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Chapter Four: Injustice
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"I'm…not sure what's going on anymore. Things are changing: guards are everywhere, He is always here, and they're not telling us anything anymore. They're hiding something, the administrator, I'm certain he's in on it …. I'm going to find out what it is … I'm not sure what will happen to me, but I can't go back. Not now, they know. Somehow, they know that I'm on to them, so it's no use playing dumb. Not anymore.
I'm going to go …. into the restricted areas tomorrow, to see what I can find.
If I don't come back ... whoever is reading this needs to make sure that what they're doing is exposed … whatever that may be."
Last known entry from the private journal of Ian the Breloom, former member of Team Frontier. Confirmed missing the day after this journal entry and has not been heard from since.

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Leo knew the dark expanse he stood in was the result of a dream, not simply the effects of unconsciousness. The darkness seemed too vivid, if possible, to be anything but a dream.

"Is this kind of thing going to be a regular thing every time I pass ou—What the heck is that?!"

Within the darkness of the dream, something stirred. At first, they sounded like distant voices, but like a tidal wave approaching shore, their soft whispers grew until they resembled the tortured screams of the damned.
Leo clutched the sides of his head in an attempt to block out their screams, but they broke through this barrier as their amplified voices circled around him.

"Reality is the story the mind tells itself. A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence and our minds can lie. Never doubt it."

"What's this? Real, or just my lying mind again?"

"Shut up! Stop it!" Leo screamed, but the voices only grew louder.

"You can always ignore your conscious …"

"I was promised salvation. I was told that I would be free. He told me that my imprisonment would end. I can't live like this … Maybe I'm already dead.  Does that make this my hell?"

"Please stop! I don't want to hear you!" Leo pleaded, but the voices didn't heed his order.

"Death might be a better alternative then letting him return …"

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Please stop!" Leo cried, tears welling up from the pain. Suddenly the screaming voices ceased, and a single, cold voice started talking.

"Unless you wish for your mind's descent into madness to accelerate, I suggest you wake up, Leo. Wake up … and see past the corruption."
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Flailing his arms around in panic, Leo effectively shredded the soft blankets covering him. Panting heavily, his eyes darted around the room he was in for the strange voices from a few seconds earlier.

After confirming that the room was empty of everyone but himself, he began to worry.
I-I'm hearing voices inside my head. Am I going crazy? I must be, because no normal person hears things like that.  He glanced at each of the corners of the room to make sure no one was pulling a prank on him. His psyche wasn't in the best state to handle someone's cruel attempt of a joke the moment.

He shook the thoughts of potential insanity away and truly observed the room he didn't remember being in before. It was a small square room with brick walls, and wooden ceiling with several small bunches of dried herbs tied to the rafters, their purifying scents purged the air of foul smells and left a sharp, minty aftertaste in Leo's mouth every time he took a breath.
Aside from the herbs on the ceiling, the only other things in the room appeared to be the hay bed he was sitting on and a small wooden door.

Deciding that nothing productive would come of his staying in bed, he swung his legs over the side of the haystack and he hopped down. It was as soon as his legs hit the packed dirt floor that he realized that his body wasn't as recovered from yesterday's fiasco as he thought. As his weak legs fell out from beneath him, he clutched the wall nearest to him to keep from collapsing.

Just then, he heard the squeaking sound of the wooden door opening behind him, and not even a full second had passed when he heard another voice.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Charmeleon?!" Leo didn't have time to process who the voice belonged to when a pair of leafy arms picked him up from under his shoulders and dropped him over the bed.

Leo looked up at his rescuer, she (at least it sounded feminine to Leo) appeared to be a walking plant blub with a red, oversized, hat-like flower set almost sideways on her leaf green "hair". Her pale white face was looking down on her renegade patient with a mixture of concern and disapproval.

"You're not cleared to be out of bed yet. I'm not surprised that you nearly fell. Those poisons you inhaled yesterday haven't dissipated from your body yet," she scolded as she went over to a small brown bag she brought with her, pulling out a pink, heart-shaped berry.

"Here, eat this. It'll help your body break down the last of the poison's toxins much faster then it would normally," she said as she handed Leo the berry.
Leo looked at the berry suspiciously, it didn't seem bad, but, as Leo had learned yesterday, looks can be deceiving.

"Go on, eat it. Honestly, you're acting like you've never seen a Pecha Berry before," the nurse urged as Leo cautiously took a bite of the berry.
He wasn't expecting the explosion of sweetness that the berry contained; he stared in awe of the fruit as he swallowed the bite. It took approximately two and a half seconds for Leo to shove the entirety of the small berry into his mouth, chew it, and swallow it.

The plant-bulb Pokemon chuckled at the scene. Leo looked up at her with a small dribble of Pecha juice remaining on his lips, which he cleaned with a swipe of his tongue. He didn't care if she thought him as ill-mannered, odd, or just plain weird; that berry was perhaps the best experience he'd had so far in this world, and he wasn't going to let anyone ruin it for him.

"Now that you've finished with that, the last of the toxins should dissipate shortly," The nurse informed Leo.
Suddenly a thought hit Leo, pushing away all the good feelings he had. What happened to Kelly and Jay? And I guess Icarus, too.
"Excuse me, nurse…" he trailed off, not knowing what name to call his caretaker.

The nurse sensed his confusion. "I'm a Lilligant; my species aren't normally seen around here, so I'm not surprised that you don't know. You may call me Rosaline."

Armed with her name, Leo again asked his question. "Nurse Rosaline, what happened to the others who were brought here with me?"

The Lilligant paused. "Who are you talking about, Charmeleon?" she asked, confused.

Leo pushed himself up on the bed. "Kelly and Jay. They were with me yesterday, along with Icarus."

"I'm sorry, Charmeleon, but I don't know any of those names. Forgive me," Rosaline apologized, as Leo began to panic.

"My friends, Kelly and Jay! A Jolteon and a Riolu, where are they?!" Leo shouted at the nurse. In the midst of his alarm, he realized that he had just referred to them as his friends. It was true they were the closest things he had to friends in this world.

The nurse spoke, "Calm down, Charmeleon! I-"

"My name is Leo! What happened to them?!" Leo yelled, cutting her off abruptly. He hopped down off the bed and strained to stand. This was arguably not his best move as he nearly fell to the floor again, but panic had firmly gripped his mind and was not letting go.
Just as the nurse was about to resort to using a Sleep Seed she carried on her for such a situation, the door opened and in walked Jay, Kelly, and to Leo's surprise, Icarus. All of them looking healthy and happy, except Icarus who seemed displeased with the sling his right wing was set in.

"We leave you for an hour to discuss a reward with Icarus, and you get into a shouting match with the nurse? Maybe we should have them examine your head," Jay said, walking in between Leo and the nurse, who still firmly held the Sleep Seed in her hand, ready to throw it if needed.

Leo's heart flooded with relief. "You're all right, that's … great," he said, his breaths slowing as his fear induced heart rate returned to normal.

"I was about to tell you that I saw your friends earlier in the guild's lobby. I didn't treat your friends, so that's why I didn't recall who you were asking about," Nurse Rosaline huffed, stowing the seed back into her bag.

Sheepishly, Leo turned to the annoyed nurse. "I'm sorry I overreacted. I didn't mean to."

The Lilligant smiled. "It's alright, I forgive you. You're hardly the first Pokemon to yell at me in a panic. And I think it shows how much you care for your friends," she said, as Leo was suddenly thankful his scales were already colored crimson.

"So, would someone tell me what happened yesterday?" Leo asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Well, shortly after Jumpluff attacked us, I managed to get a connection with the badge. I activated it and it worked as expected: Icarus and I instantly arrived at the guild with Jay appearing a few seconds later," Kelly explained, as Jay continued.

"Then our luck ran out, again. You weren't showing up. As soon as we saw that, Kelly and I ran into the guild and found the Kadabra who ran the badge extraction, and we calmly and rationally explained what happened, and he kindly reopened the passage to get you out of the-" Jay told Leo as Kelly interrupted him.

"What he actually means is that he barged into the restricted area of the guild and threatened the overworked Kadabra until he got you out of th-" Kelly revealed as Jay cut her off.

"Don't act all innocent, you were about to fry the poor guy by the time I got the-" Jay shot back, as Rosaline cut both of them off by wrapping her leafy hands over both of their muzzles.

"This is a hospital. Not an arena. If you wish to carry on your argument, you will do so outside. Do you understand?" she scolded as she slowly let go of their mouths.
"Now, I must inform you all that your stay in our guild is almost over. The Guildmaster requests that your entire team vacate the premises now that all of your wounds have been stabilized and treated. You have fifteen minutes to gather your things and leave," Rosaline informed the reunited team.

After that, Jay, Kelly, and Leo busied themselves with gathering their items from the guild's storage and helping Leo regain strength in his legs. While on their errands, the group passed a golden, mustached, humanoid Pokemon. Once the Pokemon saw them, he instantly jumped to the side and flattened himself against the wall. Leo thought his behavior odd until he saw both Jay and Kelly shoot him a piercing glare.

He must be the Kadabra-thing they threatened earlier, Leo realized as the Pokemon fled down the hallway as soon as they passed. Leo smiled at the thought. Serves him right.

After they had recovered their satchels and items—Leo's key wasn't taken, to his relief-- they found Nurse Rosaline and said their good-byes.
"It was nothing, and I'm sorry we have to ask you to leave, but that's the rules," she said, as Jay suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, nurse, when you were treating Leo, did you find out anything about his memory loss?"

Rosaline stopped her good-bye, "Beg pardon, I wasn't even aware that Leo was suffering from amnesia. Was this from yesterday's events?" she inquired, concern spreading throughout her face.

"No, I've had it for a few days now. At least, that's as far back as I can remember," Leo admitted with a sigh.

The Lilligant walked over to Leo, she put her hands on the sides of his head and gently inspected it. "You don't appear to have any noticeable injury to your skull; was it a Psychic type that did this to you? Or was it something else?" she asked after completing her observation of his head.

Leo shook her hands off his head, "You're asking the amnesiac if he remembers anything. That makes perfect sense," Leo said with a laugh.

"Well, excuse me for trying to help," she huffed, "Anyways, there are a few options I know of that might—might, mind you-- help restore his memory, though they would require much effort on your part," she told them.

"Before Jay says something out of line, I'll be the one to ask. What can we do to help our teammate, Nurse?"  Kelly asked. Jay shrugged his shoulders as he let her comment go.

"Well, a Psychic Pokemon who's very developed in his abilities could delve into Leo's mind and attempt to remove the amnesia, but if one thing goes wrong, it could land your friend with a much bigger problem then missing memories," she elaborated.
Leo shook his head in disagreement, he didn't want some Pokemon messing around in his head, he already had enough going on up there.

"If you don't want to use that method, there is a talented aura user I know of; Madam Lucario is her name, I believe. She is well known for her abilities, and has reported success with patients like you, though I'm a bit skeptical. Last I heard she was in one of the frontier towns, that'd be at least a week's travel if you wanted …" she trailed off, sensing that the offer had fallen short with the team.

"Thank you for your help, but we simply can't go off to find this Madam Lucario. We'll just have to make do with what we have," Jay told her, as they exited the hospital section of the guild.

The main floor of the guild was huge, to say the least. Leo couldn't even imagine such a room existing in this world. As Jay would tell him later, the lobby was ten feet in height, and wide enough to allow even the longest Onix to fit comfortably. Along the brick walls of the room were placed several long boards each with dozens of posters on them. They made the Post Office's board look superfluous by the amount of job requests they could hold.

Before Leo could observe the entirety of the guild's foyer, he found himself being pushed along by Jay. A few minutes later, he, Jay, Kelly, and a disgruntled Icarus were standing near the edge of Loyalty Square's now-bustling marketplace.

"Well, at least we got time to breathe in there," Leo said snidely to Jay, who was looking very much relieved now that they were out of the guild.

"Believe me, it's better now that we're out of there," he replied, giving no indication of what that might have meant.

"Icarus, I think it's time you gave us that reward you insisted on not talking about earlier," Jay said to the Pidgeotto, changing the subject from the guild.

Icarus clawed the stone street with his talons, "Yeeeah, about that …You see, I don't have a reward for you guys," he slowly said while keeping an eye on Jay.

"What do you mean, Icarus?" Jay said, his voice betraying no trace of the anger Leo was sure was building up inside of him.

"W-what I mean, is that I don't have anything of value to…you know, give you guys. I'm only a messenger, I don't get paid much," Icarus answered the Riolu, as he kept his distance.

"So, nothing? You have nothing to give us for all of our work yesterday getting you out of that Arceus forsaken meadow?!" Jay asked, his temper breaking through his calm exterior.

Icarus backed up as Jay took a step forward. "H-hey! L-let's not get h-hasty, Jay. W-we can talk something out….Leo, Kelly, would you two please help me out here?!" Icarus squawked, once he backed into a wall of a building.

"You know, Kelly, I'm not really in the mood for rescuing right now. How about you?" Leo asked, as Kelly laughed.

"No, me neither. Actually, I am in the mood for something to eat. You want to come, Leo?" she answered as panic filled Icarus's eyes.

"G-guys? C-come on, I'm sorry! Please don't leave me here with him!" Icarus pleaded.

"Sure, I'm starving. Do you know some place that has some of those Peachy berries?" Leo asked as he walked off with Kelly into the Square.

Kelly laughed, "Pecha berries, and I know a place that's great. Come on."

Jay smirked as he cracked his knuckles, "Let's have a little …chat, Icarus."

"Zapdos, save me …" Icarus whimpered.
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The shop they entered was a small structure that appeared to be built out of an amalgamation of tree trunks and cut rock lashed together with rope. The fact that it was standing was probably breaking several basic laws of physics.
Inside were several small circular tables, each occupied with a group of Pokemon either eating or just chatting. As Kelly and Leo walked in through the doorway, Leo looked around, not too optimistic about getting a space for both of them at a table.

Just as they were about to give up on finding a seat, a large red and yellow creature with red flames erupting from its shoulders looked up from his conversation and noticed their dilemma. He grinned and waved them over with one of its yellow tubular arms.
As Leo and Kelly walked over to the already crowded table, the large Pokemon who invited them pushed a horse-like Pokemon with fire for a mane aside to make space for the two.

"Thank you, Magmortar, sir," Kelly said gratefully, as they took a place at the table.

Magmortar laughed, "No need to be formal; name's Blaize, and this here is my crew," he said, as he gestured at the other Pokemon surrounding the table.

"Thank you for letting us sit here, but why? I don't think we've ever met before," Kelly asked Blaize, puzzled at his generosity. The Magmortar gave no reply to her, but instead Blaize pulled out a small bag, fished out a few copper coins, and tossed them the air.
Leo was surprised when the coins all suddenly vanished in a small blast of light.

Not three seconds after the coins had vanished from sight, two glasses of liquid appeared in twin flares of light on the table in front of Leo and Kelly.
Leo shot back from the table and covered his head with his claws, bracing himself for whatever explosion was about to happen.
After a moment of nothing even remotely like a detonation occurring, he slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head. The table was still intact, though every Pokemon at it was staring at him as if he'd completely lost it, Blaize and Kelly in particular.

Leo laughed weakly as he slowly returned to the table. Ignoring the stares of the others, he nonchalantly took a sip of his drink. He was amazed at the taste of whatever this mixture was called; he couldn't even imagine something that came even remotely close to being this good. The Pecha Berry he had earlier palled in comparison to the fiery flavor of this drink. He barely kept these emotions to himself, as the rest of the table returned to their conversation.

"Blaize, sir. You didn't have to buy us anything, we can afford our own," Kelly told the Magmortar, as he grinned.

"Don't worry about that, and if the rumors are true, you and your team deserve it after what you all did in the Meadows. I swear, you all are more competent then the legions of Magnemite they got patrolling everywhere. Exposing a major Colonial smuggling ring and surviving to tell the tale; that's not something that every team does. You deserve the drinks," Blaize explained as Leo downed the rest of the red liquid in his glass.

"How did you know about that? We only got back yesterday," Kelly asked as Leo discreetly reached for Kelly's glass and took it while she was distracted.

Blaize let out another hearty laugh, "I guess some folks overheard talk in the guild and told the town all about it. Good thing too, since that's what led us to take the job of arresting Jumpluff and his cronies," he told them as the other Pokemon at the table nodded in agreement.
While they talked, Leo carefully took a sip of Kelly's drink—some sort of electric yellow liquid—and nearly gagged on it. Overriding the urge to spit it out, he quickly swallowed the drink. Disgusted with the revolting drink, he swiftly passed it back to Kelly's spot before she noticed it was even gone.

"Well, good luck with that. He's not a pleasant Pokemon, that's for sure. Be careful, and don't breathe the air," she warned as Blaize and the entire group laughed—Leo noticed that they did this a lot.

"Don't go worrying about us, lass. A couple Fire Blasts from us and they'll be begging at our knees!" as he said this, he suddenly lifted his right arm up in the air and shot a small burst of flame out of it.
It seemed as if the entire restaurant turned and stared at their table after Blaize's display.
After the audience slowly went back to their private conversations, Blaize announced to his team that it was time to get going.

"Management here don't like attacks going off on the premises, so we're going before they get onto us. We can't get banned from here, it's the only place left in town that hasn't locked their doors to us yet. See you both around, and good luck with your future rescuin'," Blaize told them as he and his group hastily exited the building before said management could get onto them.

Leo was just starting to enjoy having the entire table just to him and Kelly when he looked up at the back corner of the restaurant. He saw past the groups of conversing Pokemon to see a strange purple creature. It didn't have any arms or legs that Leo could see, it just silently floated. It wasn't the lack of limbs, or even the large witch hat it seemed to wear on its head that captured Leo's attention. It was its stare. The creature's golden eyes gleamed from under the brow of its "hat", and Leo saw a wicked smile form on its face. Just as Leo was about to go and confront the observer, a group of three Pokemon approached their table, blocking the staring contest.

"You both mind if we sit here? We've been looking around for a place to sit for a while now," one of the newcomers inquired, a large green gecko with a thin leaf growing from the top of its head that went down to its feet.

Coming out of his trance-like staring contest with the creature, Leo shook his head. "I'm sorry, we're out of room," Leo sarcastically told the group, motioning for them to take a seat.

The green gecko grinned, "Thanks mate, appreciate it," he said as he called for his two companions to take their places at the table. One was a regal looking creature with white fur and a sharp black crescent attached to the side of his head, and the other was a dragon with large red eyes and a pair of diamond-shaped wings on its back.

The Grovyle leaned over the table, "So, anything interesting happen to you all today?" he asked, trying to initiate a conversation.

"Well, we just finished recovering from our job at Spore Fields yesterday, and our teammate is getting our reward from our client," Kelly responded, not even phased at the fact that Jay was probably threatening Icarus with another broken wing.

This got the Absol's attention, "Spore Fields? Where you the team that exposed that smuggling ring I've been hearing about?"

The Grovyle put his clawed hand on the Absol's shoulder, "Don't be so rude, Elliot, we just met them," the Grovyle scolded, as Elliot started grumbling something unsavory about his leader. Leo craned his neck to see past the Grovyle and saw that the golden-eyed creature has vanished without a trace.

"Yeah, I guess that's us. I didn't know we'd become this well known just for doing that," Kelly replied, as Jay walked through the doorway of the café. After looking around a moment, he found the table where Leo and Kelly were, and joined them.
To avoid disclosing anything Jay did, or might have done to the other patrons, Leo decided to play it safe and ask a vague question.

"Any luck?"

Jay shook his head. "He really didn't have anything to give us, and believe me, I made sure." He looked at his teammates puzzled faces.
"Don't worry; I didn't hurt him or anything. I just scared him a bit," he answered their unspoken question.

"Even though I didn't get any reward from him, I made him a deal that he owes us a big favor whenever we might need one. And he accepted that without a second thought, and then I let him go," Jay said as he finished his explanation of his "chat" with Icarus.

"Is that how you treat all of your clients?" Elliot asked, grinning, "If so, then I'd hate to ever be rescued by you all."

The Grovyle jabbed the Absol with his elbow, "Elliot, shut up! You're not helping anyone with your jokes,"

The Absol shrugged it off, "Oh, lighten up Blade, not everything has to be so serious. I mean, I can sense when disasters are about to strike and I smile more then you do!" Elliot argued. The Grovyle, Blade, shook his head in disapproval.

"This is why we don't get higher level missions, because you and Sonic don't take things seriously," Blade shot back, directing the comment to Elliot and the Flygon, Sonic.

Jay leaned toward Leo and Kelly, "Did I miss anything?" he asked as Kelly filled him in on what happened while he was with Icarus.

"See past the corruption …"Leo jerked his head up, suddenly alert.

He quickly looked around the table: Jay and Kelly were talking, as were Blade, Elliot, and Sonic, and no one was behind him. Who said that?, Leo pondered, as his thoughts were suddenly cut short by a loud burst of familiar static.

The entire café went silent as a squad of seven Magnemite burst into the dining area. They all spun around, quickly scanning the entire room. Suddenly, one of the units screeched as it pointed towards a blue duck Pokemon that was sitting two tables away from Leo.

"ZZT! There he is! Get him! ZT!"

Five of the Magnemite instantly surrounded the table, while the other two turned around to address the restaurant patrons, who were beginning to panic and get to their feet.
"BZZT! Remain calm, citizens, official Loyalty Square Police business. Stay back," one of the units said. Leo wasn't paying attention to him; he, along with everybody else in the room, was looking around the Magnemite to see what was going on.
The five Magnemite that had surrounded the table had swarmed the stunned blue duck Pokemon. They tried to electrocute him, but he managed to dodge their charge by jumping to the side.

"What are you doing?!" the Pokemon yelled as he stumbled away from the table.

"ZT! Cease and desist, citizen!" one of the units yelled, as the five Magnemite surrounded the Golduck in the circle.

The Golduck desperately looked at the other Pokemon, "I haven't done anything wrong! What are you doing?!" he yelled as the Magnemite tightened their circle around him.

"ZZT! Surrender now, Jack, and we won't have to use force. ZT!" another of the units said, as Jack's webbed hands started glowing.
Without warning, Jack lunged forward and punched one of the Magnemite. The attack sent the unit flying into the rock wall where it shattered in an explosion of electricity and metal fragments.
Before the other officers could react, Jack punched another unit into the floor where it met the same fate as the one before.
Jack turned around, shot a burst of water from his mouth at the other Magnemite, and made a break through the gap in the circle. The other units were no longer stunned, and immediately fired bolts of charged electricity at the Golduck.

"ZT! Units Four and Seven down! Units Four and Seven down! Remaining units detain suspect!  ZZT!" one of the units shouted as they fired off several more bolts. Jack was nimble enough to dodge the electric bolts; he jumped over the chairs and landed on Leo's table.
The units continued firing their attacks despite the risk of hitting the other patrons. Jack's hands glowed again and this time he sent a wave of psychic energy at the police units, knocking the remaining five units backwards.

Leo ducked from his seat, as a bolt of energy flew inches above his head.
Jack released several more of the psychic blasts, deflecting the electric bolts and disorienting the units.

"This has to end before someone gets hurt," Blade whispered as he prepared to strike.

Before Jack could attack again, Blade hopped up onto the table directly behind the Golduck and shot a pair of glowing leaves at Jack's head, instantly knocking the Pokemon down onto the floor before he could react. The remaining units took advantage of the opportunity and fired several bolts directly at the Golduck.
Jack cried out in pain as he collapsed to the ground, his body twitching as the electricity continued to course through it.

Leo was too stunned to move at this act of police brutality as several yells of "Jack!" came from the Pokemon of the café.
Before anyone could make a move to help him, the Magnemite quickly surrounded the unconscious Golduck. Two of them clasped their magnet appendages around Jack's wrists and started dragging him out of the restaurant, another two units made a barrier around their prisoner, while the last one attached his magnets to the smoking piles of wreckage that were units Four and Seven and dragged them away.

"BZZT! Have a nice day, citizens. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in detaining this felon. ZZT!" the last one said as it left the restaurant, the last comment directed to Blade.

After the Magnemite left, the patrons started murmuring and conversing once more. Leo could hear only snippets of their hushed dialogue, "… again, it's happened again.", "Jack never did anything …", "… third raid this week ...", "… too far this time …"

Leo snapped back into focus when Jay tapped him on his back, "I think it's time we go. We don't want to stay here too long, otherwise we'll be the next ones offending one of their asinine laws," Jay warned and Leo nodded, taking a last look at the overturned table and the many smoking scorch marks in the walls and furniture.

"Your friend is right, we should leave now," Blade said as he motioned for Leo to move.
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Silent Foothills: Second Area

Even though it had been a few hours since the incident in the café, Leo was still trying to make sense of what had happened. Jay explained that this was only one of many similar incidents happening all across the Kingdom: Pokemon being rounded up and arrested at the slightest sign of doing anything considered "treasonous".

Once they had departed the café, they parted ways with Blade and his team, who told them to watch their backs as they left. Apparently, Jay had also been to the job boards while he was dealing with Icarus and had accepted a mission, though he never got the chance to tell them in the restaurant.

Though Leo was not too psyched about going into another dungeon so soon after the last one, he reluctantly agreed to go since Jay assured him that this was nothing like the Meadows. In hindsight, he remembered that was exactly what Kelly had told him about the Meadows yesterday.
Their mission was simple: find an Oren Berry a Weedle used as a good luck charm. It didn't pay too much, —only thirteen Copper Poke--- but it was an easy mission, and that was exactly what they needed.
Leo turned his badge over in his claws, it was worn down and scratched, but Aleck told them that it was top quality. Leo remembered when the eccentric shopkeeper called them over to his shop right after they left Blade and his team. Jay and the Sableye haggled for a few minutes about a price before agreeing to four Silver Poke.

When Leo asked where he got the badge, Aleck cryptically answered, "Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies," he said with a shady chuckle.
As they walked away from the shop, Kelly whispered to him that Aleck never says where he gets his merchandise, though everyone suspects that he had contacts in the black market.

The dungeon itself wasn't anything too remarkable, as the name "Silent Foothills" suggested, it was fairly quiet in terms of both noise and Pokemon. Except for a few wild Zigzagoon and Rattata that fled as soon as they came into view, the dungeon was empty, and that was fine by Leo.
The Oren Berry in question was supposed to be on the third area of the dungeon, and at the rate this mission was going, they'd be there in no time.

"Hey, Jay, what did you mean by what you said earlier? When you said that the same thing was happening all over?" Leo asked as they walked through the tree-lined path within the dungeon. The Riolu slowed his pace and walked beside Leo, letting Kelly take the lead.

"Ever since the Western Quarter incident, the entire police force has been stepping up their efforts to prevent history from repeating itself on a bigger scale. Not to sound paranoid or anything, but they have spies set up in every city to watch for any signs of treason. Gear hates that they have to do it, but it's not his decision," Jay explained as they continued to move through the dungeon.

"So, Jack was innocent?" Leo asked.

"He probably got caught talking bad about the government or something like that. It's horrible, but it's better then living in the Colonies, at least that's what I've been told," Jay sighed.
Leo had thought as much. It's bad, yes, but like he said, it could always be worse, right? Unfortunately, he didn't have an answer to that question.

Suddenly, Jay spoke up. "I know what we need to do, Leo. This place is an excellent spot to try and teach you some attacks," he suggested.

"What do you mean by 'attacks'?" Leo asked.

"What you weren't able to do yesterday against Jumpluff. Hopefully, we can jog your memory and get a move or two back," Jay told him, as they all stopped in the middle of a clearing ringed by trees. "This should be a good place."

"Alright, so where do I begin?" Leo eagerly asked, the thought of performing some of the moves he saw yesterday excited him.
Jay stopped, "Umm, you got any ideas Kel?"

Kelly thought for a moment, "Well, since none of us know how to breathe fire, I guess we could start you off with something involving your claws," she reasoned, as Leo looked over his claws. They were definitely sharp, but was there more to them then that?

"That'll work," Jay agreed as he motioned for Leo to stand in front of a particularly large tree.
"Now pretend it's an enemy and attack it!" he ordered, as Kelly groaned in disagreement.

"That's not how it works, Jay! You have to let him figure it out his own way. That's how I learned," she told him.

Their arguing didn't change the fact that Leo was still facing a tree with no idea of what to do. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to wing it. He raised his right arm and concentrated on slashing through the bark like butter with his claws.
He swung his claws down onto the tree. He immediately knew it hadn't worked when he felt the jarring pain spread throughout his limb. He clenched his hand as he hopped around in pain.

As soon as the pain subsided to a tolerable level, again he faced the tree. Ignoring Jay's snickers and Kelly's advice to take it easy, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
He imagined his claws easily slicing into the first few inches of bark, tearing through the layers of xylem and phloem. That's when he felt it, his claws suddenly became energized in a way. Not knowing if that was a good sign or not, he swung his claws into the tree again.

He felt his claws make contact with the hard bark, but then it felt like he was dragging his hand through water. He opened his eyes to see that his claws were indeed glowing and embedded deep within the bark, a long slash mark trailed from where he first made contact with the tree.

"That's great, Leo! You got it!" Kelly cheered. Her sudden yell caused Leo to shift his concentration slightly, and that was all that was needed to stop the energy flow to his claws.
His claws instantly stopped glowing and his steady cut through the tree was brought to a halt. Leo felt his claws jar on the bark. He tried to pull them out to try again, but they were stuck fast in the wood.
Grunting, he used his free hand to try to yank his claws out. He overheard Jay's laughter, not even trying to hide it anymore. Even though he couldn't turn around to prove it, he was certain that he heard Kelly's laugh mixed in with Jay's.
He huffed in annoyance, planted his feet on the base of the tree, and pulled once more to no avail.

Forget this, Leo thought as he jumped up and put his feet on either side of his stuck claw so that he was perpendicular with the tree. Leo pushed off with his feet as hard as he could, straining to free his claws.
He didn't stop pushing even when he heard a loud "crack" in the wood, though perhaps he should have since it was only a few seconds after that noise when his claw came free and he shot off of the tree and tumbled onto the ground.

"Are you sure you weren't a comedian before your memory loss?" Jay asked, barely containing a laugh as he offered his paw to the downed Charmeleon.
Leo accepted the hand up, and climbed to his feet, pulling his tail off the irritating dirt.

"Don't listen to him Leo, you had it. I think that was a Slash attack, a pretty useful move to have in your arsenal," Kelly said as Leo examined his right arm for any injury.

"Though we probably should get going and finish this mission before it gets too late," she suggested, looking up at the sun, which was slowly edging its was toward the western horizon.

"Agreed," Leo said, not wanting to spend any more time in this dungeon then he all ready had. It wasn't because it was challenging, he just didn't like the feel of being inside of an unstable spatial anomaly.

Just as they were about to start moving deeper into the Foothills, he heard the voice again.
"Their aggression would never fade with the passing centuries. Their hatred would grow and increase until the resonance could be felt throughout the world."

Leo nearly jumped a mile high when he heard the voice from earlier again in his ear, but before he could tell his teammates about it the ground started rumbling.

"What's going on?! Dungeonquake?!" Jay yelled as the ground continued to heave. They all struggled to maintain their foothold on the ground as the quake worsened.
The trees shook and swayed. Leo saw a few birds flee their nests in terror, as their homes threatened to topple.

As suddenly as it began, the ground stilled and the quake ceased. "D-did it stop?" Kelly asked.
Unfortunately for them, that was only the calm before the storm as the rift appeared.

It was as if someone got a knife and sliced the air between two of the large trees at the opposite side of the clearing, leaving behind a glowing blue line in the air. The line slowly grew in width, revealing a space between the now circular portal.

Leo was mesmerized at the sight of the strangle enigma.
"What is that?" Kelly said as images began to take shape inside the portal.

At first it looked like an Impressionist era painting, but then the blurry landscape on the other side of the portal cleaned up to reveal a dense swampy area covered in moss laden trees and fog.
There was no way that marsh could have existed anywhere around the steep and dry Foothills. This was a portal to another place in the world.

Leo was about to turn and flee the anomaly when his entire body went numb, as if some unseen force was holding him still. He turned his head slightly to see that both Jay and Kelly were experiencing something similar.

From the other side of the rift, Leo heard the thudding of footsteps, heavy, mechanical-like footsteps. The thudding grew increasingly louder as whatever creature they belonged to got closer to the opening in the air.
Leo was just about to think that the situation couldn't get any worse when a cold feeling washed over him. It was as if his mind was suddenly stuck in a freezer.
Leo would have rather put up with the mental cold then hear the voice.

"Warning: Biotics detected in target destination. Threat level: Indefinite. Code: Trace, Identify, Nullify, Dispatch, Depart. Proceed with biotic-sterilization protocol.  Procedure: Engaged."
The voice was cold and emotionless, like a machine. Leo was almost certain that this was some sort of fever dream produced by his broken mind. If that's what this is, then I don't have to take this seriously, he reasoned as a strange feeling of calmness came over him.

"What in the name of Mew was that?!" Kelly yelled as the portal glowed bright white and exploded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a place unseen by all others, a raspy voice chuckled.
"The variables are in place, and the candidate has received the notice of possible employment. All that is needed now is his… confirmation of acceptance. I must report this development to my …employers. They will be happy to know things are …moving in their favor finally, but first I feel compelled to inform my other …client that his …investment is starting to … pay off …in a manner of speaking. My employers do not see that their gambit for freedom will lead to … consequences unforeseen. Their actions will be felt across the entire realm."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End Chapter Four

Description
Chapter Four: Injustice
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"I'm…not sure what's going on anymore. Things are changing: guards are everywhere, He is always here, and they're not telling us anything anymore. They're hiding something, the administrator, I'm certain he's in on it …. I'm going to find out what it is … I'm not sure what will happen to me, but I can't go back. Not now, they know. Somehow, they know that I'm on to them, so it's no use playing dumb. Not anymore.
I'm going to go …. into the restricted areas tomorrow, to see what I can find.
If I don't come back ... whoever is reading this needs to make sure that what they're doing is exposed … whatever that may be."
Last known entry from the private journal of Ian the Breloom, former member of Team Frontier. Confirmed missing the day after this journal entry and has not been heard from since.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leo knew the dark expanse he stood in was the result of a dream, not simply the effects of unconsciousness. The darkness seemed too vivid, if possible, to be anything but a dream.

"Is this kind of thing going to be a regular thing every time I pass ou—What the heck is that?!"

Within the darkness of the dream, something stirred. At first, they sounded like distant voices, but like a tidal wave approaching shore, their soft whispers grew until they resembled the tortured screams of the damned.
Leo clutched the sides of his head in an attempt to block out their screams, but they broke through this barrier as their amplified voices circled around him.

"Reality is the story the mind tells itself. A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence and our minds can lie. Never doubt it."

"What's this? Real, or just my lying mind again?"

"Shut up! Stop it!" Leo screamed, but the voices only grew louder.

"You can always ignore your conscious …"

"I was promised salvation. I was told that I would be free. He told me that my imprisonment would end. I can't live like this … Maybe I'm already dead.  Does that make this my hell?"

"Please stop! I don't want to hear you!" Leo pleaded, but the voices didn't heed his order.

"Death might be a better alternative then letting him return …"

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Please stop!" Leo cried, tears welling up from the pain. Suddenly the screaming voices ceased, and a single, cold voice started talking.

"Unless you wish for your mind's descent into madness to accelerate, I suggest you wake up, Leo. Wake up … and see past the corruption."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flailing his arms around in panic, Leo effectively shredded the soft blankets covering him. Panting heavily, his eyes darted around the room he was in for the strange voices from a few seconds earlier.

After confirming that the room was empty of everyone but himself, he began to worry.
I-I'm hearing voices inside my head. Am I going crazy? I must be, because no normal person hears things like that.  He glanced at each of the corners of the room to make sure no one was pulling a prank on him. His psyche wasn't in the best state to handle someone's cruel attempt of a joke the moment.

He shook the thoughts of potential insanity away and truly observed the room he didn't remember being in before. It was a small square room with brick walls, and wooden ceiling with several small bunches of dried herbs tied to the rafters, their purifying scents purged the air of foul smells and left a sharp, minty aftertaste in Leo's mouth every time he took a breath.
Aside from the herbs on the ceiling, the only other things in the room appeared to be the hay bed he was sitting on and a small wooden door.

Deciding that nothing productive would come of his staying in bed, he swung his legs over the side of the haystack and he hopped down. It was as soon as his legs hit the packed dirt floor that he realized that his body wasn't as recovered from yesterday's fiasco as he thought. As his weak legs fell out from beneath him, he clutched the wall nearest to him to keep from collapsing.

Just then, he heard the squeaking sound of the wooden door opening behind him, and not even a full second had passed when he heard another voice.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Charmeleon?!" Leo didn't have time to process who the voice belonged to when a pair of leafy arms picked him up from under his shoulders and dropped him over the bed.

Leo looked up at his rescuer, she (at least it sounded feminine to Leo) appeared to be a walking plant blub with a red, oversized, hat-like flower set almost sideways on her leaf green "hair". Her pale white face was looking down on her renegade patient with a mixture of concern and disapproval.

"You're not cleared to be out of bed yet. I'm not surprised that you nearly fell. Those poisons you inhaled yesterday haven't dissipated from your body yet," she scolded as she went over to a small brown bag she brought with her, pulling out a pink, heart-shaped berry.

"Here, eat this. It'll help your body break down the last of the poison's toxins much faster then it would normally," she said as she handed Leo the berry.
Leo looked at the berry suspiciously, it didn't seem bad, but, as Leo had learned yesterday, looks can be deceiving.

"Go on, eat it. Honestly, you're acting like you've never seen a Pecha Berry before," the nurse urged as Leo cautiously took a bite of the berry.
He wasn't expecting the explosion of sweetness that the berry contained; he stared in awe of the fruit as he swallowed the bite. It took approximately two and a half seconds for Leo to shove the entirety of the small berry into his mouth, chew it, and swallow it.

The plant-bulb Pokemon chuckled at the scene. Leo looked up at her with a small dribble of Pecha juice remaining on his lips, which he cleaned with a swipe of his tongue. He didn't care if she thought him as ill-mannered, odd, or just plain weird; that berry was perhaps the best experience he'd had so far in this world, and he wasn't going to let anyone ruin it for him.

"Now that you've finished with that, the last of the toxins should dissipate shortly," The nurse informed Leo.
Suddenly a thought hit Leo, pushing away all the good feelings he had. What happened to Kelly and Jay? And I guess Icarus, too.
"Excuse me, nurse…" he trailed off, not knowing what name to call his caretaker.

The nurse sensed his confusion. "I'm a Lilligant; my species aren't normally seen around here, so I'm not surprised that you don't know. You may call me Rosaline."

Armed with her name, Leo again asked his question. "Nurse Rosaline, what happened to the others who were brought here with me?"

The Lilligant paused. "Who are you talking about, Charmeleon?" she asked, confused.

Leo pushed himself up on the bed. "Kelly and Jay. They were with me yesterday, along with Icarus."

"I'm sorry, Charmeleon, but I don't know any of those names. Forgive me," Rosaline apologized, as Leo began to panic.

"My friends, Kelly and Jay! A Jolteon and a Riolu, where are they?!" Leo shouted at the nurse. In the midst of his alarm, he realized that he had just referred to them as his friends. It was true they were the closest things he had to friends in this world.

The nurse spoke, "Calm down, Charmeleon! I-"

"My name is Leo! What happened to them?!" Leo yelled, cutting her off abruptly. He hopped down off the bed and strained to stand. This was arguably not his best move as he nearly fell to the floor again, but panic had firmly gripped his mind and was not letting go.
Just as the nurse was about to resort to using a Sleep Seed she carried on her for such a situation, the door opened and in walked Jay, Kelly, and to Leo's surprise, Icarus. All of them looking healthy and happy, except Icarus who seemed displeased with the sling his right wing was set in.

"We leave you for an hour to discuss a reward with Icarus, and you get into a shouting match with the nurse? Maybe we should have them examine your head," Jay said, walking in between Leo and the nurse, who still firmly held the Sleep Seed in her hand, ready to throw it if needed.

Leo's heart flooded with relief. "You're all right, that's … great," he said, his breaths slowing as his fear induced heart rate returned to normal.

"I was about to tell you that I saw your friends earlier in the guild's lobby. I didn't treat your friends, so that's why I didn't recall who you were asking about," Nurse Rosaline huffed, stowing the seed back into her bag.

Sheepishly, Leo turned to the annoyed nurse. "I'm sorry I overreacted. I didn't mean to."

The Lilligant smiled. "It's alright, I forgive you. You're hardly the first Pokemon to yell at me in a panic. And I think it shows how much you care for your friends," she said, as Leo was suddenly thankful his scales were already colored crimson.

"So, would someone tell me what happened yesterday?" Leo asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Well, shortly after Jumpluff attacked us, I managed to get a connection with the badge. I activated it and it worked as expected: Icarus and I instantly arrived at the guild with Jay appearing a few seconds later," Kelly explained, as Jay continued.

"Then our luck ran out, again. You weren't showing up. As soon as we saw that, Kelly and I ran into the guild and found the Kadabra who ran the badge extraction, and we calmly and rationally explained what happened, and he kindly reopened the passage to get you out of the-" Jay told Leo as Kelly interrupted him.

"What he actually means is that he barged into the restricted area of the guild and threatened the overworked Kadabra until he got you out of th-" Kelly revealed as Jay cut her off.

"Don't act all innocent, you were about to fry the poor guy by the time I got the-" Jay shot back, as Rosaline cut both of them off by wrapping her leafy hands over both of their muzzles.

"This is a hospital. Not an arena. If you wish to carry on your argument, you will do so outside. Do you understand?" she scolded as she slowly let go of their mouths.
"Now, I must inform you all that your stay in our guild is almost over. The Guildmaster requests that your entire team vacate the premises now that all of your wounds have been stabilized and treated. You have fifteen minutes to gather your things and leave," Rosaline informed the reunited team.

After that, Jay, Kelly, and Leo busied themselves with gathering their items from the guild's storage and helping Leo regain strength in his legs. While on their errands, the group passed a golden, mustached, humanoid Pokemon. Once the Pokemon saw them, he instantly jumped to the side and flattened himself against the wall. Leo thought his behavior odd until he saw both Jay and Kelly shoot him a piercing glare.

He must be the Kadabra-thing they threatened earlier, Leo realized as the Pokemon fled down the hallway as soon as they passed. Leo smiled at the thought. Serves him right.

After they had recovered their satchels and items—Leo's key wasn't taken, to his relief-- they found Nurse Rosaline and said their good-byes.
"It was nothing, and I'm sorry we have to ask you to leave, but that's the rules," she said, as Jay suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, nurse, when you were treating Leo, did you find out anything about his memory loss?"

Rosaline stopped her good-bye, "Beg pardon, I wasn't even aware that Leo was suffering from amnesia. Was this from yesterday's events?" she inquired, concern spreading throughout her face.

"No, I've had it for a few days now. At least, that's as far back as I can remember," Leo admitted with a sigh.

The Lilligant walked over to Leo, she put her hands on the sides of his head and gently inspected it. "You don't appear to have any noticeable injury to your skull; was it a Psychic type that did this to you? Or was it something else?" she asked after completing her observation of his head.

Leo shook her hands off his head, "You're asking the amnesiac if he remembers anything. That makes perfect sense," Leo said with a laugh.

"Well, excuse me for trying to help," she huffed, "Anyways, there are a few options I know of that might—might, mind you-- help restore his memory, though they would require much effort on your part," she told them.

"Before Jay says something out of line, I'll be the one to ask. What can we do to help our teammate, Nurse?"  Kelly asked. Jay shrugged his shoulders as he let her comment go.

"Well, a Psychic Pokemon who's very developed in his abilities could delve into Leo's mind and attempt to remove the amnesia, but if one thing goes wrong, it could land your friend with a much bigger problem then missing memories," she elaborated.
Leo shook his head in disagreement, he didn't want some Pokemon messing around in his head, he already had enough going on up there.

"If you don't want to use that method, there is a talented aura user I know of; Madam Lucario is her name, I believe. She is well known for her abilities, and has reported success with patients like you, though I'm a bit skeptical. Last I heard she was in one of the frontier towns, that'd be at least a week's travel if you wanted …" she trailed off, sensing that the offer had fallen short with the team.

"Thank you for your help, but we simply can't go off to find this Madam Lucario. We'll just have to make do with what we have," Jay told her, as they exited the hospital section of the guild.

The main floor of the guild was huge, to say the least. Leo couldn't even imagine such a room existing in this world. As Jay would tell him later, the lobby was ten feet in height, and wide enough to allow even the longest Onix to fit comfortably. Along the brick walls of the room were placed several long boards each with dozens of posters on them. They made the Post Office's board look superfluous by the amount of job requests they could hold.

Before Leo could observe the entirety of the guild's foyer, he found himself being pushed along by Jay. A few minutes later, he, Jay, Kelly, and a disgruntled Icarus were standing near the edge of Loyalty Square's now-bustling marketplace.

"Well, at least we got time to breathe in there," Leo said snidely to Jay, who was looking very much relieved now that they were out of the guild.

"Believe me, it's better now that we're out of there," he replied, giving no indication of what that might have meant.

"Icarus, I think it's time you gave us that reward you insisted on not talking about earlier," Jay said to the Pidgeotto, changing the subject from the guild.

Icarus clawed the stone street with his talons, "Yeeeah, about that …You see, I don't have a reward for you guys," he slowly said while keeping an eye on Jay.

"What do you mean, Icarus?" Jay said, his voice betraying no trace of the anger Leo was sure was building up inside of him.

"W-what I mean, is that I don't have anything of value to…you know, give you guys. I'm only a messenger, I don't get paid much," Icarus answered the Riolu, as he kept his distance.

"So, nothing? You have nothing to give us for all of our work yesterday getting you out of that Arceus forsaken meadow?!" Jay asked, his temper breaking through his calm exterior.

Icarus backed up as Jay took a step forward. "H-hey! L-let's not get h-hasty, Jay. W-we can talk something out….Leo, Kelly, would you two please help me out here?!" Icarus squawked, once he backed into a wall of a building.

"You know, Kelly, I'm not really in the mood for rescuing right now. How about you?" Leo asked, as Kelly laughed.

"No, me neither. Actually, I am in the mood for something to eat. You want to come, Leo?" she answered as panic filled Icarus's eyes.

"G-guys? C-come on, I'm sorry! Please don't leave me here with him!" Icarus pleaded.

"Sure, I'm starving. Do you know some place that has some of those Peachy berries?" Leo asked as he walked off with Kelly into the Square.

Kelly laughed, "Pecha berries, and I know a place that's great. Come on."

Jay smirked as he cracked his knuckles, "Let's have a little …chat, Icarus."

"Zapdos, save me …" Icarus whimpered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The shop they entered was a small structure that appeared to be built out of an amalgamation of tree trunks and cut rock lashed together with rope. The fact that it was standing was probably breaking several basic laws of physics.
Inside were several small circular tables, each occupied with a group of Pokemon either eating or just chatting. As Kelly and Leo walked in through the doorway, Leo looked around, not too optimistic about getting a space for both of them at a table.

Just as they were about to give up on finding a seat, a large red and yellow creature with red flames erupting from its shoulders looked up from his conversation and noticed their dilemma. He grinned and waved them over with one of its yellow tubular arms.
As Leo and Kelly walked over to the already crowded table, the large Pokemon who invited them pushed a horse-like Pokemon with fire for a mane aside to make space for the two.

"Thank you, Magmortar, sir," Kelly said gratefully, as they took a place at the table.

Magmortar laughed, "No need to be formal; name's Blaize, and this here is my crew," he said, as he gestured at the other Pokemon surrounding the table.

"Thank you for letting us sit here, but why? I don't think we've ever met before," Kelly asked Blaize, puzzled at his generosity. The Magmortar gave no reply to her, but instead Blaize pulled out a small bag, fished out a few copper coins, and tossed them the air.
Leo was surprised when the coins all suddenly vanished in a small blast of light.

Not three seconds after the coins had vanished from sight, two glasses of liquid appeared in twin flares of light on the table in front of Leo and Kelly.
Leo shot back from the table and covered his head with his claws, bracing himself for whatever explosion was about to happen.
After a moment of nothing even remotely like a detonation occurring, he slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head. The table was still intact, though every Pokemon at it was staring at him as if he'd completely lost it, Blaize and Kelly in particular.

Leo laughed weakly as he slowly returned to the table. Ignoring the stares of the others, he nonchalantly took a sip of his drink. He was amazed at the taste of whatever this mixture was called; he couldn't even imagine something that came even remotely close to being this good. The Pecha Berry he had earlier palled in comparison to the fiery flavor of this drink. He barely kept these emotions to himself, as the rest of the table returned to their conversation.

"Blaize, sir. You didn't have to buy us anything, we can afford our own," Kelly told the Magmortar, as he grinned.

"Don't worry about that, and if the rumors are true, you and your team deserve it after what you all did in the Meadows. I swear, you all are more competent then the legions of Magnemite they got patrolling everywhere. Exposing a major Colonial smuggling ring and surviving to tell the tale; that's not something that every team does. You deserve the drinks," Blaize explained as Leo downed the rest of the red liquid in his glass.

"How did you know about that? We only got back yesterday," Kelly asked as Leo discreetly reached for Kelly's glass and took it while she was distracted.

Blaize let out another hearty laugh, "I guess some folks overheard talk in the guild and told the town all about it. Good thing too, since that's what led us to take the job of arresting Jumpluff and his cronies," he told them as the other Pokemon at the table nodded in agreement.
While they talked, Leo carefully took a sip of Kelly's drink—some sort of electric yellow liquid—and nearly gagged on it. Overriding the urge to spit it out, he quickly swallowed the drink. Disgusted with the revolting drink, he swiftly passed it back to Kelly's spot before she noticed it was even gone.

"Well, good luck with that. He's not a pleasant Pokemon, that's for sure. Be careful, and don't breathe the air," she warned as Blaize and the entire group laughed—Leo noticed that they did this a lot.

"Don't go worrying about us, lass. A couple Fire Blasts from us and they'll be begging at our knees!" as he said this, he suddenly lifted his right arm up in the air and shot a small burst of flame out of it.
It seemed as if the entire restaurant turned and stared at their table after Blaize's display.
After the audience slowly went back to their private conversations, Blaize announced to his team that it was time to get going.

"Management here don't like attacks going off on the premises, so we're going before they get onto us. We can't get banned from here, it's the only place left in town that hasn't locked their doors to us yet. See you both around, and good luck with your future rescuin'," Blaize told them as he and his group hastily exited the building before said management could get onto them.

Leo was just starting to enjoy having the entire table just to him and Kelly when he looked up at the back corner of the restaurant. He saw past the groups of conversing Pokemon to see a strange purple creature. It didn't have any arms or legs that Leo could see, it just silently floated. It wasn't the lack of limbs, or even the large witch hat it seemed to wear on its head that captured Leo's attention. It was its stare. The creature's golden eyes gleamed from under the brow of its "hat", and Leo saw a wicked smile form on its face. Just as Leo was about to go and confront the observer, a group of three Pokemon approached their table, blocking the staring contest.

"You both mind if we sit here? We've been looking around for a place to sit for a while now," one of the newcomers inquired, a large green gecko with a thin leaf growing from the top of its head that went down to its feet.

Coming out of his trance-like staring contest with the creature, Leo shook his head. "I'm sorry, we're out of room," Leo sarcastically told the group, motioning for them to take a seat.

The green gecko grinned, "Thanks mate, appreciate it," he said as he called for his two companions to take their places at the table. One was a regal looking creature with white fur and a sharp black crescent attached to the side of his head, and the other was a dragon with large red eyes and a pair of diamond-shaped wings on its back.

The Grovyle leaned over the table, "So, anything interesting happen to you all today?" he asked, trying to initiate a conversation.

"Well, we just finished recovering from our job at Spore Fields yesterday, and our teammate is getting our reward from our client," Kelly responded, not even phased at the fact that Jay was probably threatening Icarus with another broken wing.

This got the Absol's attention, "Spore Fields? Where you the team that exposed that smuggling ring I've been hearing about?"

The Grovyle put his clawed hand on the Absol's shoulder, "Don't be so rude, Elliot, we just met them," the Grovyle scolded, as Elliot started grumbling something unsavory about his leader. Leo craned his neck to see past the Grovyle and saw that the golden-eyed creature has vanished without a trace.

"Yeah, I guess that's us. I didn't know we'd become this well known just for doing that," Kelly replied, as Jay walked through the doorway of the café. After looking around a moment, he found the table where Leo and Kelly were, and joined them.
To avoid disclosing anything Jay did, or might have done to the other patrons, Leo decided to play it safe and ask a vague question.

"Any luck?"

Jay shook his head. "He really didn't have anything to give us, and believe me, I made sure." He looked at his teammates puzzled faces.
"Don't worry; I didn't hurt him or anything. I just scared him a bit," he answered their unspoken question.

"Even though I didn't get any reward from him, I made him a deal that he owes us a big favor whenever we might need one. And he accepted that without a second thought, and then I let him go," Jay said as he finished his explanation of his "chat" with Icarus.

"Is that how you treat all of your clients?" Elliot asked, grinning, "If so, then I'd hate to ever be rescued by you all."

The Grovyle jabbed the Absol with his elbow, "Elliot, shut up! You're not helping anyone with your jokes,"

The Absol shrugged it off, "Oh, lighten up Blade, not everything has to be so serious. I mean, I can sense when disasters are about to strike and I smile more then you do!" Elliot argued. The Grovyle, Blade, shook his head in disapproval.

"This is why we don't get higher level missions, because you and Sonic don't take things seriously," Blade shot back, directing the comment to Elliot and the Flygon, Sonic.

Jay leaned toward Leo and Kelly, "Did I miss anything?" he asked as Kelly filled him in on what happened while he was with Icarus.

"See past the corruption …"Leo jerked his head up, suddenly alert.

He quickly looked around the table: Jay and Kelly were talking, as were Blade, Elliot, and Sonic, and no one was behind him. Who said that?, Leo pondered, as his thoughts were suddenly cut short by a loud burst of familiar static.

The entire café went silent as a squad of seven Magnemite burst into the dining area. They all spun around, quickly scanning the entire room. Suddenly, one of the units screeched as it pointed towards a blue duck Pokemon that was sitting two tables away from Leo.

"ZZT! There he is! Get him! ZT!"

Five of the Magnemite instantly surrounded the table, while the other two turned around to address the restaurant patrons, who were beginning to panic and get to their feet.
"BZZT! Remain calm, citizens, official Loyalty Square Police business. Stay back," one of the units said. Leo wasn't paying attention to him; he, along with everybody else in the room, was looking around the Magnemite to see what was going on.
The five Magnemite that had surrounded the table had swarmed the stunned blue duck Pokemon. They tried to electrocute him, but he managed to dodge their charge by jumping to the side.

"What are you doing?!" the Pokemon yelled as he stumbled away from the table.

"ZT! Cease and desist, citizen!" one of the units yelled, as the five Magnemite surrounded the Golduck in the circle.

The Golduck desperately looked at the other Pokemon, "I haven't done anything wrong! What are you doing?!" he yelled as the Magnemite tightened their circle around him.

"ZZT! Surrender now, Jack, and we won't have to use force. ZT!" another of the units said, as Jack's webbed hands started glowing.
Without warning, Jack lunged forward and punched one of the Magnemite. The attack sent the unit flying into the rock wall where it shattered in an explosion of electricity and metal fragments.
Before the other officers could react, Jack punched another unit into the floor where it met the same fate as the one before.
Jack turned around, shot a burst of water from his mouth at the other Magnemite, and made a break through the gap in the circle. The other units were no longer stunned, and immediately fired bolts of charged electricity at the Golduck.

"ZT! Units Four and Seven down! Units Four and Seven down! Remaining units detain suspect!  ZZT!" one of the units shouted as they fired off several more bolts. Jack was nimble enough to dodge the electric bolts; he jumped over the chairs and landed on Leo's table.
The units continued firing their attacks despite the risk of hitting the other patrons. Jack's hands glowed again and this time he sent a wave of psychic energy at the police units, knocking the remaining five units backwards.

Leo ducked from his seat, as a bolt of energy flew inches above his head.
Jack released several more of the psychic blasts, deflecting the electric bolts and disorienting the units.

"This has to end before someone gets hurt," Blade whispered as he prepared to strike.

Before Jack could attack again, Blade hopped up onto the table directly behind the Golduck and shot a pair of glowing leaves at Jack's head, instantly knocking the Pokemon down onto the floor before he could react. The remaining units took advantage of the opportunity and fired several bolts directly at the Golduck.
Jack cried out in pain as he collapsed to the ground, his body twitching as the electricity continued to course through it.

Leo was too stunned to move at this act of police brutality as several yells of "Jack!" came from the Pokemon of the café.
Before anyone could make a move to help him, the Magnemite quickly surrounded the unconscious Golduck. Two of them clasped their magnet appendages around Jack's wrists and started dragging him out of the restaurant, another two units made a barrier around their prisoner, while the last one attached his magnets to the smoking piles of wreckage that were units Four and Seven and dragged them away.

"BZZT! Have a nice day, citizens. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in detaining this felon. ZZT!" the last one said as it left the restaurant, the last comment directed to Blade.

After the Magnemite left, the patrons started murmuring and conversing once more. Leo could hear only snippets of their hushed dialogue, "… again, it's happened again.", "Jack never did anything …", "… third raid this week ...", "… too far this time …"

Leo snapped back into focus when Jay tapped him on his back, "I think it's time we go. We don't want to stay here too long, otherwise we'll be the next ones offending one of their asinine laws," Jay warned and Leo nodded, taking a last look at the overturned table and the many smoking scorch marks in the walls and furniture.

"Your friend is right, we should leave now," Blade said as he motioned for Leo to move.
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Silent Foothills: Second Area

Even though it had been a few hours since the incident in the café, Leo was still trying to make sense of what had happened. Jay explained that this was only one of many similar incidents happening all across the Kingdom: Pokemon being rounded up and arrested at the slightest sign of doing anything considered "treasonous".

Once they had departed the café, they parted ways with Blade and his team, who told them to watch their backs as they left. Apparently, Jay had also been to the job boards while he was dealing with Icarus and had accepted a mission, though he never got the chance to tell them in the restaurant.

Though Leo was not too psyched about going into another dungeon so soon after the last one, he reluctantly agreed to go since Jay assured him that this was nothing like the Meadows. In hindsight, he remembered that was exactly what Kelly had told him about the Meadows yesterday.
Their mission was simple: find an Oren Berry a Weedle used as a good luck charm. It didn't pay too much, —only thirteen Copper Poke--- but it was an easy mission, and that was exactly what they needed.
Leo turned his badge over in his claws, it was worn down and scratched, but Aleck told them that it was top quality. Leo remembered when the eccentric shopkeeper called them over to his shop right after they left Blade and his team. Jay and the Sableye haggled for a few minutes about a price before agreeing to four Silver Poke.

When Leo asked where he got the badge, Aleck cryptically answered, "Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies," he said with a shady chuckle.
As they walked away from the shop, Kelly whispered to him that Aleck never says where he gets his merchandise, though everyone suspects that he had contacts in the black market.

The dungeon itself wasn't anything too remarkable, as the name "Silent Foothills" suggested, it was fairly quiet in terms of both noise and Pokemon. Except for a few wild Zigzagoon and Rattata that fled as soon as they came into view, the dungeon was empty, and that was fine by Leo.
The Oren Berry in question was supposed to be on the third area of the dungeon, and at the rate this mission was going, they'd be there in no time.

"Hey, Jay, what did you mean by what you said earlier? When you said that the same thing was happening all over?" Leo asked as they walked through the tree-lined path within the dungeon. The Riolu slowed his pace and walked beside Leo, letting Kelly take the lead.

"Ever since the Western Quarter incident, the entire police force has been stepping up their efforts to prevent history from repeating itself on a bigger scale. Not to sound paranoid or anything, but they have spies set up in every city to watch for any signs of treason. Gear hates that they have to do it, but it's not his decision," Jay explained as they continued to move through the dungeon.

"So, Jack was innocent?" Leo asked.

"He probably got caught talking bad about the government or something like that. It's horrible, but it's better then living in the Colonies, at least that's what I've been told," Jay sighed.
Leo had thought as much. It's bad, yes, but like he said, it could always be worse, right? Unfortunately, he didn't have an answer to that question.

Suddenly, Jay spoke up. "I know what we need to do, Leo. This place is an excellent spot to try and teach you some attacks," he suggested.

"What do you mean by 'attacks'?" Leo asked.

"What you weren't able to do yesterday against Jumpluff. Hopefully, we can jog your memory and get a move or two back," Jay told him, as they all stopped in the middle of a clearing ringed by trees. "This should be a good place."

"Alright, so where do I begin?" Leo eagerly asked, the thought of performing some of the moves he saw yesterday excited him.
Jay stopped, "Umm, you got any ideas Kel?"

Kelly thought for a moment, "Well, since none of us know how to breathe fire, I guess we could start you off with something involving your claws," she reasoned, as Leo looked over his claws. They were definitely sharp, but was there more to them then that?

"That'll work," Jay agreed as he motioned for Leo to stand in front of a particularly large tree.
"Now pretend it's an enemy and attack it!" he ordered, as Kelly groaned in disagreement.

"That's not how it works, Jay! You have to let him figure it out his own way. That's how I learned," she told him.

Their arguing didn't change the fact that Leo was still facing a tree with no idea of what to do. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to wing it. He raised his right arm and concentrated on slashing through the bark like butter with his claws.
He swung his claws down onto the tree. He immediately knew it hadn't worked when he felt the jarring pain spread throughout his limb. He clenched his hand as he hopped around in pain.

As soon as the pain subsided to a tolerable level, again he faced the tree. Ignoring Jay's snickers and Kelly's advice to take it easy, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
He imagined his claws easily slicing into the first few inches of bark, tearing through the layers of xylem and phloem. That's when he felt it, his claws suddenly became energized in a way. Not knowing if that was a good sign or not, he swung his claws into the tree again.

He felt his claws make contact with the hard bark, but then it felt like he was dragging his hand through water. He opened his eyes to see that his claws were indeed glowing and embedded deep within the bark, a long slash mark trailed from where he first made contact with the tree.

"That's great, Leo! You got it!" Kelly cheered. Her sudden yell caused Leo to shift his concentration slightly, and that was all that was needed to stop the energy flow to his claws.
His claws instantly stopped glowing and his steady cut through the tree was brought to a halt. Leo felt his claws jar on the bark. He tried to pull them out to try again, but they were stuck fast in the wood.
Grunting, he used his free hand to try to yank his claws out. He overheard Jay's laughter, not even trying to hide it anymore. Even though he couldn't turn around to prove it, he was certain that he heard Kelly's laugh mixed in with Jay's.
He huffed in annoyance, planted his feet on the base of the tree, and pulled once more to no avail.

Forget this, Leo thought as he jumped up and put his feet on either side of his stuck claw so that he was perpendicular with the tree. Leo pushed off with his feet as hard as he could, straining to free his claws.
He didn't stop pushing even when he heard a loud "crack" in the wood, though perhaps he should have since it was only a few seconds after that noise when his claw came free and he shot off of the tree and tumbled onto the ground.

"Are you sure you weren't a comedian before your memory loss?" Jay asked, barely containing a laugh as he offered his paw to the downed Charmeleon.
Leo accepted the hand up, and climbed to his feet, pulling his tail off the irritating dirt.

"Don't listen to him Leo, you had it. I think that was a Slash attack, a pretty useful move to have in your arsenal," Kelly said as Leo examined his right arm for any injury.

"Though we probably should get going and finish this mission before it gets too late," she suggested, looking up at the sun, which was slowly edging its was toward the western horizon.

"Agreed," Leo said, not wanting to spend any more time in this dungeon then he all ready had. It wasn't because it was challenging, he just didn't like the feel of being inside of an unstable spatial anomaly.

Just as they were about to start moving deeper into the Foothills, he heard the voice again.
"Their aggression would never fade with the passing centuries. Their hatred would grow and increase until the resonance could be felt throughout the world."

Leo nearly jumped a mile high when he heard the voice from earlier again in his ear, but before he could tell his teammates about it the ground started rumbling.

"What's going on?! Dungeonquake?!" Jay yelled as the ground continued to heave. They all struggled to maintain their foothold on the ground as the quake worsened.
The trees shook and swayed. Leo saw a few birds flee their nests in terror, as their homes threatened to topple.

As suddenly as it began, the ground stilled and the quake ceased. "D-did it stop?" Kelly asked.
Unfortunately for them, that was only the calm before the storm as the rift appeared.

It was as if someone got a knife and sliced the air between two of the large trees at the opposite side of the clearing, leaving behind a glowing blue line in the air. The line slowly grew in width, revealing a space between the now circular portal.

Leo was mesmerized at the sight of the strangle enigma.
"What is that?" Kelly said as images began to take shape inside the portal.

At first it looked like an Impressionist era painting, but then the blurry landscape on the other side of the portal cleaned up to reveal a dense swampy area covered in moss laden trees and fog.
There was no way that marsh could have existed anywhere around the steep and dry Foothills. This was a portal to another place in the world.

Leo was about to turn and flee the anomaly when his entire body went numb, as if some unseen force was holding him still. He turned his head slightly to see that both Jay and Kelly were experiencing something similar.

From the other side of the rift, Leo heard the thudding of footsteps, heavy, mechanical-like footsteps. The thudding grew increasingly louder as whatever creature they belonged to got closer to the opening in the air.
Leo was just about to think that the situation couldn't get any worse when a cold feeling washed over him. It was as if his mind was suddenly stuck in a freezer.
Leo would have rather put up with the mental cold then hear the voice.

"Warning: Biotics detected in target destination. Threat level: Indefinite. Code: Trace, Identify, Nullify, Dispatch, Depart. Proceed with biotic-sterilization protocol.  Procedure: Engaged."
The voice was cold and emotionless, like a machine. Leo was almost certain that this was some sort of fever dream produced by his broken mind. If that's what this is, then I don't have to take this seriously, he reasoned as a strange feeling of calmness came over him.

"What in the name of Mew was that?!" Kelly yelled as the portal glowed bright white and exploded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a place unseen by all others, a raspy voice chuckled.
"The variables are in place, and the candidate has received the notice of possible employment. All that is needed now is his… confirmation of acceptance. I must report this development to my …employers. They will be happy to know things are …moving in their favor finally, but first I feel compelled to inform my other …client that his …investment is starting to … pay off …in a manner of speaking. My employers do not see that their gambit for freedom will lead to … consequences unforeseen. Their actions will be felt across the entire realm."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End Chapter Four