the sole survivor of an intense barfight. She didn't have a scratch on her; her outfit was as immaculate as ever. More than that, not even a single hair was out of place.

Risa hadn't done any physical fighting herself. So what was the point of shooing him out?

"What the hell happened!" Rhodea exclaimed. She walked back and forth between the various bodies strewn about the cafe, then turned to address the old man and the chef standing behind the counter. "Can anyone

"It's a long story, bestie," Risa said, grinning like she'd just won the lottery. "First they tried attacking me and that was easy and all, but then…suddenly they started attacking each other! I literally didn't have to do a damn thing!"

Will eyed the knocked out criminals. Caught up in each other's attacks, maybe? That was what Blaziken sometimes did when outnumbered. She'd adjust her positioning in small, subtle little ways that would see an attack narrowly missing her, but striking another assailant. Maybe Risa had done something like that, but with Pokemon?

"They started attacking each other?" Rhodea said, her words dripping with disbelief.

Melia stepped to the counter, where she cast a look around the club.

"I-It's true!" The old man stammered. "I saw it all with my own eyes…the fight broke out with that girl and then suddenly they started going at themselves! I've never seen anything like it…"

"Well, there you have it!" Risa declared triumphantly. "I knew I wasn't going insane."

Rhodea stared blankly at the celebrity before slowly shaking her head. "I…am going to have to write a report for this…if I don't, it'll be my head on a platter in front of Mayor Cassandra."

"What about us?" Melia asked.

"You guys keep up with the investigation, I have to get to my office," Rhodea ordered as she ran off.

The bureaucracy never slept in GDC, it seemed.

"So joining them didn't exactly work, but the outcome was the same," Risa said, walking right over one of the unconscious thugs to get to the other side of the club. "Maybe we should have done this from the start, yeah?"

"...at least we have a witness that you guys didn't start attacking people first," Melia pointed out. "Now, a case can be made for self-defense."

"Your queenie is right Will - "

"M-My what - ?" he sputtered.

Risa didn't even hear him. " - always make sure that violence can be declared self-defense. You can get off scot-free that way! Now, time to investigate. There's gotta be something in here that's fishy!"

"I'll go get Venam in the meantime," Melia said.

As Risa and Will began checking every nook and cranny, Will wondered about Risa. Hers was definitely a book that shouldn't be judged by its cover. But that cheerful, bubbly exterior didn't strike him as a facade either. Why had she insisted he leave instead of taking the chance to show off?

Will glanced at a poster of a Cleffa. It didn't seem to be attached to anything solid. On a whim, he tugged at one of its edges, then tore the entire thing from the wall, revealing an entire hidden entrance in the process.

"Ooh, nice going Will!" Risa cheered. "You found it! Come on, let's go get the others!"

Once Venam and Melia got back, the four of them entered through the opening, only to find that it led straight to a cargo elevator hidden in the back.

Looked like they were heading down.

"...Damn, I guess Risa's intel was right on the money," Venam begrudgingly said. "But is this really going to help us?"

"Only one way to find out," Will said, taking note of the uncharacteristic nervousness in his friend's voice.

"Should we really?" Melia said. She eyed the elevator with concern. "I'm getting a bad feeling from all this…maybe this is something we should just leave to the authorities…"

"No way fam! Those lame authorities wouldn't do a thing about this, and we'd be waiting weeks for a search warrant to come through!" Risa said.

"But is lowering ourselves in that elevator really a good idea?" Melia insisted. "We could be dropping ourselves down into a trap or something like that."

Will plucked Froslass' Pokeball from his satchel and sent her out. Froslass took a moment to float around the room, before fixing Risa with a stare.

"Froslass, the ladies are concerned about an ambush waiting for us," Will told his reliable Ghost-type.

Froslass shifted her gaze back to him.

"I know, we are the ambush, I told them as much," Will replied. "Could you have a look-see for us?"

Froslass made it a point to position herself right where everyone could see her, theatrically rolled her eyes and then disappeared down the dark shaft.

How could someone so reliable be that dramatic?

"Sweetie, if you've gotten this far fighting Team Xen - I just don't think small gang syndicates should be your worries, y'know?" Risa said.

"I know," Melia admitted. "But I don't want to act rashly. It's gotten us into trouble before."

Venam reached out and took her hand. "We'll be fine," she said firmly. "We got each other, and you and I are no pushovers, yes?"

Melia looked away. "Yeah, I suppose…"

"All our trouble came from Team Xen seizing the initiative at every front," Will said. He looked at the way Venam drew little circles across the back of Melia's hand with her thumb. "This time, we have the initiative."

Froslass took that moment to return from her scouting mission. She hovered in front of Will's face and stared at him with a smug expression that was meant to be enigmatic. "Enemy contact?" He asked.

An invisible knife gauged a symbol into the wall.

0.

Will loved it when he was the ambush. "Let's roll."

That would have been their cue to hop onto the elevator and ride it down, but then freaking Risa swept in and stole his one-liner moment. "No point in putting off the inevitable. Let's take this elevator down into the depths of Grand Dream City!"

Horrified, Will stared at Risa as she herded everyone onto the platform. Did she just steal his thunder?

She did. She totally did.

Fine. Back to doing things the old-fashioned way.

The platform dropped through a black elevator shaft, which eventually opened up to reveal an entire underground city. Will spotted whole neighborhoods, a dockyard without water or ships, some sort of industrial base and even a complete Pokecenter.

All of this right underneath their feet?

"Whoah, what is all this!" Venam exclaimed. "It looks awesome!"

Superficially awesome, perhaps. This would be a tactical nightmare to fight through. The syndicate down here would be fighting on their home turf. They had every possible advantage.

"Oh, yeah, I've heard about this place," Risa said. "But I've never been…a secret city beneath GDC called The Underground. It's a place where a bunch of rejected people end up."

…okay, going in guns blazing would definitely not have worked.

"Rejected?" Melia asked.

"Those who weren't able to assimilate themselves into GDC's society. Basically, all the unsuccessful. Drop outs. Criminals. All the sorts. Once, this place was called the Reject District."

"And this just exists down here, nobody questions it?" Will asked.

"This place existing is technically illegal, but no one does anything about it," Risa answered. "Probably because the rich aristocrats of GDC have their hands in the black market as well."

Melia made a noise of disgust.

"That's depressing…" Venam muttered. "Not even the people shunned by the city have their place to feel secure."

"True. Anyway, I think we're going even deeper into the chasm! Hold on tight!"

When the cargo elevator finally reached its destination, a gust of frigid wind hit the four of them in the face. The temperatures had steadily dropped as they descended, but things were getting seriously cold now.

Will exhaled a breath. It came out like a puffy white cloud.

The elevator delivered them to the backroom of some sort of distributing center of frozen goods. It reminded Will of the storage sections of those large supermarkets, the ones the customers were never meant to see. The exit up ahead was a large, metal door with a blurry window. Someone had taken the time to draw a very realistic depiction of a human skull on the frozen glass.

Melia hugged her arms around herself and backed away. "...I…"

"Fuck it's cold," Venam hissed.

Melia drew in a breath through clenched teeth.

"Thank goodness for my Goocchi Jacket I got custom-made~!" Risa hummed. "Me and the girls would be frozen icicles without it!"

"...guys, I…I do-don't think I…" Melia stammered.

Angie.

Seeing a possible panic attack coming, Will squeezed her arm and leaned forward to break her line of sight. "Hey," he whispered. "It's okay. We'll stick together. We'll make it."

Melia bowed her head and started shaking. When she didn't react to his words, he put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a little shake. "Hey, hey. Melia, we can do this."

She fisted her hands in his jacket, tugging him closer. "I don't…know…what to do…" she said, and Will hated himself at the sound of panic in her voice. "I should…I should be better than this but…I can't…"

"How about this," he told her quietly. "Follow me. Alright? Follow my lead."

Melia shook her head a little. "It's just…just some cold. Just some bad memories," she muttered into his chest.

Will looked aside, trying to catch Venam's eye, hoping that she had something to say that could help.

But Venam was staring at them, her expression hard, but impossible to read. Risa, for her part, stared as well, though her expression was definitely one of intrigue.

"...it's not meant to be easy," Will continued. He let Melia stay like that for a few moments, her forehead pressed against his chest, before putting his hand underneath her chin and gently raising her head up. "But we're here for you. I'm here for you. This, too, is something we'll conquer."

Her eyes were wet and haunted, but still she nodded. Still she stepped away from him, rubbed her arm, and turned to look at Venam.

That haunted look turned into silvery steel.

"We're gonna brave through this," Venam said. "We got this."

"Yeah," Melia said with a nod. "We are."

Beautiful and bold and brave.

"Looks like my totally legit intel was really totally legit!" Risa said. She sauntered up the heavy door, peered at the skull and then scrunched up her nose in disgust. "How tasteless. Will, be a gentleman and hold the door open for ya girls?"

"One moment." He joined the popstar at the door, shot a look at the skull, and then drew two large googly eyes in its face. He made the left pupil look towards the upper left and the right pupil went to the lower right.

"Behold," he said, stepping aside.

"...what the fuck is the point of that?" Venam demanded. "We should be taking this shit seriously!"

"It's the little things, Venam," Will explained patiently. "It's about taking back control over our life, one little thing at a time. You can't take the things that haunt you away. But you can make them less threatening."

"Dayum, the boy goes deep!" Risa said, and that Will didn't know if her shocked expression and dramatic gasp was genuine or not, told him all he needed to know regardless. "Where'd you queenies pick him up?"

"I know right," Melia said, stacking up on the door with him and Venam. "Will is just one of a kind."

Will could have spent hours listening to Melia talk about him, but he had a syndicate meeting spot to terrorize and some ambushing to do. "Froslass, you ready?"

The skull he'd doodled on exploded into a shower of bone fragments, while the glass remained completely intact.

"Show-off," he muttered, before creaking the door open.

Risa wriggled her way through the instant she could. There, in the cold storage facility deep below GDC, she loudly announced her presence and threw any notion of stealth and ambushes out the window. "Hey besties~! Just what are you all doing down here so suspicious like?"

"Are you serious," Will breathed as the two closest guards jumped at the sudden intrusion

"Crap! That's Risa Raider!"

"That's right bitches!" Risa said, stopping halfway down the steps to strike a pose. "We're going to bring the sweet hammer of justice down your way!"

With the element of surprise completely gone, Will was forced to engage these guys the old fashioned way. They got their own Pokemon out and within seconds, Ice Beams were flying over their heads as everybody scattered to take cover.

Froslass intercepted all ranged attacks coming from the very angry Glalie floating overhead. It didn't take kindly to that; the second it saw its Ice Beam dissipate and fall apart when Froslass assumed control over it, Glalie clenched its teeth and shot towards her, as if intent on physically ramming her with its bulk.

On the ground, Blaziken squared off against a Machoke. It came at her heavy, winding up a powerful hook. Blaziken reared back just in time to evade it, then dropped to a crouch and swept Machoke's legs out from underneath its body. It wasted no time in whipping its legs around and shoving itself back upright, driving a double kick towards Blaziken to shove her back. When it came upright, it instantly closed the distance and threw a flurry of jabs, hooks and uppercuts at Blaziken that Will struggled to follow. The two Fighting-types moved with a speed and reflexes that made them appear like a blur of constant high-impact strikes.

Somehow, Blaziken managed to parry the last blow, place her forearm atop Machoke's shoulder and then whirl over him, ending up behind him. The burly Machoke whipped around with another vicious hook but Blaziken was faster. She struck a Sky Uppercut, her fist trailing white energy. Will felt the impact of her fist against Machoke's lower jaw and the hostile Fighting-type was sent flying.

Blaziken looked up, then quickly sprang back to avoid Glalie's spherical body slamming into her. Froslass's male counterpart smashed into the ground, grimacing in pain and still smoking from the Shadow Ball that Froslass had slapped him silly with.

When she saw Blaziken shoot her an annoyed glare, Froslass merely laughed.

Blaziken huffed, glanced down at the Glalie as he struggled to levitate again and then gave him a hand. Or rather, a foot. She kicked Glalie through the air with a vicious Blaze Kick and Froslass quickie zipped out of the way before it could knock her out of the air.

"Holy fuck!" One of the thugs yelled, while the other scampered to recall his fainted Pokemon. The second he did, he bolted.

"Bam. Will did quick work with you!" Risa shouted, throwing a few jabs as she shadow boxed with the air. "Do you understand now? It's hopeless for you!"

Instead of gracing the superstar with a dignified response, the other guy ran for his life. Will watched him go, wondering if having Froslass freeze his feet to the ground would accidentally break them. Blaziken could have picked up one of the containers and chucked it at the idiot, but he needed them to be lucid and communicative.

"...you gonna get that guy?" Will asked.

"Nah!" Risa laughed."Let them run! Isn't this, like, way more fun? We get to watch them run around and squirm around helplessly!"

Seeing Risa squee at the very notion of hunting down her prey made Will wonder just how deep this rabbit hole went.

"They know the end is inevitable, but yet they still fight on!" Grinning like a maniac, Risa hopped down the last two steps and approached Will with absolute delight. "Doesn't that just tug on your heart strings? They're keeping the plot going!"

A bit disturbed, Will took a step back from the manic popstar. "Risa…you may have issues."

"Serious issues," Venam grumbled.

"Very serious issues," Melia chimed in.

Risa groaned and waved her hands dismissively. "Alas, I can't help it if the common folk don't get perfect screen play. That being said, I think it's time we start the hunt, no? Let's bring down the hammer of justice on these hoes!"

While Risa went off to wield her hammer of justice, the common folk began chasing down the thugs she'd let run. They stalked forwards through the frozen crates, treading carefully over the frigid tiles. Every now and then, they ran into some of the thugs working down there. These guys weren't stupid however; either their buddies had come running through to spread the word, or they simply weren't prepared for a fight. Whatever the reason, they folded the second they laid eyes on Blaziken or Seviper. As usual, Venam covered their six while Will pressed on, Melia bringing up the middle.

Froslass materialized from the foggy air and floated towards one of the work shacks hidden behind a few stacks of containers. One of the criminals had nestled himself in the doorway. He spotted the three of them coming and gave them a very threatening glower, at which point he must have realized that they had him outnumbered and outgunned ten to one.

Nevertheless, the guy remained in position, physically barring the way.

"Blaziken, would you - ?"

Will had barely gotten the question out when Blaziken grabbed the man by his throat with her right claw. His hands came up to clutch at her wrist, but he might as well have been trying to pry a brick apart with his fingers for all the good that did.

"Careful!" Melia said when Blaziken casually dragged the man out of the doorway and lobbed him face-first into the nearest hard object. "We don't want to really hurt anyone!"

"Says you," Venam replied. "Better that Blaziken did it; I would have Poison Tailed the fuck out of that idiot. They're linked to missing kids, Melia."

"I know that, but we can't be sure about that. Besides; if we accidentally hospitalize someone, that could put Rhodea in big trouble!"

"Then I hope these asshats have insurance…"

The three of them headed into the shack, where one of the guys they'd interrupted before had taken refuge.

"Gotcha cornered!" Venam said. Seviper coiled around her leg, then hissed aggressively at the thug, who glared back stubbornly. "Listen…all I'm saying is that we can do this the hard way, or the easy way!"

Venam held the man's glare for several tense moments before she eagerly turned to Melia. "I've always wanted to say that!"

"Then we're doing it the hard way, brother!" The thug yelled, reaching for his Pokeball.

Venam's expression dropped the instant she heard that. "I am not your brother,"

The thug managed to get his own Toxtricity out, but neither Will nor Venam were interested in a fair fight. Seviper and Froslass made short work of his Pokemon and then Venam had Seviper knock the bastard on his ass for good measure.

"Let's try that again," she snapped.

"Okay, okay," the man said, raising his hands pleadingly. "This was supposed to be our big break."

Will leaned against the doorpost, alternating between watching their six and watching Venam work. "Big break?" Venam repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"When this region was nothin' but scrap, we was on top!" The man said. "And then when the place got cleaned up we were swept under the rug like dust. Our operation here was going to bring our name back into the light! Strike fear into the hearts of people of the region again!"

"Riight, sorry, I forgot I don't give a shit," Venam hissed furiously. "You're gonna tell us what we need to know or else Seviper is gonna have some fun getting to know your blood vessels."

"Venam!" Melia gasped.

Will gestured for her to remain calm. Not because he thought Venam wouldn't do it, but because they needed to appear stone-cold to these idiots. If these thugs even had the slightest doubt about their willingness to get their hands dirty, they'd call their bluff.

And then what would Venam do?

Thankfully, they didn't need to push. The guy told them that they needed a code to get to their central operations here in the storage unit, and the only one who knew the code was his buddy, who had gotten away from them before.

Rather, whom Risa had allowed to run.

"Wow, that went easier than I expected!" Venam said when the three of them left the shack to continue the hunt. "That guy folded. Didn't even need to break some of his limbs! Do you want the next one, Melia?"

"I…am not sure if that's a good idea," Melia quietly said.

Venam got her arm around Melia's shoulders. "It's gonna be fun! You don't need to hurt these idiots. You just gotta make them think you're going to."

"We'll…we'll see, I guess…"

They cut through the rest of the cold storage facility. Risa was nowhere in sight, but Will assumed she was off wreaking havoc somewhere else. Within minutes, they made their way to the second shelter, where the other criminal had run off to.

Melia and him headed in. The guy was there alright, having put his back about a thousand metal drums all stacked up to the wall. What were these people planning?

"Alright, what do we have to work with here?" Melia said as she surveyed the shelter.

With a roar, the man suddenly brandished a tire iron and charged at Will. He made it perhaps two feet before Froslass materialized in front of him, around him. Her "hands" went around the thug's throat and neck like bandages and where they made contant, they flash-froze the man's skin with a faint hissing noise.

The crook howled. The tire iron dropped to the ground with a loud clanging noise as Froslass brought her masked face closer to his. Will thought he spotted something faint and blurry shimmering in the air between the two, guessed that Froslass was about to suck out the man's soul or something and quickly interfered. "Thanks for the quick save, Froslass. We do need him to talk, so…if you could…"

She let go of the assailant and he slumped to the ground, groaning as he clutched the nasty freezerburns in his neck.

"Oh my god, he was going to take a swing at you," Melia said. Her expression hardened. "Just who are you people? Who are you working for, and why?"

The man shot a fearful look at Froslass, who made it a point to drape herself across Will's shoulders and glare.

"Everything alright in there?" Venam shouted from outside.

"Under control," Melia said, her voice tight. "Will, would you ask Blaziken to join us?"

Will saw no reason not to. He stuck his head around the entrance, glanced at Blaziken and said, "The lady requires your presence."

Venam scoffed, but she didn't say anything. Moments later, the thug had to contend with not only Melia and Froslass' icy stares, but Blaziken as well.

Melia really had taken that lesson on intimidation to heart.

As the man struggled to get back to his feet, wrapping a bandana around his neck, his eyes came to rest on Blaziken. They widened and he said, "Wait, you two…those Pokemon - ! I heard about you two! Yeah, you're those teens faced with that Team Xen thing in Terajuma! I saw it all on Gearen News!"

"So then you know that Will and I aren't going to let this go lightly, right?" Melia said.

Then, oddly enough, the man's expression contorted in anger. "Hah, don't get me started! You did get away with beating Team Xen, yeah. But it was a fucking massacre! Dozens of people died, including the girl you were trying to save!"

The man could have cracked Will's head open with that tire iron and it would have been less painful than hearing those words, uttered in that tone. Pain shot through him with no warning and overwhelming intensity and judging by the way the asshole grinned, it must have shown in his face too.

Melia's mouth opened, but no sound came out. She folded her arms around her chest and turned away, turning her back to Will as if it was him she needed to hide her pain from.

"Struck a chord, didn't I?" The man continued in a nasty tone. "You guys are weak. What do you want from me? Info? The code?" He spat on the ground. "I'll bet."

"Venam," Will muttered. A choking, black anger gripped tightly in his chest. "Venam!" He said again.

Venam came running. "What's up? What happened?" She shot one look at Melia, who refused to meet anyone's eyes, and then at the guy standing there grinning like an asshole. "Okay you son of a bitch, what did you - "

"Venam, please take Melia to Risa," Will said, fighting an enormous battle to keep his voice level. He turned back to the thug and his grin faltered a bit. "The code."

"Yeah, fine. Ruin months of prep work, why dontcha? The code is six, four, three."

"Okay, that's what we need to advance, right?" Venam said. She got a protective arm around Melia's waist and began guiding her back out.

"That's right, take her, take it, and piss off!" The man shouted.

Before Will could even begin to give his anger an outlet, Blaziken struck a lightning-fast jab at the man's face and he collapsed with a muffled scream. His hands went to his nose as he curled up on the floor, blood seeping through his fingers. For a few moments, the only thing that came out of the man were pained moans and wheezy breaths.

Sucking in a breath, Will tried to get his breathing back to something normal. A blow like that, coming from Blaziken, could have separated the man's head from his torso. That he got to walk away with just a broken nose was more than he deserved.

"...thanks," he muttered.

Blaziken gave no response. She did not need to.

They came down here to find out about missing children and to stop a psycho from turning good people into stone, and then some lowlife puke ridiculed them for the people they'd lost.

Great. Just fucking great.

He couldn't wait to get out of this goddamn place…

"What was that about?" Venam asked when Will, Blaziken and Froslass emerged from the shelter a few moments later. "The fuck he said?"

"...just…something that has me feeling defeated," Melia quietly said. "Suddenly lost…all motivation to exist."

"We got the code we need," Will said. "Let's punch it in and then get the hell out of here."

"Agreed," Venam simply said. Together, they made their way towards the other end of the storage facility where finally they met with Risa again. She stood in front of a heavy security door, peering at the console attached to the wall a few feet to its left.

"Looks like we're gonna need a password to progress here," Risa informed them. "I'm kiiinda hoping that our cute little Xen Destroyer over here found it for us?"

"I swear, if that asshole lied to us on top of the other crap he said, I'm going to bust his kneecaps apart," Venam swore.

"Girl, now you're starting to get it!" Risa cheered.

Will punched the code in with a little more force than was necessary, but the door slid open regardless, revealing a passageway that led to another open area. More frozen containers were scattered around the room, which was large enough for someone to drive a semi truck around. And this place had been built by rejects? Outcasts? How did those people have the technical know-how to casually build infrastructure of this quality?

"Hookay, I think we made it to the end," Risa said. "Maybe." She stopped in front of a large entrance, the type that would have probably seen motorized traffic in the past. "These guys sure know how to treat a girl, amirite?"

"Uh…something like that," Venam said with a hint of uncertainty. "Look, the way these guys are acting and talking…I have a feeling this has nothing to do with what we're looking for. Your sources said we'd find a lead on this investigation, right?"

"Right!"

"And to be clear, the one about the missing students and kids and the people turning to stone?"

Risa blew out an exasperated sigh. "Ohmigosh, you are like, sooooo serious all the time."

Will snorted.

Venam shot him a devastating look. "Will, shut the fuck up. Lady, you have no idea who you're talking about. I just wanna know if all of this was for something or not, that's it."

And then Risa struck another freaking pose. "Well, it's definitely for something!" She cheered.

Venam pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay. This is doomed."

"Can't help but notice that you didn't answer the question there, Risa," Will said.

Risa gave him a pitying look. "Will, I gotta agree with your pal Veanm here. You are a paranoid goof. A very destructive, very cute, but very paranoid goof."

"Okay, I hate to ask this but could you please stop calling Will cute!" Melia suddenly cut in.

"Huh?" Venam said. "What?"

Risa looked like a kid who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but had no intention of putting the cookie back. "Oooooh? What for? I know you're not saying that your boy isn't cute, Melia."

That started an instant blush in Melia's cheeks. "I - "

"He isn't her boy," Venam hissed.

"Ah? Is that jealousy I smell?" Risa teased them.

"Bitch I will - "

"Come on," Will said, raising his voice to drown out whatever Venam was about to throw Risa's way. "Let's stay focused."

Risa gestured at the doorway behind her. "Okay, while you three solve this weird lover's spat and decide who gets to call Will cute or not, I'm gonna go ahead and make some moves." She turned before Will do much more than protest and merrily skipped along. "I'm gonna enjoy this!"

"It's not a fucking lover's spat!" Venam shouted after her, but Risa simply ignored her which, in fairness, was likely the best call. "The nerve of that bitch…"

"Venam, calm down, okay? She's just messing with us," Melia said. "It's fine."

A very angry Venam whirled on Melia, paused, and then looked at Will. There was something in her eyes, something that Will was pretty he'd never seen there before. He felt like it was important. "It's not fine! I - "

An explosion rocked the ground and thunder rumbled through the floor. Billowing clouds of dust, fire and smoke obscured the room Risa had just entered and very rapidly swept into the hallway as well. The force of the blast was like an invisible wall of air rushing through the hall, but it failed to throw any of them off their feet.

Coughing, Melia managed to force out, "Will, Venam, are you two okay? Oh god, tell me you're okay!"

"Still in one piece," Will called out.

"Yeah, I'm okay too," Veanm yelled. "What the hell was that? What just hit us?"

The clouds of smoke and dust that had rolled through the hallway were already starting to dissipate, and Will could see Melia and Venam rushing towards the opening where Risa had just passed through. "That explosion came from this room!" Melia said, alarmed.

"No way! Did Risa fall for a trap or something? That would mean Risa…Risa is…"

As if she'd been waiting for the most dramatic moment to announce her survival, Risa sang, "Is Ayyy-Okayy!"

And the popstar came walking out of the trap she'd triggered completely unscathed, once again, not a single hair out of place.

"B-But how!" Melia said, vocalizing what they all thought.

"Oh sweetie, it's going to take a lot more than some explosion to take me down," Risa said, looking more like Melia had given her an embarrassing compliment than anything else. "I may have fallen for a trap, but at least I learned what was going on here!"

There was surviving an ambush by the skin of your teeth, and then there was walking out of an explosion without a scratch. Risa should have been blown to smithereens by that detonation yet here she was, safe and sound.

…Risa was far, far tougher than he'd given her credit for. Whatever Pokemon she worked with had to be disciplined and very powerful if they were able to shield her from a blast like that. He had to know how she did that! Maybe she was willing to teach him?

"...which is?" Venam asked.

"It seems that the people down here created explosives for some nefarious reason," Risa explained. "And they showed me the way their mechanism worked and expected me to just fall over and die. But not this queen!"

"How does the bomb even work then?" Melia asked.

"Okay so, looks like there's a ton of smaller bombs that are scattered around. Then there are two large balls. And when the balls touch…an explosion happens."

The…wait, what?

Melia stared at Risa with a mixture of fascination and horror. Venam, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Sorry, I didn't quite hear that. Can you explain that again?"

"Huh?" Risa shot Venam a look of disbelief. "I said when the balls touch, an explosion happens."

Will couldn't for the life of him figure out why Venam suddenly peeked at Melia and him with that shit-eating grin of hers. "Right. Yeah, sorry. I don't understand. One more time?"

"What is there so hard to understand here?" Risa said with genuine frustration. She stomped on the ground with her pointy heels. "When two massive, meaty, gigantic balls TOUCH EACH OTHER. THE PHYSICAL CONTACT OF BOTH BALLS CAUSES AN EXPLOSION."

Will gasped. The penny dropped. "Wait a second - "

"AN EXPLOSION PACKED WITH A LOAD THAT WOULD ENGULF EVERYTHING!" A heated Risa finished. "Do you understand? Two balls, an explosion, and a load to finish it off!"

This made no sense. "Risa, are you talking about…" Will swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and fought to keep the blush off his face. "Why are you talking about masturbation? This - "

"Will!" Melia exclaimed with shock.

"OH MY GOD!" Venam yelled. "You did not just say that! Dude!"

Maybe he ought to return that penny. It didn't seem to have fallen quite right. "I don't - "

Melia stalked towards him, grabbed a fistful of his jacket and began dragging him along. "That's enough out of you. You and I need to have a little talk."

"Wait, I was serious!" Will protested. "I didn't mean - "

"Hmm, tell that to the judge," Melia informed him. "Me."

"Melia no! Wait!"

In the time it took Melia to cast her judgement on him - Will swore up and down, high and low that he genuinely thought that Risa had been messing with them again and he still wasn't sure if Melia believed that - the police arrived to lock the entire place down.

Whoever these criminals worked for had likely planned an enormous terrorist attack. The fact that it happened right beneath everybody's feet just made things that much more tense. Melia, Will, Risa and Venam made their way past a veritable army of police officers back to the main alley. Behind them, the police began sealing things off.

"Well, that had nothing to do with any "missing children" or people getting turned to stone," Risa sighed. Rhodea, meanwhile, had swung back around and was patiently writing stuff down on her notepad. "But I'd like to think we actually did find something of use. Why were those guys working with explosives? And who is their boss?"

"No idea," Rhodea said. "But the city's probably going to be under high alert until some questions are answered."

"I was careless," Risa sighed. "There was more to explore down there, but the path there got caved in from the explosion. Oh well! I'll just have to try harder next time, besties."

"Hey Risa! Did my intel come in handy for you?"

Will and the others looked behind Risa to see a young woman with light brown hair hurrying their way. Her vest matched the color of her hair, and her orange blouse and pants really fit in with the autumn. She was an attractive woman with sharp, piercing blue eyes.

…those eyes. They were familiar somehow.

"Oh hey!" Risa said, waving her over. "No, it was shit. But we did find out a couple of other things that I'll let you in on at a later time. Let me introduce you to my friends here!"

Her face, too. Will had seen that face before.

"Everyone! This is one of my besties, V - "

"V-Valarie!" Venam exclaimed.

Val. This was Val, but with brown hair. She'd made it!

"Oh, so you've heard of me!" Val laughed. "Guess my work is doing well!"

Her…her work. Her work?

"What are you talking about?" Venam said. "We're already acquainted!"

"Val?" Will said. He brushed past Rhodea and Melia, stepping closer to Val. "You made it! What happened to Aelita? Where are Adam and Saki and Braixen? Where - "

"I-It's Valarie," she replied, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Look - "

Will saw, vividly, the blue-haired confident young woman who had helped put him back together on Blacksteeple Castle. But he also saw the brown-haired, hesitant woman Risa had called one of her besties. "Val, come on, stop messing around. This is important."

Val took a step away from him.

Rhodea looked back and forth between Venam, Will and Valarie. "Uh, what is going on here?"

"Um…I dunno," Risa said. "Ask your roommates. They're actin' totes crazy."

"We're the ones acting crazy?!" Venam yelled.

"Look, I don't know if you guys are mistaking me for someone else," Val said, and the discomfort and confusion on her face raised Will's hackles. Having Val, Val of all people act this confused just didn't make sense. Every fiber of his being told him that this was wrong, wrong wrong. "But I've never even interacted with you before today."

It was all wrong and he couldn't take it. "Val, come on," Will said. He reached out and took her wrist. "It's us! It's me! Remem - "

Val's hand moved before Will could process what was happening. The sound of the slap echoed sharply through the street.

His head snapped aside. The shock that bore through him slammed his churning thoughts to a sudden, jarring halt. Trembling, he reached up to touch his cheek. It was numb at first, but slowly, a burning, prickling sense of heat spread throughout the side of his face.

Melia gasped. So did Risa, much more dramatically. Venam stared, frozen. The silence that followed was all-consuming, though it did not last.

"I said back off, creep," Val snapped. "I don't know you, so leave me the fuck alone!"

Those words punched a hole in his heart. He didn't know how else to describe what he felt. The physical pain didn't matter, couldn't compare to what he'd been through in the past yet it hurt, it hurt. When he opened his mouth to speak he felt outrage and regret and confusion burning within his throat. This was Val. It was Val. Why would she hurt him?

"I'm sorry, Will recently lost a good friend in the Team Xen attack on Terajuma, and you look just like her," he heard Melia say. "He hasn't had the chance to process her loss yet."

"Y-Yeah, really just the spitting image," Venam added.

"Okay, fine, sorry that happened, but that doesn't have anything to do with me," Val said.

The confusion and looming sense of betrayal lasted for a split-second before he wiped his face clean of emotion. Something inside of him told him to be still. He clenched his hands into fists and didn't move, didn't recoil or even breathe. He kept his face as blank and disinterested as he could even as he felt Melia's hand tugging at his curled-up fingers.

"Look, sorry I overreacted, but I gotta get going. I'm a reporter for the GDC paper and I need to get some stuff done. Rees, see you later."

"Of course, sorry for the inconvenience," Melia finished.

Val is gone, Will thought, embracing the coldness that came with wiping his emotions away. Val is gone. They got to her.

Slowly, he drew himself upright again. Val was walking away from them again. Nothing in her body language suggested any kind of tension or leftover anger. She'd shrugged this off.

Shrugged them off.

Will drew in a breath.

"…holy crap dude, that's gonna leave a mark," Risa said chipperly. "Guess you ought to take that as a lesson. Can't just put your hands on queens."

"Is your face okay?" Venam questioned. "Risa, what the hell! What's going on here - "

"Fine," Will said, driving the coldness into his voice to distance himself further. Melia was right. Not here. Not now. He couldn't. "Had worse."

"You had girls slapping you worse than that?" Risa continued. "Not encouraging."

"Risa, please," Melia said through clenched teeth.

"Alright then mister painsponge, that totally killed the vibe we had. You need to learn some control, the both of ya!"

"Is everyone in this city fucking crazy?" Venam snapped. "Everything has been turned on its head, and everyone is acting like nothing is happening!"

Val, together with Saki and Braixen and…

Adam Might.

The club owner.

Oh god.

Had that been Adam?

"Not here," Melia hissed, and Will didn't know if that was aimed at Venam or him. "Later."

"If this is how you're going to act, then you should just pack your things and go home, queen," Risa said, her voice hard and devoid of humor. "This is the big city, and if you can't handle it - it'll chew you up and spit you out! And just between all of us, it's chewing you and Will up real hard right now."

Will didn't look at Risa. Couldn't bring himself to look at Venam or Melia. His cheek stung, but that was nothing compared to the sickening realization that his friends, his family were now gone too. Somehow, Team Xen got to them and…and…and they had changed them. Brainwashed them or…or…

Were they gone? Valarie and Adam and Saki and Braixen? Was there a way of getting them back?

"I'm not crazy!" Venam insisted. "And Will! Fuck, Melia, how could you - "

"It's not about us being crazy," Melia said, lowering her voice to a murmur. "Clearly, some weird things are going on. We just need to work to uncover the real truth here."

"...Adam too," Will said. He didn't care that Rhodea could hear him. Melia needed to know. Venam needed to know. "They got to Adam too."

"Crap," Melia spat.

"Guys, I'm seriously freaked out now," Rhodea said. "What is going on? Why are you being so weird?"

The cold center in his head was starting to pulse, pounding with an anger that had his fingers trembling.

Adam Might.

This city…if this fucking city had taken Val and Adam from him - i-if he couldn't get them back again -

Rhodea is a Stormchaser, he told himself. She is an enemy of Team Xen. She can help.

"I saw him in the nightclub," he said, straining to keep the wavering tremble out of his voice. It was difficult. Keeping himself cold and detached knowing what had been done to his loved ones was so, so very difficult. "Gave himself a makeover." Another deep breath. "He didn't recognize us."

"...okay, this is more than I expected," Rhodea said slowly. "You might have to fill me in on this."

"Later," Venam sighed. "I'm heading to a cafe and eating my heart out. You're welcome to join."

Will turned away. Melia and Venam would have to get on that. Somewhere within his chest, a vicious detachment swept through the rage and the pain and the guilt. He turned on his heels.

"Me too," Melia said. "We can discuss the next step once we all cool down."

Club NightLight. It was getting late. Adam would still be there. Lavender would be at Rhodea's penthouse.

"Will?" He heard Melia ask.

Ignore her, he told himself. You need to do this.

"Where are you going?"

Keep going. Send out Pidgeot. Leave.

When had this gone down? When did Team Xen get to his loved ones? Was it during that damn train ride? Before? After, when he'd been wasting time in that damned Bladestar lab?

"Will?"

He stopped. "...I'm going to get him."

"Will, what the hell?" Venam said.

"Get who?" Melia's voice was as patient and understanding as ever. Sometimes, Will wondered what he'd done to deserve someone so nice, so good and so patient.

"Get Adam," he said. "I'm heading to that club. Knock his NightLights out. Drag him to the penthouse."

"Okay, guys, we really ought to let cooler heads prevail here," Rhodea said.

Will took a steadying breath. He thought of Nim and Aelita and Jenner and mom. Things kept falling apart. He couldn't afford to waste more time here. "Lavender could help," he offered. "With Alakazam. The thing. With the mind. She might know."

"That's a really bad fucking idea," Venam said.

Hot rage washed over him and he wasn't able to fight it back fast enough. "Venam, fuck off!" He snapped. He was shaking now. "What the hell else can we do?" He tried to focus, tried to breathe. "You saw that, didn't you? They took her. They took her, and they took Adam. I'm going to get them back."

Rhodea shot him a stern look. "What, by assaulting a club owner in his own place, then abducting him to my place? And then, what, poking around in his head? Letting a stressed and tired young woman do the poking?"

"You don't - they fought with us - g-guys, Val and Adam bled with us! They - we - they needed us and I wasn't there - we - "

"There's nothing you could have done differently, Will," Melia said and her voice, hearing her say his name like that, knocked the wind out of him. The soft, reassuring cadence someone would use when someone they cared for was about to make a horrible mistake. "You can't be everywhere at once. We're going to put this right. Just not now."

Will stared at her, hard. He flicked his eyes towards Venam, who still looked so shaken from seeing Val like that, then to Rhodea. Rhodea, who had opened her house to them. Rhodea, who had done and said nothing wrong.

He exhaled shakily, then dragged his hands across his face. "I'm sorry," he croaked out. "I'm sorry."

Melia understood. She always did. She told him that there was no need to apologize. That he was tired and stressed and hurt. She implored him to take a break. That, if he couldn't bring himself to hang out with them in the cafe, to at least join Rhodea and head back to the penthouse for some rest.

What he wanted was to tear the city apart until he found out what had happened to the people he loved.

Chew you up and spit you out.

He settled for the next best thing. Rhodea and him took a bus back to the penthouse. Along the way, she tried to stir up a conversation a few times, but Will wasn't sure he had the words to give her what she needed. In the end, she gave up trying.

The evening was painfully slow. They ordered pizza. Huey pelted him with questions. Lavender reigned him in. Kanon asked him if they found something useful at the Night Market. Rhodea told him the truth.

It was just another dead end.

Will parked himself on one of Rhodea's couches and let his thoughts drift.

The cold storage facility had been a monumental waste of time and effort. The only thing they had going for them was the mysterious paper Risa had snatched from that room. Rhodea hadn't been able to discern its meaning yet, but she hadn't given up on trying either.

What had they learned? That Talon had been lured to his cruel fate by someone pretending to be a loved one? Was that what had happened to Val and Adam? Were these fakes too, created to lure him, Melia or Venam into a trap as well?

No, that couldn't be it. They hadn't acted familiar at all. Their behavior had been too weird. Melia, Venam and him would be on their guard now, more than ever.

He didn't get it, and as hard as he tried to make sense of it all, it remained beyond him.

The letter and Talon's mother. That mysterious woman and her familiar manner of speaking to them. The underground syndicate and their explosives. Val and Adam.

Nevertheless, Will wrote it all down in his journal. Tomorrow, he'd go out and buy a bunch of papers, some duct tape and a few pencils - plus a crayon for Kirlia - and then he'd start putting together something visual, something that he could try and make sense of.

Pizza came. Kanon, Huey and Lavender joined Rhodea and him at the table. They struck up a conversation that kept them busy.

At one point, Melia and Venam came back from their outing, still in the middle of a conversation they'd been having on the way up. They gathered around the table.

"Okay, it seems our little outing was successful, no?" Rhodea said.

"I mean, we didn't really find anything that had to do with people disappearing," Venam said. "Just stupid gang related stuff that I don't care about."

"That stupid stuff involved explosives being prepared underground, Venam," Melia said.

"Yeah, that, and…Valarie." Her eyes darted to Will for a split-second, but he caught it nonetheless. "But I'm not gonna bring that up again."

"Our team found some crucial details, but we're going to have to go over it before we present anything concrete," Lavender said.

Rhodea reclined back in her seat. "Okay, then you do that. Looks like you're carrying our team here."

"Venam?" Will said. "That paper?"

"Oh, right!" Venam rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper with the weird symbols written on it. "Risa found this in the Cold Storage."

Rhodea's brows knitted together as Venam slid the paper over to her. "Strange…I'll send this over to our investigation team, thanks. Right…but I think I'm gonna pin it there. I'm exhausted. So we good?"

Will and Kanon stared at her blankly. They exchanged a confused look, and Kanon asked, "For what?"

"For SLEEP!" Rhodea said. She stretched her arms over her head, stifled a yawn and added, "I'm tired. Goodnight everyone."

They wished her a good night, and then everybody went about their own business again. Huey went to bed, Lavender walked off and Rhodea disappeared into her room.

Melia remained seated on the couch, staring down at her lap with a solemn expression on her face.

"Someone's feeling down," Venam said. "What's wrong?"

"It's just…" She put her head in her hands and rested her elbows on her legs. "I dunno…I', not really "feeling" Grand Dream City."

That was one way to describe things. The entire city just felt…wrong. Off.

Hostile.

"What's wrong with it?" Kanon asked, looking genuinely curious.

"I think it's less about what's wrong with the city and more about what I miss," Melia said with a sigh. "I miss Terajuma island. I miss Crawli and Tesla and…everyone. They made us feel so at home there. Here it's just…so overwhelming."

Will sat down next to Melia. "Hey, I miss Terajuma too," he told her. When she leveled a morose look at him, he smiled reassuringly. "Once this mess is settled, we can just fly back over there. Skip the train in the middle."

"Yeah, you would…" Venam muttered.

Ignore her, Will told himself firmly.

Despite everything, Melia still mustered a little smile in response. "Guess I'm not the only one feeling homesick."

"I mean…" Venam put her feet up on the table. "Besides the people and that little outburst with "Not" Valarie, I kinda love it? And I don't miss the Terajuma heat. The swamp ass was unreal."

"What is - " Kanon started.

Melia instantly cut him off. "It's probably better if you don't ask that, Kanon."

Behind gestured at Kanon, pointing between the two of them and mouthing. I got you man.

Terajuma had ointments for that.

Heaving another heavy sigh, Melia continued, "But I'll be alright. I'll adapt soon enough. We did good today, team. Let's be proud of ourselves for that!"

Venam swung her legs off the table and got to her feet. "If the meeting's adjourned, then I'm gonna hang on the rooftop for a bit."

"Venam, I'd actually like to talk to you for a moment," Will said. When it looked like Venam was about to balk, he added, "It's important."

"Fine," she said. "Rhodea's balcony is big enough for, like, twenty of us. Come on then."

"Don't stay up too late you guys!" Melia said as Will and Venam headed outside. "It's almost past midnight!"

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah…" Venam muttered. "Come on…"

The two of them headed to Rhodea's balcony. Terrace. Rooftop thing. It was an entire outside area that wrapped around the corner of the building. It had a pool that was large enough for Nidoking to swim laps in, entire trees and rose patches as decorations and enough square meters to function as a second house. It offered a beautiful sight of the rest of the city, and Will realized with a start that he could probably use this spot as a takeoff and landing site for Pidgeot. Why bother waiting for the elevator or riding a cramped elevator car with strangers when he could travel in style?

"What's this about?" Venam asked, taking a seat on one of the couches.

Will stared at her in silence. A few seconds passed. Then…"That's what I wanted to ask. What's going on?"

Venam raised an eyebrow at him.

"Things have been so different between us lately, and I don't get it," Will said. "You've been acting so…" he struggled to find the right words, but Venam latched onto that almost instantly.

"So what?" She curtly asked. "If you have something to say, just say it."

Fine. "You've been acting so bitchy lately. It started with that shit on the train. What was that even about?"

Venam stared up at him from her spot on the couch, her expression hard and cold. "What, that part about the mansion? That was - "

"Don't bullshit me," Will snapped. "Is this about Valor Mountain? When you said…what you said after the summit, was that just a lie?"

Venam rose up from the couch. "I don't lie about anything! And no, it's not about that fucking mountain. It's…"

"Then what is it? You've been so cold and snappy lately. What changed?"

"I…you…you wanna know what changed? You have! With Melia!" Venam forced out. "You're screwing with her head!"

"I'm what?"

Venam squared up with him. "We've all been through a lot, and you might be shrugging that horrible shit off like that, but Melia can't do that! The last thing she needs is someone she cares about trying to - to - "

Her words started a low buzz in his head. "To what?" Will growled.

"And you and Melia have been getting a lot closer the past weeks," Venam snapped. "A lot closer."

"Of course, I just want her to be happy," Will gritted out, carefully studying Venam's face as she stared him down. "She's been through some serious crap and she deserves to be happy."

"Yeah?" She challenged. "Is that really it? Is that really what you're after?"

"If you got something to say to me Venam," he said, throwing her words right back at her, "Why don't you just say it?"

"Fine!" She shouted, putting herself closer to him, less than two feet away. "What would you know about making Melia happy anyway?! You've known her for what, a few months?"

Dimly, Will was aware that during any other time, the genuine anger in Venam's voice should have been a reason to shut this down right away, to keep things from escalating. But after all these days - weeks really - of biting back his own anger and keeping a lid on his own frustrations, he couldn't. He was hurt and he was pissed and if he didn't get it out now, it would rip him apart. "What the hell do you think I've been doing these months?" The indignation of it all pushed against his mind, a painful, burning thing, and he couldn't find the words to convey that to Venam. "I'm trying - I'm trying - "

"Trying what?"

Trying to shield you all from more suffering.

"...yes, I like Melia," Will admitted. "I like her a lot. But that's not why I - I just want what's best for her!"

"Have you considered that might not be you?" Venam said.

He had. The thought kept him up at night. Hearing Venam take that fear and vocalize it, speak it into existence and make it real pushed him over the edge. "Venam, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Ever since you washed on shore things have been so fucked!" Venam all but shouted at him. "It's been one nightmare after another, and the bad shit never ends!"

How could she - how could she! "Are you saying that's my fault? I-I - I didn't want that to happen, that wasn't on me!"

"Not saying you did that! I'm saying, what the fuck is going to happen next? What's gonna happen to Melia when you get yourself killed, huh?"

For a moment, Will was speechless. When, she said. When, but she didn't know that it had already happened before.

It had crushed Melia. Crushed the hope out of her, crushed her soul. When Crescent brought him back, she hadn't even resisted Geara and Zetta.

Because of him.

"What's your plan here Will? Run off with her, back to the past? Get the both of you killed!"

"Venam what the fuck!" Will yelled, dizzy from the unexpected fury Venam's words lit within him. "Where would I even go? I have nothing, you're it! You and Melia are all I have, or did you forget again? Huh? Am I just not important enough for you to recall basic shit about, like your other friends?"

"What the fuck did you just say?"

"Everything was fine with Lenny and Luca until they got messed up, until they got fucked up!"

"I don't forget about my friends!" Venam screamed, the hurt just audible under layers and layers of anger. Tears of rage welled up in her eyes. "They fucking dropped me! ME! I – you - don't you fucking – don't act like you know me when you don't! You don't know me, you don't know Melia! You weren't there all these years!"

Her friends, her friends –

But not him.

"I'm here now!" Will yelled back, shaken and dizzy from the raw pain that truth brought with it. "Fuck, Venam I thought we were over this – I thought we were better than this! I thought we were – "

Friends.

"Yeah, you'd think," Venam spat, wrapping her arms around her chest and turning away from him. "You're wrong."

The full realization of what she just said to him was like a dam bursting in his head.

Then what was he to her? If they weren't friends then – "Why are you still keeping me around?" Will shouted, he was certain he shouted but he could barely hear his words over blood roaring in his ears. "If - if we're not - because I'm useful? Or because I'm not fucked up enough yet? Fuck, Venam!" He wasn't able to keep his voice from breaking and a part of him didn't even care anymore. "I thought you cared!"

Tears brimmed in his eyes now, too. They burned deep, bloody trenches across his cheeks when he tried and failed to keep them back.

He couldn't believe this. He thought…he thought Venam had been his friend, that she cared about him. He'd thought…

But Ren had left and after that, they…on Valor Mountain he…and now Val and Adam were gone and Aelita had run from him and…and…

Something in his words struck Venam hard. She froze. Her furious expression twisted into something else. "That's not what I meant!" Venam yelled. She pulled at her hair in helpless frustration as tears streamed down her face. "That's not what I fucking meant at all!"

Will didn't care. He didn't care what Venam meant. She'd said it, something inside of her had made her say it and now, things were different. They'd broken apart, shattered in a way that couldn't be mended, couldn't ever be put together again.

He tore his gaze away from her, sick to his stomach and deeply wounded. He heard Venam storm off. The door to the outside fell shut behind her.

And he was alone again.

Fury and pain and guilt rose up in his throat and suddenly, he couldn't be there, in that penthouse, anymore. It was too much, far too much, and he needed to be not there. He needed to be anywhere but there.

He had Pidgeot out in a flash. Before he could change his mind, before Venam could change her mind, Will climbed on top and gave the order to fly. He didn't care where.

So long as he was anywhere but there.

~~~~~~~(II)~~~~~~~

---

AN: Interceptor, oh Interceptor. Raise your weary head, for you have miles to go still.

The culmination of Venam and Will being unable to genuinely communicate their emotions. Both of them have quite an ordeal ahead of them, and both might need a serious hug when the dust settles.

As always, thank you so much for sticking with me so far! Don't forget to drop by on Archive Of Our Own for this story if you haven't already. The way AO3 works makes it much less tedious for me to fix the many, many little mistakes that litter this work, not to mention, there are several very talented fellow writers active in the community there. Rejuvenation just sees a lot more traffic on AO3.

In the meantime, I will continue to update this story on both platforms. Don't forget to leave a review, drop a fave/follow and I will see you all with the next update! It's gonna be a heavy one.