CHAPTER 48 — A Poison That Runs Deep

The light from Dazzling Gleam disappeared so quickly that it could have been a hallucination, but the groans and shouts of confusion echoing in the cavern proved otherwise. My eyes snapped open as wind and stray droplets of water blasted against my cheeks.

In that mere fraction of a second, three different figures blitzed forward at unimaginable speed.

A bird with magnificent plumage was the fastest of them all. Falkner had released his famed starter. Wreathed in a cocoon of swirling, silver energy, Pidgeot sped towards Proton like a missile. She tucked her wings in and braced herself for impact—

CRACK.

Pidgeot went spinning backwards instead and quickly righted herself. She had not slammed into her intended target but something else entirely. The air around Proton shimmered in place with visible cracks. Some sort of psychic barrier, it seemed.

Without missing a beat, Brock and Bruno's Pokemon were quick to follow up on Pidgeot's attempt. Kabutops crashed into the fractured barrier in an explosion of water, then whipped out glistening scythes in a one-two combo slash. Cracks deepened. Next to him, Lucario blurred into view from Extreme Speed and flung a small, unsuspecting orb that sang with the song of vitality.

The pure Aura attack shattered the barrier completely, but it did not break without something for us to remember it by. Fragments of psychic energy dissipated in the air. Accompanying them were distorted screams.

Those sounds bounced around in my mind so loudly that I stumbled, clutching at my skull. I saw the others around me and our Pokemon doing much the same. Whatever this mental attack was, it was so powerful that it even affected the Ghosts in my shadow, debilitating them. Their screams mixed together with the ones in my head.

My vision blurred. I couldn't make out any words, but I could feel the emotion behind the unknown voice.

HATE—

DESTROY—

KILL EVERYONE—

Sheer, overwhelming hatred threatened to overwhelm my mind. It clawed at it and screamed in undying malice. Clefable's previous words came back to mind, this time with an understanding that came too late.

'They have at their disposal an energy most foul, an unknown evil that I have never felt before. It is wrapped around those humans like a shield.'

Yet as quickly as it came, the pressure disappeared.

As I was shaking off any lingering nausea, a loud thud echoed in the distance. Proton had been the closest to the devastating surge of light, and he fell to his knees now with eyes squeezed shut. His Nidoking was faring only marginally better. The hulking Poison type let out an enraged bellow as he swayed from side to side in a panic. His grip on Brock's Crobat loosened.

Crobat instantly flew away, and the first thing he did was bite someone's shoulder.

Proton screamed.

It was that howl of pain that snapped Nidoking back to attention. Partially blinded as he was, the giant still had an idea of where his trainer was. An armored tail backhanded Crobat from behind and sent him tumbling through the air. Blood splattered across the ground from the abrupt ejection of fangs from flesh, but Proton didn't even seem to notice. His eyes were still closed shut as his hands fumbled along his Pokeball belt. Meanwhile, Nidoking stomped his foot.

Geysers erupted from the ground indiscriminately.

The Pokemon closest to Proton had recovered from the mental attack and begun to converge on him, but they were forced to scatter as gigantic columns of energy blew up the ground. A hail of rocks and sparks of fire were showered in every direction.

A sea of red light enveloped the cavern as Proton finally released more members of his team, but we didn't stop to identify what Pokemon he had unleashed. We had already run into the clearing. Rocket grunts everywhere were beginning to snap out of their disorientation and release Pokemon of their own.

"Secure the exits—" I tried yelling over the geyser explosions in the background.

"I've got the back one!" Brock yelled in reply. Clair answered by way of hanging near the entrance, a few Dragons already out at her sides. They would block the escape routes for us. Everyone started releasing more fighters.

"Arin, Bruno, and I will battle the Rocket Executive then!" Giovanni barked out in a firm, decisive tone. "Falkner, support us! Everyone else, take care of the grunts!"

Nobody argued with the arrangements. We split up immediately to take our stations, and my Hatterene's eyes glowed just as globs of poison came flying. Each Pokemon on our side put up Protect shields around their respective trainer.

From across the clearing, Proton stared at us. It seemed like his vision was slowly returning. Crobat had ripped out a chunk of the Executive's flesh and clothing. The open wound on his right shoulder had not just blood leaking from it but a syringe that had been stabbed into the skin. An antidote, perhaps, to counter the powerful toxins Crobat had likely injected him with. Considering the variety of Poison type Pokemon that had suddenly surrounded Proton, I was not surprised a Specialist like him had such things on hand.

I was more taken aback by the absolute rage burning in his eyes.

"Did you want to capture me? Extort information?" he asked tauntingly, lips curling back into a snarl. "You're better off killing me instead."

I could barely hear him over the geysers still tearing up the field and preventing any Pokemon from getting close to him. Proton jerked the syringe out of his shoulder without batting an eye. He tossed it to the side carelessly, rolling his shoulders.

"Let's try this again, shall we?"

Everything spiraled.

Shouts, cries, explosions, smoke— the entire cavern was overrun by fighting in the blink of an eye. Pokemon and moves on both sides leapt forward to meet each other head-on. A relentless, messy cacophony of sound was what it all boiled down to.

At the entrance, chill-inducing roars echoed from Dragons as blue flames incinerated anything in their path. Clair shouted for her Dragonite to incapacitate the grunts, and the Dragon obeyed. Golden scales glinted in the light as clawed hands were brought down like hammers.

On the opposite end, walls of rock sloped upwards and completely blocked the back entrance. Brock stood there with a firm posture as his team of Rock types manipulated the earth. The landscape transformed as rocks rose and formed tight prisons around fleeing Rockets.

Agents Mint and Looker stayed back to provide support for both of them. Our allies had to deal with more psychic shields like the one that had protected Proton, but none of them were remotely as strong and folded like paper. Wisely, the grunts and those on our side engaging them stayed out of the fight happening in the central part of the cavern.

They simply had no way of interfering.

Two blurry figures — Lucario and a Toxicroak — danced a tango of death. Sparks of energy flew for every punch in their fast close combat, none of which could be tracked by the naked eye. Mem and Fia went straight for Proton, but a Swalot and Crobat immediately rose out to meet them. Nearby, Bruno's three Machamp flexed muscles so tight that they actually repelled globs of poison. Multiple hands flew out to grab at two incredibly agile snakes — a Seviper and Arbok — that darted between them, but they only caught air. All of them jumped away when Grima and a Scolipede landed next to them, creating a fissure in the ground. Waves of thick, powerful hair whipped through the air. So did rays of wildly fluctuating energy that went wide. Hyper Beams. Everyone scattered, then threw themselves back into the fray again.

Those were only a few of the fights going on. Everything was happening everywhere and all at once. Wherever you looked, our Pokemon were engaged in high-paced skirmishes. Most of us didn't even issue a lot of orders. At this level and high pacing, and with so many fighters deployed, it was mostly our Pokemon who had to think for themselves in the heat of the moment. We, the trainers, only issued general directives or specific orders if we saw something change in the overall flow of battle.

It didn't help that the field constantly shifted.

The ground rumbled, surged, and split apart like a storm at sea. There was never a moment where it could be still because it was a whole battleground of its own. Poison, poison, and more poison was being secreted by Proton's Pokemon into the floor as if it was as easy as breathing. Purple spots bloomed across the field like angry splotches of paint and grew ever darker. It became a wasteland—

But Ground was the beginning and the end, and what all things ultimately returned to.

The earth trembled, then screamed with defiance. Countless waves rose up like liquid sand. Within their crumbling folds, I caught the faintest hint of a Hippowdon and Sandslash before everything came crashing back down in an instant. Particles of hazy dust filled the air.

The toxic wasteland was gone. The corrosion had been buried deep within mother earth's embrace to be born anew.

Oh, but Poison could never be easily contained… for long did it fester, and long did it rot.

Thin strands of darkness spread out like veins in a human body. They robbed the ground of its earthy hues, smothering it as spots bubbled and gave way to steaming pits. The earth creaked and groaned under the invading forces. At last, dark liquids finally wrenched their way free of the natural cycle and exploded outwards.

They tried to splatter everywhere, but the earth engulfed the rain of acid once more. The ground lurched up, down, and sideways as opposing forces fought for utter domination. I could only catch occasional glimpses of the fight below when the earth's maws opened wide enough for me to see.

The Pokemon down there were sneakily trying to get to the opposing trainers, but they weren't making it easy for each other to advance. Sandslash ricocheted off a Drapion from multiple angles while Hippowdon tracked a Gengar through a whirlwind of sand.

I didn't have the luxury to check, but Giovanni didn't look worried. Only a faint hint of annoyance was there in his otherwise calm expression. He could have toppled things in his favor instantly with Earthquake, but that wasn't an option here inside a cave. A protective shield of light surrounded him courtesy of a Nidoqueen. On Giovanni's other side, a Persian stood at the ready with cold ruby eyes. In any other situation, I would have wondered what the story was behind a Ground Specialist having a Persian.

Nidoqueen and Persian made eye contact. Wordlessly, the cat put up a Protect at the same time that Nidoqueen let hers down. They were taking turns to shield their trainer much like how my own Pokemon were. Yuno had coiled around my body in a defensive manner while Silque shielded me with Protect. A stray attack flew my way, but the Protect held strong. In a minute, my Pokemon would swap roles and refresh the barrier.

Every other trainer in the room — both Rockets and those on our side — were taking similar safety measures. In life-and-death fights like these, the first and most important target was always the opposing trainer.

A trainer was the heart of any team. If you took down the trainer, the Pokemon would lose their control tower and the reason why they fought so hard. It was the fastest way to make the opposition crumble.

The ground was still being contested at this point, but it was not the only battlefield. The air was another.

One, two, three sonic booms went off in rapid succession as Falkner's birds accelerated at breakneck speed across the cavern's airspace. Limited as space was in here, that didn't matter to them.

To Fly was to revel in freedom, to remain unbound by the world and its restrictions and chart a path of your own.

The winds were at their beck and call as the birds zipped left and right, but they weren't alone. Insistent, high-pitched buzzing followed after them in the form of a Beedrill. From its stingers came a fine mist of acid rain, but sharp gales blew it up instead of down.

Falkner's birds were simultaneously fending off Beedrill and other fliers while helping us apply pressure on Proton. Light as bright as the sun poured out from Skarmory as it fired off a Flash Cannon into Proton's Nidoking. The behemoth's fists lit up in a similarly blinding halo. It crossed its arms and bore with the tremendous beam that pushed it back, but it didn't have any time to breathe. Pidgeot and Staraptor approached it from behind—

They pulled up sharply when condensed balls of sludge came flying like cannonballs, and they weren't stopping. An Amoonguss in Proton's backline spun its arms rapidly and shot out more. Falkner whistled sharply. His birds flew in long-practiced evasive maneuvers, but they weren't the intended targets.

The balls of sludge hit the sides of the cavern and exploded in clouds of spores.

They were fast filling up the cavern. Agent Mint's Stoutland was one of the unfortunate souls caught in the initial blast, and it went down.

Falkner clicked his tongue.

"WIND! Back entrance!" he ordered.

Strong winds blew into existence. In one swift, smooth motion, Falkner's birds stopped dreamlike dust from touching us. The spores traveled through air currents above our heads and out the back exit instead.

Meanwhile, the fight in the middle of the heavens and earth raged on.

Machamp One finally grabbed a hold of Arbok and held it in a deathlike grip. Muscles bulged as it squeezed, but no flesh flew through the air. The Fighting type was left holding an empty shell — a distinct mass of shed skin — as Arbok somersaulted, quickly sinking its fangs into Machamp's neck.

Ribbons wrapped around and strangled the snake before its fangs could penetrate too deeply.

Vel snarled as he wrenched Arbok away and tightened his hold. Light formed in his mouth, but he never got a chance to let it fly at its intended target. Deadly sharp needles of condensed poison shot towards him like bullets. Three stabbed the Sylveon before he could redirect the Hyper Beam at the newest contender, Beedrill, instead. The bug was annoyingly fast and had cloaked itself entirely in poison. It blurred out of view and away from the light that roared past. Brock's Crobat chased after it.

The window of opportunity Beedrill bought was for nothing.

Arbok had managed to wriggle out of Vel's hold, but another Machamp nearby snatched it out of the air and slammed it to the ground. A hidden fanged tail came out of nowhere for Machamp Two's neck. From the sky, Pidgeot came flying with outstretched talons and forced the Seviper to make an untimely retreat.

There was no one else to interfere. Vel pulled out the needles embedded in him without so much as a grunt. With emotionless eyes and blood matting his bright fur, Vel sharpened the end of one of his ribbons. It gleamed almost like a real blade, and he brought it down hard.

The Arbok line was notorious for being able to regrow lost body parts, but none of that mattered if the head was lost. Arbok's body went limp as its head was painfully severed.

I was surprised to hear a howl come from the other side of the cavern. I focused my gaze and found green eyes boring into mine. I couldn't see well from this far, but he looked furious… and distressed.

"YOU!" he bellowed.

Even criminals like him were capable of caring for their Pokemon it seemed. I couldn't afford to feel sorry, not when we were up against an evil that was more than willing to do the same to us.

One down.

As if spurred to action by the loss of one of their own, Proton's Pokemon gathered in a tighter formation around their trainer. They fought harder.

My mind whirled. None of Proton's Pokemon were falling easily. It was safe to categorize him as being at least on the level of an Elite Four, though the implications of that would have to be dwelled upon later. My head had to be fully here in the ongoing battle.

We had the obvious numbers advantage over Proton. It was four trainers against one. No matter how many more Pokemon Proton had in reserve, we had more. We could swap out our Pokemon whenever they got tired, but he couldn't do the same.

Proton knew that, too, but he clearly wanted to go down fighting. He hadn't attempted to escape even once.

My eyes darted across the field, assessing the fights currently going on and if any of my Pokemon needed specific orders from me. They landed on my two Ghosts.

A series of explosions rocked the battlefield as seeds wrapped in sludge peppered the ground one after the other. Fia and Mem flew in coordinated maneuvers away from a Swalot's onslaught, but they had to split up when a torrent of poison came raining from the sky. Proton's Crobat flew down soon after. It beat its slender wings rapidly.

Poison coalesced into shimmering crescents that spun violently through the air.

Shadows slipped out from underneath Mem's costume and formed independent clones. Each rose up to meet the incoming projectiles as shields, but one sickle of wind cleverly imbued with the power of U-Turn made a sharp swerve and slammed into Mem's main body. He caught himself mid-air, but…

His body was bent at an eerie angle. Part of his costume had even been sliced off, revealing a murky darkness underneath.

Mem remained unmoving in the air. A millisecond passed, and then—

A loud and distorted scream left his deceptively small figure, one so acute that Proton's Crobat wobbled mid-air due to sensitive hearing. My head snapped up as inky tears flowed like blood from the holes on his tattered cloth. They dribbled down, pooling into a shadowy puddle below. Harsh static noises filled the air as Mem repeated one word over and over to Crobat.

WHY? WHY? WHY?

"FOCUS!" I yelled over all the fighting. Mem had the most child-like personality out of all my Pokemon despite how old he actually was. "Make him apologize."

Darkness exploded outward from Mem before I even finished.

Dozens of shadowy claws and heads without faces extended like vines from the Mimikyu. Crobat kicked it into high gear and blurred through the air at incredible speeds, but he could not outrun the darkness coming for him. There were simply too many shadows, and they cried blood for blood. A claw eventually clipped one of his wingtips.

The moment Crobat tumbled through the air, the rest of the shadowy entourage caught up. He was grabbed and shaken violently while faceless things howled angrily in his face.

SAY SORRY. PLAY WITH US, they screamed, but they did not wait for Crobat's answer.

Just like a child handling a toy, the shadows ripped one of Crobat's wings clean from his body. His pained screech cut off as red light swallowed him. Proton had managed to recall him before more damage could be done.

Two were out now— no, three.

The ground erupted in a tempest of acid-soaked sand. Two Pokemon landed with heavy thuds on the ground: Hippowdon and Drapion. The former's powerful jaws were locked around Drapion's segmented body. The hippo moved to tear him in two, but he was interrupted.

Hippowdon let go and roared with absolute pain.

A terribly long and sharp horn had impaled his side courtesy of Nidoking. Giovanni immediately moved to recall his Pokemon, but a shadowy figure — Gengar — darted out of the ground and used its solidified body as a shield. The red light from the Pokeball wasn't allowed to touch Hippowdon's body and bounced off Gengar instead. Preventing the recall of one's Pokemon was a cruel but valid tactic in this life-and-death fight.

Bruno and I had other plans. We yelled orders to the closest Pokemon. Machamp Three and Grima hurriedly tore themselves away from their current opponents to rescue Hippowdon. Dark, spinning rings blasted Gengar back into the floor as Machamp grabbed Nidoking and pulled him away from Hippowdon with herculean strength.

It was only when Giovanni finally recalled his Pokemon that I saw viscous liquid seeping from Nidoking's appendage in sinister amounts. Nidoking slammed an elbow into Machamp's face and used his other arm to shove the half-conscious Drapion back to safety. He barely made it before he was bowled over.

Giovanni had let out his own Nidoking, and the two titans split the ground in their ensuing struggle. Chunks of earth and other debris flew everywhere.

A particularly large rock flew towards Swalot nearby, but the amorphous Pokemon simply opened its mouth and swallowed it without batting an eye. He did the same as my Flutter Mane bombarded him with glowing rocks in all the colors of the rainbow. The Power Gems were digested with seemingly no end in sight.

One of Bruno's Machamp came out swinging from behind in an assist. Swalot was too large and slow on its own, but it had a workaround. Acid rapidly coated the ground in thick, goopy layers from Swalot's mouth. The Pokemon then slid across the terrain it had created for itself, ugly splashes echoing in the wake of its evasive maneuvers. It was so busy fending off Machamp's dizzying array of punches and kicks that it did not notice the monstrosity growing behind it.

This whole time, Lico had been helping Brock's Crobat track down the Beedrill darting around the field, but he switched targets now and bounced over to Fia. Fangs peeked out of a blob-like mouth as he opened it wide. A tiny sun rose up above our heads, but its size mattered not. Lico had adjusted the Sunny Day enough that it wouldn't impede our allies.

The air still warped from intense heat and light. Layers of glistening sweat instantly formed over my skin even with a barrier around me, and it was worse for the more fragile Pokemon on the field.

The heat only cooled down with the emergence of another cosmic entity. Pale light shimmered and formed a delicate moon in front of Fia, and unlike the Sunny Day, this orb radiated nothing but the cold. Her yellow-red eyes glowed with a sinister hue as feathery appendages elongated. In silence, the sun was snatched from above and sewn into the moon's half-hollow interior. The two became one.

It bubbled. It hissed. It fluctuated wildly in place as if it would explode at a moment's notice.

Light poured out in wide, fragmented rays. The result was so horrifically divine that I had to avert my gaze or be blinded forever. The orb swelled to an unbelievable size as two opposing forces screamed. They were fire and ice, chaos and silence, and they wanted to be let out.

The Flutter Mane obliged. Fia threw the pulsating energy straight at Swalot.

Bruno's Machamp kicked itself away from the blast zone, but Swalot could not do the same. The mix of heat and cold the orb radiated burned and froze everything in its radius. Any acid on the floor had long disappeared, and there was no use spraying more.

Swalot opted to swallow the attack instead and opened its mouth wide. The orb disappeared inside.

The cavern shook briefly as Swalot imploded.

Viscous purple goo went flying in all directions. Some splattered against my Protect shield, but Silque calmly wiped it clean. I eyed the bits and pieces of Swalot that slid down and squirmed weakly on the ground. A rancid scent drifted through the air from scorched flesh. Lunar and solar energies alike had ripped Swalot apart from the inside out. The amorphous Pokemon was still alive, but it was going to take an arduous amount of effort and time to put itself back together.

Four were out of the picture now—

A frustrated yell from Proton changed things. Amidst dust and smoke kicked up from ongoing fights, I barely made out the traces of his figure clicking Pokeballs on his belt. Flashes of red light mixed together and filled the cavern once more. A Weezing, Nidoqueen, and Gloom appeared to replace the fallen fighters. The Gloom was an interesting choice. It seemed to suggest that Proton didn't have a lot of Pokemon left in reserve after all.

It also brought with it an odor so foul that I actually stumbled in place.

All Pokemon in the room immediately upgraded shields around their trainers to keep the smell out. I'd already felt like I was on the verge of fainting with just one sniff, so perhaps that was why Proton had sent out Gloom… as a desperate last measure to knock out the trainers.

He only succeeded in making some grunts in the room topple over. Most of them had been taken care of already by our allies, but the others were fast succumbing to the nauseous scent. Soon enough, Clair and the others would be able to join us.

"He's getting desperate!" Bruno yelled, fighting to be heard above the din.

"Yes, and cornered animals fight harder!" Giovanni shot back. "Don't underestimate him."

"We know," I said grimly. "We have to keep pressing him anyway."

My eyes never left the battlefield. Our Pokemon were slowly pushing closer to Proton and the Amoonguss protecting him. We just had to get through the ring of Pokemon around them first.

Falkner's eyes also swept over the field in scrutiny.

"Beedrill and Seviper," we both said at the same time, and we looked at each other in mutual understanding. The Pokemon we'd pointed out were the ones providing the most support to their heavy-hitting teammates. Amoonguss was the worst offender, but he had given up any chance for assists to focus entirely on shielding his trainer now.

Falkner nodded to the rest of us. "Let's get rid of those two first. They're the weakest, and it'll open holes in their formation."

My jaw clenched.

"Let's go."

The ground rippled violently under our feet. Something was tunneling down there at a steady, rhythmic pace, and Giovanni called out to it.

The Pokemon in the meat of the fighting had to disengage as warm, roiling sands exploded from cracks in the ground. Eventually, a part of the floor itself caved in as a living ball of spikes flew out on a one-way track for Proton. Gengar was hot on Sandslash's heels. The sight of the Ground type sailing over their heads caught the enemy's undivided attention long enough for the rest of our Pokemon to move as one.

Walls of earth conjured by Giovanni's Nidoking catapulted our Pokemon forward. Bruno's two uninjured Machamp slammed into Scolipede and buried it underneath a mass of flailing limbs. Lucario finally got a leg up over the Toxicroak it'd been fighting and slammed an ethereal club into its back. It stumbled, letting the Aura Pokemon rain down a series of palm techniques for free. On its other side, Giovanni's Nidoking fought another of its kind as well as Proton's Nidoqueen. Fia and Mem alleviated the pressure on him by flying toward the opposing trainer. Seeing that, Proton's Nidoking immediately broke away from its current fight and stomped its foot. Geysers of steaming poison shot out of the ground to block their paths. From above, a Weezing expunged fumes in a double effort to keep them away.

Something — a curled up Sandslash — hurtled from the sky, but Vel caught the Pokemon with a flurry of ribbons. A Hyper Beam ripped through the air after the perpetrator, Gengar, but Vel had to cut it short and dart away when needles embedded themselves in the ground around them. Each set off a mini explosion of its own.

It was Beedrill again, and this time, he had to flee rather than chase as the rest of our forces specifically targeted him. The wind sang as Brock's Crobat and Falkner's birds dove at him from different angles, gradually luring the bee away from the rest of his team. Gloom caught onto what was happening and tried to warn the others, but its mouth was forcibly sewn shut. My Scream Tail picked Gloom up and slammed it headfirst into the ground like a ragdoll, eyes glowing a bright gold from the use of psychic powers. Amoonguss looked like it wanted to help, but it could not let down the Protect shielding its trainer, especially not when we were getting so close.

Seviper was nowhere to be seen. It was somewhere out there on the field, hiding within the mess of bodies and smoke while biding its time.

From across the field, Grima caught my eye for the briefest of moments before he looked away. The Grimmsnarl weaved in and out of the fight's perimeter. He shot silent balls of darkness through the gaps and chose a brief moment of respite, purposely taking much too large of a step back. He strayed too far out of our side's defensive line—

And a tail tipped with frothing poison came inches away from his eye.

The snake had revealed itself. Seviper had seized the opportunity it saw, but Grima had been ready. Thick hair twisted around the snake's tail and held it firmly at bay. One brief tug, and Grima grunted. He'd been left holding a cast of shed skin that leaked poison into his skin. Arbok was not the only one capable of shedding their skin instantaneously as a last form of escape. Seviper darted back into the chaos of the battlefield.

It tried to at least. It ran headfirst into a psychic barrier instead, and again when it jumped the other way. A sphere of psychic energy gradually closed in on it.

Lico was done incapacitating Gloom. He floated above Seviper's head now and waved his hands.

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The sphere rapidly shrunk in on itself and squeezed Seviper. The trapped snake writhed and screamed with agony, rasping for air where none could be found. Its eyes grew bloodshot as it slowly suffocated to death.

The sound of something shattering filled the air.

A laser beam of sheer darkness had suddenly penetrated the barrier at the risk of collateral damage. Seviper fell to the floor, unconscious but barely alive, as Gengar turned its rage now on Lico. Spheres whispering insidious, cruel suggestions flew out of dark portals at my Pokemon.

Seviper wasn't an issue anymore. My eyes snapped over to the Beedrill situation as Lico kept Gengar busy.

Beedrill was getting tired. It had been flitting from one of the battlefield to the other this whole time with sniping assists, and now it had to expend more effort simply keeping itself safe. Pressurized blades of wind flew out and nearly cut its wings in two, but Beedrill veered left in time. Instead of flying away, it made the strange decision to double back. It braved a storm of wind and blurred forward, ever forward… Where was it going?

Something sparkled from a gap in the poison coating Beedrill's body like armor. There was a similar flash by Proton's body, and my mind connected the dots faster than anything I'd ever had before. We couldn't let Beedrill get any closer to his trainer.

"LICO! Six o'clock!" I roared.

There was no time for Gengar. Lico willingly let a ball of sinister energy explode against his back as he turned and screamed.

Intense light boosted by fairy aura flew out in a single white-hot beam.

It wouldn't have reached its target in time, but Lico spurred it on with psychic energy. The beam accelerated and ripped through the air, heading straight for the path directly in front of Beedrill. It made contact with empty air—

And the world grew distorted.

The world was ours to break. A pocket in reality shattered under Lico's will, and with it, the rules that tethered our plane and guided our actions. The air on that side of the cavern warped. Hundreds of colors like a kaleidoscope spinning upside down were refracted in the immediate vicinity of the explosion. Reality was out of whack, and Beedrill was overwhelmed by the glimpse into the unknown. It didn't know where it was going anymore. It couldn't understand anything. It dropped like a fly, and I quickly yelled out a warning.

"GET THE MEGA STONE!"

Multiple heads on our side snapped up with alarm. Falkner was the fastest on the uptake. His birds descended on their prey. Proton's Nidoking, the core of his team and ever the guardian, released a devastating series of drills from the ground to spear them with.

I threw a hand out. "VEL!"

He was already moving. The entire cavern seemed to dim with the appearance of a moon. Tendrils of light wrapped around it once, twice, thrice over as it spun through the air. It wasn't faster than the drills, but it didn't need to be.

The moon howled, sucking anything nearby into its embrace. The drills spinning through the air stuttered in place and wobbled violently. They fought to fly onward, but they were being called back.

And so they inevitably fell, wrenched away from their natural flight into the moon's orbit and ground into bits of sand and stone.

There was nothing stopping Falkner and his birds now. Pidgeot slammed Beedrill to the ground. A red light shot forward from Proton's Pokeball, but it was too late. Pidgeot had already plucked the Beedrillite hidden beneath Beedrill's layer of poison before the recall, yet there was no time to celebrate. The bird flew to safety before Gengar could choke it with shadows.

Proton snarled with displeasure.

I breathed out a sigh of relief I hadn't known I was holding. My guess had turned out right after all. That had been a Mega Stone Beedrill was carrying. There was no way of knowing now if it would have turned the tides of the battle, but it was one less factor to worry about.

I offered a brief smile to Falkner. The blue-haired male actually offered one back to me, but only after he used a trembling hand to wipe sweat away from his brow.

We'd drawn things out long enough. Now was the time to end things.

Our guards were up more than ever after the reveal of the Mega Stone, but we urged our Pokemon forward. They converged on their enemies with renewed vigor.

Proton's Pokemon were desperate. They dug their heels into the ground and refused to give way, but it was a losing battle. We were pushing them back faster than before. In any other situation, I would have admired the intensity of their desire to keep their trainer safe.

We were so close now that I could finally make out the Rocket Executive's features. Proton was smiling—

Proton was smiling?

That wasn't— That wasn't the look of someone who had resigned themselves to their fate, either. It was the look of someone who'd gotten the last laugh, but I couldn't figure out why. I didn't have enough time. None of us did.

One blink.

One single blink, and then the world went dark under a torrential wave of sludge.

Visceral sounds — squelches and sloshing alike — filled my ears in a never-ending cascade. My vision was full of purple gunk that flew up into the air and temporarily drowned out any source of light. It flooded the field, swamped it, and tried to bury our Pokemon underneath its viscous folds. They scattered in the wake of acid splattering everywhere. The ground buckled and steamed. Mother earth cried out in agony as she withered away, poison infiltrating crevices and melting everything in sight.

Above all, a terrible smell pervaded the air. The psychic barrier around me kept it out, but outside, noxious fumes danced through the air and mixed with a smell so rotten that it was as if we were sitting in a bed of fresh corpses.

The sea of sludge swayed constantly for it was certainly alive. Small eyeballs peeked out from amidst the sea of vile purple, and they spun in all directions. A grotesque smile stretched wide at another point, formed by bits of blackened sludge. The moving abomination of putrid sludge and filth — a massive Muk — did not care what it touched, only for what it could corrode and destroy.

Muk was one of the species on an international list of Pokemon that needed permission from a regional League for ownership, and there was a reason for it. A very simple and distinct one.

They were quite literally living biohazards capable of destroying entire environments, and in the hands of an elite trainer?

This was a poison that truly festered.

The Muk had stretched itself out as far as it could go. Everything around it was melting away like sand drifting through an hourglass, and the damage it wrought affected foes and allies alike.

One of Bruno's Machamp had ferried Vel and Sandslash away from the initial overflow, but those few seconds it took to grab them had cost the Pokemon its skin. One of its legs had melted down to a stub, and the other was soon to join it. Bruno recalled the fighter before it could suffer any longer. Skarmory lay on the ground nearby. Proton's Nidoking had sniped it down from the sky mere moments before Muk struck. Acid still ate voraciously at the steel plating covering the bird's feathers, and Falkner quickly returned it. Our other Pokemon had gotten away with light poisoning and far less serious injuries. Proton's side hadn't gotten away scot-free, either. His Nidoqueen's armor had melted down to the skin in four different spots, and several other Pokemon bore purple splotches that bloomed across their skin.

Muk's poison was an acid so strong that it affected everything regardless of typing. That was how deadly the poison it had accumulated into itself over the years was and where its specialty lay.

Grima was the only one of my Pokemon with a rough injury, a sizzling hole right through his dominant arm that was rapidly expanding. He calmly patched it up with his hair for the time being, but I recalled him anyway. The only reason I wasn't panicking was because I knew it could be regrown with Ditto cells. I was busy thinking about the Muk even as our Pokemon began to regroup.

How had we missed it—

The Gloom.

I clenched my jaw. Proton had released his Muk in the same batch as the fresh fighters, but we hadn't seen it because it had emerged in a Minimized form. Gloom had been sent out first to trick our olfactory senses. With an odor as intense as the one Gloom were known for, we wouldn't have noticed the smell of Muk mixed in as it crawled around the field with Minimize.

I hated to say it, but it was clever.

"That's too bad. I thought more of you would be taken out," Proton said with a click of his tongue. He said something else, but we didn't hear him.

More Pokemon were already being sent out on our side of the field.

Losing your cool in a high-stakes match like this was literally a death sentence, so we remained calm. We didn't feel very threatened anyway. We'd always held onto the numerical advantage, and we would keep doing so. Proton's little trick with Muk was merely a temporary thorn in our sides. He could only delay the inevitable as he struggled.

I said earlier I wasn't panicking, but it wasn't like I felt nothing. No, a cold and quiet fury had seeped into my bones. The other Pokemon were already moving, but I said my directive loud enough for my own to hear.

"Get rid of it."

To try and deceive Fairies was to invite their anger. A price had to be paid, and Fairies always… always… collected their dues.

Holes opened in the ground, swallowing as much filth as it could.

A Dugtrio fresh out of its Pokeball tunneled rapidly to clear the field, but this Muk was not going to go quietly into the night. It had been sent out for one duty only, and that was to keep destroying everything.

Rancid sludge oozing into the abyss of the earth swam back up through whatever nooks and crannies it could find. If none were found, then it simply made its own. Everything it touched corroded and gave way to the poison gradually coming for us all.

We would not allow it.

Across the ground mired in despair, Lucario and a newly-appeared Medicham leaped from one point to another, yet they somehow did not crumble away. In their eyes gleamed a resolve to keep moving, and that resolve had solidified itself into a living will. A faint but powerful veil wrapped around their bodies while they hunted for Muk's core, blasting parts of its body with spheres of Aura as they went. The spiritual light kept the poison that grabbed at their ankles at bay.

To Fight was to unite the mind and body as one, and with it, strengthen the soul to overcome all obstacles.

Proton's Pokemon stepped willingly into the wasteland to meet them. Poison coursed through their veins as they waded through the sludge that was their ally, but they possessed no fear, only a primal instinct to protect. Most of our Pokemon had to engage them from afar because of Muk. The Pokemon was continuously expanding at the risk of killing the identity that held it together in the first place. Huge bubbles in its sizzling, steaming surface popped erratically and sprayed acid droplets everywhere. Some landed on us. Some landed on the opposition. The shield around me hissed and cracked from the ensuing impact. The point was that nowhere was safe, yet Muk still hungered for more. A dip formed in its surface as it willed a part of itself to rise. The wave rose over the heads of our allied forces. It signaled a second flood, one greater than the first—

But Muk stuttered in place.

In the midst of screams and poison that ran ever deeper, a light slowly emerged.

The giant serpent coiled around my body silently raised his head. From the Milotic's mouth, a faint orb grew ever larger. He let it go, and the small moon spun upwards into the air. It stopped at the tallest point of the cavern's ceiling. Rays of soft, beautiful light beamed down. Nobody paid attention to it except for the sea of sludge below.

Muk was the sole intended audience.

Look at me, the moon whispered. Don't look away. Don't fight it.

Its rays created spots of dappled moonlight on Muk. Wherever the moon's light touched, ice began to spread. The living sludge didn't notice. The will to fight was being drained from it. Across the field, the toxic wasteland began to settle and freeze over. It was slowly forgetting about the rage that had built up inside it.

What was it fighting for again?

While Muk remained in a mesmerized state, the room grew warm. Another Sunny Day came into play from Fia's feathery appendages. Someone else needed it this time.

Lico flew up to the Moonblast hanging high above and ate it.

The sun bore down on Lico's back. An almost involuntary shudder of delight ran through the Scream Tail as he chewed. All the while, he absorbed the power of the sunlight for his own. He only needed a moment.

Then a moon five times the size of his small body was spat out, and it screamed for violence.

Muk was still bewitched as the raging, bloodthirsty moon descended, but something primal stirred within it. It knew on an instinctive level that it would die if it did not move, and it was that animalistic fear that helped it regain some sense of reasoning. Ice cracked along its surface as it groaned and shifted.

All of its attention was on the incoming projectile. It ignored everyone else on the field and shot geysers, balls of condensed sludge, everything in its power to stop that singular moon, all because it knew.

It knew it would not survive the impact.

Sludge splattered against the moon again and again. Layer after layer was stripped away, but that was the thing.

Beliefs ran deep.

They could be corroded and torn asunder, but they would never truly die.

Muk backpedaled, solidifying itself into hardened sludge mere inches away from the Moonblast—

It was said already, was it not? Fairies always collected their dues, and they never lied.

The wasteland broke upon contact.

It froze over completely. A tundra was laid out bare for the world to see, and Muk—

It shattered into thousands of pieces. The frozen bits of sludge scattered wildly across the cavern floor, but they'd lost the ability to move on their own. A small, half-broken shard crawled along the floor.

A spear of light instantly stabbed it before it could take another inch.

Lucario stared down coldly as Muk's core, the small sludge that had been the start of its identity, fell limp forever.

Giovanni's Ground types began rapidly patching up the field without any orders. Our Pokemon could finally engage in close-combat again, and I chanced a look at Proton. His jaw was clenched, but he still looked relaxed.

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Even as chaos reigned on the dwindling battlefield, I watched him carefully from the corner of my eye. He shouted a few orders, drummed a finger nervously against his Pokeball, and gave the most surreptitious glance to somewhere behind me…

I snapped my head around. There was nothing there, or so I thought.

Just like how we'd targeted specific Pokemon to break down Proton's formation, he'd decided to do the same to us.

There was one difference: he went for a trainer in our backline.

Time seemed to slow down as long appendages materialized out of nowhere and stabbed at Clair.

There were dozens of tentacles. Each had sharpened its end into a razor sharp blade coated with poison, and they were relentless. They stabbed at the shield surrounding Clair at instantaneous speeds.

Ten strikes. The shield held strong.

Twenty strikes. It began to fracture.

Thirty-five strikes, and the shield finally shattered completely.

One of the two Dragonair coiled around Clair reacted fast enough for strikes thirty-six through forty, and it shoved its body in front of Clair's neck. The blade meant for her speared the dragon's body instead. Clair's eyes began to widen.

The other Dragonair didn't need to sacrifice itself for the forty-first strike and onward. Silque read my thoughts and intentions, and she moved as I spoke.

"Cla—"

Light sprang into being around Clair once more and intercepted more poisonous jabs. The air around the tentacles rippled, revealing a brief hint of a dark lower body.

Then Silque's eyes glowed, and an eerily silent moon was Teleported in front of the perpetrator.

"—ir!"

At the tail end of my shout, the unknown Pokemon was blasted into the nearest wall. Its surroundings rippled violently as the rest of its body seeped back into existence.

It was a Tentacruel, and it had been hiding itself through a mixture of hydrokinesis and Acid Armor.

My shout briefly drew the attention of the others. Clair's Dragonite threw a grunt into the wall and roared with fury, leaving the main battlefield to go handle the assassin. Meanwhile, the Blackthorn Gym Leader threw out more Pokeballs to help deal with Tentacruel — Salamence and Aerodactyl — as she recalled her wounded Dragonair with another. She caught my eye, and she nodded her thanks to me before I swung my head back to the Proton fight.

He glared at me.

There wasn't time to talk. Almost everybody in the room had been apprehended. There were only two left: Proton the Executive and one middle-aged grunt that I now had to assume was actually a little higher-up on the ladder instead. That Rocket member barely managed to link up with Proton through a gap in all the fighting. He tossed out a half-injured Hitmonlee, Rhydon, and Arbok to help reinforce their side of the fight, but his action didn't help tip the odds in their favor at all.

Our numerical advantage ballooned again at this point.

Clair, Brock, and the Interpol agents were finally free to join us. They stood back at the perimeter to guard the entrance and exit, but they were at least able to contribute some of their Pokemon.

It was a bloodbath.

Bodies were bowled over. Teeth sank into flesh. Poison sprayed everywhere with complete disregard for where it went. Now with free reign of the air, Falkner's birds and noble dragons alike rained down hell. Blue fire in particular razed the ground. Wherever it landed, dark liquids shriveled and refused to spread. The flames rose up as additional layers of protection around each trainer's shield, including mine. I briefly caught Clair's eye.

Dragons reigned with ultimate authority, for nothing could exist above them, only below.

Proton's head was bowed. His previous nonchalant facade had crumbled entirely. He didn't have any hidden cards left to play. Still, his Pokemon fought on.

"GIVE UP!"

An unexpected roar echoed.

It was Giovanni. He spoke in a calm, level voice, but the Viridian Gym Leader's expression was contorted with fury as he stared at the Rocket Executive standing across from us.

"There's only one way this battle will end," Giovanni warned. "The League will take you in, and they're not going to go easy on you. If you want some leniency, then surrender. Tell us what Team Rocket's up to, NOW!"

A few seconds trickled by. Screams and attacks continued to go off.

Eventually, Proton raised his head. He didn't flinch even when the barrier around him almost broke from an Air Cutter, and his Amoonguss quickly repaired it.

Rage still burned in Proton's eyes bright as day.

"Oh please, you think I don't know what you'll do?" Proton scoffed. He swept his hair back with a gloved hand. "You'll rip my brain apart and kill me. You'll probably do the same even if I confess. So, I only have two options here: either I die at the League, or I die where I stand. I don't plan on dying a dog's death."

His eyes flashed.

"You're all coming with me."

The implications sank in quickly when he whistled for his Weezing.

He was insane. He was going to blow up the cavern and bury us all under the mountain.

"GRAB IT!"

"STOP—"

My yell mixed with a few others, but Weezing just barely managed to duck for cover behind his few remaining allies. Nidoking pulled up slabs of earth as shields, but Giovanni's Nidoking slammed them right back down.

Clair's Kingdra didn't wait for Weezing to begin. It was a Pokemon that naturally dampened its surroundings from its ability, but it added more moisture now by expelling thick amounts of vapor into the air around it.

I expected an explosion to go off before Kingdra even finished, but nothing happened.

What the hell?

Of all things, Proton was locked in an argument with his Weezing and the one remaining Rocket grunt. At least, I was pretty sure they were judging by their unhappy faces. I couldn't hear too well above the increase in noise level.

I didn't care.

"Blast 'em," I ordered Lico.

Psychic waves slammed front and center into Proton's frontline on top of a wave of other attacks. They were about to finally topple like a row of dominoes when two closely-timed explosions went off.

Neither of them were ours.

The back exit — which had been walled off by Brock — had been blown wide open. Scorching winds and fading embers would have swept directly into my face if not for the Protect around me. I barely had time to register the sizzling marks left on stone walls before something blurred out of the tunnels, nearly bowling Brock over in the process. Kabutops made a swing at the intruder as it passed by, but his scythes cut through empty air.

It was a red-haired woman on an Arcanine, one so incredibly agile that it zipped right through the meat of the fighting to Proton's side. There was a gash on her arm that had copious amounts of blood flowing from it, almost as if she'd just gotten out of a fight. She took one brief look at the Weezing next to Proton before bubbling over with anger. She stuck her hand out.

"Do NOT die here, idiot! COME ON!" she screamed.

Who was this woman, and where had she come from? She didn't wear a uniform, but I had a feeling she was a Rocket.

They devolved into an argument that I couldn't make out. Our forces were already fighting again. Multiple Pokemon blasted the Rockets from above with moves. Arcanine blew out flames in a wide arc to fend them off, and Nidoking assisted by tearing earth from the walls and using them as flying drills. They and the other Pokemon were so, so tired at this point, but they used their bodies as meat shields for the trainers and willingly let attacks slice into their skin.

I could finally make out conversation again during a lull in the battle's noise level.

"Ariana, I'm not leaving Swalot!"

"You have to!"

"Then I want to kill the League forces at least—"

"NOW OR NEVER, PROTON!"

Proton didn't have a chance to argue because our uninvited guest made the choice for him. In what I thought was a stupid, reckless move, she threw herself off her Arcanine's back and ran right into the path of incoming projectiles. A Moonblast and Air Slash seemingly hit her, but the air around her form fractured and tore apart instead.

I SEE YOU—

HATE HATE HATE—

WHERE ARE YOU?

Malevolent screams clawed at my mind again.

The woman named 'Ariana' hadn't been trying to get herself killed. She had a strange shield like Proton's, and she'd used it against us as a mental attack.

This wave was far worse than the last, because this time, it felt like something was peeking into my mind and trying to rip it open from the inside out.

It fucking hurt.

Every living thing in that room fell to its knees aside from the Rockets. I barely registered Proton hurriedly recalling all of his Pokemon except for two.

Through my blurry vision, I saw Proton grunt with pain as muted light flashed from underneath his sleeve. The Pokemon next to him, his Gengar, rolled out its tongue to reveal a stone radiating brilliant hues. The Ghost expanded outwards and changed forms.

It had gone Mega, but not without a price.

Proton heaved up a wave of blood. He very nearly face planted into the earth, too, had it not been for Ariana. She held him steady. Meanwhile, Mega Gengar swayed from side to side from the mega bond growing dim.

My mind tried to make sense of what was happening between all the pain.

Proton— He'd baited us into thinking his Beedrill was the only one who could Mega Evolve and used it as a distraction. He'd been hiding a Gengarite all along. Why only use it now?

I got my answer when Ariana and her Pokemon jumped into Mega Gengar's shadow and disappeared.

The Mega Evolution wasn't to attack. It was to escape.

Proton had stayed this whole time, fought this whole time… all because he valued the idea of killing us more than escaping, but Ariana had forced his hand. Now he had to go through with the contingency plan he'd never wanted to use.

A feeble whisper left my lips. I hoped one of my Pokemon had recovered enough from the mental debilitation to stop them, but nobody responded.

Proton and the remaining grunt grabbed two of the few crates in the cavern that were still intact and tossed them into the shadows. When they finished, Proton threw a fleeting look over his shoulder.

Weezing smiled at him, and something else moved in the corner of my eye. It was a small piece of Swalot. The amorphous Pokemon was still nowhere close to fixing itself yet considering bits and pieces of it were strewn all over the cavern, but it had just enough strength left.

The piece of sludge morphed its top half into the shape of a tiny, blob-like arm and waved weakly.

They were both saying farewell, and Proton knew. His look was one of pain as he turned away and jumped into the shadow.

The last Rocket moved to do the same, but he didn't make it.

Someone finally responded to my earlier whisper.

I smiled triumphantly when ribbons flew wide and wrapped around the grunt's ankles. Vel was on the ground, but he bore through the mental pain and gritted his teeth. Mega Gengar tried to snatch the man back; in response, Vel gave a vicious yank. The man flew backwards out of Mega Gengar's reach, and it didn't have time to try again.

The Ghost wobbled precariously. The link between it and its trainer was rapidly deteriorating, and the Mega Evolution was about to come undone.

Snarling, Mega Gengar had to make the hard choice before anyone else recovered. It disappeared into the ground. I already knew there was no way of tracking them, not when Mega Gengar were notorious for their ways of travel, and I bit the inside of my lip.

We'd lost Proton.

I wasn't sure if the fresh pain in my mouth helped or not, but the damn screams bouncing around in my head finally stopped a full two seconds later. People and Pokemon started to get up.

We were right on time for the impending disaster. Proton and Ariana were gone, yes, but Weezing was still here.

It wanted to carry out its trainer's final order now that Proton's safety had been assured.

Gases were released into the air, and I saw the earlier vapors Kingdra had released being extinguished by Weezing. It was a master of manipulating any form of gas, and it was getting ready to go kaboom.

There was no time, my head was still spinning from lingering nausea but—

"SHIELDS!" Giovanni and I both roared.

Protects went up—

Brock yelled something to his Pokemon—

Silque barely wrapped the whole cavern with a barrier—

Weezing glowed white and lit the gas connected to it with a Flamethrower—

And the world exploded.

Compressed air burst forth at supersonic speeds. Hot smoke and flames screamed past and would have burned our skins clean off if not for shields. Even with shields that helped block out smell and sound, my ears rang from the intensity of the explosion. It was devastatingly powerful to the point where the cavern refused to stop shaking violently, and why wouldn't it be? An Elite-tier Pokemon had willingly exchanged its own life as fuel to make the explosion stronger, to bury us under this mountain.

Our shields were close to shattering. I almost thought we weren't going to make it.

The cavern shook…

And shook…

And shook some more until finally, it stopped.

I'd closed my eyes at some point, but I opened them now with some degree of hesitation.

Weezing was gone. So were the bits and pieces of Swalot, the crates, and everything else in the room. They'd all burned to ashes.

We, at least, were all still alive. The second thing I checked was the cavern's walls.

The barrier I'd mentally screamed for Silque to put up before the explosion had thankfully held, but just barely. Parts of it had broken apart from the blast. The barrier had at least served its purpose. It had contained the impact of the explosion within its folds so that we wouldn't have a cave in.

The biggest contributor to our lives still being intact was a leader in our ranks.

Rock was the cradle and the embrace, the foundation that stood firm and unyielding in order to protect others.

Mere moments before everything went to shit, Brock's Pokemon had layered masterfully thick walls of stone around us. A rock snake had also been released from its Pokeball in time, and the Onix now raised its head. It had curled its entire body around us during the explosion. Heat rose from its horrifically charred boulders, but Onix didn't seem to be in pain. Even more astonishing was the fact that Brock and his Pokemon had managed to save the majority of the unconscious grunts in the room, too. Not all of them had rock fortresses built around them in time, but most were alive and could be taken back to HQ for questioning.

We were all alive. That was the most important bit.

Our little captured friend had also survived thanks to us, and it was time to reap the efforts of our seemingly botched operation.

Any frustration about Proton and Ariana getting away had to be put on hold. As one, we approached the Rocket member on the ground. Now that I was actually paying attention, this guy didn't dress like a typical grunt. His uniform was a little different. Ribbons tied his feet and hands together, and his mouth was held open by psychic energy. Surprisingly enough, he stared at us with hatred rather than fear. Vel snarled menacingly and tightened his ribbons, but that didn't make him cower at all.

I'd have to reward Lico later for his quick thinking. It would have been terrible if the Rocket had offed himself before we could interrogate him.

In quick, practiced motions, Looker and Mint promptly inspected the man for hidden capsules in the mouth or any other dangerous things on his person.

"We should just rip the information out of him right now," Giovanni said while they searched. He crossed his arms and tapped fingers against one of them impatiently. "We lost Proton and that red-haired woman. We need at least something now to make this operation worth it."

"True, or we could hold off and hand him over to Sabrina later," Bruno suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. "She's always telling Lance that ripping things out isn't as easy as it seems. What if something goes wrong and he dies before we get everything?"

"What does Interpol think?" I said after a moment's pause. We turned to look at the true investigators among us.

Looker and Mint looked up at us from where they knelt on the floor.

"While… ripping information from one's mind does get the job done, it does come with the risk of memories becoming fragmented in the process. I would like to conduct a more humane method of interrogation first as per Interpol guidelines," Looker said in a slow yet polite tone. He cleared his throat. "If you wouldn't mind humoring us, that is."

Giovanni didn't exactly look pleased, but he nodded. So did the rest of us. I supposed we all just wanted to interrogate the grunt already.

Both Interpol agents stood back up, but only one reached for his belt and clicked a Pokeball. A Bronzong appeared in the air.

"Check his mind first. Anything unusual?" Mint asked.

The Bronzong did not verbally reply, but its eyes glowed as it focused on the man. A few moments passed before Mint nodded.

"Mind hasn't been tampered with," he informed the rest of us. He then turned away to address his Pokemon again. "Hypnosis, and keep it gentle. We want to talk to him."

Ripping memories out of minds was the Kanto-Johto preferred way of doing things. It was also a method Geeta liked using because she hated wasting time, but not all governments or organizations operated the same. Hypnosis was a more peaceful alternative when conducted by skilled Psychics.

Bronzong's eyes glowed more brightly. It locked eyes with the Rocket member on the floor. He tried to avert his gaze, but Vel held his head in place while Bronzong forced his eyes open. The moment the man met the Psychic type's eyes, it was over.

All the tension left his body. His eyes closed briefly. When they fluttered open a few moments later, glazed eyes stared back at us.

Mint immediately began talking in a friendly, conversational tone.

"What's your name?"

"Logan Nakiura."

"What rank do you possess within Team Rocket?"

"I'm an elite officer."

"Okay Logan, can you explain the ranks of Team Rocket? Do you know how many of you there are?"

He couldn't give us exact numbers because he didn't know. He didn't know who the boss was either. Logan did, however, give us a better glimpse into Team Rocket's hierarchy.

First up were the Executives. Frowns went around as Logan listed two new names in addition to the one we already knew… as well as one we'd just heard of minutes ago.

Proton. Ariana. Archer. Petrel.

Those were the four Executives of Team Rocket, and they each had two Vice Leaders who could supposedly match a Gym Leader in battle. Under them were Elite Officers and Grunts. Not the best news, but we were finally getting some useful intel.

This was all assuming this information was correct, of course.

"What was Team Rocket doing here in Mount Moon?"

"We were gathering Moon Stones and Fossils. I don't know why, but Ariana wanted them. We also tried to find the Clefairy for her, but we couldn't locate a single one."

"I see. By the way, how long have you been with Team Rocket, Logan?"

His next words made everyone physically pause in place.

"I joined two years before the Rocket War."

Heads snapped up. This was huge.

We'd finally found an Arceus damned remnant of the old Team Rocket.

Giovanni looked like he was struggling not to grab the man by his neck and shake him for answers. Even Bruno, ever the stern and calm one, seemed a little worked up. One of his fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

To his credit, Mint continued the interrogation in a calm voice.

"Is that so? Do you know why Team Rocket was formed then? What are they after?"

And for the second time in the span of one minute, Logan dropped a bomb on us.

"Because we couldn't forgive Indigo. Kantonians and Johtonians alike— You all betrayed your homelands to become a single country. ROCKET will prevail."

We didn't have time to ruminate on those disturbing words.

More than one person jolted in place when Logan's glazed-over eyes started leaking blood. Judging by the panicked look on Mint's face, this wasn't supposed to happen.

Logan smiled at us, and I was pretty damn sure he wasn't under Hypnosis anymore.

"All of you… you're traitors, and we're going to set things right. I may die today, but I'll die in peace knowing Proton and Ariana escaped. We rise again."

"What are you—"

Alarmed shouts rang out from multiple sources when Logan started spasming on the ground. Something was definitely wrong.

Mint shouted orders to his Bronzong, but the Psychic type was already working on it.

Moments later, Logan went still. A pleased smile was etched onto his face.

He was dead.

"What just happened?!" Giovanni all but demanded. He was furious. "We just lost our greatest source of intel! There were so many questions we still needed to ask—"

"They can still be answered," Mint interrupted in a pacifying tone. "Bronzong extracted as much as he could from Logan's mind before it mentally collapsed. The other grunts here might be old members of Team Rocket, too, so don't panic yet."

"Okay, but how did he snap out of the Hypnosis? How did he die?" I questioned, trying not to let my own frustration show.

Mint ran a hand up and down his face in a weary motion.

"I… I don't know," he said truthfully, and he bowed his head in apology. "Bronzong can't figure it out right now either. All we know for sure is that someone interfered from the outside."

Falkner tensed. "You don't think that someone is hiding nearby, do you?"

And once again, everyone was on high alert. Was there another Rocket hiding close by with their Pokemon to tie up loose ends?

When we heard a sudden slam from the cavern entrance, everyone naturally whipped around and ordered their Pokemon to attack. The intruder had been so fast that we never sensed it until it got close—

"HOLD FIRE!"

And we promptly stood down. There was a familiar Dragonite at the entrance with its trainer.

"Lance?" I said incredulously.

Indeed, it was our Champion in the flesh, and he wasn't alone. Koga and two dozen League and Ace Trainers alike spilled into the room from the tunnel beyond. The League forces only needed a second to take in the situation before they started collecting the unconscious Rocket grunts scattered across the room. Lance and Koga left them to handle the tough work as they walked briskly toward us.

"Thank Ho-Oh you're all safe," was the first thing Lance told us when he got close enough.

The relief leaking from his voice was hard to miss as he swept his gaze across everyone's faces. He looked at Clair the longest, eyes flashing with emotion, but he quickly tore his gaze away to look between me and the others again. "We came as quickly as we could after the League Trainers you saved told us your plans, but I suppose we weren't needed. I see you managed to apprehend a lot of Rockets. Your operation went well, I presume."

Lance's brows furrowed when our expressions darkened. His next words were spoken with a grim undertone.

"Alright, tell me what happened."

Five minutes later, and with the help of a Clefairy that came to meet us halfway through the tunnels, our forces were nearing Mount Moon's entrance. A hole in the distance beckoned to us.

The silence was suffocating.

We'd told Lance about Proton and the information we knew of so far from Logan's memories, but he didn't blame us for losing the Rocket Executives… plural since we knew of Ariana now. We had fresh and useful information at our disposal, and maybe more once they finished sorting through Logan's extracted memories.

We might have lost the battle, but we'd won the war.

"Let's talk about everything tomorrow with the others at the Plateau," Lance finally decided, breaking the silence. We all looked at the back of his head. "It's already late today, and you deserve rest after being in the mountain for so long. We'll get started on the grunt interrogations in the meantime."

"With all due respect, Lance, we were only gone a few hours at most," Bruno said with a dip of his head. "I wouldn't mind holding a meeting today—"

Lance didn't stop walking, but he did finally turn his head. He shot Bruno a wary look.

"It… wasn't a few hours, Bruno. To us, it's been over a week since your group went inside Mount Moon. We were getting worried. Lorelei had to stop me from going after your group after three days of silence…"

He went on, but the rest of us simply stared at him with astonishment.

We'd been gone for over a week?

Everyone then looked at me as if I held the answers. I just sighed and mouthed the word 'Clefairy' in between Lance's rambling.

Blame the Clefairy. That was my answer for them. They'd shifted not just the mountain itself but our perception of time evidently.

My blood ran cold as something occurred to me.

"What day is it, Lance?" I interrupted, struggling to keep calm.

"June 1st."

Thank Arceus.

I nearly melted with relief. It was the last thing I should have been concerned about, but I was just glad I hadn't missed the annual gym audit.

Lance gave me a strange look in light of my odd behavior.

"Are you alright, Arin? Did you hit your head? I'll have you know those types of injuries can be quite serious, and you should probably get looked at by one of our doctors—"

"No, no," I quickly waved a hand through the air, sighing. "I didn't hit my head. I'm fine."

"Regardless, I am ordering you and the others to check in with our doctors before going home. I want to be reassured that everyone here is truly fine."

That was the end of our discussion.

We finally emerged from Mount Moon's sacred halls into fresh air once more. Compared to when we left, it was evening now. I only got to take a single appreciative breath before doctors on standby whisked me away for a check-up, and they did the same for the others.

After we told them we'd been in the proximity of strong Poison types, the medical staff only doubled the intensity of their care. I had to go through dozens of questions, pokes, prods, and even a blood test before I was cleared. No poisons, deadly or slow-acting or the like, had been detected in my system. I also handed off Grima's Pokeball to the League, wanting him to get the finest medical care in light of his arm injury. The others would heal at home since they had far less serious wounds.

I was so mentally and physically drained that I truly didn't have it in me to think more about the revelations we'd learned or the half-failure of our operation. High-paced battles typically did that to someone, more so when one's life was part of the stakes.

Tomorrow was for thinking.

I just really, really wanted to go home. The last thing I saw was Lance giving Clair a brief hug in the distance before Silque Teleported us away.

Pop.

A tall and sacred mountain was no longer anywhere in sight. We were back at the Watanuki Household. There in the garden, my eyes immediately found the figure I was looking for. Dad had been cleaning up a collection of watering cans and gardening tools. The moment he saw me, he froze up.

I smiled wearily, taking a step toward him. There were so many things I wanted to say, but I tried to make the mood lighter. He'd probably been worried sick ever since I went MIA.

"I'm glad I didn't miss the gym audit."

Dad abandoned what he was doing in an instant. He ran toward me with all his might and gave a bone-shattering hug.

"Arin, I thought… I thought you were…" he choked out. His voice was thick with emotion.

"I know, dad," I murmured. "I know. Sorry for worrying you."

A small and quiet breath left me, but it was one of content.

"I'm home."