HOME | DD

Description
Chapter Eight: Extradition

"You may ask why I make everything so tedious and drawn out when a direct route is far faster? Simplicity is for the simple-minded and those inclined to be moronic. You brought me under your employment, so you will be content with the way I conduct my business…"
The Vilified One

He saw me, lost in a sea of darkness. He tried to help me, save me, but I pushed him away. Misguided by my own pride.

"Jay! Leo! Get up!"

Kelly's panicked voice rang throughout the base, shattering the relative midnight silence. Leo stirred from his sleep only slightly, his recovering mind not comprehending her panicked call.

In my pride, I tempted him. I told him to do his worst. He did so, if only to show me the errors of my ways.

He vaguely remembered what exactly happened the night before, a sickening swirl of fire, ice, and pain imprinted on his subconscious was all that remained of that lost night.

An idiot, that's what I was. A fool, blinded by the lies my mind fed itself, believing that he was evil. I paid the price and I fell into the frozen abyss of ignorance. But I learned from my fall.

Until now, as his senses began to register that not all was well within the base, it was as if his mind had shut down completely. Preserving itself from further degradation from what that … thing had done to it.

Fire, ice, electricity…they hurt. Through the pain, I gained humility.

He couldn't remember how he'd gotten to his hammock in his room from wherever he had been before, but he didn't care. Sleep was a welcome break after his mind was through those horrors now long forgotten.

He will protect me. He will guide me. Whether I know it or not, I am his servant.

"Leo! Come on!"

Jay's voice caused another involuntary twitch, but nothing more. Sleep had not yet washed away the exhaustion he retained from yesterday evening. He knew that he had to move, to see what was wrong, but his body refused to move.

He is good.

"Move."

Without hesitation, his body jolted into action, the back of his mind overriding any feelings of fatigue. The sensation of bitter cold and blistering heat washed over him as the memories of the previous night flashed before his eyes in all their glory.

Leo tumbled out of the hammock, and somehow managed to land upright. He shook the horrible images away as the darkened room came into focus. He quickly registered the voices of Kelly and Jay, but there were others. He knew their grating, earache-inducing voices all too well; Magnemite.

Using his tail as a torch, he found his satchel lying dejectedly on the floor. He picked it up with one claw and slung it around his shoulder. Cautiously peering out of the doorway into the hall, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Slowly moving down the hallway, he could see the central room in the light of the waning moon, and silhouettes of Jay and Kelly as they furiously whispered on what to do next. In the midst of his stealth, Leo failed to notice that the hushed mechanical tones from outside had suddenly ceased.

Suddenly, the ground heaved and Leo was thrown backwards down the hall, racing the flying shards of glass and wood to the floor. Dust, eager to join in on the fun, kicked up into the air, blinding its befuddled inhabitants. The Luminous Orb shards were knocked from their holders and blinked out as soon as they hit the floor, plunging the base into complete darkness.

Pushing his arms up, he dizzily got to his feet, coughing on the nearly suffocating dust. Over Jay's colorful swears and Kelly's lightning attacks from the central room, he detected the telltale buzzing of the Magnemite squad as they entered the gaping hole that used to be the doorway.

The hovering forms of the infernal metal balls distorted the wall of dust as they searched the premises. The beams of light shining from their center eye slicing through the dust and debris. Jay and Kelly seemed to be locked in a stalemated crossfire with the officers. Kelly's electricity and Jay's punches keeping the units at bay.

Leo nearly froze when one of the beams spotted him through the dust, clearly marking him as a target. He saw sparks flying as the twin magnets charged an attack.

"Dash."

The near paralysis faded away as he swiftly obeyed the voice without question. He darted to the opposite side of the hall, and dove into a small room. Through the darkness and dust, he saw twin volleys of electrified plasma wiz past where he stood a moment ago, the bolts burning ugly black streaks into the walls.

Leo quickly searched around the small room for an escape as the group of Magnemite hovered closer. Other than a tall wooden shelf against the wall, there was nothing else in the room, and definitely not a miraculous escape route.

He skidded to a stop in front of the shelf, the sounds of chaos outside the room growing louder. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he had to find something, anything that might help him. His claws tore through the contents of the shelf, tossing the miscellaneous items to the ground behind him. As he flung an old blanket out of the way, a glint of bright blue from inside an ancient burlap sack caught his eye. He had just grasped the top of the bag with his claws when he heard the unmistakable sound of buzzing directly behind him.

"Don't move, Charmeleon! ZT!" the lead unit ordered, and a chorus of "Rodger!" affirmed the order. Leo immediately knew that there were definitely more Magnemites than he could handle. Still facing the shelf, Leo froze, his claw still gripped around the opening of the sack.

"Claws where I can see 'em! ZT! Move it!" the head Magnemite commanded. Leo's pulse quickened as he slowly raised his empty arm.

"BZT! Now the other one, Charmeleon! Let's go!" the unit shouted confidently, buoyed by his success with his previous orders. Leo didn't move, he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the bag. He tried to think of any way out of this besides another trip to prison or worse, but nothing revealed itself.

"Put the other claw up! ZT! Now!" He didn't know what possessed him to even think of such a desperate idea. Possibly his addled mind had suddenly shunned all rationality in favor of unrepressed insanity for that instant. Regardless of why, Leo found himself tightening his grip on the cloth sack. He spun around and chucked the entire bag of primed Orbs at the nearest Magnemite.

In hindsight, it might not have been the greatest idea to activate the bag of extremely volatile artifacts so close to himself, but he had no other choice that didn't include an indefinite time behind bars.

The sound of shattering glass was the last thing he heard before chaos overthrew normality with an explosion of energy. Time seemed to flash by him in an abstract flurry of rushing colors and sounds as he was swept up in its mighty gale.

His mind was a spinning pottery mold, his back ached as if someone had taken a good few kicks at it, and his entire body was covered in fragments of wood and dirt. Leo slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted his blurry vision was the great white ball floating in a sea of absolute black. After realizing that he was on his back, Leo flopped onto his stomach.

As soon as he was able to will his arms to begin raising his bruised torso off the ground, his other senses of smell and hearing became relevant once more. The caustic odor of burning wood and memories filled his snout as the pained screeches of the Magnemite assaulted him from all angles.

Leo tried to move from his position on all fours, but he could not will himself to get up off the dew-painted grass. Strength slowly drained from him as he contemplated simply dropping back to the earth into an eternal slumber, free of the pressures of reality at last.

He was just about to let his wobbling arms collapse when over the sounds of the burning base and police officers when he heard a faint cry. Kelly!

Grunting with a mixture of rage and fear, he pushed his body up off the damp ground to his feet with newfound strength. Once he was standing upright, he roughly brushed off the layer of dirt, grass, and wood splinters. As soon as he turned his attention to the base, he finally processed the full extent of his actions.

Explosions of blinding light still resonated within the remaining chambers of the base. A miniature rain storm battled with a equally small sun in the air above the structure, causing the weather directly above the building to chaotically shift from sunny to driving rain.

The small room that was once his now had a nicely sized opening to the outside from which smoke billowed out. His feet seemed to control themselves as they moved forward towards the burning base. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the drops of rain that landed on his tail with a sizzle as he reached the opening in the wall.

The thick splintered wood wall looked as if a cannonball shot through it. It was then that Leo realized that he was that cannonball. Shuddering with the thought of coming within a hair's length of snapping his spine in two, he maneuvered his way through the smoke and into the base.

Once he pushed through the surprisingly thin smoke, he was able to see the remnants of the small room. The walls were seared black from the sheer volume of volatile energy compressed within the Orbs. Charred pieces of the Magnemite squad lay strewn haphazardly on the floor. Leo narrowly avoided slicing his foot open on the jagged edges of the units as he hiked his way across the room.

Almost on the opposite side of the room, a sudden agonized screech from the hall nearly shattered his eardrums. A Magnemite whizzed around the corner, followed closely by an array of items ranging from Leo's own bag to the apples from the kitchen. Regardless of size or inability to move, they raced through the air and collided with the exhausted officer.

"Argghh! ZZZT! Get them off!" he screamed as the weight of the items started pulling him down. Leo, not in any mood to help the struggling officer, found his badge and key necklace on the surface of the conglomeration of stuff piled on the Pokemon.

He plucked them off easily and kicked the roughly sphere-shaped ball of items. A densely muffled curse from within was all that was heard by Leo. Grinning on the inside, Leo returned to the ruined hallway, slipping the key's chain over his neck.

The roof over the hall was nearing a state of final collapse. The wooden beams that held it up had split and fallen halfway to the floor before stopping, their broken sides braced against the walls. Despite the major obstacle now lodged in his way, Leo dropped to all fours and began worming his body underneath the fallen timbers, thankful that his scales provided at least some protection against the debris.

As he inched his way closer to the center room, the sounds of his teammates gradually lessened, replaced by the oppressive static hum of the unexploded members of the police corp. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest, but he forced himself to keep his cool as he clawed at the ground, pulling himself forward.

He could see their search beams; the officer's lights penetrated the dust and darkness of his half-destroyed home. As he contemplated how to get past the officers that separated him from his teammates, his gaze was caught by a dull blue glimmer from underneath a mound of rubble. Reaching into the dirt, his claws closed on the small crystal sphere whose identity was unmistakable: it was an Orb. Somehow, it had survived the initial explosion that had consumed its brethren inside the bag.

Holding it closer, he could faintly see the slightly cracked surface of the blue sphere. Deciding to keep it for the time being, he squirmed further along under the fallen roof.
He could hear the Magnemite clearly now, and he knew he would have very little time, if any, once he freed himself on the other side of the hall.

With a few more grunts, he was a single timber from revealing himself to the searchlights of the officers, but it also meant he was a single log away from potential freedom. Briefly weighing the odds of each scenario, he figured he might as well make an attempt at an escape.

Taking one last deep breath to calm his racing heart, he gripped the Orb in his claw, and rammed the damaged log out of the way with a hit from his shoulder. In an instant, several blinding beams of light shot his way.

"ZT! Detain the suspect!" one of them screeched as the rest of the floating steel sphere began to cackle with charging electricity. Aside from the fact that Jay and Kelly were nowhere to be found in the center room, his body instinctively tensed for the searing pain of the electric bolts.

"Throw."

As if it was a spark, his body jolted into action. Time seemed to slow as he raised his right arm, Orb in claw. He trained his sights on a Magnemite directly across the room from him, took a quick breath, and prayed to whatever deity governed the world that this Orb didn't destroy the base completely.

He swung his arm forward, releasing the Orb from his claws, letting inertia take care of the rest. The sphere sliced through the dust, and collided directly with the center eye of the Magnemite. As soon as the mystical orb shattered, Leo felt himself lurch forward as the room spun itself on its axis.

Leo found himself facing his exit on the side of the room opposite the hallway. He turned his head around to see that all of the spotlights were still focused on where he stood, but there only hovered a very confused Magnemite. They had switched places. Leo silently rejoiced at his luck.
His celebration was brought to a quick close when one of the units found him, the flaming tail not providing much camouflage in the dark.

"Run."

Leo did not need any encouragement. He burst through the now empty doorway as streaks of lightning shot by his head. Clutching his nearly forgotten badge, he sprinted out of the base into the moonlit night, no idea where he was going as long as it was away from the base.

In his flight, his foot caught on an exposed tree root and he went tumbling to the ground, dizzily somersaulting down the grassy slope. As the world once again flew by in flashes of blurred ground, night sky, and his own fiery tail, Leo struggled to halt his roll downwards by digging his claws into the dirt.

Earth sprayed everywhere, coating his scales in a fine dust. Just as he hoped, his body slowed and he was finally able to stop at the bottom of the steep embankment. Despite the fact that his world was tilting more erratically than a particularly clumsy Spinda, he could hear the sounds of pursuing units growing louder as they followed him down the slope.

Lurching from side to side, Leo staggered his way towards the mass of darkness he hoped were trees. He vaguely saw a bolt of plasma shoot past him and into the side of the slope, burning its way several inches into the packed dirt.

Leo shuddered at the thought of what one of those bolts would do to him if they hit. He certainly wasn't going to give them a chance. Concentrating on the forest before him, he was able to overcome his distorted balance as he staggered into the woods.

As if fate had switched off his luck, he heard the standard whoosh of displaced air that accompanied each attack, but just before he dismissed it as another haywire blast, his entire body flew forward as something extremely hot and painful collided with his spine.
Electrical currents flashed across his vision as his body reflexively contorted in agony. His feet stumbled over the exposed roots of the ancient oaks along the path. Carried solely by the force of inertia, his body crashed forward through the low-lying braches and brush to the ground.

Fallen leaves kicked into the air as Leo went sliding along the forest path, the small circular black mark scorched into his back, his charred scales and flesh smoking faintly as electricity continued to burn through him like rice paper.

His heart, temporarily stunned by the bolt, restarted itself, beating just enough to ensure that its owner remained among the living. Leo tried to open his eyes, but his body refused to listen, instead deciding to give his nerves another jolt of pain. A feeling of cold settled over him as his tail flame faded until only an ember's worth remained alight.

He heard the radioed cries of the Magne-units as they combed the woods for him and his team. His key, colder than steel, sandwiched between his chest and the ground that bit uncomfortably against his body. It stung, but at the very least, it was a cruel reminder that he was still alive, for the time being. His badge was still clutched by his immobile claws.

While his body was still stunned, his hearing recovered enough to provide the sensory details to his brain. Dead leaves rustled and crunched as someone or something stealthily walked over them. Leo's weakened heart beat faster as the footsteps came closer, causing his chest to spark with pain from the extra strain upon the muscle.

Unable to see little more than a dim patch of blurred forest, he was unable to shift his head to see who the stranger was, but his fears were alleviated as soon as he heard its whispered voice.

"Glad you made it. Kel and I were worried you didn't get out, especially after that huge explosion near your room," Jay whispered into his ear, as he ducked underneath the foliage of the forest floor to avoid the wandering searchlights of the officers.

Jay shuffled around the fallen Charmeleon so his body crouched over his weak tail fire, hiding it from detection temporarily. The Riolu's mask of black fur, faintly illuminated by the flame, added to the furtive feel that filled the air.

"Kelly's in a glade up ahead. She wanted me to search for you in case you had gotten away, I'd say mission accomplished," he said with a slight grin that flashed his teeth.

Looking down at Leo, his smile faded. "I saw you get hit. How bad?" Jay asked, his hushed tones barely audible to the Charmeleon.

Somehow, he managed to make his vocal cords work. "I don't know … hurts," he croaked.

Jay gingerly brushed off a few leaves that were stuck to the wound by either dried blood or the electrical current. A small blackened circle was the only direct evidence that Leo had even been hit. Jay looked over the wound as best he could in the dark forest. From what he could tell, nothing major had been impacted. The blast had been mostly stopped by his scales and what little power remained had either burned into him or stunned his muscles.

"I know it hurts; I've been hit by one before too," he pointed to a small irregular scar on his left arm. "Fortunately, Magnemite aren't made to kill outright. You'll be fine once the paralysis wears off," Jay concluded as he peaked above the brush to see if the Magnemite were searching far enough away not to hear their talking.

"Can you move anything? Arms? Legs? We have to get moving," Jay asked as he received only a twitch of Leo's outstretched claws to show the extent of his mobility.
Jay groaned as loud as he dared, wondering what to do.

"We can't stay here, our 'friends' are going to find us…" Jay shut his eyes and concentrated for a brief moment. Appearing to concentrate and think of a solution to their predicament.

Suddenly, his head shot up. "I've got it!" he whispered hoarsely as he rummaged around his torn and slightly charred satchel. He pulled out something small and held it so Leo could see it in the glow of his tail. It was a small crimson berry; a small curly green stem remained on it.

"Please tell me you can still chew," Jay asked cautiously, hoping the answer was positive. The Riolu breathed an audible sigh of relief when Leo nodded. He dropped the berry into Leo's mouth and watched as the Charmeleon munched on the small berry.

At first, it appeared to have slightly less flavor than the dust he inhaled in the base, but after a few chews his tongue felt like it had been subjected to a once over with a flamethrower. As the spicy juices of the fruit burned its way into his taste buds, Leo felt his muscles and nerves burn with the same heat as they painfully returned to life. The temporary shock inflicted on his body was lifted in a single tongue-scorching bite.

Leo hopped to his feet, tail flaring in response to the sudden resurgence of activity. Despite Jay's hushed warnings to keep silent, Leo spat the partly chewed berry out and ran his claws over his burning tongue trying to wipe the remaining fire off.

Jay had enough sense to clamp both paws down on the Charmeleon's snout, silencing his rather loud actions, but unfortunately, he hadn't the sense to act a few seconds earlier. As if they were center stage on one of the great halls of Silver City, every single searchlight in the forest was trained on the two Pokemon.

"Dodge!"

All thoughts of pulling Jay's paws off his mouth were discarded and some force in his body made his claws latch onto Jay's shoulders and lunge to the side, taking the Riolu along. As the two Pokemon landed in the brush, several spheres of plasma converged into an explosive fireball where they had been standing.

"Run!"

Not letting the Riolu even get the chance to brush himself off, Leo hauled him to his feet and was almost dragging him through the forest. His mind had shut out Jay's protests to let go, even as plasma bolts slammed into the surrounding trees with dull thuds. He didn't know where he was sprinting to, but something seemed to nudge his legs forward toward the western forest, and he didn't object.

When Jay finally ripped his paw away with a grunt, the Riolu faltered slightly in his sprint at first. However, he was soon nimbly bounding over the thick roots of the dark woods. Leo's short, reptilian legs struggled to keep up with Jay, the entire scene vaguely reminiscent of a similar scenario a few days before on his way into the Square.

Leo was nearly thrown to the ground as he collided into something metal. Skidding along the leaf littered floor, the Charmeleon clambered to his feet as the lone Magnemite hovered only a few feet in front of him.

"ZT! Suspect found in Valley Forest, Western Sector. Salient divided! I repeat Salient is divided! BZT! Reinforcements requested!"

"That's quite enough of that."

Suddenly, Leo felt as if his lungs had caught on fire. It wasn't the agonizing heat that he'd felt during his fight with Nexus; it was another, unnatural heat. He felt the heat rise up his throat, and almost instinctively, he let the fire exhale through his mouth. The fireball flashed into existence once it contacted the open air.

The Magnemite only saw the flash of bright orange before the attack consumed his spherical body entirely. The flames did not fade into nothingness as they did before; they seemed to grow in intensity.

The unit screeched as its metal components softened under the scorching fire and the steel shell surrounding the wires at its core began to melt. Electricity sparked erratically as the wires fused with the molten metal. The officer, widely veered around in the air, screeching as his brain solidified. Fortunately, for the Pokemon, a nearby tree took mercy on him and kindly allowed him to collide with its bark and explode.

Leo didn't waste any time grieving; he sprinted past the smoking remains like a rocket. The smoldering metal crunched under his tread as the core of wires shattered. He could hear the cries and sirens of the perusing officers close behind him; he clutched his badge tighter in his claws and focused on not tripping on the endless tree roots.

He didn't notice it in the nearly pitch-black night, but he felt it like the wintery breath of Articuno when he passed through it: a dungeon barrier. The sudden drop in temperature was instantly rectified as he passed into the warped forest. Leo shivered as the coldness exited his body, and he looked around him in a circle.

There was no sight of the Magnemite, even though their searchlights should have been visible in the murky woods. He turned to look ahead of him once more, and to his surprise, he saw a small trail leading through the thicket of trees that hadn't existed a second ago. When he squinted, he could even see Jay's form speeding a ways down the path.

No! I am not getting left behind again! Leo thought as he tried his best to keep the Riolu within sight. Unfortunately, the trees had a different plan. As he sprinted down the trail, Leo did not notice that the branches above him began to move on their own accord. He did not notice when the trunks began to widen and compress in ways that defied the laws of nature as they blocked the path behind him. Nor did he notice when vines suddenly started constricting their way around the trees and snaking into the shrinking trail.

Only when the roots began to uplift and rearrange themselves did he finally take stock of the changes. The dungeon was trying to engulf him. He pushed past the stitch building up in his side and sprinted as fast as his legs would allow. His breath grew thin and labored as his lungs burned.

The dungeon would not be outdone. The branches began to swing downwards onto the path, blocking it much like the roof had obstructed the hall before. Gritting his teeth, Leo kept his speed despite the road blockage. The dungeon had taunted him, and now he was going to accept its challenge.

Never wavering in his stride, Leo quickly approached the organic blockade. The distance lessening with every footstep, Leo knew he had to be accurate or else he would fall face first into the awaiting arms of the forest.

Taking a final breath, he leaped up in the air, the inertia from his sprint catapulting him forward. The night air seemed to go by his head with a whooshing sound as he tried to keep his body upright, no small feat while airborne.

While he may have overcome the first branch, there were others still yet in front of him.
The branches and vines seemed to reach up at him, as if they were taunting him to slip up, to make that one fatal error that sent him crashing down to their slithering tendrils.
As his momentum finally began to wane, Leo knew he wouldn't make it over unscathed.

His body neared the boughs as an idea popped into his head. It was functional—in theory—and more appealing than being dragged into the depths of the dungeon. As gravity took its toll on his flight, Leo twisted his body so that his feet were behind him.

He touched down on the branch at an angle. Using the basic principles of physics, he pushed off with his claws. The little power behind his push was augmented as he swung his legs underneath him so they were now in front of him. The shift in weight carried enough force to break the downward momentum and launch him over the remaining branches.

He landed on the ground awkwardly, hopping a few times trying to regain his balance as the dungeon shuddered; the trees seemed to tremble as if they were receiving punishment for their failure to detain him. Leo shook his head and continued his run, as the path closed in around him.

He could see a moonlit clearing up ahead, his teammate's silhouettes moving along the ground. The opening to the clearing was closing rapidly, choked by two huge, contorting oaks. The path had turned into an organic zipper, and Leo was on the verge of being caught up in the dungeon's rage.

The distance between him and the opening grew less as he sprinted along the final stretch. Vines and shifting roots constantly wiped at each other along the ground, fighting for which would get the honor of ensnaring him.

Vines slithered from their positions in the trees to the ground. Leo felt them writhe under his feet like worms. He didn't care, he was only a few strides away from the opening and escape. Escape from the Magnemite, escape from the dungeon.

The two oaks beside the entrance suddenly joined at their base and were rapidly combining into a single tree as to seal off the glade. Leo didn't hesitate. He jumped as high as he could into the air, clearing the conjoined trunk. Before he could complete his nose-dive into the glade, his body was jerked back in midair.

A single, green tendril had saw fit to wrap itself around his ankle and was trying to slither its way around his leg while also pulling him back. Leo let out a pained yell, and in a flash, both Jay and Kelly were at his side.

Kelly stood on her hind legs and tried to hold onto the Charmeleon's claws with hers; while Jay took a hold of Leo's other outstretched arm and dug his heels into the ground.
They both pulled on the Charmeleon against the dungeon-spawned vine, stuck on the weaker side of a macabre tug of war game.

Leo kicked his legs in a vain attempt to both free himself and keep the vine from twisting around him further. Jay growled, pulling harder on Leo's arm as Kelly somehow managed to balance herself on two legs while also pulling against the vine.

The vine, being only a plant, could not hope to hold out against the combined efforts of three Pokemon. After a final tug on its end, the tendril around Leo's ankle split from the main plant with an earsplitting snap. The victors of the game went tumbling backwards to the ground.

After a minute of awkward untangling of tails and arms, the three members of Team Salient looked at each other with stares of relief, slight irritation, and utter confusion.

"So, does anyone want to tell me what just happened?!" Leo asked, crossing his arms, only vaguely noticing that his badge was still clutched numbly in his claw.

"We were hit by a raid," Jay said as he noticed the dull glint of Leo's badge as the weak light of the moon reflected off it.

"Uh-huh. Yeah, I can see that, Jay. I want to know why," Leo reiterated as he tapped his foot on the ground in annoyance.

"Is that your badge?" Jay inquired, avoiding the Charmeleon's question completely.

Slightly taken by surprise at the randomness of the question, Leo reflexively opened his claw to reveal the badge fully.

"Great, now hand it over. It has to go," Jay demanded, holding out his right paw.
Leo drew back his badge, holding it close to him.

"Why? Why does it have to go?" Leo clutched his badge tighter as Jay let out an exasperated sigh.

"Because, they can track you through it!" Jay yelled, pointing vaguely in the direction of the Magnemite, "Believe me, I know what they do. I've experienced it first hand," he said, his voice lowering so his teammates could barely hear him.

"Fine, just get it over with ... Wait, you've been through this before?" Leo asked, as curiosity rose up inside of him. What else has he been through?

"It's nothing. Just … just give me your badge, please. We don't have much time. Kelly, yours too, please," Jay responded, trying to evade the subject.
Leo remained unmoved and now Kelly was interested in the subject as well.

"Jay? What are you talking about? You've never mentioned this before," Kelly inquired, suspicion worming its way into her mind.

"Seriously, can we talk about this later? Maybe, I don't know, when we're not being tracked?!" Jay said; fidgeting as he desperately tried to change the conversation.

"You were so eager to know about my past, now why don't you tell us yours?" Leo pressed the Riolu, who refused to look at him directly.
"Are you the reason the Magnemite are hunting us? Is it something you did?!" Leo guessed, his voice becoming harsher with each passing second.
Jay suddenly looked up, furious.

"Something I did?! I seem to recall you being in a prison when you were assigned to us. And you're one to talk about not telling us anything." the Riolu was as close to screaming as he could get. He marched toward the Charmeleon, and planted a paw squarely on his chest accusingly. "Tell me Leo, who exactly are you?"

He continued. "How do we know this isn't your fault?! We know nothing about you. For all we know, you're a convicted arsonist, or a complete psychopath, or both!" Jay narrowed his eyes at Leo.

"Hey! Guys! Cool it, or else we're going to be heard!" Kelly hissed, though was promptly ignored by the two erring Pokemon.

"Oh please, I told you all everything I knew that night. I have no secrets. You, though, don't trust us enough to tell us anything!" Leo was lying through his teeth, but he was caught up in the heat of his argument.

"Leo! Jay! Both of you, shut up!" Kelly snapped, once again ignored in favor of their loud argument.

"You know? If you actually told us what is going on in your head, maybe we'd be able to solve your problem. When were you going to tell us tha—" as he yelled at Leo, Jay's words were suddenly lost as a severe shiver went through him, as if the temperature exclusively around him dropped below freezing.

"Cease. Now."

When it passed, he seemed to have lost all malice toward his teammate.
Jay looked at Leo, a subtle mixture of absolute fear and terror was visible in the Riolu's eyes. Whatever he had gone through had shocked him pretty badly.

"I-I'm sorry, I was wrong to pry into your life," he stuttered, his words sounding as if he was forced to say them with a knife pressed against his throat.

"But, we do need to get rid of our badges. That's a certainty. Leo, and Kelly, you too, please," Jay asked meekly, making sure to keep his voice low.

Leo was too perplexed by what Jay's complete turnaround in attitude to pay attention when Kelly gently eased his badge from his claws. She tossed the emblem over to the Riolu while she found hers on the ground and once more kicked it over to him, keeping a reasonable distance away from her teammate.

Jay silently nodded as he picked up both of the trinkets as well as a small rock he could hold easily in his other paw. Leo watched curiously as Jay took his own badge and placed it on an ancient stump. Taking the stone, Jay slammed it down onto the back where his paw print was etched into the reflective bronze metal. The metal made a resilient clinking noise with every impact. After several hits with the rock, the metal let out a sudden blue spark, contrasting sharply with the moonlit clearing.

Wiping his arm across his forehead, Jay examined the damaged item. Nodding quietly to himself, he tossed the identification piece over his shoulder and into the forest where it was quickly swallowed up by the shifting trees.

"One down, two to go," Leo heard his teammate whisper as he watched Jay grab Kelly's badge and repeat the same process. Hit. Clink. Another hit. Another metallic clink. Until the badge fizzled and sparked.

Leo felt a twinge of pain with every hit Jay landed on his badge, as if a small part of him was dying with every smack. His badge lasted ten hits with the nearly broken wedge of stone before sparking. Having rendered it inoperable, Jay tossed the broken piece of metal behind him.

"Alright, that's done." Jay took a quick look around the dark clearing. "It's still a ways until dawn. I suggest we try to get some sleep. We're safe from the dungeon in this glade," Jay reasoned.

"You know? That sounds pretty good. We'll figure out what to do in the morning," Kelly agreed, cutting off Leo's upcoming argument.

The Sableye sat alone behind the counter of his shop. Even though it was shortly past midnight, he refused to retire. He knew. He knew that if he slept, he wouldn't wake up. For the alterations he made to the orders, he knew there was going to be hell to pay.

He hadn't done what his superior had ordered. No, he looked at the contents of the message. He had secretly delivered it to Officer Gear, not the agent the Scyther told him about. The second he saw those kids' names among those who needed to die, he knew he had to do something. He had altered the order and hopefully, that mistake gave them a chance to get out of Loyalty.

“I've got to get out of here...” Aleck muttered as his claws carefully analyzed each coin of his meager fortune.

His plans for the future were interrupted by a single loud knock on the counter. Slowly looking up from his coins and hastily packed bags, he saw the silhouette of a Bug type he recognized instantly in the waning light of the moon, a single scythe pressed against the wooden countertop.

“Darnéy,” he stated while his crystal eyes glittered in the darkness of the night.

The Scyther did not respond. Other then his breathing, he was silent. He drew his scythe slowly across the counter, shaving off thin layers of wood as he passed the appendage back and forth. His wings twitched while his gaze bore down on the Sableye.

“... Treachery is a terrible crime, Aleck..." The Scyther suddenly lowered his head until Aleck’s face was only inches away. Both Pokemon stared resolutely at each other. The Sableye knew perfectly well what danger he was in, but he kept himself rooted in place. He would stand his ground at his shop.

“I did the job I deemed was right. I refuse to murder children, is that wrong in your eyes, Darnéy? Is it?!" Aleck hissed vehemently, his claws pushing the fuming Scyther's blade back from his face.

“Several vital targets escaped the raids. Our cover was nearly blown. And you have the gall to sit here and claim that you were right? ... Is that it, Aleck?” Darnéy calmly asked. Aleck could see it behind his eyes. A wave of rage that manifested itself in the minute shudders that passed through his wings.

Aleck knew what was going to happen. He'd seen it coming ever since he had altered the orders for the Magnemite to not kill but simply arrest Team Salient. He was going to die.

"That's exactly right, Darnéy. I'm done. If the Colonies can order the murders of three children drawn in by horrible circumstances, then I rescind any support." Aleck proudly stated even as the Bug-type absently sharpened his right scythe on his carapace.

Darnéy looked up from his task with his blade. “Then so be it, imp.” He suddenly lashed forward, his wings propelling him faster than Aleck could see. He slammed the broad side of his scythe against the small Pokemon’s head. There was a sharp crack as Aleck’s right crystal eye split into several small fragments. The merchant stood upright for a moment, swaying slightly from side to side before collapsing to the ground in a crumbled heap.

Quickly looking up from his deed, the Scyther glanced around the street. Not one soul remained out at this late hour, much to the Pokemon’s relief. He turned back to his victim. A low groan issued from the fallen merchant and traitor to the Colonies , indicating he was still alive. For now.

Darnéy acted quickly. Buzzing his wings, he hovered up and over the counter. Bending down, he carefully slid his right scythe into a small pouch slung over is shoulder and skewered a small golden seed, causing small amounts of yellow dust to trickle out. He held the seed over the struggling Sableye, forcing the dust onto Aleck’s body. The shopkeeper’s body twitched once and then fell still.

Pleased with the Stun Seed’s performance, the Scyther maneuvered his scythe underneath the small Pokemon and heaved him over his spiny shoulder. Glancing around once more, he deftly sprinted into the shadows of a nearby alley just as three patrolling Magnemite floated down the stone street.

He watched them intently; remaining motionless as the automations hovered by his position. A low groan from Aleck caused the Scyther to hold his breath as the Magnemite quickly lit up their search beams and scanned the area.

Backup plans raced around his head, he could easily take those two out, but not before they would alert every unit in a ten mile radius. However, his fears were put to rest when the trio of officers abandoned their inspection and continued on their way.

No longer inhibited by any obstacles, the Scyther leaped from his hiding place and into the street. His clawed feet made minimal noise on the stone as he ensured that no stray witnesses remained. He glanced at his hostage’s limp form, a scowl of disdain making its way across his face.

“Thus ends all traitors,” he hissed as his wings began to buzz rapidly. He rotated each of his legs once, and, in a blur of green and steel-grey, he was gone into the woods surrounding the town, an untouchable phantom in the moonlit forest.

"Sir?" the Magnemite asked as he and his two counterparts reported the results of the three raids their new commander had ordered.

Richelieu, despite being exhausted by his efforts to oust Officer Gear from his position of power earlier that evening, slowly rose from his roosting position. His gold-tinted steel feathers clinked against each other as he rustled them.

"Ah, you three. You headed the raids, correct?" Richelieu inquired, blinking as he tried to wake himself up fully.

"Affirmative. ZT!" they all answered at once, causing the governor's still groggy head to cringe in pain. He quickly shook it off, and put on his usual air of seriousness.

"Good, good. And it goes without saying that you all were successful, correct?" Richelieu assumed, inspecting each of the units.

"Yes, sir! Suspects detained! ZT!"

"Correct! Traitors captured!"

The final unit hovered uncomfortably as he made various noises similar to what a Mareep makes when pitted against a hungry Mightyena.

Richelieu narrowed his eyes and craned his neck forward so that his was looking directly down on the terrified unit.

"That wouldn't happen to be an issue of conflict would it, officer?" he said, his voice cold. The Magnemite's center eye shrank even further than the Skarmory thought possible.

"N-no, no, no, no! Not at all, sir! ZT! The raid was a c-complete s-s-success!" the Magnemite stammered, his panic growing. His eye glanced to the sides at his two partners, but they were at the opposite sides of the room, snickering to themselves as they readied themselves for what was going to come next.

Richelieu brought his beak closer to the unit's center eye.
"You wouldn't happen to be lying through your speakers now would you? Because I hate—no, I loathe, liars, especially when they lie to my face."

The Magnemite whirled his magnets around furiously, as his eye tried to look anywhere in the room besides the governor's eyes.

"You know what I do to liars? I order them to rot in the lowest, most Arceus-forsaken pit for the rest of their miserable lives. Now, would you like to perhaps rectify your previous statement?"

The Magnemite tried to maintain his silence, but he made the mistake of allowing his eye to lock with Richelieu's piercing gaze.

"Alright! ZT! My team failed! ZZT! Failed to catch Salient! Please don't deactivate me!" he screeched with the machine equivalent of sobbing.

Richelieu pulled his head back, a smug smile traced across his metal beak.
"I'm disappointed in you, officer. You and your team have just let several individuals who the Inner Council has listed as dangerous escape. You have disappointed the Kingdom along with every law-abiding citizen within its borders."

The Magnemite let out a small squeak of relief, which was quickly crushed by the Skarmory's next statement.

"We cannot allow units such as you and your team go unpunished, that is why you are being reassigned to the Sawgrass Town patrol."

The Magnet Pokemon lost it. "What? Sawgrass? …… No! Nononononononononono! Not Sawgrass! They'll eat me alive!" he screeched as small spark "tears" flew from his body.

"That is no longer my concern. Axis, go round up the rest of his team and make sure they are escorted to their new assignment immediately."

The deputy, who had been floating silently outside of the doorway for some time now came inside the room. "Right now, Gea-vernor?" he said, catching himself before he said his previous boss's name.

Richelieu would have chastised the Magneton for his mistake had he not been occupied in condemning this unit to a living hell.
"Yes, right now. Get to it."

Axis hovered in front of the shaking unit, and with a barely audible "I'm sorry", attached his magnets to the officer's, and promptly short-circuited him. As Axis dragged the unfortunate unit's chassis from Richelieu's office, the condemned metal ball spoke.

"ZT! Gear would never do this!"

"Gear is gone now, for good," the metal bird chuckled.

"It has come onto my understanding that my plans, and thus eventual peace are being interfered with. I only ask that you grant me the permission of perhaps … escalating my range of influence."

… … ...

"Of course, I fully understand. Those who seek to endanger the world must be removed from it."

End Chapter Eight

Description
Chapter Eight: Extradition

"You may ask why I make everything so tedious and drawn out when a direct route is far faster? Simplicity is for the simple-minded and those inclined to be moronic. You brought me under your employment, so you will be content with the way I conduct my business…"
The Vilified One

He saw me, lost in a sea of darkness. He tried to help me, save me, but I pushed him away. Misguided by my own pride.

"Jay! Leo! Get up!"

Kelly's panicked voice rang throughout the base, shattering the relative midnight silence. Leo stirred from his sleep only slightly, his recovering mind not comprehending her panicked call.

In my pride, I tempted him. I told him to do his worst. He did so, if only to show me the errors of my ways.

He vaguely remembered what exactly happened the night before, a sickening swirl of fire, ice, and pain imprinted on his subconscious was all that remained of that lost night.

An idiot, that's what I was. A fool, blinded by the lies my mind fed itself, believing that he was evil. I paid the price and I fell into the frozen abyss of ignorance. But I learned from my fall.

Until now, as his senses began to register that not all was well within the base, it was as if his mind had shut down completely. Preserving itself from further degradation from what that … thing had done to it.

Fire, ice, electricity…they hurt. Through the pain, I gained humility.

He couldn't remember how he'd gotten to his hammock in his room from wherever he had been before, but he didn't care. Sleep was a welcome break after his mind was through those horrors now long forgotten.

He will protect me. He will guide me. Whether I know it or not, I am his servant.

"Leo! Come on!"

Jay's voice caused another involuntary twitch, but nothing more. Sleep had not yet washed away the exhaustion he retained from yesterday evening. He knew that he had to move, to see what was wrong, but his body refused to move.

He is good.

"Move."

Without hesitation, his body jolted into action, the back of his mind overriding any feelings of fatigue. The sensation of bitter cold and blistering heat washed over him as the memories of the previous night flashed before his eyes in all their glory.

Leo tumbled out of the hammock, and somehow managed to land upright. He shook the horrible images away as the darkened room came into focus. He quickly registered the voices of Kelly and Jay, but there were others. He knew their grating, earache-inducing voices all too well; Magnemite.

Using his tail as a torch, he found his satchel lying dejectedly on the floor. He picked it up with one claw and slung it around his shoulder. Cautiously peering out of the doorway into the hall, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Slowly moving down the hallway, he could see the central room in the light of the waning moon, and silhouettes of Jay and Kelly as they furiously whispered on what to do next. In the midst of his stealth, Leo failed to notice that the hushed mechanical tones from outside had suddenly ceased.

Suddenly, the ground heaved and Leo was thrown backwards down the hall, racing the flying shards of glass and wood to the floor. Dust, eager to join in on the fun, kicked up into the air, blinding its befuddled inhabitants. The Luminous Orb shards were knocked from their holders and blinked out as soon as they hit the floor, plunging the base into complete darkness.

Pushing his arms up, he dizzily got to his feet, coughing on the nearly suffocating dust. Over Jay's colorful swears and Kelly's lightning attacks from the central room, he detected the telltale buzzing of the Magnemite squad as they entered the gaping hole that used to be the doorway.

The hovering forms of the infernal metal balls distorted the wall of dust as they searched the premises. The beams of light shining from their center eye slicing through the dust and debris. Jay and Kelly seemed to be locked in a stalemated crossfire with the officers. Kelly's electricity and Jay's punches keeping the units at bay.

Leo nearly froze when one of the beams spotted him through the dust, clearly marking him as a target. He saw sparks flying as the twin magnets charged an attack.

"Dash."

The near paralysis faded away as he swiftly obeyed the voice without question. He darted to the opposite side of the hall, and dove into a small room. Through the darkness and dust, he saw twin volleys of electrified plasma wiz past where he stood a moment ago, the bolts burning ugly black streaks into the walls.

Leo quickly searched around the small room for an escape as the group of Magnemite hovered closer. Other than a tall wooden shelf against the wall, there was nothing else in the room, and definitely not a miraculous escape route.

He skidded to a stop in front of the shelf, the sounds of chaos outside the room growing louder. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he had to find something, anything that might help him. His claws tore through the contents of the shelf, tossing the miscellaneous items to the ground behind him. As he flung an old blanket out of the way, a glint of bright blue from inside an ancient burlap sack caught his eye. He had just grasped the top of the bag with his claws when he heard the unmistakable sound of buzzing directly behind him.

"Don't move, Charmeleon! ZT!" the lead unit ordered, and a chorus of "Rodger!" affirmed the order. Leo immediately knew that there were definitely more Magnemites than he could handle. Still facing the shelf, Leo froze, his claw still gripped around the opening of the sack.

"Claws where I can see 'em! ZT! Move it!" the head Magnemite commanded. Leo's pulse quickened as he slowly raised his empty arm.

"BZT! Now the other one, Charmeleon! Let's go!" the unit shouted confidently, buoyed by his success with his previous orders. Leo didn't move, he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the bag. He tried to think of any way out of this besides another trip to prison or worse, but nothing revealed itself.

"Put the other claw up! ZT! Now!" He didn't know what possessed him to even think of such a desperate idea. Possibly his addled mind had suddenly shunned all rationality in favor of unrepressed insanity for that instant. Regardless of why, Leo found himself tightening his grip on the cloth sack. He spun around and chucked the entire bag of primed Orbs at the nearest Magnemite.

In hindsight, it might not have been the greatest idea to activate the bag of extremely volatile artifacts so close to himself, but he had no other choice that didn't include an indefinite time behind bars.

The sound of shattering glass was the last thing he heard before chaos overthrew normality with an explosion of energy. Time seemed to flash by him in an abstract flurry of rushing colors and sounds as he was swept up in its mighty gale.

His mind was a spinning pottery mold, his back ached as if someone had taken a good few kicks at it, and his entire body was covered in fragments of wood and dirt. Leo slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted his blurry vision was the great white ball floating in a sea of absolute black. After realizing that he was on his back, Leo flopped onto his stomach.

As soon as he was able to will his arms to begin raising his bruised torso off the ground, his other senses of smell and hearing became relevant once more. The caustic odor of burning wood and memories filled his snout as the pained screeches of the Magnemite assaulted him from all angles.

Leo tried to move from his position on all fours, but he could not will himself to get up off the dew-painted grass. Strength slowly drained from him as he contemplated simply dropping back to the earth into an eternal slumber, free of the pressures of reality at last.

He was just about to let his wobbling arms collapse when over the sounds of the burning base and police officers when he heard a faint cry. Kelly!

Grunting with a mixture of rage and fear, he pushed his body up off the damp ground to his feet with newfound strength. Once he was standing upright, he roughly brushed off the layer of dirt, grass, and wood splinters. As soon as he turned his attention to the base, he finally processed the full extent of his actions.

Explosions of blinding light still resonated within the remaining chambers of the base. A miniature rain storm battled with a equally small sun in the air above the structure, causing the weather directly above the building to chaotically shift from sunny to driving rain.

The small room that was once his now had a nicely sized opening to the outside from which smoke billowed out. His feet seemed to control themselves as they moved forward towards the burning base. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the drops of rain that landed on his tail with a sizzle as he reached the opening in the wall.

The thick splintered wood wall looked as if a cannonball shot through it. It was then that Leo realized that he was that cannonball. Shuddering with the thought of coming within a hair's length of snapping his spine in two, he maneuvered his way through the smoke and into the base.

Once he pushed through the surprisingly thin smoke, he was able to see the remnants of the small room. The walls were seared black from the sheer volume of volatile energy compressed within the Orbs. Charred pieces of the Magnemite squad lay strewn haphazardly on the floor. Leo narrowly avoided slicing his foot open on the jagged edges of the units as he hiked his way across the room.

Almost on the opposite side of the room, a sudden agonized screech from the hall nearly shattered his eardrums. A Magnemite whizzed around the corner, followed closely by an array of items ranging from Leo's own bag to the apples from the kitchen. Regardless of size or inability to move, they raced through the air and collided with the exhausted officer.

"Argghh! ZZZT! Get them off!" he screamed as the weight of the items started pulling him down. Leo, not in any mood to help the struggling officer, found his badge and key necklace on the surface of the conglomeration of stuff piled on the Pokemon.

He plucked them off easily and kicked the roughly sphere-shaped ball of items. A densely muffled curse from within was all that was heard by Leo. Grinning on the inside, Leo returned to the ruined hallway, slipping the key's chain over his neck.

The roof over the hall was nearing a state of final collapse. The wooden beams that held it up had split and fallen halfway to the floor before stopping, their broken sides braced against the walls. Despite the major obstacle now lodged in his way, Leo dropped to all fours and began worming his body underneath the fallen timbers, thankful that his scales provided at least some protection against the debris.

As he inched his way closer to the center room, the sounds of his teammates gradually lessened, replaced by the oppressive static hum of the unexploded members of the police corp. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest, but he forced himself to keep his cool as he clawed at the ground, pulling himself forward.

He could see their search beams; the officer's lights penetrated the dust and darkness of his half-destroyed home. As he contemplated how to get past the officers that separated him from his teammates, his gaze was caught by a dull blue glimmer from underneath a mound of rubble. Reaching into the dirt, his claws closed on the small crystal sphere whose identity was unmistakable: it was an Orb. Somehow, it had survived the initial explosion that had consumed its brethren inside the bag.

Holding it closer, he could faintly see the slightly cracked surface of the blue sphere. Deciding to keep it for the time being, he squirmed further along under the fallen roof.
He could hear the Magnemite clearly now, and he knew he would have very little time, if any, once he freed himself on the other side of the hall.

With a few more grunts, he was a single timber from revealing himself to the searchlights of the officers, but it also meant he was a single log away from potential freedom. Briefly weighing the odds of each scenario, he figured he might as well make an attempt at an escape.

Taking one last deep breath to calm his racing heart, he gripped the Orb in his claw, and rammed the damaged log out of the way with a hit from his shoulder. In an instant, several blinding beams of light shot his way.

"ZT! Detain the suspect!" one of them screeched as the rest of the floating steel sphere began to cackle with charging electricity. Aside from the fact that Jay and Kelly were nowhere to be found in the center room, his body instinctively tensed for the searing pain of the electric bolts.

"Throw."

As if it was a spark, his body jolted into action. Time seemed to slow as he raised his right arm, Orb in claw. He trained his sights on a Magnemite directly across the room from him, took a quick breath, and prayed to whatever deity governed the world that this Orb didn't destroy the base completely.

He swung his arm forward, releasing the Orb from his claws, letting inertia take care of the rest. The sphere sliced through the dust, and collided directly with the center eye of the Magnemite. As soon as the mystical orb shattered, Leo felt himself lurch forward as the room spun itself on its axis.

Leo found himself facing his exit on the side of the room opposite the hallway. He turned his head around to see that all of the spotlights were still focused on where he stood, but there only hovered a very confused Magnemite. They had switched places. Leo silently rejoiced at his luck.
His celebration was brought to a quick close when one of the units found him, the flaming tail not providing much camouflage in the dark.

"Run."

Leo did not need any encouragement. He burst through the now empty doorway as streaks of lightning shot by his head. Clutching his nearly forgotten badge, he sprinted out of the base into the moonlit night, no idea where he was going as long as it was away from the base.

In his flight, his foot caught on an exposed tree root and he went tumbling to the ground, dizzily somersaulting down the grassy slope. As the world once again flew by in flashes of blurred ground, night sky, and his own fiery tail, Leo struggled to halt his roll downwards by digging his claws into the dirt.

Earth sprayed everywhere, coating his scales in a fine dust. Just as he hoped, his body slowed and he was finally able to stop at the bottom of the steep embankment. Despite the fact that his world was tilting more erratically than a particularly clumsy Spinda, he could hear the sounds of pursuing units growing louder as they followed him down the slope.

Lurching from side to side, Leo staggered his way towards the mass of darkness he hoped were trees. He vaguely saw a bolt of plasma shoot past him and into the side of the slope, burning its way several inches into the packed dirt.

Leo shuddered at the thought of what one of those bolts would do to him if they hit. He certainly wasn't going to give them a chance. Concentrating on the forest before him, he was able to overcome his distorted balance as he staggered into the woods.

As if fate had switched off his luck, he heard the standard whoosh of displaced air that accompanied each attack, but just before he dismissed it as another haywire blast, his entire body flew forward as something extremely hot and painful collided with his spine.
Electrical currents flashed across his vision as his body reflexively contorted in agony. His feet stumbled over the exposed roots of the ancient oaks along the path. Carried solely by the force of inertia, his body crashed forward through the low-lying braches and brush to the ground.

Fallen leaves kicked into the air as Leo went sliding along the forest path, the small circular black mark scorched into his back, his charred scales and flesh smoking faintly as electricity continued to burn through him like rice paper.

His heart, temporarily stunned by the bolt, restarted itself, beating just enough to ensure that its owner remained among the living. Leo tried to open his eyes, but his body refused to listen, instead deciding to give his nerves another jolt of pain. A feeling of cold settled over him as his tail flame faded until only an ember's worth remained alight.

He heard the radioed cries of the Magne-units as they combed the woods for him and his team. His key, colder than steel, sandwiched between his chest and the ground that bit uncomfortably against his body. It stung, but at the very least, it was a cruel reminder that he was still alive, for the time being. His badge was still clutched by his immobile claws.

While his body was still stunned, his hearing recovered enough to provide the sensory details to his brain. Dead leaves rustled and crunched as someone or something stealthily walked over them. Leo's weakened heart beat faster as the footsteps came closer, causing his chest to spark with pain from the extra strain upon the muscle.

Unable to see little more than a dim patch of blurred forest, he was unable to shift his head to see who the stranger was, but his fears were alleviated as soon as he heard its whispered voice.

"Glad you made it. Kel and I were worried you didn't get out, especially after that huge explosion near your room," Jay whispered into his ear, as he ducked underneath the foliage of the forest floor to avoid the wandering searchlights of the officers.

Jay shuffled around the fallen Charmeleon so his body crouched over his weak tail fire, hiding it from detection temporarily. The Riolu's mask of black fur, faintly illuminated by the flame, added to the furtive feel that filled the air.

"Kelly's in a glade up ahead. She wanted me to search for you in case you had gotten away, I'd say mission accomplished," he said with a slight grin that flashed his teeth.

Looking down at Leo, his smile faded. "I saw you get hit. How bad?" Jay asked, his hushed tones barely audible to the Charmeleon.

Somehow, he managed to make his vocal cords work. "I don't know … hurts," he croaked.

Jay gingerly brushed off a few leaves that were stuck to the wound by either dried blood or the electrical current. A small blackened circle was the only direct evidence that Leo had even been hit. Jay looked over the wound as best he could in the dark forest. From what he could tell, nothing major had been impacted. The blast had been mostly stopped by his scales and what little power remained had either burned into him or stunned his muscles.

"I know it hurts; I've been hit by one before too," he pointed to a small irregular scar on his left arm. "Fortunately, Magnemite aren't made to kill outright. You'll be fine once the paralysis wears off," Jay concluded as he peaked above the brush to see if the Magnemite were searching far enough away not to hear their talking.

"Can you move anything? Arms? Legs? We have to get moving," Jay asked as he received only a twitch of Leo's outstretched claws to show the extent of his mobility.
Jay groaned as loud as he dared, wondering what to do.

"We can't stay here, our 'friends' are going to find us…" Jay shut his eyes and concentrated for a brief moment. Appearing to concentrate and think of a solution to their predicament.

Suddenly, his head shot up. "I've got it!" he whispered hoarsely as he rummaged around his torn and slightly charred satchel. He pulled out something small and held it so Leo could see it in the glow of his tail. It was a small crimson berry; a small curly green stem remained on it.

"Please tell me you can still chew," Jay asked cautiously, hoping the answer was positive. The Riolu breathed an audible sigh of relief when Leo nodded. He dropped the berry into Leo's mouth and watched as the Charmeleon munched on the small berry.

At first, it appeared to have slightly less flavor than the dust he inhaled in the base, but after a few chews his tongue felt like it had been subjected to a once over with a flamethrower. As the spicy juices of the fruit burned its way into his taste buds, Leo felt his muscles and nerves burn with the same heat as they painfully returned to life. The temporary shock inflicted on his body was lifted in a single tongue-scorching bite.

Leo hopped to his feet, tail flaring in response to the sudden resurgence of activity. Despite Jay's hushed warnings to keep silent, Leo spat the partly chewed berry out and ran his claws over his burning tongue trying to wipe the remaining fire off.

Jay had enough sense to clamp both paws down on the Charmeleon's snout, silencing his rather loud actions, but unfortunately, he hadn't the sense to act a few seconds earlier. As if they were center stage on one of the great halls of Silver City, every single searchlight in the forest was trained on the two Pokemon.

"Dodge!"

All thoughts of pulling Jay's paws off his mouth were discarded and some force in his body made his claws latch onto Jay's shoulders and lunge to the side, taking the Riolu along. As the two Pokemon landed in the brush, several spheres of plasma converged into an explosive fireball where they had been standing.

"Run!"

Not letting the Riolu even get the chance to brush himself off, Leo hauled him to his feet and was almost dragging him through the forest. His mind had shut out Jay's protests to let go, even as plasma bolts slammed into the surrounding trees with dull thuds. He didn't know where he was sprinting to, but something seemed to nudge his legs forward toward the western forest, and he didn't object.

When Jay finally ripped his paw away with a grunt, the Riolu faltered slightly in his sprint at first. However, he was soon nimbly bounding over the thick roots of the dark woods. Leo's short, reptilian legs struggled to keep up with Jay, the entire scene vaguely reminiscent of a similar scenario a few days before on his way into the Square.

Leo was nearly thrown to the ground as he collided into something metal. Skidding along the leaf littered floor, the Charmeleon clambered to his feet as the lone Magnemite hovered only a few feet in front of him.

"ZT! Suspect found in Valley Forest, Western Sector. Salient divided! I repeat Salient is divided! BZT! Reinforcements requested!"

"That's quite enough of that."

Suddenly, Leo felt as if his lungs had caught on fire. It wasn't the agonizing heat that he'd felt during his fight with Nexus; it was another, unnatural heat. He felt the heat rise up his throat, and almost instinctively, he let the fire exhale through his mouth. The fireball flashed into existence once it contacted the open air.

The Magnemite only saw the flash of bright orange before the attack consumed his spherical body entirely. The flames did not fade into nothingness as they did before; they seemed to grow in intensity.

The unit screeched as its metal components softened under the scorching fire and the steel shell surrounding the wires at its core began to melt. Electricity sparked erratically as the wires fused with the molten metal. The officer, widely veered around in the air, screeching as his brain solidified. Fortunately, for the Pokemon, a nearby tree took mercy on him and kindly allowed him to collide with its bark and explode.

Leo didn't waste any time grieving; he sprinted past the smoking remains like a rocket. The smoldering metal crunched under his tread as the core of wires shattered. He could hear the cries and sirens of the perusing officers close behind him; he clutched his badge tighter in his claws and focused on not tripping on the endless tree roots.

He didn't notice it in the nearly pitch-black night, but he felt it like the wintery breath of Articuno when he passed through it: a dungeon barrier. The sudden drop in temperature was instantly rectified as he passed into the warped forest. Leo shivered as the coldness exited his body, and he looked around him in a circle.

There was no sight of the Magnemite, even though their searchlights should have been visible in the murky woods. He turned to look ahead of him once more, and to his surprise, he saw a small trail leading through the thicket of trees that hadn't existed a second ago. When he squinted, he could even see Jay's form speeding a ways down the path.

No! I am not getting left behind again! Leo thought as he tried his best to keep the Riolu within sight. Unfortunately, the trees had a different plan. As he sprinted down the trail, Leo did not notice that the branches above him began to move on their own accord. He did not notice when the trunks began to widen and compress in ways that defied the laws of nature as they blocked the path behind him. Nor did he notice when vines suddenly started constricting their way around the trees and snaking into the shrinking trail.

Only when the roots began to uplift and rearrange themselves did he finally take stock of the changes. The dungeon was trying to engulf him. He pushed past the stitch building up in his side and sprinted as fast as his legs would allow. His breath grew thin and labored as his lungs burned.

The dungeon would not be outdone. The branches began to swing downwards onto the path, blocking it much like the roof had obstructed the hall before. Gritting his teeth, Leo kept his speed despite the road blockage. The dungeon had taunted him, and now he was going to accept its challenge.

Never wavering in his stride, Leo quickly approached the organic blockade. The distance lessening with every footstep, Leo knew he had to be accurate or else he would fall face first into the awaiting arms of the forest.

Taking a final breath, he leaped up in the air, the inertia from his sprint catapulting him forward. The night air seemed to go by his head with a whooshing sound as he tried to keep his body upright, no small feat while airborne.

While he may have overcome the first branch, there were others still yet in front of him.
The branches and vines seemed to reach up at him, as if they were taunting him to slip up, to make that one fatal error that sent him crashing down to their slithering tendrils.
As his momentum finally began to wane, Leo knew he wouldn't make it over unscathed.

His body neared the boughs as an idea popped into his head. It was functional—in theory—and more appealing than being dragged into the depths of the dungeon. As gravity took its toll on his flight, Leo twisted his body so that his feet were behind him.

He touched down on the branch at an angle. Using the basic principles of physics, he pushed off with his claws. The little power behind his push was augmented as he swung his legs underneath him so they were now in front of him. The shift in weight carried enough force to break the downward momentum and launch him over the remaining branches.

He landed on the ground awkwardly, hopping a few times trying to regain his balance as the dungeon shuddered; the trees seemed to tremble as if they were receiving punishment for their failure to detain him. Leo shook his head and continued his run, as the path closed in around him.

He could see a moonlit clearing up ahead, his teammate's silhouettes moving along the ground. The opening to the clearing was closing rapidly, choked by two huge, contorting oaks. The path had turned into an organic zipper, and Leo was on the verge of being caught up in the dungeon's rage.

The distance between him and the opening grew less as he sprinted along the final stretch. Vines and shifting roots constantly wiped at each other along the ground, fighting for which would get the honor of ensnaring him.

Vines slithered from their positions in the trees to the ground. Leo felt them writhe under his feet like worms. He didn't care, he was only a few strides away from the opening and escape. Escape from the Magnemite, escape from the dungeon.

The two oaks beside the entrance suddenly joined at their base and were rapidly combining into a single tree as to seal off the glade. Leo didn't hesitate. He jumped as high as he could into the air, clearing the conjoined trunk. Before he could complete his nose-dive into the glade, his body was jerked back in midair.

A single, green tendril had saw fit to wrap itself around his ankle and was trying to slither its way around his leg while also pulling him back. Leo let out a pained yell, and in a flash, both Jay and Kelly were at his side.

Kelly stood on her hind legs and tried to hold onto the Charmeleon's claws with hers; while Jay took a hold of Leo's other outstretched arm and dug his heels into the ground.
They both pulled on the Charmeleon against the dungeon-spawned vine, stuck on the weaker side of a macabre tug of war game.

Leo kicked his legs in a vain attempt to both free himself and keep the vine from twisting around him further. Jay growled, pulling harder on Leo's arm as Kelly somehow managed to balance herself on two legs while also pulling against the vine.

The vine, being only a plant, could not hope to hold out against the combined efforts of three Pokemon. After a final tug on its end, the tendril around Leo's ankle split from the main plant with an earsplitting snap. The victors of the game went tumbling backwards to the ground.

After a minute of awkward untangling of tails and arms, the three members of Team Salient looked at each other with stares of relief, slight irritation, and utter confusion.

"So, does anyone want to tell me what just happened?!" Leo asked, crossing his arms, only vaguely noticing that his badge was still clutched numbly in his claw.

"We were hit by a raid," Jay said as he noticed the dull glint of Leo's badge as the weak light of the moon reflected off it.

"Uh-huh. Yeah, I can see that, Jay. I want to know why," Leo reiterated as he tapped his foot on the ground in annoyance.

"Is that your badge?" Jay inquired, avoiding the Charmeleon's question completely.

Slightly taken by surprise at the randomness of the question, Leo reflexively opened his claw to reveal the badge fully.

"Great, now hand it over. It has to go," Jay demanded, holding out his right paw.
Leo drew back his badge, holding it close to him.

"Why? Why does it have to go?" Leo clutched his badge tighter as Jay let out an exasperated sigh.

"Because, they can track you through it!" Jay yelled, pointing vaguely in the direction of the Magnemite, "Believe me, I know what they do. I've experienced it first hand," he said, his voice lowering so his teammates could barely hear him.

"Fine, just get it over with ... Wait, you've been through this before?" Leo asked, as curiosity rose up inside of him. What else has he been through?

"It's nothing. Just … just give me your badge, please. We don't have much time. Kelly, yours too, please," Jay responded, trying to evade the subject.
Leo remained unmoved and now Kelly was interested in the subject as well.

"Jay? What are you talking about? You've never mentioned this before," Kelly inquired, suspicion worming its way into her mind.

"Seriously, can we talk about this later? Maybe, I don't know, when we're not being tracked?!" Jay said; fidgeting as he desperately tried to change the conversation.

"You were so eager to know about my past, now why don't you tell us yours?" Leo pressed the Riolu, who refused to look at him directly.
"Are you the reason the Magnemite are hunting us? Is it something you did?!" Leo guessed, his voice becoming harsher with each passing second.
Jay suddenly looked up, furious.

"Something I did?! I seem to recall you being in a prison when you were assigned to us. And you're one to talk about not telling us anything." the Riolu was as close to screaming as he could get. He marched toward the Charmeleon, and planted a paw squarely on his chest accusingly. "Tell me Leo, who exactly are you?"

He continued. "How do we know this isn't your fault?! We know nothing about you. For all we know, you're a convicted arsonist, or a complete psychopath, or both!" Jay narrowed his eyes at Leo.

"Hey! Guys! Cool it, or else we're going to be heard!" Kelly hissed, though was promptly ignored by the two erring Pokemon.

"Oh please, I told you all everything I knew that night. I have no secrets. You, though, don't trust us enough to tell us anything!" Leo was lying through his teeth, but he was caught up in the heat of his argument.

"Leo! Jay! Both of you, shut up!" Kelly snapped, once again ignored in favor of their loud argument.

"You know? If you actually told us what is going on in your head, maybe we'd be able to solve your problem. When were you going to tell us tha—" as he yelled at Leo, Jay's words were suddenly lost as a severe shiver went through him, as if the temperature exclusively around him dropped below freezing.

"Cease. Now."

When it passed, he seemed to have lost all malice toward his teammate.
Jay looked at Leo, a subtle mixture of absolute fear and terror was visible in the Riolu's eyes. Whatever he had gone through had shocked him pretty badly.

"I-I'm sorry, I was wrong to pry into your life," he stuttered, his words sounding as if he was forced to say them with a knife pressed against his throat.

"But, we do need to get rid of our badges. That's a certainty. Leo, and Kelly, you too, please," Jay asked meekly, making sure to keep his voice low.

Leo was too perplexed by what Jay's complete turnaround in attitude to pay attention when Kelly gently eased his badge from his claws. She tossed the emblem over to the Riolu while she found hers on the ground and once more kicked it over to him, keeping a reasonable distance away from her teammate.

Jay silently nodded as he picked up both of the trinkets as well as a small rock he could hold easily in his other paw. Leo watched curiously as Jay took his own badge and placed it on an ancient stump. Taking the stone, Jay slammed it down onto the back where his paw print was etched into the reflective bronze metal. The metal made a resilient clinking noise with every impact. After several hits with the rock, the metal let out a sudden blue spark, contrasting sharply with the moonlit clearing.

Wiping his arm across his forehead, Jay examined the damaged item. Nodding quietly to himself, he tossed the identification piece over his shoulder and into the forest where it was quickly swallowed up by the shifting trees.

"One down, two to go," Leo heard his teammate whisper as he watched Jay grab Kelly's badge and repeat the same process. Hit. Clink. Another hit. Another metallic clink. Until the badge fizzled and sparked.

Leo felt a twinge of pain with every hit Jay landed on his badge, as if a small part of him was dying with every smack. His badge lasted ten hits with the nearly broken wedge of stone before sparking. Having rendered it inoperable, Jay tossed the broken piece of metal behind him.

"Alright, that's done." Jay took a quick look around the dark clearing. "It's still a ways until dawn. I suggest we try to get some sleep. We're safe from the dungeon in this glade," Jay reasoned.

"You know? That sounds pretty good. We'll figure out what to do in the morning," Kelly agreed, cutting off Leo's upcoming argument.

The Sableye sat alone behind the counter of his shop. Even though it was shortly past midnight, he refused to retire. He knew. He knew that if he slept, he wouldn't wake up. For the alterations he made to the orders, he knew there was going to be hell to pay.

He hadn't done what his superior had ordered. No, he looked at the contents of the message. He had secretly delivered it to Officer Gear, not the agent the Scyther told him about. The second he saw those kids' names among those who needed to die, he knew he had to do something. He had altered the order and hopefully, that mistake gave them a chance to get out of Loyalty.

“I've got to get out of here...” Aleck muttered as his claws carefully analyzed each coin of his meager fortune.

His plans for the future were interrupted by a single loud knock on the counter. Slowly looking up from his coins and hastily packed bags, he saw the silhouette of a Bug type he recognized instantly in the waning light of the moon, a single scythe pressed against the wooden countertop.

“Darnéy,” he stated while his crystal eyes glittered in the darkness of the night.

The Scyther did not respond. Other then his breathing, he was silent. He drew his scythe slowly across the counter, shaving off thin layers of wood as he passed the appendage back and forth. His wings twitched while his gaze bore down on the Sableye.

“... Treachery is a terrible crime, Aleck..." The Scyther suddenly lowered his head until Aleck’s face was only inches away. Both Pokemon stared resolutely at each other. The Sableye knew perfectly well what danger he was in, but he kept himself rooted in place. He would stand his ground at his shop.

“I did the job I deemed was right. I refuse to murder children, is that wrong in your eyes, Darnéy? Is it?!" Aleck hissed vehemently, his claws pushing the fuming Scyther's blade back from his face.

“Several vital targets escaped the raids. Our cover was nearly blown. And you have the gall to sit here and claim that you were right? ... Is that it, Aleck?” Darnéy calmly asked. Aleck could see it behind his eyes. A wave of rage that manifested itself in the minute shudders that passed through his wings.

Aleck knew what was going to happen. He'd seen it coming ever since he had altered the orders for the Magnemite to not kill but simply arrest Team Salient. He was going to die.

"That's exactly right, Darnéy. I'm done. If the Colonies can order the murders of three children drawn in by horrible circumstances, then I rescind any support." Aleck proudly stated even as the Bug-type absently sharpened his right scythe on his carapace.

Darnéy looked up from his task with his blade. “Then so be it, imp.” He suddenly lashed forward, his wings propelling him faster than Aleck could see. He slammed the broad side of his scythe against the small Pokemon’s head. There was a sharp crack as Aleck’s right crystal eye split into several small fragments. The merchant stood upright for a moment, swaying slightly from side to side before collapsing to the ground in a crumbled heap.

Quickly looking up from his deed, the Scyther glanced around the street. Not one soul remained out at this late hour, much to the Pokemon’s relief. He turned back to his victim. A low groan issued from the fallen merchant and traitor to the Colonies , indicating he was still alive. For now.

Darnéy acted quickly. Buzzing his wings, he hovered up and over the counter. Bending down, he carefully slid his right scythe into a small pouch slung over is shoulder and skewered a small golden seed, causing small amounts of yellow dust to trickle out. He held the seed over the struggling Sableye, forcing the dust onto Aleck’s body. The shopkeeper’s body twitched once and then fell still.

Pleased with the Stun Seed’s performance, the Scyther maneuvered his scythe underneath the small Pokemon and heaved him over his spiny shoulder. Glancing around once more, he deftly sprinted into the shadows of a nearby alley just as three patrolling Magnemite floated down the stone street.

He watched them intently; remaining motionless as the automations hovered by his position. A low groan from Aleck caused the Scyther to hold his breath as the Magnemite quickly lit up their search beams and scanned the area.

Backup plans raced around his head, he could easily take those two out, but not before they would alert every unit in a ten mile radius. However, his fears were put to rest when the trio of officers abandoned their inspection and continued on their way.

No longer inhibited by any obstacles, the Scyther leaped from his hiding place and into the street. His clawed feet made minimal noise on the stone as he ensured that no stray witnesses remained. He glanced at his hostage’s limp form, a scowl of disdain making its way across his face.

“Thus ends all traitors,” he hissed as his wings began to buzz rapidly. He rotated each of his legs once, and, in a blur of green and steel-grey, he was gone into the woods surrounding the town, an untouchable phantom in the moonlit forest.

"Sir?" the Magnemite asked as he and his two counterparts reported the results of the three raids their new commander had ordered.

Richelieu, despite being exhausted by his efforts to oust Officer Gear from his position of power earlier that evening, slowly rose from his roosting position. His gold-tinted steel feathers clinked against each other as he rustled them.

"Ah, you three. You headed the raids, correct?" Richelieu inquired, blinking as he tried to wake himself up fully.

"Affirmative. ZT!" they all answered at once, causing the governor's still groggy head to cringe in pain. He quickly shook it off, and put on his usual air of seriousness.

"Good, good. And it goes without saying that you all were successful, correct?" Richelieu assumed, inspecting each of the units.

"Yes, sir! Suspects detained! ZT!"

"Correct! Traitors captured!"

The final unit hovered uncomfortably as he made various noises similar to what a Mareep makes when pitted against a hungry Mightyena.

Richelieu narrowed his eyes and craned his neck forward so that his was looking directly down on the terrified unit.

"That wouldn't happen to be an issue of conflict would it, officer?" he said, his voice cold. The Magnemite's center eye shrank even further than the Skarmory thought possible.

"N-no, no, no, no! Not at all, sir! ZT! The raid was a c-complete s-s-success!" the Magnemite stammered, his panic growing. His eye glanced to the sides at his two partners, but they were at the opposite sides of the room, snickering to themselves as they readied themselves for what was going to come next.

Richelieu brought his beak closer to the unit's center eye.
"You wouldn't happen to be lying through your speakers now would you? Because I hate—no, I loathe, liars, especially when they lie to my face."

The Magnemite whirled his magnets around furiously, as his eye tried to look anywhere in the room besides the governor's eyes.

"You know what I do to liars? I order them to rot in the lowest, most Arceus-forsaken pit for the rest of their miserable lives. Now, would you like to perhaps rectify your previous statement?"

The Magnemite tried to maintain his silence, but he made the mistake of allowing his eye to lock with Richelieu's piercing gaze.

"Alright! ZT! My team failed! ZZT! Failed to catch Salient! Please don't deactivate me!" he screeched with the machine equivalent of sobbing.

Richelieu pulled his head back, a smug smile traced across his metal beak.
"I'm disappointed in you, officer. You and your team have just let several individuals who the Inner Council has listed as dangerous escape. You have disappointed the Kingdom along with every law-abiding citizen within its borders."

The Magnemite let out a small squeak of relief, which was quickly crushed by the Skarmory's next statement.

"We cannot allow units such as you and your team go unpunished, that is why you are being reassigned to the Sawgrass Town patrol."

The Magnet Pokemon lost it. "What? Sawgrass? …… No! Nononononononononono! Not Sawgrass! They'll eat me alive!" he screeched as small spark "tears" flew from his body.

"That is no longer my concern. Axis, go round up the rest of his team and make sure they are escorted to their new assignment immediately."

The deputy, who had been floating silently outside of the doorway for some time now came inside the room. "Right now, Gea-vernor?" he said, catching himself before he said his previous boss's name.

Richelieu would have chastised the Magneton for his mistake had he not been occupied in condemning this unit to a living hell.
"Yes, right now. Get to it."

Axis hovered in front of the shaking unit, and with a barely audible "I'm sorry", attached his magnets to the officer's, and promptly short-circuited him. As Axis dragged the unfortunate unit's chassis from Richelieu's office, the condemned metal ball spoke.

"ZT! Gear would never do this!"

"Gear is gone now, for good," the metal bird chuckled.

"It has come onto my understanding that my plans, and thus eventual peace are being interfered with. I only ask that you grant me the permission of perhaps … escalating my range of influence."

… … ...

"Of course, I fully understand. Those who seek to endanger the world must be removed from it."

End Chapter Eight