Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Overthrown

[Knightfall]

Thanks man, I fixed them.

Well, that's all part of the cliffhanger. You'll find out who ambushed Salient soon enough.

Knightfall signing off...

[Meeker]

I must say I'm spoiled for this to have been my first fic I gave a chance and read. You get better every time.

I also see that you like to toy with your readers by giving them cliffhangers at the end of each chapter, I bet you enjoy that you lucky son of gun. I keeps them coming back too, which everybody likes.

Now, are the characters based off of people you know? They seem real enough to be incarnations of real people.

Keep it up, and I look forward to chapter ten.

[Knightfall]

Really? This is the first fanfic you've read? Well, I must say I'm honored.

Yeah, I do love my cliffhangers. Though they're there for a reason, and yeah, they keep people coming back.

Actually, no. All characters have come from my head, though they might be influenced by video games and other media somewhat, I don't recall basing a character off of someone I personally know. Though I thank you for thinking they might be, I work hard to make my characters have a unique personality.

Thanks, and hopefully that'll be up soon as I have winter break in a week.

Knightfall signing off...

[Sidewinder]

A drink from Spinda’s would be nice. Something very strong …

That made me lol. Is this the first time you mentioned this particular place? Because if so, kudos to you as it's very inventive

“Meanwhile, the Kingdom is crumbling around us; a dying patient in a hospital. We cannot hope to save it without greater cooperation within the government,” he said, slowly rubbing his right scythe on his left.
Nickolas narrowed his eyes Just where is he going with this? he wondered.

Formatting issue there.

and your tragic … loss, we have

Are we talking about a certain Riolu, perhaps?

He stopped circling directly in front of Nickolas, his eyes red with anger.

That caused a little bit of confusion for me as you said he had red eyes already. To avoid being repetitive, or if needing a different way to describe them that would fit, you could say something like ", his eyes burning with anger"

The memories did not subside until he felt the forceful shake of two small wings and the concerned voice of Wevan that broke him from the horrible slideshow.

I felt like you did a good job describing his loss and grief in all the places above the portion I quoted. I could feel his loss there, and it was compounded even more by the fact that he's part of this dynasty that's lasted for so long; so not only is he dealing with his struggles through his kingdom, but he has to deal with the heavenly disappointment of all those that came before him. Nicely done

A large Pokemon with a thick hide of purple complete with several pointed spikes stopped in front of his cell. He took his fist and slammed it against the bars.
Aleck leaped backwards in fright, while the Nidoking let out a gruff laugh.

Nidoking as prison cell guards? hmm, that seems familiar lmao

Up to this point, I do somewhat feel like that the chapter so far has been way to dialogue driven. With Aleck and Nickolas, and the portion between their portions, I understand why you had to put so much, as you'e laying foundations and motives, but at the same time there is a point to where you're reading so many lines of dialogue that you almost forget what you're reading. That's where I'm at right now. You've done a good job expressing your points and getting the story moving, but keep in mind that line after line of dialogue can get a little tedious. You dig?

“We’re still too close to Loyalty to consider ourselves out of the woods yet,” Jay stated again, Leo almost groaning at his pun.

That read a little weird to me too. I would suggest taking out almost and just sticking with groaning. Paints a livelier picture

A plan that would have worked if Leo hadn’t dozed off five minutes into his shift.

Tut tut, that will never do. Kelly and Jay should beat him mercilessly

Leo rested on his back in the grass, holding his tail off the ground to prevent a fire, and allowed the sun to warm his entire body.

I love the fact that no matter what situation, you're always mindful about the physical characteristics of Leo. So many authors forget minute details like these, but you never do. Good job!

The sun had finally begun its fiery descent into the western horizon, painting the sky in vivid colors of fading blue, blazing orange, and an amalgamation of similar colors that would need an expert on the color spectrum to accurately name them all.

I reread the quoted portion several times because I was slightly taken aback by how wonderfully wordy and descriptive it was. Nicely done with painting such a clear picture in my mind

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the chapter. There were a few words I would have tweaked here and there, and maybe scaled back a tiny bit on the heaps of dialogue, but other than that you did wonderfully. The ending left nothing to be desired, and I have to say that it really worked to amp me up for the next chapter. Good job

[Sound]

How to open this quick review... I'm confused. In a good way.

Executive Order 47: “In the event any officer of the law becomes malcompliant with established royal doctrines, it is imperative that they be disposed of with extreme prejudice. They are to be imprisoned without the possibility of fair trial. Lethal force is granted for severe cases of insubordination. Regional governors have the responsibility of filling in the position within forty-eight hours from initial disposal.”

They're pretty prepared. Or maybe it just happens a lot, who can say?

[b] “You’re trying to be a hero, just because of what that thing told you. Listen to me! You’re not a hero! Heroes die!”[/i]

Something's missing there.

“You allowed your greed to get the better of your judgment. This is not the first time that has happened, from my observations.”

He's everywhere, and he knows everything. I really want to know his motives and goals. But, we're a long time away from finding what they are, correct?

“That’s great! Actually, that’s really horrible, but it’s still great!” Icarus exclaimed, flapping his wings several times in excitement.

Haven't we all been in these types of situations?

I'm still loving it. It's confusing as mystery contained in an enigma wrapped in a tuna roll, which simply sets up for something cool. This is one of the few fanfics that's captured my attention recently, and I always look foward to reading the latest chapter. Bravo, Knightfall.

[Knightfall]

Alright, reply time!

That made me lol. Is this the first time you mentioned this particular place? Because if so, kudos to you as it's very inventive.

It is this first time I've mentioned it. Though that character in the games makes drinks for a living, so it seemed reasonable that he could make something... stronger, if needed.

Formatting issue there.

I've been having that problem a lot lately, it seems. Fixed.

Are we talking about a certain Riolu, perhaps?

There's a good deal of things he could mean by that statement. If you recall, his wife was killed by Colonists, and his power is about to be degraded.

That caused a little bit of confusion for me as you said he had red eyes already. To avoid being repetitive, or if needing a different way to describe them that would fit, you could say something like ", his eyes burning with anger"

Ah, I see.Good point. Fixed.

I felt like you did a good job describing his loss and grief in all the places above the portion I quoted. I could feel his loss there, and it was compounded even more by the fact that he's part of this dynasty that's lasted for so long; so not only is he dealing with his struggles through his kingdom, but he has to deal with the heavenly disappointment of all those that came before him. Nicely done

Thanks, I've actually read a lot into the fall of monarchies, so I can imagine how it might feel quite vividly. His nation is facing internal collapse and civil war. Not a good combination. Even though it's dying, the final blow has yet to come.

Nidoking as prison cell guards? hmm, that seems familiar lmao

Hmm, how about that? Great minds think alike after all.

Up to this point, I do somewhat feel like that the chapter so far has been way to dialogue driven. With Aleck and Nickolas, and the portion between their portions, I understand why you had to put so much, as you'e laying foundations and motives, but at the same time there is a point to where you're reading so many lines of dialogue that you almost forget what you're reading. That's where I'm at right now. You've done a good job expressing your points and getting the story moving, but keep in mind that line after line of dialogue can get a little tedious. You dig?

I see what you're getting at. And I felt that way myself with this chapter, but next chapter I promise that things get done rather than talking.

That read a little weird to me too. I would suggest taking out almost and just sticking with groaning. Paints a livelier picture

I agree. Fixed.

Tut tut, that will never do. Kelly and Jay should beat him mercilessly

Heh, there will be plenty of time for that. Don't you worry.

I love the fact that no matter what situation, you're always mindful about the physical characteristics of Leo. So many authors forget minute details like these, but you never do. Good job!

I just can't get away from that tail of his can I?

I reread the quoted portion several times because I was slightly taken aback by how wonderfully wordy and descriptive it was. Nicely done with painting such a clear picture in my mind.

Thank you. I quite liked it myself. Finally got a chance to use some vocabulary I learned in school. XD

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the chapter. There were a few words I would have tweaked here and there, and maybe scaled back a tiny bit on the heaps of dialogue, but other than that you did wonderfully. The ending left nothing to be desired, and I have to say that it really worked to amp me up for the next chapter. Good job

Glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I agree that the dialogue was a bit on the heavy side, but I'll fix that in the next chapter. The ending was rather a stir of the moment thing, but I'm glad I put it in. It ended the chapter quite nicely. Thanks again!

How to open this quick review... I'm confused. In a good way.

That means I'm doing my job right.

They're pretty prepared. Or maybe it just happens a lot, who can say?

They have contingency rules for everything. I'm not kidding in the slightest here, the bureaucratic freaks have been busy.

Something's missing there.

Argghh, broken code is going to be the death of me. Thanks for catching that, it's rather embarrassing.
.

He's everywhere, and he knows everything. I really want to know his motives and goals. But, we're a long time away from finding what they are, correct?

Surprisingly, no. He does not know everything, he's just in the right place at the right time. You'll soon see just how much gets by him. And yeah, he's going to remain a mystery for a while.

Haven't we all been in these types of situations?

That's how I got the idea for the quote. It just fit perfectly.

I'm still loving it. It's confusing as mystery contained in an enigma wrapped in a tuna roll, which simply sets up for something cool. This is one of the few fanfics that's captured my attention recently, and I always look forward to reading the latest chapter. Bravo, Knightfall.

This is sig material. Thank you. You have no idea how thankful I am for your comments. Seriously, it really helps. Thank you, and all of those who read this.

Knightfall signing off...

[Sid87]

He clutched a letter in his paw, careful not to accidently impale it on the boney spike also on his paw.

Wording is awkward there. Maybe just "He clutched the letter, careful not to impale it on his paw's boney spike."

Wevan simply nodded. “Very well. I will fetch him right away, sir.” With that, he waddled out the door, making sure to close it gently behind him.

Nice touch on "waddling".

“W-what?” Nickolas stuttered as he tried to process what had just happened. He couldn’t believe that the absolute power built up by his family over the course of three centuries was decimated within a minute and a half.

I'm torn as to whether I LIKE the "minute and a half" bit because it juxtaposes well against the three centuries, or if I think it's a bit too silly sounding. I think it might be better as either "a few moments" or "ninety seconds". I am not sure, though.

The disbelief gave way to absolute rage in one violent scream as Nickolas as he curled his right paw

You have two "as he/as Nicholas" in the middle there.

Then, the memories changed for the worse as his sobs increased. His father, coughing violently as the assassin’s poison ate through his veins. His father, lying on the cold marble floor as his advisors raced for help, whispered his final blessing and bestowing his son the crown with his last labored breath.

Since you start two sentences here with "His father...", it might be more symmetrical if you continue on with it. Instead of "help, whispered his final...", you could say "His father, whispering his final blessing..." It seems more thematic to the paragraph that way.

Wevan carefully removed his wings from his king’s back. “Thank the Legends, you’re alright …” the butler sighed in relief that his employer had not yet kicked the proverbial bucket.

I don't think someone would refer to royalty that they work for as their "employer". Also, the end of this is a bit too comical given the mood of the scene.

I ascended into the passages of the false knowledge with the wired heart. To prepare for the coming of the heroes of injustice.
“You’re trying to be a hero, just because of what that thing told you. Listen to me! You’re not a hero! Heroes die!”
That I will see the sun again. One day. My mind will become clear once again. The heroes will allow me to.
“You don’t understand… I have to stay. To guide them. Otherwise the world will burn.”

I will be free.

Well, okay. I didn't understand a damn bit of what just happened. I think I mentioned before, either this story is going to be over a thousand pages long (or you have it intended as a multi-story series), it's kind of late in the game to be throwing MORE mysteries at the readers. I'm already caught up in who the scientists were at the beginning, what is the voice in Leo's head and how is it connected to Jay, what was the War of Time (or something), what's the backstory of the kingdom, the evil Skarmory... now we've got whatever THIS was.

Which, don't take to mean this wasn't well-written. It most certainly WAS, and I enjoyed reading it. There were two or three grammar errors or chunky phrases I blew past because I was enveloped in the segment. But it's starting to feel like I need a flow chart to keep a grasp on everything that's going on. Why can't I hold all these subplots, as it were.

“Oh, Giratina, what have I done to deserve this?” Aleck croaked, holding his injured eye with his claws.

I like the feel on polytheism in that all the pokemon seem to herald a different legendary as their patron god, and they, of course, seem to be tied together by typings.

“Do. Not. Insult. Me. Nod your oxygen-deprived head once if you understand. Otherwise you can permanently say goodbye to your motor functions.” Despite on the verge of passing out, Aleck managed to nod as per the voice’s instructions.

I don't love the "oxygen-deprived" bit. It feels too... something. I don't know. I imagine this unseen foe to be more in favor of harsh brevity than random adjectives.

His entire body felt as stiff as a board and sore. This was to be expected from sleeping on a patch of particularly uncomfortable dirt. He had woke up with a layer of dew on his scales and had trouble getting the irritating droplets off his skin. They acted like someone poured itching powder on him, causing him to fidget around in discomfort trying to get the stinging water off.

Take out the "someone poured" bit. Just "they acted like itching powder on his skin..."

“Wait a second … Icarus, is that you?” the Riolu asked, realization hitting him like a punch.

I would think pokemon would recognize each other more readily than this, but perhaps the sun was in Jay's eyes at first.

The late summer heat took its toll on the team as they trudged through the field. Leo wished that a well of water would appear alongside the path, or anything that could potentially quench his thirst. He thought it was a cruel working of fate that he was stuck in this body. Wanting nothing more to take a plunge into a lake, but also loathing the thought of having water splash onto him.

Very nice detail.


Like I said, my major thoughtline here is that there is SO MUCH going on. I know war and rebellion and the history of a realm is hardly one-dimensional, but I'm having a hard time keeping track of everything and everyone.

I imagine--and I might be wrong, but I bet I'm not--that you have an absolute ton of graphs and charts and documents about everything going on in this world. I'd love to see them sometime after it's over. I always need to get better at that. I tend to keep everything in my head, but then my long-term continuity goes to heck quite often. Heh.

[Brutaka]

Well, okay. I didn't understand a damn bit of what just happened. I think I mentioned before, either this story is going to be over a thousand pages long (or you have it intended as a multi-story series), it's kind of late in the game to be throwing MORE mysteries at the readers. I'm already caught up in who the scientists were at the beginning, what is the voice in Leo's head and how is it connected to Jay, what was the War of Time (or something), what's the backstory of the kingdom, the evil Skarmory... now we've got whatever THIS was.

The Restoration of Time he keeps referring to is the series of events played out in PMD Time/Darkness/Sky.
Similarly, the Falling Star Incident was the events of PMD Blue/Red Rescue Team.

[Knightfall]

I'm torn as to whether I LIKE the "minute and a half" bit because it juxtaposes well against the three centuries, or if I think it's a bit too silly sounding. I think it might be better as either "a few moments" or "ninety seconds". I am not sure, though.

I went with the ninety seconds. It seemed to fit better while retaining the contrast.

You have two "as he/as Nicholas" in the middle there.

Really? That's annoying. Fixed. Must have been left over from my edits.

Since you start two sentences here with "His father...", it might be more symmetrical if you continue on with it. Instead of "help, whispered his final...", you could say "His father, whispering his final blessing..." It seems more thematic to the paragraph that way.

I agree. I was having trouble with that line earlier as well. Fixed.

I don't think someone would refer to royalty that they work for as their "employer". Also, the end of this is a bit too comical given the mood of the scene.

True, and it has been changed. And the ending wasn't meant to be comical, but rather something Wevan, as a butler who has served Nickolas for a long time, would do to help the situation.

Well, okay. I didn't understand a damn bit of what just happened. I think I mentioned before, either this story is going to be over a thousand pages long (or you have it intended as a multi-story series), it's kind of late in the game to be throwing MORE mysteries at the readers. I'm already caught up in who the scientists were at the beginning, what is the voice in Leo's head and how is it connected to Jay, what was the War of Time (or something), what's the backstory of the kingdom, the evil Skarmory... now we've got whatever THIS was.

Well, it's supposed to be from the perspective of a schizophrenic, thus explaining the sudden shifts of POV and inane dialogue.

I plan on making this a multiple story series, though each story is going to be long, regardless.
Well, it's only Chapter Ten, mind you. It's not a mystery exactly, just another piece of a puzzle. And as Brutaka said above me, the Restoration of Time/Time Gear Crisis and the Falling Star Incident are actual events from the games, so unless you played them, they might be hard to understand just what they were.

Which, don't take to mean this wasn't well-written. It most certainly WAS, and I enjoyed reading it. There were two or three grammar errors or chunky phrases I blew past because I was enveloped in the segment. But it's starting to feel like I need a flow chart to keep a grasp on everything that's going on. Why can't I hold all these subplots, as it were.

Well, I'm glad it was mostly grammatically correct. I focused on making the scene and not so much proper formatting. I'd like to see the flow chart you produce compared to mine.

I like the feel on polytheism in that all the pokemon seem to herald a different legendary as their patron god, and they, of course, seem to be tied together by typings.

Thanks, I actually saw the aspect of Legendary worship in another PMD story and I only expanded the idea. With all the Legendaries available,
it's no surprise that many Pokemon worship different Legends.

I don't love the "oxygen-deprived" bit. It feels too... something. I don't know. I imagine this unseen foe to be more in favor of harsh brevity than random adjectives.

Agreed, and fixed.

I would think pokemon would recognize each other more readily than this, but perhaps the sun was in Jay's eyes at first.

Well, there's more than one Pidgeotto in the world. And yeah, the sun and all.

Like I said, my major thoughtline here is that there is SO MUCH going on. I know war and rebellion and the history of a realm is hardly one-dimensional, but I'm having a hard time keeping track of everything and everyone.

I know it's a lot. This is my first project and so I've put so much thought into it, history and all. And it's only going to get worse before it get's better.

I imagine--and I might be wrong, but I bet I'm not--that you have an absolute ton of graphs and charts and documents about everything going on in this world. I'd love to see them sometime after it's over. I always need to get better at that. I tend to keep everything in my head, but then my long-term continuity goes to heck quite often. Heh.

You're pretty close. I actually need to revise some of my storyboard doc since some ideas are a little outdated. Heh, maybe when it's over, I'll send 'em to ya for kicks.

Major thanks for the review, this story wouldn't be nearly as good without your advise. I can't get my review of your latest chapter done until next week as I'm visiting family. It'll be done as soon as possible.

Knightfall signing off...

[Brutaka]

Well, there's more than one Pidgeotto in the world. And yeah, the sun and all.

My opinion on that is that perhaps Leo couldn't distinguish between members of the same species, but all natural born Pokemon would. In fact, I'd say that Pokemon would probably have a hard time distinguishing different humans apart.

[Knightfall]

Chapter Ten: Memory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
” Did you know that the average Grass Type needs approximately seven to nine hours of sunlight per day to maintain healthy cognitive functionality? I found that fact interesting. Tell me, how long have you been trapped here? Weeks? Months? Regardless, your head must be doing torturous things to you. Why not come out of there and you’ll see. None of this is real.”
[Time and Date Redacted]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Axis slowly floated down the deserted street of Loyalty; the squad of four Magnemite buzzing excitedly behind him at the prospect of yet another arrest. The deputy scanned the rows of dwellings that lined the main road; the newly mandated curfew had to be enforced.

Forty-eight hours had not yet passed since Gear’s disposal, and Richelieu had already laid the foundation for a totalitarian state in which he was the dictator. This is only the beginning if the plans I saw on his desk were true, the deputy thought.

The units chattered among themselves as the last of the sun’s rays disappeared from the sky, officially marking the beginning of the mandated blackout that lasted until dawn. Axis switched on his built in searchlights. The lower ranked officers switched on their lights following Axis’s example; their beams sweeping the seemingly empty street for violators of the new rule.

Despite putting on an act for the governor and the traitors, he was forced to call comrades. He sincerely hoped that they didn’t come across an unfortunate soul who failed to make the deadline of sunset. The beams of light flashed across the stone buildings and dark alleyways, almost as if they could chase the darkness away to reveal a treasure of some sobbing citizen to arrest.

The moon was obscured by a large bank of clouds, blocking its natural light and making the Square seem even more like an abandoned city than the bustling marketplace it was. Hovering across the open area of the market square, Axis and his squad turned down the right hand road and off into the major residential district.

Axis couldn’t help but think of the possible reasoning behind Richelieu’s plans. Control was the obvious answer, but he knew something else was lurking behind that. Some unseen motive that was almost certainly detrimental to the majority of the populace of the town. Shaking away the thoughts, he refocused himself on the task at hand. His orders from the Skarmory had been little more than to patrol the streets.

They didn’t get any kill lists anymore, though the lack of specific targets --whether true felons or falsely accused-- essentially made every citizen within the town a target. The Magneton shined his light behind the countertops of the wooden stalls, occasionally flashing his light quickly, trying to send a warning signal to any citizens not yet indoors.

Focused as he was in his thoughts of the future, the deputy immediately snapped to attention when the sound of clattering metal reached his sensors. Twisting around in the air, his beam instantly centered on a small feline figure frozen in fear. Axis scanned the Pokemon within the same instant; his three cores searching the town census database for an identity.

The overly curly tail and predominantly grey fur marked it as a Glameow, and the monthly census narrowed down the identity to two individuals, one of whom had recently been gravely injured in a dungeoneering incident.

Arianna Glameow: 17 years of age. Citizen since birth. Record: none, Axis determined, his database ninety-nine percent sure of positive identification. The Glameow remained motionless against the stone wall of the house, a small metal plate with various fruits lay forlorn on the ground directly underneath her. Only the telltale signs of her extremely shallow breathing revealed she still had a pulse.

Her sharp, blue eyes darted from side to side looking for any possible escape route, but finding none that looked promising. Before he could make a formal declaration of arrest, Axis heard the fine-tuned whirring noise from the squad behind him that signaled only one thing. Axis spun around to face the Magnemite who were charging up for a debilitating stun attack.

“ZzT! Wait! Don-!” he screeched in vain as eight separate spheres of lightning shot by him, superheating the air surrounding the protesting deputy for an instant. The thief’s shriek of terror was quickly replaced by pitiful whimpering and the odor he analyzed as charred fur. Unable to turn around and face the grievously burned and paralyzed female, Axis floated in stunned horror.

His cores shouted out to him the numerous laws and statutes his officers demolished within ten seconds, but he couldn’t comprehend any of it at the moment. Almost subconsciously he slowly willed his magnets to turn his hovering body to face the injured Pokemon.

What he saw caused his cores to short-circuit. Arianna’s grey fur was now peppered with small circular bald spots, each one angry red and sizzling slightly. Tears leaked from her eyes as she bit her lip in an effort to not show weakness to the guards by crying.

Axis was roughly suddenly pushed aside by two of the Magnemites. The Magneton’s speakers failed him as he watched the two brutes each clamp one their magnets over her forearms. Her repressed whimpers turned into screams of agony as the two started to drag her over the cobblestones in the road.

“I’m so sorry...” he buzzed softly as the thief’s screams faded away as she fell into the abyss of unconsciousness.

I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, he repeated in his mind; the words sounding more and more hollow every time he said them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo never felt so free, so exhilaratingly alive --and so curious-- as he ran through the concrete corridor. The flatlights plastered on the ceiling and walls giving the hallway a clinical feel to it as it lit the area with a stark, white light.

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Immediately cancelling his forward momentum, he slowed to a stop; his well-worn shoes skidding to across the gritty stone floor to stop at a glass window embedded in the wall.

Standing on the tips of his feet, he was able to see down through the glass into the vast room below. Labyrinths of wires and piping began from unseen generators, ran dizzily across the walls, and ended in a tangled jungle on the floor. Over the covering of wires, pipes, and machinery worked several men in lab coats no longer white from repeated stains of sweat, electrical burns, and grime from the machinery.

In the center of the chamber stood an enormous machine of unknown purpose. It stretched from floor to ceiling with wires connecting to it at every possible point. Beneath the machine, under metal grate, a set of wide, metal fan blades sat motionless. Over it, a set of three electrical arrays pointed down from three dirtied, steel arms on the ceiling; each matched up with a receiver at the base of the machine.

Aside from the giant contraption, Leo was fascinated by the dozen men who, despite the chaos, managed to continue working and make progress. He watched wide-eyed from his perch above them as they shouted calculations and directions at each other as they prepared the gargantuan machine in the center of the room for launch. Fortunately for him, there was an air duct grate nearby through which he could hear snatches of the scientist’s commands.

“-- the signal is fading, we have to hurry before it’s gone.”

“-- up to ninety percent. Be sure not to overload it.”

“--must account for the temporal differences.”

He didn’t understand any of their jargon, but he knew they were gearing up for something big. He watched as three of the men pressed sequences of buttons on the many keyboards littered around the lab. Giant mechanical arms lifted the final wires into place, connecting the machine with the power source.

Scientists gathered around the three computer stations spaced about the room around the colossal apparatus in the center of the chamber. Their fingers flew across the keyboards in order to bring life to the metal structure.

“-- start the rotors. Bring the power level to eighty-four point two percent exactly. Easy now, don’t damage anything. We don’t want a repeat of yesterday.”
“-- charge each of the arrays oppositely. The ensuing collision will--”

The wires hummed excitedly as precious electricity flowed through them into the machine. The metal blades at the base of the experiment began to rotate with an almighty shudder that knocked Leo to the floor. Their joints and connectors screeched loudly in protest of movement as they shifted into position.

As Leo picked himself off the floor, he again peered through the window. The steel blades were spinning rapidly, much to the anticipation of the science team. Leo only heard snippets of their orders above the buffered air coming off the spinning blades.

“--reroute power from auxiliary generators if you absolutely have to. Be sure to--”

“--the system can’t operate on that level for longer than--”

“-- override protocol. We have to try this while the signal is still receivable. Otherwise--

The gargantuan machine shuddered as electricity danced among its slowly spinning arrays, bright beams of raw positively-charged power aligning with the negatively-charged receivers. This collision of polar opposites forced the beams to reflect off each other, making them seem to race about the open center core of the experiment.

“--predictable results so far. Power on the magnetic field; prepare for impact!”

The reinforced glass of the observation window vibrated with the shaking of the experiment. Leo watched in awe as the erratic beams were suddenly compressed into a small electrified sphere, even as the facility shook from the tremor resulting from the activation.

“--align the signal coordinates. Quickly! Before it’s--”

The scientists seemed to be swarming their computer stations like ants, each either typing madly, or making minute adjustments on electrical power levels. The small sphere of confined electricity seemed to ripple and slowly expand as it was held in place by the magnetic pulses. Leo pressed his face against the glass, his breath fogging up the window slightly as he hoped to see whatever was going to happen in the core.

The core of compressed energy glowed as it suddenly expanded to fill the entire open space between the top and bottom of the machine. Leo’s eyes widened as colors began to bleed into the white center of the core, turning it into a canvas of superheated plasma. He could see distinct hues of green and blue congregate at the top and bottom of the core, forming fields of emerald grass and limitless skies of some uncursed world.

“--trace the signal! This is it! We’ve got it! We’ve--”

A violent tremor suddenly rattled the chamber; the machine began to spark as the core misaligned. The picturesque field was torn apart and replaced with the golden sands of a barren desert.

“-- lost the signal! It’s beginning to--”

The arrays started to spew forth lightning as the world within the core altered once again, this time becoming a molten red volcano. Leo could feel the heat radiating through the window an entire floor above.

“--attempting shutdown! It’s not--it’s not shutting down! The system’s--”

The room began to quake as the tremors continued to erupt from the malfunctioning experiment.
Green fields, stormy oceans, mysterious glowing orbs within a night sky, vast clouded mountains, and blue skies all flashed briefly in the center core before vanishing as quickly as they had come. Leo was entranced by the images; all of them far more vivid than anything he’d heard of before in legends.

It only remained for a split second, but a single image was burned into his thoughts forever. A shimmering veil of sky dotted with pure white clouds. In the middle of it, a vast glowing orb, far brighter than anything Leo had ever seen before. Leo shielded his eyes from the intense brightness of the oddity.

He blinked once and the picture was gone. In its place a peaceful looking mountain range and valleys, the strange orb still floated in the sky far above the pinnacles of the peaks. Just as he grew accustomed to the strange thing in the atmosphere, he heard the yells of the science team once more.

“--shut off the power! We can’t take much more of this!”

“--data is irretrievable! We can't!"

“Do it!”

Leo wanted to see more; he had to. He had only glimpsed the tiniest ray of something spoken in myths. The sphere that floated loftily in the heavens was direct proof that there was more to the legends and rumors. That somewhere there was more than perpetual dull skies. Something greater than a still sea. Something with more life than the dying land. Something that promised freedom to whoever was courageous enough to reach through and grab it.

“-- data! We can’t! Not until we get a proper reading!”

“-- I say. Shut. It. Down.”

Leo pressed his hands against the glass in protest. He couldn’t let these visions of paradise be torn away from him. He slammed his fists into the window, ignoring the stinging pain from the resulting impact. He could only watch in stunned horror as two men in the lab dashed to opposite walls on each side of the room where levers controlling the current were placed. They each grabbed a lever, and even as the machine shuddered once more, they pulled down.

Leo’s world then turned pitch black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelly would never forgive them. She didn’t care what they said in their letters to her; dried ink failed to compare to actually hearing their apologies in real life. They had abandoned her. Left her completely alone. All to pursue a political faction that meant more to them than she did.

She had spent enough tears over them. She had to learn to adapt and survive. To fend for herself against the odds, even if it meant forming a rescue team with a Riolu she met in order to scrape together a pitiful excuse for a living.

She could almost see her father sitting in front of her. His black fur contrasting with the dim yellow rings circling his body.

“We love you, Kel. We did what we did because--”, his soft voice cracked, before she interrupted. “No! I don’t want to hear you!”

“Kelly, please listen. I only want to--” he started to say before being cut off by his daughter.
“No. Not anymore.”

The Umbreon simply closed his eyes and sighed. He looked back up at his daughter, tears forming in the inner corners of his eyes. Kelly wasn’t moved in the slightest. She returned his pleading gaze with a stare colder than ice. Out of the mists came another figure on all fours. Kelly tried to keep her face stern as she saw an identical version of herself sit down next to her father.

“Mom,” Kelly said, barely containing a sniffle as she acknowledged the older Jolteon’s entrance.

”We did what we did. Nothing other than Dialga can change that fact. We only wanted--”
she explained, her voice oddly soothing to Kelly. It had been a long time since she’d heard either of them, but comfort wasn’t enough.

“It’s what you wanted?! You wanted to leave me?! For the Colonies?! You wanted this?!”
Kelly screamed at her parent’s illusions, her voice strained.
Her mother ignored her outburst and walked forward to her daughter. She placed her paw on Kelly’s shoulder, causing the wayward daughter to wince slightly. She saw her mother’s paw on her fur, yet couldn’t feel it. She saw her mother’s head lean into her, rubbing affectionately against neck, yet the touch was not felt by Kelly.
”We left in hopes that we would return within a week. You can see that didn’t work out.” she said, pressing her head against her daughter’s. ”You have no idea how lost we felt without without you with us. We missed you so much. We missed you, Kelly.”

Kelly couldn’t take it anymore, she took a deep break before letting out a soft sob. Her sobs grew closer together as she cried into her mother’s intangible embrace. Her entire body shaking as she gasped for breath amid her breakdown. Eventually, she gathered herself once again. She raised her head to look around, only to find that her parents had vanished from her sight.

“M-mom? Dad? Where are you?! Where did you go?!” Kelly asked the empty space around her, beginning to panic as she shifted her gaze to every possible direction. The misty void around her began to shudder and shake, forcing Kelly to dig her claws into the ground to avoid being tossed around like a child’s toy.

”Why do you hate us, Kelly? Do you realize how much it hurts us to hear you say those nasty things?” her father’s disembodied voice rang out through the void. Each resounding echo growing in intensity rather than fading. Kelly only squeezed her eyes tighter and she clung to the ground even harder as the tremors worsened.

”Kelly, I will only ask one more time: why do you hate us?” her father asked, his voice icy and emotionless, contrasting sharply from what Kelly previously heard. Kelly bit her lip to keep from letting the words affect her.

”Tell me! Why do you hate us?!” the void screamed at her in her father’s voice, the sound-waves rattling the foundations of the ground. Kelly let out a weak scream as the ground violently lurched forward, tearing her claws from the floor.

“I-I don’t know...” she whimpered as the demented voices of her parents tormented her further.
She pressed her front paws to her ears even as her body was slammed repeatedly against the quaking earth. She ignored the pain, but failed to block out the voices.

”You ungrateful, useless, excuse of a daughter. We cared, sheltered, and nurtured you your entire life, and when we are held up against our will, you turn on us? We should have left you a long time ago!” This time is was her mother’s voice, shrill and distorted, that berated her. Every hateful word Kelly heard broke her resolve down. She couldn’t believe that her parents could share the hate she reserved for them.

Tears began to well up in her eyes as her parent’s voices tortured her mind. She failed to see that the ground started to crumble and fall into darkness. Blinded by tears, she tried to run across the falling void; she stumbled more than once on the heaving ground, skidding over the sharp fragments of floor.

She yelped as she felt her bruised hind legs fall through the floor into nothingness. She clung with all her strength onto the bit of stable ground in front of her, trying to avoid the abyss that awaited her like a hungry predator.

”You said you hated us! You wanted us gone! You turned on us, your parents! the voice, now an unholy amalgamation of both her mother and her father, screeched at Kelly as her grip began to fail her.

The abyss growled in irritation, it’s deep tone rattling the ground and weakening her grip on the frail patch of stone she clung to in fear. She grunted as she tried to pull herself up, her back legs flailing around in the open air beneath the cliff as she tried to gain leverage.

The chasm of her nightmare, fed up with waiting, roared with another tremor that shook the entire void. Dust and mist clouded Kelly’s vision, making her eyes sting and throat burn as she had no choice to breath the dirtied air in. Her arms were burning with fatigue as she tried to resist the abyss’s attempts to swallow her whole.

The bottomless chasm roared again, demanding her immediate surrender. Despite the pain and exhaustion, she refused to give into the void’s desires. She never submitted before, and she wouldn’t now. Nothing would make her, not the void, not the quake, nothing.

”You are not our daughter. Not anymore. Get out,” the voice coldly ordered. The mist seemed to channel its tone as its icy embrace wrapped around the Jolteon. Kelly shivered as the chill pressed from all sides. Her claws slipped a few precious inches closer to the edge, making a shrill screech along the floor. The broken stone slicing into the pads of her paws, making small smears of blood appear along the rock.

”Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! the invisible voice screamed. That was the final straw for Kelly. Her bloodied claws reached the edge of the cliff with nowhere else to go besides down. She pulled her head up one last time before her grip failed, her tears staining the yellow fur on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered weakly before her claws broke through the thin layer of rock. The abyss screeched in triumph and hungrily opened its maw wide to receive her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jay panted in exhaustion as he set down the final sack of seed. The sun was starting its nightly journey into the western horizon, signaling the end of the day. Jay checked his surroundings before leaving. The wooden structure his family used to store grain seemed secure enough, and the gates into the fields were all shut tight.

He tried to whistle a tune he had heard earlier that week in Silver’s trading market as he walked back to his family’s small dwelling. The talent was not his forte and the original jaunty tune of the song was butchered by the Riolu’s sad attempt to recreate it.

Jay stopped along the dirt road when a silhouette of two Pokemon appeared on the darkening horizon. They were coming from the capital. Jay knew exactly who they were. Their loud talking and clanking armor plates made them out to be guards of the city. Taking a deep breath, he jogged a little faster along the road, hoping to keep ahead of them. He suddenly wished that his family’s home was a lot closer to Silver.

The guards’ conversation seemed to get louder as they somehow seemed to get closer to him, despite his efforts to outrun them. As quick as lightning, a beige feline Pokemon sprinted past him and quickly turned around, blocking his path. Jay dug his paws into the dirt as he attempted to stop. The marauder was a large cat that he’d run into before and known by name.

“Felix,” the Riolu huffed, glaring at the guard. The Pokemon cracked a shrewd smile, showing off his sharp teeth at the same time. He moved his head to look down on Jay, the ruby red gem embedded on his forehead glinted in the fading sunlight.

“Farm filth, it’s been a time since we last talked, hasn’t it?” the Persian sneered. The guard slowly circled Jay, the metal plate armor on his long back clinking with every careful movement of his legs.

“Hmph, I don’t need to talk to you lot. You’ve already got this month’s taxes from us,” Jay said, stubbornly crossing his arms. The Persian stopped his circling and stared directly at the Riolu, his red eyes boring virtual holes into Jay.

“You’re joking. You’ve gotta be kidding me right now!” Felix exclaimed, the faint beginnings of a laugh easing their way into his words. “Come here, you lot! You guys won’t believe this,” he called behind Jay. Jay whirled around to find that the group of guards now significantly closer.

“Felix? What’sss thisss ssstreet rat prattling on about thisss time?” a long snake-like Pokemon asked, its black and gold form slithering around behind Jay and hissing in the Riolu’s ear. Jay gulped as he heard the Seviper’s poison-laced blade swish through the air and come to a rest, far too close to his throat for comfort.

“Apparently,” Felix said, placing a paw on Jay’s head while the Seviper guard held him in place with the threat his blade. “Our ‘friend’ here doesn’t know the news yet! Can you believe that?!”

The Seviper lowered his head to Jay’s level. “Really? Doesss our friend really not know the newssss?” he asked incredulously, flicking his forked tongue out quickly. Jay struggled against the snake Pokemon, trying to squirm free without slicing his neck on the precariously positioned blade.
“What are you two idiots talking about? What news?” Jay growled, letting every ounce of hatred for the two Pokemon seep into his words.

Felix raised his paw and boxed the side of Jay’s head. “Watch your mouth, dog.” he spat. He backed off and took a deep breath as he calmed himself down. “Well, it appears that your dear father owes the Kingdom quite a bit of money. His taxes have been short these last few collections,”

“No! You’re lying! I saw him pay them myself! They were paid in full!” Jay countered, only earning yet another threatening glare from the Seviper. Felix and the Seviper looked silently at each other for a second before both bursting into laughter.

“Y-you really-- haha --- think he paid in full? Oh Arceus alive, you’ve got to be kidding me right now! We wouldn’t be on our way to arrest him if that were the case, now would we?” Felix asked with a sinister chuckle.

“What?! No!” Jay screamed as he ducked underneath the Seviper’s blade and coils. He bent his legs and jumped up towards the Persian, arms outstretched. He hit the guard around his neck and tackled him into the dirt. Jay only saw red, slightly different shades of red, and more red. The Kingdom had taken nearly everything we’ve earned, and now they had the gall to accuse us of not paying enough? he thought angrily as he raised his arm.

Felix had barely time to register what had happened before Jay’s fist collided with the side of the Persian’s head. Not thinking of the consequences, he raised his arm again for another blow, yet he never completed the swing. The Seviper’s tail reached around, wrapped around the Riolu tightly, and pulled him away from his comrade on the ground.

Felix coughed as he dizzily pushed himself up, Jay could see that unless he broke free immediately, life about to get much worse for him. He struggled against the snake Pokemon, trying to free his arms from the merciless coils, but to no avail.

“Let’s go, we’ve got a job to do. Deal with the runt and let’s get on with it,” Felix growled, trying to keep his claws from violently disemboweling the Riolu.

“No! No! No! You can’t!” Jay screamed, kicking vainly against the Seviper’s tightening coil.

“Give him a small dose of poison. That’ll shut him up for a few hours while we finish up this job. We can come back for him later,” the Persian ordered as Jay tried even harder to push against his captor’s bonds. The Seviper nodded to the other guard and raised the blade on his tail. Acidic drops of sickly purple fluid dripped from the point of the blade.

Before Jay could react, the Seviper brought the tip of the blade to Jay’s left arm and dug it into the flesh. Jay screamed in agony as the blade swiftly exited the wound, leaving several drops of potent poison in his opened bloodstream. Jay’s screams suddenly quieted down as all feeling in his arm vanished, replaced by a slight tingling feeling.

He tried to look up at the two guards, but their faces seemed stretched and distorted beyond recognition. He heard them talking, but their indistinct words seemed to be spoken through a film of water. His arms and legs relaxed and suddenly; he wasn’t concerned about that fact that the guards were on their way to ruin everything. He couldn’t have cared even if he tried. His senses drained from his head as the poison shut every inch of his body down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Few Hours Later
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kingdom Army Camp: New Rain: Northern Division

“That’s enough, Leaf. I know it wasn’t your idea. You are excused from this meeting,” said a large light blue reptile as he motioned for the small creature with a large pink flower bulb on its back to leave the tent. The Ivysaur nodded and quickly left, brushing aside the flaps of the tent. The large blue Pokemon then turned towards them, setting his enormous jaw to as close to a frown as he could possibly manage.

Leo looked around the tent. It wasn’t the largest of the cloth structures he’d seen today, but it was spacious enough to fit the Pokemon Jay called a Feraligatr with reasonable comfort. Aside from a small, roughly cut wooden desk and a few wide segments of logs that served as seats, there was nothing of seemingly any real value inside the tent.

He looked to his left. Jay and Kelly both sat on a stump and on the ground, respectively. Both were trying and failing miserably to hide their fatigue evident by their dull expressions and occasional yawn. To his right, though, was a stranger. His skin was about the same light blue as the Feraligatr’s, but that was where the similarities ended. In contrast to the large stature the general of the camp possessed, he was about as tall as Leo. The fin on the back of his head, his webbed feet, and rounded black tail indicated that he was a Water Type, yet another reason why Leo felt uncomfortable sitting so close to him.

The stranger glanced at him for a split second before looking away; going back to his task of feeling the sharp edge of his two schlops he carried with him. The Dewott -- or at least, that’s the name Leo heard the Feraligatr yell when he summoned him-- didn’t seem the least bit concerned that the general was glaring straight at him with enough intensity to ignite fires.

While the Feraligatr seemed to be putting his thoughts together, Leo took the time to put his own thoughts together. The last thing he clearly remembered before waking up on a piece of cloth that smelled like rotten fruit next to Jay and Kelly was that they were ambushed somewhere in the fields by a group of Pokemon.

After awakening from their drugged slumber, they were immediately marched through the camp to this tent. Along the way, Leo saw quite a few Pokemon either moving wooden crates into piles or practicing their attacks in a sparring ring, a simply drawn circle in the dirt. Pokemon with natural spines and scales seemed to be a staple of the camp, nearly everyone Leo saw has some type of armor or appendage that could be used for fighting purposes.

With a loud cough from the Feraligatr, Leo’s wandering thoughts were brought back to the present as the general finally seemed ready to speak to them.

“Riolu, you and your team are the least of my concerns at the moment. I will deal with you all after Noah here,” the general announced, causing Jay to exhale a sigh of relief.
The Feraligatr turned towards the Dewott, who acknowledged the general with nod of his head before returning to his shells.

“Tell me, Noah. What exactly were you thinking last night? I want to know what went through your head that made you lead an attack on this team,” the general asked, his gruff voice striking fear into Leo despite not being spoken to at the moment. The blue otter looked up at the irritated Pokemon and raised an furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I was simply carrying out the orders you gave me at the beginning of my watch. It was from those orders that I gained the idea of detaining these civilians who very nearly walked onto Kingdom property without authorization. That’s what I was thinking, General Torrent, sir,” Noah said calmly as he continued to sharpen his shells. Torrent groaned as he rubbed the sides of his head in annoyance. Leo had a feeling that this conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere.

“Noah, my orders said to patrol the camp and alert me if there were trespassers, not attack and knock out the first civilians you saw!” Torrent exclaimed, his impressive jaw mere feet from the Dewott’s face. Noah slowly took his black paw and wiped several small droplets of Torrent’s saliva off his face before answering.

“Frankly sir, you never clarified what to do with intruders, so I interpreted it in my own fashion and acted accordingly. I was only thinking of the security of this camp, sir. Who knows what these Pokemon might have done if I hadn’t detained them?” Noah replied, the natural air of tranquility around him not punctured by Torrent’s irritation in the slightest. The Dewott looked over at the confused team. “No offense, you guys,” he quickly added.

“What do you mean I never clarified my orders? I explicitly told you what and what not to do while on watch! I never told you to use Sleep Seeds of all things! Don’t you know how potent they are raw? I swear, I’ve met rocks more apt to follow orders then you!” Torrent yelled.

“I would very much like to meet those rocks, sir. Perhaps they can teach me a lesson in humility, sir,” Noah responded in as serious of a tone Leo thought impossible to reach. Torrent stood and stared at the Dewott for a moment, not knowing what exactly to make of the statement.

“Just shut up for now, Noah. I can’t talk to you anymore. The camp healer says it’s bad for my health to hold a direct conversation with you for more than two minutes at a time. So, just stay there and stay quiet while I deal with our guests,” he said, choosing to ignore the recruit until later. He turned to the other side of the room where Jay and Kelly were seated. Leo watched as his colossal stature towered over him.

“So, despite what Noah here says about you lot, I’m convinced that you’re not the crazed trespassers he’s made you out to be. Tell me, why you all were heading toward a Kingdom camp?” Torrent asked, directing the question to Jay.

“W-well, sir. We, uh, we were just walking through the fields, yeah. We didn’t know there was a camp here, sir. We were just passing through on our way to Silver City, and then we were ambushed by that lunatic!” Jay stuttered before pointing an accusing paw at the Dewott who simply nodded in return. Torrent narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“That, my friend, is the worst cover story I’ve heard in a long time and I’ve had to deal with Noah for the past few months. Tell me the real story, before I call someone to take you lot back to where you came from,” Torrent demanded, seeing straight through Jay’s poorly built lie.

Jay squirmed in his seat and stammered a non-response. To Leo, it looked as if his mind failed to think of the right words. Torrent gave up on the team leader, leaving him to quietly sit on the wooden chair. He shifted his glare to Kelly.

“So my dear, would you kindly tell me what you were doing in the field near our camp?”

Kelly was either frozen into silence, or Jay’s failure to get cognitive words spoken had spread to her, only worse. She refused to answer Torrent’s question. Sighing in exasperation, he turned to Leo, who grabbed his tail in fear of the strong Water type.

“So, Charmeleon, are you going to shut up like a Clampearl the same way your teammates did? Or, are you going to shed some light on the situation?”

Leo said nothing, partly out of sheer fear of the roughly seven foot tall general and partly because Jay was discreetly shaking his head telling him to keep his mouth shut. The general lowered his head until he was far closer to Leo’s face then Leo would have ever liked him to be.

“Charmeleon, you do realize that I have the authority to detain you and your friends for up to forty-eight hours simply for being here? I suggest you tell me what you know before that has to happen,” Torrent ordered, his interrogation going nothing like how Gear’s did. Leo gulped and mouthed a silent apology to Jay and Kelly. Alright, he thought, here goes nothing.

“We were escaping from a town to the west of here, Loyalty Square, actually. We were forced out of the town when a squad of Magnemites raided our base. We managed to--” Leo said before Torrent silenced him with by clapping his blue clawed hand onto Leo’s shoulder, the action nearly snapping the Charmeleon’s shoulder blade.

“Say no more, son. That’s all I needed to hear--” Torrent started before he, himself was interrupted when a feathered Pokemon flew through the entrance flaps of the tent and had to swerve to avoid slamming into the general. Leo almost allowed a smile to form when he saw that the avian intruder was none other than their first and only client.

“S-sorry, sir! I-I was completing an errand … when I heard you were talking to … this team. I wanted to explain ... them to you, sir,” Icarus said breathlessly, panting in between phrases.
Rather than expel the bird from the tent for being out of conduct, Torrent shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, let’s have it. Why are they here, Icarus?”

“W-well, sir. I was flying above the Valley Forest dungeon on my way back from Loyalty and I saw them marching through the fields. I had found out that they were being hunted from the governor’s deputy, sir. These three are good Pokemon, sir. They freed me from the smuggling ring in Spore Meadows even when I couldn’t repay them, sir. Evil Pokemon wouldn’t do that, sir. I mean, it’s not in an evil Pokemon’s nature to just randomly help out some prisoner when they’re... captured.... ring...” Icarus explained, his rambling trailing off into indistinct mumbling as he realized he’d talked too much.

Leo was expecting Torrent to at the least disregard Icarus’s tirade or throw him out of the tent. He sure wasn’t expecting Torrent to smile, teeth sticking out from where his top and bottom jaws met. Icarus seemed surprised at the general’s action as well, flapping his wings once.

“Thank you, Icarus. You’ve just made my job easier, if anything. I’ve known about the corrupt Magnemites for a long time. Ol’ Gear and I had a system where he’d try to get wrongly arrested civies outta town and to me whenever I set up came here. He musta not gotten a message out to me yet about you three,” Torrent explained, seemingly trying to remember the complexities of their plan.

“S-sir, there’s a slight problem with that,” Icarus quietly said, trying to keep as silent as he could in an attempt not to embarrass himself by rambling again. This snapped Torrent out of his reminisce of days past.

“What are you talking about, messanger?”

“Well, sir. Gear … he … um … he’s … been put out of commision, sir,” Icarus reluctantly said, trying to find the right words to say.

Torrent cut straight into the heart of the matter. “So, he was finally taken down, huh? Who did it? Because I’ll rip them apart once I find them. Icarus, tell me everything you know this instant,”

“He was killed two nights ago, sir. The Magneton deputy, Axle, or Axeil or something. Anyways, the guy told me everything. This Skarmory came in claiming to be from the government. He said he was a governor or some fancy title like that, could have been a duke or noble for all I know. The guy was stuck up, had a real attitude, I tell you, I’ve never seen someone any more short tempered--” Icarus elaborated, slipping into meaningless dialogue before being cut off by Torrent.

“You’re going to in a minute, unless you get to the damn point already!” Torrent growled as he cursed at the blubbering Pidgeotto.

“S-sorry, sir! A-anyways, Gear refused to act on a kill list and apparently this Skarmory walks in with a guard of Magnemite and saw his disobedience. In short, Gear told him to fall off a cliff and the governor sent his units to attack him, and turned Gear’s own units against him, I think. The deputy wasn’t entirely sure what happened at that point, or the next few minutes. The next thing he saw was Gear’s burning body lying in the midst of a sea of Magnemite fragments. And then that governor guy ripped out Gear’s eye, I think, I’m not entirely sure I heard that right, the guy seemed pretty nervous when he told me the story. Anyways, Gear was killed and that Skarmory ordered the kill list to be enacted, which lead to the raid on Team Salient’s base, sir!” Icarus finished, gasping for breath at the end of his lengthy exposition, pleased that he hadn’t rambled too much during it.

Every soul inside the tent, from Torrent, to Kelly, even the strange Noah went quiet, as if they all had agreed to an impromptu moment of silence to honor the fallen officer. It was Torrent who broke the silence first.

“He didn’t deserve what happened to him. Anyone but him would have caved to corruption a long time ago. Gear was the best unit I ever served with. He saved my life in the second Bandit War in the Battle Sand Caverns. I’ll never forget that. And when he became sheriff and I a commander in the army, we knew what we had to do to protect the citizens from the Kingdom’s corruption,” he said solemnly, not looking directly at anyone. Leo couldn’t see for certain, but he thought he heard a series of low sobs coming from the mighty Feraligatr.

“S-sir?” Kelly asked tentatively, speaking for the first time since she entered the general’s tent.
Torrent immediately looked up and wiped his face with his scaly arm. Leo could see that his eyes were somewhat red, confirming his theory.

“Errm, yes. Umm, you lot, Salient, we’ll figure this out later. Noah, make yourself useful and show them around the camp and get them situated. Oh, and they’re also sleeping in your tent as punishment for your actions. Icarus, you stay. I have a message that needs to go out. Dismissed,” he ordered. Icarus worriedly glanced over to the team and tilted his head as if telling them to leave now. Noah stood up from his seat and motioned for the team to move as he corralled them through the flaps of the tent.

The group of four stood for a moment in front of the dull brown exterior of the tent, seemingly soaking in all that had happened in the past few minutes. They had been woken up, interrogated, accused of trespassing, apparently saved from a fate of prison by Icarus, and now forced to bunk with a Pokemon who knocked them out and knocked them out them the night before. Leo simply knew this was going to work out perfectly.

“So, um … I’m sorry for ambushing you guys and all that. Are we … good?” Noah asked, extending a nervous hand outwards to Jay. The calm and collected air he had around him inside with Torrent seemed to vanish as soon as they were outside. Jay reluctantly grasped the Dewott’s paw and shook it as he muttered something about it being a regular thing lately.

“If you guys couldn’t tell from back there, my name’s Noah,” he said introducing himself, “I don’t think Torrent mentioned your names, if you have any. I know some Pokemon from the North prefer to use the traditional species name, and all that.”

“Yes, we have names. I’m Jay, and this is Kelly, and Leo,” Jay said, motioning to each of his teammates in turn as he said their name.

“Wonderful! Now I’ll give you the grand tour of the place!” Noah said with a big smile as he walked out in front of them.

“This is Camp New Rain, the northern division. To the northeast you will see the supply tents,” he said as he motioned to a cluster of tents and stacks of wooden crates scattered haphazardly around the area.

“To the southeast and southwest you’ll find where most of us will be sleeping tonight,” he pointed to yet another bigger cluster of tents that made up two-thirds of the camp.

“To the northwest you’ll find the training areas and the mess tent where dinner will be held soon, hopefully,” he informed, directing their attention to yet another cluster of tents, but this time they were spaced out among smoking sand pits and blackened boulders, evidence of the moves being practiced there.

“And that’s your tour. Welcome to Camp New Rain! You’ll quickly learn why most fugitive Pokemon would rather go to jail than here,” he said with a grin, even as the team’s spirits fell yet again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Move! They’ve found us!

He could barely breathe, his lungs were on fire. The faster he tried to run, the harder it became to get a single mouthful of precious air. His feet slapped along the stone corridor as he ran from the ever pursuing sentinels.
“It doesn’t help that you’re so… uggh … heavy! Why am I carrying you?!” he screamed as he sprinted down the hallway, his arms aching with the added weight of his companion.

“Because I can’t move as fast as you can. Now shut up and pay attention! There should be a branching pathway coming up. Don’t miss it or we’ll be doomed.”

He grunted in irritation, but knew that the answer was true. Pushing the pain as far back into his mind as he could, he tightened his hold as he continued to run. His gaze darted from left to right, trying to distinguish the path his friend told him about from all the other identical patches of stone wall and crystal wiring.

“Approximately twenty-two point seven meters to go until the passage... Wait! I’m detecting something! Tri-Attack beams coming up fast on your left! Dodge them!”

“Got it,” he said as he lurched his sprinting body to the right, nearly slamming into the rock walls of the passageway. He watched in smug satisfaction as he saw several beams of red, yellow, and blue light go whizzing by him and fizzled into nothingness against the stone floor.

“Be careful! There’s an intersection ahead with sentinels on the left and right!

“Whatever you say...” he whispered as a plan began to formulate in his sun-deprived mind. He’d be ready for whatever was there.

“I’d tell you we’re doomed, but that only makes you get creative.”

He smiled as he reached the intersection. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw several sentinels on either side. He knew he literally only had one shot for this to work, if it didn’t … well, he didn’t want to be reminded again of the possible fates that awaited him if he failed here.

“This will be the death of both of us...”

“Here goes nothing!" he screamed as he leaped into the air, the momentum of his sprint carrying him forward. He vaguely saw the hailstorm of plasma energy passing underneath him, nearly burning tips of his feet as the sentinels fired at him.

The forces of gravity and friction eventually brought his flight to an end. He stumbled slightly as he tried to regain his balance and run at the same time. He nearly grinned as he escaped yet another death trap.

“Don’t think we’re out of this yet! There’s the path to your right! Take it now!”

He didn’t think twice, he immediately changed direction, his feet scraping against the stone. He tossed his heavy friend into the opening and then dived into the almost invisible hallway. He watched breathlessly as several bolts of plasma shot past it, fizzling as they harmlessly hit the stone walls.

“Don’t stop! Keep running! Keep running! Pick me up and run! Run!” He dashed over to his friend and hefted him into his arms. Looking down the dark hallway, he knew whatever was done there was infinitely more desirable than the plasma of the guards.

“I’ll never stop running. Not until I see the sun again.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Kingdom … is weak. It’s a sandcastle built up over time by passing children, just waiting to be decimated by the advancing tide of time.”

“When will the tide come in and end our suffering? We have suffered too long underneath the tread of the Kingdom. When will the tide come in, master?”

“... It will come when the moon aligns and the arbiter has made his decision in our favor. When the king of the sand crumbles like his palace, that is when the tide will come in.”

“But what of the envoy to the false arbiter?”

“What about the envoy?”

“If his message is delivered, then the tide will freeze and retreat and we will never be free.”

“... Don’t worry. I have spoken to our benefactor concerning this. They have arranged everything. The envoy’s message will be lost in the tide.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End of Chapter Ten
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Notes:
Man, oh, man! Wow! I knew I’d get a chapter written by the end of my winter break, but I never expected it to be done before New Year’s!

Well, aside from that record-shattering speed, I quite enjoyed this chapter. I was able to introduce the final main character as well as a few minor ones which I had fun writing.

As per the advice given to me last chapter, I really tried to put more “stuff” in this chapter, other than dialogue. And to that point, I think I succeeded a little bit. I’m pretty sure there isn’t as much of the dialogue as last chapter, and I made sure to put in “stuff” scenes.

And, regarding the last chapter, I was also able to expand on quite a few of the back stories of my characters, which should be a relief for some of you. I’m a little worried this chapter might seem “fillerish”, but I honestly tried to make it not so.

Well, other than that, I have an exciting bit of news! PMD: Overthrown has gotten its first piece of fan art! My eternal thanks to the extremely talented ~mystic-blat on DeviantArt for creating Leo and company.

Also, many thanks to my amazing beta readers Brutaka, Shadow Lucario 50, and Azurus for all their help throughout the year and putting up with me and my insanity. And, many thanks to my reviewers such as Sid87 and Sidewinder for helping make this story the best it can be.

And finally, thank you to all my readers. It’s only because of you all that my story has gone from the simple story it was in February to what it is right now. You've all helped make this a great year. I hope to keep on writing quality work for you all come 2013.

Oh, and be sure to nominate and vote in the 2012 Fanfiction Awards. There are plenty of authors and reviewers who deserve it for all their hard work this year. So, please, do them a favor. Go out and vote.

Knightfall signing off...

[Sidewinder]

the squad of four Magnemite buzzing excitedly behind him at the prospect of yet another arrest

They really get their jollies doing that don't they? Police brutality!!

The moon was obscured by a large bank of clouds, blocking its natural light and making the Square seem even more like an abandoned city than the bustling marketplace it was.

You may consider dropping the 'even more' from the sentence. Mainly because it gives it gives it a more sinister feel. I like comparisons such as this because of the opposite factor and I think you've done a good job; however, make sure you don't try too hard to beat it into us that the city has adopted a ghostly feel. A few quick lines is all you need to portray that. You did it the right way, I'm just saying that dropping those two words would let us arrive their in our own way. Make sense?

The flatlights plastered on the ceiling and walls giving the hallway a clinical feel to it as it lit the area with a stark, white light.

I've commented before how you're description has grown since you've been writing, but damn sir, the quoted portion is a prime example of how I'm becoming slightly envious. Nicely done

The room began to quake as the tremors continued to erupt from the malfunctioning experiment.
Green fields, stormy oceans, mysterious glowing orbs within a night sky, vast clouded mountains, and blue skies all flashed briefly in the center core before vanishing as quickly as they had come. Leo was entranced by the images; all of them far more vivid than anything he’d heard of before in legends.

Formatting issue there

“Kelly, please listen. I only want to--” he started to say before being cut off by his daughter.
“No. Not anymore.”

and there

“It’s what you wanted?! You wanted to leave me?! For the Colonies?! You wanted this?!”
Kelly screamed at her parent’s illusions, her voice strained.
Her mother ignored her outburst and walked forward to her daughter. She placed her paw on Kelly’s shoulder, causing her to wince slightly. She saw her mother’s paw on her fur, yet couldn’t feel it. She saw her mother’s head lean into her, rubbing affectionately against neck, yet the touch was not felt by Kelly.
”We left in hopes that we would return within a week. You can see that didn’t work out.” she said, pressing her head against her daughter’s. ”You have no idea how lost we felt without without you with us. We missed you so much. We missed you, Kelly.

Sorry to keep pointing them out buddy, but I'm assuming you want me to. Just take a teensy bit more time before posting to weed out these jumbles like this. As I'm sure you know, it does make a difference. What's happening with Kelly has me on pins and needles, but when stuff like this happens, I lose my focuse.

”Why do you hate us, Kelly? Do you realize how much it hurts us to hear you say those nasty things?” her father’s disembodied voice rang out through the void.

I loved that you included 'disembodied voice' in there. As I'm sure you know from reading my fic, I've always been of the persuasion that voices in our head hold just as much sway as voices we hear with our ears. The fact that you put those in there means a great deal to me in terms of my understanding of you're story, and letting me in on some turmoil that Kelly is experiencing that I wasn't previously completely privy to.

Pokemon with natural spines and scales seemed to be a staple of the camp, nearly everyone Leo saw has some type of armor or appendage that could be used for fighting purposes.

I'm thinking this is you're approximation of German shock troops. Nice

The camp healer says it’s bad for my health to hold a direct conversation with you for more than two minutes at a time.

Hah!

Another solid chapter from you, sir..(that is assuming you're male, which is something we haven't discussed lol). I enjoyed it very much. Despite the one or two grammatical errors and the formatting issues, you did a great job. The back and forth with Torrent was really enjoyable to read, and I liked the interrogation feel that besides that portion, the whole chapter felt like it had. My thoughts are running a muck after what was aid about Pokemon would rather be elsewhere then at this camp so I'm excited for the next chapter

[Knightfall]

Hey, nice to hear from you. Response time!

They really get their jollies doing that don't they? Police brutality!!

Heh, they got bored with their normal duties of guarding and civility a long time ago. Arresting and bullying Pokemon is their only true form of entertainment.

You may consider dropping the 'even more' from the sentence. Mainly because it gives it gives it a more sinister feel. I like comparisons such as this because of the opposite factor and I think you've done a good job; however, make sure you don't try too hard to beat it into us that the city has adopted a ghostly feel. A few quick lines is all you need to portray that. You did it the right way, I'm just saying that dropping those two words would let us arrive their in our own way. Make sense?

I see what you're saying, and it does make it sound better. Fixed.

I've commented before how you're description has grown since you've been writing, but damn sir, the quoted portion is a prime example of how I'm becoming slightly envious. Nicely done.

Slightly envious? Of my description? I don't believe it. Thank you, I've been using the advice you and others have given me. And the practice obviously helps.

Formatting issue there, and there.

Sorry to keep pointing them out buddy, but I'm assuming you want me to. Just take a teensy bit more time before posting to weed out these jumbles like this. As I'm sure you know, it does make a difference. What's happening with Kelly has me on pins and needles, but when stuff like this happens, I lose my focus.

Dang, and I thought I got those. Well, I'll be sure to get them next time. I promise the next chapter will be formatting error free.

I loved that you included 'disembodied voice' in there. As I'm sure you know from reading my fic, I've always been of the persuasion that voices in our head hold just as much sway as voices we hear with our ears. The fact that you put those in there means a great deal to me in terms of my understanding of you're story, and letting me in on some turmoil that Kelly is experiencing that I wasn't previously completely privy to.

But of course. It stands to reason that the voices in your head would hold more sway than voices outside. You'll be seeing more of this in other characters soon enough.
I figured Kelly hadn't seen enough of the "twisted spotlight", so I decided to shed some light on that. Though her problems are actually more complex than you might think...

I'm thinking this is you're approximation of German shock troops. Nice

That's a pretty accurate description.

Hah!

You can thank my brother for that one. Being near him too long is just...

Another solid chapter from you, sir..(that is assuming you're male, which is something we haven't discussed lol). I enjoyed it very much. Despite the one or two grammatical errors and the formatting issues, you did a great job. The back and forth with Torrent was really enjoyable to read, and I liked the interrogation feel that besides that portion, the whole chapter felt like it had. My thoughts are running a muck after what was aid about Pokemon would rather be elsewhere then at this camp so I'm excited for the next chapter

Well, while we're on the subject, yes, I am indeed a male.
Moving on, thank you for pointing out said errors. Those formatting errors were because I literally finished this chapter two hours before New Year's Day in hopes of getting one final update for the fan fiction awards.

Heh, I'm glad you liked Noah and Torrent. You'll see more of them (especially Noah) in future chapters.
And I actually tried to mirror the interrogation feel from Chapter Two when Gear questioned Leo. So, I'm glad that worked.

Yeah, he wasn't completely lying when he said that. The next chapter will be fun to write.

Thank you for your review, it does mean a lot to me.
Good luck in the Fan Fiction Awards.

Knightfall signing off...

[Azurus]

Well the whole camp scene was very well done, I enjoyed Noah's sarcasm and Torrents dialogue when speaking to him.

One thing though, even though I know it's supposed to happen, but I kinda feel, just a tiny bit, that there are far too many tortured minds. I like it, but there's just so many.

Anyway, excellent chapter, and I look forward to more.

There is a couple of spelling errors in the couple of paragraphs after the 1st scene shift.

[Knightfall]

Well the whole camp scene was very well done, I enjoyed Noah's sarcasm and Torrents dialogue when speaking to him.

Ah, good. I tried to put in something more ... lighthearted to counteract the mood a little. Glad it worked.

One thing though, even though I know it's supposed to happen, but I kinda feel, just a tiny bit, that there are far too many tortured minds. I like it, but there's just so many.

You and Sid have both expressed this in your reviews. I know there's a lot going on, especially in the potential insanity department, but I promise it will eventually be cleared up. And there's not too many others who are insane as these characters.

*
Anyway, excellent chapter, and I look forward to more.

There is a couple of spelling errors in the couple of paragraphs after the 1st scene shift.

Thank you for your comment, it means a lot.

Oh, I'll look that over. Thanks.

Knightfall signing off...

[Azurus]

The metal blades began the* rotate.
*Should be "to".

...the beams to reflect and off eachother...

Doesn't sound right, not so much a spelling error as word placement and omission. Should read as:

...the beams to reflect off of eachother...
regardless, you'll want to look at that line again.

[Sid87]

Forty-eight hours had not yet passed since Gear’s disposal, and Richelieu had already laid the foundation for a totalitarian state in which he was the dictator. This is only the beginning if the plans I saw on his desk were true, the deputy thought inwardly.

It's hard to think OUTWARDLY. So I might erase inwardly at the end.

Hovering across the open area of the market square, Axis and his squad turned down the right hand road off into the major residential district.

Minor, but it might sound better with "right hand road AND off into the major..."

Axis couldn’t help but think of the possible reasoning behind Richelieu’s plans. Control was the obvious answer, but he knew something else was lurking behind that. Some unseen motive that was almost certainly detrimental to the majority of the populace of the town. Shaking away the thoughts, he refocused himself on the task at hand. His orders from the Skarmory had been little more than to patrol the streets.

I feel like this Axis stuff is thrown in because I am demanded it!

Arianna Glameow: 17 years of age. Citizen since birth. Record: none, Axis determined, his brain ninety-nine percent sure of positive identification.

I am torn as to whether I think "database" might be better than "brain" there. Brain, to me, is too awkward sounding, and "database" might be an improvement since it further exemplifies the cold, mechanical nature of Magnemite.

Her sharp, blue eyes darted from side to side looking for any possible escape route, but finding none that looked promising.

Another [seemingly] unintentional narration shift here. Suddenly I am in Arianna's POV as she looks for a clearing.

What he saw caused his cores to short-circuit. Arianna’s grey fur was now peppered with small circular bald spots, each one angry red and sizzling slightly. Tears leaked from her eyes as she bit her lip in an effort to not show weakness to the guards by crying.

The bit there with the "cores" and short-circuiting? That's what I meant earlier with "brain". It smashes together Axis' inhuman body with his burgeoning, human morality and feelings. It gives him a sense of breaking out of his molding and becoming his own man.

Leo never felt so free, so exhilaratingly alive, and so curious as he ran through the concrete corridor. The flatlights plastered on the ceiling and walls giving the hallway a clinical feel to it as it lit the area with a stark, white light.

The "and so curious" bit draws the eye and reads differently from the rest of the line. I might consider setting that off with dashes (DASHES!)

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Immediately cancelling his forward momentum, he slowed to a stop; his well-worn shoes to skidding across the gritty stone floor to stop at a glass window embedded in the wall.

I think that "to" is misplaced.

It only remained for a split second, but a single image was burned into his thoughts forever. A shimmering veil of sky dotted with pure white clouds. In the middle of it, a vast glowing orb, far brighter than anything Leo had ever seen before. Leo shielded his eyes from the intense brightness of the celestial oddity.

The "celestial oddity" bit is a little too "pretty narration" for me. I would just say "oddity" or "image" or "light". Something simplistic that doesn't detract from the previous description of what he saw.

“--data is unretrievable! We can’t!”

You'd think a scientist would know that the data is IRretrievable.

Leo wanted to see more, he had to.

Dash or semi-colon; not comma.


-All right, my wife wants attention, so I'll be back for the rest of this (don't you love how I perpetually fail to review a chapter in one sitting?)

EDIT: I'm back

Kelly would never forgive them. She didn’t care what they said in their letters to her; dried ink failed to compare to actually hearing their apologies in real life. They had abandoned her. Left her completely alone. All to pursue a political faction that meant more to them than she did.

Woo! More subplot characterization!

She placed her paw on Kelly’s shoulder, causing her to wince slightly.

There's a little pronoun confusion here. I KNOW you mean Kelly winced, but there's a part of me that thinks you MIGHT mean the mom...

”You said you hated us! You wanted us gone! You turned on us, your parents! the voice, now an unholy amalgamation of both her mother and her father screeched at Kelly as her grip began to fail her.

Should be a comma after "father".

The chasm of her nightmare, fed up with waiting, roared with another tremor that shook the entire void. Dust and mist clouded Kelly’s vision, making her eyes sting and throat burn as she had no choice to breath the dirtied air in. Her arms were burning with fatigue as she tried to resist the abyss’s attempts to swallow her whole.

Nice paragraph. Very fraught with anxiety and tension.

The bottomless chasm roared again, demanding her immediate surrender. Despite the pain and exhaustion, she refused to give into the void’s desires. She never submitted before, and she wouldn’t now. Nothing would make her, not the void, not the quake, nothing.

”You are not our daughter. Not anymore. Get out,” the voice coldly ordered. The mist seemed to channel its tone as its icy embrace wrapped around the Jolteon. Kelly shivered as the chill pressed from all sides. Her claws slipped a few precious inches closer to the edge, making a shrill screech along the floor. The broken stone slicing into the pads of her paws, making small smears of blood appear along the rock.

”Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! the invisible voice screamed. That was the final straw for Kelly. Her bloodied claws reached the edge of the cliff with nowhere else to go besides down. She pulled her head up one last time before her grip failed, her tears staining the yellow fur on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered weakly before her claws broke through the thin layer of rock. The abyss screeched in triumph and hungrily opened its maw wide to receive her.

Actually, this whole bit was nicely done. There were some parts where I thought the narration was getting a touch too tried again, but overall, it was a very tense, powerful segment. The rather quick turn Kelly made from hating her parents to being broken by their disapproval was very excellent character building and shows just how thin a veil her wall of anger is. And the personification of the nightmare and the darkness was excellent, as well.

“Felix,” the Riolu huffed, glaring at the guard. The Pokemon cracked a shrewd smile, showing off his sharp teeth at the same time. He moved his head to look down on Jay, the ruby red gem embedded on his forehead glinted in the fading sunlight.

Oh, Felix the Cat. Aren't you a little young for that? I'M a little young for that!

Jay only saw red, slightly different shades of red, and more red.

I'm not enamored of this. It seems close to working, but just doesn't quite get there for me.

Without warning, the Seviper brought the tip of the blade to Jay’s left arm and dug it into the flesh.

But...they did warn him. They just told Seviper to poison him. So I would think he did have warning, he was just incapable of resisting.

“Noah, my orders said to patrol the camp and alert me if there were trespassers, not attack and knock out the first civilians you saw!” Torrent exclaimed, his impressive jaw feet from the Dewott’s face. Noah slowly took his black paw and wiped several small droplets of Torrent’s saliva off his face before answering.

LOL...when I first read this, I was trying to figure out what IMPRESSIVE JAW FEET were. JAW FEET! That sounds really scary; bite the ground while you run! JAW FEET. (you might want to throw a "just" or "mere" in between those words. Or don't! Maybe he has JAW FEET! And that IS impressive)

“I very much like to meet those rocks, sir. Perhaps they can teach me a lesson in humility, sir,” Noah responded in as serious of a tone Leo thought impossible to reach. Torrent stood and stared at the Dewott for a moment, not knowing what exactly to make of the statement.

"I very much *WOULD* like to meet..."

“I … uh... you see, we … umm...” Jay squirmed in his seat. To Leo, it looked as if his mind failed to think of the right words. Torrent gave up on the team leader, leaving him to quietly sit on the wooden chair. He shifted his glare to Kelly.

Jay's stammering here reads a bit too comically for me. There is room for comic relief in this scene, but I don't get a proper sense of it here. It just kind of weird and out-of-place. Might be preferable to say "Jay squirmed in his seat and stammered a non-response".

Torrent refused to beat around the bush. “So, he was finally taken down, huh? Who did it? Because I’ll rip them apart once I find them. Icarus, tell me everything you know this instant,”

This, mostly the phrasing of "beat around the bush" reads without the emotion I'd think Torrent might be feeling given that Gear was an ally and, maybe, friend of his.

“And that’s your tour. Welcome to Camp New Rain! You’ll quickly learn why most fugitive Pokemon would rather go to jail then here,” he said with a grin, even as the team’s spirits fell yet again.

"go to jail *THAN* here..."


-Lots of confusing stuff going on at the end there, as we're back to the bickering voices I had forgotten about and then some unseen people talking about an arbiter. Sometimes I think you leave too a bit too much unseen to the reader. It's mystery, yes, but it's hard to keep all the stuff that I can't quite "see" straight in my head.

The dreams were interesting, obviously especially Leo's since it deals back with his human self in the human world. What was happening in that situation, I wonder?

Kelly's backstory seems more engaging than Jay's. Not a knock on Jay or you or anything; it just seems at first blush like a vanilla "You killed my father, prepare to die" revenge motive. Kelly's is more nuanced and tells me more about her emotional depth and her own personal deception. I am very eager to get resolution to her subplot.

[Grav]

I am back.
Knightfall, this is completely amazing. Your description, which fell in the beginning, is uppity now. The plot progresses and kickbut ninja Dewott enters. Tell me, will there be comic relief Pokemon like the Chowderheads? They were awesome and you could make the new ones brothers. Terrifying!

Grav

[Knightfall]

Thanks for reviewing. And now, my replies.

It's hard to think OUTWARDLY. So I might erase inwardly at the end.

Hmm, I never thought about that before. Fixed.

Minor, but it might sound better with "right hand road AND off into the major..."

I've never been one to doubt your advice. Fixed.

I feel like this Axis stuff is thrown in because I am demanded it!

Well, I do listen to my readers. And you expressed how having him would be good for the story, so yes, because of you, have planned out a bit of plot for Axis. He owes you one. XD

I am torn as to whether I think "database" might be better than "brain" there. Brain, to me, is too awkward sounding, and "database" might be an improvement since it further exemplifies the cold, mechanical nature of Magnemite.

You provide an excellent point. I didn't think of it like that. Edited.

Another [seemingly] unintentional narration shift here. Suddenly I am in Arianna's POV as she looks for a clearing.

Oi, fixed.

The bit there with the "cores" and short-circuiting? That's what I meant earlier with "brain". It smashes together Axis' inhuman body with his burgeoning, human morality and feelings. It gives him a sense of breaking out of his molding and becoming his own man.

I see what you mean, and it does add to his character. And, also, "human" morality? "Man"? There are no humans here. Not anymore.

The "and so curious" bit draws the eye and reads differently from the rest of the line. I might consider setting that off with dashes (DASHES!)

Never occurred to me. And I fixed it, yes, with dashes. My problems with dashes are in the past now, my friend.

I think that "to" is misplaced.

Indeed it was. Fixed.

The "celestial oddity" bit is a little too "pretty narration" for me. I would just say "oddity" or "image" or "light". Something simplistic that doesn't detract from the previous description of what he saw.

Again, I see your point now. Fixed.

You'd think a scientist would know that the data is IRretrievable.

Dang, I thought I fixed that earlier.

Woo! More subplot characterization!

Indeed. Kelly needed more of the "twisted limelight".

There's a little pronoun confusion here. I KNOW you mean Kelly winced, but there's a part of me that thinks you MIGHT mean the mom...

I meant Kelly. Fixed.

Nice paragraph. Very fraught with anxiety and tension.

Actually, this whole bit was nicely done. There were some parts where I thought the narration was getting a touch too tried again, but overall, it was a very tense, powerful segment. The rather quick turn Kelly made from hating her parents to being broken by their disapproval was very excellent character building and shows just how thin a veil her wall of anger is. And the personification of the nightmare and the darkness was excellent, as well.

I realized how you liked when I personified the trees in the last chapter, so I made a note to do it again. I'm glad you liked it, because it was partly for you.

Oh, Felix the Cat. Aren't you a little young for that? I'M a little young for that!

You know? I didn't realize the reference at first, but then I saw the connection and I left it in there.

I'm not enamored of this. It seems close to working, but just doesn't quite get there for me.

Any suggestions on how it could work better?

But...they did warn him. They just told Seviper to poison him. So I would think he did have warning, he was just incapable of resisting.

Fixed.

LOL...when I first read this, I was trying to figure out what IMPRESSIVE JAW FEET were. JAW FEET! That sounds really scary; bite the ground while you run! JAW FEET. (you might want to throw a "just" or "mere" in between those words. Or don't! Maybe he has JAW FEET! And that IS impressive)

I hate it when you find these things. XD Fixed.

Jay's stammering here reads a bit too comically for me. There is room for comic relief in this scene, but I don't get a proper sense of it here. It just kind of weird and out-of-place. Might be preferable to say "Jay squirmed in his seat and stammered a non-response".

Hmm, true. Edited.

This, mostly the phrasing of "beat around the bush" reads without the emotion I'd think Torrent might be feeling given that Gear was an ally and, maybe, friend of his.

Yeah, I see that this isn't the best wording to use. Fixed. And they were friends in the past.

-Lots of confusing stuff going on at the end there, as we're back to the bickering voices I had forgotten about and then some unseen people talking about an arbiter. Sometimes I think you leave too a bit too much unseen to the reader. It's mystery, yes, but it's hard to keep all the stuff that I can't quite "see" straight in my head.

Well, I'm trying to tone it down and start to find things out, but it's a slow process. I have to pace it properly, so we'll have to live with the unseen voices and such for a little while yet.

The dreams were interesting, obviously especially Leo's since it deals back with his human self in the human world. What was happening in that situation, I wonder?

Glad you liked them, I tried to make them (especially Kelly's) seem like a drug trip, in a way since they were knocked out by Sleep Seeds.
What Leo was seeing will be explained... eventually.

Kelly's backstory seems more engaging than Jay's. Not a knock on Jay or you or anything; it just seems at first blush like a vanilla "You killed my father, prepare to die" revenge motive. Kelly's is more nuanced and tells me more about her emotional depth and her own personal deception. I am very eager to get resolution to her subplot.

That was exactly what I was going for. Jay's past wasn't the primary point I was trying to establish in those scenes. I tried to make Kelly's dream stand out the most, so readers would remember her story, which worked.
Kelly's problems will be seeing a bit more significance in the coming chapters, and I believe her subplot is concluded the soonest.

Thank you for your review, if it weren't for you and everyone else who reads and reviews this, I'm not sure where I'd be right now.

Oh, hello Grav. Nice to see you again.

I am back.
Knightfall, this is completely amazing. Your description, which fell in the beginning, is uppity now. The plot progresses and kickbut ninja Dewott enters. Tell me, will there be comic relief Pokemon like the Chowderheads? They were awesome and you could make the new ones brothers. Terrifying!

Why thank you, I have tried my best to improve with every chapter. I'm glad you like Noah, and while he seems like comic relief, he does play a serious role in this story. Glad to see you back.

The next chapter, we get to see more of everyone's favorite emotionally troubled Lucario.

Knightfall signing off...

[Knightfall]

Chapter Eleven: Intercession
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"As the violence spread, the villages and settlements scattered along the Borderlands were the first to fall to the Colonists' rage. The backwater towns of Treasure Town, Coldledge Village, Fern City, and Pokemon Square were among the final refuges to be overwhelmed. Survivors claim that the invaders targeted local leaders and significant individuals first before moving onto shops and guilds. Local law enforcement and guilds attempted to halt the invasion, but they only succeeded in slowing them down....

Segment of report as seen in the Silver City newspaper, The Silver Trumpet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bipedal Pokemon walked slowly through the grimy stone streets of Silver City, his large brown robe obscuring most of his features. His hidden face grimaced as he stepped in a pile of rotting substance that at one time might have been apples. Swiftly sidestepping another puddle of sludge directly beyond the previous decaying fruit, the Pokemon nearly tripped over a pile of purple ooze.

“Watch it! Don’t ya go stepping in my food!” the pile of purple goo said, splattering filth from his body all over the figure’s robe as the Muk rose up from the surface of the roadway.

The figure shouted an impressive string of expletives and rushed away from the mass of sentient ooze, leaving the Muk to his meal of week old fruit. Rounding a corner and stopping in front of a shop that seemed to be barely held upright by an amalgamation of decaying wood and metal wire, the figure leaned against the wall in an attempt to regain his composure. Yet another foul odor seemed to waft from the shop’s cracked, smoke-stained windows, causing the robed Pokemon’s sensitive canine nose to crinkle in disgust. Making sure the Muk hadn’t tagged along, the figure finally seemed to calm down.

Shaking his head in an effort to ignore the smells and other unpleasantries, the figure pressed forward into the crowds of Pokemon, each struggling to survive on the underbelly of the glorified capital. The figure carefully looked around through the sea of less-than-savory, unwashed peasants, trying not to call attention to itself in an effort to get its bearings. It observed the many torn down propaganda posters supporting the war effort lying in the gutters along the street and the colorful footprint rune graffiti scrawled on every available inch of wall along the alley. Sections of the city’s resident newspaper were rapidly becoming its own level of pavement over the cobblestone as they were carelessly discarded.

The figure pressed the thoughts into the deepest recess of his mind and left them there; it had come all the way down here for a purpose. The Pokemon weaved its way through the mob of citizens as it eyed its destination. Despite being roughly shoved by several of the inhabitants of these slums, the figure clutched its robe even tighter as it pushed aside an Octillery screaming about how the “demon on the throne” would trigger Judgment Day on them all. The crazed citizen waved its many tentacles around, erratically grasping at the edges of the figure’s robe in a futile attempt to stop the hooded Pokemon’s progress.

After fording one more alleyway of odorous individuals selling wares that broke several royal laws simply by existing, the figure, somehow avoiding being sick from the indescribable artifacts on display, looked at the front of the small wooden building. Its single circular window above the double doors was still intact but seemed too covered in dirt and soot to be of any practical use.

The figure extended a paw towards the door as if to open it, but stopped as soon as it reached the rough wooden surface. Foreboding thoughts raced through the Pokemon’s head as he tried to muster the courage to enter the building. Eventually, he shook his head and took a deep, calming breath and slowly pushed one of the ancient wooden doors open. The smell of faintly burning incense mixed with dust rushed through the open space, causing the disguised figure to cough as the particles raced for freedom outside the building. The Pokemon quickly walked inside and closed the doors.

The interior of the building almost looked as if it was in another dimension and the simple wooden door was the portal. Neat rows of carved benches were arranged in a semicircle around a raised stage against the opposite wall. Delicate paintings and portraits of relics and ancient clashes between the three Dragons hung on the wood paneled walls at precise, ordered distances apart from each other.

Incense was burning a small tray that hung low from the ceiling over the stage; its pungent aroma hung lazily in the air. That was not what captured his attention though. In front of the incense tray stood a large, floating, metallic bell. Its bluish coloring barely visible from the distance and the low amount of lighting the Luminous Orb shards embedded in the ceiling provided. Without turning around, the Pokemon spoke, his voice the deep ringing of a large bell.

“It has been a long time since you have been here, has it not?” The cloaked figure slowly approached the Bronzong, walking in an aisle between the pews to the raised area in the front. Within a few strides, the figure was standing directly behind the psychic type. Raising a paw to its head, the figure drew back the hood of its robe, exposing its identity.

“It has, Father. I’m-- I’m so sorry,” Nickolas said, hanging his head. The Bronzong spun in place to face the Lucario monarch, his bright red eyes glowing with surprise.

“By Dialga’s roar, Nickolas. I cannot believe it! I thought I sensed incorrectly, but it is you!” he exclaimed joyously as he wrapped his flexible metal arms around the robed king. Nickolas failed to return the embrace and this was noticed by the Bronzong. The Pokemon coughed nervously and let go.

“Eh-hem, yes, anyways. Nickolas, what brings you back to my humble temple? I feared that you had grown forever deaf to Dialga’s beckoning ever since … Alexandria...” the priest stopped, noticing the Lucario wincing at the mention of his lost queen.

“My son, I know you. You are stronger than what you have shown recently. You must rise above the tribulations that have troubled you,” he said, trying to comfort the monarch.

“Father Ruak, I-I’m not sure how I can do this. Everything … has fallen apart. Everything...” Nickolas whispered, his pride not making admitting defeat an easy task. Ruak let out a short, incredulous, rumble from within his hollow body.

“Well, first off, cast off that filthy robe! There is no need for you to hide your face here! Here you are, a king, slithering around like a common field snake! How can you hope to rise if you embrace the floor?” Ruak shouted, its body emitting a deep ringing sound as he used his arms to rip the garment off Nickolas and immediately tear it into shreds.

Using his psychic abilities to dump the remnants of the cloak into a nearby fireplace, the Bronzong faced the king once more. Nickolas continued to look down, but even in this state of sadness he retained some of his dignity. The thin band of gold that circled his head below his pointed ears and the black sash embroidered with a silver tidal wave that wrapped around his middle hailed him as a monarch instead of some commoner.

“Now, my son, tell me. Why are you here?”

“I … I’ve ... I feel so lost now, Father. Everything has been lost to me. First, the Falling Star and the disasters that hit the Kingdom, then, Ale--” Nickolas stammered, his voice breaking off at his wife’s name. Ruak placed his arm on the king’s shoulder.

“Go on, say it. It is alright, son.”

“Then, Alexandria’s … m-murder. S-she was only trying to help. T-they, they didn’t care! They murdered her! They killed her, Father! They killed her!” Nickolas screamed, balling his paws into fists and slamming one down on the wooden altar, said fist glowing with a mystic power. There was the muffled cracking of dried tree flesh and Nickolas slowly lifted his shaking paw from the newly created crater in the otherwise smooth surface. The Lucario took several calming breaths before realizing the damage he had involuntarily caused.

“F-father Ruak. I--” Nickolas began as he formed some type of apology. The priest hushed him with a wave of his arm.

“Do not worry, I can cover that up. Now, then, my son. Tell me, what else is troubling you?”

“It’s not like you haven’t heard. Just stick your head outside and you’ll have heard everything. The Colonies, the war, money running out; everything is falling down...”

The Bronzong suddenly floated up so that his red eyes were directly staring into the Lucario’s. “No, son. I want to hear from you. What is troubling you? Not the Kingdom. Once you conquer your own demons, then you can expel the demons that dwell in others,” Ruak demanded, forcing the king’s head to look him in the eye with a psychonic field. Unable to look away, Nickolas struggled to piece together the words.

“My family is gone, Father. They’re gone. From life and from me. Father, I-I just don’t know what to do now.” Nickolas sat down on the steps leading up to the altar, allowing the Bronzong to float next to him.

“Listen to me, Nickolas. I know it is hard for you, but you must think about your larger family. Every citizen under your rule are your sons and daughters. You must care for them as such. Do not selfishly lose your focus on two Pokemon that Dialga has chosen to reside with him in the Hidden Land.”

“F-father, I--”

“No. No more excuses. Nickolas, the strength of Dialga will carry you through this, but only if you call upon Him. Let go of the past and let Him handle the future.”

“Father?” the Lucario asked as the Bronzong suddenly turned away and floated to the double doors of the church. As he opened a door to leave, he turned back to the distraught king.

“I can not help you if you refuse to let go of the past. I will leave you to your thoughts now. Be it far from me to divine the future, but remember this, Nickolas: you must delegate, or else you will abdicate.” With the last word, Ruak exited the temple and closed the door behind him.

Nickolas was left alone, and for the first time in his life, he felt truly abandoned. Looking up at the small silver statue of the Time Dragon on the left corner of the altar, Nickolas felt its ruby eyes peer inside of him as if searching his soul for every sin he’d ever committed.

Turning himself around on the steps, Nickolas got on his knees and bowed forward, pressing his nose to the floor. It was an alien position for him, as he was accustomed to being the one on the receiving end of such actions. Taking a deep breath, the Lucario attempted to push every thought out of his head regarding his family. His wife, his father, his son, all forced from his head as he did something he hadn’t done in decade: he prayed.

In an instant, his mind cleared. He knew no more of the woes of his family. He could not remember his wife’s name, or even if he had a son at all. Nickolas’s memories were purged for every shred of recognition of his loved ones until nothing remained, and he was perfectly fine with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Camp New Rain: Evening
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is that all you’ve got?” Noah shouted as he deftly jumped to the side to avoid the nearly invisible punch Jay threw at him. Noah immediately swung to the side, letting the Riolu stumble for a few steps before kicking out Jay’s legs from beneath him. Leo winched as he saw his team leader fall face first into the loosely-packed sand of the sparring pit.

Why Noah insisted on facing every one of them in a match was beyond the Charmeleon, but the Dewott was adamant about “initiating” them into the camp. Maybe this is why no one has stayed here, Leo wondered as the sounds of Jay heaving up a mouthful of sand reached his ears.

“You done coughing your lungs up, yet?” the Dewott exclaimed excitedly as he jumped around the fallen Riolu, ready in case of the slim possibility of another round.

“I--I give.” Jay said bitterly between coughs. Leo wasn’t surprised in the slightest; Noah had outmaneuvered Jay at every twist and turn. The blue otter seemed to have dodging punches and kicks down to a twisted science that he enjoyed a little too much; the grin on his face only reinforced that belief.

As soon as Noah heard Jay’s surrender, he immediately relaxed his battle stance. Slapping his shell to his side as if it was a holster, he offered the Riolu a paw. His pride greatly bruised, Jay simply gave up any remnant of his dignity and accepted Noah’s assistance. Once Jay was on his feet again, Noah patted the Riolu on the back, and motioned for him to the sidelines of the mock arena.

Leo watched attentively as Jay went and sat down against a wooden crate that made up the boundary of the sparring field. Noah went to one of the crates beside Jay and cautiously pried open the lid. After making sure no one that reported to Torrent was watching, he reached his paw inside, and after a minute of searching, he pulled out something that resembled an elongated, blue raisin. He then handed the dried fruit to Jay.

The Riolu seemed to examine the food item for a minute, sniffing it inquisitively before deeming it safe enough to eat. He slipped the berry into his mouth and began munching on it. His body seemed to relax as the berry’s juices worked on repairing the bruises he sustained during the faux-battle.

“Alright, so who’s next?” Noah asked, darting from Jay’s side to uncomfortably between him and Kelly, hooking his arms around her neck and over Leo’s shoulders. Kelly slipped out from Noah’s arm and backed up a few paces, leaving Leo solely to the Dewott.

“Good on you, mate. Let’s get started!” Noah said as he suddenly pushed Leo headlong into the arena. Looking about the relatively small plot of sand, there wasn’t much too it now that he was in the center of it looking out. Other than the partial ring of crates that also served as seating, there were no boundaries at all to keep awry moves from soaring over and detonating somewhere within the encampment. Noah brought him back to the present as he began to lay down the “rules” he had explained to Jay earlier.

“Alright, first, no use of items. Second, no cheating. Third, no hitting while the opponent is down.” Noah continued, rambling onwards through several more rules Leo wasn’t paying attention to. His thoughts were scrambling and trying to piece together what little knowledge of attacks he had and, more importantly, how to activate them.

“...and finally, these rules are what you’d call ‘guidelines’. Begin!” Noah yelled as he sprinted forward toward the unsuspecting Leo. The Charmeleon barely caught a glimpse of the blue otter before Noah tackled him to the ground, sand spraying into the air and suffocating his tail flame.

Leo’s eyes widened as his tail cried out for oxygen and in pain. He tried to dislodge the Dewott from on top of him, but Noah kept him pinned down effectively, restraining Leo’s arms and upper body. His tail, he felt, had begun to smolder, the flames reduced to an ember as the merciless grains of sand smothered them. Leo could hear its muffled screams as it writhed in airless agony.

Leo’s vision rapidly approached pitch black, Noah’s grinning face in the center of his sight becoming the only thing he saw. His tail flame would have none of this. If it couldn’t burn outside, it decided to move its base of operations inside. Leo felt the vaguely familiar heat building up in his chest and felt the strength return to his limbs, even if only temporarily. He looked the Dewott directly in his black eyes and let the beginnings of a smile form on the edges of snout.

Letting the adrenaline fueled strength take action, Leo kicked up his stumpy legs, pulled them under Noah’s body, and forced every ounce of strength into propelling his legs into the Dewott’s stomach. The otter involuntarily released his grip on Leo and sailed a several feet backwards.

It was now Noah’s turn to wheeze as he quickly crawled backwards on the ground. Jumping up off the sand, Leo felt a wave of dizziness overtake him as he swung his tail around so he could see it. The sight was a strange one. Without a fire, all he could see were several hundred glowing pores clustered near the tip.

The pores suddenly seemed to register the presence of oxygen, and swiftly burst back into existence. Their sudden resurgence thankfully not burning Leo’s claw and bringing him a sense of relief to know it was still functional. Looking back at Noah, he saw that he had just begun to rise from the sand. He still clutched his midsection as he let out a pained laugh.

“Nice one, Leo. I’m glad you’re not the pushover you were last time!” he taunted as he straightened up to his full height. Pulling his twin scallops off his sides, he cautiously circled around the arena, Leo mimicking his movements. The Pokemon and the former human exchanged murderous glances at each other, sharp blue staring down deep black.

Leo ended the stalemate. Surprising even himself at his own boldness, he leaped forward, his claws at the ready. Noah seemed to expect this as he sidestepped the Charmeleon at the very last moment.

Leo wasn’t about to pull the same mistake his team leader did. Remembering what he had observed in the previous battle, Leo immediately twisted his body around, and kicked his right leg forward. His foot caught the Dewott’s leg just before it swept his own legs out from beneath him, the sudden halt of forward momentum rattling Noah and stabilizing Leo’s balance.

That seemed to shatter Noah’s confidence, if only for an instant. Not sure as to what to do, Leo simply shoved his opponent away from him as he tried to buy himself some time to figure out his attacks. The almost mystical power that had aided his claws during the encounter with Nexus failed to show itself during this hour of need.

Silently willing his claws to do anything, Leo began to panic as Noah came closer, his shells both glowing with the strange energy he lacked. Backing up until he felt the rough texture of a crate blocking his egress, Leo gulped as Noah closed the distance between them.

Leo tried to focus the energy into his claws, but his mind wouldn’t cooperate. He knew there was only one way out of this mess that didn’t involve receiving a painful blast of water all over him. It was a long-shot, and had only worked for him once, but he knew he had to try it. Leo took a deep breath, trying to coax the heat within his chest to expand and rise once again.

He couldn’t breathe any deeper, his lungs were beginning to burn, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the fire or lack of air. Rearing his head back, Leo shut his eyes and tried to force his attack to form.

Noah darted towards him, his paws glowing with a soft pale light. Small droplets of water molecules appeared out of thin air and congregated into a sphere between the Water type’s forearms. Leo knew it was now or never: either his attack was going to pay off, or it wasn’t. The Charmeleon let loose his breath as the Dewott wound his right arm back and threw the energy-infused ball of water.

Tiny embers scorched his throat as he belched forth a small volley of fireballs. As soon as they left his mouth, the pinpricks of fire adsorbed oxygen as they flared and grew to the size of Oran Berries. The spheres of burning air collided with the spheres of water. The entire arena was instantly blinded as explosions of steam sent shockwaves through the air, knocking both combatants to the sand.

Clouds of gaseous water washed over Leo, causing an involuntary shiver to run down his spine as the vapor struck against his tail. He dug his claws into the soft sand until he felt the surface of compacted soil to push off on. Leaping to his feet, he twisted around in every direction. The steam had expanded and engulfed the small arena entirely.

He was blind. The white and grey coloration of the mist prevented all vestiges of vision to lose meaning. Leo reached around and grabbed his tail, holding it in front of his as to wave away some of the clouded curtain of white mist with its heat. In hindsight, he would figure this probably wasn’t the smartest idea when facing a Water type.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure dart through the steam behind him. He instantly turned around and was met by a rough tackle from the Dewott. The remaining air in his lungs was forced out in a puff of black smoke as Noah forced him to the sand once more.

Leo barred his teeth and let out a low growl that surprised even himself. He jerked his arm out of Noah’s grasp and mimicked the action on the Dewott, gripping his blue-skinned arm tightly under his claws. Noah’s smirk vanished like rain clouds over a desert as Leo shoved upwards and managed to flip the Dewott, reversing their roles.

Leo let his instincts run his actions since they seemed to know what they were doing. He reared back his arm and brought down his elbow on Noah’s stomach. The instincts controlling his mind gave a small grunt of satisfaction as a muffled crack emitted from his struggling opponent’s ribcage.

Tears began to form in the corners of Noah’s eyes. Leo relished every moment of the Dewott’s pain as he tried to tighten his hold on his opponent. Noah managed to squeeze his arm out from Leo’s claw for an instant. In that split second, he delivered a swift punch to the patch of scale-covered skin underneath his left eye. The attack was more than enough to shake the primal instincts’ control over Leo’s head.

His claws slackened as Noah saw his opportunity to fight back. Leo wasn’t sure how the Dewott got his foot free, but he certainly felt it smash into his torso. Noah crawled to freedom as Leo tried to regain the sensation of breathing. Despite being minorly injured, Noah sure wasn’t acting anything like it. The Dewott leaped into the air and landed directly on Leo’s back.

Before his mind could relay the signal to act, Noah had pulled one of his razor shells off his side and held it against Leo’s neck. Small droplets of something wet that Leo figured to be blood began to appear as Noah pressed the sharpened blade harder into the Charmeleon’s skin.

“Give up. Now.” he hissed, fatigue making his voice waver with every syllable. Leo thought for a fraction of a second to get himself out of this before those errant thoughts were quickly stamped out by a slight jab from the Dewott. In the middle of the steam ridden arena, Leo lowered his claws and got to his knees, Noah’s blade pressed to his neck the entire time.

“There. I win. Now, was that so hard?” he coughed as he pulled the blade away and offered Leo a paw up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Within the chambers containing the chronicles lost memories, long forgotten times, and deeds history had the audacity to censor from record, a certain ghost wandered amongst the volumes. The Pokemon muttered seemingly nonsensical strings of phrases and words together in an eerie chant of unknown language, occasionally switching his speech into the dull, modern way of vocalizing.

Small motes of dust filled the stagnant air as they gently floated to the cracked stone tiles below; their particles stuck together and spun in the air as the troubled specter paced in midair. The chamber was his own private retreat, known exclusively to himself as a result of no small amount of curiosity-fueled exploration of the inhabited halls above. The origin of the ancient archive was unknown to even him, though he had heard rumors of The Creator itself installing a similar depository of wisdom somewhere within the world.

“It doesn’t make sense. Nothing is adding up. It’s as if I am missing a variable in my equation … Something I am blind to...” the Pokemon pondered, comfortable that no one who could harm his plans was in attendance. The compact library was securely sealed from all directions, and he had added a few precautionary protections of his own design to set his paranoia to rest.

His purple form floated over a bookshelf built of smooth, pitch-black obsidian; the archaic structure laid cracked upon the marble floor. Amongst the shattered obsidian shards were dozens of handsomely-bound books, their pages --stained light brown with the passage of eons-- lying open illustrating a Buizel’s memory of its first dive into a crystal clear pond. Another’s faded ink showcased an unfortunate Lapras calf’s last memory as it was caught in the malevolent undertow in the icy waters of the Snowbound Ocean. The violet ghost passed over the novels, flipping several of the pages in his haste as he worriedly paced over them.

“Or... perhaps there is a variable that does not need to be ... Possibly. I require further proof before I can ascertain the truth ... Look at me. Heh!” the creature let out a forced laugh as to amuse the single-celled organisms residing in the chamber.

“Here I am, the iudex, the judge, being overruled by the simple restrictions of a moral code that is not even my own! Did they complain when I was forced to … observe several candidates in my search to find the one least likely to annihilate all sentient life on the planet? Not when possibility of extinction hung within the balance,” the Mismagius ranted on to the microorganisms, who remained blissfully oblivious to his presence.

He hovered over a chronicle that was stuck on the topmost shelf of the ornate chamber. Willing it out of its age-old position, the book flipped pages in midair as the Mismagius glanced over every second of a Wurmple’s life until it was viciously ripped apart by the beak of a hungry Swellow on its second day out from its egg.

“He turned a blind eye when the fate of the world rested on my actions. Allowed me unlimited use of power. I have rewritten history more times than the sun has risen on this speck of life-encrusted rock in this void of space. I saved this world, I restored the Tower, I alone quelled the Years of Rage, I repaired the balance. Now, he does this to me?” He dropped the meaningless volume of memories to the ground of the archive.

“I have worked for millennia ensuring the world remains. Does he not see? How couldn’t he? It goes against all logic. Why he restricts me is beyond my own fathomless reasoning. He did not limit me when the entirety of their civilization was … redacted from this world to ensure the survival of all Pokemon. So, why now, when so much more assuredly hangs in the balance?” The germs refused to offer up a viable answer. The Mismagius scanned the spines of the remaining books on the shelf, studying each one closely.

“Reft, Grev, Yveren, Akra, Lessly, your memories are all entombed here within these pages. While deathly mundane, the stories are inspiring. Rather paradoxical. You all may have helped me find the missing variable. So ordinary, so obvious, it is odd how I failed to see this earlier.” He brushed past the novels, forcing several hundred year’s worth of dust into the air and float down to the floor. He looked down at the invisible germs once more, staring with contempt for his primal brethren who were blessed with functioning organelles.

Suddenly a muffled scream penetrated the stale air of the library, forcing a rain of dust to fall from the ceiling and shelves.

“Hmm... Well, this is unusual. I must investigate this further.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I thought I said: no more questions. Get out or I will have your worthless carcasses swinging from the city gate by sundown.” the irritated Scyther said coolly, casually running his right scythe along his polished carapace. The crowd of inquiring Pokemon sent from the capital’s newspaper saw the council leader’s weapons at the ready and immediately sprinted from the premises of the mansion in fear for their lives.

Darney sighed in content as the ornate gate that provided entry to his home clanged shut as the last overly curious journalist fled his less than humane interpretation of freedom of the press. After making sure that he was finally free from the bother of the lower class, the Scyther eased the mahogany doors shut with the flat edge of his blade.

The interior of his apartment near the center of Silver was as lavishly decorated as the depleted Treasury would allow. The handsomely carved paneled walls lined every inch of space, covering the drab stone underneath it. Moreover, in front of the walls were either ornate marble statuettes or furniture imported from the craft shops of the Ember Archipelago.

He stepped into the soft carpet that hugged the entirety of the floor, careful not to track any of the filth from outside onto it. A quick glance around the center living room primarily told him that nothing was amiss, but something made him do a double-take. The small, rounded, transparent crystal embedded into a small carved wooden pillar was not glowing the soft hue of blue it usually was, but rather an urgent shade of orange.

Casually walking up to the gem, he tapped it with his blade. Immediately, a glowing orange sphere rose up from the smoothed crystal and slammed the chancellor in his face. Darney didn’t flinch at the sudden display of power from the gem as the blinding light subsided.

“Darney.” a deep, tired voice resounded in the Scyther’s ears. Darney tensed, his face struggling to contain a grimace at the sound of the voice.

“Master...I-I..” Darney struggled to speak. His throat snatched his words away from his mouth, leaving it only empty air.

“You have not acted. Why haven’t you acted?” the voice inquired, an unheard anger slithered its way in between the words and into the Scyther’s heart. Taking a deep breath to chase the unsettling feelings away, Darney gathered what he hoped were the right words to appease his superior.

“S-sir. In all due respect, I have acted. Just, I’m not done yet. These things take time to plan and put into motion. If it’s any consolation, I just put in the final pieces in place. All I must do is gain their trust and we can begin,” the Scyther said smoothly as the orange glow about his head rippled in displeasure. Darney gulped in fear as he heard his master’s rage-filled breathing through the psychic connection across the wide gulf of distance separating the two individuals.

“I give you certain parameters that had to be met. You’ve proved yourself resourceful and competent in all your other doings, so I fully expect that you’ll find a way to ensure things keep moving on schedule. I cannot keep time at bay for much longer. Now go.” the voice within the sphere said, the chilling undertone clearly told Darney that their conversation was finished. The sphere then dissipated, leaving nothing behind but a somewhat distraught Scyther who now had a great many more things to accomplish in a greatly shortened time span.

“As you wish, sir.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay. We should--should being a relative term-- be safe--safe also being a relative term-- for the current time. I strongly advise that you sleep for at least five and one-third hours in order to restore your strength and mental functionality.” the wire heart said after performing a quick scan of the small maintenance room. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be near them, but their situation was far from normal.

”Heh, don’t kid yourself. Any vestige of this so-called ‘mental functionality’ was left behind with my reputation and my badge ...” the lost wanderer sighed as he gripped a leather pouch of water and took a deep swig, ”Though you do have a point, I do need sleep. Where would I be without you?”

“Dead.” The wanderer let out a small chuckle, a rare occurrence in this labyrinth.

“Besides the obvious, is what I meant.” he said as he opened a small sealed ceramic jar of slightly stale beans. His mouth watered for the small morsel they’d manage to pilfer from the massive subterranean greenhouses on the levels above. The beans might have been old, but he knew his body would be able to extract some sort of nutritional value from them.

“I was just being realistic. I suggest you consume your food items fifty-percent faster. The sentinels are still on patrol, though they are not within range of us yet.”

The larger Pokemon leaned against the uncut stone wall in exhaustion while shoving a mouthful of beans into his mouth. His prediction was correct, they were very nearly expired, but it was better than going yet another day without a meal. The beans felt like rubber as he chewed them, trying to detect any smidgen of the flavor they once possessed. He watched as his companion turned exactly one-hundred and seventy-nine degrees every eleven seconds as he scanned the surrounding hallways.

“Ahh, there you are.”

The relaxing Pokemon shot up, swallowing his mouthful of legumes with a painful gulp. He swiftly glanced down the two adjoining hallways that lead out of the room. Nervous sweat broke out on his brow. He had heard it. The soft voice. They were coming. She had found them.

He jolted into action, haphazardly stuffing his meager meal into his worn satchel. Snatching his few possessions off the floor, he swung the bag’s strap over his shoulder. His companion had no time to react before he scooped him up in his arms and sprinted out of the room as fast as he could.

“What are you doing? What is it?” the wire heart shouted as he squirmed in his grip. The wanderer didn’t slow, instead he continued to run. His panicked gaze shooting down darkened paths and alleys that lead deeper into the maze. Yet even over the shouts of his conscious, his ragged breathing, and the rhythmic clicking of his feet on the stone, he heard them. The sentinels.

”The horrid tones compose a ghastly melody of betrayed hopes and shed tears, as their ominous orchestra breathes fitfully the music fueled by fear,” he whispered to himself as he clutched his friend tighter. His mind had put a cruel twist on a poem he had read on the topside in his long forgotten youth, the words becoming somehow relevant to his situation.

“Stop! There’s nothing chasing us! Put me down and stop!” his friend ordered, wriggling even harder in his arms.

“You don’t understand. I heard her ... “ he said, his voice barely audible. He stole a quick glance behind. The hallway was deserted, but he knew better than to trust his sight. He looked back down the path ahead of him. If his vague knowledge of this path was correct and not another painful trick of his brain, then he knew he’d be faced with an obstacle soon enough.

“What are you doing? The path! It’s broken! You’ll kill us both!” The wanderer shook his head in sharp disagreement.

“No! We can’t go back! They’ll find us for sure!” he yelled as his eyes saw it. Ahead in the pitch-black hallway, a darker shade of shadows lurked, indicating that the rock had fallen.

“For the last time: there is no one after us! You’re having an episode again! Ian, stop now, before it’s too late! Ian, are you listening?” the wired heart’s words fell on deaf ears as the Pokemon who carried him continued to run without hesitation towards death.

He’s wrong this time. He has to be wrong. I can make it. I can make it. I will make it! I have to, his thoughts calmly reassured him, even while his partner screamed for him to halt. He had to trust his mind, just this once he knew it wasn’t lying. Just have to time this right.

“You really are crazy then …” No, I’m right this time. I heard her. She’s found us.

He didn’t slow. He gathered his strength and tensed himself. He felt the floor vanish from underneath his stride as he leaped into the empty void. His partner screams echoed throughout the hall as they both sailed through the dark air.

The void was not as it seemed. Cruel, unforgiving deception lay just below the invisible surface. When the truth falls from its lofty perch, it must meet the deception that waits below. Deception, the very thought of the word sent doubts spiraling into his heart.

The stone of the broken passage greeted them as a normal stone should greet any falling piece of organic matter: with a hard landing. The wanderer felt piercing fire shoot up his right leg as he collapsed to the floor. A clatter on the path ahead told him that his friend had made the landing as well.

“You idiot. Now look what you’ve done! Your leg!” the smaller Pokemon screeched. Shaking itself off, it floated to the injured Pokemon and scanned his leg, seeing what possible treatment options were available with their limited resources. According to the scan results, the fracture was worse than he initially thought, but it didn’t break the skin, so setting it would be slightly easier.

“N-no. I did it for a reason. I know what I’m doing. I had to leave that place at any costs. She--” the Pokemon grasped his leg with his claws as his friend examined them, the pain forcing him to shut his mouth to muffle his screams. Gritting his teeth, he dug his claws into the stone floor as his companion pressed down hard on the abnormal bump on his limb.

It felt like his teeth would shatter from the amount of pressure he put on them as the lump of raised skin sunk lower at an agonizingly slow pace. Tears welled up in his eyes as his body spasmed involuntarily in pain. After what seemed like an eternity, the malformed bump finally fell into place with a swift snapping noise from the bone.

“We need a splint to keep it in place, though we don’t have the materials with us at the moment. Once we get back to the storage room back there--” the smaller Pokemon observed as he was suddenly interrupted.

“No! We can’t go back there! She found us!” The smaller Pokemon huffed, the emotion program within him uploading critical amounts of generated anger into his mind.

“Ian, do you not recall that you are constantly hallucinating visions and sounds alike? It’s complete--”

“Employee number: Two. Eight. Six, you have been acknowledged. Your recent actions were observed to fall under non-standard mal-compliance ordinances. Assume the surrender position. Lie on your stomach with your arms by your side and please wait for the escort units to retrieve you for interrogation.” The voice, as emotionless and cold as frozen steel, reverberated throughout the abandoned hallways as well as within the two Pokemon on the floor.

“Over my dead body.” he growled. He clutching at his injured leg and set his teeth as he quickly rose to his feet, the pain shooting fiery rods into his nerves. He awkwardly shuffled along the wall, gingerly lifted the leather strap of his satchel over his neck, and hefted his friend up from the ground.

“Your leg! Ian, how do you expect to run--” Without warning, the darkened walls lit up. Blue energy coursing through the wires of transparent crystal embedded within the stone. His eyes temporarily blinded by the flash of light, Ian limped toward the vague darkened outline of yet another hallway.

Inches from relative safety in the dark passage, a stone slab slammed down from above, conjured from elsewhere in the labyrinth and placed there by the psychic energy. Ian crashed into the blockade, promptly throwing him backwards. Ian hit the wall with a sickening thud and slid to the ground as he felt the bone inside in his leg shift again with a muffled crack as it pierced the surface of his skin. He didn’t dare look at his leg; he had already felt the warm liquid well up from the wound and flow across his leg.

“H-how bad?” he asked over the groans of grating stone and metal as the hallway sealed itself in forced lockdown. His friend failed to give a response, instead staring unblinking at the now-rising slab of rock. Above the thunderous screeches that moved the wall, Ian could clearly hear the unmistakable, unceasing beeping of the sentinels. From his position slumped against the wall, he could see the bright blue glow of their eyes as the slab between them separated.

“Vertex … how many?” Ian whispered, his voice cracking from the strain he’d placed on it a few moments ago. His companion swiveled one-hundred and eighty degrees, quickly performing a rudimentary scan.

“Nothing we haven’t evaded before. Even with your new … hindrance, we can still get through them.” Ian watched in pain as Vertex spun his two oval-shaped legs, charging electricity with every complete revolution. Energy cracked around his smooth body as he focused the power into his beak. Vertex took aim, measuring the exact trajectory he would need to destroy his immediate enemies. He just needed a little more time to charge and he would be ready to do his worst.

As if his thoughts screamed to the fates that their luck was still working, the slow-moving segment of wall suddenly swung upwards, breaking through the centuries’ worth of dirt and resistance. Vertex backed up in shock as sentinels swarmed into the sealed off hallway. His charge was still a few seconds away from complete, and a premature firing would most likely corrupt his operating system, essentially freezing his mind forever within the last few seconds of life.

The sentinels swiftly surrounded both him and Ian, as the two suspects in question looked desperately for an escape route. The Pokemon were barely aware, all relying on the orders of their superior to function. Something-- most likely his fear processor-- made Vertex shiver deep inside, thinking that he used to be one of them not that long ago. Regardless of sentience or not, they were all closing in on them and had orders to arrest them both.

One of the sentinels started glowing as it turned its triangular legs around in circles against its polyhedral body. Electricity joyously leaped between the sentinels, ecstatic to finally be free of their hosts’ compact bodies. In its moment of immense elation, the energy failed to notice that it was being forced onto the blocky, triangular beaks of the drone guards.

Milliseconds before the drones received the signal to unleash their offensive maneuver, a flash of dull green flew past Vertex’s head from behind him. The strange orb spiraled in the air as it flew towards the advancing line of sentinels. Its spherical shape impacted on a guard and deflected upwards towards the ceiling. It detonated and the room exploded.

Vertex tried to stabilize himself as the hallway shook, rocks cascaded down from the ceiling in a horrifying chorus as they slammed onto the floor below. Stones the size of the fabled jewels of Waterfall Cave rained down around Vertex, smashing more than one unsuspecting guard unit with an explosion of binary code.

Microscopic stone fragments blew through the small passageway like a storm as the cries of the Porygon echoed through the dust-choked air. Vertex slowly turned his body around, scanning the aftermath of the blast with every observation he made. His scanners easily detected his friend’s outline pressed against the wall, even through the layer of powderized boulder. Ian was chuckling softly as he lifted his new grey-colored face, some dust sliding off in clumps.

“Well … that was fun, wasn’t it? Heh...” Ian said as he slumped against the wall once again as fatigue overtook him. His tired frame let loose a ragged sigh as tried put on a happy facade.

“You should not have done that. Yes, you saved my life, but in your condition … it could kill you.” Vertex said as he hovered over to his downed friend. Ian gave a weak laugh as he pressed his claws against his wounded leg, eliciting a renewed flow of crimson blood from the opening around the shattered bone.

“Well, if I hadn’t used my Energy Ball, then it wouldn't have mattered. They would have captured us and I would have died of light deprivation. In speaking of that, let’s get out of here. I just have to do something first,” Ian said as he suddenly grabbed the small protrusion of bone, barred his teeth, and forced it downwards back into his body. Blood mixed with the grime coating Ian’s skin as Vertex let out a trill of alarm. The crimson liquid poured from the wound as blood vessels and capillaries were shattered by the uncommon bone movement.

Ian’s claws released their grip on his leg as his body contorted in spasms of agony and he started screaming at the top of his lungs. Vertex tried to ease his suffering, but lacking usable digits on his limbs, he was resorted to only one option. Using some of the energy that hadn’t already dissipated from his charged up attack, he closed his eyes, and administered a small shock to his friend’s body. He told himself that it was for his friend’s benefit, but the thought continually lost ground in the battle. The electricity stunned the spasming muscles in their throws. Ian’s body froze and suddenly fell limp as a rag doll.

Vertex slowly opened his eyes, afraid of what he would see. His processor nearly shorted out as he took in the horrifying sight in front of him. His friend’s body was covered in grey dust and smeared with dried, clotted blood on every inch of skin below his neck. The spore cap that fused into his head was bent in the back and nearly wilting from dehydration. His entire body seemed to have faded as the months without direct sunlight took its toll on his appearance, health, and mind.

As long as he had known the Breloom, Vertex has remained by his side even throughout the breakdowns. His condition continually grew worse as the breakdowns came more frequently. The photosynthetic cells in his skin gradually died off more and more until the vibrant shades of green and red pigment faded away until only a fraction of it remained.

Vertex sighed as he used his beak to nudge open the fallen satchel and carefully took out a dirtied piece of cloth that might at one time have been a scarf. Balancing the cloth on his stubby appendages, he thanked his creators that his body was coded to be flexible. He slowly looped the scarf around the wound, stemming the blood flow slightly.

“I-Ic--” Ian stuttered, excess saliva gargling his words.

“Shut up! You can’t exert any more energy, or else.... Just be quiet, Ian!” Vertex snapped as he used his beak and oval-shaped wings to clumsily tie the knot of the makeshift bandage.

“N-n-no. I-Ic—Ice! Regice!” That was the last thing Vertex heard before a low rumbling filled the room and the temperature dropped down to zero. A monumental golem floated into the room from the hallway. Its smooth, clear, faceted surface showed the pitiful reflections of the two smaller Pokemon.

“TARGETS FOUND: ROGUE EMPLOYEE NUMBER 286 AND TRAITOR UNIT 343. THANK YOU FOR ASSUMING THE SURRENDER POSITION.”

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