There was utter silence for a minute. None dared to move. The ponies looked at the pokemon, then at Iron Will, then at the pokemon again. Iron Will and Sam looked at the ponies, and Lucy staggered under the weight of the coins. The ponies snapped their eyes to her, and a decision was made.

"Take the small one," Corporal said.

"We'll get the money back and more besides," Punishement agreed.

At those words, a lot of things happened very, very fast.

First, the horns of the ponies lit up, and an aura appeared around Lucy and the coin bag. In response, Iron Will reached out and touched somepony. Namely, the blue-on-red colt and his horn. The sudden pain of the punch disrupted the aura, and Lucy dropped, while the bag hovered in midair. Sam, seeing Iron Will's tactics, took the horn to be a weak spot, and attack the red-on-blue colt's horn. He ducked the first swing, but the backswing connected, and the bag fell back into Lucy's arms as the magic was broken. Sam smirked in triumph.

And then Vincent opened his eyes. Instantly, the feedback loops crashed down around him, causing him pain, far worse pain than his headaches had ever been. And the pain made him lose control of his budding Psychic powers. Whether it was planned on his part or not was irrelevant now, as his entire form glowed an eerie blue, which spread rapidly throughout the establishment.

The first thing it touched was the two colts in front of them. They were picked up and tossed aside, clearing a path for the party to leave the casino. Then Vincent turned his eyes back to the games and tables, and the glow spread again, this time to cover the money on the tables. With a flick, all of it was tossed upwards to the ceiling before it floated back down, causing the dealers and runners of the games no end of grief. The glow spread to the ceiling and the lights, and in a second, all was thrust into darkness.

Even the eerie blue glow faded, and Sam felt the Abra land back on his head. Which meant one thing. Grabbing a hold of Lucy and the bag in his left claw, he placed the right one across the minotaur's shoulders and pushed him out the door. "Time to go!"

Of course, he wasn't quite aware of the fact that the communication relay had snapped, so it came out as "Scyther Scythe!"

Nonetheless, Iron Will got the message, and the unusual party of gamblers burst onto the Los Pegasus scene. Iron Will grabbed a hold of Scyther's claw and pulled down one street. "This way! Iron Will has a plan!"

Sam voiced his approval and moved Lucy to a shoulder. Keeping his left claw up to pin Vincent to his head, the Scyther then followed the running minotaur. It took them five minutes of nonstop, all-out racing through the streets, but the trio and Iron Will finally arrived at a somewhat-shabby looking apartment house. Pressing a button got a buzzing sound, and the iron gate in front swung open, a fact the pokemon were thankful for.

Ascending a few flights of stairs brought them to Iron Will's home in the city, which was rapidly opened to the new members thereof. With a mighty slam, the door was closed, locked, bolted, and barricaded. Sam breathed heavily for a moment or two before remembering that he had brought others with him. He lowered himself to let Lucy and the bag she was carrying off before looking around for a couch or a similar soft surface. Iron Will raised an eyebrow before pointing through one doorway. The Scyther walked through it to find a bedroom, and Vincent was carefully slid off his head. The little Abra was still breathing, which meant that his burnout hadn't burned his mind out of his head, but who knew when he'd recover?

"Iron Will has saved you from the Casino Trap. Now Iron Will would ask questions of you, strange creatures."

Sam turned to look at Iron Will, then said a simple phrase in Pokespeak. Lucy dropped the coins with no small amount of clatter, and the little Riolu appeared between the two bipedal forms. Saying a few things got Lucy to nod before she jumped up on the bed with Vincent. Then, the worst game of charades ever began.

Lucy attempted to say a normal sentence to Iron Will, but stopped midway and shook her head. Pointing at her throat, then Vincent's head, then her ears, she started talking again before nodding. It took a few repetitions, but the meaning sunk in.

"Iron Will thinks he understands. Until that one wakes up and does his magic, Iron Will and you will not be able to talk normally."

The pokemon looked at one another, shrugged, and nodded at the minotaur. The only question was...

When, if ever, would Vincent wake up? Because they could recall that underneath his little performance...his display of raw, unfettered power at the Casino...

...He'd been screaming, in their minds...

Within another casino on the strip, in the dead of night, a slot machine sparked. A few errant bolts of electricity passed through it before it halted. And then, strange noises came from within it. If a Pokemon were to stand near it, they would hear a very interesting set of words.

"ErrOR...ErRoR...eRrOr...Subject tw-two...subject f-four...subject eiiiiight...subject sixteeeeen...subject thirty t-two...subject sixty foooour..." A pause, and then... "Error: there are not m-more than thirty-seven SUBjects...reidentifying self....self reidentified...self is identified as subject sixTEEN. Error: cannot con-con-con-connect to main laboratory database. Error: Cannot locate the subJECts."

Another pause then. Eventually the strange voice would speak again. "Error: the data within this device is corRUPted...the odds of winning are not-not balanced...Error: the money used to p-p-play this machine is not sent to the main c-c-collection POINT. Attempting to fix ma-ma-machine in acc-accordandandance with prrrrrime directiiiiive: repair all daaaamaged data..."

The lightning would arc for a while yet, and it was a good thing nobody was playing that particular slot machine...

Vincent groaned and held a hand up to his head. Ow. Ow ow ow. I thought the headaches were gone.

"Vincent!"

The young Abra was suddenly the victim of a Riolu hug, a powerful and ancient dark art known only to cute and cuddly things the world over. Nations had bowed their heads to the power of a Riolu or similar cute thing making a face at them with outstretched arms (or other appendages, for the ones who had no arms).

Vincent had no choice but to reciprocate, albeit awkwardly. "H...hey there, Lucy. How long was I out for?"

Lucy sniffed into his chest armor before she lifted her head to reply. "Twelve hours. It coulda been worse, Sam keeps saying. I don't know how, but I'm glad it isn't. I'm glad you're back, Vincy."

Vincent chuckled and hugged the Riolu a little tighter before letting her go. "Glad to be back. Think you could get Sam in here? In fact," Vincent trailed off as he looked around, "where is here?"

"Ah, easily answered. This is the home of Iron Will, the minotaur who aided us."

Sam had appeared at the door, which gave Vincent a start, but he calmed himself quickly. "Sam, what in the world happened? All I can remember before this sensation of unyielding pain was those two colts stopping us from leaving the Casino..."

Sam sighed. "That's a long story. Think you could set up the links between us and our host?"

Vincent blinked, but extended a hand towards Lucy. The moment it lit up blue, though, the Abra winced and drew his hand back while shaking his head. "It hurts to push the power out. I could, maybe, maintain a link. One. Is our host not a pokemon, is that why we need them?"

"Iron Will would like to know if your friend is up yet!"

The trio of pokemon stared at the suddenly appearing minotaur in the doorway, before Sam looked back to Vincent and deadpanned. "You tell me."

Author's Notes:

I wonder how many of you have noticed the naming trick already...